8 7. Stranger Yet

Serena limped slowly after the lady. All her muscles were sore from sleeping badly, running and trying to hide. Her ribs ached more with each breath, but there was nothing she could do about it.

The group of weirdos was waiting for her by the bench where she had been sitting. They really were a strange bunch, but still no one noticed them. Just another thing to add to the list of 'impossible' Serena had seen over the last day.

"Hello girl, we've got some questions to ask you. Would you mind sparing us some time?" One of the group asked gently, and Serena shrugged.

"If you buy me lunch, I'll answer anything." She said bluntly. It's been a dreadful, scary day and she didn't have the patience for tact.

"Then we'd better relocate." A different one announced and led the way to a nearby diner.

They ordered a meal set for everyone, and apparently the waitress could see them, judging from the looks she kept tossing toward the group. They really were crazily eye catching.

Serena wolfed down her food eagerly. It had been so long since her last proper meal. For months she had been slowly starving, saving her money in every way she could, eating only the cheapest food in the largest portions she could find. Malnutrition was her close companion.

"Slow down, kid - give your stomach time to digest. You're so skinny, you need to take your time eating. Too much food all at once is bad for you." One of the ladies in the group said kindly. She was somewhere in her 40s, early or late was anyone's guess.

"We agreed to feed you - don't waste money by making yourself sick." A man complained gruffly, but his eyes were kind. He was in his 20s at least, and if his dress sense were closer to normal than crazy he would easily be called handsome. As for what he was wearing- it looked like the bastard child of a diving suit and a pair of long underwear, in a psychedelic mix green, orange and beige.

"Can you tell us if anything strange has happened to you in the last day or so?" The arrogant semi-leader asked coldly.

"Sure, something strange happened - I ran into you lot." Serena replied sarcastically, causing a few chuckles among the crowded diner. The weirdos, however, were not amused.

"How about before you met us?" The 40s lady asked gently.

"I was nearly eaten alive by a giant fish monster." Serena stated, deadpan.

"Please, tell us about that." The honey-jar person said excitedly.

"I took a job for a farmer to trawl a pond because some of his cows went missing. When I started working, a monster fish-thing too big to possibly live in the pond jumped out, chased me about the paddock and tried to eat me. I killed it, but while I left to report it, the monster vanished. I got all this from the fight." Serena said coldly, trying to distance herself from the haunting fear. Simply thinking of the monster sent chills down her spine and made her breath catch unevenly.

"You killed it? Really? Did any of it's blood get on you?" The diving suit one asked worriedly.

"I had nothing but my knife to fight it with, so of course the blood got on me. There was also a lot of mud and things I don't want to imagine, so I'm worried about infection." Serena said, doing her best to push the memory of the monster lunging at her away.

"Oh dear, that's not good. By the sounds of it, you could be contaminated." The arrogant one said with real, unexpected worry in his eyes.

"Contaminated? With what?" Serena asked in confusion.

"It's a little too much to explain right now, and this is not the place to talk about it. You have to come with us. Be glad the government didn't find you first." A mad-scientist type announced with an inappropriate smile, giving Serena chills for a new reason.

"The hell are you talking about? I'm not going anywhere until you explain this to me." Serena glared stubbornly at them, and suddenly found her left wrist being grabbed and pulled until the table. She tried to struggle and pull back, but one of the group hugged her tightly, making it look to the crowd like it was just a game. Her ribs aches fiercely from the contact, but she could not escape.

She felt a prick of pain in her wrist, and realised they were abducting her. Before she could call for help, her sight blurred and the world quickly went dark.

Her last thought was - at least I finished my meal first...