One of these people is a relatively young mother, driving to school to pick up her son.

There seems to be an unusual amount of traffic, today.

Clarice is, unfortunately, rather used to traffic.

If it's bad enough she might call the school to let them know she's running late. After-school clubs, aka cheap babysitting – it's only polite to let them know.

Yeah it's a bit worse than usual, might be a good idea.

When there's a bad bit and the car's stopped and she can use her phone without breaking the law in too horrible a way, she calls the school.

Hands-free phone. She's wary of using it, still, but it's handy to have available.

It rings... more times than it usually does.

"Saint Monica's, how can I help?" says a harried-sounding voice.

"Hi there," says Clarice. "I'm really sorry – it's Clarice, Alexandre's mother? I'm going to be late picking him up."

"Oh—because of the traffic, right. Be careful out there? Lots of people are passing out kinda suddenly, while driving—and some people did the same thing here, it's a bit chaotic."

"… Right, thank you."

Is there anything on the radio about this?

No, news about a town that small takes a bit to circulate.

Oh, so at least it's not a large-scale thing, just localized.

Well, Clarice'll keep going slowly through the traffic.

She didn't really need this today, but it's not the worst day, at least.

It's not, indeed.

Eventually she does see an accident—someone fell asleep while driving and apparently can't be woken up.

...or maybe they're dead, what with the way this woman is panicking around them.

– Clarice frowns, looks around, and pulls over to the side of the road so she can get out and go over.

"Hello? Sorry, do you need some help?"

"He—he crashed against my car, and I got out to talk to him, and he's just dead. I tried calling one-nine-two and they said they'd be here as soon as possible but the town is hectic and they're getting lots of reports—"

Clarice moves towards the body. "Do you know any first aid, are you sure?"

Body! Any signs of breathing or life-like-ness?

"I—I don't, but—"

Nope. Dead as a doornail.

Body temperature? She might try CPR – CPR is probably not going to help but there's not much else she can do.

Warm, he's very recently dead.

CPR doesn't work.

Ambulance on its way but probably busy with other things ugh – "Might want a mask, if this is a gas leak."

She looks like this hadn't even occurred to her. "Do you have one? Of course not, where do we get one?"

And someone over there watching curiously falls dead.

"Use a top for now," responds Clarice, still performing CPR.

Nope, no deal.

Ten minutes is probably long enough for there to be lasting damage! However, it's possible she'll save the person if she continues for longer than that.

Ten minutes is not that long if it can save a life.

It doesn't.

Her stamina's good but it's not ridiculous. She keeps going for a bit longer.

How's the other woman doing?

Hyperventilating and crying, sitting on the sidewalk.

Doesn't Clarice have a son to pick up?

She does but there is a dying person here and there's traffic.

Where's the fucking ambulance? How many other dead people are there in the area?

Like four? And the cars are moving too little for an ambulance to arrive in a timely fashion.

Well the cars are probably moving too slowly for her to get approximately anywhere in a timely fashion herself, then.

More time on CPR. It's probably pointless at this stage, but, still.

Yep. Pretty pointless. That guy is dead. There's not even the slightest hint of a heartbeat there.

Okay but if there were an ambulance there is a chance that he could – ten minutes without any blood pumping is the point of brain damage, with CPR it extends a lot from that and he could still – but there's no ambulance coming, is there.

At least she hasn't dropped dead of whatever gas leak it is. Yet.

She stops, catches her breath, and pulls out her phone to dial the school back again.

It takes even longer to be picked up. "Yes?" There are children crying in the background.

"– Are the kids okay? It's Clarice, Alexandre's mother."

"Oh. Alexandre's fine, but a couple of the kids—" Her voice breaks. "We're trying to keep everyone calm, here. But please, come as fast as you can."

"Right, I'll try to – traffic is pretty dense, though, and I'm halfway across town."

She walks over to her car as she says this, looking back at the body just once.

Still dead.

Are people still dropping dead, can she tell, or was it just a brief wave?

