"Why?" she asked.
"Whatever was wrong with him, she has it now, too," Caroline stated.
Bunny looked back at the stage trying to wrap her head around it as she realized Caroline was right. There was no way Sheila wouldn't have whatever it was, not covered in it like that. As she looked at her, Sheila twitched slightly, her eyes rolling back. Caroline tugged her farther away.
"We have to help her," Bunny said.
"How?" Caroline asked.
Bunny shook her head. "I don't know, but we can't leave her like that."
"No, I know, but still..." the other woman said. "Look at her."
"What the hell happened?" Rebecca yelled as she came from backstage, towels in her arms. Behind her, Bruno held a stack of robes.
"I don't know," Bunny replied. "One minute, everything was normal then this guy started vomiting blood all over her."
"What?"
"Yeah," Caroline added. "Now she's like that."
Rebecca stared at her as Bunny and Caroline accepted robes from Bruno and slid them on. Behind them came the muffled cries of other girls as they made their way out to see what was going on. Somewhere in it, Bunny heard Randy cursing.
"We should, um," Rebecca said, staring at the mess on the stage in horror.
"Bunny," Caroline said softly.
"I know," she answered. "We should stay back. She's probably infectious."
"Infectious?" Rebecca exclaimed.
"Look, get the girls back," Bunny told her. "And find Amy. That guy was coughing just like her before he, uh, erupted."
Rebecca nodded slowly and backed away from the awful sight, gathering girls as she went. Bruno moved to stand beside Bunny, still clutching the shotgun. To her other side, Caroline huddled into her robe, looking sick.
"Dammit!" Randy yelled. "I can't get through to 9-1-1. Lines are all busy."
"That's not a good sign," Bunny said softly, getting a nod of agreement from Caroline.
"So, what do we do?" Bruno asked.
Bunny shook her head. "Hell if I know."
"Bunny!" Rebecca yelled from across the club, making her jump. "We can't find Amy. Tish said she went to the bathroom, but she's not there now."
"Find her and be careful. Whatever she has is dangerous," Bunny called back.
Rebecca nodded and headed backstage as Randy moved to join them in staring at Sheila. Suddenly, the homeless man from earlier popped into Bunny's mind. The glassy stare, and the feeling something was off, all of it. He'd had whatever this was as well. The question was, though, what the hell was it?
"Well, you really know how to clear a room, Buns," Randy told her, rubbing his head nervously as he tried to inject some levity.
She started with a smart remark back at him, but Sheila sat up, staring blankly for a moment, before vomiting blood everywhere. Bunny darted backwards, away from the spray, Bruno and Caroline right behind her. Randy stared in disgust, not close enough to get hit with it.
She sat there for a moment afterward, wavering, before throwing her head back and sucking in air with a hiss, letting it out with a growl. She lowered her head, fixing the group with yellowed eyes and snarling, hunger written all over her face.
"Holy shit," Randy said.
Sheila stood slowly, pulling herself up in a way that made Bunny want to cringe. It wasn't natural the way she moved, almost like a puppet missing some strings. Sheila shrieked at them and came forward, arms out, fingers digging the air.
The boom of the shotgun deafened them as Sheila lurched backwards, hitting the stage with a wet thud. Bruno stared, wide-eyed and pale as she twitched, his mouth trying to form the words, I'm sorry, and failing.
Bunny started to reach for him, to take the gun and try to calm him, but Caroline's scream froze her. Not wanting to, she turned her gaze back to the stage where Sheila was getting up slowly, the mangled mess of her torso where the shotgun blast had hit her not seeming to faze her at all. That she was moving wasn't possible, Bunny knew, but she was.
Grabbing the shotgun, she yanked it out of Bruno's hands and pumped it once to chamber a round. The man had stayed down, but Bruno had hit him in the head. Sheila, he'd shot in the gut. Through her terror-infused mind, she still understood the basic principle.
"Sorry, Sheila. You don't deserve this," Bunny said as the woman lurched towards her, howling like a banshee.
The deafening boom filled the club for a third time. Sheila toppled and stayed down, most of her head scattered across the stage curtain behind her. Bunny lowered the shotgun slowly, hands shaking as she took it in, accepted it, and forced herself to recognize this as part of her reality.
"Dear fucking God," Randy whispered.
"We need to find Amy. Right now," Bunny said as she pumped the shotgun.
Chapter Two
SIX HOURS AGO, Bunny had woken up to a normal day. She’d followed her normal routine. Nothing had been out of the ordinary at all. Unlike most people, Bunny liked things that way. She'd had her fill of the unexpected, of surprises, in her life. All she wanted these days was as much normal as a stripper could get.
The alarm clock waking her may as well have been an eternity ago, however, as she led Randy, Bruno and Caroline into the dressing room, where Rebecca was trying to keep the half-dozen other dancers of The Tawdry Tail as calm and quiet as the situation allowed.
"Anything?" she asked softly.
Rebecca shook her head as she moved to join the high-strung quartet. "No sign of Amy. She's got to be in the building, though."
Bunny nodded, chewing her lip as she thought about it. "Okay, well, sitting around like this isn't going to work. This room has too many ways in and out."
"You don't really think
