Outbreak

First topic message reminder :

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.

"Wrong, the only thing I can't afford is to leave my best friend alone out here!" Kitty insisted as she made a dash for the direction she had just watched Grace flee.

Kitty would hear the sound of gunshots from where she'd just come. Jack would find that the shots were being directed at him. His car was being disabled.
Grace was simply running. She wasn't thinking of where or why. It was better than having to face any of it. She was tired of having to do that.

Jack had scrambled out of his car and was firing back at Ark, catching the front wheel of his bike without actually aiming. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Grace!" Kitty was calling her friend's name as she ran. "Gracie, you're going the wrong way!"

Ark frowned at the ruined tire. He had liked that motorcycle. Now he was going to have to waste time finding another. He continued to fire at Jack, no longer aiming for the car. The noise was sending more people breaking away from the crowd and stumbling in the sherrif's direction. 

Grace heard someone shouting her name but didn't stop. She didn't want took back. She would t stop this time. She couldn't. She probably wouldn't have either if she hadn't tripped over her shoelace and sprawled onto the concrete nearly half a mile away from where she started.

Jack had exhausted the clip that had been in his gun, and took cover behind his car again. "I saw Kitty get off your bike! Let me guess... You thought she needed rescuing?" He called to Ark.

This gave Kitty chance to catch up and haul Grace to her feet. "You know you can't beat me." She teased gently as she dragged them both into the cover of a nearby alleyway.

"Is that her name?" Ark asked. He still had plenty left in his gun and plenty more on his belt loops. He wasn't worried. "She wouldn't tell me." Another shot hit the car next to Jack's head. "Let's not talk about women when you're about to die, officer. I'd rather talk about other people inside the building. How many more of you are there? And don't try to be noble. There's no time for that."

"I did one time." Grace said softly, sniffling as she wiped blood off her scraped nose. "It wasn't my fault you tripped over that puppy and sprained your ankle." She laughed through her tears.

"How could I know how many people are inside if I haven't gotten there yet?" Jack sneered. "And that woman... Is death. She brings it wherever she goes, and my guess is she's somehow the cause of this!"

"You wanna tell me what Jack did that had you running like your life depended on it?" Kitty asked, choosing not to stress Grace out further by telling her what was happening around them.

"You're the sherrif. You know when your people work and how many there are." Ark said, pausing as he took a moment to look at the building in front of him. "Unless you really are as dumb as they say. Then you don't have any idea who's in there. And trust me, what's happening to your town has nothing to do with those little ladies. You can blame yourself more than them." 

Grace shook her head. "I don't want to talk about Jack. I just want to get away from all that." She said softly.

"I may know now many people are supposed to be there, don't mean they're there right now!" Jack shouted. "And what about any arrests that were made? Drunks sleeping it off?"

"Come on then. We need to get back to the apartment, grab a bag and then get out of town." Kitty informed Grace firmly.

"I don't care civilians. I want deputies. Public servants." Ark said as he reloaded. "The public is already dead. I'm making sure the ones with the guns don't try anything stupid." He took a fresh shot at Jack. "It must suck to be in charge. How big was the pay for the betraying that woman who was raped? Was it worth it? I hear it a hefty sum."

"Jack won't let us go." Grace shook her head. "There's no point in trying. He'll just call and say we are murderers or something and have us brought back. I give up."

Jack didn't say anything this time. He was sat on the ground looking down the street at the police station. It was becoming clear to him that he wasn't in control of anything anymore. Hell, he hadn't even been able to tell Grace how sorry he was.

"So that's it? You're just going to sit here and wait to die?" Kitty asked thinly.

"How about I shoot that little busty little deputy of yours first?" Arm asked, his voice dangerously low. "You wouldn't mind that would you? Didn't need another woman holding you back, did you sherrif?" 

"Die from what?" Grace asked, worried as she looked up into her friend's face. "It's just Jack, Kitty. He's a pig and all but he's not going to kill us."

"Go ahead, if you think you can hit her before she blows your balls off!" Jack shot back.

"Grace, have you really not taken a look around?" Kitty breathed. "People are dying, or going crazy, or something!"

"Does that mean she's got a shotgun or something else?" Ark chuckled, watching Jack's shadow. He took another shot at the car, this one slamming into the dirt inches from where the sheriff was crouched on the ground. "Is she good at begging, sheriff? Anything like the little blonde was?" 

"I was thinking that was my fault." Grace confused, giving her best friend a sheepish look. "Everything else lately has been. Why not?" She laughed softly, wiping at her eyes. "Wait...how did you get to the station. Jack left you at the lake..."

"You really wouldn't know what to do with her!" Jack mocked. "You're military, ain't ya? You're type don't know a thing!"

Kitty just smiled. "I'm here now, aren't i?" She breathed. "It doesn't matter how I got here. All that matters is that we need to get gone."

"Military is a loose term." Ark said as his eyes turned toward a shadow moving around at the front of the sheriff's building. He could see the one called Shannon trying to direct a group of men into place. She was going to try and break them out. Perhaps she was smarter than he'd given her credit for. "Look, sheriff, just die like a man and get it over with. It's going to be a long night and I have places to be." 

Grace shook her head. "I can't leave without Jack. We have to back for him. Just to make sure he's safe. Even if he's with that other woman..."

Jack snorted again and shook his head. "If, by that, you mean your chasing after Kitty, forget it. You'd be better off letting one of those things out there chew on your neck!" He had stalled enough to get to the clip that had slid out of his vest and under the car. Jack didn't give Ark any warning before he reached over the car and fired several shots, one of them catching the other man in the shoulder.

"Shit, Grace! Why?!" Kitty demanded. "After everything he did to you, coud, still do to you! He doesn't deserve a goddamn thing from you!"

