Outbreak

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Summer had already passed this year and autumn was well and truly there to stay. Not that it mattered, this town only seemed to have rain, or slightly less rain as weather anyway. It was big news when they got a dry spell, meaning everyone seemed to take it as a sign to wear as little clothing as possible to get a little colour in their pale skin. Kitty Stein was one of those very people, though she saw little point to it. It would takes a solid week of warm weather just to get her particular skin to white. She had lived in this town her whole life and had accepted the fact she would never have the golden tan all the magazines advertised. The magazines were always trying to persuade young women like herself to try the latest self tanner, or skin smoothing face cream. She personally didn't put much stock in them, and she didn't have the money for them either. A waitresses wage, even when coupled with that of an occasional bar tender, barely covered her living expenses. The only people with money in this town worked at the factory that packaged the very creams women all over the country bought by the case. 
It was 7pm and Kitty was running late for work. She was jogging across town from her job at the restaurant to get to the bar to earn a few hours extra pay. Slender fingers were running through her plum coloured hair as she went, loosening out the bouncing curls that had been tied back all day. She stopped moving only long enough to apply black kohl to her pale grey eyes right there in the street before moving on again. Kitty was in such a hurry she didn't even hear the sound of someone falling into a row of trashcans a few feet away. by 7:15 the young woman had burst through the back door of the bar, somewhat breathless.

Kitty saw what Grace did for John, and scowled as she returned to what she had been doing. It wasn't lost on her that every time she tried to protect someone else... It only got her more resentment from other people. As she moved behind the counter to find the dustpan, Kitty paused to pour herself another drink, and pick up some ice to rub on her split lip.

Though she tried several times to get close to Big John's office it remained steady until closing time. The two women had left in the can together. The last thing Grace had seen was the two of them hugging as the car pulled away. It was an odd sight considering the two women had been fighting less than an hour before. She didn't have much time to think on it until she turned to head up to her boss' office hours later.

Kitty hadn't really said much the rest of the night. Though it was indeed steady, it wasn't e kind of busy she had anticipated. The bar just have been bursting at the seams with people looking for cold beer after this spell of warm weather. She wanted to shrug it off and believe that maybe they were simply saving themselves for the lake tomorrow, it was the weekend after all. The door to Big John's office would be locked by the time Grace found her way there. The only time he locked it was when he didn't want to be disturbed.

"John?" Grace knocked loudly on the door, worried when she didn't get an answer after the fourth time. "Jack..." She knew for some reason her ex was still lingering. Though it was probably to see if they were going to be anymore trouble that night. "Would call have Terry on standby?" She asked. Terry was the ambulance service in their town and a former friend. "I'm worried about John." She added, fishing am office key out of her pocket.

"Why are you worried?" Jack asked as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Doesn't John leave you two looking after his livelihood often?" He asked, though his attention was drawn back to the door from Grace's face when he heard what sounded like a low moan inside the office.

"John does that only when he drinks too much and given Kitty at least half an hours worth of brow beating. Besides, he wasn't looking too hot at the start of shift. He was red and sweating. I'd almost be willing to say he was foaming at the mouth and he barely said anything to Kitty even though she was late. I'm worried, Jack. For once got off your high horse and listen to me." Grace said softly, daring to fish his cell phone out of his back pocket and holding it out to him. "Consider it keeping the peace."

"And what happens when I have to explain to john exactly why I'm about to bust his door down?" Jack muttered as he took his cellphone and dialled Terry's number. "There is such a thing as over reacting, you know. Like that show downstairs."

"You seem to know a lot a out overreacting." Grace muttered as she waited for him to call Terry. She looked toward Kitty, rolling her eyes. "I'm not worried." She added, speaking to her best friend. "I'm sure it will somehow be our fault no matter who kicks the door down or why."

"You say 'out', what you really mean is 'mine'. Big John will somehow turn this around and say i talked you into doing something you didn't want to!" Kitty insisted, though she kept a watchful eye on Jack.

"I was trying to be nice." Grace said with a soft laugh as Jack hung up the phone and she turned back to the door. "I'm sorry about this." She told him. "But I'm really worried. At least I didn't have to call you at home." She added, unable to look him in the eye this time.

Jack nodded, feeling suddenly rather awkward being so close to Grace. There was still something there, but he could no longer act on it. Even the sheriff was under the thumb of those with more money than sense. He was thinking about just that as his shoulder slammed into the door, breaking the frame slightly as it was forced open.

Grace pushed past him, no longer allowing herself a moment to even ask if he was okay as she once would have. She knew better. She'd done it once since their break up and the humiliation she'd suffered from it had cost her dearly. 
"John?" She called the large man's name before she even looked for him. The room was in shambles and smelled terrible. The man was very unkempt but this was... "Oh god..." She had to hold her breath just to keep from gagging.

Jack had reached out to try and stop Grace, but he was that little but too slow. He was unable to stop her from seeing something he thought she shouldn't. The dark haired man didn't know what was in there, but judging by that smell... It wasn't something he really wanted Grace seeing.

