The soles of his feet were fissured and cracked from the rocky ground he had been forced to travel over.  Panting heavily as he ran, this tortuous crossing had torn them open, leaving his open wounds to be packed full of stinging sand.  The unbroken vector of blood had long since dwindled, but the trail he left them to follow had remained.

Salvador felt like he had been running for weeks, trying desperately to stay ahead of them.  Ever since the little girl’s murder everything had happened so fast.  When did he get here?  How long had he been away?  His mind was clouded, confused.  No matter how hard he tried, this place seemed to steal his focus.  The thoughts of being back home in his parent’s house, or in Todos Santos with Eva, were now fading memories beneath the intensity of this hell.

The sound of his own claws clicked against the rocks as he tried to gain purchase on this unforgiving terrain before sinking back into the scorching sand.  It made perfect sense for him to be here after the life he had lead, but why was Eva here, or her father for that matter?  Sal’s mind whirled as he tried to make sense of it all.

Off in the distance Sal could make out a dry trail of dust wafting up into the acrid air.  It rose as if being cast there by an object moving across the dry valley floor.  As the trail ascended above the burnt and scarred land, its path looked to as if it would meet his own goal that waited for him days from now.  Sal had to get there before they did, to warn them or to help.  His own grotesque disfigurement was testament to the power of this place.  If she really was the savior then there was no telling what these creatures had in store for them.    

Sal’s thighs burned as he churned through the deep sand, dragging one emaciated limb after another from its grip.  He would not fail her.  He had made a promise to protect her in life or in death, and he would be dammed if he would fail her again.

Coming to rest half way down the escarpment of a large dune, Sal peered out over the scorched valley that awaited him.  As he stood, the shifting winds brought the scent of decaying flesh, a smell had had been fortunate not to suffer for days.  Turning to face those that came before him, their howls stung his ears as their decrepit forms crested the dune behind him and began cascading in his direction.

Hunched over and moving like a pack of wolves, Sal could make out their luminous eyes in the failing light.  Their jagged, yellowed teeth glinted in the sunken hollow of their faces.  As Sal prepared to take them on, he could feel the hemorrhage of his humanity again.  Every interaction was drawing him deeper into this place, and he didn’t have much left before he would forget himself…and Eva too.