As the world falls down

"Oh come on... You really expect me to believe that?" The young woman shook her head and continued to clean the glass she was holding. "So let me get this right, the guy smashed a fist clean through your window, while you were driving, and tried to take a chunk clean out of you?" She clarified, a dark eyebrow raised in amusement. "Seriously, Jackson, if that were even a little true, why are you here in my bar and not squealing to the cops like a good little citizen?"
"Cleo! Come on!" The man who had been addressed at Jackson wailed. "I'm in shock here! Some guy tries to chow down on me, and you're not even a little worried for my well being? That's cold... Even for you!"
Cleo smiled and gently set the glass down before leaning her elbows on the bar to come face to face with Jackson, the waves of her dyed silver hair slipping over her shoulders. The bar owner always wore matt red lipstick and lots of black eyeliner around her pale blue eyes. The hint of her natural hair colour was the slice of ebony in the side of her blunt cut bangs that stopped just above her eyebrows.
The young woman often did this, stared people down until they simply cracked and told her what she wanted to know. But Jackson wasn't changing his story, which bothered her more than it should.

Shelly Van Gorder was late. She was always late. She was yanking up her skin tight jeans over her lean hips, ignoring the snoring man still lying on her bed. She shoved her fingers through her wild blonde hair and grabbed for her high heels. 
She trotted across the parking lot and headed to her car, not even hearing the groaning man as he shambles after her. She was far too concerned with what the owner of a certain bar was going to say to her this time.

Cleo finally gave up on Jackson and rolled her eyes. "Despite what you think, I'm just a little too old for for bedtime stories." She snorted, though paused to pour herself a glass of tequila before draining the glass and running her fingers through her hair. That was the third time tonight she had heard that same story. That was the part that bothered her the most.

An hour later, Shelly burst into the bar, her jeans stained with blood. She'd never gotten a chance to put on her high heels. As a matter of fact she'd lost one of them somewhere during the frantic run to the bar. 
She slammed the door shut behind her and pressed herself against it, taking in several gasping breaths. What she had seen outside....

Cleo's head snapped up from where she was leafing through a music magazine whilst leaning on the bar. It had been a painfully quiet night, even the usual regulars hadn't been in. There were maybe three people sat in the bar, and they all seemed strangely quiet. "Well... looks like the trash let itself in..." She snorted, with an amused chuckle.

Shelly narrowed her eyes at Cleo, almost forgetting what had just happened to her. Almost. It took the door behind her shaking with a roar and inhuman force to remind her. "Shut up and grab your shotgun." She hissed. "Elvis Ray is coming in here and I think he's drunk and pissed off! He bit Mary mcarhy's face off!"

"You know, I'm starting to think this whole town has lost it!" Cleo remarked as she moved around the bar to join Shelly by the door, using a finger to lift one of the slats in the blinds and look outside. She would come eye to eye with a snarling, inhuman looking creature. The young woman jumped back in surprise, her wide blue eyes looking at Shelly as though she was the one to have caused this. "What the fuck..."

"Which one did you see?" The little blonde asked. "Mary, Elvis Ray, or someone they brought with them?" All along the way the young woman had seen her former lover take down nearly half of tow city blocks. They'd done nothing more than scream at the top of their lungs. He'd done it all naked and snarling, a new one even for him.

"I don't know!" Cleo snapped, her fingers in her silver hair again as she paced in front of Shelly now. "Not Mary... I guess..." Her brain was telling her that thing she had just seen was male... or had been at some point. "I don't know!" She repeated. "Too much blood, it was hard to tell!"

"Elvis Ray then. The son of a bitch threw me up against the side of a car and tried to take a bite out of me instead of the usual just beating me senseless." Shelly snapped. "Someone saw him and started screaming and he turned...almost like the noise was bothering him and ran for them instead. Cleo...he ate them...just jumped on them and started tearing away..." the little blonde was used to blood and extensive injuries but this was too much. She buried her face in her hands and tried to gather composure. "He was throwing innards...like they were trash..."

Cleo swallowed hard and puffed her cheeks out as she exhaled. "It's not just Elvis Ray." She told the blonde. "Jackson told me something similar, I just assumed he had been hitting the bottle harder than usual." She confessed. "What the he'll is happening? If people are turning feral, it's only a matter of time before they run out of people on the streets and start smashing their way indoors." Cleo was trying to remain rational, even as her brain was telling her this was impossible. It was just mass hysteria. It had to be...

Shelly was frowning hard. She'd never heard of anything like this. But then again she didn't pay attention to much when it came to TV, movies, or books. "So what's your plan. Knowing you you're going to blow them all up yourself. I could call an old boyfriend in the sheriff's department in Raymondville...see if it's there too?"

"Is there anywhere you don't have an old boyfriend?" Cleo asked with a snort as she began dragging a rather heavy looking table over to the door the barricade it.

Shelly made a face at her and poked out her tongue. "You're just jealous." She muttered. "You're too much of a bitch. You want me to call Ben or not?" She didn't even bother helping her with the table. She'd seen Elvis Ray. If he wanted in, he'd get in.

"Better a clean bitch than a dirty whore." Cleo remarked. Though it sounded like the two woman were mortal enemies, it was simply their way of almost sisterly affection. "Ben? Wow, you even remembered his name." She added, tossing a few chairs on top of the table now. It may not stop Elvis Ray from getting in, but it made Cleo feel better. "Fine, call him. Any excuse for a date."

