Reverie

Cure Up In Smoke. Plan B. (Thinker & Reverie)

I hope you don't mind that I kinda skipped over some of the pleasantries and small talk. Feel free to add on any other strangeness noticeable in the pet store.

Cure Up In Smoke. Plan B. (Thinker & Reverie)

Paige pulled part of her light blue work shirt away from her chest and made a billowing motion to circulate the air. The heat from the fire was beginning to make her sweat and the smoke sting her eyes. She wiped the dampness from her forehead with the side of her wrist and thumb just as the other onlooker approached her. His truck and hat definitely said rancher and although he seemed in a similar state of shock from the fire, he also seemed considerably worried about something other than the clinic. Paige couldn't help but flinch inwardly when he called her "miss." That type of cordiality always made her uncomfortable even when backed with good intentions.
"A vet?" She took a quick glance at the rabid-looking dog behind him in the car. "Oh," she said softly. Realizing the man had intended to go to the clinic, she instantly hoped he hadn't personally known the late vet. "Yeah, my boss at the pet store might be able to help you." While the dog looked dangerous enough, there was no way she was hopping in this man's truck. "I'm actually going to head back to the store, so if you want to walk with me, it's just down the street," Paige continued, pointing over he shoulder with her thumb towards a small building nearby.
Paige waited for him to retrieve the crate from his truck and then she began her way to the store, still feeling the flames warming her back. She didn't talk the whole walk there, keeping her distance on the sidewalk from the agitated canine, even when they had to sidestep onlookers blind to their surroundings like moths.

When they arrived at the store, Paige stepped forward and pulled the door open for the man. She followed him inside the air conditioned building and called out for her boss. "Tom! Are you still here?" She squeezed past the guest and began to walk through the aisles towards his office back behind the counter. "Hey Tom! I have a dog that's-" Paige froze in mid stride as she passed one of the aisles.
Stepping backwards slowly, she looked to her right and saw something that caused her eyes to widen. There was something very different about the snake display she had almost missed; there was no snake. Not only that, but the glass on one side of the display had been shattered. She walked over to it and carefully crouched down to examine the damage. The broken glass littered the linoleum floor and a few of the nearby stands of pet toys had been knocked to the ground. She picked up one of the shards and noticed that it had blood on it. Her gaze shifted to the floor and she saw a thin smear of blood leading in a twisting pattern towards the back of the store. Forgetting the man and his dog, Paige made her way to the back and silently grabbed her wooden baseball bat from behind the counter. The door to Tom's office was slightly ajar and the light was on. A small part of her instincts screamed at her to flee, but instead she gripped the handle of the bat, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door with her elbow.

What greeted Paige made her stomach churn. The first thing she saw was the blood; it was everywhere. What was left of Tom's body lay on the floor next to his overturned office chair and broken lamp caused by a struggle. His discolored face was partially hidden by his mess of long hair matted down. A pool of blood had formed beneath the stump of his left arm which now only reached down to his elbow and another from his mangled neck. More blood, of which Paige could only assume belonged to her boss, was smeared on the ground and desk and spattered on the computer monitor. By now, Paige's lunch had threatened more than once to escape her stomach but she had held on.
A movement in the corner of her eye snapped her out of shock and something from behind the door moved out into the open. She inhaled sharply as Sandy the boa slithered into view. A few pieces of glass pierced the snake's skin causing her to leave a trail of blood as she moved. A section of the sand boa's stomach was enlarged as if from a meal and Paige quickly remembered Tom's missing limb. Paige's white knuckle grip of the baseball bat tightened even more in panic as the snake looked straight at her.

Cure Up In Smoke. Plan B. (Thinker & Reverie)

Ok sweet.
I'll have Paige lead Xavier back to the store, find her boss, and we'll go from there then.

Cure Up In Smoke. Plan B. (Thinker & Reverie)

Er, I hadn't thought about that. Like a week at most? I mean they could be infected for a couple of days before showing symptoms and then they become rabid. Maybe their immune system deteriorates or they become hemophiliac, so any fights between each other help pick off a bunch.
Also, how soon do you want to encounter multiple infected? I kinda had something in mind for Paige's boss who was left alone in the pet store...with a large snake.

Below the Surface (Reverie & Kate)

Letting Lizzy choose where to go for their senior trip was the easy part. Coming to terms with entering an abandoned mansion of some old guy and his arsonist, and possibly homicidal, adopted son, was something Tyler was still working on. Still, the important part was that he got to spend it with Lizzy, even if he did have to do all the driving. Tyler rolled his shoulders back and stretched his neck from one side to the other. He hated being cooped up for long trips and he was starting to get stiff from the car ride already. As he cocked his head, Tyler heard his friend's taunt. He glanced over and started to respond sarcastically, "Oh, I was just going to ask one of the orphans..." His sentence trailed off when he got an eye full of long bare legs extending out to the dashboard. He paused for a second, his mouth slightly agape and then blinked with a small shake of his head.
Snapping his eyes back to the road, Tyler almost spotted the exit too late. "Shit." He turned the steering wheel sharply and veered off the highway, just barely missing the yellow water barriers and earning a retaliation of honks from behind him. Tyler exhaled and loosened his grip on the wheel. "Hold on?"

