[Azure] In the Beginning

[z-Tejah Ebadi]

Bili climbed down from the ‘borrowed’ SUV and offered a hand to Tejah. The woman took it, mostly because these boots and the skirt made dismounting without aid difficult. Tejah stared at the newcomer but her expression registered little besides weariness. The long, harrowing day had left her bone-tired but it wasn’t anywhere close to over yet. Even if she knew nothing else, she knew that.

,,

The building was some kind of official place; she didn’t need to know English to know that. The building screamed its authority and the statue in front suggested civil power, not private. The woman walking toward them didn’t seem threatening and Tejah welcomed another female, especially another one who was modestly dressed. She managed a tired smile for the newcomer, instinctively trying to get the other woman to warm up to her. In America, this woman could be someone very important, and Tejah needed to be polite. The other thing she needed was to learn English and she focused her attention on the conversation.

,,

“That’s not good,” Bili muttered, glancing back at the city before turning her attention back to Krystal. “I’m not an engineer of any measure, so I can’t help there. I can help when it all goes to shit, however. I’m Bilhah Loeb. You can call me Bili. This is Tejah-”

,,

At hearing her name, Tejah shyly waved; she looked more otaku than ever at that moment.

,,

“-but she doesn’t know English, so we’re relying on Google Translate for now.” She offered a hand to Krystal, revealing a strong grip when Krystal accepted. “I haven’t tried to call my family; they live in Tel Aviv. I did try to call my roommate, but there was no answer. And until I know what’s going on, I’m loathe to head down to Westport. At least not without a gun.”

[Kestrel]

"Sorry," Lily said with a shrug. "Musician. Or was, before I left my guitar back in the plane. Now I don't even know what I am."

She sighed and looked up at the flourescent bulb overhead. It was ticking quietly, and flickering on and off really fast.

"But yeah, it's extensive. We all just came from dodging planes falling out of the sky. I need to call my folks too...I tried at the airport but...oh hey."

She pulled her phone out and checked for messages, but found none. Her shoulders slumped a little. "At least there's a signal."

"So just one other person has called in?"

[Kerilia]

Kylie drove them down State Line towards the interstate, but one glance at the mess of cars and a nervous indrawn breath from Khris, and she immediately decided to bypass the highway in favor of a less congested route. Instead she made her way down the medians of main streets or through the parking lots of strip malls lining that lined them, the easiest places to maneuver. They cut through the parking lot of the Ward Parkway Shopping Center around 87th St, and within a few blocks, they were driving at a cautious but comfortable speed down the long, grassy median that divided Southwest Trafficway, in one of Kansas City’s oldest and most prestigious neighborhoods.

“Good idea,” Khris murmured as she glanced out the window at all the abandoned cars they were passing. “Will we be able to take this pretty far?”

“For a little while, but we’re getting close to the Plaza,” Kylie replied, as she maneuvered around a particularly large clump of trees. “I’m stopping by my mom’s work, too. I have to check on her, I have to see -- I mean.. I just have to see.”

“Yeah, sure.. no problem.” Khris knew what they both knew - if Kylie’s mother was still around, she would have called the minute she realized something was strange, freaking out and worried about her daughter. She stayed silent, though, and Kylie drove on towards the home of her mother’s employers, eventually crossing completely over the grassy divide and up to the current mansion home of the family her mother had cleaned up after for the last twenty years.

The gate was open as they approached, probably to allow access to the landscaper, whose truck was parked right outside with a large trailer attached to the back upon which his riding lawnmower was parked. Kylie eased her car past the black wrought iron, and up the brick drive. She parked by what appeared to be the ‘back entrance’ to the house, behind what Khris recognized as Kylie’s mother’s silver four-door sedan, and a large, dark blue SUV of some sort. She hesitated for a moment, then shut the vehicle off, and began to climb out of the car.

“You want me to come with you?” Khris studied her friend carefully with her new, disturbing gaze.

Kylie stuck her head back down into the open door, reaching into her purse and grabbing her phone. “No, I.. I’m just gonna check. You wait here, call me if you need me for anything. I’ll be back in a few minutes, but it’s a bit house.”

She made her way in the side door by the kitchen, and started exploring, calling out names as she went. “Hello? Is anyone here?! Mother? Doris? Anyone?!” The mansion was small compared to some of them her mom’s employers had lived in, but it would still take a little while to explore thoroughly. She started with the kitchen, and the small laundry room and greenhouse that served as the ‘help space’, where her mother and Doris ate lunch, kept their things, and did their employer’s laundry. Her mother’s purse was there, sitting on the long cabinet with magazines and notepads and to-do lists, and she drew in a shaky breath.

She made her way out of there and through the rest of the formal living areas - hearth room, dining room, main hallway - all the while trying to suppress the stifling feeling of foreboding emptiness that she always felt being in a large, abandoned space. There was a staircase that led both downstairs, and she took it, exploring the downstairs open bar and recreational space for any sign or trace of her mother.

I don’t know what I’m expecting to find down here, it’s not like she wouldn’t have time to write a goodbye note or something, she chided herself, even as she poked her head into the wine room. After exhausting the downstairs options, she made her way back up to the first floor, and down the hallway towards the master bedroom. It felt wrong, poking her nose through someone else’s home, even if it was the home of the same couple she’d spent childhood summers in, curled up reading books in their formal sitting room while they were away, practicing her childish pool skills in their elegant billiard room, or playing video games on the small TV in the basement work area while her mother did their laundry.

“Karen? Frank? Is anyone here? It’s Kylie, Catherine’s daughter,” she called out, hoping for some sort of response. There wasn’t one, and the door to the master was partially ajar, so she pushed it the rest of the way open and took a long look around the room.

It was elegant, of course - she’d only had the chance to glance in here once, when the couple had first taken over the house and she’d stopped by so that her mother could show her around the new place while they were away on vacation. That was several years ago, but it looked similar to their bedrooms from the past - heavy, traditional wooden furniture with an elegant, European influence, a couple of chairs off to the side for a seating nook next to the entrance for the master bath, and an imposingly tall sleigh bed (since Frank was such a tall man) covered in luxurious bedding.

It was the bedding itself that stopped her survey and caught her attention. The bed was half-made, the lower sheet stretched neatly over the mattress, and the top sheet tucked in with hospital-efficient corners. But the blanket itself was pulled up on one side of the bed over the pillows, yet the other side was half-down and skewed, as if someone had been interrupted in the middle of putting the bed back together. On the floor lay a single pillow, pillowcase half-on and half-off, as if it had been dropped in the middle of being redressed. And next to the bed was a basket, filled with a few crumpled articles of expensive clothing and a heap of pure white plush towels.

She never leaves a room undone. Not unless it was an emergency.

Kylie stood there for several moments. Then, quietly, she crossed over to the bed, bent down, and picked up the pillow. Her hands smoothed it gently into the pillowcase, then she fluffed it and laid it down at the head of the bed. She pulled the blanket up over it and straightened it, then proceeded to gently and carefully arrange the decorative pillows at the head of the bed. She picked up the laundry basket, and carried it out of the room and through the mansion. She made her way through the kitchen, and sat the laundry basket down on top of the dryer. Then she picked up her mother’s purse, sat down at the table in the greenhouse, wrapped her arms around the worn leather, and began to sob.

________________________

It had been about twenty minutes since Kylie had disappeared into the large residence, and Khris was starting to get a bit antsy when she heard the gate swing open and Kylie walked out. She made her way to the car and got in, reaching back to place her mother’s purse in the back seat, along with her phone. Her eyes were red-rimmed and swollen, but she had done her best to get all her crying done inside, away from her friend. But she couldn’t keep the wavering tremble out of her voice when she spoke.

“Okay.. still north, right? I’m heading to the house unless you say otherwise.”

[z012]

Kylie

The eerie green eyes were unreadable, but then Khris could often seem cold or uncaring when she wasn't sure how to react. "Uh, yeah, north. It's....getting stronger," she sighed and looked away, shrugging. "Whatever 'it' is."

,,

Kylie nudged them back out onto the street and then back into the median, driving down the grassy space at a jumpy but steady pace. Inside the car, the two sat in uncomfortable silence for several long minutes. "I'm sorry," Khris finally said, her voice soft and sad.

,,

Kylie felt tears and panic well up again and had to wipe away tears to keep driving. "It's not your fault, hun."

,,

"I know, but...it's just. I mean, I'm scared too. My mother, my husband, probably my brother and my nieces and nephews and," she stopped and pushed out a pensive breath. "They're all probably missing, gone, too. I feel...I feel like there's something wrong with me. I'm not crying, not freaking out." She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and muttered, "I feel like I have to be some kind of monster, to be so calm."

,,

Kylie bit off her first reply, knowing that as truthful as it might be, calling her friend on not being as emotionally tied to her family as she was wouldn't help anything. Instead she diplomatically offered, "You're on mood stabilizers, Khris. That's probably it."

,,

Her friend huffed half a laugh, "Great. So crazy handles the end of the world better thanks to modern medicine. Oh, and enjoy the...what are they called, the new D&D race...um, the elan? Yeah, enjoy the elan-eyes and freaky hair. At least you don't have to keep getting it dyed."

,,

Kylie snorted a giggle at that. It was partly hysteria, but only partly. Everyone else might be gone, but she had someone there with her at least. There were probably a lot of people in the world that didn't have that much. They drove on, mostly quiet again, but an easier silence than before.

,, ,,

Twenty minutes later they pulled up to the duplex Kylie shared with her mother in northern Kansas City, Mo. A stout building with a brick exterior, the two women both had fond memories of place: Kylie of a happy childhood with her mother and Khris of teenaged weekends spent in sleepovers in the empty side of the duplex that was now Kylie's home.

,,

Kylie hit the garage door opening automatically; both of them jumped when a grey and black streak of fur ran out of the basement. Kylie scrambled out of the car, shouting, “Resa! Come back here!”

,,

Another cat, this one mottled in color and only ambling out of the basement, made her way over to Kylie and rubbed up against her, purring loudly. Kylie scooped her up, nearly in tears again as she tried to figure out which way Resa had run. Khris was only a moment behind her out the car and blinked at the cat in Kylie’s arms.

