Aberrant: Dead Rising - Freedom

[Jillian Johnson]

ooc:This fic takes place right after 12c but before 12h

Jill had lost track of time. She was panting, her heart was pounding in her chest but she didn’t stop, she couldn’t stop. The Refuge was out of sight and she wasn’t even sure if she’d found the way back should she change her mind.

No, I can’t go back..., she wiped away tears wondering that she still had some left. She had cried so much since she ran away. The pain was unbearable but it also fueled her anger. She had lost everything, Violet had changed beyond recognition and she couldn’t believe her lies anymore. She couldn’t bear waiting anylonger, playing the second fiddle and hope that one night she’ll come back and fulfill her promise.

Jill was done with her, done with the world. Z-day had changed everything and then there was this glimmer of hope when she met James who rescued her and her Sister JoAnna. Things were slowly improving from that day on and after they settled at the Refuge Jill actually thought they were gaining back what they lost. The community was making promising plans and people were helping out each other as good as they could.

Then she met Violet... actually Violet invaded their little family. It was difficult at first but Jill felt too enthralled by her to... to not like having her around. Especially since Violet wasn’t disinclined to indulge her lesbian side. Jill preferred women over men and Violet was pushing all the right buttons.

For a time it was good. Very good and Jill knew she had a special place in Violet’s heart. Something that made her unique and stand out. But again this was only short lived. Happiness ended the day Kristin arrived. Just thinking about her made her angry enough to increase her running pace yet again.

Kristin destroyed everything. That little... supermuscled girl. Big tits, awesome muscles with perfect symmetrie and definition and the cutest face she’d ever seen. If things had been different Jill could’ve imagined to fall in love with her... but instead she hated her. She hated her because Violet was crazy about Kristin and Jill knew exactly why.

Even if she would’ve confronted her, Kristin would’ve crushed her with her superhuman strength. It infuriated her that all the training and workout she put into her body was meaningless if you confronted a super like Kristin or James. They’d squash you like an insect and wouldn’t even notice a difference if you were very strong for human standards or not.

Jill had reached a small plateau and looked over the landscape. It was strangely quiet, almost peaceful and she allowed herself to calm down a little. How many miles had she run? She didn’t know but she sure hoped she would run into some Zeds soon. She was tired thinking about everything that made her life miserable and she feared the more time passed the less determined she’d be to face her death. Right now she felt strong and powerful. Just the right mood to destroy something before it destroyed her. She’d go down in glory and before she changed she’d impale herself on her sword hopefully dying before she’d turned. The plan had holes the size of Kansas but Jill didn’t care anymore. She’d die today one way or the other...

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

With a straight, three and a half piece of titanium pilfered from the landing gear legs of a crashed plane bouncing on her thick shoulder, Kristin walked over to the smithy. Since her modified axe broke in the fight at the Vegas Enclave and seeing the towering Sarah swinging a sword, Kristin had decided she wanted one too. She figured maybe Jill could flatten and sharpen sharpen the piece of titanium into a serviceable, if ugly, blade, strong enough to let her use her strength without breaking.

Speaking of the behemoth blonde, Kristin found herself almost bumping into Sarah as she came around the corner of the smithy, her sheathed sword in her hands. Kristin was again reminded of the drastic disparity in their heights - the top of her head barely reached Sarah's boobs.

"Oh! Sorry, didn't see you there, Sarah..." Kristin gave a self-conscious grin at the lameness of her reply, stepping back and craning her neck to look up at Sarah, nodding at the sword in Sarah's hand. "Are you already waiting for Jill? I was going to see if she could sharpen this so I could have a sword too, one strong enough to not break." Kristin held up the piece of titanium as evidence of why she was here.

"Hello, Kristin. I remember you with an axe. Deciding to try a sword now, hmm? Good choice," Sarah said politely, looking down at the much shorter, if still physically imposing, girl. Her flannel shirt was tight across her shoulders and bust, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, revealing her corded forearms, but is was loose below, concealing the slowly growing bulge from her pregnancy. Her combination of youthful, wholesome gorgeousness and impressive, mature physique was a striking and odd as ever.

"Well, I've been waiting. Since Vegas, I'd like to get my sword sharpened and the nicks fixed, but it doesn't look like anyone is here."

"That's weird." Kristin leaned to the side, looking past Sarah to see the door to the smithy. "Jill is usually here already."

Kristin walked around Sarah and knocked on the door, which creaked open at the first touch. Kristin poked her head inside. "Jill, are you in here?"

Silence answered. Kristin stepped warily inside - she could imagine a man lurking in the shadowed corners all too easily - followed by a curious Sarah. It was dark inside and the forge was cold, Kristin's hair gleaming like golden fire in the light cast by the open door.