"Oh my god..." Grace saw John's body lying motionless on the floor. He'd fallen near his desk and had taken down a crate of new beer mugs with him. There was glass all over the floor. She was quick to try and climb over the mess, sure she could save him. "Call Terry!" She barked at Jack. "Kitty! Watch for Terry! Get everyone out!" She added, thinking as quickly as she could.

Jack didn't like this. It just didn't seem natural. He pushed the door shut slightly, not wanting anyone else in there until Terry arrived. "You said he seemed unwell last time you saw him? Just how long ago was that?"
Kitty was already kicking everyone out, someone of them literally. She didn't care if they never came back, she just wanted them gone.

"It was minutes before shift." Grace said, kneeling beside John despite the glass all around him. "He was sweating and pale and he looked just awful." She was reaching down to feel his neck, her fingers shaking wildly. "It crossed my mind that he might be having a heart attack but..." She stopped talking, already sure Jack was going to arrest them both for murder. John was very cold and clammy.

"And he locked himself in here right after you saw him looking like that?" Jack asked, checking his phone to see if Terry had left word about how long he would be. "If you suspected a heart attack, why didn't you come and check on him?"

Grace turned her head ever so slightly, giving Jack a look that would tell him she wasn't about to say thing else. She'd been burned that way too. Talking to her ex had become extremely hazardous to both Kitty and herself. 
After getting her point across she turned back to John, frowning when she saw an angry wound on his forearm. It looked like he'd been bitten. But it certainly didn't look like any animal bite she'd ever seen...

Kitty was pacing downstairs, having swore to Grace she would wait there for Terry to arrive. The young woman had since poured herself another drink, wincing when it touched the split in her lip.
"Grace..." Jack darker to out his hand on her shoulder to try and turn her attention back to him. "If john has been bitten and contracted something, you shouldn't touch him until Terry gets here."

"Why so you can say Kitty did it?" Grace snapped, turning her attention away from John to shove Jack's hand off her shoulder. "Or maybe you'll tell Judge Athens that she and I planned it together? Don't try to play nice guy with me. You're a snake in the grass if I ever saw one!" 
Her shouting had caused them both to miss the sound of John's groan and his slight movement as he began to wake up. If it could be called that...

"I'm trying to keep you from getting hurt!" Jack insisted, also missing the sounds John was making. "If whatever this is, is contagious, it could kill you, Grace! Is that what you want, just to be a bitch to me?" He growled.

"You really care if I'm dead? Seriously, Jack?" Grace snorted, rolling her eyes. "Even I'm not that stupid." There wouldn't be time for the sheriff to get off a retort. John rose up ever so slightly, slapping a meaty hand down hard on her thigh. He gave another groan as he rolled himself over onto his side, his free hand latching onto her other leg. "John, let go!" Grace cried. "You're hurting me!"

Jack was almost inclined to just walk away. Instead he sighed heavily and reached down to grab John's shoulder in a firm grip. "Come on big guy, that piece of ass would turn even your balls blue." He snorted, still thinking the other man was simply not himself.

John turned his head toward Jack, his mouth flopping open. Strings of drool slid past his lips and swayed toward the floor. Grace was still struggling, the large man's fingers digging into her jeans. "J-Jack!" She cried, not sure what else to do. John's eyes were half open but the slender woman's struggles seemed to entice him. He opened them, revealing nothing but milky white beneath.

Jack's reaction was simple, and one many would do in his situation; he pulled his gun in John. "Come on big guy, don't make me shoot you." He pleaded, though he already knew how this would end. "You don't want that string bean anyway." The look in those milky eyes said it all; hunger.

The gun didn't seem to interest John one little bit. All at once neither did Jack. The struggling female that he was dragging toward him now had his full attention. "John, don't do this!" Grace pleaded, suddenly losing her ability to breath. Jack was seeing this and he would still blame her. John would probably rape her right in front of him and he would pretend to see nothing at all. "Kitty!" She no longer trusted the man who once sworn to save her. He'd failed. Her friend hadn't. Kitty never had.

Kitty came tearing up the stairs the moment she heard Grace's scream. The dark haired woman burst into the room and made her decision much quicker than Jack had. Kitty had never been one to weigh the pros and cons of her actions. She simply acted on instinct, and every instinct right then screamed for her to save her best and only friend. Before Jack could stop the other girl she had taken the old vegetable knife John left on his desk to open mail with and plunged it into his back between his shoulder blades.

John went down like a stone, landing heavily between Grace's legs. The slender blonde could barely force herself to move and finally gave up. She sat sobbing where she was. So many terrible things were about to happen.
She didn't know the half of it.

Kitty was dragging Grace away from john and holding the other woman in her arms as she glared up at Jack. "Nice job, asshole! What's that matter? Is the great sheriff too scared to act when he's needed?!"
Jack scowled at Kitty, his finger twitching on his gun. God he wanted to shoot her. He hated that woman, blaming her for what had happened between himself and Grace.

"I'm so sorry." Grace sobbed into her friend's shoulder. It was the same thing she'd done when Winston had tried this. He'd gotten much further than John actually. If it hadn't been for Kitty, who knew what else he would have done to her. "This is all my fault..."