Seeing that the creatures couldn't cross the boundary, the five of them let out a collective, ragged sigh of relief, several of them immediately collapsing to the ground, their legs giving out now that they no longer had to run.
Even Elena, the strongest of the group by a wide margin, let out a slow breath at the sight, the tension in her shoulders easing for the first time in what felt like hours.
Her gaze fell on the four others as they caught their breath, chests heaving, and then drifted further ahead, toward the area they had finally returned to, the place that had become something like a home in this nightmare.
A complicated tangle of emotion surfaced in her eyes as memories of the past year, all the long, grinding months spent in this place, came flooding back all at once, unbidden and unwelcome.
