CHAPTER FOUR

At six thirty on Monday morning the alarm clock blared, forcing a tired eyed Cassandra Reynolds from the luxury of her comfortable sheets. She stretched and sat up, whisking a lock of long hair away from her face.

The weekend had passed by, the celebrating of high school graduation was finished, and now it was time to start a new life, a life as a college bound adult. That also meant work. She had worked part time on a few evenings and one weekend day all throughout school, just enough to prove to her family that she could work responsibly and still allow her enough time for social activities.

Now, though, with no more school until the first term of college at the very end of August, Cassandra was deemed full-time capable which meant that Monday through Friday she work. She worked in a small upbeat fashion boutique in Manhattan. She liked her job and the people she worked with. She usually worked the closing shift, but the store's owner Dan, wanted her to learn day time duties instead for the summer so she could open shop in the morning.

She popped up out of bed and headed to the shower, wondering vaguely if she was going to have enough time to get dressed and get to the shop in time to start her shift. Cassandra began to shower, coming alive under the warm falling water.

She lathered her body with a wonderfully scented moisturizing body wash, gently massaging the suds with a loofa from her favorite spa. Her mind drifted a little to the past weekend's adventures and she couldn't help but to think about what had happened with Kyle at the party.

The bathroom filled with the aromatic scent of the herbal shampoo Cassandra worked into her deep locks. When she was finished, she patted herself dry with a warm fluffy towel and wrapped another around her body. She spent meticulous time drying her long hair, brushing it out, styling it to perfection and applying her make up with great care, analyzing the entire array of colors she had at her three fold mirror carefully to decide which would best match the smart outfit she planned to wear to her first morning shift day at work.

After the typical hour plus ordeal to dress herself, Cassandra floated lightly downstairs to find her aunt and uncle already dressed and preparing to begin their day. Her uncle was seated at the kitchen table, focused intently on the morning paper's front page and barely acknowledging the cup of coffee he clasped in his hand. Her aunt was standing at the counter, somewhat making breakfast but mostly eyeing the news broadcast on the iPad propped up on the counter.

As Cassandra walked over the refrigerator to grab a bite to eat, she noticed that the television was also on in the living room, with the volume turned way down. She thought nothing of it as she scanned for something to eat.

"Good morning," she finally said with a slightly offended tone in her voice that no one had bothered to even noticed she had graced the room.

"Morning dear. Getting ready for work?" Michelle said while Jeremy continued to scan the front page of the news paper.

"Yeah, all set, just getting something to eat. I don't want to be late you know." She said with a smile. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, Cassandra. There's this thing all over the news this morning. Just watching to see that's all." She said.

Cassandra didn't ask for any more details. She just grabbed the milk and cereal and sat down across from her uncle, who still hadn't even acknowledged that she was in the room, nor taken a sip from his coffee cup as long as she had been standing. Jeremy was the type of person to have at least sucked down two full cups in this amount of time. She frowned and ate her breakfast quietly.

"I don't think anyone knows exactly what happened. It's just so weird." Michelle said aloud.

Cassandra did not respond and Jeremy finally flipped the page of the paper.

"Morning, Cassandra. You be careful out there today, alright?" He said to her then turned his eyes

to the paper once again.

"Yes, please do be careful." Michelle agreed.

She nodded and finished eating her bowl of cereal. "You guys are creeping me out," she said flatly as she put her bowl into the dishwasher.

"Bye."

She strode out the door. The morning sun was shining down and the roar of a city that was

already in full swing met her ears.. Cassandra immediately grabbed the phone out of her little purse and speed dialed Stephanie.

A groggy voice on the other end groaned, "Hello?"

"Hey there! What are you doing?"

"Trying to sleep, what's up Cass?"

"You know it's almost eight o'clock. Didn't you say you have work at nine?"

"Ten," Stephanie corrected. "Or maybe eleven. I don't' remember."

Cassandra laughed, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Stephanie said, starting to wake up. "I spent most of the night with David."

"Really? Oh…."

"You Ok? I mean after what happened with Kyle…" Stephanie asked.

"Yea, I'm fine, you know, just forget it." Cassandra stopped her abruptly and quickly changed the conversation.

"Hey, I'm getting into the train now, I'll probably loose your signal. I'll call you later, alright?"

