Let Them Bleed (Broomhandle45 and Ms Catailia)

Brenwood was probably one of the most boring cities you could live in, unless you tried really hard to live somewhere even worse. Twenty thousand people, whose best claim to fame was having two Wal-Marts and a Chinese buffet that won best restaurant in the city for the past four years. It was, after all...one of them sleepy little places that had a police force that seemed more familiar with writing tickets than handling actual problems.

Which is why when the problems actually did start, it was a mess. Some guy at the warehouse that John worked in had gone home a few weeks ago and murdered his wife with a hammer, horrible shit. Made even worse by the fact that nobody knew until a few days later when nobody had heard from her, and she was still on the floor with her face like a crushed watermelon. That wasn't the end of it, though...not by a mile. Sexual assaults were up, something that had never happened in Brenwood before, the list went on. People were beside themselves with fear, claiming the police was doing nothing to stop the corruption. Protesting had been going on for the past few days, it was just fucking nuts. Guess they were starting to get big city problems.

John slipped out of his truck with a weary sigh, hand slipping through his close cut hair. He probably looked like hell, wasn't much of a surprise for that. He was probably handsome, somewhere. But he was currently fighting the effects of a bad shade of five o'clock shadow. But there was still a strong jawline in there, and a pair of sharp green eyes. His military figure had never honestly left, but that's what backbreaking warehouse crap will do to you. All he wanted right now was a chance to fill up his tank, get something to eat and go home and sleep. Not that gas station food was fine dining, but it was better than nothing, and he was too tired to care right now. The gas station was a little crammed today, which was a little surprising. Guess it made sense, about four blocks down put you at the police station.

Of course, he noticed as he walked in that people just seemed irritable. The whole situation had turned the entire town upside down, and nobody knew how to handle it. John had wondered why he didn't give a shit, but maybe that was just how he was. So much so, in fact...that someone moving past him had bumped into John's shoulder and the man turned on him like he had punched his child.

"Watch where the fuck you're going, you greasy fuck." the man muttered viciously, before heading to the counter.

"Excuse me," John muttered under his breath, grabbing a drink from the back racks. Jesus, everyone was acting like goddamn rabid animals. The hell was going on?

The town was acting crazy. Rene couldn't believe how quickly things had escalated. She had almost decided not to go to work that day, but she needed the money and her life couldnt stop because everyone else did. No one came to the library, though. She had never seen it so empty. Not only that but no one else came into work. It seemed like the whole town was out protesting and she couldn't understand why. Sure, things had been a bit more volitol with more gruesome crimes gracing the news than she had ever seen in this town, but was that really cause for everyone to start protesting, quit working, quit living? None of it made sense. Why was everyone so on edge? She dreaded closing up and leaving the safe walls of the library, but with no one there she felt no point in staying. By 5pm, she stepped outside and locked the door behind her.

It was shocking. She was stunned when she turned from the door and saw all the people standing around, yelling, agitated. What were they hoping to accomplish by acting this way? This behavior didn't seem normal. Everyone seemed so angry. It made her nervous to leave the steps of the library but she couldn't just stand there and hope people settled. She kept her dark blue eyes adverted as she made her way down the sidewalk. She would stick to routine, she had to. She couldn't let this angry town dictate her life. But being a little on edge didn't seem like a bad thing with the way people were. She held her purse to her side tightly, as if worried someone would try to mug her. Her wavy auburn hair, pulled up in a high pony, swayed as she walked quickly towards the gas station. She would stop in for a moment to get a soda, as she did every evening on her way home. There was a bus stop right across the street of the gas station so it was always convenient to stop for a moment before her bus came.

As she entered the convenience store of the gas station she noticed the interaction between the two men. She couldn't believe how rude the man was but was more surprised at how calmly John took the interaction, at this point she expected everyone to be as crazy and angry as the rest of the town. It was refreshing to see otherwise. She made her way over to the back where he was grabbing a drink.

"People have lost it, huh?" She commented, offering him a sympathetic smile. She reached by him and grabbed a soda for herself. She always enjoyed making small talk with people but the last few days no one really seemed to want to talk. "Have a relaxing evening planned, or will you be protesting as well?" She asked as she opened her drink and took a sip. She wasn't sure he wanted to talk, maybe he was in a hurry, but she had been craving some human interaction since people stopped coming into work and going to the library a few days ago. None of her friends seemed like they were interested in talking either, all of them seemed too agitated to bother.

