Let Them Bleed (Broomhandle45 and Ms Catailia)

She did not like it, she did not like it at all. She sighed some and sat back down im the chair. "All of this is so strange... Is it possible this is all a horrible nightmare?" She asked softly, but knew better than to believe that. They weren't waking up from this Hell. "Well, lets make the best of it I guess. There is a vending machine downstairs near the bathrooms. If you want to risk going down there, I have the key to open it. Its not like anyone is going to mind us stealing at this point," she smirked as she held her keys out to him, holding the one he needed to open the machine. She was starting to get hungry, and thirsty, at this point. She figured if they were quiet enough they could sneak through downstairs unnoticed. It did sound like some of the pounding had stopped. Maybe they were getting tired of trying to come in.

John smiled a little at that as he glanced out to the library lobby, they had stopped trying to get in...but it looked like everything else was getting worse. He sighed inwardly, trying to calm his thundering heartbeat. Well, there wasn't much sense in worrying about what they couldn't fix right now, was there?

"Yeah, I'll give it a shot." he said, taking the key. "Thanks, sit tight, okay? I'll be back in a bit." Well, at least he wasn't alone in this...that was something.

"Oh, wait," she said and grabbed her purse. She dumped the contents of it on the desk and handed it to him. "Good luck, I'll be waiting..." she said with a gentle smile. She felt nervous about him leaving her alone but going with him would risk more attention. She had to remind herself to trust him, he would come back. He wasn't just going to sneak off and leave her there, right? She spun the office chair she was sitting on, focusing her eyes on the ground as she tried to take her mind off everything. Just last week she had been excited about having saved enough to buy a car and now those simple luxuries were no longer a concern. Surviving...that was all they had left.

John smiled a little, taking the purse with him as he carefully headed down. Well, this was a stupid way to end the day, honestly. Going down to the first floor was an exercise in nerves, because even though the lights were off -a good thing, surely-, you could still hear every little thing going on outside. Every fire, every siren...he'd question calling it quiet, but it wasn't the horrible din of chaos that it was when they had rain in here. He took a careful glance around and stuck the key into the lock, carefully opening the vending machine.

A dinner of snack food, wonderful...but he filled her purse up with everything he could grab and headed back up. The quiet bothered him more than the noise, but maybe they'd get some peace to rest for a few hours.

She was glad when he came back, glad to know he hadn't decided to just leave her behind. Maybe he was worthy of her trust. "Well you came back alive," she said with an uncomfortable smile. She was trying to make light of their situation but their anxiety was still obviously there. She grabbed a water bottle and one of the bags of crackers from what he brought. Despite being hungry, she didn't want to make her stomach upset with all this junk. They'd have to find some real food in the morning. "So we haven't really gone through introductions... my name is Rene," she said while they took the time to rest and snack. She hoped the night wouldn't be very eventful and maybe the town would be settled by the morning. One can only hope.

"John," he said, sitting down with a heavy sigh, hand running through his hair. "Nice to meet you, given the situation. Better to think you're crazy with someone else, I guess, eh?" he said faintly, opening a bag of Cheetos.

"I suppose so..." She said with a sigh as she drank some of her water. "Is there anyone in town you are worried about? Anyone you need to check on?" She felt a bit lucky that she wasn't close to very many people in town. Even the few friends she had, who were probably as crazy as the rest of them, weren't that important to her. She had always made it a point to not get to close to anyone, her past lending her to believe having people close only led to pain. She worried that something might happen to John, now someone she so quickly had to rely on. She wouldn't know what to do without him in this mad world around them.

"Nope," John said, unscrewing a cap of his water. "Makes this easier, that's for sure...most of my family is out in New York, so...unless this craziness is everywhere, no big deal for me." It sounded cold, but that was really just the reality of it. Besides, why worry about people he couldn't save? If only it was so easy to do that, instead of say it. Why else would he have yanked this girl out of the way when shit hit the fan?

Would it be easier for him without her? She was sure it would be, after all, she didn't do much other than have a set of keys that would be useless tomorrow when they left here. She couldn't worry about that though, as long as she was allowing her to stick around she had to try to be useful. "So what is the plan tomorrow? Should we see what the police know?" she asked. She would have asked if they should leave, but for some reason she felt like there was no way that would possible.

"We should see how it looks before we go out," John sighed. "We can't stay here, that's for sure. God knows what's going to happen if they remember we're here. Is there another way to get out of here? Somewhere that isn't obvious?" Getting around town was going to be a fucking mess and a half, they had to be really careful.