"Cassy? Okay fine, call me after work. We'll meet up. I'm off at five."

"Cool. Bye." She said and flicked the phone closed as she popped into the subway and found a vacant seat.

The train was packed as usual for a Monday. She took the train almost everyday to get to school. For some reason, Mondays always were the busiest day of the week. It was always like that. The train was full of commuters, mostly everyone wrapped up in their newspapers. Cassandra did a quick glance at how they were dressed.

It seemed that all of the people were on their way to offices. She was surrounded by business suits this morning. It was like a sea of navy blue and pinstripes all around her. She waited quietly for the train to come to a halt at her stop. She stood up and joined the crowed hoarding off the train and flowed with them out onto the platform.

As she walked up the stairs she could hear the hustle of the busy streets above her head as people vied for first rights to cross the street. Pedestrians and vehicles lived in delicate balance around the city. Massive crowds would cross an intersection in each direction, never giving way to traffic and traffic never really yielding to them. It was dangerous sometimes trying to push your way around cars trying to push past you.

Still, it was New York, and Cassandra knew anything could and would happen in the City limits. If you wanted to get anywhere, you needed to be here. Cassandra loved the city. She needed the city. Someday, she imagined being needed by the City, too, or at least by the fashion concerned people in it. Some of the people she passed by right as she walked would want to buy her designs and she would be able to elevate up the scale of success.

She fantasized about it as she forged on with a large crowd, trying hard not to bump into people as she crossed the streets. She paced quickly along the busy street, never really looking up at the high rise buildings that surrounded her. They were just part of the scenery, just part of what made the city glorious and miserable all at the same time. She kept her eye instead, on the people in the streets rushing about, hailing taxis, all trying to get to their particular high rise buildings without running late.

The heat was welling up already in the steamy city, and the weathermen's predictions of a long hot summer seemed like they would be coming true. Cassandra glanced at her cell phone to check the time. Deciding she had enough time she stopped into a small crowded shop to grab an iced cappuccino to cool off with during her walk to work.

There, too, she noticed that nearly everyone, standing or sitting, was intently bent over their newspapers, and hardly anyone had flipped passed the front page. Though the small shop was busy and crowded with people, the place still seemed oddly quiet. People at the counter whispered their orders, and Cassandra suddenly realized that almost no one in the shop was using a cell phone. Nearly every person was so involved with their newspapers, hardly a soul spoke. It was an unusual feeling, and a rather unsettling one actually.

It was just day to day expectation that people would be talking on their phones, flipping through the pages of their newspapers, working on last minute business reports, and doing all the other things she always noticed busy adults do as they sat in small coffee shops. It was strange, the way the place was almost still as people read their papers and sipped their coffees. She just couldn't imagine what was so astounding that all the people she looked at this morning had their faces buried deep into their papers and were so wrapped up with the articles they read that they actually put aside their business journals and cell phones.

Cassandra didn't have enough time to linger. She ordered, paid, and left sipping her drink as she walked through the open door back out onto the street. She vaguely thought for a moment that she might stop by a newspaper stand on the next corner and pick up a morning issue to read for herself what all the commotion was about, but as she tried to peek through the crowd that was gathered around the stand, she could see nothing but empty shelves in between the milling bodies. It appeared that they had bought every single paper.

Shrugging, she turned and walked another half block and stopped in front of the tall glass doors that led into Hi Style, Dan Sherk's upbeat fashion boutique. She strode in at just a minute after nine o'clock. She noticed that she was late and made a mental note to try to speed things up tomorrow. Dan did not seem to appear to notice or care that she was a moment behind schedule.

"Morning," she said to him as she breezed by him.

"Morning," he responded, hardly looking up from the newspaper he had plastered to the glass display case.

He did not sound quite like his usual chipper self. The greeting he gave her was very quiet and solemn. It was rare, if at all, that Cassandra had ever seen Dan in a less than hyper-active mood.

He was a nice man, very high strung and animated, friendly as could be, and a dream to work for. Dan was a very handsome thirty-something man who enjoyed partying, fashion, and generally having a good time. He seemed to seek out those characteristics in people, especially in his employees, so he had a composed a wonderful crew of eager people.

