Shakin All Over

Lenna was going through the few books of the park history that were here. But something was wrong.

“Rome?” She yelled sounding a little panicked. Within no time he was next to her.

“Yes did you find something?”

Lenna shook her head, she quickly looked where everyone was in the room.

“I… Rome I feel funny. I’m freezing but um I think I’m rather warm. And it is difficult for me to read.”

Rome felt her forehead, it was feverish hot.

“What if that’s how it starts?” She asked worried not looking at Rome. She felt silly of so stupid to get infected by Croatoan. After a long pause she looked at Rome and for a brief moment Rome could have sworn that something was wrong with her eyes. But that was not possible.

"Whoa, chica, um."

Rome had never seen himself when he had a vision. But everyone told him his eyes turned weird when it happened. That they went gray.

Was this a vision?

Second thought was demon: but they were already pretty sure that this Croatoan thing wasn't any kind of possession, and Rome was confident that even God didn't hate them quite that much.

"Okay, um, chica, why don't you just sit down, okay?" Without waiting for a response, Rome scooped her into his arms and brought her to a cot, which he then slid over to be near the office. The "safe" (uninfected) civilians were in one half of the bunker, with Rome, Morrigan, and Elenna in the other half with the potential Crazies. They were separated by a few rows of supply shelves and a bend in the room, but it wasn't much if anyone else snapped. Of which Elenna was now a prime potential.

Not that they had seen any changes in eye color in any of the Crazies. Maybe it was a witch thing.

Rome brushed his fingers along her hair. She was really warm. "I'll get you some water," he said, and straightened up.

Only to stare right into the face of a ghost. A female ghost, this time. Again with the old clothes.

Before Rome could cry out or find some salt, "Don't let her hurt anyone!" the ghost said, and then flickered out of existence.

Rome looked around, but the ghost was gone. The chill accompanying its presence was so brief it could hardly be told apart from the general chill from the fact that they were stranded on a deserted island in the middle of the perfect friggen storm. And Elenna hadn't seemed to notice it. No one had.

As Rome got a bottle of water and brought it back to Elenna, the thing that bothered him the most was knowing who the ghost was talking about.

Rome wasn’t gone long but it was enough time for a ghost to sit down next to her. “You shouldn’t fight it, you will enjoy it.” And then she disappeared again.

Lenna felt another rush of heat over her. She desperately grabbed the water from Rome. She was heavily breathing.

“I think we’ve got a problem Rome.” Lenna whispered.

Rome checked her temperature again. She was just getting hotter.

“I saw another ghost. She… she told me not to fight it, I will enjoy it. Maybe Georgie likes being crazy, she is super strong, fast and doesn’t care how she looks. It must be a relief for her to stop being such a girl.” Lenna’s voice was low, calm and not normal for her in this situation. She suddenly looked at Rome. “What if the ghosts somehow are related with the Croatoan? No that doesn’t make any sense.” The young girl shook her head.”I think it is starting Rome. Don’t let me hurt anyone. Promise me that this won’t happen.”

Lenna took Rome’s hand with her hot hands and looked desperate at him. “Promise me Rome.”

Rome tried laughing at her teasingly as he took her hand. "As if I could let you do anything fun," he joked. "Anyway, you're talking crazy, chica. Georgie isn't enjoying this, and neither will you." He was serious now. "You just gotta keep fighting it. Maybe it...wears off, or something."

Rome checked his phone. It was really frigging annoying that Richard and Callum were still gone. Had they found Georgie? It was taking them long enough!

Which, okay, wasn't fair, it had been less than an hour, and the island was bigger than that, but still.

"Okay, chica, you stay cool. We can have you sit nearer the door if it's too warm here, okay? I need to go talk to Morrigan."

Rome stood, squeezing her hand again, and crossed over to the office where Morrigan was. "Hey, Mor, can I talk at you for a second?"

"Um, sure," she said.

"Hey, why are you keeping us in here?" one of the injured people, the grad-student looking one, asked. "Why can't I go lay down?"

"I'll bring a cot over here for you, but we need to make sure you're not infected before we let you go over to where everyone else is," Rome said, firm and calm. The guy didn't seem convinced, but he stayed quiet.