"Who said I dated the guy?" Shelly purred. "He was the best lay I ever had. And you never saw a better cop with a shirt off. But I didn't keep him. He was way too nice for me." She pulled out her phone and tapped in the number, lines knitted in her forehead.

"Still a cop though." Cleo muttered, the heavy soles of her boots signalling that she was moving away from Shelly as the other woman made her phone call. The silver haired woman was pouring herself another drink, wondering if maybe she had actually slipped and hit her head when bringing crates up from the cellar. That would explain all this.
The phone rang several times before a gruff voice finally answered. "This had better be important..." The owner sounded almost out of breath.

"Ben..." they had left on terrible terms. She was surprised he'd even answered. "Elvis Ray..." why she'd even used that name stumped her. She knew better. "Let's just say he's worse than usual. People are...who are you with?" What right did she even have to ask him that? She didn't deserve to. 
She turned to stare at the back of Cleo's head, her eyes watering. Ben was good. She was not. It wouldn't have worked. Ever. She knew that. She had no right to ask anything of him. "Ben, I need you...come to Cleo's bar...please...be careful."

There was a painfully long pause from Ben's end of the line and a decidedly female voice could be heard asking who was calling. Ben seemed to be deciding whether he was still a nice guy, or looking after his new happiness. Ultimately, nice guys never quit. Lucky for Shelly. "Shelly... If there's a problem with your boyfriend, call the police in your own town." Ben replied, though they both knew he wasn't simply going to leave it at that. "And if it's a problem at the bar, I'm pretty certain Cleo of all people can more than handle it."

"Okay." Shelly's long lashes pressed to her cheeks and she was quick to hold her breath. No man made her cry. Not again. Not ever. For a long moment she held the phone away from her head as if it were made of hot lead. Not that she bothered hanging it up. 
It was in that moment that Elvis Ray decided he was coming into the bar whether the two women liked it or not. 
Somehow the enormous, naked man had broken past the barrier at the door and was going right for Shelly. All she got out was a, "Elvis, no!" Before he tackled her to the floor and she screamed.

Sam would hear Cleo shouting Shelly's name before several shots were fired and the line went dead. He knew it was going to ruin things with the woman lay on the bed next to him, but the good guy in him couldn't ignore what he had just heard. Cleo's bar was less than an hours drive, the least he could do was make sure no one was actually shot.
Cleo had been quick to reach for the gun she kept under the counter. Until now it had been used for no more than threats when things got too rough. Never did she think she would be using it on Elvis Ray... or that he wouldn't feel any of the shots.

Elvis Ray jeered at the shots but didn't even look up. He was intent on the woman below him. He pinned her arms above her head, slobber sliding from his lips to her throat. Behind him the commotion was bringing in others. Things were going south fast. 
No matter how much Shelly struggled she was stuck. She tried not to scream. She'd learned that only excited Elvis and made him hurt her worse. She was bracing for another broken nose and arm. More than likely death...

When the gun didn't work Cleo had picked up her battered baseball bat and smacked Elvis Ray as hard as she could across the side of the head. The bar owner was rather small, and had often found herself having to stand up to much larger patrons, hence the reason the bat was so well worn. "Get in the office, now!" She ordered Shelly once the rabid man was off the blonde. Cleo had placed herself between Shelly and Elvis Ray, fully prepared to hit him as many times as it took until Shelly had gotten somewhere safe.

Shelly couldn't force herself to move. Elvis was snarling at both of them now, blood running down his eyes.

Lucky for the both of them Ben had put his foot down most of the way there. It was only the closer he got to town that he found abandoned cars and fires littering the streets that caused him to slow down somewhat. Cleo's bar was in the centre of town, and at the heart of whatever was happening. Shelly's former lover jumped through the gap Elvis Ray had made in the window, heaving for breath like he had been running from something.

Elvis Ray turned on him, lips pulled back from his teeth. He screamed at the intruder, ignoring the others that were piling in through the other windows, grabbing for anything that might help them pull themselves inside. 
Shelly finally managed to roll onto her stomach and grab for Elvis' ankle. He went down heavily and turned on her, grabbing her her and beginning to pill as hard as he could. This time, Shelly did scream.

It only took Ben a brief moment of assessing the situation before he had Shelly in his arms and was gesturing for Cleo to get in the office. The other woman wasn't exactly thrilled, given that this had been exactly what she had been trying to do before Ben had arrived. Even with the door locked behind them, it wasn't long before Elvis Ray was throwing himself at it all over again.
"So which one of you is going to tell me what the hell is happening here?" Ben asked as he set Shelly down, seeming to be avoiding letting his gaze linger on her too long.

"I thought you would know." Shelly muttered, trying to untangle her hair. "You are the sheriff after all." 

Jacob Black was having a bad day. He'd been shot robbing a bank towns over and was looking for a place to hole up in. It was not working for him. Even cleo's bar was looking good now.

"And that gives me omnipotent powers now, does it?" Ben growled, his temper a little short now, given that his new girlfriend had pretty much ended things thanks to him running to Shelly's rescue.
Cleo sighed loudly, realising that being stuck in this tiny room with these two was probably worse than what was happening on the other side of the door.
"Look, no one knows what the fuck is going on, can we just leave it at that?" She snapped as she tried to pry open a tiny window that had been pretty much painted shut over the years.

"Shut up." Shelly muttered, searching for a rag to Crack her nose back into place. "I'm surprised you showed up as hard as you were going at it earlier. Guess you're not that good, are you, sheriff?" 

Jacob was yanking on the other side of the window, his powerful arms knotted with the effort. Thankfully none of the people had seen him yet.