Cassandra pondered for a moment how Dan even met and had a relationship with Robert. He was Dan's complete opposite. She supposed that was true, opposites really did attract. Robert was short, hefty, much more business-like, and almost always in a hurry. She had actually only met him once, but hearing Dan talk about him from time to time at the shop was enough for Cassandra to know she did not like him, and thought Dan could do better. Not that she was all that experienced with boyfriends anyway.

"What's up, Dan?" She said to him when she finished punching in the time clock in the break room justbehind the counter.

He shook his head, glanced at her and smiled, the chipperness returning to his voice.

"Oh, nothing! Ready to learn how to open shop?"

"Yeah, sure," she said promptly with a smile.

"Well," he said with a quick gesture to the computer that worked the register. "It's really pretty easy to start up the computer for the morning, you'll get it in no time. Just look here."

Dan was correct, the start up procedure for the computer inventory and cash register really only took a few minutes to show her. Everything else was basically the opposite of what she would do to close shop at night.

She went off to straighten racks, fold clothes and make sure the store was tidy and neat. She glanced from the display shelves to the mannequins in the window and imagined them all wearing designer tags from Cassandra Limited. Of course she hadn't discussed that name with Stephanie, but it had a nice ring to it.

The first few customers of the day came in just around ten o'clock, just about the same time that two coworkers, Jennifer and Risi walked in to start their shifts.

"Hey!" Cassandra greeted them.

"Morning!" The girls echoed.

As customers shopped around through out most of the morning, the three girls made their presence known so they help the shoppers select the perfect garments. They all talked from time to time about their weekends and other topics. Cassandra filled in the girls about her graduation and the party and the apartment's progress.

No one mentioned anything about newspapers until well after the lunch hour during a lull in the shop's customers. The three girls mingled around the counter with Dan and gossiped for a while before Risi saw the New York Times out of the corner of her eye, tucked under the counter.

"So what do you guys think about all that in the paper?" She asked quietly, scanning the room to make sure no one was around.

The way the small group all huddled around the countertop, and the way Dan backhandedly slid the paper out from the hiding space he slipped it into earlier in the day, Cassandra felt like they were discussing some top secret plan or making arrangement to rob a bank or something. The attitude and atmosphere changed dramatically and Cassandra, feeling highly uneducated at the moment dared not speak. She just slid her hand to the paper and glanced down as the others spoke.

"I don't know what to think." Dan said. "I'm just glad that this hasn't happened here."

"It's just all so weird," Jennifer added with a twisted look on her face.

Cassandra stared at the giant bold print headline of the Monday morning paper:

Animal Attacks - Threat to Humans, Animals

Cassandra frowned and began to read the article, paying no further attention to the continuing conversation of the other three people.

The first line of the article read:

Atlanta, GA. (AP) Nearly a dozen people admitted into Atlanta's Memorial Hospital Saturday afternoon suffering injuries from an animal attack, were reported dead on Sunday. The animal has not yet been identified.

The opening sentence was abrupt, mysterious, and drove deep into Cassandra's sense of curiosity. She immediately understood why it seemed that no one could put the paper down this morning. As she continued to read, the article informed her that reports of the same nature had popped up overnight on the weekend in several states.

She started to feel her hands shake as read deeper into the article. There were small groups of people showing up in hospitals all across the country from Saturday morning on all through the weekend.

Fatalities were being reported and it appeared that no one seemed to know what to make of the species, determined to be a parasite. Another article, though shorter than the main headline, talked about military involved and even a possible terrorist attack.

It made sense now, why no one could put their papers down. Cassandra caught herself glancing back at the paper throughout the rest of the afternoon as it lay rolled up in its hiding place under the counter top. While the report on the front page was on the back of everyone's minds, Dan did not want to upset his shoppers by reminding them of what they had most likely already read about that morning. So there was no more discussion of the topics in the daily news the rest of that day.

When her shift ended at five o'clock, Cassandra left the clothing store and headed off again onto the city streets. She called Stephanie almost instantly to see if she was around somewhere so they could meet. The news article she had read earlier was still lingering on her mind. She talked briefly with Stephanie and they came up with a place to meet.

She couldn't help but to notice as she walked that people were hoarded around newspaper stands once again. The evening edition was no doubt out already, though Cassandra could not tell by the behavior of the people on the streets if there was any more eerie news. She decided to march on past the crowded stands. She did not want to know any more about weird animal attacks.