Awesome, now they hand an impending riot on their hands.

He pulled Morrigan gently by the elbow until they were in a corner, out of earshot if they whispered.

"How you holding up, Mor?" He asked, pulling her in for a chaste hug. She had already made it clear that she wasn't sleeping with him, and despite popular belief Rome did have restraint, so he hadn't tried coming on to her in a long time (although--horror movie setting, being trapped on death island had to be the greatest place to have sex, just saying).

She drew in a shaky breath and shrugged against his chest--either okay, or didn't want to talk about it, or a little of both. Fair enough.

"Because I need you to do me a favor. I need you to trade me jobs. I'll crowd control, and I need you to hit the books. Lenna's not looking good--" Morrigan looked up sharply, "but it's not like the others, I don't know what to make of it. Georgie, too, I mean, we saw her, she fought it. The others just...when they snapped, they snapped, no turning back. Lenna has a few books, and they probably have some records here that would tell us why this island seems to be a breeding ground for ghosts and Crazies. I need you to use that hunter lore you learned growing up and tell us everything you can about Croatoan. Who it effects, who it doesn't effect, and why, and dear God in heaven tell us if there's a cure, okay? Can you do that for me, chica?"

Rome was right. Things were not looking good for the team.
"My dad thinks he ran across Croatoan virus back when he was doing a job in with another hunter from Kansas.

Rome nodded and let her out of the hug. She rubbed Rome's arm. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine." For a minute she finally allowed herself to realize what a good looking guy he was... but now wasn't the time to be thinking like that, and she knew that they were way too different for her to have more than a fleeting attraction.

"From what Dad told me, it sounds like our culprit is definitely our little demon virus. It seems to work kind of like a plague, which we've unfortunately already figured out. From what I understand, the original Croatoan, or what we think might have been the start of the virus, is thought to have wiped out Roanoke Colony completely- without leaving a trace. What doesn't make sense is why some people are affected differently. I'm going to hit the books for a bit longer and hopefully I'll find out the last bit."

"There might be a reason why its affecting some people differently?"

"It's a thought." Morrigan pulled out one of the thick volumes and started leafing through it. "In most people, it seems that Croatoan causes a blood rage causing people to murder each other until the entire population wipes itself off the map- kind of like what happened in the Colony. It's a really scary thought if you start to think about use on a large scale. As far as I know, there isn't a cure to this thing, all the people infected just..."

"Just what?" Rome asked impatiently.

"They disappear. Just like Roanoke. Maybe they go on to spread the virus, maybe they die? There isn't a record about anyone having found a Croatoan survivor."

"So we're screwed?"

"You're asking the wrong girl, I'm afraid that without more reference material, I'm just guessing. Maybe if we got a blood sample and ran some tests? I'd just started working in the lab before all this, I could give it a shot? We might be able to see how the virus is affecting its victims on a basic level. But then again, I'm not really that good yet...Rome?" Morrigan noticed his gaze wander to Lenna. "Are you listening?" She knew it must be hard watching his friends, his family, go through something like this.

They saw the shack ahead of them through the storm. The next second they saw a figure charge out. Both men braced themselves, in case it was Georgie or another infected, but when the figure got closer they saw it was a terrified teenage girl. She stumbled in the snow and toppled over.

“Ghosts!” the girl stammered as they moved up, “ghosts and a crazy pink girl.” Although hysterical both Callum and Richard knew what she meant.

“The girl, did she bleed on you?” asked Richard.

“Wha.. no?”

“Callum, stay with the girl. I’m going to get Georgie.”

“Are you crazy?” Callum exclaimed.

“No, just family.”

Richard moved cautiously into the shack, and through the door was surprised to see Georgie lying unconscious. There was also a rope in the shack. Tying Georgie up didn’t feel like the right thing to do, but it was his only option now. He reached for the rope when suddenly a voice spoke.

“Run or kill her.”

Richard’s head snapped up, and he looked at the apparition between him and Georgie. She was dressed in old fashioned settler clothes, and as her image flickered Richard saw the sad look on her face.

“Leave her, servant of Hades, you cannot help her.”