,,

“I couldn’t find any of our cats, and Buster and Gordy were in Mom’s room. I checked everywhere they could have hidden.” She swallowed hard, her mind going over all the little details she hadn’t noticed during her own panic at her house. “And there weren’t any dogs barking, not even Cody next door and he barks at everything. And, uh, she’s sort of glowing. Not like you. Not as bright, but…” Khris turned her head and nodded back up the wrong way of the one-way street. “Resa’s over there. I can…see?...her. She’s closer to you, more than Sheba-“

,,

“Cái tháng chó đẻ!” The startled voice cut down the street, making both women jump again. It was the first real-person voice either of them had heard since the Rapture or whatever had started other than each other. A young Vietnamese man appeared at the end of the street, struggling with a rather persistent older tabby cat that was crawling over him and meowing imperiously at him the entire time. He caught sight of them, his eyes going wide, and he stopped trying to pull the cat off him.

,,

“Hey!” He shouted in perfect Midwest English. He waved his hands and starting running towards them, earning an annoyed huff from the crazy cat; she jumped down off him and ran beside him, pacing ahead enough to reach Kylie and take up leg-rubbing and purring duties. “Hey! Are you two real? I mean, you’re actually here- holy shit! What happened to your eyes?!?”

,,

“They took a vacation. These are loners.” Khris delivered the lines with perfect dryness, but she’d sidled a little behind Kylie, her social anxiety ratcheted up several notches in the face of someone she didn’t know commenting on her inexplicable changes.

,,

He blinked at the joke and stumbled for a reply. “Uh, yeah, okay. Well, not the strangest thing to happen today, I guess. I don’t suppose either of you know what’s going on?” He looked between the two of them, but it was clear he was much more comfortable focusing on Kylie than dealing with the extra dollop of weird that was Khris.

[Krystal]

"Just the one person, and the one Officer Bristow was responding to before I got here," Krystal confirmed.

,,

She took a deep breath, privately castigating herself about forgetting about the aircraft. There would probably be similar issues with rail and probably ships in coastal cities with the big ports, not that she had ever lived in such a city. Another thing to factor in.

,,

"People are just... gone." Krystal gave Bili an uncertain shrug. "So, I dunno how dangerous the streets will be, at least people-wise. But that's why I have Fraz, here," The pretty red-head snorted a cynical chuckle as she scratched the huge dog behind the ears. "With how few people there seems to be, there's more than enough stuff for everyone." She glanced at Lily, lips curving wryly. "I'm sure you can find a new guitar easy enough."

,,

Thinking about people - or the lack thereof - got Krystal reflecting back on her first encounter with other people after the Event, disconcerting as it was. "I... met two others when I was going home, but it was... strange..." Krystal shook her head as if she couldn't explain more, and she really couldn't, her brow furrowed. "... and there were gone before I could say much. You folks notice anything else, um, weird? I mean, weird besides all this?"

,,

Speaking of weird, Krystal returned Tejah's wave with a friendly nod in greeting, though she arched a brow dubiously at her costume. Short as she was, Krystal had never been fond of high-heels, possibly due to her mother's love of them, the higher the better. Wherever you are, I hope you're okay, Mom...

,,

Krystal was grateful that she'd been caught in her current home city when the madness arrived. It would totally suck being in a foreign city, not able to speak the local language, and caught in convention gear to boot.

,,

Krystal pulled a ubiquitous sketch pad from a vest pocket, and quickly drew something, then turned it around to show Tejah. There was a drawing obviously meant to be Tejah in her current clothing, with an arrow pointing to another drawing of her, now wearing casual clothing and shoes, followed by a question mark.

,,

"Tejah, was it? You want something casual to wear?" Krystal asked, head tilted questioningly. She knew the cosplay girl couldn't understand her, but hoped her tone and picture would get her meaning across. "I'm sure we can scrounge something up around here that's good enough until we can find you something better."

[Kerilia]

"Not a clue, except that it's happened all over the city for sure, worse according to the little bit I've found on internet. People just seem to have disappeared. What's your name?" She shifted the cat so that her back legs were supported by her left arm, and held out her right hand in greeting.

,,

He took her hand and shook it. He had a medium build, with a polite but not overly-firm grip. He was clean cut with inexpensive but well-cared for clothes. Short black hair, dark eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses, and a tentative expression made him look a little nerdy, and Kylie offered him an encouraging smile. "I'm James - my name is James. You can, uh.. Jimmy's fine. And you are?"

,,

"Kylie. And this is my friend Khris." Kylie glanced down at Resa, who had circled around her ankles a couple times. Lacking any response from her human 'mommy', she'd moved back over to the young man, rubbing up against his leg in a way that Kylie would have normally expected out of the attention-hungry Sheba moreso than her normally standoffish sister. "And the cats are Resa and Sheba. Have you seen anyone else, Jimmy? Or just us?"

,,

"No, I mean.. I saw one lady, but she was..." He hesitated, swallowing nervously and looking a little pale. "She must've been crossing the street, or something. All the people at school were just gone, and my parents won't pick up the phone. It took me a couple hours to get this far home."

,,

Kylie arched a brow, looking a bit surprised. "A couple hours? Where do you go to school, hon?"

,,

"Rockhurst," he replied, and she let out a low whistle.

,,

"That's quite a trip," she teased, offering him a small smile to try and put him at ease. But his expression was still concerned and nervous, and she sighed a little. She didn't have anything good to tell him, as much as she wished she did.

,,

"I made it over from the Kansas side too, and other than you and Khris so far, everyone seems to be gone. I've called in town relatives and friends, out of town ones, everybody. I've texted people and posted on Facebook, and I've got nothing. There's a blog I found online that people are posting to - not very many of them, and they're all over the place. Just a few here and there. But that's it, really. Look.. why don't you stick with us for now? This is my place, I'm gonna pack up some stuff, and then we're gonna try to figure out where to go. Do you live around here?"

,,

"Yeah.. I'm just a few blocks down." He bit his lip nervously. "I made it home already, but nobody's there."

,,

"Should someone have been? Was there a car there?" Kylie kept her voice gentle, but insistent. She didn't want to rip this kid away from any family, but the chances of him having any left were slim to nil.

,,

He stared blankly for a moment, then shook his head, looking frustrated and upset. "I forgot to check.. I was just looking for people. Mom's usually home, she sells stuff on the internet. Dad works at Sam's Club, so his schedule changes. I'm not sure if he was working today or not."

,,

Kylie nodded, then drew in a breath. "Okay, let's do this. I'm gonna put together some stuff, pack a bag. Then we can drive you over to your house, see if the cars were there, and go from there, okay?"

[Helena Lindsay]

,,

"Umm, I'm afraid the... the whatever is happening covers all of Kansas City, at least. I've been having trouble contacting out-of-towners too," Krystal admitted, if not admitting everything she feared to be true - she didn't want to distress the woman too much too quickly. Krystal was distressing herself enough as is. "It might be best if you can make you way to the police station, so we can pool our resources, see if we can help each other out. Sound fair?"

,,

Remembering that Helena said she was visiting, Krystal stood up, palming her forehead as she made sure she had her keys. "Oh, right! Do you have a car? If not, I can-"

,,

"No, that's alright, I have a rental," the doctor interjected.

,,

"Good, good." Krystal gave Helena the address, then texted her route on Google Maps after finding out where she was. She hoped the Great Google Gods would inexplicably find some way to survive the apocalypse. "Be careful on the roads, they're crazy and don't be afraid to drive on the sidewalks. See you soon."

,, ,,

As the phone went dead, Helena resisted the urge to beg the woman on the other end to stay on the line; the silence that followed their conversation was overwhelming in the empty house, and she clutched her phone to her chest as she swallowed hard. She was not going to cry, not yet- no matter how tight her throat felt, or how badly her eyes stung with unshed tears. People didn't just disappear, which meant her parents- everyone- had to be somewhere. She just didn't know where that was right now, and breaking down into a blubbering, terrified mess or curling up in a ball on the kitchen floor wasn't going to help her figure out what was going on. No, the best thing to do was just to stay calm, be reasonable, and be rational, above all. Even if the world around her was going insane, she needed to keep it together for her family and for her patients.

,,

After a few deep breaths and long, slow exhalations, Helena managed to push down the wave of emotion that had surged through her in the wake of her conversation with the young woman at the police station. Somewhat stiffly, she poured as much of the freshly-brewed coffee into one of her father's travelling mugs as she could, disposed of the filter and grounds, and rinsed her mother's cup in the sink. Ugh, I suppose I can't just leave this. Mom will have a fit if it's stained when she-

,,

The porcelain clinked sharply against the side of the faucet as the young doctor's hand wavered, but she forced herself to finish the thought.

,,

When she comes home.

,,

Carefully, she set the delicate cup in the stainless steel basin, and took advantage of the quiet to put her slacks and blouse in the dryer, Wrapped in an immaculate bath sheet from the linen closet, she slowly drained her own refilled coffee cup as she tended to the mindless, rote task of blow-drying her hair in the master bathroom. She didn't think about the reason she'd been soaking wet, or the fact that she was alone in her parents' house, and might well be alone in her parents' neighborhood, no. All of that was complicated, terrifying, and too painful to contemplate without some emotional insulation- a measure of normalcy and sanity that the details of a routine freshening-up over wonderfully expensive coffee could provide.

,,

When the clothes were dry (if marginally rumpled), her hair neatly tied, and the coffee gone, she placed her empty cup beside her mother's and used the magnetic note pad on the refrigerator to leave a message for her parents:

,,

"Mom + Dad- I tried calling, but couldn't reach you. I'm not sure what's going on, but I hope you're both all right. I'm just leaving for the police station now, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to make my flight this evening. Please call me, or text, or send an email if when you read this. I love you both. -Lena."

,,

There was still no response at her mother's number or her father's, and she thought of calling Ben, but hesitated. What if he didn't answer, either? What would that even mean?

,,

Her bags, already packed, were still in the back of the car she'd rented: an uncharacteristically "cute" little Volkswagen convertible she'd let the clerk at the airport's Enterprise terminal talk her into driving. She took one last walk around the house to lock doors and windows, and, on impulse, grabbed her father's .357 Sig from the bedside table. The belt holster was somewhat unwieldy, especially over her slightly wrinkled khakis (some part of her tittered inwardly that something as trivial and mundane as unintentional creasing actually caught her attention when most of Kansas City's population was apparently missing), but having some measure of protection made her feel at least a little safer.

,,

With her purse, travel mug, and cell phone in hand, Helena took one last, long look at the eerily silent house, armed the security system from the keypad (probably a wasted gesture for the present, she acknowledged), and closed the door behind her.