Rene stood there before him, watching him with her deep ocean colored eyes to gauge how he would react to her. She wore a red v neck t shirt that framed her c cup breasts well and hugged her hourglass figure. Black jeans framed her slender legs, ending a bit bunched up at her plain red flats. Her body looked toned but not muscular, she tried to exercise when she could and other than the occassional soda, ate rather healthy. She worked hard to take care of her body now since in the past she had done detrimental things to it. She noticed his own toned body, admired it actually, appreciating a man who stayed in shape. She could see he looked a bit worn though, but weren't the all recently? It was exhausting always being worried about what crazy thing the townspeople would do next.

"Meh," John mumbled. "I don't see the point, really. I just want to go home and sleep," he said, glancing at her. She was pretty, even if the word sounded a little childish off the top of his head. But pretty was a good word for it, it probably helped that she didn't look so furious. There was a lot of reason to be angry, to be fair...but John hadn't seen such a consistent, boiling anger in a long time. He was grateful for the fact that he carried, but that was currently out in his truck. Just what was the endgame, here? What did they think all of this social freeze was going to do? Wonder why she wasn't acting so nuts, maybe she had a brain between those ears.

Guess it was nice to talk to someone who didn't seem to have an endless line of vitriol over the lazy and corrupt police force. Which didn't seem that all corrupt to him. Had he really gotten so anti-social?

Going home and getting some sleep did sounds like a great idea. Maybe tomorrow things would calm down in town, but she doubted it. Everyday seemed to get worse. "I will be doing the same," she said with a slight laugh before her eyes caught some commotion in the window behind him. "What the hell..." She made her way to the window, trying to see what everyone was starting to scream about. There was a large crowd beginning to form in the middle of the street, up just a little ways from gas station. People were yelling at each other and there was some shoving. Rene felt like the tension was thick, the slightest thing might set off the crowd. She wasn't prepared for what happened next though.

She could hear squealing from tires just beyond the crowd. For a moment she thought someone decided to leave in a hurry but to her shock she realized how wrong she was. Her eyes widened in horror as she watched people begin to scream in terror. She wasn't exactly sure but it looked as though bodies were flying into the air. Then suddenly the crowd parted as a car came crashing through. The driver must have been at 50 mph as the car came through the crowd and slammed into the building just across the street from the gas station. She flinched as she watched the force of the car crumple against the building. A person who had been caught on the front bumper was crushed in half as the car bounced back from the building before settling on the sidewalk. There was blood everywhere. Bodies littered the street like dolls on a playroom floor. She doubted the driver survived the hit to the building. Everything felt like it froze for a moment, in that moment. She couldn't comprehend what she just watched.

Rene felt her heart pounding in her chest. All at once, as if the crowd had been waiting the whole time for one last horrific thing to happen, everyone collectively lost it. The madness began. People started brawling in the street, others started breaking store windows. The town filled with the roar of hundreds of angry people. She couldn't believe no one was trying to help those that got injured, killed, by the driver. She was in a state of shock as she watched one of the injured get up and drag their clearly broken leg towards the crowd of people. She watched as the man punched someone. What the hell was going on?

She brought a hand to cover her mouth, not knowing how else to react. She couldn't take her eyes off these mad people. It felt like she was watching a movie, it was all too unreal. Then it hit closer to home. She heard people fight and turned her attention to the angry man from earlier and the cashier fighting behind the counter. A moment later she flinched as she heard a gun shot ring out through out the store. The angry man stood up from behind the counter, covered in blood. He was looking down at something at his feet, the cashier, and fired the gun over and over again, continuing to fire even after all the bullets ran out. He seemed just as stuck as she was. She just stared. She couldn't get her body to move, she couldn't get her legs to take her away from here.

He suddenly felt like he was in Iraq all over again, except it wasn't as hot and he didn't have fifty pounds of gear. He kind of wished he did, the crash was horrifying...but the aftermath was worse. There was a heat in the air that made his body feel hot in all the wrong ways, his chest burned, but he didn't know from what. The anger wasn't even unified, it was just everywhere...like a wave of violence just crashed into everyone, or a drunken bar brawl. The horrible, thundering roar of a gunshot brought a worse problem. Half of the crowd turned to the noise and were already rushing towards the windows.

"We need to get out of here," John said, yanking Rene away from the windows as a man just slammed himself against the glass, so hard that it left blood. They were pounding and kicking on the windows and doors, others were already grabbing whatever they could to break it as the store owner moved out from behind the counter to curse and scream at the people trying to break in. The employees only door would lead into the back. He had to get into his car and get his gun. Then...well, he didn't quite know from there. But it was a start.

