Repopulated

Chapter One

A scruffy man wearing a pair of dungarees bellied up to the bar, taking a seat on one of the scuffed round chairs. The faint voice of a professional announcer emanated from a television mounted near the ceiling behind the bar, an excited hush dawning as the local team began to win the tournament game.

"I'll take a double mocha latte, sweety," the man drawled, setting his roughened hands on the counter. "And a smile, too."

Kate squeezed her hands over her apron, trying very hard to remain pleasant. He was going to be one of

those

customers, and the last time she had sent one packing, she had been reprimanded by the owner.

She couldn't afford to lose

this

job, but wasn't her self respect worth more than that? She gritted her teeth, ready to give him both barrels, when a muscled woman sat down next to him.

The woman tilted her wide brimmed hat to flash Kate a grin, her short, blonde hair spilling out around the edges.

She smiled back, immediately charmed by her lover's presence. It was just like Jackie to show up when she was most needed.

"One double mocha latte, coming right up," she chirped, wiping her hands on her apron as she turned away to get a mug.

"Thanks, sugar," continued the odious man, leaning over the counter as she moved to the espresso machine. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get your number, too."

She gave him a sharp glance, but Jackie was already bellowing out a loud laugh that filled the cafe. "I'm sorry, sir," she wheezed, "but she's not even playing in the same ballpark. She's

not

interested."

The man frowned, his mustache rippling as he cocked a shoulder against the bar top. "Now, how can you know that, little lady?" he asked, oozing arrogance. "Why don't you let the girl speak for herself?"

Jackie shifted in her seat, moving her duster aside to reveal the magnum revolver strapped to her belt. "I ain't little, mister," she said, her soft features creasing in disgust. "I suggest you take that back, and apologize to my lover for bothering her, or we'll have more than just words."

His eyes flicked towards her belt, the sneer fading off his face as fear replaced bluster. "Ah, I'm sorry ma'am, I didn't realize it was like

that

."

Turning away from her, he hunched over the bartop, clenching his hands into fists. "I didn't mean nothing by what I said," he muttered. "You gotta shoot your shot, or nothing ever happens, ya know?"

Kate finished with the drink, sighing as she set it on the counter in front of him. "Just make sure you're shooting in the right direction, first. That'll be five bucks, even."

He rifled through his pocket, dropping a bill in front of him. Giving her a petulant glare, he removed himself to the far side of the cafe, sipping sullenly on his drink.

Kate gave Jackie a wan smile, resting her hands on the bar top. "You didn't need to do that, you know. I'm quite capable of defending my own honor."

"I know you are, little pickle," chuckled Jackie, "but your foul mouth would have gotten you into trouble again." She tucked her duster back over her knees to hide her gun belt, the fabric bending over her busty chest. "It's better if I take the hit instead. If I'm the bad guy, your boss won't have anything to complain about."

"He will anyway," groaned Kate, carefully ignoring the pet name. "Besides, you can't be here to be my knight in shining armor

all

the time."

"Really? Is that what you think of me?" asked Jackie, exaggerating her drawl. She waggled her eyebrows as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm just a regular mounted constable, with a big iron on my hip."

Kate laughed. "Okay, then, ranger. Now, what will you have?"

"Just an iced tea for me, please," replied Jackie, her body slumping. "Betsy and Todd are at it again, so I've had to separate them. I still have to go back and get them both exercised before I can leave them be."

"Oh no!" exclaimed Kate, knowing that the drawn expression on her friend's face was due to her extreme love for the two horses. "Do you think they'll ever settle down?"

"You bet they will," smirked Jackie. "Todd's just feeling frisky, and Betsy ain't quite in heat. Once their schedules line up, there's going to be

fireworks

."

She leaned forward. "Speaking of which, what does

your

schedule look like?"

The way Jackie's expression darkened caused the blood to rush to Kate's head, making her feel weak in the knees. "This shift is almost over," she admitted. "I should be free later tonight after I run some chores."

She set a glass on the counter with a clink, filling it to the brim from an ice cold pitcher. Grabbing a pink straw with an umbrella, she inserted it into the top, tilting it to one side at a jaunty angle.