,,

Nearly an hour and a dozen detours later, she actually felt worse about the situation. The scenario she'd experienced around her parents' house was repeated over and over along the circuitous route to the station; the only difference was the severity of the car collisions. The ones she'd checked, thankfully, had been unoccupied, but her compulsion to try to glance into all of the wrecked vehicles nearly caused her to crash on more than one occasion. She wasn't sure what she could do to help without equipment or supplies, apart from providing basic emergency care, but she had to look anyway.

,,

After the police station, the hospital, she decided, slowly maneuvering the sporty little VW around an idling Cadillac SUV on her way to meet the one other human she knew of in Kansas City.

[z-Tejah Ebadi]

Tejah stared at the images for a moment before smiling in comprehension. Better clothing would be nice, but Muhammad wouldn’t like it. She hesitated for a moment before nodding. If Muhammad found her, she would explain why she’d done it.

,,

“Come with me, then,” Krystal said, rising from her perch on the desk and gesturing for Tejah to follow her.

,,

Tejah looked nervously at Bili, who nodded. “I’ll come with you, if you don’t mind, Krystal. Our Middle Eastern lost child seems nervous around strangers.”

,,

“I thought you had just met her,” Krystal replied even as she waited for Bili.

,,

“Yeah, but I gave her a ride.” The Israeli woman smirked. “I’m sure after you feed and clothe her, she’ll warm up to you, too.”

,,

“Haha,” Krystal said, grinning at the taller woman. “Come on, you two.” She led the women back to a box behind the desk; it had baggy shirts and pants in it. After picking through them, Tejah selected sweatpants and an oversized long-sleeved shirt with a Chiefs logo on it. “Bathroom’s over here.”

,,

Tejah allowed Krystal to show her into the water closet and hastily changed clothing. It felt better and wrong to be in the other clothing; there had been no skirt or dress in the box of clothes, and it felt strange to be in the Western clothing. At least it covered her decently.

,,

Her clothing bundled in her arms, she stepped out of the bathroom, smiling shyly. “Much better,” Bili told her, not that Tejah understood the words. But she caught the approval. “Do you need shoes?” Bili asked after a moment. Seeing no understanding, she pointed at her boots and said clearly, “Shoes?”

,,

“Shoes,” Tejah agreed, grinning at the muscled woman.

,,

“I’m sure we can find someone’s boots.” Bili turned to Krystal. “Have you found the woman’s locker room? I could use a spare set of clothing myself.”

[Kestrel]

"Uh...think they're over here," Lily called from over around the corner where she'd drifted while Krystal got Tejah sorted out. In her explorations...looking for a bathroom actually...she'd discovered some doors that led deeper into the police station where the signs led her to believe both the fabled bathrooms and locker rooms most likely were hiding.

,,

"I'll be right back!"

,,

She vanished into the women's restroom and went to the row of sinks to stare at herself in the mirror. The insulation of shock and vague disbelief was starting to fade. Her skin felt clammy to her, and a little tingly. Worse than that was just the uncertainty she felt staring at her own face. Was that even really her there? What could be planned for or believed in a world where something like this could happen? The sun could turn blue, or disappear. Gravity could launch them all into orbit. Her reflection could just reach out and strangle her.

,,

Or maybe she WAS the reflection, and that was the real her staring at her there. Everyone was gone, because most people weren't standing in front of mirrors, so they didn't have reflections.

,,

Her hand shook a little as she took out her cellphone again and started stabbing buttons, calling every name on her contact list, trying to find a living human voice out there in the suddenly wild and lonely world that she recognized from before the madness started.

[Adam]

Adam

The highway was a nightmare of stretches of clear road punctuated by who-knows-how-many car pile-ups. His progress was back and forth, having detour back onto to regular streets around the crashes that blocked off the entire road in the places that didn't have a open margin or shoulder space to slip by. Or where the fires were so hot that the asphalt was starting to shimmer and shift. In the entire trek out to meet Eric Forrester, the Walmart Fleet truck driver that had radio'd in, Adam saw a total of three other people. All were in cars in pile-ups and all were most definitely beyond the help of ambulance services no longer available anyways.

Eric had pulled his truck over onto the meridian shoulder of the highway on an overpass, hemmed in for his large vehicle by a snarl of cars on the off-ramp behind him and a cluster of metal and fire further down the road before the next exit. Adam found an emergency crossing point across the highway just before the ground dropped away for the overpass and edged his way over to the semi. Eric was pacing and sweating in the afternoon heat, turning his blue t-shirt almost navy; he brushed a nervous hand through his short-cropped hair and pulled his ballcap back on as Adam pulled up. "Officer Bristow?" he asked.

Tulpa gave a helpful bark and whined at the door of the car to be let out.

"Jesus!" the twenty-something trucker swore as he startled back from the car at the sight of the large dog. "Uh, sorry 'bout that. Just, that's a big dog. You K-9?"

,,

Adam took pride in Tulpa, his best friend and partner. Tulpa was a massive dog, which was a strange turn considering a year ago when he'd found the poor guy he was starving to death leashed up in someone's utility closet. Now he was healthy, full of energy and always looked like he'd woken up and ate a bear. The husky/wolf mix trodded out of the car and walked around a bit, following it's own senses. Adam was content to let Tulpa do his thing, he was a great detective in his own right and would notify Adam if he found anything unusual.

,,

He smirked and thumbed in Tulpa's direction. "Officer Tulpa is the runt of the litter. You should see his brothers." He mused with the trucker to break the ice.

,,

"Sheeeit... glad I'm on the right side of the law." With hand on his hip he motioned with his free arm down the long expanse of wreckage. "I'm sure it's nuthin' new to ya Officer Bristow, but welcome to my afternoon. You got any idea what's goin' on?"

,,

"Uhh... Adam? Officer... um... hey, you there?" Krystal seemed to have her hands full, based on the background noise. Adam smiled and held up a finger, exusing himself for a moment.

,,

"Yes, Mrs. Johansson? This is Sergeant 'Um'." Tulpa cocked his head as if saying 'That's not your name!'. "Do you have a Sit Rep for me?"

,,

"A what?" He could almost see her face squinting in confusion. "I don't even know what that is. Look, a lot of people are filtering in, I sort of have my hands full here but I wanted to let you know that it's more than just you me and Wal-Mart Guy."

,,

"Uh, Eric..." Eric offered from several feet away.

,,

"Hi Eric!" Krystal offered him a kind greeting over the mic.

,,

"Woah..." Eric smiled, he looked to Adam for some sort of confirmation... "She sounds smokin' hot, dude." As if suddenly remembering who he was talking to he stammered a bit. "Um... I mean, Officer."

,,

Flattered but, still looking for her fiance Krystal was about to reply when Adam finally cut them off. "Guys... seriously? Can we not do this over my shoulder radio?" Eric looked down like a scolded child and although he couldn't see Krystal she sort of looked away innocently like she had nothing to do with any of it. "Thanks Mrs. Johansson, it's getting late, I think Eric and I are going to head back to the station where we can do a meet n' greet and see if we can't try and make heads or tales of this whole mess. Any luck with Wikipidia?"

,,

"Yeah, some. But none of it's really good news. We should probably talk about that when you get back with Eric."

,,

With the end of the world nigh, whatever was in Eric's truck, the company could live with the loss. They spent a good half an hour loading up the trunk of the squad car and the back seat with non-perishables before heading back to the station, locking up the truck with a pad lock Eric kept in the cab. There was no telling how long they'd be in this mess, and making a few more stops might be necessary.

,,

Some time later, Eric, Adam and Tulpa returned to the station. He'd yet to meet any of these people, and he told Eric as much when he pried about whether or not Krystal was as hot as she sounded. It was mind numbing... the world was falling apart and the Wal-Mart Guy could only think about hooking up. To each their own, he thought. Tulpa led the way as the guys walked into the precinct with groceries, setting them in the break room. No one else was about, but he'd noticed the SUV parked out front, plus another vehicle. He assumed one of them had to be Krystal's.

,,

"Mrs. Johansson?" He called out. "It's Sergeant Bristow. Hello?"

[z-Tejah Ebadi]

“Shoes.” Tejah murmured the first word in English she really knew; the common words that everyone used, like ‘hello’, didn’t count. Shoes was something discreet and concrete; a word that wasn’t common across all languages. At the same time, she was very aware that she had a long way to know beyond knowing the word for footwear.

Half lost in her musings, Tejah followed Bili into a room with metal lockers lining most of the walls. The burly woman proceeded to pop open lockers and rummage through the ones that had stuff in them. “Nice,” she muttered as she assessed a leather jacket and tossed it to Tejah. “Keep that. Ah, here. Boots, steel toed, perfect for any woman stuck in an emergency. And here are some socks. Try them on.”

Tejah juggled the socks, coat and boots for a moment before dropping the shoes. Bili took pity and reclaimed the jacket so that Tejah could sit down and try on the shoes. They were far too big, so the Israeli woman dug through more lockers until she found some tennis shoes. “Less perfect, but our options are limited. Don’t worry, we’ll get to you a Shoe Warehouse or sumthin’ and get you properly outfitted. Maybe Bass Pro, too.”

Those shoes fit and Tejah reclaimed her new coat. Bili tried on the boots, found they didn’t fit her either and grumbled about a waste of good boots as she tossed them back into the locker. Properly outfitted, the two women headed back up to rejoin the others, right as Adam came in the door. Tejah shrank back from the big man, clutching her coat in her arms nervously. The dog also made her nervous, for many of the same reasons--he was a big and potentially dangerous animal, just like the man.

“Hey,” Bili said casually to Adam, “you must be Officer Bristow that Krystal mentioned.” She offered a hand to shake. “I’m Bili and this is Tejah. She doesn’t speak English very well. Glad to see that some of the thin blue line is still around.”

[Krystal]

The next one to greet Adam, or at least greet Tulpa, was Frazetta. Officer Bristow got a token crotch sniff before Frazetta turned her attention to Tulpa, or rather, with coyness and feigned aloofness, let Tulpa pay attention to her. Of more Akita and Malamute and less Wolf stock, Frazetta was equally as massive as the police dog.

,,

"Technically, it's still Miss, but Krystal is fine, please," the artist said with a smile, breezing in on Fraz's heels, with Lily and Mathis in tow from where she was showing them around while Bili and Tejah changed clothes.