“You know who I am?” Richard was mildly surprised. First, most spirits weren’t this talkative, lucid, or personal. Second, only a handful had the awareness of what he was, and those tended to attack all the more viciously because of it.

“Croatoan gives us knowledge, as Croatoan keeps us trapped. I welcome your presence, but the others will not.”

“You want to move on?” That was almost unheard of. Not just being forced to stay behind against her will, but also remaining sane for such a long length of time.

“Not until the curse is lifted. Then I shall gladly follow your guidance into Erebus.”

Richard heard movement behind and saw that Callum had joined him. Damn, how much had he heard?

Georgie didn’t open her eyes although she was awake now. She wasn’t sure if it was the fact that she got thrown around and hit her head, or if it was still that something inside of her that made her go crazy, but there was no way she was actually hearing those things. Richard and the ghost talking like that…and what did she mean by servant of Hades?
Georgie’s head hurt, just as the rest of her body. At least she could think straight…for the moment. Those thoughts were her own, and she finally felt more in control of her body, but she didn’t know how long it would last.

“What’s going on?”, she recognized Callum’s voice. She was tempted to open her eyes to see what was happening but she was afraid the ghost would start attacking her again as soon as she moved.

“In order for the ghosts to move on we have to break a curse first”, Richard explained to Callum.

“And how do we do that?”

“We have to-“

“Damn!” Georgie opened her eyes, her heart was racing. She felt it coming back, taking control over her body again and influencing her thoughts. She jumped up and backed away from the ghost who immediately turned towards her. “You do not put your dirty hands on me again!”, she yelled at the ghost. Richard and Callum looked surprised, she definitely sounded like Georgie again. But she knew it wouldn’t be for much longer. She looked at Richard.
“You just go, I can manage it…” It wasn’t true, she really needed help, but she was scared that she might hurt them if they stayed close to her. Suddenly she felt the ghost’s hand again, throwing her against the wall.

“You leave her alone!”, Richard shouted, then ran to Georgie to see if she was okay, but to his surprise she pushed him away.

“I don’t know how long I can hold it back! Go away, please!”

Rome went to talk to Morrigan and… They were talking about her weren’t they? Lenna felt as if everyone was staring at her, sharpening the pitch forks to hunt her down, they planned how to get her on the stake to burn her alive.
She closed her eyes and lie back on her cot, breathing heavily.

This is not going to happen. I rather shot myself than let anyone get hurt by me.

“Miss? Are you hurt?” A cute teenager boy asked Lenna in an even cuter Irish accent.

“Fuck off boy!” Lenna snapped at him, but she went pale (if she could even get any paler) and without looking at him she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean that, just erm leave me alone”

The boy nodded, he might looked cute but which kid nowadays really got upset when someone swore around them? He left Lenna alone and went to Rome and Morrigan. “Excuse me Sir?”

Rome looked at him, still in a little shock of not having a cure for this.

“Your girlfriend -how many do you have anyway- she spilled water over her and it vaporized as she is hot like an oven. I just thought you might want to know that.” The boy looked a little impressed at Rome for all his girlfriends, and at the same time he was very proud for knowing something no one else apparently knew.

“Listen Georgie. I’m not going to leave you like this. Whatever it is that’s infected you, you’re fighting it. And that’s a lot more than most have been able to do. Don’t give up now.” He paused then muttered, “Did that really sound as cheesy as I think?” He wasn’t sure if it was the pep talk, or the humour, but it seemed to calm Georgie for the moment.

“Oh the other hand, just in case, I’m going to tie you up ok?” Richard couldn’t believe he’d just asked that. Georgie nodded and turned for the rope, notching that the ghost had disappeared for now. Richard bound here arms tight to her, but left her legs free enough to walk, though not run.

They had barely made it out the door when Georgie gave a half enraged cry.

“Fight it Georige. You’re tied up and disarmed. And if things really get bad I’ll knock you out.” Then he looked up. Maybe it had been the virus that had caused Georgie to cry out. Or maybe it was it numerous ghost arrayed ahead of them.

“Oh boy am I going to make my quota tonight,” Richard whispered.

