Prey

  The shuffling of feet. A yelp to his right. Branches breaking. Snow falling all around him in a thick white blanket that threatened to encompass them all.
  He stumbled, torn boot catching on a submerged branch, and his torch nearly extinguished. The wolfs grew bolder with every paw they lay on the snow.
  He focused on breathing.

  Onetwothree in

  Onetwothree out

  He noticed with perfect clarity how the steam coming from his mouth looked almost like bloody gas in the red-death glow of his torch. The skin of his hand was frozen to the aluminum. He noticed how odd it felt, like putty was stuck to his hand after it had fallen asleep.
  But it wasn’t a sleepy limb. The deep purple stood out in the glare of the red, the shine of the snow, and even the ink of the night.
  A flash of light to his left, flames reflected in the eyes of a wolf. The eyes of a predator.
  The eyes of death.
  One howled and the rest joined in, the circle of running bodies becoming a ring of ceaseless noise. It reverberated in his ears and he knew that if he ever lived it would haunt him in the latest of nights and he would wake up, the howl and his mangled screams becoming one and the same.
  A  bold wolf, midsized, jumped from his side in a flying tackle of claws and teeth. With primal instinct he reacted and smashed his torch into its face. The wolf ran away whining and yelping at its now burnt nose.
  The man kept running. They were relentless. He saw the tails and flashes of cold eyes right in front of them. Why did they not kill him? Tackle him to the ground and eat him and let his blood drain on the ground and his life ebb away until it was nothing and…
  He felt strange.
  A sensation like…
  Falling.
  And then he hit the ground face first. His nose and mouth and eyes were suddenly full of burning cold and suffocating soft. He heard the snarls, distantly, as something ripped off his hood.
Hey
Hey get off that
Stop this is an expensive snow suit
Stop
STOP
“STOP IT GET OFFA ME” he screamed. He brought his arms under him and pushed up with his hands and feet.      The torch was out, he knew that, and he could not see. But he still had a large pole of metal, and he refused to die without a fight.
  It was attached to him like glue so when a wolf latched onto it he beat its head till it let him go. His hood was gone. Where was it? He still felt oddly warm. It didn’t matter
  He swung all around with his good arm. Was the other one bad? He would have to check later. For now he only concentrated on the solid THUNK! as he connected his weapon with the face of a wolf.
  Something at his legs. He screamed again and struck another in the ribs but it held on. He shook his leg wildly and it finally let go with a large chunk in between its yellow teeth.
  He couldn’t feel. Was it the blood loss? Was it frostbite? Now he was just flailing. How did he get on the ground?
  He looked calmly as a wolf came and opened his stomach. It shuffled around and brought out some kind of organ. He didn’t feel anything. What was there to feel? He had died long ago. He died in the crash and this was just his hell. An endless hell he would relive forever.
  He began humming his favorite song. Mommy are you there? It’s so cold here mommy. Mom I want my blanket why can’t I play with Jason mom he didn’t blow a firecracker. Mom can I have a puppy mom where did daddy go did he leave because I was a bad baby mom come back it’s so cold.
  “MOMM-“ RRRIP!
  His anguished and demented cry was stopped mid word as a wolf tore off his lower jaw. Another came and bit his throat. The world dimmed and for one moment, he thought he saw his mom in front of him saying it was ok.
It was time to let go.