,,

Krystal raised her brows in surprise at the sight of the man in uniform. She was far from a tall woman, but Adam must've had nearly a foot and a half on her, and weighed at least two Ians... Much too large for her, even if she didn't have a boyfriend. "Officer Bristow. These are Lily and Mathis."

,,

Adam surveyed the civilians occupying the precinct with professional regard, considered that this was the biggest gathering of people he's seen to far, then engulfed Krystal's proffered hand in his own.

,,

"Adam." He tilted his head towards his dog. "Tulpa."

,,

Krystal's grin got a trifle wider as she nodded at her own huge beast. "Frazetta."

,,

"And I'm Eric!" the truck driver added, stepping around Adam and offering his hand. Apparently in her early twenties, a redhead, her casual-fit jeans and loose shirt and vest doing nothing to hide a curvy figure, Krystal certainly fitted Eric's expectations of being smokin' hot.

,,

Krystal shook his hand with a vaguely cool politeness, like she did with overly enthusiastic fanboys at ComiCon, but her smile was genuine enough. "Nice to see another face. Considering what seems to be going on, every new one is a bonus."

,,

Her smile faded, gorgeous face composed with the seriousness of the situation surrounding them. "I've been checking things online. The... the mass disappearances are... world-wide. Got sporadic responses here and there." Her green eyes were grave as she met everyone's gaze. "I think any hope for a localized phenomenon is pretty limited. It's not going to be long before infrastructure coll-"

,,

Just then, Fraz and Tulpa's ears pricked up. A moment later, in the stillness of the depopulated city, they could all hear the sound of a car coming closer and and closer. After a shared set of glances, Krystal moved towards the door, but Adam beat her to it, training and instincts taking over.

,,

"That's probably the call I took," Krystal suggested, ,moving around Adam's bulk to peer at the blond woman stepping from the Volkswagen, a hand shading her eyes. "Dr. Helena Lindsay."

[z012]

Krystal, Adam, Tejah, Helena, and Mathis (....and Eric)

The blonde woman reached the front doors of the police station and, as if on cue from some jerk in the sky that thought He was funny, the power went out. Those left in the dark inside had only a moment or two to blink in confusion before a buzzing, grinding sound from the basement filled in the silence; emergency lights flicked on around the station, but the message was clear. They were running on borrowed power, and borrowed light in just a few hours.

Eric managed to pull his eyes off of Krystal and ask nervously, "How many generators d'you got here, Officer?"

"Three days to keep the station going," Adam responded with the automatic knowledge. He couldn't remember a birthday or the faces of the other officers that were now MIA, but he knew this station, most of the stations in the city for that matter, down to stupid little details like where the extra toilet paper and spare socks were kept. "But only emergency lights, the 911 dispatch, and lock-up." He motioned everyone to the front, figuring a distraction for the civilians was a good idea. "Come on, let's go meet our new-"

A scream worthy of a rock concert shattered it's way through the station, rattling windows and startling even the woman still outside.

,,

Lily

In the bathroom, the lights went from institutional fluorescent white to creepily from the corners emergency red. No one was answering their phone and if she was just a reflection, then weird crap was going on in the other world as well. Lily felt the steadily growing panic in her spike upward and she stared at her red-washed reflection in the mirror. Reflection-Lily's eyes widened and she scrambled up onto the sink in all defiance of how reflections are supposed to act. Real (?) Lily started backward and screamed; the reflection stuck her head through the mirror and caught the scream, radiating it back out like a speaker turned up as high as it could go.

,,

Lily clapped her hands to her ears and fell to her knees. On the ground around her she finally saw what her reflection must have seen: scrabbling claws of some thing pulling itself out of the shadows of the stalls towards her. It shuddered under the assault of the sound and made a swipe at Lily; she could feel the claws catch on the fabric of her hoodie, but when she wrenched away, the hand - paw - whatever - seemed to fade away in the direct weak light of the red floodlight shining down from the corner of the room. The hand-paw passed through her arm and the creature retreated back into one of the stalls, leaving only the rips in her hoodie as proof it was ever there at all.

,,

The reflection's scream ended abruptly and when Lily looked back up, she was alone in the bathroom again.

,,

Kylie

Packing was a bit of tug-o-war, with Kylie agonizing over what things to leave, possibly forever or for looters, and Khris getting a little bit more stability back simply by focusing on something she knew well: how to travel and how to pack for survival.

"Look, I get it, you want to take some things to remember people by, but hun," she crossed her arms and motioned to the half-dozen photo albums open around the tiny office room, "pick a couple of group shots and let's go. Remember, everything you take, you gotta expect to have to-"

"Carry it at some point," Kylie finished in a huff. "I got it the first dozen times you said it." She sighed and did one last run through the photos, stuck a dozen or so in an envelope and packed that carefully with the clothes and non-perishable foods in the nice luggage set laid out in the living room.

They loaded up the car, tucked in the cats and their stray human, and headed to James’ house. His mother’s car was still in the garage and his father’s wasn’t; he packed up a duffle bag in typical guy fashion and then came out with that and a violin case. He shifted uneasily under Khris’ green gaze and sheepishly asked, “Um, one keepsake, right?”

Khris shrugged in defeat. “Fine, but you gotta make it fit in the back seat. Trunk’s all taken.”

“Deal,” he said immediately and after a bit of car tetris, they were all packed and waiting for somewhere to go.

Khris closed her eyes and let herself relax. Not seeing the glowing things was actually harder than just letting them poke at her brain. She pointed out the window. “That way. Let’s just head in the closest direction we can, and I’ll say when to turn or whatever, okay?”

“Whatever you say, skipper,” Kylie teased.

Khris snorted. “I feel more like the compass.”

,,

“Uh, what’s going on?” Jimmy asked nervously from the back seat.

“The freak’s getting directions in the form of ‘that way or I bang on your head like a kettle drum until you go that way’”, Khris not-quite snarked from the front passenger seat.

“Hun,” Kylie chided her friend.

“Sorry,” she said, and she mostly sounded like she meant it. She glanced into the rearview mirror, about to say something, then looked away from her reflection. “Freak part’s true, though.” She sighed again and twisted back to look at Jimmy. “I don’t know what’s happened to me, but I can feel…something?...over that way. The way I can sort of feel the cats and you and Kylie, only a lot stronger. People, maybe, or something to tell us what happened. I don’t know, but it’s a place to start. You can, uh, ditch now, if you want. I wouldn’t really blame you.”

Jimmy swallowed and look down at Resa and Sheba. The cats had taken up residence on his lap once he’d settled into the car and were industriously kneading on his thighs. “Yeah, they might, and…um, sorry for staring. I mean, you seem….nice-“

Both Kylie and Khris snorted at that, but Khris gave their stray a genuine smile. “No I don’t. I’m freaked out and I get snippy when that happens, but thanks for saying so.”

She sat back properly in the seat and Kylie eased them back out onto the roads. It was stop-and-go, both because of the car wrecks and because Khris’ directions were mostly the ‘turn here, crap, okay, turn at the next street’, but they slowly wound their way through downtown and towards their destination. They had just pulled into the parking lot of a police station – spotting a blonde woman just about to enter – when an unnatural ear-splitting scream erupted from the building. Resa and Sheba crouched down on James’ lap, claws out and hissing at the building.

[Kestrel]

Lily was screaming, but not stopping. Not balling up in a corner gibbering, or lashing out in terror-driven fury at the mirror or whatever that had been. She was running. Up off the floor and running. Running and screaming. The bathroom door had hydraulics on it that made it open and close more slowly, and Lily nearly ran into its edge in her haste to get out. Through the lockers then, not screaming anymore but filled with purpose which was to get out of this building. Even in shoes she skidded a little when she turned on the tile floor of the locker room to angle towards the offices and the big central 'pool' that dominated most of the front.

,,

Were there mirrors there? She wasn't sure. The part of her brain that handled memories was still about as unresponsive as her phone had been. Yes, this was panic, this mental white noise. Like a subatomic particle, she had only a direction and a speed now. All other properties were irrelevant at the moment this measurement was taken; their wave functions collapsing into Heisenbergian uncertainty and vanishing in the foam.

,,

"Everyone out!" she managed to bark when she saw other people. This did not slow her. Lily had a great deal of experience running, and could do it while shouting just as well as while screaming. She didn't want others to get hurt, but she wasn't going to get hurt trying to convince them. "It's not safe here!"

,,

There was enough of a straight line left to the front door for her to break into a sprint, so she did, offering up one last piece of heartfelt advice in case anyone wanted to stay after all. Advice that was heartfelt, albeit a bit addled since the monster had come from the shadows of the stall...but she didn't have time to explain the specifics without slowing down, and that was not an option.

,,

"Stay away from mirrors!"

[Mathis McAstor]

Mathis had mainly found himself dumbly hanging around, assisting whoever needed help with something. The sinking in of the end of the world seems to do that to people. Then the scream. It took Mathis moments to realize it was Lily, then to see her streak past and screaming about mirrors. "...Wha?"

,,

After the ogre-ish stare moment, Mathis turned to follow her, though not at the same speed at all. Had she had a sudden mental breakdown? Probably. "Crap. Do we have any psych experts here?" Mathis called out. "I doubt it."

[Helena Lindsay]

Beyond the idle destruction caused by unattended vehicles, the eerie stillness of the city was what had unsettled Helena the most as she'd made her way anxiously to the station, following Krystal's Google-driven directions; the first time her phone had coolly and succinctly stated, "Recalculating," she'd nearly jumped out of her skin. Between then and now, she'd heard it more times than she could count. Tucking the phone into the breast pocket of her jacket and shifting the weight of the holstered pistol on her hip, she'd just touched the cool metal handle of the front door when a shudder went through the building, and what little she could see through the safety glass disappeared.

,,

"Oh, isn't that just-"

,,

She didn't have time to finish the thought as The Scream ripped through the building; she was dimly aware of the door vibrating beneath her fingertips before stumbling gracelessly backwards, dropping the stainless travel mug as she clapped her hands over her ears with a grimace and a sharp cry of surprise. The sound was a shriek of primal terror, like a human voice driven through a massive amplifier and forced into frequencies no mortal throat was anatomically capable of producing, and as she hit the sidewalk, Helena winced at the fear that lanced through her at that horrifying utterance.

