"What river?" Franka called back, confused. Momentarily free of attackers, she tried to adjust her hearing to the sudden near silence, no more shots and screams tore through the night, not where they were, at least, as they had killed off all Infected that had been close to them. Eventually, she could hear the others running, Ashleigh apparently ahead of them all. With a suppressed curse, she headed towards them, running as fast as she could. She reached Utem and Ashleigh just as the flare illuminated the night - destroying any chance to pause, catch their breath, take a stand in the rock formation. "Damn!" She panted.<br/><br/>She was a ghastly sight, literally dripping blood. She stunk of it, too, and of worse, her hat was gone, her hair plastered to her skull, lighter streaks on her face showed where she had wiped her sleeve over her mouth - and over forehead, too, probably to stop the blood from running into her eyes. The white of her eyes and teeth stood out in a face smeared and caked with blood and what was left of her earlier camouflage, the greyish black of the coal. It all looked dark, though, could only be distinguished by its thickness, and by being glistening wet here and there.<br/><br/>She kept her usual distance to the three, but otherwise stuck with them. "Where's the soldier now, can she catch up? Tell her the river dried up years ago. Let's stay on the path, with this light drawing all the stinkers here, we need to outrun them - then  - somehow head for the village - Vinxel, right? That's where you want to go, there's that house?" Turning around herself as she ran, she took in as many details as she could about their surroundings, while the night was lit. She listened, too, not surprised to hear frenzied screams heading towards the rock formation.<br/><br/>Thankfully, the path had taken a twist, and the fleeing group was out of sight for all stinkers that came from behind, right or left of them. From the direction towards which they were fleeing, none could be seen or heard. Then, the bomb detonated, and even in this comparatively safe distance, she was knocked off her feet by the shock wave. She felt the gravel bite into her hands and face, was glad her body was better protected, came up again, stumbled a few steps, somewhat disoriented. The noise, the sheer power of that blast, rocks, trees, bodies, earth being ripped apart, tossed high into the air and now crashing and raining down all around them, it was dangerous - to Franka, who had lived in such quiet for so long, it was frightening, too.