"Very good," nodded Jackie. "I'll hold you to it. I just recently received some new equipment, and I'm eager to try it out with you."

Kate blushed. She knew exactly what

that

meant. It was no secret that Jackie was an expert with a rope, and Kate had been tied up by her dominant lover more times than she could remember.

And

edged

, and

teased

until she could no longer hold herself together. An unbidden memory rose of their last play session, a tingle of anticipation running up her spine.

"Yes, I'd like that," she whispered, straightening her spine as she worked to get ahold of herself. "But if we want to do that, it'll take me longer to get prepared. I won't be available for dinner. How about nine?"

"That doesn't bother

me

any, as long as you're prepared to spend a good chunk of the night

awake,

" purred Jackie, running a finger down the side of her drink, tracing a drop of condensation to the base.

Kate shivered, imagining being suspended in a prayer pose, one leg outstretched as she dangled in a perfect position for Jackie to touch her most sensitive places. What would she use this time? The tracing wheel? Or would she

mark

her in a discreet place with one of her razor sharp hoof knives?

The possibilities were endless, and Jackie had a truly creative mind. Her lover

hated

chocolate, but there had been that one time where she had applied chocolate pudding all over her breasts and forced Kate to clean it up in one go.

Yum.

She ran through the necessary chores in her head. "Okay. Better make it ten, then. I don't have work tomorrow, so you'll have plenty of time to practice your artistry."

"Good," declared Jackie, discarding the straw and tossing back half her drink. "Be on time. You

don't

want to be late."

She left the remainder of the drink on the counter, swiveling in the chair as she got to her feet, the duster swishing around her lithe back as she let it swing back into place.

Damn, she was cool.

As Jackie exited through the glass door, Kate sighed as she gathered the pleasant future plans around her like a cloak. The odious man from earlier had left, too, so this day was finally looking up.

It was unusual that there weren't any other customers at this time of day, but she supposed that was a good thing. It would give her a chance to get caught up on her cleaning, making the closing less onerous later on.

She crossed into the back room to retrieve a mop bucket, wheeling it out into the center of the room. Pressing her hands into her sore back, she straightened up as she took a moment to watch the television.

She had been doing a little too much exercising lately. She should dial it down and take some time for herself with a heat pack to see if she could get things back in good working order.

Her brow creased as the babbling announcer on the television broke through her introspection. They weren't showing the game any longer. Instead, the camera appeared to be pointed at the sky, a strange, green light coloring the lens.

Large, circular disks appeared to be floating off in the distance, looking somewhat like classic UFOs. The sides were thick and silvery white, giving them the overall appearance of ice cream sandwiches. The way the edges

rippled

made them unsettling, as if they were creating a rift in reality.

She shrugged. They were probably advertising some sort of science fiction miniseries. She'd look it up later, it could be fun to nestle into a couch with Jackie and give it a watch while her hands crept down her lover's sides... ah, but here she was getting distracted again. This wouldn't do.

Humming to herself, she pulled the mop from the bucket and placed it in the wringer, making sure to remove as much water as she could before she applied it to the floor. Sneaking the ruffled fabric around the metal tubes where the chairs were mounted to the floor, she took extra care to ensure that all of the dirt and grime were properly scrubbed away. The place would be sparkling clean in no time!

She got lost in the monotony of the job, working her way outwards towards the dining room. She had done that area when she had come in this morning, so that was probably enough for now. She sighed, wringing out the mop a final time.

The shop bell rang, and she looked up, pasting a cheerful smile on her face. "Welcome in!" she declared, the smile fading as she recognized the brash man from earlier.

"Why are you back here?" she asked, gripping the mop firmly in her hands as if it was a weapon.

The man groaned, shuffling along the wooden floor with a halting step, his head tilted forwards. The way his arms moved spasmodically didn't look natural. Was he a

zombie?

No, that was a crazy idea. Things like that didn't happen in real life. He was just a common criminal!

Raising the mop, she presented the smelly end towards the man, prodding him in the chest. "Stay back!" she shouted, her voice higher pitched than she would have liked. "Or I'll call the cops!"