When the girls met up they did a little shopping and zero discussing of the daily news. They laughed and enjoyed some time together and oddly enough, as they rounded a corner, they nearly walked into David, Kyle, and the rest of the Whizzkids.

"Hey," they all exchanged.

Cassandra shot Stephanie a suspicious, 'did you plan this' glance, but she smiled none the less and they all headed off together. Kyle tried to talk to Cassandra, but she brushed him off over and over.

They chatted over some pizza, and the conversation headed into forbidden territory in Cassandra's mind. In a moment most of the group was discussing the news reports. Cassandra fell quiet. She let her eyes wander and her mind tried hard to shut out the sounds of the conversation. The details of the animal attack were unsettling, and while they may be interesting for a group of macho guys to talk about in the middle of a pizza shop, Cassandra wanted no part of that which did not concern her life.

Her eyes drifted around the restaurant, and she began to notice that, though there were not many people in the place, all the customers and the wait staff seemed to be staring above Cassandra's head. Her heart stopped for a moment and she turned to have a look behind her, an odd instant fear that some horrible animal was behind her ready to pounce on her.

The group at her table had quieted down as well and stared at the television behind the counter. One man behind the counter reached up and adjusted the volume as some people crept a little closer to the monitor so they could see better or hear more clearly. Cassandra could see and hear just fine from where she sat.

The evening news reporter brought in announcements of more deaths from different parts of the country throughout the day as well as more animal attacks. The descriptions were vague, which only added to the fear that many of the people watching the reports felt. Now, officials were offering warnings to individuals that may come across any sort of strange looking animals during their daily coming and goings, not to approach the creatures.

It wasn't very clear to the broadcaster, or to the people watching, where one might come across the reported strange looking crab like creatures, so it was recommended that all use caution. The report came across more as a public service announcement, but the lack of descriptions, the uncertainty in the announcer's voice and the look on her face put a bad feeling in Cassandra's gut.

Whatever it was, whatever the animals were, she had just hoped that they would stay out of New York City. However, it was too late for that. When the commercials came on and the worker turned the volume down, someone else in the room started up loudly.

"There's been people hospitalized here in New York with these things on them," he said to anyone who would prick an ear at him.

"Where did you hear that?" Peter asked.

The man rattled a folded newspaper at their table. "Right here."

Peter immediately whipped out his phone and pulled up the news. He stayed quiet while he scanned over the articles popping up before him. No one at the table spoke while Peter read. Cassandra focused on a small piece of pizza crust littered on the table in front of her, Stephanie continued to fondle David's arm while he and the rest of the band watched Pete read.

"Says here that a group of workers were brought into a downtown hospital. Doesn't say which one, though."

"Does it say where they were working?" Kyle asked.

Pete shook his head slightly. "No, it doesn't really give a whole lot of information. This is wild, though," he said, with an almost unconcerned smile on his face.

"There's a report here that says some guy's dog got killed by one of those things. And it goes on to say that a few other animals have been found dead, including two lions in Central Park Zoo.

"Look, I'm gonna get going," Cassandra said and stood from her chair quickly.

Stephanie got up and followed her out. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, sorry, I... I just don't want to hear anymore about this, you know."

Stephanie nodded her head. "Yeah, I know. It's really creepy. Come on, I walk with you to the train stop."

Cassandra smiled, grateful for the company of her friend. It did not take long for the two girls to reach the train station. There, Cassandra wished her friend goodnight and headed briskly down the stairs. She just couldn't get home fast enough.

She crawled into bed under the safety and security of her ice blue bed sheets and soon fell into a dreamless sleep.

When morning came, Cassandra awoke refreshed, without a negative thought in her mind. She ran through her morning drill of a shower, hair styling, make-up application, and finally dressed. She didn't even realize that her morning ritual had taken her a fair bit longer than normal that morning. She must have just been moving slower.

At any rate she bolted out of the house with barely a goodbye to her relatives and took off as quickly as she could for the train into the city. She was running late again and had had no time to stop for any reason this morning, but she chatted quickly with her mother for a short while.

She arrived at the clothing store just before nine o'clock and dropped her belongings in the break room before punching in. Dan was there already there to help Cassandra with opening the store. He seemed perky and content and Cassandra smiled appreciatively at him that he was not hovering over a newspaper again.