On the anvil, held under a hammer, were several pieces of paper. Kristin picked them up, tilting them so she could read them in the pale light while Sarah looked around. The smithy was a weird combination of old-style forge and modern machine shop, with an anvil, forge, even a machining lathe, several bins of scrap metal lining one wall.

"No! No, no, no!"

Sarah's head snapped around at the sheer horror in Kristin's voice. Beneath her tanned skin, Kristin's face was deathly pale as she back away from the papers she had dropped back on the anvil.

"Kristin, what is it?" Sarah asked, taking one long step and picking up the abandoned papers. Her eyes widened as she read the scrawled script, the wording frantic and broken, but the sense of... finality coming through.

"Jill - she's... I think - she's going to do something bad, something stupid!" Kristin whispered in a ragged pant. "My brother... we have to stop her! We have to! I can't - not again!"

The was a loud bang as Kristin put her hand through the wall, the horror in her voice burned away under a rising fury. Sarah nodded firmly, her jaw tightening stubbornly as she set down the papers back on the anvil. Humanity had already lost too much to lose itself to despair. "We'll stop her, Kristin, before... before it's too late. From what she wrote, I think she went north. We should probably tell-"

"No time!" Kristin interrupted. "If we wait, we'll be too late! I know it! I've seen it!" Sarah felt a small, strong hand grab one of her much larger ones, tugging her out of the smithy. "C'mon, we'll take my truck!"

The two athletic blondes ran across the Refuge to the parking lot, drawing many eyes. Sarah even had to stretch her long stride to keep up, barely managing to call out to an onlooker to tell Fox that Jill maybe have left the refuge alone with no intention of 'Coming Back.' The onlooking stared in shock for a moment, then began running too.

Kristin climbed behind the wheel of her huge Ford F-350 Super Duty, slapping in the key and revving the engine. Sarah barely had time to jump onto the bed of the pick-up before Kristin was gunning for gate. The guard on duty pointed, worry and guilt growing in his eyes as Kristin's frantic question made him begin to realize letting Jill out by herself may have sealed fate.

As the gate began to close, the guard radioing in his concerns and everything else he knew about Jill leaving, the massive white pick-up turned north in the direction he had pointed. Kristin didn't slow down at all as she headed off-road, the heavy treaded wheels chewing up the turf, her eyes scanning the landscape ahead of her with desperate anxiety.

Standing in the bed, a hand bracing herself on the roll-bar, Sarah used her greater vantage point to search for Jill more effectively, her blond hair whipped around in a flurry from the wind.

They were two physically fit, super-powered blondes looking for a third blonde before she did something terrible in the pursuit and envy of those same super-powers.

[Dawn OOC]

The top of the plateau held what Jill was seeking. She felt a little uneasy up here, even though she was alone. The wind blew through the weeds, rattling the summer-dried stalks of grass. The hiss was like something trying to speak to Jill: perhaps a warning, or maybe a seduction.

A low moan offered Jill what she'd been seeking. She followed the sound to a small clump of zombies, standing in a open spot. The dead stood motionless until she got closer; then as one, their attention turned to her. As a herd, they lurched into motion, walking toward her with their relentless gait. This was exactly what she'd wanted, but even now, Jill hesitated. The undead coming at her was her death and almost every living creature wanted to live.

[Jillian Johnson]

There was a moment of hesitation as she saw the approaching Zombies.

What am I doing here?, she asked herself as fear was gripping her heart. She wasn’t so sure now if she wanted to die as she saw death in the eye. Looking back she had to accept that there was no turning back. Events had been set in motion which were irreversible now.

The moans got louder and with it the very real epiphany – she was going to die today. Jill drew her sword with an angry grunt. It was all her fault. If it wasn’t for that little bitch Violet wouldn’t have abandoned her.

„Die!“, she swung her sword in a long arch and solidly decapitated the first Zombie that was shuffling towards her.

„I hate you!“, she screamed as she continued the swing with a pirouette as she took aim for her next target landing a bone breaking blow to its legs. The creature wasn’t finished yet, but a determined stomp with her combat boots made sure it wouldn’t get up again, as she broke its skull with a shattering noise.

„Why?! Violet! Why...!“, she put all her anger into her screams splitting a Zombie in half with her sword which rained blackened blood over her body making her almost puke for a moment. Jill stumbled backwards gasping for air and assessing the situation. She had solidly destroyed 3 Zombies but more were heading her way.

Jill reinforced her grip on the blade wiping some of the blood off her face. Her eyes searched the plateau for a tactically better position and it struck her odd how strange this place felt to her. Almost as if it carried some kind of meaning...