She bit her lip as shs thought about all the door in the place. There really wasn't much of an easier way out. "I think there might be an emergency exit through the downstairs store room, but I can't be sure because we've never been given permission to use it. It may be armed as well," she explained, then thought of something. "You know, we are in the catalogue room, I may be able to find some maps of the town, maybe even the library..." She got up and walked over to the large bookshelves in the back of the room to see if she could find any maps or layouts. "This town is pretty old and it has undergone major changes from time to time. There may be some underground systems or roads that aren't marked anymore if they weren't necessary for the town now..." She was mostly speaking to herself as she looked. She had heard of old towns literally building over themselves when it became unfit for the growing population. Maybe something like that happened here.

"Might be worth looking into," John agreed, finishing his bag with a faint sigh. "And honestly, not like we have a whole lot else to do. So we may as well study up," he said, moving over to her. "Wouldn't happen to have a 'History of Crazy Events' book around here somewhere?" he said dryly, glancing at all of the fat spines. Silently, though? He was kind of hoping, hoping for something rational, or at least explainable.

Wouldn't that be nice... She doubted there was anything in any books in the world that could explain the crazy going on outside. "I wonder if its a bacteria or parasite... It couldn't be a virus or we would be affected too. Although, I'm sure with the amount of people going crazy, we had to have eaten or drank whatever they have too," she sighed, hating that there was no explanation for all of this. She was more concerned about why they weren't effected but everyone else was. The not knowing made everything worse.

"Oh, here," she said as she found a book on the town history. She handed it to him, it was a rather heavy and large book. "Look through that and see if there is anything about the town we can use to get around. I'll keep looking for more." She doubted they would find anything of use but it was worth a shot.

John grunted a little in surprise as he glanced at the old, musty thing. Guess the girl had a little more strength in her than it seemed, moving books was heavy work after a while. He was going to ask just what that would accomplish, but really...what the hell else did that they have to do.

"My favorite hobby, reading." he said flatly, sitting the book down with a sigh. Oh good, the vibrant history began in 1893, such a fascinating era. Honestly, he was skimming...most of it was the same normal stuff of the era. For a while, it was quiet...he wasn't sure how he felt about that as the night wore on. But even as he read through, the lights started to flicker. He glanced up at the blinking bulb and felt the hair on the back of his neck rise.

"...You locked the door, right?" John said, somewhat nervously.

She couldn't find anything of use, as she had expected. She sighed, about to give up, when she noticed the light flickering. She turned and looked at it, her heart beginning to pound in her chest. This was typical horror movie lighting, something bad was about to happen, she just knew it. "You were the last one who came in here... The door downstairs is locked but..." She trailed off, he knew what the but was leading to. These people were not mindless, they could have found a way in. After all, it had been unusually quiet for a while. She really wished she had a weapon to protect her at this point, she felt so vulnerable. "Maybe we should get out of here, if anything comes through that door we are backed in a corner," she whispered nervously, afraid that something might hear her even though they didn't know if anyone was there. Suddenly resting in the catalog room seemed like a huge mistake.

"Shh," John said quickly, rising up slowly as he drew his Glock with a confused frown. The flickering lights continued, the sound of footsteps started to increase...but they were soft, faint. But fast, too fast. Like a fat spider skirting across the floor for prey. The buzzing of the bulb started to pick up, and John shifted carefully back towards the wall with Rene behind him out of reflex. This was stupid, this was crazy...but this was happening. It shouldn't be happening.

His ears started to buzz, he felt his eyes hurt. He wasn't sure if that ringing was his head or the lightbulb anymore as the door shifted, faintly. It didn't open, it just rocked against the bolt. Panic started to fill his lungs, and it took every ounce of his willpower to keep his breathing steady.

This was it, this was the end, she was sure of it. Here they were in a tiny room with no way out but through the door something was about to come in. The light was flickering and buzzing like a bee was trapped in it and there was the sounds of the too fast, too quiet, footsteps coming toward them. She wanted it all to stop. She wanted to scream and cry and beg for everything to just stop. She wanted to slam her shoe into the light to get it to stop being so noisy and terrifying. Why was this happening to them?

Her breathing was heavy, she felt like she was shaking. She was glad John was protecting her, in front of her with his gun, but she still felt completely defenseless. Completely defeated. Then the door moved and she whimpered some. She closed her eyes tight, bringing her hands up to cover her mouth. She was trying so hard not to start crying. She was terrified of what would come through that door.

The rattling increased, John rose up his pistol with a focused, even breath. The buzzing increased...before the light shattered in a spray of glass. Darkness filled the room for only a split second as the door split open, the moonlight was only faint. But whatever came in wasn't on two legs, it skittered across like an insect and lunged, gibbering and cackling like some deranged clown. John's gun went off, blood splattered as he was slammed against the wall and the gun went rebounding on the floor.

It wasn't anything he wanted to see, a face perpetually set in a wide rictus grin, his eyes...they weren't there. Only hollow sockets with dried blood. John's arm was tight around his neck as the long, lanky arms slammed into his sides with a pained grunt. It felt like getting hid with a steel pipe. He was tall, far taller than what should have been normal, the stench of death and blood was all over him and adrenaline was the only thing keeping John from gagging.