As far as she can tell people are not dropping dead anymore.

Well, back into her car she gets, dialing her husband to check he's okay as she starts the vehicle.

No answer.

… Could be busy with saving someone. He's first-aid trained, she took him to a course.

She starts the car and pulls into the traffic.

It is slow but not stopped.

She tries her husband again after a few minutes.

Nope.

… After another ten.

Still no.

She keeps trying a few more times, while slowly moving through the traffic.

Eventually someone picks up. "Clarice?" asks a voice she recognises as a co-worker of her husband's.

"… Hello," she says. "Is this – is this a bad time, should I just wait?"

"Clarice, I'm so sorry."

"– Not even breathing?"

"I'm sorry," he repeats. "He just—collapsed, we called an ambulance but—"

"Ambulances can't get anywhere," says Clarice. "Yeah."

She keeps her eyes on the road.

"They'll be here soon, they said. I—I'm gonna hang up."

"Ok."

He hangs up.

Traffic advances as people start routing around the accidents.

Clarice keeps driving, focusing on the road.

She will soon reach the school.

Where she gets out of the car and goes towards the building.

There are slightly less panicked but still harried teachers and minders keeping the children from causing a bigger fuss.

And also her son! Her son is present.

He's frowning.

Well, of course, she lets the teachers and minders know she's there, keeping an eye on him as she does so.

They're happy to hand him off.

Okay, well, she's just gonna take him.

Thanks for watching him today.

You are quite welcome please take care of him and be safe.

She'll try.

She walks back out to the parking lot and gets to the car, realizes her keys are in her pocket and she has both arms around Alexandre, carrying him, and so she just waits there.

Until Alexandre interrupts, asks if they're waiting for someone, which prompts her to set him down to open the car up and get both her and Alexandre in.

Then she sits in front of the steering wheel, looking at the hedge in front of her. This time it only takes half a minute before she's reminded where she is, when she puts the car into gear and pulls out of the parking space, then starts driving home.

Yeah everyone else seems to be on similar boats.

No new people dropping dead, though, apparently.

Well that's fortunate. Maybe she'll get home at some non-ridiculous hour.

It will be... about an hour later than usual. She will see several ambulances going this way and that—but way less than would be strictly necessary for the emergency.

She gets into the house, puts Alexandre down, and phones her husband's number again.

"Yes?" a busy-sounding man answers.

"Sorry, I was calling to ask – I don't, is he – do I need to come to the office?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, we're very busy at the moment—this is the paramedic—we will process all our patients and contact family once we can."

"Ok," she responds. "– Thanks."

"We're very sorry for this. We will call you once it's less chaotic." Click.

She puts her phone down, goes over to the fridge, and gets out a meal to microwave. For dinner.

That's probably sufficient for today. For now. Until she tells Alexandre.

It probably is.

Nobody calls her.

And it's late enough it's probably noticeable that Alexandre's father isn't yet home.

So she sits him down and breaks the news to him, trying to be gentle.

It seems like maybe it doesn't sink in, with how calmly he takes it.

She asks if he's okay, if he understands what she said. He says he gets it and he's sad, but she's probably sadder.

And so they spend a couple of hours on the sofa watching a movie together.

Her phone rings before the movie ends.

"Be back in a minute," she says, getting up off the sofa to pick the phone up.

"Hello?"

"Clarice?" her husband's voice asks.

"– Marcos?"

"Honey," he breathes. "Are you and Alexandre alright?"

"We – we're both at home, but – what happened?"

"I don't know, I—passed out, and now I'm awake again and I don't know where I am or what happened, there's no one here—"

"Are you in a room? Do you think you're in a hospital, can you find someone there?"

"I'm—"

—he goes silent. The line doesn't die, he merely stops talking in it. After a second, she can hear his phone clattering to the ground.

"– Marcos?"

No answer. Then a scream. Then silence again.

She tries louder, in case anyone can hear or is paying attention to the stupid phone.