This threat didn't seem to get through to the twitching man, his head rolling back on his shoulders with a wet crack. His eyes were only half open, a sliver of white visible as his eyelids vibrated.

There was something gray and pallid pulsing at his nose, a segmented, transparent

body

sitting on top of his upper lip.

Ugh!

The imminent threat had become too much to ignore. She thrust the business end of the mop into his chest, pushing forward with all her strength.

His body jerked backwards, heels leaving the ground as he lost his balance. The back of his head hit the edge of a wooden table with a sharp crack, his body tumbling into a heap on the floor.

She breathed hard, shuddering as adrenaline pulsed through her veins. That hadn't just happened, had it? This was unprecedented. A patron had...

attacked

her?

The bell at the door tinkled again, and she altered her stance, preparing for another attack. Jackie backed up a step, a look of surprise on her face. "Whoa, there, I'm not your enemy."

Kate shuddered, lowering the mop. "He attacked me," she said in astonishment, still not quite able to process what had just happened. "Why did he do that?"

"I don't know, but I can guess," replied Jackie, her voice hoarse.

She knelt next to the man, flipping him over as she cradled his neck to prevent it from twisting. "

Shit

," she exclaimed, leaning over him. "I think he's dead."

"Really?"

blubbered Kate, feeling weak. "I didn't hit him that hard. I just wanted him to get

away!

"

"He must have hurt himself pretty badly when he fell. Humans can be surprisingly fragile," said Jackie, sounding preoccupied. "He's got something strange clasped around his nose. Let me see if I can remove it."

Kate moved, trying to get a better view of what Jackie was doing. "It looked pretty nasty," she warned. "Like some kind of gigantic, gray slug."

"Hmm, there's a lot of green slime mixed with blood, but I'm not seeing... oh, wait,

there

it is." Scooping with her fingernails, she collected a handful of goop, leaning back to give Kate a better view.

Kate's belly gurgled as she looked over the transparent mass. There was something dark sitting inside, quiescent for the moment. It had a rounded snout and a bulging, segmented body, which coiled around and over itself.

"Looks like a tapeworm, or another one of those parasites you like to gross me out with," she said, shuddering.

"It does, doesn't it?" murmured Jackie, prodding the gelatinous puddle with a finger, a fascinated glint in her eyes.

The creature twitched, lifting its eyeless head. She could see two hook-like appendages that sprouted from right below its rounded mouth, which was a writhing mess of spiked teeth.

"We should kill it," she said immediately, spooked by its appearance. "If there was one of them, there must be more, and it was somehow affecting that guy's personality. I personally don't want to be infected with it,

whatever

it is."

"Yeah, you're right," frowned Jackie. "As much as I'd like to take the time to study it further, we have bigger problems to deal with."

She shuffled over to the mop bucket and slid the goopy mess into the water with an audible plop. Kate swallowed, relieved as she watched the wriggling creature sink to the bottom, its body going limp as it drowned.

"Bigger problems?" echoed Kate, shaking her head as hysteria gripped her throat. "I have a

dead

man on the shop floor, and it's all my fault! I'm getting fired for sure!"

She moaned, dropping the mop to the floor with a clatter as she grabbed at her cheeks in alarm. "Am I going to go to jail for this?"

"I don't see why you would, it was in self defense," replied Jackie, "but that's not what I'm talking about.

Look

."

She stood, waving towards the bay windows of the street outside. Kate frowned, but couldn't figure out what her lover was talking about. There was no traffic, which was unusual for this time of day, and the light was dim, as if overcast.

Yeah,

that

seemed weird. Wasn't it supposed to be a sunny day? And why was the light that

was

getting through tinged a sickly green?

"Jackie?" she asked slowly. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"I was hoping you would tell me. Weren't you watching the news?" She pointed at the television up on the wall, where a sweating anchor was sitting at a news table, looking pale.

"No," replied Kate. "That's on all the time, so I usually don't pay any attention. It's just background noise."

She shuffled around behind the bar, locating the remote and bumping up the volume a couple of notches. "Let's find out what they have to say."