She was startled back to reality when John grabbed her. She didn't hear what he said but she followed him to the back exit regardless. She didn't look back as she heard the people pounding on the windows. She kept her focus on him, not wanting to acknowledge the world beyond them, the one in chaos now. He seemed to know what he was doing, whoever this man was. She wouldnt argue with someone trying to help her.

When they reached outside she was relieved to see no one back there. Apparently the commotion at the front was enough to draw everyone there. She needed to take this moment to come to grips with everything happening. This wasn't just one person killing a man, this was mass hysteria. "What the hell is going on?" She finally managed to ask, stopping not far from the exit. "What are we supposed to do now?" She was sure he didn't have any more answers than she did, but she felt she had to ask, desperately hoping he would have some idea of what to do. These people were beyond help and he seemed like the only sane person left. She didn't like to rely on anyone, but at this point she had no choice. Rene knew she couldn't handle this all on her own.

"Don't know," John said, glancing back behind them when the sound of the windows shattering. Shit, he could hear the wail of sirens in the distance, and the sound of more cars and more shouting. The place had gone insane in an instant, what the hell was happening? He rubbed his neck heavily, letting out a long breath. Okay, John...easy. You were in worse, you just had more ammo to deal with it. They had to move fast, even the houses around the gas-station were starting to escalate, windows shattering, screaming and howling people arguing about something petty. Fuck.

"We need to get to my truck," John said. "It'll be safer on foot, but I need to get something from it." he said, glancing at her. Why did he have to be the hero?

"Stay close, alright? And stay quiet, god knows what the hell these people are doing." Everyone was doing it, why was everyone doing it? Why weren't they doing it?

She just stared at him dumbfounded. He wanted to go to his truck, the one in front of the gas station where all the people were rioting? "This better be worth it," she muttered in compliance. She followed him to the front corner of the buidling and peeked around to see where people were. Most of the people had managed to get into the store. Everyone else seemed distracted by their own fights or ordeals. She tried not to focus on it but it looked like a horror scene. There was blood everywhere and a body impaled on a shard of glass in the broken window. It looked as though someone used the person to break the window down. What could cause everyone to start killing each other? This certainly wasn't normal hysteria. Something was seriously wrong here.

"It looks like everyone is distracted," she whispered, keeping an eye on the store. She could hear people fighting and breaking stuff inside. She crouched down, trying to be lower than the bottom of the window and followed him over to his truck. She watched the people in the area, luckily all distracted, as she waited for him to get whatever was so important to put them out in the open. "We can go to the library after this, I have the key..." She kept her voice low as she spoke, trying not to let anyone but him hear her. For once she was happy she had been the only one that showed up to work. If they were lucky they could spend some time there coming up with a plan on how to get out of this place.

John opened the door as quiet as he could, which considering the chaos around him wasn't too hard. He opened up his glovebox and pulled out his GLOCK in it's holster. He fitted it to his belt, along with the two spare magazines and glanced around. The fighting in the gas station had died down, but the chaos around them was still burning strong. What he didn't like, however...was some of them were staring right at him.

"Alright," he mumbled, taking his handgun out of his holster. "Let's get to the library." He had a real bad feeling about this...

She didn't notice he pulled a gun out of his truck until he pulled it out of the holster. She stared at it a moment, her mind racing. This really was a situation that called for a gun, but seeing it right in front of her just made the situation more real. She couldn't pretend this was some nightmare anymore and suddenly she felt very unprotected. What if this man didn'twant her tagging along anymore, what would she do to keep herself safe? She had no training or idea how to handle something like this, and he clearly did. What did she even have to offer him when he realized she was just slowing him down?

Rene bit her lip, trying to get the thoughts to stop. She needed to worry about right now, the rest could wait. "Its just a few blocks down, but...there is really no way to get there from here other than walking down the sidewalk and all those shops," she explained, pointing at the people pilfering some of the shops. There were quite a few people between them and the library. She could feel the eyes on them too, there was no way they could get there unnoticed.

"I know," John said, both hands on his pistol as he stared at the few staring at them. Their gaze was sharp, unblinking...their eyes were bloodshot, their faces red with exertion. Their fingers twitched, bloody implements or fists simply waiting. He didn't like that, they were either smart enough to realize what would happen or they were going to find a better chance. It gave him a moment to really take look at what was going on. Pilfering was one word for it, some people seemed almost obsessed with grabbing everything and running...others?