Nope. Faint footsteps—very fast, running—then a door opens, and another scream, more distant, then the door slams shut.

She doesn't even know where he is, she can't just call the emergency services and let them know.

"Hello?" she tries, again.

Silence.

She doesn't know what else to do and it probably is an emergency – so she gets the landline and calls emergency services.

No answer.

She tries again.

Nope.

… If she looks outside her window she doesn't see some horror show, does she?

No. Not a lot of people, given the time of day, but they seem mostly normal and not horror-y.

TV? If she coaxes Alexandre out of the room and switches on a news channel.

Breaking News! The—

—she no longer has access to TV.

… What about if she tries the radio?

Static.

What about on state-wide stations?

Same.

… And if she looks out the window again, has it descended into chaos?

Well now there are people leaving their houses and looking lost and talking to each other about what's going on.

She goes and does that too!

"… I'm guessing nobody knows what's up with my TV?"

Alexandre follows her curiously.

"No," one of her neighbors says. "Ours doesn't work either, and the radios, and..."

Clarice checks her phone's signal.

Nnnope.

"My phone doesn't have signal either," says Clarice, looking up and down the street.

Her neighbors check. "Mine doesn't, either."

"Or mine."

"… Did anybody else get a very disturbing call just a few minutes ago?"

"...call? From whom?" one of them asks.

"My husband," says Clarice, sniffing a bit. "Which, with all the panic today maybe, but – I was told he was one of the victims."

"Oh no, Clarice—" one says.

"But wait, how did he call you, then?" another asks.

"They might have got it wrong," she says. "Or someone was making an extremely cruel joke, but – I have no idea."

Alexandre hugs her leg.

"I—" There's a scream from one of the houses. They look at it. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah," another neighbor says.

"Alexandre, would you – go back to the house, wait inside?"

He looks at her and then in the direction of the scream, frowning.

"Alexandre? I'll be back in a minute, would you just wait inside please."

– So he does.

The scream does not repeat itself. One of the neighbors looks at Clarice. "We should go see what that was," she says.

"Yeah."

She tries emergency services again, just in case.

Nope.

Well.

Towards the scream, then.

One of her neighbors—a woman named Alessandra—goes with her.

The house is silent. She knocks. "Julia? Are you in there?"

Clarice goes to the side of the porch, trying to see in through the window.

Then she'll be able to see Julia's husband practically fly through the door and fling himself at Alessandra. She screams.

– Clarice shouts for help, looking around for a good heavy stick or something.

The other neighbors—well, one tries calling emergency, the other seems to try to do the same as Clarice—and then Alessandra stops screaming as Heitor sinks his teeth into her throat and starts draining her.

Clarice notices this a moment later, after having successfully determined there are no obvious sticks to be found, and freezes very briefly.

Then she's running back to her house to grab Alexandre.

Before she's even one third of the way to her house the—vampire, probably—is on her other neighbor, Marta, and she screams for just a second before losing strength for even that.

That just makes her run faster because she was – not as certain it wasn't some bizarre trick, that she was wrong – and now she is rather certain.

She looks behind herself a couple of times, making sure not to trip but trying to work out how close she is to being dead, if there's anything she can do to stop it.

She should probably get the hell out of dodge immediately. He hasn't noticed her—no, scratch that, he notices her just as she's getting to her front door, he starts running towards her—

Fortunately the door is not locked because she lives in a small town it is wonderful here no-one is evil and killer and her door is not going to help her but she's going into the house anyway–

He's going to catch her it's over she goes through the door—

—he stops—

—he doesn't seem to know why he stopped. He blinks, looks at her through the open door, frowns in concentration, growls, and runs elsewhere.

– She catches herself, having almost tripped over a shoe in the porch, and shouts for Alexandre, looking panicky and confused.

The view from the open door includes: a sprinting turned-vampire neighbor, his dead wife, another of Clarice's neighbors, also dead, and no one else.

There's really nothing she can do, here.