She was probably imagining it and time was running out. Jill walked sideways trying to gain a better angle at the approaching Zeds and with some luck make them bump into each other and thus give her more time and less targets to take care of at once. She felt good, strong and confident and killing them was easier than she expected. Destroying something was giving her peace.

The buff blonde engaged in another series of precise swings which decapitated another Zed and rendered the halfed at the hips. She kicked the upper body away having not enough time to end it with her sword since the next Zomb was already reaching out for her. Somehoe they were either getting faster or she was getting slower, more tired.

Her muscles were starting to burn and she cursed that she couldn’t simply rip them apart like James did. The sword was starting to feel heavy and she had to change into doublehanded stance to compensate. Her blows were harder but also less precise and she generally had a reduced area of action... which was would be her downfall.

Another to Zeds were destroyed but she now was facing three at once and from her back the torso of the Zed she failed to kill earlier was dragging itself over the soil towards her. Jill was just kicking one of the trio away and was about to follow up with a sword swing, when she felt something grab her ankle.

The unexpected attack made her shriek in surprise and she almost dropped the blade. She looked down in terror as she slowly regained control of the blade – she had to be careful not to hit herself with it and incapacitate herself but she could see she was too slow. The thing was already pulling itself up her calf and then it bit her just as the blade connected with its skull, chopping it cleanly off.

Jill cried out, shaking the remains of the jaws and teeth off her leg stumbling backwards. The pain was tolerable but now she was injured... now there was no going back, even if they found her, she was infected...

Instead of faltering she got even madder now. Her combat style became reckless, she charged into the next zombie tackling it with her shoulder and using that momentum to follow through with her blade which split it in half. The third Zombie had taken the opportunity to grab her shoulder tearing off cloth and exposing skin. She glared at it, the angle to hit it with the sword was impossible and she couldn’t overcome the pull of force unless she was superstrong... which she wasn’t. The Zed moaned and then sank its teeth into her shoulder and Jill screamed again in pain.

Unable to pull herself free she started to head butt the thing until she could finally bring her blade back into position. With a might thrust she impaled the Zed but had to drop the blade to gain distance from it.

„Is that all you got?!“, she yelled staring at the sky. „Is this it!“, she cried stumbling towards her sword and taking it out of the body. It hang loosely in her arm, blood was pouring out of her shoulder and her calf and she breathed in gasps. Her time was running out, soon she’d be dead... and then one of them unless she managed to kill herself.

Jill dropped to her knees, ignoring the approaching Zeds and also the distant sound of an engine belonging to a truck. It was quickly closing in but even if they were out to rescue her, it would be too late now...

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah privately cursed as the moaning continued to rise and the shouts of the woman they had come to save trailed off into silence, willing the truck to go faster as it worked it's way up to the plateou at speed that caused her to leave finger-shaped dents in her anchor as the vechile bucked over another rock. They cleared the top and the blonde megamorph scowled in anger at the hoard closing in on the much-wounded Jill. "Kristin, I'll take the mob! Save Jill," she called through the open backwindow of the truck, muscles tensing.

The truck had barely screeched to a halt before Sarah leaped out of the back, her jump ending in a quite audiable *krack* as eight tons of superhuman female hit the ground on booted feet, a crackle of fading energies trailing her as she charged the main zombie mob and really gave them something to consider. One Zed squished under her foot even as twelve-feet of much-used blade cleared it's sheath on the towering metahuman's back.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

The big white pick-up barely skidded to a halt, rocking up on two wheels, before the door swung open and Kristin jumped out in a graceful somersault, her length of titanium landing gear in hand like a blunt sword. Her adorable face was twisted in a rictus of furious anger and painful sadness. Far away, Venus felt the vibrant, violent emotions biting deep.

Kristin barreled after Jill, a swing of her bar obliterating two intervening zombs into shattered bone and spattering gore. "Why?! Why did you do it, you stupid bitch?" Kristin cried, tears streaming down her smooth cheeks. Jill raised her head, seeing her perceived rival approaching fast, beautiful and terrible.

"My brother, Ash's friend, and now you?!" Kristin yelled. "Why do you people keep doing this?! Do you think it's worth it? Do you?! Let me show you what I had to deal with!" Kristin was almost in reach of Jill, her titanium bar raised threateningly, the hurt and pain Jill had caused by her action - just like her brother and Ashley's friend - blatantly obvious on her face.

[Jillian Johnson]

Jill was still on her knees unable to rise in defense – she didn’t want to anymore and was accepting her fate. Suddenly the ground shook like from a small earthquake. She craned her neck feeling blood pouring over her forehead and down her neck. Something big was approaching and then she recognised her.

