Nicole was having a great time, only slightly discomforted by the plug in her pussy rubbing against the wooden bleachers. She'd played volleyball in high school and was having a blast watching the college girls play below. They weren't much better than Nicole's high school team, really. Maybe a little taller.
Ashley groaned and fidgeted. "How long do these things last for? The ball goes back and forth a hundred times and no one gets any points." She stretched her back against the bleacher behind them and as she swung a white softstone medallion from her finger.
"Awww, don't be a grumpy-pants. Volleyball is a game of great skill and teamwork," Nicole said. Maybe Ashley would cheer up if she had an excuse to be sarcastic.
"Yeah, those guys in front are totally drooling over the skill and teamwork - not the bouncing, jumping, diving, girls in athletic shorts."
"That's the spirit!" Nicole encouraged her.
Ashley harrumphed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Why don't we just walk down to Number Nine, give her the amulet, and make like a tree?"
Nicole raised her eyebrow and put a hand on her tummy. "You might not like that plan so much if you were the one who had to sit on her face and push semen into her mouth in front of a thousand people."
Ashley dangled the white fox-head medallion from and smiled. "Maybe next time!"
And there would be plenty of next-times. Shelly had given them a list of dozens of girls with names, pictures, locations, and oddly precise times to meet. The girl in jersey Number Nine was the first on the list, sorted by time: 15 minutes from now. The match probably wouldn't be over by then, though Number Nine's team was likely to win it.
The girls on the list were all over the world; Shelly said they couldn't get them all, but she had planned out a route that touched the majority. Somehow Dr. Wilcox would meet them before each rendezvous and fill one girl with his semen, and then they'd be on their own. This time, he'd met them in the airport platinum lounge and Nicole had won the coin flip - which was great at the time, but the follow-on was making her a little nervous. And "fill" wasn't an exaggeration - her insides felt blown up like a water balloon.
As the game wound down Nicole kept an eye on the gym's clock. It wouldn't be over in time.
"Look at that guy," Ashley said, pointing at a man in the front row. He had been sitting with his friends and cheering for most of the game, but now he was standing and staring at the ceiling. "Shit, I think he has a gun."
The man took a few steps towards the court and then lurched; he bent over and vomited loudly on the hardwood floor, drawing gasps from the crowd and a whistle from the referee who stopped the game.
"Let's go." Nicole grabbed Ashley's hand and they hurried down the bleachers, pushing past startled onlookers towards Number Nine. A few other male students gathered around the sick man trying to help him, giving wide berth to the pool of vomit, when someone cried out "Gun!" and pandemonium broke loose.
Just as Nicole and Ashley approached the sick man he straightened and walked right through his vomit towards the stunned girls on the court. He reeked of ozone. Number Nine seemed to know him and reached out her hand, but one of her teammates grabbed her arm and held her back. With one arm the man reached out for Number Nine's hand, and with the other he aimed a small pistol. From just a few feet away he emptied the gun into Number Nine's chest with a series of sharp cracks.
The rush towards the doors turned into a stampede. Nicole and Ashley were knocked around as they struggled to reach Number Nine. She stumbled and fell onto her back, circles of blood spreading on the front of her jersey. Her teammates gawked, in shock; some turned to flee, but now the floor was full of people trying to escape.
Ashley pushed through the volleyball players that towered over her. "I'm a doctor, get back!" Nicole almost laughed in spite of everything, but it seemed to work: the girls gave them space. A few feet anyway. Nicole looked around as she approached... everyone was staring at Number Nine. She only needed a few seconds, but... was she going to sit on this dying girl's face right in front of everyone? She was supposed to go before Ashley...
Ashley leaned over Number Nine and lifted her head by the hair. The girl didn't react, and she wasn't breathing. Ashley slipped the amulet around her neck and pushed it down the collar of her jersey, into her bloody sports bra, so it rested against her bare skin.
"Hurry up," Ashley said, looking up at Nicole. "Your turn."
Number Nine's teammates watched, confused, and some began to ask questions, but Nicole blocked them out. People yelled and pushed, crowding through the doors. The shooter stood a few feet away, still as a statue.
Before Nicole could move the lights dimmed and the sounds of the fleeing crowd grew distant. They were still screaming and running, but everything was faded and quiet. Ashley grabbed Nicole's dress in a panic. Her lips moved, but Nicole couldn't make out what she was saying. Nicole looked down, and saw Number Nine begin to shake. The amulet shined brightly through her clothes and cast dark rays of light and shadow in every direction.
Ashley clutched at Nicole and yelled into her ear. "We've got to get out of here! Now!"
Gloomy silence filled the gym, and people began collapsing to the floor. The negative rays formed shadowy arms that grew and stretched, grappling people and engulfing them. The shooter was already completely enclosed in shadow, his mouth gaping in a horrific, silent scream. Rips opened in his skin, like stretching fabric, as the shadow tore at him. Whispers filled the gym, coming from everywhere, repeating: "I thought you loved me. I thought you loved me." The shooter twisted helplessly in the air as his skin was slowly shredded.
Ashley tugged at Nicole, pulling her away towards the nearest door, and they trudged through the viscous shadow together. It pulled at their bodies and clothes, dragging their steps, like running through water. Others were entangled in shadow and held aloft in the air, struggling and kicking. The whispers degenerated into a plaintive wail. Nicole looked back and saw the shooter's remains silently explode in a cloud of blood.
Before Nicole and Ashley could reach the door it slammed shut and a pile of shadow surged over it. Nicole couldn't see anything more than a few feet away except the penetrating white glow from the amulet on Number Nine's breast. Ashley trembled against Nicole's side and nearly collapsed to the floor, but Nicole kept her on her feet. This must be the kind of "toxic waste" that had attacked Ashley on the Island, but how could they escape? How had Shelly had driven it off last time?
Turning back towards the middle of the gym, Nicole saw Number Nine's body shaking on the floor, engulfed in shadow, rippling with pale light. Most of the crowd had fled before the doors shut, but both teams of volleyball players had been captured by the shadowy limbs and hoisted into the air. A few female spectators were also caught, but the men were just... gone. Like the shooter?
"Ok, ok," Nicole said to herself. Hold it together. Dr. Wilcox's semen had to be the key. Nicole had to get it to Number Nine before she killed anyone else. She couldn't carry Ashley with her, so she dragged her to the bleachers and shoved her into the foot space, trying to give her some protection from the reaching shadow.
Ashley grabbed Nicole's dress. "Where are you going?" she screamed in a whisper. "We've got to get out!"