Then Alexandre is at the bottom of the stairs and looking at her worriedly.

She grabs her keys off the table near the door and looks outside again, blocking Alexandre's view.

The scene has not chan—oh look someone just ran past her house really really fast.

And then they stop, do a double-take, and run towards her fuck fuck they're too fast they're gonna get her—

She looks a little wide-eyed and starts to move backwards. Even though it won't help.

It does seem to help, given the way they—she, is that Maria Ana?—given the way she stops running just shy of going through her threshold, frowns in confusion, and moves on.

– Vampire myths.

Clarice looks over at Alexandre, tells him to get back in the house, away from the door, then hurriedly pushes the front door shut and moves into the house proper herself.

Then she busies herself trying to find garlic or silver or anything shiny and a flashlight and a firestarter and – anything she thinks might help.

Alexandre stands near the door to the kitchen, looking out the window.

VAMPIRE—

He jumps back!

Clarice notices and moves to get Alexandre out of the way – what happens if she tries to catch its attention with some silver? She is assuming this is not a wonderful idea but she has no wonderful ideas because of vampires.

The vampire is gone before she can do so.

Well at least it isn't in the house – why is it not in the house, invitations are not really a magical thing, magic does not exist, this makes no sense.

She takes a moment to pause, turn to Alexandre, crouch down, and say, "Don't let anyone into the house, okay?"

He nods, looking frightened.

Good enough for her.

She gets back to gathering things and trying to find a piece of wood – how much does she care about that table, oh, not a huge amount, how about she dismantle it –

Her phone rings.

She pauses in her work to consider and then goes over to the landline and picks up.

"—Clarice?" her husband's voice breathes.

"Marcos – have you been outside, I feel crazy but it's –" She pauses and looks for Alexandre. "It's not great out there."

"I have, I—I don't understand what I've seen, what's going on—my mobile phone doesn't work anymore. You and Alexandre are safe?"

"For now, I think, yeah," she says. "Just – this is going to sound ridiculous, but, there are vampires."

"I know."

"… I thought you might."

"I'm—I'm going home." Click.

– No, no, she wants to phone him back.

She hits redial, since he probably didn't call from his mobile.

It rings.

No one picks it up.

And if she tries again.

Continues to not be picked up.

She thinks she will lock the door. And lock all the windows. And shut the curtains.

She has no idea how the cannot-cross-thresholds thing works, but if there's any reason for it to fail, it'd be because the vampire owns the house. Maybe symbolic gestures will help.

She starts hearing screams in the distance, too, and shadows through her blinds every now and then.

Well maybe she can just set Alexandre up to watch a movie quietly in the other room so he doesn't have to be distracted by the screams.

Then get back to dismantling that table.

She hears car sounds approaching.

She doesn't think she wants to hear car sounds approaching.

She goes into the back room and looks out the window anyway.

It seems to be her husband!

"– Marcos, please be careful."

He gets out of the car, leaving it on, and walks to the door.

He rings the bell.

She goes to the door, stands the other side, and says, "Hello?"

"Clarice," he breathes. "Can—can I come in?"

"… I don't think that'd be a good idea, not right now."

"—why?"

Were his eyes this blue before?

She pauses. "I don't know if the myths, or fiction, is at all right, but." She swallows. "It might be dangerous."

"I'm—I'm here. I'm alright. I'm alive."

"Yeah," she agrees. "But maybe – I mean, have you seen what they've been doing?"

"I—I—" Pause. "I'm still me."

"– Honey, please."

"What should I do?"

"I – I don't know, do you, I mean, we probably –" Pause. "We should probably wait a bit, see what happens from all this. – It's probably not safe for us, though. For Alexandre."

"—my little boy. Can—can I see him?"

"It would… he thinks you're dead, right now, Marcos. He probably – I, it shouldn't stay this way, but I don't know that it's a good idea right now."

"Please, honey, let me see my son one more time—"

"– You need to be careful."

"I promise."

