They were in the infirmary when Jergens had told Malware and Irene of the change in plans, and their immediate reaction was anger. “Boy…” Irene said, “Yer gonna die, ya know that, don’t ya?” her voice was unfeeling, not a twinge of sadness was in it. Jergens nodded. Malware stepped forward. “The Master is right, as ashamed as I am to admit it, he would only slow us… And I would rather be killed than abandon him here.” He looked to Jergens, his pictogram radiating a gentle golden glow. Irene looked from face to face, her eyes hard set. “Ma’am…” Faith said, his voice nothing more than a whisper, “You can still leave… I’m sorry… I’m sorry you had to get involved…” he shivered. Jergens lightly brushed back his hair. “Oh, don’t give me any of that crap boy! I ain’t leavin’. How can I? Everyone knew I was a queer sympathizer to begin with. How do I know they ain’t gonna try and take me down too? Besides, I’m old boy. I was gonna go down anyway. Why not do it with a bang?” she cackled, as if finding it to be a great game. Bartleby suddenly stiffened, his body growing rigid. “Faith?! Faith, what’s wrong?!” Jergens lightly tapped his cheek, panicking. Faith’s eyes were wide, almost unfocused as his lips moved, the smallest hush of a sound escaping him.

“Nippers…”

With Jergens cradling him in his arms, Faith began to cry.

---

16:30 – Seven Hours and Thirty Minutes Left

Of course Nippers herself would never understand what was to come that night; Jergens had to try to explain it though. But how do you explain death to a simple woman such as this? He tried to sugarcoat it, to make it more bearable.

“Now, Nip. Do you know what happened to Credit a little while ago?” he was grinning at her as they stood outside the infirmary door, or at least trying to grin. She swayed back and forth, putting a finger to her lip. “I thought he went to sleep… Isn’t that what he did?” she asked, eyes glittering with innocence. It was almost unbearable to him. “Yes, Nip. He did go to sleep. You got that right, except for one thing…” he held back a sigh, trying to stay as cheerful as possible. “Credit isn’t going to wake up. Do you understand me so far?” his hands were on her shoulders, keeping her wavering attention at him. “But why not?” she frowned a little. “Doesn’t everyone wake up when they go to sleep?” Jergens said nothing but took one of her hands and set it on his bony chest.

“Nip, you feel that ‘thump thump’ noise?” he asked her. She nodded, mystified. “Uh-huh! That’s yer heart! I know that!” she smiled proudly. The man smiled in return, finding it easier now. “Very good. Now I need to tell you something.” He pulled her a little closer, whispering in her ear as if to tell her a great secret.

“Tonight a lot of bad people and deer are gonna come to the house Nip, okay? They’re gonna come in and they’re gonna make ya go to sleep like Credit. When you go to sleep forever, that heart of yours is going to stop. Do you understand?” She tilted her head in questioning, not quite understanding the concept. “You mean I won’t wake up?” she asked, her voice a bit shaky. He nodded promptly, there was no time for comforting. “Never. But it won’t hurt, ya won’t feel a thing. It’ll just be like taking a nice, long nap.” He pressed his lips against her forehead. She looked at him, for the first time in her life, with a solemn air. “Jergy, are you and Faith gonna go to sleep too?” she asked. Jergens wrapped his arms around her, lightly petting her hair just as he did with Bartleby.

“Yes Nip. You aren’t alone in this.”


---

17:00 – Six Hours Left

Bartleby ordered all of his staff to evacuate the building. Not because he feared for their safety, but because he was afraid that they would attack them as well. Jergens ran down the hall after they left, looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. Helpless or not, they were going to fight back.

He went to the kitchen, a huge, oversized room and grabbed as many cooking knives as he could carry. It was a shame that Bartleby didn’t own a single gun. That would have made for a slightly better fight, one would think.

He brought them back, giving two to everyone. Even Nippers got one for herself. Malware, of course, had no need for one. His antlers were far more deadly than all of them combined.

Faith was more alert now; it seemed that Nippers’s presence helped him. He weakly clutched at one of the large butcher knives in his hands. He wouldn’t be able to do much while he was bedridden, but he would try.

God, would he try…


---


18:00 – Five Hours Left
They sat in silence, all equally lost in their own thoughts. Jergens was holding Bartleby up, savoring the few inevitable hours that they had left. Irene stood next to the door, listening for any outside activity as Malware managed to keep Nippers entertained with simple word games.