Rome looked at the boy sideways. "Don't go near her, understand?" he said, a quiet warning. "Go on back to...are your parents here?"

"Uh. No," the boy stammered. "I'm here with some school friends. I think they got out in the first ferry..."

Well, dammit.

"Okay, well all these people are very sick, okay, I need you to stay away from them. I think there are some, like, games and books and stuff over there by the beds. Don't let me catch you over here again, huh?" Rome tried to sound mean and threatening, but he was pretty sure it came out tired and dad-like.

The kid nodded, though, and thankfully went away.

He sat down for a minute to collect his thoughts, and while he was at it, to harden his heart. There were some things needed doing, and none of them were pretty options.

He stood, decided, and went out of the bunker in the hopes he might see Richard and Callum coming back with Georgie, but nothing. He found where they had buried Maria Jones in the snow: she was frozen stiff already, so it was annoying but not impossible to find the set of keys in her pocket. He had seen a gun cabinet, dusty, in the corner, and they were likely to need a full compliment. So.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention," he said, striding back into the room with as much authority as he could pretend. "This is what we're going to do..."

Georgie felt rather helpless because she was neither armed not could she move much, so she was actually hiding behind Richard like a little girl. She felt really stupid doing this because she was used to defend herself, and she was really good in that, but this time she couldn’t do anything.
She felt extremely weak after being thrown around by that ghost woman. She had to think about the things she heard earlier. The ghost had mentioned that nobody could help her anymore, and she worried it might be true. Georgie felt sick. She realized that she hadn’t talked to her uncle since she found out about Richard, and if she would end up turning into whatever was inside of her, if this vicious cruel side would win over her, she would never get the chance to make things right between them.

“Okay, I think we’re in some sort of predicament”, Richard mumbled, reaching for his knife.

“No kidding…” Georgie tried to hide the fact that she felt sick, but it didn’t really work. She looked at Callum who got out a gun. He still seemed a bit insecure with it, especially since they were surrounded by more than just one ghost. He aimed for the ghost that was closest to him and pulled the trigger. As soon as he shot, the ghosts started to move quickly and appeared directly in front of them. He didn’t seem to scare them off but actually provoke them.
They were definitely outnumbered. And screwed.

First Rome left, he mentioned something of a plan but Lenna didn’t pay attention. She was too hot, she had to get out of here and before anyone could stop her she was out of the door. Taking deep breath, this was really not funny. And then she heard shot, a part of her wanted to run back inside and hide but she didn’t. “Rome! There is trouble! I’m going to help.”

And off she went. It was weird she wasn’t scared and she left a, easily visible trace of melted snow. She saw the ghosts surrounding Georgie, Richard and Callum. “Hey!” She yelled as loud as she could. Everyone turned around to her, first her fear kick in but then she knew the ghosts, Georgie and everyone else infected wouldn’t attack her they waited for orders. They waited for her orders.

Think Lenna let them do something that keeps them busy but not suspicious.

“I’m not yet done with the hunters!” Lenna said in an ice cold voice she didn’t sounded at all like herself. Not to mention that she felt a new wave of heat rush over her.

"Okay, hold the phone!" Rome demanded, hoping the universe would be more convinced by his serious than he was.

What the hell just happened?

Okay, Georgie was infected. Richard had found her, and she was--tied up? Fair enough, hope that worked against...Crazy super strength, or whatever this was, this Croatoan thing.

And Elenna was infected. Or sick or something.

And there was, like, an army of friggen ghosts.

And Elenna was controlling them.

"Lenna!" Rome tried to sound more angry than scared, and he put a hand on her shoulder to shake her, maybe snap her out of it. "Jesus!" he cried, reclaiming his hand--she was seriously hot! "Lenna, what the hell? What--"

And now her eyes were different colors?

Okay, regroup time. Rome trudged through the snow over to Richard, Callum and Georgie, with Morrigan behind him. "G, tell me you're with me, huh, chica?"

She had fallen to her knees in the snow, was shaking her head. "Rome, I can't--"

"Hang in there, for me, G," he said, pulling her up and hugging her to him. She was cold. That was comforting, maybe. "Okay, guys, form up. Everyone loaded? Salt rounds. Be ready for anything."

