Chapter 11

With Eddie and Kirk still passed out on the couch, Felicia knew that she wasn't going to be getting any help from them. She grabbed her keys, and after a moment's thought, she also grabbed a butcher's knife. There might wind up being a fight between her and the Great Dane, she wanted to put the odds slightly more in her favor.

Felicia drove like a bat out of hell to Hank's house, screeching to a halt outside of his house.

Hank was sitting at the curb, looking like he was in a daze, much like Felicia had been the night before. Hank was also covered in blood, and Felicia had a gut feeling that not all of it was his.

Felicia got out of the car, sitting down beside Hank on the curb.

"I don't understand…" Hank whispered. "We've had Brutus ever since he was a puppy, he was the most gentlest dog on Earth."

"I know…" Felicia took his hand. "Something is happening to pets, Hank. I don't know what, but something is happening. The same thing happened to Shadow before he…" She swallowed thickly. "Before he died. I'm sorry about your wife Hank."

Howls and loud growls could be heard from inside.

"Hank, something needs to be done about Brutus. Whatever this is, I don't know if it's reversible. We need to call animal control, but he's killed Agatha…you know what they're most likely going to do to him."

Felicia stood up, pulling Hank up with her. "Let's get you out of here. I'm gonna take you to Kirk's place, and when we get there, I'll make the call to animal control."

"Why Kirk's?"

"I'm staying there for the time being. It's a long story, and one that I'll tell you all about later. Are any of your windows or doors open?"

"No."

"Okay good, we shouldn't have to worry about him getting out then." She helped Hank into the car, and shook her head when he tried to apologize for getting blood on the seat. "Hank, that's the least of my worries right now. At the moment, I'm more worried about you."

She drove off, Brutus' feral barks echoing in her head.

~

Unsurprisingly, Eddie and Kirk were still down for the count when they returned.

"What the hell happened to them?" Hank asked. "They look like they've been on a week-long bender."

"They were craving margaritas for some reason. I guess that I put more tequila in the drinks than they could handle, they each only had two before passing out."

"Don't suppose that you have any extra? I could use some alcohol right about now."

"I'll see what I can do," Felicia replied with a small smile. "I'll show you where the bathroom is, you can get cleaned up in there, and I'll find some extra clothes that you can change into. Did you get any injuries? Scratches, bites, anything like that?"

"Yeah, Brutus clawed me in the chest, why?"

"Because whatever this is, I think that it can be passed on to people."

"What makes you think that?"

Felicia rolled up her sleeve, showing him her arm. It was clearly infected, the wound caused by Shadow seeming to have spread, going almost to her elbow. "This is where Shadow bit me. At first, it was just red. You know, the typical signs of a bite, but things keep getting worse. And now it's not just affecting me physically. Emotionally, I'm starting to get jacked up. I'm irritable. Hell, I had my first case of road rage, and you heard about how I roasted that board member. That all happened in one day. I'm surprised that I still have my job."

"In your defense, he deserved it."

"Hank, that's not the point, the point is that I'm acting in ways that I wouldn't normally act. Look, the animals that have been affected, they're acting like they're rabid, right? But what if they're not?"

Hank had a puzzled expression on his face. "What are you talking about?"

"Go and get cleaned up, and then we'll talk. I'm gonna see if I can get Kirk and Eddie's asses up, because this is something that I want their opinions on too."

~

After getting Hank a set of clean clothes, Felicia went into the living room and shook Eddie and Kirk awake. "Get your drunk asses up, Hank's here."

"Hank?" Kirk groaned as he sat up. "What the hell is he doing here?"

"Hank's dog Brutus went off the deep end, he killed Hank's wife. Hank called me in a panic, and I didn't know where else to bring him."

"Holy shit…" By now, Eddie had roused as well. "There has to be a pattern, something connecting everything, because this is too much to just chalk it up to being some kind of coincidence. First it was Shadow, and then Peaches, and now Hank's dog?"

Felicia nodded her head. "The hardest thing is going to be finding out where the connection is. I think that we're going to need some outside help. I'm bringing Sabine in on this, and I'm going to talk to the detective that cop was telling me about."

While Hank was getting cleaned up, Felicia placed the call to animal control. She had no pleasure in doing so, but she also knew that Hank wouldn't be able to go through with it. She then called Sabine, and while the Ethiopian woman was confused at first, she agreed to meet Felicia at the lab the following morning.

When Hank was finished cleaning up, Felicia gathered everyone into the living room. "Hank, you deserve an explanation, and I'm going to do my best to try and give you one. What I'm about to say might sound confusing, so just try and stay with me, okay? Shadow was affected like Brutus was, but that's something you already know. Here's what you don't know. Kirk and Eddie's neighbors have a Rottweiler named Peaches, and he was like Shadow and Brutus in the fact that he wouldn't harm a flea."

"Was?" Hank asked.

"He tried to attack Eddie and I last night, but luckily we were able to fend him off."

Hank nodded, and Felicia could see the gears turning in his head. "So clearly this isn't an isolated incident…" His eyes widened. "Holy crap…"

"What? What is it?"

"That rabies outbreak that's been on the news, what if it isn't rabies?"

Felicia snapped her fingers. "Hank, I think that you're onto something, why the hell didn't I think of that?"

"You're still missing something," Eddie stated. "What's the thing that connects them all? It's not isolated to a particular breed or species, so how does it all connect?"

"That's something we still need to figure out," Felicia admitted. "I'm meeting Sabine at the lab tomorrow morning, and then after that, I'm going to take a trip down to the police station to talk to that Detective Reynolds, maybe he can help shed some light on things. Whatever is happening, it's man-made. If it was natural, then Dr. Blake wouldn't have been killed."

"Someone was killed?" Hank gasped.

"Shadow's vet. He was on the phone with me, and was about to tell me some things that he had found out about Shadow when he and Shadow were both killed."

"This is stuff right out of the movies."

"Tell me about it."

There was a knock at the front door, but when Felicia went to answer it, there was no one there. Instead, there was a note taped to the door.

'Stop snooping around or ELSE!'