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 was quick to turn and swing her first into the face of whoever had just attempted to use her out. "You!" She hissed, her eyes filled with lure hatred for the man who had been so close to her a moment ago.
"Are you crazy?!" Jack hissed, pulling Shannon's back against him with a hand over her mouth. "You want to let every creature out there know exactly where we are?!"

Winston's smile was wolfish as he nodded, his eyes filled with his insanity. "You shot me. You remember that?" He asked her. "I am going to return the favor." He was reaching for the knife he'd been going to stab into her body. "Among other things. Are you ready?" 
Shannon was shaking her head, trying to tell Jack that she didn't care. Her brother was out there and so was Kitty. Who knew what could happen?

While both of them were unpredictable, Kitty for the most was at least sane. "You really think a little weasel like you could get the best of me?" Kitty mocked, though she was wisely putting some distance between them now.
"I'm not saying we don't look for him, I'm saying for once in your damn life be smart!" Jack hissed.

"Are you going to scream like she did?" Winston asked, cocking his head to the side. "Are you going to ask me not to hurt you? Your friend kept saying she'd hold still if I didn't hurt the baby. So I pushed on her belly as hard as I could." He laughed. "I watched her bleed while I took her. It felt so good. So warm. Are you going to feel that way?" 
"I don't have time to be smart!" Shannon hissed back, trying to speak over his hand. "Kitty is going to try and kill my brother!"

"Sorry, Winnie, I'm not much of a screamer for limp dick guys like you." She spat, proving she was indeed a different kind of creature to sweet little Grace. Hearing those things come out of his mouth only made her want to violate him in the way he had her best friend. She wanted him to know the fear and the humiliation of being utterly powerless.

"She won't go that far!" Jack insisted. "It isn't death he needs to worry about from her!" He added, already knowing how badly that woman wanted Winston to hurt.

"I've made lots of things scream." Winston said as of he didn't believe her. "You won't be any different than anyone else." He waved her off, yanking the gun he'd found out of the front of his pants and pointing it at her. It was in that moment that the power went out. 

Shannon's panic rose to higher levels in the darkness. Her brother, Kitty, the monsters...none of it was good. Her nostrils were flaring and she could barely catch her breath. Hating herself for it, she dug her fingers into the front of Jack's shirt. She needed him in that moment though she'd never admit it.

The next time Winston heard Kitty's voice she would be behind him, her own knife from her boot pressed against his privates. "Scream for me now, Winnie." She breathed against his ear before sinking her teeth into his ear lobe and ripping it.
Jack's arms instinctively wrapped around Shannon and he held her tightly. Their relationship had always been somewhat carnal, and if he was honest... He had missed just holding a woman in his arms. "The back you should kick in soon." He assured Shannon gently.

Winston did scream, his voice echoing in the hallways. He tried to reach for Kitty, getting ahold of handful of her hair. "Don't you touch me!" He howled. 
Shannon's head jerked up at the sound of her brother's screams. She knew the sound. "Damn it! I have to get to him!" She ground out, trying to pull away from Jack.

Kitty spat the blood our of her mouth, though it still dripped down her chin. With Winston still holding her long hair, she slammed her knife into his upper thigh and twisted it roughly.
Jack's grip hadn't been tight enough in that moment to keep Shannon from slipping away and running after her brother.

Winston couldn't see anything in the darkness and screamed again, flailing. He stumbled, still holding Kitty's hair. "You are going to hurt." He promised her. "I am going to break you..." He added stumbling with her toward where he thought a wall ought to be. 

Shannon slammed into something that felt human and began beating at it. She knew she'd made a mistake when an angry groan echoed in her ear and a sticky substance dripped onto her shoulder. This was neither her brother nor Kitty. At least not with the kind of strength that was being used to shove her backward. Unlike Grace however, she was not going to cry out for help.

"Bigger men than you have tried!" Kitty declared bravely as she clawed at the hand that sill held her plum coloured tresses.

Jack was stumbling as he chased after Shannon. In the darkness it was made painfully obvious to him th at he didn't know his own station as well as he thought.

"But they haven't..." He paused when he found the wall, slamming her head into it more than once. "Done it. I will. I am going to enjoy every inch of you..." He promised, yanking the knife from his leg and holding it over her. 

Shannon cursed herself and she cursed her brother. She should have been in Rio with her former friends that weekend. She should have been getting her nails done. She shouldn't have been falling into bed with a man that hated her or fumbling in the station hallway with a dead man that wanted to eat her.

Kitty's moonlight coloured eyes were looking up at Winston as the red emergancy lighting came on. There was no fear there, not even when she saw the knife held over her. Her head was throbbing and she could feel the blood trickling where Winston had slammed her forehead into the wall.

Jack's gun clicked with the sound of an empty chamber just behind Shannon before he could be heard cursing loudly. "Shit... Shannon, you gotta fight that thing off!" He called as he fumbled in the low light for the shotgun he had brought from his office.

The knife came down in an arch and the tip met with Kitty's forehead. But that was as far as it got. Winston went stiff, his hand still wrapped around the knife. He stared at her face a moment or two before blood started spilling past his lips. It was little more than a second later that his head separeted from his shoulders and went rolling across the floor. His body dropped like a stone and the knife clattered to the floor. This left Kitty to see Ark standing where Winston once was, bathed in the red glow of the emergency lights. 

"Don't tell me what to do!" Shannon snapped, Jack's words seeming to snap her back into focus. Angrily she brought her knee up, hoping a good crotch kick would buy her time. It did nothing but send the large man tumbling forward onto her. His weight sent them both to the ground.

Kitty was staring up at Ark with wide eyes, not sure what had just happened. "I thought you had more important things to do?" She finally asked, still a little unsteady on her feet as he vision swam somewhat.