[Adam]

Reflexes far swifter than anyone would ever give a cop credit for reacted to Lily's scream and in an instant. His sidearm was raised in response and he broke off introductions with Bili and Tejah and quickly interposed himself between where the scream seemed to originate, and the ladies he was speaking with. It was about that time a lovely yet obviously distraught woman bolted past him like the devil was hot on her heels. He wasted no time taking off after her.

,,

"Tulpa! Guard!" He pointed to the ladies Bili and Teja, as he took off and dutifully his partner stood up and moved close to the ladies, looking down the hallway the woman ran from, ready for trouble and to protect his new charges. Where they ladies went, Tulpa would now follow and protect them.

,,

They moved through the halls, she went over desks, through offices, and even Bo Duked over one of the counter tops. The girl could move, that was certain. The whole time he yelled for her to stop, to calm down, and nothing, she kept going. They bolted past Helena before Adam finally caught up to her, havign to stop and push the door gave him just enough time to catch up and they both sailed through the door and ended up outside on the station's entryway. He took her down like she was an escaped mental patient. With the way this Armageddon day was going, he didn't have the time nor the inclination to deal with someone who'd lost their mind already.

,,

It wasn't hard to hold her down, he looked more like he was a Chippendale's dancer in a uniform than an actual cop. "Ma'am!" He struggled with her and Lily was not having it. He'd broken her stride, and she was frantic. "MA'AM!! I need you to calm down!" It took a few moments but he finally grasped her wrists and pinned her down. Now straddeling her and holding her on the cement, he looked at her, both breathing like they'd just ran a marathon in lead shoes and parkas through the Grand Canyon in summer. "Look, we've all had a day, lady. I really don't want to be doing this right now... so please. Calm down and tell me what happened..."

[Kestrel]

The blind animal wanted to fight, but Adam was trained for that, and there were no openings. Beyond which, Lily wasn't completely gone in there. And she was outside now, and that helped.

,,

"You have to get them OUT of there," she gasped, straining to get her head turned enough to see the man holding her down. "There was something in the bathroom! Something hiding in the shadows in there, and it nearly got me!"

,,

She wiggled an arm, making Adam tighten his grip before he realized she wasn't trying to get away. She was trying to attract his attention to it. When he looked, he saw the grey sleeve of her hoodie had several long parallel slashes in the arm of it. The slashes weren't clean cut...the fabric threads had been torn open, not sliced. Something more like claws had done this, not knives.

,,

"It grabbed my arm, and I managed to pull it free," Lily said, still breathing hard. "But it's still in there. I didn't even see it until it was right on top of me. You have to get them out of there."

[Krystal]

Sighing as she privately mused that she'd thought they had more time before having power issues, the inhuman scream like brutal feedback squeal made Krystal flinch and even Frazetta recoiled at the sound. Adam reacted with trained discipline, but Krystal froze as she picked over Lily's incoherent commands.

,,

Her pretty face paled, breathing intensifying as she recalled her earlier unexplained encounter. Unexplained, but not unnatural. There was a perfectly plausible explanation, if she could just find. Maybe her was starting to experience waking night-terrors, hysteria due to the missing people-

,,

Frazetta's sharp bark brought Krystal out of her rapidly descending spiral of searching for reasons which she wasn't going to get anytime soon. Krystal shook her head, brushing hair from her face and giving Frazetta a scratch behind the ears as she collected herself. "Thanks, girl."

,,

Krystal nearly stumbled off her feet when Frazetta nudged her towards the door then turning to stare into the bowels of the station, lips peeled back in silent snarl. Krystal blinked at Frazetta then at Lily outside with Adam astride her, then back at the others still lingering in the foyer of the station. Frazetta might not have been as well as trained as a police dog, but she reacted strongly to threats directed at her mistress.

,,

"Right," Krystal said, taking a deep breath. "Let's stick together and head outside, maybe see if the power is out elsewhere, kay?"

,,

And not because shit is getting freakier and the emergency lighting is making the dark creepier... Fuck, how the hell am I getting to sleep tonight?

,,

Krystal stepped outside, giving Adam and Lily a wide berth but staying close enough if he needed help, Frazetta at her heels, her attention still directed outside. The lowering sun painted everything in golden light and long shadows - Krystal exhaled a silent breath of relief.

,,

"What was that?" Eric wondered, also on the shapely woman's heels.

,,

"Feedback," Krystal replied instantly.

,,

"Feedback?"

,,

"Yup, power fluctuation messing with the PA system."

,,

"I'm not even sure Police Stations have-"

,,

"Feedback," Krystal reiterated firmly, stepping over to pick the travel mug and handing it to the newly arrived blonde. "Uh, hi. Dr. Lindsay, I'm hoping?"

,,

Helena lick her lips, eying the police station and Lily on the ground with uncertainty before nodding. "Yes, I'm Helena Lindsay."

,,

"Krystal. Sorry about that welcome - seems like the stress of the... current... is effecting us more than others," Krystal explained, while trying to ignore Lily's vehement protests. Her self-deprecating smile looked a bit sickly to the doctor. "I thought I'd talked to two people who obviously couldn't have been there earlier when I was heading home. Just our brains playing tricks on us thanks to this... whatever it is, something completely out of our experience."

,,

Her chuckle wasn't very convincing, even if her attempt at reassurance seemed genuine. Krystal's dark red brows crinkled as she glanced at the other car idling in the lot, the glare off the windows concealing the details of the passengers.

,,

A graphic novelist who wrote and drew complete fiction, Krystal was still a practical and pragmatic woman. There were coincidences - but when too many things happened in quick secession, there usually was a reason. Power going off, the feedback squeal, Lily flipping out, Helena arriving (which was expected), and now more, to this exact station in a depopulated city... Something was up.

,,

"If you're Helena, who're they?" Krystal said, nodding at the other car, then giving them a tentative wave. "They come with you?"

[Adam]

Adam let Lily up, helping her to her feet. She had to promise not to run anymore until she had explained exactly what had happened. Today was stressful, for everyone, so it was only fair that the Sergeant allow her the opportunity to explain herself in a rational and calm manner. Which she did. Start to finish she described the scene, what had happened and the scream that followed the darkness.

,,

Yup. She was crazy.

,,

Adam took a deep breath and tried not to look like he thought she was completely off his nut. The ex-military guy didn't do so well with acting. "Mrs. Archer, right?" He repeated her name, which she offered up at the beginning of her tale of madness.

,,

"Lily is fine."

,,

"Alright, Lily..." He started, trying to think of how how to phrase his next inquiry so it wouldn't seem like he was calling her a liar or that she wasn't clinically insane. "It's been a long day. We're all under a lot of stress, so... are you on prescription medication that any of us need to know about?"

,,

Adam was obviously not a people person. That's why he owned a dog.

[Kestrel]

Lily's mouth curved into an incredulous, not-at-all amused smile.

,,

"Are you seriously going to stand there and think I'm crazy because of what happened? Look around you. Practically everyone in the world is GONE. Is there being some weird creature in the bathroom really too much to accept right now?"

,,

She holds up her sleeve again.

,,

The anger was good. It was blowing the fear away like smoke in front of a fan.

,,

"I don't know what happened...how much was real...but something DID grab me. And everyone's in there with it now."

[z-Tejah Ebadi]

At the shriek, Tejah jumped and grabbed at Bili. The Israeli woman’s eyes widened as Tejah all but jumped into her arms, but she didn’t object as the pink-haired woman grabbed her. Bili put a protective arm around Tejah, her fingers spreading wide across Tejah’s back. When Adam told Tulpa to guard them, Bili looked bemused. Still looking amused, she guided Tejah along Adam’s path, ending up as part of the audience for Lily’s tale.

“That’s insane,” she announced, gently peeling Tejah off of her. “Adam, do you have a spare flashlight?”

“Good thought,” the cop said. He glanced at Lily. “Let’s go together.”

Tejah looked terrified as Bili guided her to a chair. “Sit,” the Israeli woman told her, gripping her shoulder lightly. “Stay, please. I’ll be back.”

As Bili turned back, Adam offered her a flashlight. Bili took it and looked at him speculatively. “I don’t suppose you have a gun as well? I am ex-military.”

“While I appreciate your years of service, I can’t do that,” Adam said sincerely. His manner of speaking took all insult out of it.

Bili smiled mirthlessly. “Israel military, actually.” She checked the flashlight to make sure it worked. As she headed down the hall, Tejah made an uncertain noise and Bili gave her a smile. “Can your dog watch Tejah?”

Adam gave Tulpa his new order and the big dog settled in next to the woman. Bili smirked at Adam. “Now, let’s go find the boogeyman, shall we?”

[Adam]

"Alright..." He sighed, wiping the stress from his brow. "I'll concede that we have no idea what's going on, Mrs. Archer, but don't you think that monsters from Mirror Land might just be a bit hard, from our point of view," He gestured to the police station and those outside with them. "As rational adults, to swallow? You caught your sweatshirt several times on the things you were jumping over and the doors you were frantically pushing open. I saw it, ma'am, I was behind you the whole way."

,,

"But-"

,,

"I'm not done yet, Mrs. Archer," He interrupted in that way all police officers are trained to do, ensuring he remained in control of the conversation. "Here's what I'll do, okay? I'll go in there, I'll look for the monsters, and I'll investigate. Mrs. Archer, I'm willing to put twenty bucks of my own money that all I'm going to find are empty rooms and no monsters."

,,

"...and the scream?" This guy was rationalizing everything away, but she knew what she saw.

,,

"Feedback from the P.A. system. It's happened before." Which was a half truth. He had no idea what the scream was, but that seemed like the most rational answer. "Now, you wait here, don't run off. I'll be back in a few minutes with some answers for alright?"

,,

He turned to Bili and gave her a nod. "Mrs...?"

,,

"Loeb." Bili smirked at his candor.

,,

"Lead the way Mrs. Loeb, Tulpa will keep an eye on things here. Won't you boy?" Tulpa barked softly which was still deep and projected like a bear howling a warning.

[Kerilia]

Kylie coasted into the station parking lot, and parked the near-silent vehicle in the lot. She saw someone walking in, and let out a little breath of relief. "Well, looks like your newly-enhanced sixth sense is some kind of homing--"

,,

She cut off as the scream reverberated through the air. In the backseat, Jimmy jumped about six inches out of his seat, oblivious to the hissing, and the cat claws that were digging into his thighs. Kylie glanced nervously at the passenger seat, but Khris was (oddly enough) not freaking out. She appeared more spaced than anything, which only put Kylie more on edge.

