Between 3 and 4 AM. September 4 of the year 1960. Outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Wounded but not broken. Exhausted but not defeated.

Under a star clouted sky and with the great city of neon lights behind her, a heavily wounded woman limped towards the Mojave Desert. With each step, she left behind a trail of blood, big crimson drops marking the long way that she had taken. Grievous and deep slashes crossed her face and body, wounds that would have killed or at least incapacitated most people. Still, despite all of the pain, she keep on keeping on, perhaps impulsed by adrenaline, perhaps motivated by her will to live.

Something inhuman had attacked her, something that had scarred her body and her soul, something that terrified her to the core. Whatever it was, it was hunting and she knew that it would never stop preying on her. She could see it on the corner of her eyes, she could feel its breath on her nape, she could see its monstrous roars surrounding her. There was no escape.

Deeply inside she knew that she didn’t venture into the desert hoping to survive, the chances of finding any kind of help were abysmal, she walked to a certain death hoping to drag the monster that was after her away from the city, and hopefully die before it found her. Such was the impression that the monster had caused on her, that even the most gruesome of deaths would be a blessing compared with being caught by that… thing.

A snake crossed her path and quickly scurried away hiding from her. A snake bite might have been a good way of dying before the monster got it, but it looked like she wasn’t going to be that lucky.

Despite being completely terrified, she was absolutely ignorant of what had happened. She had been attacked moments ago, but it all had been way too quick and hectic for her to comprehend. Nothing but a flash of light, blurry movements, and monstrous screeches that lasted a mere moment yet scarred her for life.

Even if she was exhausted and her body urged her to stop and rest she tried to keep his eyes open for as long as she could. Every time she blinked she saw that monster that pursued and attacked her branded under her eyelids.

Her mind was a storm of confusing and scary thoughts. She couldn’t remember her name, who she was, or even how she looked like, perhaps because the trauma had blocked her memories, perhaps because her brain had been injured and damaged. Whatever the reason, she was now a blank slate; a Jane Doe whose only certainty was that she had to run as far as possible.

Trembling in fear she looked back, the monster was not in sight, but she saw how a great thunderstorm started forming over Las Vegas, tumorous looking clouds slowly growing and filling with pulsating lighting as they coiled in a terrifying spiral that concentrated over the place she was running from. With more terror than ever, she started accelerating and ignoring the ever-present pain to reach an ever-shrinking hopeful future.

In front of her extended the dark desert, its orange rocks and sands now looking dark blue under the starry sky. The moon overhead and the quickly shifting clouds created a strange expectable of light and shadows over her. A mixture of pure undistilled fear and desperation made her own eyes fool her, forcing her to see the shape of the monster in tree stumps and rocky formations. More creatures crossed her path, scorpions, snakes, vultures, and even coyotes, but none of them attacked her, they all ran away. She had the stench of the abomination that had attacked her, and these creatures knew to stay away from that scent, from the scent of a superior predator.

Her mind was a whirlpool of thoughts and voices; her conscience urged her to run and survive but there were other voices too, voices that constantly told her that she was an abomination and she deserved being captured and tortured. As if it were an invisible anchor certain whispers urged her to stop and let her pursuer have its way with her for she was stained and unworthy of living, and even if those were nothing more than whispers they made her doubt in more than one occasion and even managed to stop her in her tracks for a few seconds at some point, giving the monster that was behind her an advantage that might prove fatal. She didn’t know why she was supposedly so detestable but she deeply knew these words were true.

There was an internal conflict inside of her, a debate between abandoning all hope and surrendering or continuing advancing no matter what. Every second of that mental torture seemed like an entire lifetime and yet still she continued going on and dragging her butchered body across the deadly desert. The minutes became hours and the hours finally gave way to the scorching morning sun.

It was then when her body finally gave up.

Without any strength or will to live left her knees finally succumbed, making her fall on the dusty soil face down. She lied like this for a long time, harrowingly waiting for death or her hunter, whatever came first. All of her muscles were sore and every effort, regardless of how minuscule it was, like breathing, was utter torture for her.

She was going to be caught, either by the Grim Reaper or the Monster that was behind her. She hoped and prayed for the Reaper to come and get her first, after all, she was so wounded, decrepit, and exhausted that not even she could ignore and reject her now.

Several minutes passed, and for whatever reason, and against all odds, she continued alive. She screamed her lungs out and what once was fear turned into defeated acceptance, whatever monster preyed on her would finally catch her soon. To her, that mattered little now, she did all she could, she had given her best, she would not survive or die a quick death, but she didn’t surrender at any moment and hopefully her efforts had dragged the monster away from the city, away from innocents, all the voices that insulted and belittled her on her head were dead silent now.

More long minutes passed and the sun started to come out. Perhaps because of her dehydration, perhaps because of blood loss, but as the dawn started to come from the horizon she entered into a delirium filled bliss. As the scorching sun illuminated her blood-soaked skin she started to laugh with a silent voice, her vocal cords too damaged to make any real sound. It was all so sad, she had put herself in danger and head into an assured death to try to run away from a monster, whatever was following her should have caught with her, but nothing appeared. She had wasted her one chance at life, and she would now die completely alone and become prey for the local fauna.
Was it all on her head? Did she have something wrong with the wiring of her mind? Did she lose all of her memories and made up an unspeakable monster that for some reason was after her? God, she felt truly pathetic right now.

Right now she cared not for dying or being tortured, for nothing could ever surpass all that she had endured until now. With a titanic effort, she pushed herself to lie face up, feeling her muscles on fire and her bones splintering hard. If she was going to die she would at least do it as she wanted, watching the sun one last time.

Away from her the storm continued raging on over the city of Lights, it had been pouring for the entirety of the night and it seemed like it would continue for a long time. The wind brought with it a faint smell of ozone and petrichor.  She smiled at the scent, it was her favorite thing in the entire world, and despite not remembering anything, it made her nostalgic for a past that she couldn’t recall. Ignoring all the pain she smiled, slowly closing her eyes, happy to go with a happy thought.

Suddenly, on top of her, a dark figure started forming in the blue sky, getting closer and closer at each second. With a smile on her lips, she closed her eyes and exhaled one last time.