However, there was almost no escaping the news. The radio that played softly over the store's speakers broke out in news reports at an ever increasing rate throughout the day, each time a worried sounding announcer would report that yet more people were turning up attacked by the strange animals.

Some of the announcements told that teams of researchers were trying to study the animals, trying to determine where they had come from and what to do about them now that they were here. Some reports called them wild animals, other reports called the parasites. Regardless, every report called them deadly.

As the day went on, the radio broadcasts revealed that all of the reported attacks resulted in fatalities. Cassandra listened to one news update in silence. It was obvious the announcer was trying to read his story as plainly as possible. The monotone voice did not do well to hide the man's concerns and fears, or to keep those fears from welling up in the people in the clothing shop that literally stopped in mid motion and tune their ears to the closest speaker.

Details were not given on exactly how all the people died, but the general public was receiving reassurances that officials were doing everything they could to ensure that no more attacks occurred. Whatever that meant.

"Wow," Risi said as a commercial aired over the speakers. "This is sounding so bad."

"I'm afraid to go into the subway, I swear," Jennifer added.

Wide eyed, Cassaandra quickly asked, "What? Why? Are they in the subway or something?"

"No," Jennifer said as she shrugged. "It's just dark down there, and... I'm sorry Cassandra, I know you take the trains all the time. I didn't mean anything. Don't worry, it's fine."

Her reassurances did not much console Cassandra. She tried not to think about it anymore and focused on organizing an already well organized display shelf. As she fiddled idly with the clothing, her mind kept bouncing from the reports about death and strange animals.

Whatever they were, had been spotted in New York City, their victims could still be laying in a hospital not all that far away right at that very moment.

As though unable to control herself she turned to her coworkers and spoke.

"The ones they found in the City, does anyone know where the people got...attacked?"

No one answered. Dan shook his head. "The papers didn't say."

She sighed deeply and couldn't help but think about what Jennifer had said about using the subways. It played on her mind throughout the rest of the afternoon and when her shift was done, Cassandra headed home as quickly as possible.

She called Stephanie on the way to the entrance to the subway and left a message on her voicemail saying that she wasn't feeling very much in the mood to be out in the City that night. She told her friend that she was feeling freaked out by the reports of the wild animals and that she was now nervous to use to go underground, but she needed to take the train home, and just wanted to as quickly as possible.

She darted down the stairs quickly and kept careful watch around her. As she sat on the uncomfortable seat and watched the tunnel walls zip by the windowed sides of the train, she felt so silly for being so worried about using the subway train.

She took them every day so she knew they were safe. The whole thing was getting out of hand. People were just scared and probably the news reports were over exaggerated anyway. More likely than not in a few more days the whole thing would blow over and by early next week, people would be taking about how silly they were getting so worked up over crabs.

She sat in the living room with her family that evening for a while, reading some articles about fashion and glamour and home decor. She happily let her mind drift to the apartment she and Stephanie would be moving into in less than a week and a half.

"Cassandra," her Uncle Jeremy spoke after a long while, "I think you should reconsider moving in to that apartment."

She stared at him with such a shock looked of dismay upon her face. Michelle looked up.

"I mean it," he said, "I'm concerned. Wouldn't you rather be at home with us with all this happening?"

"I..." She couldn't think of what to say. She wanted to move. It was going to be so cool having that top floor apartment in Manhattan with her friend. She just wanted to move in there.

She hated the idea of telling new people she would meet during the first few days of college that she lived with her mother's sister. She wanted to live right where all the action was. In her defense, she said the only thing she could come up with.

"You know, this will probably all be blown over soon. It's all nothing, you'll see." She hoped she sounded as carefree and convincing as she wanted to.

Jeremey smirked and said no more. Just then the telephone rang. Michelle answered it and quickly handed it over to Cassandra.

"Hello?" She said.

It was her parents on the other end. Somehow Cassandra felt as though her Uncle's ploy at the apartment was the first stage of a pre-planned attack on the idea. Now she had to hear about the apartment from the other end of the country.

Her parents tried to convince Cassandra to forget about the apartment, too. They finally asked if she just wanted to forget it all and come back hom to Sacramento. According to her mother, there were many a fine school out there, and people out there did wear and need clothes too. She could follow her dreams back home just the same as there in the Big City.

