Clarice's brother, Curt, was a tough guy, good with his fists and with guns. Ex-military turned firefighter. Of course that didn't protect him from diseases. About three days ago he, and his colleagues from work, had catched something that provoked some sort of headaches. At least he said that through the phone. Clarice didn't give it a second thought, but as days passed the situation got worse, because he wasn't even answering the phone. Clarice decided to pay him a visit to help if he so needed.

It had started to rain as she got close to Green Oaks city and she regretted having chosen the motorbike. That explained why all the streets were so empty in a Friday afternoon. She quickly saved the bike in the garage of her brother's house as soon as she got there. Curt wasn't at home and he hadn't left any note, rare for a sick person, so she decided to go to his second most likely whereabout, the fire station. At least his companions could know something, if he weren't there.

In another part of the city Lenny was nervous because it was his first day in his new job as a security guard in an important pharmaceutical company, Spenford pharmaceutics, and he didn't want to screw it up. When he entered in the building, crossing the electric, sliding glass gates, he was surprised to see that it was empty. He checked his emails on his phone to make sure that he was in the right place at the right time, but the company had only sent him a boringly long document about health security measures. He had read the proper documents a month ago and they couldn't possibly have changed that much. He shrugged his shoulders and went to the check in counter, hoping that his boss would appear and tell him what to do.

After thirty minutes waiting Clarice accepted resignedly that the rain wasn't going to stop, so she decided to leave the bike in the garage, grab an umbrella, and walk to the station. It wasn't that far anyways. The streets were still empty and that was great because there weren't cars either and she could walk in a straight line.

Lenny was starting to get worried. Nobody had come. No phone calls, internal nor external. He guessed that it was normal at those hours. The rare part was that the main gate was open, which meant that they expected people to come. Or somebody had forgotten to close it. He checked again the email his boss had sent him, and indeed they were supposed to met that day at that hour.

Suddenly the door opened and a woman got in. She was wearing a raincoat, and ample sunglasses covered a good part of her face, but the bottom half of her legs were on sight, and he saw pantyhose and high heels. She walked straight to the elevator but was startled when Lenny called her.

-Excume, ma'am. The building is closed.- He tried to sound authoritarian but he failed because he wasn't sure of what he was saying.

-But I had an appointment in the tenth floor.- The floor where the bigwigs had their office.

-Wait a moment.- If the woman had also an appointment, Lenny guessed that the mistake wasn't his, but someone else's. He grabbed a phone and tried to call someone checking the extensions on a document next to the phone. Nobody answered.

-Maybe the phones don't work. Can you escort me there?- The woman asked hesitangtly.

He didn't have the clearance to go to those floors. He hadn't even signed the contract that made him officially an employee of the company yet. Though he did know where to find the security cards to go there, so literally speaking he could escort her. Hoping that any person up there could explain him what was going on, he went to the security room, behind the check in counter, and grabbed the card. Entering in the elevator he inserted the card in the appropriate slot and pushed the button to the tenth floor.

Once in the tenth floor the woman guided Lenny to the office where she was going to have the meeting. Along the way he heard a sound behind a door. He went to its source, opened the door and saw a woman dressed with a lab coat. It was rare because the labs where between the third and eighth floor but it wasn't impossible to find a scientist in the tenth, and anyways he was happy to find a person at last. When he turned around to tell the news to the woman of the raincoat he saw that she was aiming a gun at him. It was small, might as well have been in one of her pockets all the time. She shot.

Ten minutes later Clarice arrive to the fire station. A man was in front of the main gate. He was caressing his temple, maybe because of a headache. Maybe her brother's disease was contagious. Maybe all the people in the city were sick at home. She approached him to ask but when she got close she saw that he has holding his penis with his other hand and that he was full erect. She got distrated for a moment because of the surprise and in those few seconds he sprung at her, surrounding her with his arms and kissing her, inserting his tongue deeply into her mouth. His saliva had a very rare taste and slimy lumps. She needed a moment to recover from the surprise and when she did so she punched him hard several times in a quick sucession, knocking him out, a very useful trick that her brother had taught her.