Sarah, one of the latest newcomers and she was huge. A towering amazon plowing her way through the Zombies as if they were made of straw. The huge blade sent them flying away, obliterating everything it touched. How unreal...

Then Jill saw Kristin and she started to chuckle. The young teen/woman didn’t even have a sword. She had a huge titanium makeshift... club(?) with which she hit two Zeds at once which flew almost out of sight by Kristin’s superhuman strength. Jill didn’t hear what Kristin was ranting about. What did she have to complain about? She had it all, beauty, strength and an amazing body. Everything Violet wanted – Kristin had it all in spades.

Jill’s chuckle turned into laughter which increased into a wholehearted outburst of laughing. She saw the young superwoman approaching, her beauty immaculate even though she fought herself through Zeds not a single smear of blood or dirt stayed on her. Kristin’s appearance remained perfect. Jill couldn’t stop, she didn’t feel the pain anymore – not the physical at least so she laughed. The closer Kristin got, the harder she laughed making her sound like a maniac...

Of all the supers who could’ve found and rescued her, it had to be Kristin...

[Karren Gaunt]

27'4 worth of amazon paused with a twitching zombie held under one foot at that laugh, Sarah's blue eyes blinking out of combat focus as the remenants of the mob failed to do any dammage to her legs. Oh, please that be the horror speaking for Jill... Otherwise things were going to get very ugly. Putting down the infected, if the blacksmith was ifnected, who went crazy turned an act of mercy into a murder, violence and screaming and tears where there should be ritual and an final reaffirmation of humanity instead.

The blonde megamorph remembered her squriming captive and pressed down, reducing it to paste under her foot, blade surging out to destroy three more undead, and she gave her full attention back to the flagging mob, trusting Kristin to protect Jill from any undead she missed.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin staggered to a stop in front of the madly laughing Jill, her face suffused with fury, and kicked an encroaching zombie, crushing its chest and she sent sailing off the plateau. Kristin was breathing in hard, ragged gasps, her flannel shirt straining across her shoulders and chest, barely refraining from clubbing Jill over the head with her metal bar or slapping her across the face. A blow from her would kill her, and yet... she would have to do it soon anyway. Angry tears trickled in a torrent down her face.

Sarah's trust in Kristin's protection of Jill maybe have been misplaced.

"Why?! Why are you laughing?!" Kristin bellowed, her small hand knotting in Jill's shirt as she shook the larger woman like a ragdoll. "Don't you know what you've done?" Jill found herself thrown roughly to the ground, followed by the pinging of the titanium strut as Kristin covered her face with her hands, wracked by sobs.

"You've infected yourself on purpose and because of me!" Kristin whispered brokenly, strong shoulders shaking. "Now I'll have to finish you before you turn because it's my responsibility, my fault! How could you? What am I going to tell V?"

Kristin dropped her arms back down to her sides, muscles rippling dangerously as she balled her hands into a pair of tight fist. She looked down at Jill's sprawled figure, her jade eyes blazing and bloodshot with disconsolate fury.

[Jillian Johnson]

Jill’s eyes followed the trajectory of the Zombie Krisin just ´flipped´ away still laughing like a madwoman. Even Kristin’s shaking didn’t make her stop, she just laughed, locked in a cramp of pain and slipping slowly into insanity. The futility of it all was even more obvious to her than before.

Then Jill suddenly stopped.

Her blue eyes staring at Kristin, blood running in rivers over her face, along her cheeks and behind her ears. Jill stopped laughing when Kristin mentioned Violet.

„She doesn’t care anymore.“, her voice rasped but still carried a lot of hatred and vitriol in it. Jill coughed barely able to keep herself upright, but she forced herself to look Kristin in the eyes.

„You took her away from me – why don’t you finish it now for good? I’m done with everything, I’m done with living.“, silent tears mixed with blood now. Jill was broken, she didn’t care anymore and the irony that her last words would be spoken to Kristin couldn’t make it any worse. There truly was no god.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

"You fucking coward," Kristin brutally growled, not cowed in the least by Jill's scathing hatred or condemnation. She planted a foot on Jill's chest, forcing her back down to the ground and leaned over to glare at her. "So Violet doesn't love you anymore - doesn't love you as much as she used to, big deal! That's the worst that's happened to you? Really? My family except for Ashley abandoned me, then I ended up in Paradise. That was worst. I was broken, but I'm getting better now. You just have to cry and get over it. Besides, if she left you, she didn't love you as much as you deserved."

Kristin snorted contemptuously, then stomped away, turning her back on Jill. "No, you're lying to yourself, you wimpy cunt, lying to everyone." She bent over and picked up her metal bar, still as straight as before despite she use she put to it and turning back to Jill. "You're not here because Violet left you - you're here because you wanted super-powers or wanted to die. I know - I've seen the look before... In my brother's eyes."

Kristin stalked back to the prone Jill, slapping the length of titanium into her off hand. Standing above her, she suddenly stabbed the bar two feet into the ground, quivering right next to Jill's ear and bent over, grabbing Jill by the throat with bruising strength and pulled her face up an inch away from her own.

"So tell me, bitch, why should I give you a chance to live after I had to kill my brother for doing the same thing? Why shouldn't I put you out of your misery right now?" Kristin hissed in a low, venomous voice, her large, jade eyes bright and furious, almost mad.

[Karren Gaunt]

There's the pounding of one, two, three heavy footfalls, and Sarah's shadow falls over both Kristin and Jill. The megamorph looms over the two other women, blade and boots splattered with the rank-smelling blood of the mob of zombies she had primarily dispatched. Her blue eyes gazed down at Kristin in understanding disapointment, at Jill in resigned pity. Her expression was a promise framed by strands of blonde that blew in the wind, fully willing to act if Kristin didn't do exactly as she said.

"Put Jill down gently and please get the first aid kit from your truck I think I saw on our way here," she intoned, "The dammage is done, and you're not the only person she'll have to answer to for her... recklessness before the Refuge deals with her."

Sarah tried to keep it out of her voice and body language, but writ even larger than she was honest, it would be obvious to anyone looking that she considered Jill a dead woman breathing, a tragic, stupid wasting of potential like so many other deeds done since Z-Day.

[Jillian Johnson]

Reflexes were taking over and Jill struggled to break free from Kristin's steely grip. She failed to achieve anything though, except to realize that Kristin's arm felt like a steel girder to her.

Kristin could see it in Jill's eyes, her fire had died, the anger and fury washed away leaving an empty shell behind.

"Tell her I love her, Kristin. Even now she doesn't let me have my own feelings. I can't stop loving her, it's terrible. Maybe you'll understand one day when she stops loving you and moves on to her next obsession."

Jill's body went limp and she hung like a rag doll from Kristin's hand. "God, you're so perfect... I wanted Violet to remember the way I was now, and not how I will be in two months, all soft and bloated. I envy you.", she sobbed and started crying, "I envy you and I hated you... and now I hate myself."

She didn't care now if she died. She came here to die and it turned into humiliation. Maybe there was a god after all - a sarcastic uncaring god who rubbed it in when she was at the bottom.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

"You... you shouldn't envy me..." Kristin whispered.

Sarah's words washed over Kristin, her face paling as what Jill said drove a spike a worried suspicion through her before the psychic link with Venus instinctively went dark. No, no! Violet is only helping me! She said the link only let me know what she's feeling, it's not making me feel anything. She wouldn't lie to me, would she? What... what if this is like before and I'm addicted again and don't know it?

While her thoughts began to spiral in growing paranoia, Kristin released Jill, yanked her metal bar from the ground and staggered away as a part of her responded to Sarah's firmly issued request. Kristin dragged the titanium bar behind her as slumped back to her Pick-Up, drawing a shallow furrow. She climbed up on the step bar, dug out the first aid kit from the back and tossed it to Sarah.

Then she climbed up into the driver's seat and started the engine. Her hands tight on the wheel, Kristin stared blankly out the windshield at nothing, her thoughts tumbling every which way, fear, rage... pity. How dare she make me feel sorry for her! What's she's doing it stupid! If you wants to die, just blow your brains out, at least don't make another zombie. Don't people care about those still living, what doing that makes them face?

[Karren Gaunt]

As Kristin complied a little more abruptly than Sarah might have hoped, the blonde megamorph let go of the little knot of power at the back of her head that kept her at her gargantuan stature, imploding to a 'mere' 6'10 in height. She planted her filthy blade in the earth, catching the first aid with a resigned grunt.

"It's okay, Jill. Tell me where it hurts and I'll make sure you don't die here like an animal, but back at the refuge like a human being if it comes to that," she exhaled gently to the wounded woman as she knelt, blue eyes taking in a molded physique that had nothing to do with the Z Virus, a physique that even 'soft and bloated' would have been more than a little intimidating to her mousy pre Z-day self. What a stupid, pointless waste. All for powers? Powers didn't make you happy. Other people made you happy. But if Violet sparked this off, it was yet more proof powers could make others unhappy used recklessly.

[Jillian Johnson]

Another chuckle escaped Jill's mouth as she heard Sarah's voice. "Thank you...", she tried to smile at her but failed to keep it for longer than a second or two.

