Redhawk Caldera The Dance at the Gym

Spots erupted in front of Alyx's eyes as she yawned her jaws wide, trying to breathe, but it was like sucking air through a cracked straw. There wasn't enough getting to her lungs. Her vision was swimming. There was pain, too, radiating out from her throat. A strange clicking sound, the feeling of something shifting in her throat when it shouldn't shift, the whistling of her breath as it squeeze down a strangled airway. Even she could hear it. It terrified her.

The cat let go, but not without shredding its teeth through the thin skin of her throat. It missed her vital vein by less than an inch. Blood dripped steadily from her mangled throat as it tore away from her, catching her in the flank with a long slash as it went, and the best Alyx could do was weakly bare her teeth at it. She could taste blood in her mouth. Hers, or the cats? She couldn't be sure.

Blackness buzzed at the edges of her vision, closing in, swallowing her. Her breath rasped audibly in her throat. She knew that was wrong. There was something wrong. She saw in slow motion as the cat disembowled Fennec—no, no, her sister managed to get away before the claws did that much damage. Even slower was the way it tore Bronco's ear in half. Then it was running away, and Alyx's consciousness slipped away with it.