Jack ran over and grabbed the man my his feet as he tried to drag him off Shannon, thigh only managed to pull him a foot or so off her, leaving his face level with her abdomen.

"Cutting the power was one of them." Ark said, placing his short sword back into it's holster. At some point he'd changed out of his leather clothing into a marine's uniform. He held a hand out for her to help her to her feet. "That guy didn't seem too friendly. Did you deny him or something?"

"Damn it!" Shannon was trying hard to buck her hips and get the man away from her exposed stomach. His teeth were grazing her skin, leaving her drenched in saliva as he dug his fingers dug into her hips.

"No! You denied me!" Kitty insisted once she was back on her feet, an accusing finger jabbing into Ark's firm chest. "He was supposed to suffer! I wanted him beg for death after what he did to Grace!"

Jack knew he couldn't exactly shoot this man now without hurting Shannon, so shmashed the butt of his shit gun into his head. He had expected it to stun the man, not for his entire head to explode like a ripe melon.

"You were wasting a lot of time trying to make him suffer." Ark pointed out. "Why are you here? I told you to leave several hours ago. You have ended up in the second worst place to be."

Shannon laid where she was for several seconds, fighting not to gag. She kept shaking her head, only able to be thankful she'd closed her mouth when she saw Jack coming.

"Grace wasn't well, but she wanted to see jack." Kitty replied with a shrug, unaware the Grace was gone, and she she now stood with the other woman's killer. "Not that I have to do anything you tell me." She added, trying to ignore just how much more appealing Ark had become now she saw him wearing that uniform.

Jack held a hand over his mouth as the smell hit him. He wanted to throw up, but held his other hand out to Shannon as he fought it. "Now will you stop running blindly through the station?"

"You have a point." Ark said, pushing the still bleeding body with his boot. He made a face and shook his head. "What are your plans then? To stay here as they erect the barrier and destroy the town from the inside out?" He turned to leave, stopping a few steps away. "Why did you call me? You never did get around to telling me." 

"Maggots..." Shannon was gasping now, quickly shoving to her feet. She was yanking off the shirt and tossing it to the ground, stomping on it. "He had maggots in his head!" She ground out, now beating at her stomach and chest. "That's not possible!"

Kitty hesitated, feeling a little silly now. "You probably don't know it, but I'm not exactly popular around here... I didn't know who else to call." She was rubbing nervously at the arms of her leather jacket.

Jack made no secret of the fact he was smirking at how Shannon's breasts bounced with each frantic swipe she made at the maggots. He shook his head after a moment and removed his own shirt before handing it to her.

"That still does not tell me what you wanted." Arm told her, looking at her over his shoulder. "I'm not interested in what the dead weeds of this town think."

"Thanks." Shannon muttered as she yanked the shirt over her head. "I'm not going to stop looking for Winston, Jack. I'm worried about him. That hasn't changed."

"Grace needed help, and I didn't know who else to call, alright?!" Kitty growled, feeling like she was admitting weakness by calling for help.

"I've never said stop looking, just be smart about how you do it." Jack responded. "Come on, whatever this sickness is, it's killing people quicker than we can track."

"Your friend." Ark shook his head, not looking at Kitty any longer. "Why are you down here, by the way? The exits have been blocked." He turned back to her, his body somewhat stiff. "Come with me. I can get you out of here. This will me my last offer."

Shannon shook her head. Jack wouldn't understand and she couldn't tell him. He didn't seem to care about being alone. He cared about his career only. He probably didn't have any family he even worried about the way she did her brother.

"I'm not leaving without Grace." Kitty replied firmly. "You can help me get back to her, and get her help... Or go off and do whatever it is you soldier drones do!"

Jack understood perfectly what it was to lose family. His father had been working at the factory here in town when Jack was a teenager. There was some sort of accident and he and his mother had simply been told that Jsck Snr. Was dead.

"The way back is clear from here." Ark said, motioning toward the double doors that led away from the morgue. "I passed the sheriff and a half naked deputy in the hall a ways back. They looked to be getting rid of things. Catch up with them and they'll take you to her. I'm sorry you've chosen not to go with me, Kitten." 

Shannon found Kitty not long after Ark had again disappeared. It took her one more step toward the other woman to find what had become of her brother. She didn't handle her grief as well as Jack had. "You bitch!" She shouted at Kitty, dropping to her knees in her brother's blood. Her fingers shook as she gathered his head and then frantically reached for his body. For a moment or two it seemed she was going to try and put them back together.

Jack was watching Kitty rather than Shannon. Fom the way Kitty was acting, he didn't think she knew about Grace. If she did, he knew she would have shot both of them on sight. "What did you do?" He hissed at the dark haired woman. "I know he was a dick, but you butchered him!"
Kitty didn't say much of anything. She had picked up her knife from where it had been used to injure Winston, a then acted like nothing had happened.

Shannon was losing herself. Winston was all she'd had. She'd promised to take care of him and it had all been for nothing. "It serves you right." She ground out. "I'm glad she's dead now. It serves you both right!"

Kitty had been about to simply walk away when Shannon's words slid into her. She knew they could mean anyone, but then again, Kitty didn't really have anyone else. "You better choose your next words carefully, bitch." She hissed as she slowly turned around.

Shannon was holding onto her brother's head like a life raft as she glared back at the other woman. Her chest was heaving as she glared at her. "You heard me." She hissed, glancing out of the corner of her eye at Jack. She had nothing to lose any more. Her father was going to have her flayed alive for this. He would probably kill her himself. The sheriff wasn't going to be held in place now that Grace was gone and so was the man who'd hurt her.