"No Mom, it's not the same thing." Cassandra argued from the next room through gritted teeth.

She glanced over the bar at her aunt and uncle who were now tuned intently in to the evening news.

"It's not the same at all. Plus I'm enrolled and everything, I'd lose out on my chance, and I'd have to wait till next year to start school somewhere else. I really want this."

There was silence on the other end. She could only hear the sounds of her parents' breathing

through the phone.

Cassandra waited for a moment for any sort of acknowledgement. When she received none, she continued, trying to take the conversation away from the idea of her leaving New York, abandoning the apartment and her friends and her plans for college and a great career in the fashion field.

"Besides," she started back up, "I know the news reports make it sound like it's chaos around here or something, but nothing's happened at all. There's nothing going on. It's fine, really. Nothing is wrong, and nothing bad's gonna happen. It'll all be fine, I know it."

Unable to sway their child's mind, Cassandra's parents gave up the fight.

"I hope you're right, really, I do," her Father said.

"Just remember Cassandra, nothing has happened out here, either. Sacramento isn't even on the list of affected areas."

Cassandra wasn't aware that there was a list of affected areas. The radio broadcasters she had

been listening two over the last two days did announce several cities that had confirmed animal attacks, but her mother made it sound like there was some official government issued list of affected areas.

She was grateful for her parents' concern, but she was days away from being a free adult and the last thing she wanted was to give it all up and fly home to California. She sighed deeply as she clicked the phone off and sat back down in front of the television to watch the news reports.

Nothing really new had come up. Mostly, the reports were filled with speculating about what the animals were and where they came from.

"I wonder what the things look like?" Michelle said as she watched a man on the television rattle on about the crab like animals. "I mean, they keep talking all about them, but they don't show any pictures."

Cassandra did not want to see what they looked like. She hoped they would not show any

pictures, she hoped they would just stop talking about all the deaths and stop discussing the nature of the

animals that had caused them. She headed up to her room and called Stephanie.

Eventually Cassandra fell asleep. She had a restless night and woke up very early the next

morning with thoughts on her mind of the animals. She tried to eradicate them from her thoughts by focusing on the apartment.

She and Stephanie had planned to do some shopping that afternoon and pick up a few little things. Both girls were making piles of apartment supplies in their rooms.

She was awake but still restless. It was very early and Michelle and Jeremy were just getting up. Cassandra had already showered and meticulously detailed every aspect of her body, nails, face, and hair before entering the kitchen to make herself a light breakfast while her family walked back and forth above her head.

She paced in the kitchen and glance for a moment at the television as though it was planning to do something evil while she ate her fruit. She shut her eyes and tipped her head sideways, noting that the clock on top the refrigerator declared the time to be just after seven in the morning.

Just as Jeremy and Michelle were coming downstairs, Cassandra had decided to head into the City. She did not want to just sit around watching the news. She could not take seeing Jeremy sit and read the morning paper so intently once again.

"You're leaving already?" Her Aunt asked quickly.

"Uh, yeah, I just want to get an early start at the store today. We're having a sale and I need to go in a little early to help Dan get things ready."

It wasn't exactly a total lie. They really were starting with a sale today, and it would take a while to set up for it, but there was no reason for her to go in early because of it. She decided it would not be to her benefit at all to mention that she was not able to rest because of all the recent news stories and the harassing conversation she had to deal with from her parents trying to sway her mind to come home.

"Bye," she said as she stepped out of the door. She intentionally walked right over the newspaper that lay furled up on the welcome mat. She did not glance down at it.

Their house was not far from the train station, so it did not take her long at all to reach her destination. She hopped onto the train when it arrived, amongst a small group of commuters.

The train, packed as usual, zoomed over the tracks and into the heart of the city. Again, people were consumed with the newspapers. Cassandra could feel great tension amongst the passengers and her heart started to beat faster. She was uncomfortable with the feeling in the warm morning air as she stepped off the train at the end of her route.

She pranced quickly up the stairs to find a large crowd gathered on the street corner, all starting up at the headline marquees that ran along the buildings. She forced herself not to glance up; instead, her eyes fell to the newspaper that a pedestrian was holding as he read the lighted banners.

