Liela Kestrel burned, and it was difficult to imagine how. By the time extinguishers had been found and used, she was already gone. Felicia and a man representing the shattered helm met in the infirmary where Liela had been, against Felecia's order, alone. But that wasn't right, not exactly. She hadn't been alone. If she had been, there wouldn't be such a mess. It seemed obvious that the carnage was the result of a struggle. With who though? The table in the infermary had been toppled along with the pile of empty plastic bags that had been laying on it, those that hadn't melted that was. The room stank of burning flesh, burnt feathers, and chlorine. What worried Felecia most though was the cabinet. To the left of the infermaries voluminous sink was a tall medical cabinet which had been kept locked at all times save for the key kept by Leila and the spare kept by Felecia. It was locked. That was perfectly normal except that if it was locked, then what were all the bags doing out? They had contained the work crews supply of antifungal powder, grains of precious Mycus killing medicine, chalky yet sand like. The guard, Darby, had discovered where the powder had gone. A chalky residue had been left caked in thin streamers down to the drain.
"Why Darby? Why would she wash it all down the drain?" Felecia asked, certain that this new horror would send the workers over the edge if they found out.
"I don't know miss, but I'm willing to bet she had a very good reason. Something wrong with it maybe? Or..." Darby trailed off.
"Or what?"
"Or maybe... Someone else did it?"
Silence fell between them as the disaster that was the infermary suddenly took on a more grim implication. The table, broken as a woman and... Someone, tumbled onto it. The cracked mirror, as though it had been struck by the small globe lying broken on the floor along with the broken medical equipment swept from it's neat organization upon the countertop. Despite the signs of struggle though, it didn't make sense that Leila had been set on fire. Why do that when simply killing her almost any other way would have drawn less immediate attention? The question it turned out, would be answered from outside the security line and in short order.
"She didn't lend out the key did she? She knew better than that right?" Felecia asked. Darby shook his head, then frowned.
"Key wasn't on her body miss. I suppose she could have dropped it, or it was taken after, but I don't think so." He mumbled thoughtfully. His radio crackled, startling them both. "Aye, she's here. What? Jesus, alright I'll let her know." He put the radio away and looked the foreman dead in the eyes. "The shattered helm found Samson."
Catnip sat in the auditorium under watch along with everyone else by the improvised guards that had been assigned after the Leila's dramatic death. They were waiting now for news. The foreman had ordered everyone to the auditorium to await further instruction while she spoke with some men from the shattered helm and searing spear. In the meantime, she found herself seated with Tenny. The small woman was toying with a little chain on her wrist, fussing and worrying over it. The little bracelet was covered in all sorts of little objects and Catnip had a hard time telling herself that it did not tickle her fancy. In fact she thought it just the sort of thing Kathrine might enjoy.
"Hello uh... Tenny. Whatcha doin?" She asked freindily. Tenny started and stuffed her hand in her pocket before Catnip could get more than two words in and glanced wildly around the auditorium. Before Catnip had decided to try and open up, she'd seen something in Tenny. In the way the woman had examined her bracelet. Vacant, hollow, fear. The terror of recollection which the Misling woman on Catnip's other side had stared out the window of an old dealership with, reliving dark memories. Quinn would have told her that the look was a Hallmark of a little thing called "trauma." He himself could have told her all about the in's and outs of trauma, but he wasn't here. Quinn was in New England, far away from this terrible place.
"N-nothing. I don't want to..." She began, trailing off into unintelligible mumbling at the end. To Catnip, it sounded like she had a mouthful of cotton. L gave her a gentle nudge with her elbow and a small admonishion to leave the poor lady alone, but Catnip persisted.
"What's that? That chain thingy?" She pressed. Tenny shied away uncomfortably and Catnip began to lose hope that she would ever speak with her, when she did.