Dusk was setting over the world now, yet our five fugitives were wide awake and alert. None of them were panicking. A dull, glazy film seemed to settle over their eyes.

It was coming.


---


19:00 – Four Hours Left

They could hear people now… The sound was growing louder as well. Irene risked looking out the door to see through the window and turned back to them.
“Boys, this is gonna one Hell of a ride, I’ll tell ya that right now.” She swiftly shut the door behind her, resuming her respective spot. “What do you mean?” Malware asked, Nippers casually lying on his back. “What I mean, boy, is that they managed to scoop up every man in the town, not to mention every woman and child.” She simply replied.

“Did you see any forest deer?”

“Aye, about five of em’. All stags. They got a shitload of dogs too.”

At the mention of dogs Jergens trembled in terror. Dogs. Dogs were going to kill him. He was going to be killed by dogs. The deer didn’t worry him, despite how more deadly they were. He tried to silence his trembling by tightening his hold on Bartleby, causing a small cry of pain from the other.

Dogs were going to try to kill him.


---


20:00 – Three Hours Left

Even from all the way back in the infirmary they could hear the distinct sound of cheering. They were getting ready. The mob was about to attack.
And they were about to die.

Irene was beginning to shiver a little, out of fear or cold we’ll never know. She snapped her head up at them, eyeing them all. “Why don’t we just get it over with ourselves?” she suddenly asked. Everyone stiffened in reply. Yes, why couldn’t they just end it now? A simple hand motion and a knife would easily slide into their flesh and it would all be over. Jergens was the first to respond, shaking his head.

“We can’t do that…” he muttered. The old woman raised an eyebrow at him. “And why not?” she asked. “Because… If we just end it all now, they’ll think of it as an easy win. I don’t want to be a coward Irene. If you want to kill yourself and even further slim our chances of surviving this, then go right ahead.”

Irene looked at the man. She looked at him and everyone else around her.

She said nothing as she pierced her own chest.

There were only four of them now.


---

21:00 - Two Hours Left

There was distinct crashing and banging coming from all around. Jergens winced, for it was obvious that they had found their way into the mansion. “Faith, you still with me?” he whispered. The boy in his arms weakly nodded.

“It hurts so much now…”

“Shhh… I know…”

“It… It isn’t long now…”

“No…”

“I’ve been prepared to die my entire life… But I never expected it to end this way…”

“Me neither.”

“Jergens?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry…”

“Why?”

“For waiting until today to tell you… That I love you.”

“It’s okay…”

Malware suddenly stood and edged to the door. “Malware? Where are ya going?” Jergens asked him. Malware turned to him. “I’m going out there to fight now. I can take out more of them in a larger area.” His face was expressionless, and there was no persuading otherwise that could get him to stay. Without another word, the great stag opened the door with his teeth and left, shutting it behind him.

A few minutes later they heard several gunshots and wails of pain. It lasted a long time… and it was long before the noise suddenly died down.

There were only three of them now.


---


22:00 – One Hour Left

The noise. It was growing louder. Jergens, Bartleby and Nippers huddled together on the cot. They looked helpless save for the knives glittering in their hands. All was silent. Nippers turned to her brother. “Faith did Malware and Grandma Irene go to sleep?” she whispered, for they had told her to be very quiet now. Faith, now completely dependent on Jergens to hold up and keep him awake, nodded. “Yes Nip, we will be soon too. Are you scared?” she nodded a little. “Uh-huh…” Jergens wrapped an arm around her, keeping sure the knife in his hand did not cut her. “Remember how Grandma Irene went to sleep, Nip? She didn’t even make a sound…” he tried to reassure her, to make her feel better. She was shivering.

“I don’t wanna go to sleep forever…”

“I know, love. But we were all going to some time.”

They snapped their heads up. Someone… or something was running down the hall. Their hall.

Clopclclop… clopclclop…

There was no mistaking that it was one of the stags that Irene had spoken of. They all winced as it started to beat against the door.

Almost over…


---


22:20 – Forty Minutes Left

The door was about to break down. Jergens was actually quite surprised that it had lasted this long. He propped Bartleby up behind him. Not that it mattered. The deer would easily kill them all.

Finally, with a final whining creak, the door gave way and a huge stag came stumbling in. It looked around, or at least it seemed to. Jergens could tell right away that the stag was blind.

It sniffed the room, covering area until it finally came to the cot. It went to Nippers first, and as it snuffed the area around her, a small fearful whimper escaped her. The stag froze and nudged her.