Cassandra caught herself staring at the paper. She could not quite make out what the front page said; it was folded over itself in such a way that she could only see less than half of the bottom of the page. It was enough to peak her curiosity, though. She headed off across the street in the direction of the latte shop she stopped at frequently on her way to work, but instead, she walked right past its doors and came to halt behind a crowd at a newspaper stand.

Figuring they would sell out, Cassandra pushed her way through the barely unmovable people and glanced down at the shelves for a copy of the paper. She took a deep breath and stopped in her tracks and just stared. She could not reach down and grab the paper, not move to her purse to pull out two dollars to pay for it. She couldn't do anything. Just like the other people frozen there in awe and wonder, Cassandra just stared at the ghastly image that filled the entire front page of the newspaper.

The only words written on the page was the title of the paper, the date, 'Morning Special Edition', and in teeny tiny letters at the very bottom margin of the page was written, 'Story, Page 2'. The image took up every other space on the page. Cassandra felt her body starting to shake as she pressed her eyebrows together and stared at the paper.

The black and white photo of the creature on the front page looked like something out of a science fiction novel and not of this Earth. She had never, never, imagined that the crab-like creature would like that.

With the news reports over the last few days, all describing the thing as a spindly legged crab animal as large as a man's head, her mental image of the creature had differed greatly from the creature she was staring at in the black and white.

Someone reached down and pulled the paper out of her eyesight, paid for it and scrambled away. Cassandra watched him do it as though he had just trespassed and committed a mortal sin. He darted away like he was running off with a booty and Cassandra watched him come to a slamming halt as he stared down at the paper, just a few steps away.

She glanced back at the stand and realized quickly that there was but one copy left. Without hesitation, she lunged for the paper and snatched it up, noticing another man look rather displeased that he missed his chance. She quickly grabbed out two dollars and darted off past the crowd before she looked down at the page again.

This animal was nothing like what her brain could process. It didn't look like it even belonged on this planet. The creature was on its back, its legs curled up over its belly and folded together. It was obviously dead, but even in death the thing was frightening.

She counted eight long, slender satanic looking legs knitted together in mortis over the indefinable body of the animal. Perhaps it was the creature's tail, which though curled slightly around in the picture looked as though it must have been well over three feet long unto itself, that added to the overall menacing feel of the animal.

The terrible looking monster just lay there on the page in front of her, lifeless and dimensionless, but still her hands were shaking, rattling the edges of the paper she clenched to. She stopped, like nearly everyone else on the street, and stared at the image, studying its every morbid detail. Finally she folded the front page back and read the article

Listed as being reported from Arizona, the image, the first one leaked to the press, of the animal, was taken at a hospital just outside of Phoenix. The animal in the photo was lying in the morgue, getting ready to be dissected by a team of biological researchers.

She read on and found a list of area affected, it took up all of page three and started over onto page four. The newspaper article mentioned that the animals seemed to have simply showed up overnight in multiple areas across the country, and across the globe with no explanation, lest one. Worldwide terrorism.

Cassandra's heart sank. Of course. Terrorists. It must have been that. America had suffered many terrorism attempts, and some completed assaults. Terrorists were responsible for car bombs, the devastation of the Twin Towers when Cassandra was a little girl still living in Sacramento.

About five years ago a terrorist strike in the western states caused loss of power to seven states on the West Coast for three days. It did have a major impact on people's way of life, the economy, and the hearts of the American people.

Now, it seemed that they had moved on from bombings and sabotage and resorted to trying biological weaponry again. They had caused a several month long scare over anthrax years ago. This was nothing different. These animals were obviously aggressive. They had caused many fatalities in just a few days and managed to shake to soul of a country.

The article questioned what the President's actions might be against this terrorist threat, and ended on the note that the reporter would continue to provide her readers with any and all information as she found it out.

She folded the paper up and strode off to the shop. Dan tuned the radio to a light music station to try to keep the atmosphere within the shop happy and care free, still, though the crew talked amongst themselves when shoppers were not around, each discussing the creature they had all seen pasted on the front page of the paper this morning.

By the end of the day when Cassandra had met up with Stephanie, both girls were tired of hearing all the talk about the creatures. They were tired of constantly being made nervous throughout the day, they made a pact that night to not talk about the creatures anymore. Instead, the girls did their shopping and enjoyed their night.

It wasn't until the weekend that the worst report of all came over every news station everywhere. Every media modality from the radio to satellite broadcasting to the internet played the same news story.