"– I'll bring him here," she says, moving to do as such.

He waits patiently.

"– Alê, there's someone at the door," she says, in the other room. "Yes, I know it's been – scary out there," her breath hitches a little, "but it's someone you'll want to see."

Shortly afterwards, Alexandre walks through the kitchen and then into the hall.

Then he can see his dad.

"Hi, buddy," he says, smiling a bit. "Uh, don't come out. I just—wanted to see you."

He looks at his mom, then back.

"– I thought I wouldn't see you again?"

"Y—yeah, I, uh—" His voice breaks a little. "I might need to go away for a while."

"… Do– uh, do you know how long?"

"...no, I'm sorry. I'll—I promise I'll do my best to not be long."

"Ok," he responds. "… Will you be able to phone us?"

"I—" He looks up at his wife.

"… If you, ah, if you can do it safely?"

He looks at Alexandre. "I promise."

"Do you have to go now?"

"Y—yeah, I'm afraid so."

"See you… soon? Or, phone." He looks down.

"Yeah. I love you, champion."

"I love you too."

He stands up straighter, looks like he wants to walk in, then sighs. "I'm sorry."

Away he goes.

"How about we go back in," suggests Clarice, shutting the door.

Alexandre doesn't object.

So she sets him up… watching a movie, again, because it's probably not totally calm outside, and she gets back to trying to prepare some weapons and such.

It's fortunate they have some food in the house.

Yeah.

It's quiet outside.

… That probably bodes badly, not well, unfortunately.

After a few minutes, she looks out the window to check. Just how badly or well it bodes.

There are no scavenger animals picking the bodies, but otherwise it's dark enough she cannot see much.

… No creepy probably-vampires hanging around?

None visible, no.

She moves away from the window, then.

She – pauses, realizing she's been stupid, and picks up the phone to call her aunt, out of state, see what she knows about the situation.

Line's dead.

… Of course it is.

Well, she gets back to making her preparations. She has hacked part of the table to bits and has a convenient stake now.

She starts sharpening it, out of view of Alexandre.

She hears a crash.

She jumps, then tells Alê not to worry about it and gets up and goes to a window on that side of the house.

Seems like a vampire has thrown a stone at her neighbor's window.

She ducks, pointlessly, and lets the curtain fall back over the window.

A moment later she gets up and goes over to Alexandre – leaves the stake on the side in the kitchen – and suggests it might be time for bed and that they can just turn the TV off, okay?

The outside is silent again.

And then Alexandre is in bed, having brushed his teeth, and Clarice is back downstairs, retrieves her wooden stake, and is hopefully able to get through the night by not being killed by a flying rock or anything.

She tries to sit there quite quietly.

Another crash.

She gets up after a few seconds to see what's happened.

A couple of vampires are depredating another house.

… It's probably not a good idea to keep looking out the window.

She goes to sit back inside again. Quietly.

She has a book if she gets tired of just listening.

A brick flies through one of her windows, shattering it.

She jumps again, then ducks in case any more come through.

That looks suspiciously like a Molotov Cocktail sailing through her kitchen window.

She tries to move out of the way – put a wall between her and it.

BOOM

She hisses as the flames grow behind her, manages to throw herself just out of the path of them so she doesn't get so burnt – can't say anything for the rest of the room – and holds her breath so she doesn't inhale hot air and damage her lungs.

Alexandre probably won't think of those ideas, though.

He probably will not, but he's upstairs in bed —

And that likely will not protect him.

Clarice tries to pull herself up from the floor, choking a little on the hot air – she doesn't have practice trying to hold her breath that long under these circumstances, she's not good enough for this – and heads for the stairs.

More crashes come from downstairs, but no explosions.

– Alexandre's crying, but fortunately not actually physically harmed – Clarice doesn't know what to do next or where to go –

She grabs her bag from the landing, it has some medical supplies and could be useful.