,,

Though it felt like several minutes had passed since the shrill screaming, in truth it was only a few seconds before the sound of a slamming door drew Kylie's attention back to the precinct. She saw a brunette woman hurrying out, followed by a tall, dark-haired police officer who was chasing her down. As they watched the drama unfold Kylie nervously kept her finger on the Prius's power button, almost ready to pull away - Khris's sixth sense be damned. But as things started to calm down, and several other people emerged from the building, she drew in a breath and shut off the vehicle instead.

,,

"Okay, I'm going to go talk to this people, figure out what's going on. Khris, Jimmy, why don't you two stay in here for a moment while I introduce myself?" She glanced over at Khris, who was still in a bit of a daze and hadn't responded. "KHRIS. Are you okay?"

,,

Khris blinked and started. "Huh? Uh, yeah, sounds good. Be careful, okay?"

,,

"I will," Kylie replied as she nodded, and waited for a nod of ascent from Jimmy as well that he would stay in the car. She drew in a breath, opened the car door, and climbed out. Before she had a chance to stop her, Resa jumped up from Jimmy's lap and rushed out as well, which almost caused Kylie an anxiety attack. Strangely though, she didn't run off, instead choosing to sit down on the ground and look up at Kylie in that strange, patient cat way she had mastered. Sheba had made no move to go anywhere, remaining curled up on Jimmy's lap and watching with slow blinks. After trying to pick Resa up and put her back in the car, which the black and grey striped tabby adamantly resisted, she sighed and shut the door behind her, giving up. She walked towards the group of people, the cat following a few steps behind.

,,

Just to clarify for anyone who needs it - Kylie is a large woman, looks about 30 or so, glasses, dressed in a black calf-length skirt, a pair of black flats, a muted but subtly sparkly gold-ish colored tank top, and a black necklace. Kind of after-office business casual, and is being followed by a black and grey tabby cat.

[Helena Lindsay]

"If you're Helena, who're they?" Krystal said, nodding at the other car, then giving them a tentative wave. "They come with you?"

,,

"As we've established, yes, I'm Helena Lindsay," the young doctor replied somewhat sharply to the stunning redhead as she regained her feet, half-consciously checking her clothes for damage potentially incurred from hitting the pavement outside the station and then sliding across the sidewalk to avoid being hit by the door as a man and woman came barreling through a few moments before. She sighed expressively, dipped her head, and then tried again. "I apologize. Manners always seem to be the first thing to go in a crisis. As for them," she added, glancing at her palms (thankfully only dirty, and not bloody as she might've expected) before taking the offered travel mug with an awkward, if appreciative, smile. "I haven't the faintest idea who they are, but I suppose that we'll find out soon enough. I should ask, though: there is a hospital somewhere nearby, I assume? Whatever's happening, there may be other people there, potentially who need help, and medical supplies will be critically important if..." Her voice wavered, and she sighed again, taking a long draught of coffee with both hands wrapped around the still-warm mug to keep them steady. "Well. In the worst-case scenario."

[Kestrel]

Lily stared after the police officer, torn between wanting to run after him and shout into his face that she wasn't crazy, that everyone in there was going to die...but she was still shaky and feeling a little tired from the adrenalin burn, and had to realize, now in the light of day, that doing that wouldn't really help to dispel the charge of crazy.

,,

She heard voices and turned around, reaching up nervously to gather her hair back, then let it go. Krystal was talking to someone she vaguely remembered from her flight out the door. A horrified face being knocked aside? Ugh...well, at least she didn't have to wonder what to say.

,,

"I'm Lily," the erstwhile musician said to Helena with an embarrassed wave. "Sorry about the door thing. I, uh, it's a long story. Don't go back inside..."

,,

The sound of a car door closing got her attention, and sure enough, there in the parking lot someone was walking across. A woman trailed by a cat. Behind her, in the car, she spied other people...hard to tell how many, but probably no more than three or four.

,,

Lily shaded her eyes and waved to them too.

,,

"Hey there!" she called. "Everyone okay over there?"

[Krystal]

Looking askance at Lily, Krystal tried to conceal her skepticism. She lived with a man who took meds to suppress delusions and associated mental issues, she knew what they saw, heard, felt seemed completely real to them, at least at the time. It was a stressful time, but still...

,,

Krystal nodded her head, agreeing with Helena's assessment about the need for medical supplies and those potentially in need, not taking offense at her tone, as she watched the zaftig brunette approach, a cat at her heels. Krystal reached over to scratch Fraz behind the ears, her head nearly coming up to her shoulder. Krystal never really cared for cats - they were pets who would barely condescend to tolerate your presence; dogs were better.

,,

She pursed her lips, considering where the nearest hospital was. Living her for a few years, she still didn't know the city nearly as well as Vegas. But she had researched schools when she was moving to Kansas City. They were on Linwood - if they went up Troost, they'd be at the Hospital Hill Campus of UMKC in no time - there were more than a few hospitals and clinics there.

,,

"Yeah, Hospital Hill isn't far from here," Krystal informed the doctor, "just several blocks North of here, actually." Her green eyes skimmed over Lily again as she cast a circumspectly wary glance at the station house behind them before meeting Helena's gaze. "I don't think - and I don't think Officer Bristow - would want people heading out alone though. I'll show you the way in a bit when Adam gives the all-clear, and can be an extra set of hands, if you need them."

,,

By then, the large, but still striking, woman was coming up the front steps of the station. Krystal nodded her greeting. Fraz sat up straight, affecting to ignore the cat, while trying to intimidate the feline with her looming size.

,,

"Hello. I'm Krystal and this monster is Fraz. Officer Adam Bristow is inside." Krystal's curled in a wry grin as she shrugged at the mostly abandoned city. "Any issues beyond the obvious? The police department seems to be strained to capacity at the moment."

,,

Krystal chewed a lip musingly, wondering if the woman had stumbled upon them purely by chance or found them specifically. It was a large city and there were seemingly very few of them left to haunt inhabit it.

[Kerilia]

"Hi Krystal, I'm Kylie." She held out a hand to Krystal, who took hers in polite greeting. The woman's handshake was firm and confident, but not overwhelmingly so, it was the practiced handshake of someone who did it often. Manners might be the first to go in a crisis for some, but for Kylie they were a comfortable default. She offered her hand to Lily and Helena as well, and they both introduced themselves briefly. The cat at her feet had been staring calmly at Fraz, neither intimidated by his presence, nor attempting to intimidate the much larger animal. But at her owner's greeting and handshake, she looked up at Krystal and let out a short 'mrowr'. Kylie glanced down at the cat and her lips twitched slightly in amusement and mild confusion. "And this is Resa. We're.. fine for now, I suppose. Other than the obvious. But what about you guys? We heard some kind of awful scream..."

The three women glanced at each other, but Krystal stepped in politely with the most neutral answer possible. "There's some confusion on that at the moment, but no one's hurt or anything. Officer Bristow and the other woman are checking it out now."

"Right. Okay, well.. there seem to be quite a few people gathered here. Did someone put out a public broadcast or something?" She was curious how this many people had managed to wind up congregating like this, without the seemingly psychic radar she'd been privy to because of Khris. Everyone here seemed pretty normal-looking, though the scream had sent chills running along her spine that hadn't dissipated entirely quite yet.

"Not exactly," Krystal replied. "I managed to get through to the police station on the phone and spoke with Officer Bristow, who directed me here. Most of the rest of these people were at the airport, Helena here called in and I told her where to find us, and another guy - a truck driver that Officer Bristow brought back, he's around here somewhere. And that's it." She gestured to the Prius in the parking lot, and the figures within. "What about you?"

"Oh, that's a friend of mine, Khris. I started calling and texting everyone on my phone as soon as it happened, and she was the only one who answered. Thank the gods I got someone, or it might have lost it. And a kid, Jimmy - a teenager that I found on my block."

Resa let out an indignant-sounding noise at that, and Kylie glanced down at her again, her brow furrowing in confusion. She kneeled down and picked up the cat, who let out another short, chastising 'mrowr!' before simultaneously settling comfortably in Kylie's arms and rubbing her head affectionately against her shoulder - putting a damper on Krystal's theory that cats merely tolerated their owner's presence.

"Alright, fine.. you found him." She bit her lip slightly, hesitating to freak anyone out or make them distrustful, but knowing it was unavoidable considering the circumstances with Khris's appearance. "Before I get them out here, I have to ask.. other than the obvious, has anyone experienced anything strange or unusual since this occurred?"

[Kestrel]

Lily shot Krystal an aggrived look, then said quickly, "Shadow monster in the toilet. My reflection tried to warn me with that scream you heard. Check it out."

,,

She showed off her shredded hoodie sleeve for the umpteenth time.

,,

"It tried to get ahold of me." With a defiant upturn of her chin, she added, "I know how it sounds, but it happened. I don't see how it's any weirder than practically everyone disappearing."

,,

Lily grimaced a little. "Okay, much weirder. It's a little weirder."

[z012]

Adam (and anyone else inside that followed him)

The inner sections of the station were bathed in emergency red lighting; he could easily see how someone could see monsters in the shadows. The two beams of white light from his and Bili's flashlights were comforting illumination as they made their way to the women's bathroom. All the little sounds of their movement echoed off the tile as they stepped inside; Adam felt the crunch of glass under his boot. Every mirror in the bathroom was shattered completely out of their frames, the pea-sized remnants of the half-dozen mirrors littering the floor and glinting like confetti from the light of the flashlights.

,,

He heard Bili behind him mutter something to herself even as she fanned out from his side, moving with the precise and confident strides that gave credence to her claim of military experience. "Bristow," she said softly, calling his attention from the glass shrapnel to the stalls themselves. The door of the third from the left as they came in was hanging open a few inches; Bili nudged it open completely and the two swung their lights into the space at the same time. White porcelain and the shiny metal of the toilet paper dispenser winked back at them. Adam had just about relaxed, ready to return to the group and remind everyone not to panic or let their imaginations run wild when something moved in the next stall over.

,,

An...appendage...swiped underneath bottom of the stall dividers, streaking back into the darkness the moment it crossed paths with the beam from Bili's light. The muscled woman backpedaled away from the stalls, her eyes wide as saucers. "Holy shit," she swore, but held her ground after the first startled step. Slithering, scaly sounds were rustling up from the other stalls now; an undeniable feeling of monster-under-the-bed dread falling over the room. Bili swallowed and glanced at Adam. "Stay or run?" she whispered to him.