"You're waisting time on me... I don't want to live. I don't want to see her again - you can't bandage that.", Jill tried to push Sarah's helping hand away but she was too tired, had lost too much blood already.

"I'm not imagining this, am I? You're real, you came to rescue me?", she stared through Sarah on the verge of losing consciousness.

"Just don't let her know... I can't...", her eyes lolled back and then her battered body collapsed as darkness enveloped her.

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah sighed and went with the untrained medic's instinct of 'wrap a tight bandage around any wound bleeding too heavily and pray the victim doesn't die before you get her to a doctor'. It was rough work, painful work if Jill was still conscious, but given she was probably infected... More than a lot of people would have gotten under similar circumstances grimly enough.

The blonde megamorph looked down at her handwork when she was done, winced a little, and fished a cloth from one of her pockets to wipe the blood off her sword before sheathing it and picking up Jill, legs dangling off one side of her arms, head dangling off the other. "Kristin, can you help me get her in the cab without doing any more dammage?" she called to the younger super, tone sympathetic.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin angrily scrubbed her eyes with the back of a muscular forearm, then twisted around to dig around in the back seat. When she hopped out of the truck, she gave Sarah a stubborn look, eyes red and puffy and lips pouting, making her look even younger than she already did, despite her brawny, voluptuous figure.

"She can ride in the bed," Kristin relented ungraciously, tossing a thick sleeping bag into the open-topped back and jumping in after it.

"Kristin-"

"No." Kristin's voice was flat and final, cold with hurt and anger. Kristin bent over, opening the back, then offered Sarah a hand with Jill. Despite her obvious feelings, Kristin handled the limp Jill carefully enough, if not quite gently. "She's infected and still bleeding and my cousin rides in this truck. I'm not risking a chance of her getting infected too."

Kristin eyed Sarah as she settled Jill on the sleeping bag, noted the zombie gunk on her legs, the dark blood speckling her shirt. "You ride in the bed too, Sarah, you can keep Jill... comfortable."

Kristin may have been affecting a blunt, uncaring air, but Sarah could see the haunted look in her big, green eyes. The circumstances were obviously striking her deeply, and trying to push the damaged teen further than she was willing to go could easily result in an unpredictable reaction.

"Okay, Kristin, I understand," Sarah sighed tiredly. "Please, at least for Jill's sake, go slow, try to take a smooth path."

Kristin fine jaw tightened sulkily, then she nodded. "Fine."

The young teen, beautiful and powerful, clean and undamaged, and in some ways, as deeply damaged as Jill, climbed back behind the wheel and started driving back to the Refuge. True to her word, she didn't drive at her earlier frantic pace, and avoided the rough spots as much as she could.

[Dan Hawkins]

When the truck finally arrived at the Refuge, Dan was still in the quarantine zone, cleaning it out in some areas, and getting it ready for the next time it would be needed.

He saw the truck and immediately he was worried. When it rolled to a stop he came out to meet them.

The look on their faces let him know something's wrong. "What happened?"

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah patted one gloved hand on the unconsious Jill and vaulted over the edge of the truck to land with a thud near Dan, a blonde amazon speckled in blood not her own. "Jill had a jealous breakdown over Violet and decided to get herself killed. We found her note in time to keep her alive, but the odds say she's probably infected. Just in case we're wrong though and because she deserved better than a field execution..," Sarah trailed off, looking at a point over Dan's head, voice dropping to a whisper, "Well, we brought her back because she's a member of your Refuge, for you to deal with."

Sarah was hiding something, poorly, her lips twisting into a faint grimace as her gaze shifted back to the truck and Kristin, "...So more trouble from Violet really. Stupid. Tragic. Wasteful."

[Jillian Johnson]

Jill only managed to moan - the loss of blood was too much and she only had short bouts of consciousness in which she saw shapes she didn't recognise.

Someone had rescued her... yes, Kristin had rescued her. And that other woman, the giantess. They probably brought her back where everyone could see her.

Actually she didn't want to go back - she didn't want anyone to see her like this. People should remember her the way she was and not the zombie she was shortly to become.

Jill would've answered Dan's question but darkness dragged her down again and with it she passed out.

[Dan Hawkins]

"Come on then." He led them into the quarantine area where the infected were kept. Thankfully it was empty, and led them through the building to a secure room.

"Make her comfortable in here, I'm going to see if I can find one of the doctors, then I want the two of you to explain how you found her."

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin got out of her truck, closing the door with more force than strictly necessary. She grabbed the blood-spattered sleeping-bag from the bed of the F-350, then followed Dan into Quarantine, sullenly holding the doors for Sarah will Jill in her arms.