Lenna felt dizzy. This was bad, Georgie looked like a never fed lioness, the ghosts might be gone for the moment but she heard scream from the bunker. She was pretty sure that the few maybe infected were just ripping more innocent people into pieces.

“There is no cure is there? It is just a matter of time that I freak out too. Maybe the other dude was right and you should just shoot us. Oh and I think those ghost they have Croatoan too.”

Lenna sounded defeated. She was kneeling in the snow still hoping it would cool her down.

"I think I can control the ghosts. I have no idea how, and it scares me."

Georgie looked at Elenna. The fact that something was wrong with her friend seemed to give her some normal, human feelings back, at least for the moment.

“You can control the ghosts?”

“I think…I’m not sure.” She still felt hot, and she didn’t know what she could do to make it stop.

The past hours Georgie had constantly feelings that were not her own, feelings that were evoked by that Croatoan thing, but now she seemed to pick up Elenna’s feelings. Just a brief moment ago she was freezing, and now she felt…hot? And there was something else she felt, something that came from Lenna as well. Something dark, and not human…
“Why is it so hot here?”, Georgie mumbled, more to herself.

“Not you too!” Rome looked at her and touched her skin, but it was ice cold, not like Lenna’s.

Elenna got up slowly, and for a second Georgie noticed there was something wrong with her eyes, but the same moment her temperature dropped rapidly and she started to feel cold again first, but then she couldn’t feel anything, neither heat nor cold. Nothing at all. And that was a bad sign. But she needed to control it, she had to. She didn’t want to think how long this would go on, or if this was ever going to stop.

At was a weird sensation to know that Georgie was one of hers again. Lenna’s breathing was unusual fast as if she just sprinted. It was a bizarre state Lenna was in. She knew she should feel cold in the snow somewhere on the way she had lost her jacket, but her increased body temperature made it not just impossible for her to be cold. She was releasing so much heat that all snow around her melted.
It was not the heat that was the knowledge she had without knowing from where she had learned it. Okay maybe it came from the voices she could hear in the wind.

“Croatoan is a gift, it brings us together in a way nothing else ever can do it. You don’t need to be scared to get infected with it. You will see it sets you free forever.”

“Wait it will set us free forever?” Callum asked, thinking about the words. “Didn’t you tell me ghosts are trapped between the afterlife and the living life?”

“Yes so?” Rome seemed not to understand Callum. He was too worried about Georgie and Lenna, and the army of ghosts that was invisible at the moment but they all knew that was just a matter of time.

“What if those ghosts are not trapped? What if they are free?” Callum wasn’t even sure what he was saying here.
Not far from the group Lenna collapsed unconscious into the snow. Within second Rome was holding her in his arm. “Lennie, come on we need you. Wake up.”

Groggy and slowly Lenna opened her eyes. “I feel funny.”

“Tell me about it, you are burning hot.” Rome smirked.

“You finally see that too.” Lenna grinned up at him. Lenna sighed. “Ghosts, means salt and burn the remains, we are outgunned against them and at some point they will know that I’m not really one of them. We need to find where the first pioneers that were infected went. And after that you gonna lock me in a freezer so that I cool down again. I feel like the Human Torch close to the super nova.”

"I don't think the freezer is the right answer," Morrigan said with what she hoped was a reassuring laugh. "What we need is to send these guys back to where they came from."

I hate ghosts she thought. They remind me too much of the dead. Of Shane and how he died.

"You're just going to have to hang in there, Georgie too. We've got this." Somehow

Lenna shrugged. "Okay, let's see about that salt."

"Seriously, your like a thousand degrees. Can you stand?" Rome asked. "Chica..." His bravado turned to concern instantly.

Lenna nodded. "Let's see what I can do."

Salt and burn.

Beautiful in its simplicity.

That was good, they could handle that.

"Okay. Okay. Callum, you're with me. We'll look after Georgie. Rich, you and Mor keep an eye on Lenna. You get the salt, we'll bring the burn. It might be in--the forest?" Honestly Rome was just guessing at this point. "'Croatoan' kept showing up in the wood. Let's try that. At least if the woods and the buildings start going, most of the rest of the island should go with it--"

"With all of us trapped on it?" Morrigan cried. "Are you insane?"