[Adam]

Bristow didn't believe in monsters. Someone was in here and during an end of the world crisis like this one there was no doubt in his mind that someone could have come here seeking refuge. They're scared and they're hiding, just like Lily, just like everyone else. Just like him. "We stay." He mumbled softly. "Respectfully, Miss Loeb, if I'm going to call someone crazy, or a liar, I'm going to make sure I do everything in power to prove myself wrong first. Going half way just wouldn't be right."

,,

He pulled his side arm from it's holster, aiming it at the closed stall while he balanced his light over his forearm in a practiced military fashion. Pausing for a moment he looked back to Bili and then took a moment to hand her the taser from his belt. He couldn't have a scared civilian (military trained or no) accidently squeezing off rounds into everything that scared her. Bili might have military training, but she was still a stranger, a civilian stranger. He wasn't ready to accept Martial Law yet. "Back me up."

,,

Bili nodded, confirming she knew how it operated and Adam stepped forward. "Kansas City Police." He stated loudly, which seemed more like a full tilt shout in the eerie silence of the dark room. "My name is Sergeant Bristow, I'm here to help you. We know someone is in there, we just saw you. Are you hurt, do you need medical care?"

,,

Adam may have been a stoic man with the personality only a dog would love, but he was still human. Inside his stomach was in knots, he was scared and already the beads of sweat were starting to form. The whole world simply vanished, it seemed and here he was trying to tell a woman that he had a logical explanation for a troll living in the police station bathroom... compiled with his own personal issues... yeah, this was not a good day to try and not be scared. The creepy noises and indecipherable sounds radiating from the stalls was enough to drive him insane himself, like Lovecraft had set this whole thing up as some sick joke. Having Bili here helped relax him somewhat, but the only thing really keeping him going was years of military training and conditioning.

,,

"If you have any weapons, I suggest you slide them under the stall and out where we can see them." Nothing. Bili looked to Bristow and he looked at her. All she offered was a shrug and a shake of her head. Quietly he nodded and took a few steps toward the stall where the appendage was seen. He reached out and pulled the door open swiftly and backed away, gun drawn and pointed into the stall...

[z012]

Adam

For a moment, he saw something. Something even Lovecraft would have had nightmares about. It screached and flailed in the beam of the flashlight, dissipating like smoke as the light shot into the stall. The other stalls rattled angrily and something like a snake's tail lashed out from underneath one of the still-closed doors. A snake's tail covered in inch-long obsidian-black razorblades. It swiped towards Adam, but Bili was faster. She place a well-aimed kick at the tail, stomping it into the glass on the floor. He saw her wince as she pulled her foot back, but the tail whipped back into the stall and there were drops of something vaguely blood-like trailing after it.

,,

"Monsters," she stated flatly. "There are fucking monsters. I need a gun. And we need to get the hell out of here."

[Adam]

"Go!" He grabbed her shoulder, giving her a push to the door and they both hauled ass. Adam didn't stop to think about what he saw, that's why he brought Bili, so he'd know if he was crazy or not. They ran to the break room where most of the gathered gear was assembled. "Get everyone out. Whomever you came with, get them out."

,,

"Where are you going?" She asked. Just like him she was on the verge of panic.

,,

"Addressing everyone else and getting things ready to go. I'm not staying here and everyone else is welcome to follow suit." He holstered his sidearm and scooped up a few bags.

,,

"What happened to protect and serve?" She asked snidely.

,,

"Ma'am, I'll do just that. But I can't make people do anything, if they wanna stay, they can, if they wanna come along, they can." He raised a thick arm up, pointing towards the station as a whole while gripping a heavy bag like it was light as a feather, or he was too spooked to care. "But this place isn't safe and since you seem to be the only one with proper training in situations like this, congratulation, you're deputized."

,,

"I'll need a gun." Bili retorted, the hint of sarcasm still there. "If I'm on the clock, I want a gun."

,,

"Protect and serve the people you brought with you, rookie. Then we'll talk about guns and who gets them." And with that, he was gone.

,,

The doors to station swung open and Adam strolled out like the Terminator, his arms bulging from the two heavy duffels in each hand. He walked past everyone and dropped them near his cruiser. He turned and faced everyone, looking for Lily he approached her and dropped a well traveled twenty dollar bill in her hand, he only offered her a humble nod as an explanation. "Ladies and gentleman, I am Sergeant Adam Bristow. I know that's not a very formal greeting but under the circumstances, it'll have to do. Please do no task me what is going on because frankly, I don't know. What I do know is that is the single most messed up day of my life and right now it's all making absolutely no sense to me."

,,

"Now, I know in situations like these the people rely on people in my position to lead or have some sort of a plan as to handle a crisis. My friends, there is no way to handle something like this and swore an oath to protect and serve each and everyone of the citizens of this good city, and that's what I aim to do, but I haven't any plan. I can't make this right for any of you. From here on, we're in this together but each of you is your own person and I certainly won't stand here and tell you your business or what you can and can not do. I say that, to say this: that place isn't safe. Lily was right, thee is something in there. I saw it, Bili saw it, and ladies and gentleman before you give me the looks I gave to Lily... it defies logic. You wanna go take a look, feel free, I hope you can prove me wrong, I really do. For now, though I'm suggesting we gather up our things and look for a place where we can hole up for the night. In the morning we'll find a roof top, set off some smoke and wait for a rescue chopper."

,,

"Now, I think it'd be best if we gathered up as much gear as we can. If you wanna speak to me, do it as I work." He picked up the duffels and set them on the hood of his cruiser for inspection.

,,

To save time and posts. If people ask what he and Bili saw, he explains it in detail, much like Lily. The monsters, the swiping appendage, the voices.

[Krystal]

Eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion - sure the cat was only acting friendly to lull them into a false sense of security - Krystal gave a nonplussed sigh as Lily gave the succinct description of her encounter with the monster in the bathroom. Under Lily's annoyed glare and the curious expectation on Kylie's face, Krystal relented with a slump of her shoulders.

,,

"Okay. Fine. I saw something weird on the way here," Krystal admitted. "But it was just stress. There were these two people - a man and a young girl in a print dress. There was something... off about them - the shadows were wrong." Krystal shook her head, snorting a self-deprecating chuckle. "I draw and write weird and creepy stuff for a living. It's just the stress of this... thing blending work in real life."

,,

Just at that point, Adam emerged from the gloomy interior of the police station like the Goddamned Terminator, made his announcement of the weird being real and made his suggestions. This didn't sit well with Krystal. The mob mentality was spreading like a contagion.

,,

"Just a moment, Kylie," Krystal asked, avoiding Lily's eye and the vindication there in, then stalking over to the towering form of Adam, where he was checking his gear. Her voice dropped to a hissed whisper. "Seriously?"

,,

"Seriously," Adam rumbled, meeting her eyes with a level, intent gaze, his hands unceasingly checking his gear with instinctual familiarity.

,,

"Explain," she demanded, a fist planted on a hip, her smooth jaw tight with stubborn disbelief.

,,

He did.

,,

Krystal's breath caught, her face paling slightly. Adam's description, vague as it was - especially because it was indistinct - resonated with her, with the baroque and undefined nightmares she'd suffered on an irregular basis since adolescence. Part of the reason why she became an artist and writer was for the ability to take those baroque and Lovecraftian terrors that plagued her and define them for herself.

,,

She glanced at the station house and licked her dry lips. There was no way she was going to be able to stay here tonight. She needed the comfort of familiar surroundings. She needed her home - she'd probably need an Ambien or something stronger to get to sleep. But she was going to get her stuff first.

,,

"Okay, you may have a point," Krystal reluctantly agreed. "I'll be right back. Fraz, come!"

,,

Krystal had never let her nightmares hold her back, and she wasn't about to back down from a creepy-ass police station, monster or no monster. Besides, she had her own in Fraz... And a pretty strong flashlight on her key-chain.

,,

Krystal scampered into the station, Fraz just a head of her, the emergency lighting washing them in vermillion. She hustled into the comm room, stuffed her laptop back into her computer-bag, then back into the main room, and picked up her slow cooker, head turning from side to side, alert for any sound.

,,

It was only as she and Fraz were leaving that she noticed Tejah still sitting in the chair, eyes wide, Tulpa sitting protectively beside her. Krystal gestured emphatically towards the door, and if Tejah didn't understand her words, her tone was unmistakeable. "C'mon, Tejah, time to go."

,,

Back out on the front stairs and in the sunlight, Krystal released the breath she hadn't been aware she had been holding. Silently, she counted everyone who had ended up at the police station, one way or another.

,,

She had a pretty big house. Master bedroom, guest room, couch in the living room, hide-a-bed in the den, futon in her studio, and several very comfy chairs. An air-mattress from a camping trip, and maybe even Ian's old air-bed - she thought it was still in a box from when they had first moved in together. Plus, if her place had lost power too, there would be a lot of food that would have to be eater or go to pot. At least the dogs would have plenty to eat. She'd just gotten several big bags of kibble - they were on sale last week.

,,

It would be tight, but Krystal thought her place could handle to group for a couple of days, if they had to.

,,

"Excuse me, guys?" Krystal said, raising her voice to address the group. "I'm going home. If no one else has a better suggestion, you guys can all come over. Might be a bit tight, but I should have space for everyone." If nothing else, if the power outtage has affected the entire city, I have a heavy-duty back-up generator."

,,

"You have an emergency generator?" Eric exclaimed in surprise.

,,

"Do you not?" Krystal retorted in a tone that would be familiar to anyone who has watched Archer. "Yeah. In Vegas, we have Hoover Dam - we never ever lose power; Casinos wouldn't stand for it. For my first house, in a new city, I wasn't about to start," Krystal explained. "Besides, I wanted to make sure I could keep my servers and computers running in an emergency - work y'know? And it would suck losing something after it has been rendering for a while."

,,

Krystal turned back to the crowd as she starting walking up to her Lexus RX hybrid SUV. "Anyone taking me up on my offer? Regardless, I'm going home."

,,

I need to.

[Kestrel]

"Krystal, wait. Guys...we should stick together," Lily urged. Though there HAD been a surge of vindication, that was quickly plowed under by a dawning realization of broader implications.