Out the window is an option – a deadly one, they'll be killed in minutes if not seconds – but staying within the building is hardly sustainable when it's going to be up in flames in a few minutes –

She has some time to decide, the fire won't consume her and her child right this minute.

She gets Alexandre to hold still – she can probably trust him to do as she tells him in this sort of scenario, he should understand some of the weight of it all – and starts pulling things from the bed, trying to figure out how to get them some more time.

(At some point she lost the weapon she had. Not an immediate problem, it's not the most immediate problem – she wouldn't have been able to fight them off anyway – but it still leaves her feeling more vulnerable than she'd like.)

The cover will be able to soften the landing if they go out the window, and a sleeping bag from the cupboard can go around the edge of the door into the room, reduce the smoke that gets in, give them maybe a little more time –

Not that much smoke yet, but probably a good idea.

It occurs to her now that the pain she's been ignoring – may be a problem, shortly. She didn't think she'd been injured that badly, and maybe she hadn't, maybe it won't be a problem – there's not much she can do about it right now anyway.

She opens the curtains, checks out the window at the ground outside – without opening the window just yet.

Empty grounds. The houses she knows are empty (because everyone died) are undamaged, but the others have fires in them or are otherwise destroyed.

… The vampires are targeting inhabited houses. Of course. To toy with them or to drive them out, she doesn't know, but she'd hazard a guess at the latter.

This does not bode well for her but – is her car okay, maybe that'd count as – protected – residence –? Unless it's destroyed.

Car: intact.

Oh joy of fucking joys.

She turns to face her son, crouches down, and looks him in the eyes. "Alexandre, I'm gonna need you to be really brave, okay?"

He's still crying, a little, and looks rather terrified in response to this.

"It's not safe for us to stay in here." She's trying to impress the point on him without terrifying him, she doesn't need to mention the house will go up in flames. He may have already guessed. "Do you have anything small you want to bring with you – we might not be back anytime soon."

He bites his lip a little, then nods and looks over at his bed.

Clarice tries not to sigh. "Is it in here? Would you get it, I don't know what it is."

He does so. Apparently it's his little toy elephant. Of course it is. She should've guessed.

"Okay, you know what I told you? How to get out of the house safely, if it's not safe to go down the stairs? We're going to do that, but I'm here so it'll be fine, you just have to do as I say." She grabs the mattress off the bed, having gone through this all before – the window is large enough to squeeze it out, the mattress is relatively small, and the drop is not far enough to be too dangerous – and so she does that, checking just before that there are no evident dangers –

And then it's time to jump out the window of the burning-down house into the open area including vampires so she can pray for the faint hope the car will protect them and let them get out of this godforsaken area.

It's a faint hope.

She goes first, trusting Alexandre to follow after her.

There are no vampires in sight.

And she has her bag on her, fetches her keys out of it and unlocks the car –

A small oof sound from behind her, Alexandre, but then he's getting up and stumbling over to the car with her –

Something slams against the car just as the doors close, an insanely fast mass of snarling and hatred that resolves into the shape of a teenage girl with unnatural blue eyes.

She jumps, Alexandre cries out – she fumbles with the keys, trying to put them in the ignition and get the car going –

And then a different vampire slams against the first one, sending her flying. "Go!" her husband growls.

– She puts the car into reverse, slams down on the accelerator to get out of the driveway.

Her husband is fighting the other vampire so she's clear to go.

Then she halts the movement of the vehicle and puts it into forward gear, ready to get the heck out of here.

The heck out of here is that-a-way.

She gets going, then looks over at her son, briefly, and back at the road. "Alexandre – put on your seatbelt."

He does so, ducking down from the window – he's so small, why is he in this whole mess – and then looks at her. "What about yours?"

"Your mother is busy right now, I'm afraid, driving away from the danger," responds Clarice. "But it's good of you to check and she will put it on in a minute."

Corpse.

She tells Alexandre not to look – he does as she says, probably, mostly, or at least pretends – and she routes around it.

More of those!

...car on fire!