“Woman.” It said. “Are you related to Bartleby?” Nippers, being the dull girl that she was, nodded her head. Jergens sharply pinched her; he put a hand over Bartleby’s mouth to stifle his cries. The stag didn’t move.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to speak rather than shake your head, woman.” He said. Nippers smiled. What a courteous stag! She didn’t even hesitate.

“Yup! I’m his sister, you can call m-…” she was cut off when the great stag bent forward and expertly turned his head to shove a single antler prong into her throat.

Bartleby clenched Jergens’s shoulders, burying his head into his back. He wouldn’t dare speak.

There were only two left now.


---


22:30 – Thirty Minutes Left

The deer freed himself from Nippers, letting her body drop down. Bartleby’s eyes widened in horror. So that was how he was going to die? He wanted to cry. But if he made the slightest sound, then the deer would surely kill him without hesitation.

“Bartleby.” The stag’s voice was near emotionless, and it made it all the more terrifying. “If your sister is here, then you must be here yourself.” He turned around and sat in the middle of the room. “I will stay here until I know of where you are. You can’t hide yourself much longer.”

Jergens wanted nothing more than to kill this deer. The commotion throughout the rest of the mansion made it so that if they tried to move, there would be a chance that the blind stag would not hear them.

But still they stayed, frozen in place.


---


22:40- Twenty Minutes Left

Jergens and Bartleby barely even breathed. The deer seemed to be staring straight at them. It’s eyes were a clear grey, devoid of any mercy or kindness.

Bartleby grabbed Jergens’s hand, squeezing it for the little comfort it gave. There was little hope now.

A loud barking had started up. Evidently the dogs had been let in as well, but it was coming closer.

The dogs were coming closer.

It sounded like dozens of them were coming. Jergens fiercely bit his lower lip. He wanted to scream. He felt he needed to, for his sanity was going spiral downward at this rate. Bartleby sensed this, and lightly put a hand over his mouth.

The door had been left open, and Jergens soon saw the unmistakable shapes of four dogs running towards the room. The stag picked up his ears at this.

“It seems, my dear Bartleby, that we have company.”


---


Ten Minutes Left

The dogs were coming closer. Jergens found himself tightly clenching Faith’s arm in fear. “Jergens… you’re hurting me…” he whispered. The stag snapped it’s in their direction.
“Oh? So you’re both here? That makes my job easier.” It moved to stand up and slowly walk towards them. The dogs were only a few feet away now.

Closer… Closer… Closer…

Biting… Snapping… Clawing…

Jergens couldn’t take it. Screaming, he jumped away from Bartleby and sprinted out the doorway to the window. Instincts took over. He soon climbed out the window and took off across the lawn. Bartleby watched as the dogs, growling and spitting, dove after him.

There had never been a point in his short life where he had felt more betrayed. He slowly looked over and watched as the stag drew nearer, his thoughts racing more than the words coming out of his mouth.

"You said that you would die with me..."


---


Four Minutes Left

The stag seemed to relish this, as he was clearly taking his time. He walked slowly, talking all the way.

“He abandoned you, eh? Well, that just makes your death all the more worthless to me.” He stopped right in front of him, bringing his antlers down. Bartleby stared at them. The antlers that would kill him.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked. “What benefit does it have for you?” He ignored the pain, it mattered little now. The stag tilted his head, thinking about it.

As he thought, Bartleby realized that he still held the knife in his hand. Funny, here it was in his possession and he had forgotten all about it. Perhaps he still had a chance…

He brought himself forward, slowly, ever so slowly as the deer seemed to finally come up with an explanation. “I guess I just like killing people. Its fun.” it shrugged, as if saying that it didn’t understand its own insanity. Bartleby hesitated no longer, this deer needed to die.

With a final, last bit of strength, the boy thrust the knife forward and stabbed the blind stag in the chest. The knife easily slid through its ribs, penetrating its heart instantly. The great deer slumped to the ground, it's pictogram vanishing into the air. Bartleby took no time. He fell back to the wall, his body limp.

He could let his eyes close now.

There was only one of them left now.


---


Two Minutes Left

Jergens was used to running away. He always ran away. But now… Now was different. The dogs… they were outrunning him…. Over taking him…

Jumping on him…

Biting at him…

Ripping and tearing at him…

Almost none were left now...


---


Zero Minutes Left

Thump... Thump... Thump...

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None are left now...