,,

"Look, when that thing grabbed me, I jerked back, and I dragged its claw out into the light. And when that happened it's claw kind of...started to fade away or something. And it didn't come out after me. I think this thing can't come into light."

,,

"Which makes me think...it's waiting for sunset."

,,

She looked over her shoulder at the sky for a second.

,,

"And it hasn't got long to wait. We -need- to be somewhere safe by then. A few lights powered by a generator might not be enough."

[Kerilia]

Kylie moistened her lips nervously, and took in a deep breath. "I think she's right, we should stick together. Krystal's house might be an idea, but Lily might be right - it might not be enough. I mean.. if there's really something horrifying like that in there, who knows what else might be out there? And I've been on the internet looking, and it seems like it's happening everywhere, so I don't think there's any rescue helicopters coming for us. I found a few sites where people were posting, survivors.. but not very many of them, and they're really spread out."

,,

She ran a hand through her hair, looking a bit frazzled but mostly holding it together. "Look - I know this is gonna sound crazy, but at this point it's no crazier than anything you guys have described, so here goes. My friend Khris, she's -- different. When I went to pick her up her eyes had changed, they were.. strange, unnatural looking, you know? And her hair had changed color. Which is all cosmetic crap that I don't understand, except to say that all those changes seemed to come with some kind of psychic sense that she couldn't ignore. It led me home where we found the cats - which is also weird, because all her animals were gone. Like, poof. Gone, like all the people. And I haven't seen any stray animals wandering the streets either, even though I drove through a lot of residential areas to get here. But my cats were still there. And that's also where we found Jimmy. After that she led us here. And the thing is, Khris didn't know what was here, she didn't know this was a police station. She doesn't know the city part of the city that well, or the Missouri side at all, really - she's from the Kansas side and doesn't come over here much. She just told me where to turn, until we got here.. and here is where everyone else seems to be."

,,

Despite the strangeness of the last few hours, that somewhat rambling explanation still got her a few weird looks, and she shrugged slightly. But she just didn't give off the air of being a crazy person. She appeared as concerned as the rest of them, and aware of how crazy what she'd just said sounded. Yet at the same time she seemed calm and rational as she pleaded her case.

,,

"I know it sounds a bit nuts, but everything's a bit nuts right now, so maybe we can suspend cynicism, just for the moment. Let me at least ask her, and see if she's got any.. ideas. If not, then we'll just try and figure out the best alternative."

,,

Hey guys! Just as a note, I wanted to mention to you guys that Kylie has a Charisma 4 (Specialty: Friendly) and a Manipulation 4 (Specialty: Persuasive). I am not - repeat NOT - whipping out the dice! There's absolutely no need for that.

But - and yes, I'm aware of how egotistical this sounds coming from someone playing a bit of an avatar character, LOL - Kylie has a bit of skill at that sort of thing. It comes across in tone of voice and casual confidence, which is something that's sometimes hard to convey in posts. I'm mentioning it so that you guys are all aware of those traits as she makes her suggestion, and can choose to take it into consideration if you'd like.

[Helena Lindsay]

The doctor in Helena warred with the softer, more humane side as Kylie made her introductions; there was no point in admonishing the other woman now for what had been, presumably, an unhealthy lifestyle, so she bit her tongue and smiled, somewhat uncomfortably, as they shook hands. It would be incredibly heartless to bring up her weight and the associated risks without knowing her medical history, particularly in an already emotionally-fraught atmosphere. She was mulling this over when the friendly, young-looking woman inquired about hallucinations.

,,

Suddenly, the gun seemed like a much better idea than it had originally.

,,

What in the hell are they talking about? she wondered, staring incredulously first at Lily, (on whom the stress of the situation had clearly taken its toll if she'd resorted to attempting self-harm in order to cope) then at Krystal, (who at least seemed to accept that what she thought she'd seen was inspired by an overactive imagination) then the police officer, who couldn't be bothered to offer the simple courtesy of an apology for bowling her over before jumping on the delusion train at the next station without stopping for a boarding pass (a disturbing thought, since he was probably well-versed in weapons use and tactics, and paranoia would be a dangerous thing), and, finally, the pleasant woman who'd only just introduced herself before asking, essentially, if any of them were having schizophrenic episodes.

,,

Ben would have a field day with these people. The thought made her smirk, in spite of herself, and she quickly took a sip from her mug to cover it. Of course, she was in the process of divorcing him, but as an intellectual peer and someone quite experienced in his field (even if psychology was subjective nonsense with no empirical foundation) it would be interesting to hear his take on the situation. When things settled down a bit, she'd call and ask. In the meantime...

,,

"Don't feed their illness, but don't try to refute it at this stage. There's too much emotional attachment to their ideas right now."

,,

Oh, shut up, Ben.

,,

"Listen," she began, her brown eyes serious as they moved from face to face, taking in the growing unease the officer was leaving in the wake of his bizarre, irresponsible pronouncement. "I'm a doctor, not a survival expert. Not a psychologist. My only interest in what everyone believes they've experienced is whether or not they pose a danger to themselves or others. Yes, I said 'believes,' and while you're free to insist that it all really happened and the Tooth Fairy really did put that money under your pillow as a child, the very nature of my profession is such that if I let myself get sidetracked by 'belief' or other unsubstantiated neurochemical expressions, someone loses a mother, a husband, a brother, a child. With that being said..." She paused to breathe, fully aware that her estranged husband would be apoplectic over her apparent lack of empathy. "If we accept the premise that a statistically significant portion of, at least, the local population is unaccounted-for, then it follows that any who do remain will have the greatest chance of success in a stable social group. We'll also, as Krystal and I were discussing, require medical supplies if this experience proves to be persistent. I would suggest the hospital as a secure location with ample space and sufficient electricity, given the necessity of continuous power, but I admit I also have an interest in the status of any patients or staff left inside."

[z-Tejah Ebadi]

As Adam stalked away from her, Bili muttered, “Yes, I’m sure that when I curse at them in Yiddish, I’ll do a bang-up job of protecting those with me.” Tucking the taser into the back of her pants, she gazed longingly at the door to the woman’s locker room again, sighing, “Shoulda looked there when we have the lights.” Now, there was no way in hell she was going to go into that room.

,,

Following after Adam, she beelined to Tejah. “Come on, let’s go,” she said, taking Tejah by the arm and gently pulling her to her feet. Tejah shivered; too much was happening too quickly for her. “Hey,” Bili said, her voice turning soothing. “It’s okay. I promise it’ll be okay.” Tejah didn’t understand the words but she knew the tone and she hesitantly nodded. Bili tugged her toward the doors and out into the darkening day.

,,

Bili listened to the other speak, shaking her head through most of it. “Here’s the thing. We need to stick together, but we’ve already got people clinging to their own ideas of what and how to do it. I think we can all agree to stick together without too much bickering but I’d like us to figure out who the fuck is in charge here. We need someone we can agree to follow, even when we don’t like their idea.”

,,

“Like you?” Eric snorted, crossing his arms.

,,

“No, like whomever we’ll all follow. It doesn’t have to be a permanent choice, but we’re losing daylight.” Bili stared at each of them in turn. “Your house can wait, Krystal. So can the hospital, and frankly, I’m terrified at what we’ll find in there anyway, after what I’ve seen of people trapped in cars. I’d say hole up in the safest place around, and until five minutes ago, I would have said that was here. But there’s a monster in the fucking police station bathroom and I don’t know the rules of the world anymore. I vote that Adam picks a safe location for the night, we go there and secure it, and then we make all our big plans.”

[z012]

Everyone

In the grand tradition of Murphy's Law, Khris decided at that moment that she didn't feel like sitting in the car anymore. Jimmy stayed in the back seat, mostly by dint of Sheba looking far too pleased with herself on his lap for him to want to dislodge her. Khris threw a grin to him through the back window, shaking her head and knowing that he'd have to get over it or he'd be a kitty-slave for the rest of his life.

,,

"Uh, so, Kylie?" Khris called out to her friend, glancing nervously at the others, especially the large man with the douffle bags and the gun on his hip. "What's going on?" The fading light downplayed the green-and-black of the woman's hair as shadows from the surrounding buildings fell over them all, but her eyes - no one could miss the full-green eyes as they glowed softly in the gathering gloam.

,,

Tulpa and Fraz both barked at the woman, not angry barks but almost curious ones; the two large dogs trotted over to sniff cautiously at her while Resa watched them with an imperious sniff from her perch in Kylie's arms.

[Helena Lindsay]

Helena bit back a retort as Bili stated her opinion; frankly, she didn't care whether the other woman was terrified of the hospital, or squeamish of blood, or not. Whoever this woman was, she was apparently letting anxiety cloud her judgment and perceptions; in fact, as far as the doctor was concerned, most of the people here were currently incapable of rational thought, and her suggestion that the police officer who was also patently delusional should be the one to lead them anywhere was completely ludicrous. What was stopping him from perceiving one of them as some hallucinatory bogeyman and shooting someone?

,,

Lena was an intelligent woman, and, ostensibly, so were the others, which meant (assuming they weren't lying) that they genuinely believed what they were saying was true. She just didn't get it. They had to realize there was a rational explanation for what was happening. They just had to find it. Monsters were just man's invention, the mind's way of dealing with fear and dark places and things it didn't understand, conjured up from some distant past when the night brought very real dangers like predatory beasts. Throughout history, every mystery ever solved has turned out to be... Not Magic. She mouthed the words to herself soundlessly, unable to resist a tiny smile as she thought of the nine-minute beat poem from which the line sprung.

,,

"Fine," she stated flatly in response, refocusing on the Now. "Short of a sealed bank vault with access to running water, fresh air, electricity, and waste disposal, however, I doubt we're going to find an 'ideal' place to spend the night. Anywhere we go will have the same issues, so we're better off just getting off the street and dealing with whatever comes after."

,,

When the woman with luminescent eyes approached, the empirically-minded physician's right brow arched so dramatically that its peak nearly met her hairline.

,,

"That's... different," she allowed, already processing the effect as a potential medical anomaly and considering whether it might the result or symptom of any established condition. Bio-luminescence was a fairly well-known genetic expression, and reasonably simple to reproduce in a laboratory environment, but it was entirely possible she was getting ahead of herself. After all, it would be rather avant-garde to have glow-in-the-dark lenses, and some subcultures valued that sort of novelty.