Rome didn't reply.

"Rome?"

Rome was silent, frozen. He had made the mistake of turning around and looking down the hill at the cluster of buildings. There was blood in the snow. Lots of blood.

And blood on the people. Bodies strewn around, bloody footprints leading away.

Rome shook himself. "And now we have a bunch of homicidal Croatoan-Crazies on the loose. Everyone armed? You're gonna need it."

Rome cut the ropes tying Georgie's hands but took her firmly by the arm. "Chica, G, I need you with me on this. I'm letting you go, but I'll do what I have to if you don't keep fighting it. You hear me?"

He exchanged a meaningful glance with Richard--if it came to it, Rome couldn't kill Lenna and Richard couldn't kill Georgie if their lives depended on it. But the other way around, well, there was at least a chance.

Maybe.

"Okay, team. Salt and burn is the order of the day. Let's go."

Richard grabbed Rome by the arm and pulled him slightly away from the rest of the group.

“We might not need to burn the whole island down, but you aren’t going to like what I have in mind. Damn it, I don’t like it, but it’s better than ending up in Erebus burned to a crisp.” Richard whispered to Rome.

“At this stage I’m open to any suggestion,” Rome replied.

“If Elenna and Gerogie are somehow linked to these ghosts, maybe they can find out where their bodies are?”

Both Rome and Richard turned around to look at Elenna and Georgie, who didn’t seem well at all. Georgie was heavily bruised and just waited for the sickness to kick in again, and Lenna’s temperature didn’t drop, she was still burning hot.

“We might need your help”, Richard said. “Since the ghosts seem to be connected with that Croatoan sickness, you might be a link to the ghosts because you’re both infected. Is there any chance you know where they might be?”

Georgie was tired of ghosts. No, she was fed up with them. She had reached the point where she never wanted to see a ghost again, even though she knew that was very unlikely to happen. But she also knew they had to get to the ghosts in order to get this thing over.
“I’m not sure, I can’t really say my feeling are reliable at the moment…”, she said with a tired voice. “But I had this very strange feeling when I was in the forest…I knew I wasn’t alone. Something was there…”

“I had the same feeling when we went into the forest to look for Georgie”, Elenna said.

Rome nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

Lenna lifted her hand and with ease a fireball appeared.

“That is awesome I was never able to use my powers that easily.”

Lenna grinned happily.

“Lenna you do remember that we have to find the remains of the first infected people?” Morrigan asked carefully.

“Oh yeah I know but we don’t need to worry about having a light.” Lenna looked a little as if she had lost her mind. “Oh look at the cute little kid ripping the grandma’s arm off, the kids nowadays are just so adorable.”

Lenna giggled. “The remains are not far from here. I can feel them in their graves.”

Rome was starring at her as if she was insane, maybe she was? "Chica what the hell are you talking about?"

Lenna's grin disappeared and she looked more like a kicked puppy. She went over to him and grabbed him by the arm. "You don't let me crazy and kill people right? You know that there is nothing worse as watching your own body do things you would never do. Rome you have to promise me, you stop me before I hurt anyone. And not let anyone else do it. I want you to do or you just give me your gun and I do it myself. I don't wanna end up like those crazies down there. Rome promise me!" Lenna looked desperate pleading at Rome. Her hands were bloody, from the cut on her arm that was still a little bleeding.

"Lenna, baby, I--" Rome gulped, couldn't finish, and hugged her to him so he wouldn't have to answer. She was acting too weird. He didn't like it. This wasn't Elenna talking.

He turned abruptly then and walked away, followed by Callum who was sticking close to Georgie. Eventually, as they reached the bottom of the hill near the buildings, Rome slowed and offered her his arm, too, but she cried out when she saw him.

"Rome! Rome, did she bleed on you?"

"What?" Rome looked down at his arm. Which had been cut, through the coat, though not badly enough to worry about.

Except that wasn't his blood.

