“A line behind you? No way. One sticks to your back and the others vanish, and then at another corner, further on, there they are again.”
The Children don’t chase in single file. When a pack of three to five children finds a survivor, it divides the roles. One takes his back and the others scatter to find other ways to wait for him further on. They stalk like this to unsettle you, not to wear you out.
How the pack is organized
- Appearance. They emerge between twenty-five and forty-five meters away, always out of your line of sight, and lose track of you if you get more than a hundred and thirty meters away.
- The rear sector. A cone of a hundred and eighty degrees at your back, up to eight meters. Only one child occupies it, the nearest, and the others never enter and reposition.
- The posts. The others look for spots ten to twenty-five meters away, outside your field of view, ahead of your heading and at least six meters apart from each other. They choose routes that don’t cross what you can see.
- Never toward you. If the next stretch would bring them closer, they discard the post and choose another.
Speeds
| Situation | Speed |
|---|---|
| Strolling | 1.2 m/s |
| Stalking head-on or in view | 1.8 m/s |
| Stalking from behind | 3.4 m/s |
| Repositioning unseen | 5.0 m/s |
The sprint only happens when you can’t see them. If you look at them, in any mode, they stop.
How to survive
- If you sense something behind you, turn and look. A child that freezes in view keeps closing in as soon as you look away.
- Let your group cover the flank you can’t see.
- When one waits at a post, it stays still until you pass within six meters or less, or turn your back. Don’t approach corners without looking.
The punishment
A child in your rear sector, at a meter and a half or less for a little over a second without your seeing it, grabs you. There is a forced turn, a push of a meter and a half, a scream and a seven-second stun, with your ears blocked by a low hum. There is no damage, and the pack takes several seconds to repeat it.
Voice
The giggle goes with the stalking, a call marks the repositioning, a whisper the one who waits, and the scream the grab. See the audio of the creatures.
What people say
They say the group, now and then, stops following and simply waits. The archive records those accounts separately. Others say that, if your hands are empty, a child tries to take an object from your belt.
See also
Adult Faceling, the Pulse, creature comparison.