Darkness Is A Sanctuary

Sleep was ever fitful for Pidgey. Her feet kicked out, her tail lashed. Her threadbare blanket cocooned her like gossamer, claws in her hair, forearms hiding her face.
A low moan, echoed in her restless night terrors. Her breathing hitched.
The shadows danced. The air felt thick, heavy. Darkness had been a sanctuary. Darkness was a sanctuary.
If only they had known for whom. For what.
For years, the gang had been running their business and living within the catacombs of the former mines. It was a veritable hamlet of heathens, their little nerve-center. Pidgey had seen to it that their people were safe and snug as bugs, evading the misfortunes of the rest of Reignsrest- the roll-in of the Fog had been a distant threat, albeit one that made the world distant and isolated them. The first six months after the worrying rumors proved out had been... dicey. Water and food needed to be secured. Rations settled, work orders decided, and tunnels mapped and reinforced or collapsed.
Nobody had expected that the Fog would seep into the tunnels, and none had understood, exactly, how poorly things would go.
The first exposure was an utter disaster. A guard on the blockade had alerted, and then ventured forth to check out why the lights had gone out in the tunnel ahead of him.
As Pidgey woke up, the first screams had begun. The immediate reaction was to try to fight. And, for a few moments, while Pidgey had hauled on her boots and raced out to try to help, and found the tide turning for the worse.
Several goopy monsters had, somehow, managed to coordinate. The Boss's strongest pokemon let out a shriek of pain that ended in a gurgle of pain. The Boss's still form, shock putting the man's broad shoulders stiff, framed by firelight and fog.
Hands grabbing Pidgey, shaking her out of her own stupor. Fear, spiking, the palisade coming down. Finn, shouting at the non-combatants, their sticky-fingers and sly smiles useless in the face of the seemingly mindless hordes. Gathering them... behind her. Around her.
Somebody smacked her, hard, and she snapped to it, raising her voice above the cacophony of pain and confusion.
Darkness was a sanctuary.
She knew those tunnels like the back of her hands. She'd carved some of them, even. And there was one, near the back of the thief-hold, just barely big enough for a human to run through, single-file, that she ushered them to. Winter, Finn. Sonner. Dunley. A dozen others she called family, found and bound by mischief and blood shed. Sixteen, out of thirty-eight, into the tunnel, and then she crashed it closed.
If any of the others were on the other side of the rubble, alive and screaming, Pidgey told herself it was just hope, lying to her. Hope, haunting her eyes, her ears.
Guilt, by another name.
The march deeper into the mineshaft was a silent, fretful one. Dark. They didn't dare light up more than just their basal augments, faint flashlights, for fear that the light might attract more monstrous things ahead. They had very little in the way of food, or medical supplies. Those that were injured had to be accommodated... leaving them behind was out of the question.
At least, that was what Pidgey had thought at first. She'd honestly expected to be a better person than she'd thought she was.
She ought to have known better.
The second attack had come at a junction where the group had stopped to rest after two days forced march.
Fog heralded Hell's resurgance, and another batch of substantial losses.
Winter, Finn. They had run to another tunnel. In her attempt to call them back, she'd left Dunley vulnerable. A shadowy frame fell on her, and she was silenced. A choice had to be made.
Pidgey chose the six that were closest to her, who hadn't bolted after Winter and Finn. Four of them had gotten tangled up with the Fog, with the beasts within.The other four had made it into the tunnels with Winter and Finn. She could only hope they'd be able to hide, to seal themselves in.
The crash of rocks as she sealed her fate, and Sonner's.
Sonner, who had been limping already.
Sonner, who was dropped by one of the others in their fear as the tunnel caved in behind them.

Pidgey stayed there, trying to dig at the rocks, for half a day, while the rest went ahead. She could swear she heard Sonner weeping for hours after...
She kept on swearing, right up until she found his arm, broken- the least destroyed part of him.

Turning from the scene, numb, she trailed after the other five people she'd called friends for so long.

The trail went cold at another junction, and she-

Woke, sweat-slick and shaking. Lowing softly for them to come back, to sound off.