Is she still able to route around the vehicle? She's aiming to get out of town, somehow, if she can. Low chance it works but staying around doesn't seem better.

She can!

...traffic!

… With other living people or just cars in the way?

Well there are cars in the way and people trying to get around them so both.

No obvious route around it, in the car?

No.

Fuck.

She tells Alexandre to stay behind, gets out and tries to look over the cars – is there a route ahead, is it clear? (She stays nearby, not leaving Alexandre.)

It's not clear. As far as she can look there's destruction.

And a suspicious absence of vampires.

She's in a horror movie with no good options. She and her son are in a horror movie with no good options. Her husband is – missing, hopefully not attacking other people – and there's no clear way out.

She gets back into the car so she can drive around for some other route out of town.

"Drive around" is not really going to happen, here. The streets are packed. Some people are shutting themselves in their houses, but most seem to have arranged themselves in groups and are carrying things like strings of garlic and stakes.

It's not like it's feasible to just walk out of town –

She parks the car again, gets out and tells Alexandre to follow – goes towards a nearby group, one she might be able to talk into trying to leave town.

They all get closer together and point their stakes at her. One of them shakes a string of garlic in her direction. "Prove you're not a vampire," one says without so much as a by-your-leave.

"How am I meant to do that? I'm not a vampire, I don't bite people –"

She also has a little boy with her.

"Your eyes. Let me see them."

She tries to open her eyes wider. "Do you need to come closer to see or –?"

"...slowly. And he stays there," the woman says, pointing at Alexandre.

Clarice looks like she might object – checks around briefly to look for any other danger –

None apparent.

"– Okay." She starts walking towards the woman, slowly, indicating for Alexandre to stay put. "Why my eyes?"

She looks. "Vampires have this weird blue colour. You're fine, though. Him, now."

She turns back to go fetch him –

The woman waits.

Alexandre looks a little bit terrified, but when prompted does try to show his eyes. (They're blue-grey but definitely not electric blue.)

The woman nods. "You can come, then."

"– And, do we have a plan to get out?"

"Walk."

"Are we doing that now, do we have – I don't know, emergency food for the journey?"

The various assembled people point at their bags.

"… Does the garlic even do anything."

"Who knows. We haven't had a chance to test it."

Pause. "I suppose you wouldn't have." She sighs. "House perimeter seems to do it?"

"Yeah, so we're trying the myths, but we can't get holed up forever."

"I have seen at least one who appears to bear resemblance to his human self and who didn't attack us despite being given the chance."

"Oh, sure, they're probably not completely gone. Just mostly."

"Enough it's a problem to be around them, yeah." Sigh. "Do we get going – sorry for interrupting the group."

"Yeah, let's," she says brusquely, and the group starts walking on.

Clarice makes sure Alexandre is following – holds his hand, seems like a sensible precaution – and tries to fall into place in the group.

The group isn't exactly socialising. They're just—sort of terrified and together so they won't die.

Clarice is not sure this will actually help them but okay.

She can try making sure Alexandre's fine.

They will walk in silence and try to ignore the fires and occasional faraway screams.

"I keep thinking it'd be useful if – we knew their capabilities?"

"Sure, want to invite one for tea and a chat?"

Clarice gives the speaker a flat look. "Not helpful."

"Neither is the suggestion that we can actually talk to the things," she snaps.

"Let's—not fight with each other, yeah? We've all seen that movie," says someone else, placatingly.

Clarice takes a breath, and tries again in a hopefully more polite tone. "I mean, more, have you tried to pool together observations – I don't know what counts, what could be useful."

"Yeah, we have. Not a whole lot to do. They're faster than cars, can't get into houses, seem to go crazy around blood of any kind and sometimes people, and are fucking charming."

She frowns. "… I – hadn't realized the last one –?"

Alexandre is not sure how to feel about the swearing.

"Hard to think of them as dangerous, when they're near you, and you want to believe them, and then they bite." The woman shows a scar, neatly healed but obvious in source, between her shoulder and her neck.