"It... It's a charm bracelet... You d-dont know what a charm bracelet is?" She withdrew her hand and showed it off tentatively, drawing back when Catnip reached out to touch it. Little dancing animals and tiny bells dangled from tiny loops on the chain, each one representative of a significant event in the wearers life or of some characteristic. Catnip later learned the general meaning of charm bracelets later when things had calmed down. For now, all she wanted to do was look at it. L gave it more than a passing glance, remembering one she'd kept as a child. Lost, that bracelet, for years now. She'd given it to her husband in leiu of a wedding ring when... L shuddered and pushed the memories away. As pleasant as they would be, they would only lead her back into the dark. She did more than shudder, L flinched. The bracelet was just too much for her. Memories of a basement in the countryside and the smell of rot and the sound of...
Tenny was staring at her. "You know too, don't you? What... What it's like?" L's lips became a thing frowning line on her elongated snout and she tensed visibly. "To lose them all... And not be able to do anything about it? To... To listen to their screams and-"
"Shut the fuck up..." L growled. Catnip was shocked. L often shifted between meek and brash, but never outright hostile. Not until now. She realized it too. "Sorry Nip, but I'm going to go sit over there... I don't need to hear anymore of this..." L finished before storming off. Catnip watched her go feeling confused and conflicted. L was hurting now and it was all so sudden, she wanted to go to her and see if she could make it better. At the same time though, L was partly responsible for Catnip being here and Catnip wanted her to hurt a bit. The vindictive feeling was strong, but unnecessary. Hurtful to herself even. Catnip felt tired, and decided she would go after L. Tenny seemed to have descended back into her own dark memory, and out of her reach for the time being.
"Alright everyone, have a seat, I've got news. A little good, a lot of bad, and I don't think we can afford to play our hands close to the vest anymore. A couple hours ago, just before Leila's death, the shattered helm went to check out our computer specialists home again to see if he'd come back. All I can really say is, they found him. Or something that looked like him..." Felecia let it sink in, the idea that who or what was found at Samson's home might not have been him at all but rather something pretending to be him. "They tell me it didn't take long to figure out, the real Samson had those ear plugs things and the... The copycat or whatever, didn't. When it thought it was alone, it tried to attack someone as well. Some kind of new Mycus monster... They shot him, it, and it started to change. Sprouting tendrils and spouting spores. So they burned it. Sounds bad, I know, but that isn't even the bad news. The bad news is that when we take all the evidence into consideration, Darby here and I believe there may be a similar creature among us."
That got them going, the auditorium exploded with shouted questions and exclamations. Somewhere in the back rows, someone had just passed out. Not just a murderer in their midst, but some shapeshifting Mycus horror, it could be any one of them. Felecia heard it, and immediatly went into damage control.
"No no! Calm down folks, calm down, panic can be more deadly than you think, just listen God damnit." She shouted into the din. It took a long few moments in which she thought the whole gathering would start stampeding for the doors, but it never happened and things calmed somewhat. That was good, but not perfect. Felecia waited for them to really settle down and noticed something she should have seen right away. There were less of them now. Less people in the auditorium now than there had been last time. Had they found a way out? If so, then why hadn't they come back to tell those trapped inside about it? If not, then where were they? A thin fog of unease dropped over her, with a touch of the paranoia she was beginning to develop tinting it. If one of them... No, if ALL of them were infected, how would she know? Administering antifungus would have done it, but there wasn't any left anymore. It had been washed down the infermary drain, and Felecia had an inkling that told her Leila hadn't been the one to do it. Leila had simply walked in on it happening. She could almost see it in her minds eye, she forgets her key to the cabinet or maybe loses it, goes back to the infermary alone to look for it and finds... Someone, dumping it into the sink. It was falling into place in her mind now, sure. She tries to stop whoever it is, realizes just what's she's up against, maybe gets bit or infected somehow. It made perfect sense, then...
"Whoever she's fighting with escapes and she sets herself on fire before she can succumb to the Mycus..." Felecia mumbled, "So she won't leave an infected body behind..."
"Um, ma'am?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, sorry about that. Just thinking. What did you say?" She said hastily, realizing she'd spaced out for a moment there.
"I asked, should we pass out fungus medicine?"