After a few minutes of driving past endless trees, the mansion finally came into view. Tyler slowed down and leaned forward to look out the passenger window at it as they rolled by. "I guess this is it?" The mansion was tall with a dark roof and a porch that wrapped around the front, along with a set of stairs leading up to the front door. A wrought iron fence, slowly being taken over by vines, enclosed the entire property. Tyler stopped the car as they reached the front gate. It had swirling designs at the top and a circle in the middle with a large V.
Tyler turned off the ignition and stepped out of the car slowly, closing the door behind him and dropping the keys into his pocket. Still looking at the mansion, he was already starting to have second doubts. "Ladies first."

Cure Up In Smoke. Plan B. (Thinker & Reverie)

Paige poked her head out the store's front door to see if she could spot the fire herself. A few other curious people had already stepped out onto the sidewalk and were all looking down the street. Following their gaze, she soon spotted the smoke and its source. Paige felt her stomach drop; it was coming from the vet's clinic. The veterinarian who worked there had become somewhat of a regular customer for Paige, and while he sometimes seemed a bit withdrawn, it was nice having him so close to the pet store. He bought mice from time to time and took care of any sick animals for the store.

The people on the side began to shift uncomfortably and mutter to each other, trying to pick up any bit of information they could. As a few of them anxiously looked towards her for an answer, a firetruck came roaring past at full speed. The blaring sirens snapped Paige out of her shock and she realized that people were staring at her and the pet store. She could hear her boss yell something out the door, but she was already jogging down the street after the truck and towards the fire.

It didn't take Paige long to reach the clinic. When she did, she stood just close enough to feel the heat, staring with wide eyes. It took her a second to realize there was another civilian already here with the firemen. He was yelling something to them, but all Paige could make out were two words: vet..inside. She looked back at the blazing fire and indeed saw someone run past a window. "Oh god," she heard herself say out loud. A spray of water arched out next to her, shooting towards the clinic, but the fire was so strong that it seemed to consume the water. The building groaned and suddenly a part of the roof collapsed in causing the flames to burst out for a second. Paige shielded her eyes with her arm from the sudden increase in heat.

Below the Surface (Reverie & Kate)

Hey! School has been crazy, as usual. I promise I'll have a post up by tomorrow night (PST).
Sorry for the delay. >.<

Cure Up In Smoke. Plan B. (Thinker & Reverie)

Gah I'm sorry for the delay! I promise I didn't die or ditch you!
Your post is great, I've just been swamped. I'll have something up by tomorrow night (PST).

Below the Surface (Reverie & Kate)

Oh god not the giggles. Or the phantom feet running behind you in the hallways... T.T
Lol should be fun

Cure Up In Smoke. Plan B. (Thinker & Reverie)

Paige's chin slipped off the edge of her palm causing her forehead to smack against the wooden counter and jolt her awake with a yelp of pain. Groaning and rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she heard the jingle of someone entering the pet store. The soft pitter-patter of feet told her it was either a small animal or a child. Same thing right? Before she could feel guilty for the thought, an ear-splitting shrill scream erupted out of nowhere. The store Paige worked in was tiny to say the least. The aisles that separated the few rows of cages and displays were so cramped that two people could only fit through if they shimmied by each other. The types of animals in the store were limited to lizards, rabbits, mice, birds, and the occasional snake, with pet supplies being sold up front.
Paige rounded the corner of the counter and ran towards the last aisle on the left, easily reaching the source of the scream before it had finished. She found a little girl with horror stricken eyes and a tear streaked face standing in front of the biggest display in the store. The little girl had found their only snake, a large sand boa, and it was feeding time. As the orange and black snake lurched forward and swallowed another part of the mouse, Paige grabbed a thin blanket laying on the floor and threw it over the display.
She turned around and found a man gently picking up the girl. As the child wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed into his shirt, the father glared at Paige in disgust, as though she had been the one to swallow a mouse whole.

"You can't just let children see things like that!"
"I'm sorry, but it's a pet store! What did you expect to be in here?"
The man shook his head and carried his daughter out.

Once the door had closed, Paige let out a sigh and glanced back over at the display. She pulled the blanket off and knelt down to get a better look at the snake who had finished swallowing its meal. As she placed her hand on the glass, the reptile slithered up to her and for a second it almost seemed to be looking straight into her eyes. The front door jingled again and Paige saw her manager, a skinny man with a ponytail and a baseball cap walk inside.

"What the hell was that all about?" he asked, motioning outside with his thumb.
"Guess they didn't realize there would be animals in the pet store," she said, rolling her eyes and standing back up.
"Hey, I don't pay you to scare away our customers!"
"Pay me? I didn't even get a paycheck last week, Tom!" Paige crossed her arms.
Tom shook his head and retreated behind the counter muttering, "Yeah, yeah, you'll get your money woman. Worse than my wife..."
Paige looked down at the snake and said more to herself than to Tom, "And besides, I didn't do anything. It was Sandy's feeding time and the girl saw more of mother nature than she bargained for."
Before slipping into the back room, he added over his shoulder, "You smell that fire? Think it's comin' from down the street or somethin'."