While Dan went to find a doctor and Sarah tried to make Jill as comfortable as possible on the cot, Kristin tossed the sleeping-bag into a corner of the cell, then firmly closed the door, sliding the locking-latch close. She folded her arms beneath her full bosom, a tendon standing out in sharp relief down her neck.

The expression on her too young face was hard and tight, eyes narrow under lowered, blond eyebrows. The hurt and cold resolve emanating from her was almost frightening in someone her age.

"You're wrong you know," Kristin said, swallowing deeply before continuing. "It isn't Dan's responsibility to deal with Jill. It's mine. She did this because of Violet and me."

[Karren Gaunt]

"And you want to punish both her and yourself for being caught up in that..," Kristin could see Sarah wrestle for a word, "...that *woman's* emotional vortex, for getting confused? Jill made a choice in going out there, full of pain and confusion, and your Refuge has rules to deal with the consequences of that choice, rules to keep your humanity intact amid the darkness. Even until the end when it comes to that."

The blonde megamorph gave Jill a final reassuring hand squeeze and stood up to look down at her shorter, angerier counterpart, "Being the one to pull the trigger on her won't help you, Kristin. Not in the way you think it will. That will just cause it to fester and poison everything you are until you can't feel anything but the regret of being too late. Soon, feeling nothing at all, caring about no one else, will be a relief and a habit you'd be lucky to kick. Even with the best kind of help in the world."

Sarah's blue eyes were serious, dark with her own remembered if managable trama.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin shrunk back from the blonde towering more than a foot and a half above her, quickly glancing away, one hand closing into a fist, the other gripping the cell door tight enough to bend the metal bars. Despite her tight expression, Sarah could still see a single tear sliding down a flawless cheek.

"It's not going to make me feel better!" Kristin muttered harshly. "I know - I've done it befo - I know. I don't want to do it, I have to do it. Dan wasn't there! I was! And Jill was out there because of me, because I made Vi forget about her without even thinking about it. It's my responsibility. Not Dan's, not yours, mine!"

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah was far from unmoved and un-understanding, Kristin could see that, but she could also see Sarah also wasn't going to give on this point. Not yet. "Then you take the time to do it right, Kristin. Ask Dan or Captain Fox for permission, tie it up in the bonds of law and ritual, and only then do it if it comes to that," replied the megamorph softly, "Do it right and it helps you to live with the deed and yourself and the might-have-beens just that much more."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan went to look for Myfwany, who he knew was getting ready to leave, yet still this was one that was close to home. He made his way to the clinic and began looking for her.

[SalmonMax]

He didn't have to look far. Myfwany kept her cot in the clinic, in one of the back rooms. She wasn't packing much...mostly her clothes and a few personal books. The medical books she was leaving behind. As Dan came in, Myf looked over and nodded in relief.

"I think I'm almost done here. I was just about to start..."

She trailed off at the look on his face.

"What's the matter?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"Jill is infected I believe. I'd like you to come and check her out. Sarah and Kristen found her and are with her in one of the secure rooms."

He sighed. "Reprecussions of Violet's leaving..."

[SalmonMax]

There was a clatter as the books Myfwany had been holding fell to the floor. Her eyes widened and she went over to grasp Dan's forarm tightly.

"Take me to her. Quickly!"

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded and took to the skies as soon as they were outside, taking them right to the building and leading her inside to where the others were.

"They're in here."

"Kristen, Sarah, I've brought Myfwany."

[SalmonMax]

Myf hurried over and said to Kristin and Sarah, "I need to know what happened, exactly what happened, and how long ago."

As she leaned over Jill her tone softened considerably. "Show me where it bit you."

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin's face hardened, but she didn't turn to look up at Sarah. "Ritual?" she scoffed. "That's just to make it easier, and it shouldn't be easy, ever, especially because it is easy." She made a growling noise deep in her throat, a hand tightening on her length of metal bar. "And I don't have to ask Dan, Mr. Fox, any man anything, they have no-"

Kristin cut off with a scowl as Dan and Myfwany arrived, unlatching the door and pulling it open so the doctor could enter. Kristin wedged herself into a corner of the cell, and folded her muscular arms as she watched Myfwany tend to Jill.

"Me and Sarah met at the forge about, what, thirty-forty minutes ago. We were both looking for Jill, and peeked inside. We found a... a note, and I knew what Jill was... trying to do. We got in my truck and went after her. The guard at the gate told us which way she went. We found her on a plateau - Sarah saw her first, since she was standing up in the back."

