Kristy shook her head and did her best to hide her smile at the misunderstanding. She sat in the living room across from Anna and Jack. They were both sipping cold tea and trying to calm their nerves. They both wore grim expressions.

  “So our whole town has been affected?” Anna asked.

  After the initial panic and misunderstanding was cleared, Kristy helped Colin find a change of clothes and they sat Anna and Jack down. Higgins was waiting in another room for now with Jenny while Kristy smoothed things out.

  “Why did you have them tied up? I thought you said you cured them.” Jack said, still glancing over his shoulder occasionally.

  “Sure, but you two are the first to wake up. Last time you were conscious, you were trying to kill us. We’re thankful you are back to your normal selves, but we had no idea how you would act until now,” Colin pointed out.

  “We’re not normal,” Anna said as she squeezed her cup, “I can feel people around me and I feel this instinctual pressure to grow.”

  Jack nodded, and pointed at Colin “Also, I can feel you like you’re the boss of me or something. You feel like something I should obey.”

  Kristy felt saddened that she couldn’t fully cure the two of them. The whole town was going to be different forever even if she somehow managed to cure them all. Despite that, she held no doubts about what she wanted to do, “Well you’re both still you and that’s all that matters. I plan to help the rest of our neighbors come back to themselves too. I know you both just woke up, but I can’t do that alone.”

  Jack scratched his head, “I don’t kn-”

  Anna cut him off saying, “I’m in! My husband is out there and I have friends out there too. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

  “Thank you,” Kristy said to Anna, then turned to Jack, “I know it’s a lot to ask of you, so take your time to think it over.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Sure,” Jack said.

  “You’re going to need to pull your weight though if you want my protection,” Colin said in the feminine voice of his current form.

  “Colin,” Kristy said in a tone that meant he shouldn’t be rude, “They need our help.”

  “I’m serious,” Colin said, “They are just as capable as you are, Kristy. You already helped them and there are hundreds of people that still need your help. I wish we had the time to baby people, but if we really want to help the town on the level you’re thinking, then we can’t waste our time supporting people who just want to lay around and not contribute.”

  “Fine, I’ll just leave then,” Jack got up and walked for the door.

  “And go where?” Anna said.

  “There’s gotta be some kind of relief effort or red cross or something to help out, right?” Jack said, throwing his hands up.

  “There’s a good chance you will die if you leave this house,” Colin said.

  That stopped Jack.

  Kristy stepped in, trying to calm the situation down, “Colin should be a little more gentle about it, but he’s right. There are Changed out there that will attack you, please don’t do anything reckless. Even if you simply help with gathering supplies, that would help everyone.”

  Jack pulled out his phone, and tried to turn it on, not responding to Kristy and instead shouting, “It’s dead! Can I use a charger?”

  “The power grid has been down for days,” Colin said.

  “Mine has a little battery left,” Anna pulled out her phone and held it out.

  Jack grabbed it and buried his head in the phone, “There’s no news headlines at all about this. Nothing on the internet.”

  “What?” Kristy said in surprise, “Holly mentioned the FBI was not planning on helping, but that seems impossible that nobody knows about this.”

  “It just died,” Jack said with a frustrated grunt and then threw Anna’s phone against the wall.

  “What the hell?!” Anna shouted.

  “Fuck this, I bet you guys are lying, Nothing on the news? I haven’t seen a single monster. I bet you drugged us to make us feel weird. There’s people you STILL tied up in that garage,” Jack said in an angry rant as he stormed out of the house and slammed the door.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on him,” Colin said, turning into a dragonfly and flying after Jack.

  “Thank you,” Kristy said, letting out a breath.

  Anna’s eyes were wide, “You know, if you had led with the transforming into a bug thing, he might have believed you.”

  Kristy sighed, she had felt his emotions as he ranted and there was more panic and denial than real anger, “If it were about him believing us, he would still be here. Colin will help him, how about we take our minds off of that and focus on planning a supply run?”

  Anna nodded.

  “Higgins, you and Jenny are safe to come in,” Kristy called out. She felt like things could have gone better, but all she could do was keep moving forward if she wanted to make a difference.