Well, violence wasn't the only thing filling the streets. Some people had found women, men...pressed them into corners, made them moan. It didn't look pleasant, and neither of them looked happy to do it. What the fuck was happening? Had he suddenly gone insane? "But we better start moving while we have the chance, just keep moving. Whatever you do, don't stop."

"Okay, keep moving..." she repeated, as if trying to convince herself. She stood up and began walking, a bit unsure, toward the library. Her fists were clenched to stoo her from shaking, her gaze lowered, afraid if she looked at anyone it might set them off. Not only that, but she wasn't sure how much more of the violence she could stand to see. Between the blood, desperation and lewd activities, she wasn't sure she could ever eat or sleep again. She was glad to have him close to her, glad he had a gun, but she couldn't help but feel like it was all useless. They could easily become over powered by all the people. She tried not to think about that though as she picked up her pace some.

She glanced up, the library was right there, they were so close. But she could feel eyes on them, people were following them. Her heart was pounding again in anxiety, it was taking everything in her not to panic. She didn't want them to think she was an easy target because of her fear. It was hard to be brave though. Her hand was shaking as she reached into her purse to grab her keys. Just a little more, just a few more steps.

John was right behind her, but he was glancing around. It was a tense, horrifying feeling as the violence slowly receded and continued in waves. Some would stare at them, then something would incite their fury again and it'd be back to their anger. But there was a small, dedicated group following them. He didn't know he had been holding his breath until he saw the library and exhaled, the town was steadily sinking into chaos, the sky was going red with the hue of the sunset...wait.

Sunset? A cursory check to his watch said it was five thirty...but the seconds hand wasn't moving.

"Hurry up," John urged quietly, glancing back behind them. The people were looking increasingly angry at them, and John didn't want to find out why.

He said that like it had been easy for her to even walk this pace. She sped up a bit more and let out a breath of relief when they reached the front of the Library. She knew she had to be quick to let them in. Standing still for too long would leave them open targets. As soon as they stood in front of the front door she quickly tried to unlock the door. It took her longer than she would have liked because she couldnt steady her shaking hands. She was beginning to panic when the key finally slipped in. She unlocked it and hurried in, slamming the door closed behind him and locking it.

She breathed out heavily, leaning her hands against the door as she tried to calm herself but she didn't have a chance to. The people began banging on the other side of the door and she just about screamed as she jumped back. She knew she should have expected that but she was having trouble thinking rationally. Who would have expected horror movies to be so realistic when things like this actually happened?

"Easy, easy," John said quickly, moving up behind her to get her to settle down. Shit, this was bad. What the hell did they want them for? There were thousands of other people trying to kill each other! The banging got worse, the door was thankfully not glass...but it had a window. If John wasn't seeing things...was that man bleeding out of his eyes? Whatever it was, he couldn't tell when the man's fist cracked the glass.

"Dammit," John muttered, glancing around. The main problem? The door wasn't the only place they could get in, but the library was a big place. But the noise was attracting others, others who were making it louder and quieter on their end.

"Up the stairs," John said quickly, the door was starting to buckle, the glass shattering with another powerful fist as a bloody hand pawed around for the doorknob.

"I'll fucking kill you and fuck that pretty bitch!" the man's voice was...wrong. On a level that he didn't quite understand, but it made his skin crawl. It hummed in his ears, made them hurt.

If he hadn't been there to try and calm her she probably would have hid in a corner and started crying. She watched the door like he did, taking a few shaky steps back as she knew the door wouldn't hold the madmen back. She didn't dare look in the window though, she didn't want to see what that door held back. These people weren't human anymore, something was seriously wrong here.

She didn't hesitate a moment when he told her to go upstairs. She wouldn't have thought to do it if she had been on her own, but listening to orders was easy. She turned and quickly made her way upstairs, trying to ignore the inhuman voice that threatened them. She couldn't help but wonder what she did to deserve these hellish people to come after her. "What now?" She asked once they were both upstairs. What she wouldn't give to have learned how to protect herself by now.

John glanced down the stairs, the hand pawing at the door wasn't going to have much luck...considering the man behind it was still swinging punches at everything else. What bothered him was the temporary unity it took to follow them. It was the first time they could actually breathe, and John was trying to think of his options...their options? Well, he was stuck with her now, at any rate. He rummaged in his pocket for his phone, brow furrowed. No bars? Sure, why not...made sense.