Kristin's lips twisted, her eyes scrunching almost closed with the effort of holding back her tears and anger. "I - we - were too late. Dumb bitch had already been bitten." Kristin shrugged. "We killed the zombies and brought her back here, ten minutes, tops."

[Jillian Johnson]

Nononono..., Jill lay there shaking her head in desperation. She didn't want to be seen like this, she didn't want anyone to see her like this, especially those who knew here and whom she respected.

But she was too weak to cast them away. Several bite marks were clearly visible on her ankle and calves and also on her neck. She had sustained enough damage and blood loss that it would've already killed an average female, still her life signs were weak.

"Go away...", she wailed just barely lifting an arm which Myfwany simply caught and held.

"Not like this...", Jill pleaded. She actually wanted to say 'kill me' but now she was too scared. A part of her wanted to survive, wanted to live and deeply regret the decision she made but it was too late now. Even Myf couldn't save her now.

"Don't let anyone see me... like this.", the formerly beautiful blonde cried. Tears were running down her cheeks and she sobbed but it hurt too much to give in to it.

"Don't tell her", she added before she briefly lost consciousness again.

[Karren Gaunt]

Sarah wordlessly watched all this from an oppisite corner of the isolation cage from the pregnant Super, only nodding in confirmation of Kristin's story with a resigned expression on her face. What a waste of two people's health and happiness and over Venus of all people.

[SalmonMax]

Shock. Trauma. Blood loss. Possible secondary infection from bite. Psychological distress... Myf built a list of diagnoses as she gave Jill a quick examination. Something else jumped out at her too...something she hadn't noticed before, though in her defense, she rarely saw Jill.

"Her body's development isn't natural," she mused softly to herself as she poked and prodded Jill's body. Abruptly she remembered others were present and didn't finish her thought. That Jill had been using, possibly abusing, some kind of steroid...and tha wasn't going to make Myf's job any easier.

She put her hands over the still-bleeding bite wound and concentrated. This was as close to the time of infection she'd ever had a chance to observe, or try help.

A tingle built in the air as Myf poured energy into Jill, reweaving her body back to how it was meant to be. Warmth, like a spring day...a hint of ozone, like the smell that came before a thunderstorm. And when it seemed like Jill was completely repaired, she dove in deeper, drawing even more power and trying to direct it into Jill's central nervous system to form a buffer against the impurity she'd been the victim of.

(OOC - try a power max in attempt to heal her)

[SalmonMax]

The bite vanished as if it had never been, and Jill felt the icy chill of shock receding. Her faintness was gone too as her blood was replenished. She felt better. MUCH better.

But Myfwany's expression didn't change as she peered down at the bodybuilder.

"I've done what I can. I'm afraid you're infected with the Z-plague." In the quiet moment of horror that followed, as even Myf's eyes grew moist, she asked softly, "Jill...why?"

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan stood there in silence. He'd honestly not thought this would happen, and was actually proud of Jill for telling Violet no. It showed a strength he'd always hoped she had.

He waited o hear her reasoning, though he suspected he already knew.

[Jillian Johnson]

As much as she struggled to fight Myf’s attempt to heal her Jill couldn’t prevent the effect Myf’s power had on her. Instantly the pain was washed away and she felt from the former pain was a numbness which was much more psychological than physical.

Jill stared through Myfwany, eyes blurry from tears but there was no pain she actually felt, it was all too distant now.

„I couldn’t stand it anymore...“, she quietly spoke, sobered from whatever Myf had done to heal her.

„I loved her but she stopped loving me..., well not the same as she used to. I... I... just am not good enough, for her.“, Jill tried to avoid looking at Kristin but somehow her eyes had found their way to settle on Kristin’s immaculate, perfectly shaped body. That young woman was everything Jill wanted, no needed to be, to regain Violet’s favor.

„I waged my options and decided to end it now. I don’t have much time left – in a few weeks, without the proper compounds I’ll...“, she couldn’t word it infront of Kristin, she felt too ashamed now that her plan hadn’t come to fruition.

„I wanted her to remember me the way I was... not how I’m going to look a few weeks from now on...“, she hoped Myf would understand what she was hinting at. Being a Doctor she surely knew that Jill’s physique was hardly possible to reach by mundane means – maybe under perfect conditions with a very carefully weighted diet, which requiered access to all kinds of nutrients, maybe then she could reach such mass and definition. But not under the conditions they were living these days...

[Dan Hawkins]

It was as Dan thought. He looked at her, his gaze hard, and a scowl darkening his features. Idiot

She was still worried about how she looked, her appearance. Violet was gone, and she wouldn't be back. He was mad at Violet already, for how she'd treated him, and that she'd had this effect on Jill too, well it didn't suprise him, but that didn't keep him from being angry.