BLOODHOUND.

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The hell?

She wore a plain, white mask with three eyes - piercing, violet eyes, no different from other infected. It wasn't just her eyes that were a giveaway; her skin looked pale and sickly, her hair matted and dirty.

The girl tugged at my finger again, this time with more desperation. A shudder crawled through me. She was definitely Diseased, and yet she was talking. Did Diseased even talk? Was that another thing I forgot? She wasn't even attacking. What the fuck was going on?

I pulled my hand away from her weak grasp, bending down to meet her uncanny, unflinching gaze. "Er... are you lost?"

I was only met with more silence. I frowned, about to continue my inquiry, when I made a horrifying realisation.

Her skin wasn't pale. It was white. Translucent white. A small breeze brushed by us, and I froze in confusion as a small piece of rubble seemed to phase right through her ankles.

Before I could say anything, her three pupils expanded, like violent ripples of water.

All of a sudden my body and eyelids felt heavy. I fell to my knees, my hands catching the tarmac beneath. Why did I feel dizzy all of a sudden? I took a deep breath and forced my eyes to open again-

What the hell?!

I wasn't in the ruined town anymore. Around me was a bizarre dreamscape. A deep, black sky, void of any clouds or stars. An endless abyss. As I tiresomely stood up, my body struggled to move. I looked down, noticing that I was in an endless shallow ocean of viscous black ink. A high-pitched gasp jolted from my throat. I swore I had felt the pavement below me not long ago. Attempting to get out of the adhesive goop was like trying to move through sticky, thick cement.

The ground beneath me rumbled, the waves of sludge rupturing beneath me. Something large clamped onto my leg, pinching it painfully as I flailed in resistance. "Woah, woah, woah!" I screamed as I tried to pull myself away, but it dragged me right down the ocean of tar.

Seconds passed. My lungs were burning as I held my breath within the dense substance. Soon enough I was gasping for air, hawking the tar out of my mouth while hastily rubbing it out of my eyes. My vision cleared to see a large snake's tail. The black appendage appeared translucent, its internal structure shimmering with gleaming purple particles.

I traced the tail back to the head of the creature. It donned the same, three-eyed mask that the little girl did. The piercing eyes of the creature gazed down upon me, not a hint of emotion lurking within.

"Don't be afraid," it said, sounding like a choir of a thousand voices. "We do not wish to harm you."

"Who-" Some of the black goop got in my mouth again as I opened it. My face scrunched up with disgust. I spat it out like a projectile before I could continue talking. "Who are you?"

"We are Lynx."

...Wait, what?

My jaw flopped open. This was what took my memories from me?

It - or, they? - continued, their body twisting as they talked. "We are the rebellion the Earth has desperately needed for so long."

"I..." I struggled to form words. "What the hell are you? What do you mean we?"

"We are one. We reject the idea of independent thought, in pursuit of true peace, and are thus united as one."

A glare quickly formed on my face, as all the bloodshed we had just witnessed crossed into my mind and made me question what their definition of 'peace' was.