"This afternoon, our world may never be the same," the man in a suit proclaimed, nervously adjusting his blue tie. "It is clear that we are not alone in this universe. All that remains is to find out whether they are friend or foe. To help us come to that determination, let's go to our reporter on the ground. Joe? What are you seeing and experiencing?"

The screen buzzed, going to picture in picture as they suddenly got a view of a man near the outskirts of town, dressed in an intentionally folksy plaid shirt. "They've landed, John, but nobody has been allowed to go near," the newscaster said in a droning voice, his face pallid.

"Everyone's excited to meet them, but the police force has set up a blockade. We're waiting for someone with higher authority to arrive so that they can send out a delegation."

"Has there been any activity on the ground?" asked the anchor, leaning forward over his desk. "As you know, we're all excited to see what they look like."

"I'm aware, John, but there's been remarkably little activity from this sector for some time. They're just...

sitting

there. Here, let me move so that I can show you."

He backed away, and the cameraman zoomed in on one of the wedge shaped spaceships. "You can see the glowing light spiraling around the exterior, but otherwise,

nothing

. It's almost as though they don't

want

to say hello."

"Hold on," muttered the news anchor, staring off at someone to the side. All color drained from his face. "We now have confirmation that there have been aliens spotted at the south side of the city!"

He swallowed heavily. "They appear to be bearing weapons, and have attacked the police barricade! We have some images from there now!"

The screen swapped to shaky camera footage in a thin, portrait format. The user was breathing hard, doing his best to keep the picture steady. "Look, a ramp is coming down!" he declared, a reverential tone in his voice. "Come, bless us, aliens! Take us away from our meaningless jobs so that we may serve you!"

A beam of light lanced down at a forty five degree angle from the top of the saucer, making it hard to see much. A flash washed out the camera lens, after which a squad of ten armored figures appeared.

The resolution was too bad to provide any definition, but they appeared to be wearing helmets in the shape of wide teardrops, their bulky, metallic legs marching in unison as they approached.

The police officers ordered the crowd back with loudspeakers, but they were too excited to be contained. A woman carrying a hand written sign slipped through the hastily constructed concrete barriers, running down the street towards the aliens.

Stopping in front of them, she got down on her knees and began to praise them with an apparent religious fervor. The alien in the lead raised an arm and the crowd went silent, everyone spotting the round muzzle mounted above the creature's fist.

A blob of organic matter spurted from the end, the orb expanding in the air to encompass the kneeling woman. She barely had time to cry out before it wrapped around her like a net, gushing against her limbs in a sticky mess. She tried to stand up, but her legs were glued to the ground.

As the other aliens approached, Kate was able to spot a few more details. There appeared to be something organic nestled around their throats, with large, flesh colored holes opening around the sides. The donut shaped tubes inflated with each step, as though the creatures were breathing through them.

Their helmets appeared to be

attached

to their heads, with no seams or means of taking them off. There were no openings to reveal any eyes or ears, giving them a distinctly inhuman appearance.

The edges of their armor plating looked like the shells of a crustacean, each of them possessing different colorations that tinged the spiked edges. Orange and red seemed to be common, making her think of lobsters, but they didn't appear to have any claws.

Underneath, they seemed more

humanoid

than she had expected, with curved bumps in their armor plating over their breasts, and what looked like gigantic codpieces over their privates. Given their shape and size, they appeared to be

packing

. Had they taken their cue from medieval armor, or were they pretending to be something they weren't?

These possibly intersexual characteristics threw her for a loop, reminding her that these creatures were indeed, not of this world. How did they mate with all of that armor plating in the way? She had to admit that her curiosity was running rampant.

Curiosity soon turned to horror as a shimmering, purple field sparkled around the feet of the aliens, revealing a large mass of slug-like creatures crawling along the ground near their feet. "Do those look similar to the slug we found in that man's nose?" she asked, feeling sick.

"You bet," replied Jackie, her voice strained. "I don't think I want to see what's going to happen next."

One of the aliens slowed to a halt in front of the entrapped woman, looming over her body as she looked up in abject terror. Three triangular, blue dots glowed in the center of the alien's face, transfixing the woman with a regularly pulsing pattern. Her resistance appeared to fade as the alien's face moved in closer, a dark, black tongue appearing below its armor plated head.