"Sarah! Come on, you've got to keep up!"
"I can't! My body... can't do it anymore, you... you know it c-can't!"
"DAMN IT, yes it can!!!! We're the only ones left!"
"Why did you.. have to.. bring them here...I..good luck, Sandra."
Sandra whipped her head around in a furious panic. "NOOOOO!!! SARAH!!!"
But it was too late. Sandra turned her head quickly, not needing to see what had happened to Sarah; the tear beckoning scream was enough.
After all, she'd seen it happen to all of the others. Every last one of the 20 people -men, women, teenagers, children, and one baby held in a mother's arms- that had run into this abandoned tunnel had met that fate, one worse than death itself. All because of her.
So why did Sandra keep running? Maybe it was fear. Maybe it was denial of what lie back on the path. But most of all, it was that purple shard that hung around her neck. The one she had received by talking to the Unknown, that wished for a mortal avatar. Apparently a naive and stupid one at that, for both of those things made for an easy target and that was exactly what she was. As for now, there was no time to feel mourning for those lost, though her eyes poured with tears blocking her sight and her gut would have hurled its contents if she'd have eaten in the past 3 days. But she hadn't, and as her legs carried her frenzied self through random turns in the tunnels, she felt a bit cowardly but more determined.
"No," she thought to herself. "What is done is done, but THIS body will not become a temple to the hands of force."