"You're kidding me!" Rome cried. Great. They didn't have time for this. Callum and Georgie looked at him with apprehension, like they wanted him to tell them what to do but at the same time were afraid he would snap and kill everything at any moment. Rome actually took it surprisingly well. He met their eyes and, "We have a deadline," he said.

They made their way--undetected so far--to the cluster of buildings. "Okay, we stick together. I'll take point, G, you cover me, Callum, you're on rear guard. We check the buildings until we find one for storage. We're looking for salt bags and propane tanks. We could also use a car or a golf cart or--ahhh!"

Rome was cut off as something jumped around the building at him, and he cried out. Shots rang out as Georgie and Callum fired, but no bullets found their mark--or, if they did, they did nothing to slow whatever had grabbed Rome from behind and was trying to pull the gun out of his hands.

With Lenna and Richard in tow, Morrigan made her way to toward where she knew they would find the bones. As she fingered the gun in her hand, she couldn't help but think how much nicer it was inside with everyone in one place. Isolation was deadly.

Lenna was still drunk with power, and Richard was keeping his distance, not wanting to become infected himself.

Aren't we the crew she thought. She could hear shots being fired, and knew that the other team had just been attacked. "I think we need to step this up a bit."

Richard and Lenna moved forward, continuing to sweep the area. "I think I see something!" Richard called, probing a copse of trees with his flashlight. "Looks like this area's been disturbed. Mass grave perhaps?"

"Now would be an excellent time for that those supplies."

Lenna turned to hear a growl behind her.

Callum continued aiming for the woman who tried to wrest the gun away from Rome, but Georgie recognized that superhuman strength immediately and knew she was infected and wouldn’t stop that easily. Callum hesitated for a moment when the woman was directly in front of Rome because he didn’t want to accidently shoot him instead of her.
Georgie felt her heart racing. She felt strange, and she immediately knew what was happening to her. She felt the sickness coming back again, but this time she didn’t try to fight it. She didn’t fight it on purpose because she hoped to regain some of that superhuman strength back that came with the sickness, but if she would focus enough she could use it against the woman instead of Rome. If she would focus enough. She was aware that what she did was freaking risky, but on the other hand she could trust her instincts more than an hour ago, because she knew she was able to think straight despite the crazy.
Callum shot the woman again, but she still didn’t stop. The moment she had grabbed Rome’s gun, Georgie just ran, lunged at her and dragged her to the ground. She wrestled the gun away from her and shot her multiple times until she felt the other woman stop moving.

“What the hell?”, she heard Rome, and she stared at the gun for a moment, struggling to control the crazy inside of her. Before she would lose control and attack Rome or Callum she quickly threw the gun at Rome’s feet, jumped up and took a few steps back.

“G, are you okay?” He picked up his gun.

Her heart was beating insanely fast. She took a deep breath. “I think so…” She felt her normal thoughts coming back again, and the strength left her. “Okay…” She looked at Rome. “I think I’m all right. Let’s see if we can find salt and propane.”

Rome still looked concerned, but was also wary at the same time. “Sure?”

She nodded.

Rome's heart was pounding, and his ears rang from being shot at, though he nodded gratefully at Callum and patted him on the shoulder.

"Um, so I guess I owe you a thank-you, G," he said, a little breathlessly, nervous about touching her, but feeling the need to connect her to reality. Against his better judgement, he stepped near her, and though she flinched and eyed him like either he or she was a wild animal, she let him hug her. Which felt nice.

Rome also noticed that he didn't feel different. He was cold, yeah, pissed off, sure, scared as all get-out, definitely. But he wasn't having homicidal thoughts any more than his usual desire to hunt things. Maybe it just took a while.

Well, he wasn't going to look a gift-horse in the mouth too closely, anyway, especially as Callum gave a shout from inside one of the buildings.

"Hey, guys!" he said. "I think I found what we're looking for!"

Rome picked his gun up out of the snow and took a peek inside. Sure enough, bags of salt in one corner, huge tanks of propane in the other, as if someone knew they would be needing them both together and just left them lying around.

The problem would be moving them.

"So, G," Rome tried to joke, "any chance we can get some of that superstrength back to do some heavy lifting, huh?" he said, laughing nervously.