Ark cursed under his breath, his teeth gritted painfully. That wasn't what he'd been expecting at all. "You got lucky." He hissed, taking another shot at the sheriff. He was distracted again by the well endowed woman now leaning out the window trying to take a shot at the bloodied man trying to crawl through. He ducked down behind another car, disappearing before Jack could get off another shot. 
"Jack!" Shannon shouted, trying to see if she could see him as she finally caught the man between the eyes. "Tell me you're out there!" 

"I still love him, Kitty. Nothing is going to change that. We both know it." Grace sighed, feeling like she had something to be ashamed of. "Come on. If we're going to get our stuff and go back for him we'd better hurry."

"You're a lousy shot, Deputy!" Jack shouted and he smashed an elbow into the jaw of a man who had come running at him along the street.

Kitty sighed heavily and shook her. It was her for her it understand how Grace felt, given that she herself had never been in love, or even loved.

Shannon scowled at Jack, holding the window until he was almost all the way through it. She let go a moment too soon, the edge of it catching his boot as he landed on the hard wood floor in the main hall. Though they were sleeping together and soon to be married, it did not mean there was anything between them. "Excuse me for not really wanting to murder a local resident." She muttered.

Grace slid her fingers through Kitty's and nodded her head. "Thank you. I'll feel better knowing he's okay too. You know Jack can't think for himself."

"You never had issue with shooting people before." Jack snorted. "As I recall, you were eager to shoot Kitty Stein until Grace pleaded with you to play nice."

"Not with his head he can't." Kitty muttered as they walked down the darkened backstreets of the small town. She was keeping them off the main roads, wanting to avoid any more incidents like what happened at the lake.

"Kitty Stein should be shot and so should you." Shannon muttered, placing her gun back in its holster. "Neither one of you is worth a damn and neither is that whore Grace that you and my bother had the hots for." She passed a group of deputies that made no attempt to hide the fact that they were starting at her ill fitting uniform top. 

"Jack wanted to be a sheriff since we were little. You can't blame him for fighting to keep what mattered most to him, Kitty. One day you'll understand that too." Grace said as they came to a stop at the apartment door.

"Then what fuck are we doing?" Jack growled as he pushed his fingers through his hair. "No, seriously, Shannon. We fuck and that's it. You really call what we have a relationship? What I had with Grace, that was a relationship, so watch your goddamn mouth!

Kitty narrowed her grey eyes at Grace and shoved one the door. "And maybe one day you'll join me in the real world and see that nothing is as perfect and rainbow fucking happy as you fool yourself into thinking!"

"We screw because you're afraid of pissing off my father." Shannon said with a snort, glancing over her shoulder at him. Her milk chocolate colored hair spilled over her shoulder and swayed down her back with the motion. "You like being sheriff. Remember? It's worth plowing into skanky pussy like mine. Right?" 

"If I think like you I'd be depressed all the time." Grace said with a soft laugh as she headed toward the room that belonged to her. "It's bad enough being depressed as often as I am."

Jack was behind Shannon in a heartbeat, his hands grabbing her shapely hips as he walked her into his office and kicked the door shut. "Just barely..." He breathed into her sweet smelling hair. Jacks hands, and clothing, was quite filthy from crawling around outside during his exchange with Ark, and he knew it. He was unbuttoning Shannon's shirt, waiting for her to tell him what a pig he was.

Kitty sat down on her own bed and simply stared at the wall. People called her cold, and often a bitch, but those icy walls around her own personal island were needed. If they weren't there, who was going to protect her from her demons?

Like Jack, Shannon had her price. There were things that each of them did to keep themselves in the lifestyle they were accustomed to. She had her secrets too. Her father made her swear to give in to him each and every time he demanded it of her. It was the only way to keep Jack in line and keep him from asking questions. "You're disgusting." She muttered, gritting her teeth as she tried not to think of the dirt under the fingernails that were now gripping her breasts.

Grace had gone quiet in her room. She'd stopped packing things and had sat down on the bed. She suddenly couldn't find the strength to continue it. The thought that she could end it all here and now was getting more and more rational.

"That's why you love it, deputy." Jack breathed against Shannon's slender throat. Her shirt was tossed to the ground now and Jack took a step away. "Get undressed, we don't have much time." He barked, as though she were simply there to please him.

Kitty was crouched in her closet now, pulling a shoe box out that no longer held the contents advertised. Inside was a gun and two magazines. It had always been her safety net, a silent defence against her father as she told herself if things had ever gotten too much... She would do it. That was something Kitty Stein could always be depended on for; to do what was needed, no matter the price.

"No." Shannon surprised herself with the forceful way she responded to him. "I won't. Now is not the time for that and I'm not Grace. I'm not going to just let you act like a pig on me. You try it and I'll break your nose." She hissed, her bare breasts heaving. 

"We need to go, Kitty." Grace whispered, knocking on the door. "It's starting to rain outside."

Jack was grinning as he sat down at his desk and simply looked Shannon over. "It's about goddamn time." He mused, doing his very best not to be distracted by those round breasts that danced within his reach. "You have any idea how long I've been waiting to hear you tell me no?" He asked. "I don't know how much more of a pig I could act until you snapped." He chuckled.

Kitty had changed out of her shorts and into black jeans before pulling her worn brown boots back on. It was as Grace knocked on the door that she slid the gun into the back of said jeans and pulled her equally black tank top down to cover it. "It always rains." She breathed as she opened the door, pulling a fitted black leather jacket on that was just as worn as her boots.

Shannon didn't answer. She had bent to retrieve her clothing and replace it. It wasn't until she'd tied her hair into a bun that she spoke at all. "I can't believe you try to hold yourself above my brother." She snorted. "You're no better than he is."

"I always wanted to die when it was raining." Grace said softly. "I guess around here that won't be hard to do, huh?"