"Rene! The gun!" John said quickly, keeping the trashing, jerking freak as steady as he could as he slammed his fist across his grinning face. He couldn't keep this up!

Her eyes shot open as the light shattered. Her body visibly jumped when the person, no, monster forced his way into the room. She couldn't stop herself anymore, the tears started as she stood in shock at what was happening. It all happened so quickly, the creature attacking John, her flinching as the shot of his gun rang in her ears, John being slammed against the wall, struggling with the monster. She felt like she was just watching a movie, she didn't feel like she was actually there. She couldn't be, this wasn't real, this couldn't be real. John was struggling against the most grotesque thing she had ever seen. And it was rotting, the smell of the creature was so intense. She was lost in herself, just standing there staring with her wide teared up eyes.

She heard him. He told her to get the gun. Reality came crashing down. She looked at the gun on the floor, just a little ways in front of her. She had never handled a gun before and anytime she had seen one it always ended badly. Guns frightened her. But she knew if she didn't do something that creature would kill John, and then her. Rene tok a deep shaky breath and quickly grabbed the gun. It felt so cold in her hand, so heavy. She held it up with both her hands, her finger on the trigger and pointed it towards the creature, and John. Her heart was racing and she was shaking, tears still streaming down her face. She didn't know what she was doing. She was terrified. She squeezed her eyes closed and fired, flinching from the sound and recoil. She fired again, and once more, breathing heavily and now audibly sobbing. She felt the pressure lift and opened her eyes, still pointing the gun in that direction. She had somehow managed to hit the monster fatally and had hit the wall right next to John as well, almost too close. She wasn't sure where the other shot had hit but she was in such shock she didn't even look. She felt like she couldn't move, couldn't stop shaking, couldn't stop feeling this intense fear inside her.

The creature let out a shrill hiss when the round slammed into it's ribs, tearing right through and leaving a giant bloody splatter against the wall as it rolled over and twitched, curling up like a spider as it's laughter turned into a warbling groan. John slumped back against the desk with a heavy exhale, shifting his body. Okay, good news...nothing broken, probably bruised. His ears were ringing from that close call, and he made a mental note to...never, ever let her do that again. No time to rest, though, even if his side hurt. He shifted up carefully, hand gently pulling the gun down from her arms.

"...Shooting is best done with your eyes open and your head forward," John reminded faintly. "I need you to keep it together, Rene." Tough talk, he barely knew how to keep it together. Especially when they heard glass shatter. Fucking hell, there goes their safe spot.

She felt relieved when he took the gun from her, her hands dropping to her sides. That was one of the scariest things she had ever dealt with, even scarier than when she watched someone get killed in fronr of her. In fact, despite that being a monster, it had once been a human, hadn't it? Did this count as murder?

Keep it together. He was right, she couldn't let this stop her from mocing forward, one step at a time. The world was still falling apart around them, she couldn't allow herself a moment of pity. She wiped her eyes and took a deep shaky breath to try and calm herself. "I'm fine," she said, not particularly to him but more so to convince herself. Thats when she noticed him carrying his weight differently. "Are you-..." she stopped when she heard the glass shatter. How stupid was it that they had expected some sort of safety here.

They suddenly had to make some quick decisions. "Do we risk the store room and hope there is an exit, and it isn't armed, or do we try for the front door?" Both seemed like risks, obvious ones, but she wasn't sure what other options they had. There was always breaking a window to escape that way, but the shattering glass would probably attract them as well. There really wasn't any good options.

"Storeroom," John said quickly, taking the gun from her. "Go, I'll cover our back. You see anything, you run back to me, you got it?" he said, face tight as he rolled his shoulders. Definitely not broken, but definitely some pain. They didn't have the time for him to wait to get better, however.

She was not pleased that she would be leading them into certain hell, but there was no time to argue, besides, there wasn't anywhere safe anyway. She took a deep breath and made her way quietly out of the room. She was being cautious as she kept herself alert to sounds, making her way past the bookshelves and trying to stay out of sight. It didn't seem like anything else was upstairs yet but she stopped before she went down the stairs. There was no hiding going down them, she would have to move quick. Her heart was pounding in her chest but she rushed down the stairs, trying to be quiet but rushing never really lent itself to that.

John was behind her like a bad boyfriend, handgun raised every so often as the footsteps began to pick up around them. There was chattering, talking...if it was supposed to make sense, John couldn't hear it. It sounded like garbled English. He propped his shoulder against a nearby bookcase, weapon at the ready as he glanced around. So far, so good. They had gotten to the storeroom door without any issue.

"Maybe we do have some luck after all," John muttered.