Alexandre tries not to make a face.

"– But – you got away alright?"

"Kinda. Hit him in the head many times and my sister did too and he got back to his senses and ran."

"… So, not malicious intent, just – incapable of resisting?"

"Who knows. Probably."

"… That – I guess might be useful, if we get attacked?"

"I was lucky. They mostly don't get distracted by hits to the head." She shows a gun on her hip. "Bullets, though, maybe."

"– I – we should consider that – a hit to the head might be like a tap and a bullet might be like a slap, they might take more offense at the higher damage."

"Fine, I can shoot 'em after trying to hit 'em."

… Nod.

More moving in silence.

She keeps an eye out for danger, warily – not that she'll be able to do much, but, still.

Nothing in sight.

And Alexandre – is doing okay?

He's looking a bit tired. Predictably scared.

Physically mostly unharmed.

Oh good.

Walk walk walk.

Ominous silence.

… Ominous moreso than before?

Kinda.

– Are there not many people around, did they just disappear?

Well there already weren't—most people are locked up in their houses or in their cars or in other bands like this—but this particular street is particularly deserted.

"… It's quite quiet," she comments, trying to sound… like she's doing it absently.

"Yeah. Creepy."

She tries to move inwards, not stray too near the edge of the pack. Alexandre comes with.

Walk walk shuffle shuffle.

"Little bit of a bad feeling."

The lead gal grunts acknowledgement.

… Nothing she can actually do to help herself be more prepared.

Alexandre can stay very close.

Silence silence silence—

—a scream—

– From nearby or further away?

Further away.

Keeping moving would probably be a good idea.

Alexandre looks like he's trying not to cry.

—another scream, closer by. They start walking faster.

Alexandre jumps.

Clarice speeds up herself. She encourages Alexandre to walk faster.

Silence.

The silence is terrifying. But maybe better than active screaming if the vampires are elsewhere.

There is a blur and a scream and the woman who was leading them is on the floor with a vampire attached to her and the others scream too and start running and someone shoots the vampire and now the vampire is on him—

She snaps her head around to look – realizes that wasted precious time and she has nothing to hand to help her – and bolts away from the group, pulling Alexandre with her.

There are more screams and growls. Someone fires a gun, twice.

– Neither bullet hits her, Alexandre doesn't jerk in a worrying way – they keep going –

The screams don't follow her.

And her son, her son is – hopefully okay but it's more important they get away or they won't be if they currently are – they won't get away sufficiently anyway but there's a chance.

Alexandre stumbles a little but catches himself – can't run as quickly as his mother, he's too small, but he's desperate to try.

It soon becomes eerily silent again.

They keep going – while they can, at least; Alexandre starts to lag.

Is there anyone else about, are there obvious weapons, obvious ways for her to defend them?

Nope. Some cars are on fire. Some houses are on fire. The town is open enough to the air that this isn't a direct threat but it seems everyone's run away one way or another. She can probably salvage stuff, though.

If there's something she can pry loose – a piece of metal? Or preferably actually some sort of wood, are there trees that look liable to lose branches –?

This is a town and those are houses, if she puts her mind to it and believes in herself she will find these things.

It doesn't take too long, and she has a serviceable weapon. One that might do absolutely no good against anything if she's unlucky, but a weapon nonetheless.

They keep going, heading out of town. Alexandre hiccups, every so often, but doesn't actively distract her, just follows.

Silence silence silence scream explosion scream silence.

They keep going.

There's someone over there.

– They can just carefully not walk that way.

Then the person won't notice them and will merely whimper in pain.

Cold, heartless, ignoring the person in case it's – a trap, no, probably not, but it's not something they can really afford to help with.

She encourages Alexandre along.

Whimpers die down as they get farther from the person.

Of course they do.

More silence.

More walking, jogging, pacing themselves, trying to get away.

Someone zooms past them.

She jumps a little, as they pass by – doesn't aim anything at them threateningly, just hopes they'll leave them be.