Toto I don't think we'er in Kansas anymore

This was getting too ridiculous now! Being carless was beginning to take its toll this morning; she was practically shivering her bones apart with each frigid wind that blew in. Even with her coat buttoned and hood over her head, Olive could still feel the cold penetrate through it like she was wearing nothing at all. It was too tempestuous on top of the buildings for her to remotely think of parkour. Walking was the cheapest and safest way to her destination; a bus ride would be wasting money, if she had working legs then she can use them. Gotta save up for her son’s college tuition. Though he is only in 7th grade. Doesn’t matter! Starting early is the best strategy in ensuring his future. Hopefully his abominable chemistry teacher didn’t poison his brains, giving him the idea that it’s okay to live like a bum in his girlfriend’s apartment. Turning him into an exact replica. Olive shuttered violently. She couldn’t imagine life with two Turkey Joneses. Again she trembled but this time it was from the temperatures.

At least it isn’t scorching hot outside.

Olive tried to distract herself by using the surroundings, she soaked in all the different colors that brightened in the suns rising beams. Naked trees glistened with a thin sheen of old snow and long sharp sickles dangling off its branches. It gave the appearance that somebody decorated it for Christmas which ended merely four days ago. School was going to start again soon and she wasn’t exactly favoring the idea of waking up early in the morning to noisy five A.M. alarm clocks. No doubt that she and Evan took advantage of this free time to catch up on some well-deserved sleep. That’s all she wanted from Santa. Especially Evan…poor kid has been studying till the morning for weeks, getting just a few hours of sleep. And since winter is flu season Olive was busy taking care of ill students for half of December. They were both mentally and physically exhausted.

Taking a sharp turn around the corner of some burger shop Olive was smacked by a harsh hand of wind, knocking her hood off and wisped her once neatly combed hair. She inhaled sharply to keep a screech down, ignoring the burn now painting her face red. Damn the cold, damn the wind, and FUCK the god who invented both elements!!! Good thing she didn’t have eyes or this would probably hurt like crazy, missing them was the whole reason she didn’t need to squint past the air currents. A wry grin spoiled her features and a feeling of one upping ‘Mother Nature’ twisted her ego. Unfortunately her victory didn’t last long because Karma decided it was her turn to pick on Olive.

Apparently she had taken a wrong turn at one point. At the end of the street was a large barbed fence with yellow cement blocks, Cutting Olive from the main road. Oh well she’ll just go around a different way, there is more than one route right? Turning on her heel Olive continued down the direction she came from but when actually reading the street signs and observing where she was, she realized that she wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

Panic tightened her chest making it difficult to breath or processes an idea correctly. One thought managed to squeeze into her mind.

Why me???

The icicles clinked together and tinkled as they shuddered on the tree. A lone body in a mustard yellow jacket rushing behind the old oak was the source of their disturbance. She cautiously stuck her head out from behind the tree, ever so slowly. Her hair spilled out from behind her shoulder as she twisted her body to see in a sharper focus. She brushed it back behind her ear with a slight birdlike motion and with an unwavering stare continued to look upon her prey.

Felicity had always been good at stalking; it was the one skill she took pride upon. As opposed to her normal clunky and clumsy movements, she moved with grace, silence, and agility. No, she was horrible on the uptake, the pouncing and killing, the one thing hunters are known best for. But then again, she was not really a hunter. And with the killing power of a witch she did not have either, as again, she wasn’t a witch either. A freak, as she had been called. A mistake of nature. Part hunter and part witch, she was hindered by disabilities that one gene had tried to negate another with.

Her prey shuddered from the icy wind, her flaming orange hair doing pirouettes in the breeze and swirling around her, and started to turn around. Felicity snapped her head back behind the tree, her long shiny brown hair fluttering after her.

The feeling of being watched crawled up Olive’s back, ending at the top of her spin in a cringing shutter. Just like in a horror movie. She was the next meal of an evil monster lurking around the corner or possibly over head on the tall roof tops. Though it was nearly impossible for her to stay up in the frigid heights for merely a second let alone watch someone walk several miles. Olive nervously glanced over her shoulder, ignoring the painful currents and stared in the direction she felt most uncomfortable about. The tilted her head towards the sky searching any signs of life above her. She might not be the best at hunting or whatever but she wasn’t stupid, Olive knew someone was around, but perhaps it was simply a coincidence? It’s not like this is a privet street. Meekly shrugging off her worries Olive continued her exploration to the jail.

Time was strange and complicated; it can be so many things: slow, fast, not moving at all, or not even existing in the first place. Well at this moment the minutes that coursed by went faster than the huge crow that zipped past Olive to peck at the remains of fresh road kill on the edge of the sidewalk.

Not the best sight to see early in the morning but that was the circle of life she supposed. Yeah and that will be you next…Her thoughts screamed at her, all warning flags waved furiously in her head as the burning sensation of eyes drilling right into her back. It never left and apparently it was more difficult to nullify it than she expected. She knew that if she turned around she wouldn’t find anyone there, yet her senses blared like crazy. Run Olive run!!!

She crept along after her, sticking to the shadows like they were glue. It was hard to miss that woman, her hair stood out like a patch of light in the white snow powdered town. Her prey was twitching with nervousness, she could tell. Yes, Felicity could see with clarity her presence was sensed. The rays of sunlight glinted off her dark tinted lenses, and the spot of light that shone off her glasses danced on the wall in front of her prey.

SHIT! , she thought horridly, for surely she’d be noticed. She dashed to run behind an empty trashcan in the filthy alley across from her, needing cover, for her one pride as being part hunter, was never to be caught, and she couldn’t just stop the hunt and call it quits. As she was making a sprint for the alley, she turned her head to the side and examined her prey more closely. Is that Ms. Gower . . . ?, the thought processing through her brain.

Unfortunately for the young brunette, this would be her undoing. She could not foretell, as her eyes were trained elsewhere, that she was about to smash into the concrete of the frosty sidewalk. She heard the crow caw at her to move away, but she could not stop herself fast enough. She tripped over the remains of a dead animal, the crow frantically flying away in a flurry of feathers. She hit the concrete ground with almost ground-breaking force, and skidded away, ultimately hitting her head on a brick wall, and knocking herself out.

A loud squawk came from the crow she passed earlier and flapping noises caused her to quickly snap around. Across the street smashed face first into the ground was a figure. Probably the person suspected for following her. Olive couldn’t contain her curiosity and jogged over to the mysterious admirer, when she noticed the person hadn’t moved yet panic tightened inside her chest. Her pace quickened and she threw herself to her knees in front of what she could now see was a girl. “Hey are you alright, hello?” Tenderly Olive moved the girl to a better more comfortable position, instantly remembering the child from work. Who knew she would run into students after school? Too bad she wasn’t getting paid for overtime seeing as she was obviously injured. “Wake up,” Olive bit her lip trying to figure out her name…she knew she was Kris’s ‘roommate’ as he put it…but what was her name?

Enough of that nonsense, she had an unconscious girl in her arms, this was no time for diddly dawdling. “Felicity! That’s her name!” Olive shouted jumping in excitement a little. Of course now she knows the name after giving up her mental search for it. She gazed back towards the sleeping infected. What to do, what to do? For sure there was going to be a rather large bruise on the top of her head, she could already see it forming. Why is it every-time she is around people they get hurt, it’s crazy!!!

A voice permeated through the fog in her head. Felicity’s eyes fluttered open to reveal a gray sky, dancing with snow. A figure was peering over her, but it was unclear to see who it was, as the dark tinted lenses combined with small snow crystals covering them made it almost impossible to see anything at all. She used her left arm, which was not trapped behind her arm like her right, and with her sleeve wiped the snow aside, some melting and wetting her sleeve.

Crouched over her, it was indeed Nurse Gower. Her bright orange hair and flamboyant outfits singled her out, as she was the only person Felicity knew who wore clothes of that fashion. Not to mention, her empty eye sockets. A sudden pain in her right arm caused her to fully awaken her senses. She twisted to free her arm from behind her back and held it up to the light. It was clear to see her entire sleeve was splotched with blood, and the entire side where she had skidded on the frozen sidewalk was completely dark, and dripping out the pungent liquid from the sleeve.

Oh no, blood, stained all over felicity's sleeve. Not good. Olive carefully but quickly rolled the jacket up enough to reveal a long active gash decorating her arm leading from the elbow all the way to her wrist. The smell wasn't as good as the average humans, an infected's was more stale and the stench was almost unbearable. It make Olive queazy just looking at the torn skin. The cold winds probably didn't help the sting either. Poor girl must be in a lot of pain, she wished she could do something! If only she had a first aid kit, though just because she is a nurse doesn't automatically mean she has medical supplies with her at all times. She knew that there were no hospitals or clinics around, she wasn't even sure about the neighborhood having any residents; being so quiet the place was almost dead.....how ironic......

"Hey Felicity, sweetheart, you hang in there okay? It's just a deep scratch nothing serious." To bad she didn't have duck-tape like when she was a little girl, all they had was tape to fix up their injuries. Well at least there was some around her body if the situation gets out of hand.

The pain in her head far overpowered the pain in her arm. Compared to the pounding inside her skull, the pain of her arm was like but a mere pinprick. “It's just a deep scratch, nothing serious.” Since when was a jagged cut gushing blood not serious? It was all she could do to listen to Ms. Gower, she was already so weak, and it was hard to hear over the rhythmic pounding drumbeats resonating in her mind.

She grunted and leaned herself against the wall in a more comfortable position. At least now there was something to support her. She patiently listened to Nurse Gower drivel and assure herself, it was quite obvious to see she was panic-stricken, as it might be obvious to tell that she had not seen injuries of this scale outside what little medical education she had.

Okay Olive, think back when you were in college. All those lectures the boring mono-toned teachers ranted on and on about, god!!! Why can’t she remember everything she was taught all of a sudden? Felicity was now sitting up on the cement wall behind her, gazing towards Olive with wary eyes. She knew her expression gave away her thoughts, even if her words were supposedly comforting. That moment as she locked eye contact, Olive did her infamous soul searching stare gaining the encouragement to get on with her duties. “Alright,” she clapped her frozen hands together and rubbed them till the friction brought heat, “it looks as if your arm is the worst of your wounds so I will tend to that first.” The lump in her throat continued to grow larger causing Olive to forget how to breath. Her mind was nothing but a jumbled mesh. Adrenaline sparked and she went right to work. “First stop the bleeding,” Olive whispered more to herself, going through each step she learned in school. The blue bandana that was normally tied on-top of her orange mop was now being skillfully warped around Felicity’s blood gushing arm. Her fingers danced expertly on the work at hand until the girl’s entire cut was covered and sealed off from the opposing bacteria. A deep maroon already began to stain the cloth and a sad goodbye bubbled in Olive’s mind. “Next fix any other serious problems….if there aren’t then take patient to the nearest shelter for better treatment.” A bitter snicker escaped her lips. She probably sounded silly talking to herself like that. Or even stupid…. “Dear, I’m gonna need you to work with me okay.” Olive snaked her arms around Felicity’s back and her other under her knees. Why did she have to be so freaking tall, no doubt she was at least 140 LB and for her height that’s underweight.