The girl in azure sighed. That was one problem out of the way. Now time to deal with this one. She bent her knees and her hands touched the ground, ready to fight for her life. She only hoped that those girls got away safely. With a fierce yell, she charged towards the shadow in front of her.

	In the distance, the sounds of her fight echoed tremendously. A suddenly flash of blue light caused a massive explosion that rocked the ground even from afar.

[hr]	
	The girls had been moving for a few minutes, and so far, nothing had happened. It was as if all the excitement and terror earlier had been nothing but a very blur, a false memory created from nothing. Yet the twisted background remained as testament that you were not imagining things. This experience was very, [i]very[/i] real. Worse still, the blood from Shakti's wound did not ease up, and was steadily trickling down her sides. Already, her skin had become paler as she lost more and more blood, and it would soon reach the point where it would be difficult for her to retain full consciousness.

	More time passed still, and so far, there were no other persons in sight. All that surrounded them were decaying brown hills and more of the black, twisted trees. Just when the silence had stretched into a quarter hour a chorus of moans echoed through the air. From behind the hills sailed a group of five shadows, much like the ones before. Only there was a kind of frenzy in their wails that was not present in the voices of those that came earlier; these shades sounded so much more desperate, [i]starving[/i] even. And the they came after the one that came into their sights first: [b]Winnie[/b]

	The ambush came swiftly, as they dove straight towards Winnie, scrambling over each other to reach her first. So quick was their strike that there was scarce any time to react to it, and as a result, one of the shades tore off a large chunk of her torso; a fatal wound that promised a quick and painful death. The shades flew over her, fighting and tearing each other to pieces over Winnie's ruptured flesh, and as the argument grew heated, the body of one of the shades fell down in front of her, landing on the ground with a wet [i]squelch[/i]. 

	Suddenly, a panicked and distressed voice rang out in the minds of all the girls gathered: [i][color=ed145b]"If you want to live eat the remains of the shade in front of you! [b]HURRY![/b]"[/color][/i] 

	The shades arguing over Winnie's meat had quickly divided it among them and devoured it, and now, with no meal at hand, they turned to the nearest source where they could get it. Their dark, faceless heads twisted unnaturally, facing her and the rest of the girls of the group.