It began with the Presidential address to the nation. He forewarned his fellow Americans that while the animal incident was not being declared a terrorist bioweapon, it appeared now that they were indeed some kind of new, possibly mutated, parasite.

He informed the Country that the military was going to take measures to get the animals under control while the research into them progressed. He urged people to use extreme caution if their day to day activities took them to any of the affected areas, but maintained that the American way of life need not be disrupted, reiterating that measures were being taken to get the situation under control.

When he was finished, the President gave the podium to a researcher from the Center for Disease Control, who delved into defining the animal as a newly discovered species of parasite. He admitted that the creatures did indeed utilize other living creature to propagate and that those creatures included, but we not limited to, large dogs, wild cats, horses, cattle, other large animals and human beings.

Another official took the stand and read off from a growing list of areas that had been affected with the animals. The press frenzy after the speech was insane. Every reporter in the large briefing room that Cassandra was watching on television stood and shouted out their questions, each hoping to get the chance to have their questions answered.

The uniformed man behind the microphone only picked on three reporters. The first asked about the reports from other countries that the animals had shown up in at the exact same time, and questioned how it not be considered terrorism, asking if they thought the animals just dropped out of the sky.

The official pursed his lips and simply said, "I can not confirm or deny reports from other countries at this time, but we are considering all possibilities at this time."

Cassandra wondered for a moment what exactly that meant. If they weren't thinking that this was terrorism, did he mean to suggest that the government was open to the possibility that these animals really did just drop from the sky?

"We have all seen the pictures now of the quote unquote 'face hugging parasites'. If those creatures are the hatchlings from the eggs, what is laying the eggs?" Another reporter asked logically.

Cassandra perked up more, holding her breath even harder. It was a good question, and one she did not think of before. The man behind the podium gripped the sides of the little wooden stand and avoided answering that question all together.

"The animals' life cycle is still being determined at this time," he said and quickly picked another reporter.

It was something that in all this time Cassandra had not even thought about. Discussions were ever rampant about the eggs that people just magically came across. Some reports even stated that near every eggs site was some kind of all terrain vehicle that may have been used by the terrorists to deliver the eggs across the country.

Now that the animals were running loose around the country unchecked, and apparently breeding at an exponential rate, something had to be producing more eggs.

It couldn't possibly be the face hugging creatures. What an awful term, Cassandra thought as her mind drifted. Face Hugger. The words sounded repulsive when coined together, because it put the mental image of the ghastly little monster whose image had been printed in the paper a few days ago and reprinted every day thereafter, clenched over someone's face suffocating them. It made her lips purse.

Still, the face hugger creatures were the hatchlings. They were the babies from the eggs. They attached themselves to a human, or animal, and as had been reported, the things simply fell off and died after about twelve hours. If that was the case, then that could mean only two things. Either the creature couldn't survive parasitizing humans or animals, or that the things were using the humans and animals to reproduce.

Somehow parasite did not seem like the right word to describe this animal. Parasites, in Cassandra's mind, were like worms that dogs and cats get. A quick little pill or drop of some juice onto their backs and the parasites were gone. You never really saw them in the first place, they were just there, and could slowly, over time, cause the animal to suffer and maybe die. But these creatures were something totally different. They were vicious monsters that aggressively attacked anything that came near them. Normal parasites don't outright attack, they just live, she thought.

It was too much to think about. She focused back on the television and thought she saw several reporters in the room trying to calculate out similar theories in their heads. The third reporter called on shouted out without hesitation.

"Will the country, or the affected area at least, be put on quarantine, Sir?"

The room fell utterly quiet and all eyes turned back to the podium. Cassandra sat up a bit and she noticed her aunt and uncle shuffle in their seats as well.

"There is no reason to consider that a necessary course of action at this time," he answered politically.

As the room exploded again with shouts from the crowd, and mostly everyone's hand shot back up

in the air the uniformed officer excused himself from the stage stating that he had answered all the questions he had time for.

Cassandra disappeared to her room after the broadcast had finished. She noticed that instead of returning to regular programming, the national announcement got followed up instead by local television channels broadcasting their own debates and thoughts about what they had just heard. Cassandra paid it no more attention.

She let her mind shift to more pleasant things and soon fell asleep.