As the gate was locked she produced a clip from a pocket and picked the lock to open it, a trick that she had learnt from her brother's best friend and workmate, Julia. Once inside the building he used the umbrella to lock the door by threading it through the handle and the gap between a pipeline and the wall next to it. She hoped that at least would stall the asshole if he tried to get in.

As she had feared the building was empty and in complete silence, something that supposedly should never happen in a fire station. As she had been there with his brother before she was familiar with the place. Going to the garage she found out that of the two trucks that were usually there, one was missing. Which could mean that her brother and his mates could be out there doing their jobs. If so they should have a radio. She went to the communications room were supposedly should always be someone to be able to respond to any emergency, but again it was empty. Or so she though until she heard whimpering sounds inside a locker. Warily she opened it and found a girl of about twelve years, dressed in a school uniform.

Lenny woke up when he started to have trouble breathing. When he opened his eyes he realized that the lab coat woman had stuck her togue in his throat. She had the most disguting saliva he had ever tasted or smelled. He tried to push her aside gently but she kept insisting. Scared, angry and about to choke, he grabbed the stun gun and shocked her several times until she was knocked out.

He felt dizzy and weak. He realized that he had something puncturing his neck. It was a dart. The rain coat woman had shot him a dart, probably with some kind of narcotic. The most obvious explanation was that she didn't want to be seen doing something in that building. Maybe stealing something. Or sabotaging something. If she were there to kill someone, Lenny would probably be dead. In any case he had to find her as keeping intruders out of the building was his damn job.

Looking at the unconscious woman on the floor he wondered what to do with her and decided to let her sleep right there, and deal with that later. He went back to the security room in the ground floor hoping that the cameras could find her. Otherwise he'd have to check all the floors one by one. Curiously the security card was still in his pocket. He would have guessed that she would steal it.

-What are you doing here alone?- The girl was trembling and when Clarice tried to approach her she cowered in fear.- I'm not going to hurt you, I'm looking for my brother.

-The big man told me to hide in here. The place has been empty for two days, I've been taking food from the kitchen.

-A fire station empty for two days!- That was a very bad sign. There musted have been a very important emergency, but Clarice hadn't heard of anything in the news.- What's his name, the big man?

-Curt.

-Curt! That's my brother!- The girl hugged her. Suddenly she started to feel slightly aroused. She had felt attracted to women a couple of times, specially to her brother's best friend, Julia, because she was pretty and smart and awesome, but he never felt horny because of a stranger hugging her, much less a sobbing child. She put those thoughts aside for the moment, and caressed the girl's hair to calm her down.- Tell me everything.

The girl, by the name Sheila, explained the situation. Starting about a week ago, there had been a big increase of acts of exhibitionism, sexual assault, rape and similar crimes. Both assaultants and victims were from all ages, genders and backgrounds. In most cases people that had never done such things. The police was overwhelmed. People were asked to stay at home, but the assaults also happened inside the families. Three days ago, her own father, that normally worked at a laboratory but was at home for some reason, assaulted Sheila. He stopped before doing any harm and apologized, but she got scared and called the police. As they were very busy, and their numbers reduced because also there had been incidents of the kind inside the force, the emergency was passed to the fire department. Curt and a woman, that by the description Clarice guessed it was Julia, broke into Sheila's home and took her to the fire station as a temporary measure. Then they left again and so did the others to answer to similar emergencies.

-I don't know more, I'm sorry.- The girl ended her tale.

-Not your fault.- Clarice, who was still aroused even if they had broken the embrace a while ago, pondered their next step.- So if your father is not feeling well we cannot take you home.- Clarice was worried about her brother, but she didn't want to leave the girl alone. Besides, he could be anywhere, she had no more clues.- What about your mother?

-I haven't seen her in a week. She's very busy at her job, or so she said.

-Well, let's go find her.

Clarice recognized in the garage Julia's car. His brother used to go there on foot as he lived close by. She hoped that Julia would forgive her for using her car without permission. She picked the lock of Julia's lovker to grab the keys. The city was not very big, the trip shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes.