“Megan, what’s up, baby?”  Kaelyn beamed, waving to her friend across the street corner.  She returned to her phone call.  “I’m sorry, what?  Fuck no, Jake, I can’t move that ditch weed in this town!”  Megan smiled, shook her head, and crossed the street.  “Because this is a fucking college town in the North Valley, not fucking skid row, that’s why.”  Kae retorted, returning to her call.  She rolled her eyes and paced, phone pressed against her ear, gesturing with her free hand.  “Yeah, yeah, whatever, look, why don’t you get me what I can sell.  Got any adderall?  Finals are next month.  Fine, whatever, I’ll… yeah… cool.  Ash and Wilford, got it.  Bye.”

By now Megan was standing a few feet away on the darkened street corner, fixing her friend with a disapproving glare.  “Hard at work again, Kae?”

Kae shrugged off-handedly, slipping the phone into her pocket.  “Hey, not everybody around here is on a silver spoon scholarship, so it’s either this or 30 years of student loans.  Don’t judge me.”  Kae started toward their apartment, a basement renovation add-on in an old house built in the WWII construction boom.

Megan walked alongside her.  “Yeah, for you it’s gonna be 30 years in San Quentin.  I can get you a straight job, Kae.  Girl like you can make damn good tips at the Burner.  I could put in a word… I’d even go with you to the financial aid office and help you…”

Kaelyn threw up her hand.  “Look, I don’t want to get into this, ok?”  She started walking a bit faster.  “Where the fuck is everybody, anyway?”  She asked annoyedly, sweeping her arm in a wide gesture toward the center of the small town.  “Goddamn deserted out here!”

Megan picked up her pace and sighed, looking down.  “Riots.”  she replied simply.

“Riots?”  Kae shot back, annoyedly.  “The fuck you talking about?  There’s no riots here.”

Megan gave her an incredulous look.  “You haven’t heard?  It started up in Sacramento a few days ago.”

“So what, Sacramento is 50 miles away.”

“Kae, seriously?  LA, San Francisco, and now Sacramento, too?”

“Yeah, yeah, Ferguson, Baltimore, there’s riots everywhere.  So what?  Shit’s hurting my business.”

Kaelyn heard a noise behind her.  Something faint, as if it were distant and pained.  She turned around, and there, shambling up the street toward them, from the direction they’d come from, was a haggard looking figure.  Kae smiled.  Perhaps tonight wouldn’t be a total loss after all.  Normally she didn’t like selling to strung out junkies, but hey, rent was due next week.  She called out.  “Hey, there.  Big night?”  She started to approach with an easy smile, tilting her head slightly, trying to decide if she recognized him.

“Kaelyn…”  Megan called out in a nervous voice, stepping very close to her friend.  “I don’t like this.”
“Oh, please, come on, he’s just…”  Kaelyn had turned to look back at him, and whatever point she’d intended to make disappeared into a scream.  The figure suddenly surged toward them, arms swatting wildly, teeth bared, groaning loudly.  Megan jumped in front of her friend and grabbed one of the man’s arms.  “Leave her alone!”  She shouted.  She stepped in close and planted a hand in his chest to shove him backwards.  The next few moments would be burned into Kaelyn’s memory for the rest of her life.  His head craned downward toward her friend’s hand, and he caught the width of her wrist between his teeth.  Before Megan could react, he’d bitten clean through the woman’s flesh and had her firmly by her radius and ulna, clasped between his teeth.  A scream such as Kaelyn had never heard pierced the night.