"Got an office or something we can stay in?" he said. "Maybe...somewhere we can find out what the hell is going on? A radio? Something?"

These are the things she would never think off under this amount of stress. She sighed some, having a moment to finally calm down as she tried to think about what was up here and not what was happening downstairs. "Oh, you know, the catalog room is up here. There is a computer that connects online," she said before leading him towards the back. Maybe they could notify someone about what was going on in the town, someone who could get help. At this point she wasn't sure anything but an army could help. She still couldn't understand why hundreds of people had lost it. Why she hadn't...

She unlocked the door and let them in, moving to sit in front of the relatively old looking computer and turning it on. "Its going to take a bit to start up... we haven't had any funding for updates since before I started here," she explained as she leaned back in the chair, staring blankly at the screen. She felt exhausted and it hadn't even been that long. "Thank you, by the way... I don't think I could survive all this without you..." She sounded sad, maybe even a bit defeated. This wasn't going to be her life from now on, was it?

He rubbed his neck at that, giving her a faint smile. "Well, thank god you're pretty, huh?" That was a horrible joke, great, John. This was totally going well, wasn't it? "Er, what I mean is that not everyone can do stuff like this. It's not so easy, I'm scared too." he admitted. Military training, who knew it'd actually save his life one day? "I've never seen anything like this before, I don't have a goddamn clue what the hell is going on."

She couldn't help but smile some at his awkward attempt at lightening the mood. There was still a lot of tension in the air, there probably always would be. They could never feel completely safe. It was nice to hear he was scared too, though, and yet still able to keep his cool enough to keep them both safe. She wondered what kind of life he led that helped him to be brave and smart enough for such a horrible situation. "Its definitely unusual. I mean, I've heard of mass hysteria before, but I don't think this is anything like what they expext when people talk about that. Its almost like they arent even human anymore. And what about us, why do we seem completely normal?" She asked, wondering some if maybe this was a punishment, but what could he have done that was so bad he deserved this? She knew what could cause her to be punished, but what was he hiding?

"Dunno," John said casually, glancing back towards the door. It sounded like they were still trying to get in, then something else distracted them...then it was back to trying to break in before turning back to the computer screen. It was done, but...static? Wait. He wasn't extremely computer inclined or anything, but...

When did a computer screen get static?

"...Is that normal?" he asked curiously, feeling his throat go dry.

She had been watching him and listening to the sounds from downstairs, she hadn't noticed the computer until he said something. Her eyes widened some when she saw the static. "No...this doesn't make sense. Computers aren't like TVs, they don't have frequency issues," she explained as she got up and leaned on the desk to look behind the computer. She tried wiggling a few cords but nothing seemed out of place. This computer had been working just hour before with no issues. "I don't understand, everything looks fine on it. There is no reason it shouldn't be working..." She was sounding a bit deseperate now. She hit the computer firmly, hoping that might work. When it didn't she tried again, a bit harder, even though she knew it wouldn't help. She was becoming frustrated and panicked from everything falling apart.

"Hey, hey!" John said quickly, grabbing her hand. "Easy! Are you trying to attract more of them!?" he hissed. "They're making enough noise! They don't need more reasons to try and come in here!" Great, now he was feeling it. They had no way of knowing what was really happening, their cellphones were dead, the computers were flipping out. The panic was setting in, the stress came with it. He felt a cold sweat coming on and the only thing to take it out on was this stupid girl he had decided to drag with him for whatever reason.

She gave him an angry look when he grabbed her hand and yelled at her. Who did he think he was? His yelling wasn't helping either. She ripped her hand out of his and sighed, turning away and taking a few deep breaths to try to calm herself. She couldn't allow herself to lose it too, she wasn't like those monsters downstairs. They needed to be rational, they needed to make smart decisions. "What time is it? We need to find some place safe to be tonight. We can figure out how to get help in the morning with the daylight. For now we just need somewhere safe where we can rest. We are both a little on edge," she said as she turned to look at him again. She didn't want to leave this place, go back out into the chaos of the town, but with them still trying to get through the door she was sure this wouldn't be the best place to stay all night.

"Hell if I know," John said faintly, glancing out of the room. "It's getting dark, but none of the clocks seem to be working," The one in the room wasn't moving either, all of it added up to some serious unpleasantness. But as for safety...he didn't know, their options were pretty limited when they got corralled in here. "I think we found it," John said with a faint, tiresome smile. "Like it or not, we're stuck here."