“You’re welcome, guys.” Nikki, Kaltag, and Star headed off hurriedly, and Balto went to the body of the dead rabies advance form. He extended one of the virus arms and used virus cleansing on the body. As he had hoped, the entire thing burned up, all of the remains gradually fading until there was nothing left but white snow. After it was gone, he headed back to the fishing warehouse, trying to think of where Jenna might be as he walked. It was quite obvious that Sorrow had more than one hideout, and Balto assumed the advance form had taken Jenna to a different one. Still, he didn’t know how many other hideouts Sorrow had, and even if he did, he wouldn’t know where they were. The frustration brought by being able to do nothing except wait was incredible, and after Balto got back to the warehouse, he spent a great deal of time thinking, but without any success. He sighed and sat down in front of a window, looking out at Nome and the sunset, wishing more than anything that Jenna were there with him, so he could hold her and keep the advance forms from hurting her. “I love you, baby,” he said out loud, closing his eyes and sighing. “Just hang in there.”

Jenna lay curled up in a corner, breathing hard with fear, hoping that the strep throat advance form wouldn’t decide to begin attacking her again. She had managed to avoid most of its blows, but not all, and when she hadn’t, it had hurt quite badly; the advance form made sure it was enough to make her scream. At least she wasn’t injured, but she knew that was mostly a matter of luck, and that if the advance form attacked again, she wouldn’t be that lucky. She shuddered at the stark memory of its snarling face as it had swung at her, and she curled up tighter. The advance form, which had been going about its business in relative calm, suddenly looked at her, meeting her eyes with a look that made Jenna know for sure that she would not be so fortunate this time. It walked toward her slowly, holding one blade out to the side, ready to slice. Jenna began shaking uncontrollably, almost able to feel the blade tearing at her body. “Please…” she said, desperate fear in her voice. “Please, no…” The advance form continued, showing no signs of stopping. “No…no, please! Don’t hurt me!” Her voice volume increased with her fear as the advance form approached. “No! I’m begging you! Don’t hurt me, please! NO!” It drew its arm back, and Jenna’s pleas turned into one long scream of terror…just as the door opened. The advance form turned around to see Sorrow standing in the doorway, and it straightened up, the look on its face saying that it knew it was in grave trouble. Sorrow crossed the room to the advance form, stopping right in its face. “So…” he said, “what have we been doing?” He was silent for a moment, then, without warning, rammed his claws into the advance form’s chest. It cried out and didn’t cease. Jenna watched in horror as the advance form’s body turned white, the skin peeling and sloughing off hideously. Sorrow lifted the advance form into the air, still impaling it on his claws, sending a flood of leprosy bacilli into its body. The rotten smell filled the air, the advance form’s now-white body disintegrating and vaporizing, its face and limbs rotting to nothing, eventually leaving a decayed, shapeless white mass that looked like a wad of melted mozzarella. Sorrow let what was left of the body drop to the floor, and Jenna turned her eyes away from the ghastly sight. “Are you hurt?” Sorrow asked, facing her. Jenna shook her head, swallowing hard. “Very well,” said Sorrow. “I will bring you your food.” Jenna looked at the dead half-body, wondering how she could possibly eat anything. Even as she wondered, however, the body gradually dissolved until nothing remained, consumed by the leprosy bacilli. Fortunately, the sickening stench was gone by the time Sorrow arrived with the food.

As she ate, Jenna listened to a conversation Sorrow began with a staph advance form. “Did you find it?” asked the advance form. “No,” Sorrow replied. “I believe I was close, but…I can’t be certain. I started an avalanche by mistake; after that, I left.” “Are you going to go back tomorrow?” “There is no point. If I can destroy Balto, I will be able to search at my leisure. Order the next attacker to begin his task. It is already at the staging hideout. I will see to it that Balto receives the next clue.” “How do we know the rabies advance form has failed?” “It would have been back by now had it succeeded. Go on.” The staph advance form left the room, and Sorrow looked at Jenna. “Balto has some talent, apparently. My second challenge did not overcome him. We’ll see how he handles the next, eh?” Jenna shook her head. “You’re underestimating Balto. He has more strength than you think, and he loves me more than anything. I guarantee you, because you’ve taken me like this, he’s going to punish you for it when he finds you. Whatever he has to do, he’ll do it to get me back, and after he does, there’ll be nothing to make him cooperate with you. He’s going to hurt you.” Sorrow laughed, and Jenna spoke again. “I’m not just trying to intimidate you or something; I’m giving you a warning. Balto pays back harm done to me tenfold. But if you let me go, and I go back to him, I’ll tell him you let me go, and he’ll leave you alone.” “We’ve discussed this,” Sorrow replied. “You are the bait, and in that position you will remain.” He swung his hand suddenly, backhanding Jenna’s jaw, but she gritted her teeth, not making a sound or shedding a tear. “I would caution you not to threaten me,” he growled. “Be careful, or I may change my mind about you going uninjured. Have a nice day.”

Balto stood silently at a window the next morning, watching an advance form approach the warehouse. He could see the next clue in its hand, which it dropped at the threshold. Balto jumped down from the window, landing behind the advance form, and it whirled around, teeth and claws at the ready. “Okay,” Balto said, with a hostile voice, “you’re going to answer a question for me. Where’s the hideout Sorrow’s using now?” The advance form shook its head. “If I tell you, he will kill me, and if I don’t, you will kill me.” Balto extended the virus arms’ teeth slowly. “Believe me,” he said, “you’d rather have Sorrow killing you than me.” The advance form smiled and shook its head again. “You will gain nothing from me,” it said. It raised a hand…and slashed its own throat, falling dead instantly. Balto sighed with frustration and picked up the letter, opening it.

Mister Balto,

I trust you had fun with rabies? I thought the whole idea was rather funny. Now then, Act II involves two of Jenna’s friends and one of mine. This unfortunate pair meets my friend for a chicken dinner, but afterwards, they fall very, very ill. Free theater tickets if you can guess the deus ex machina. I highly recommend you see this one for yourself.

Regards,

Sorrow

“You’re saying Nikki, Kaltag, and Star disappeared yesterday?” Dixie and Sylvie were walking down an alley just off the main street of Nome, chatting idly. Sylvie had just spoken. “Yeah,” Dixie replied. “They didn’t come to the restaurant, even though they said they would.”

Several yards behind them, a creature was kneeling behind several crates, watching them.

“You know what?” Sylvie said. “Balto and Jenna have been gone for days! Nobody knows where they are.” “Maybe they’re on a second honeymoon or something.”

The creature got up silently and climbed up the side of a building, extending long, loose arms to reach the edges of the buildings on each side of the alley, allowing it to move stealthily above the ground.

“They’d tell us about that, though…don’t you think?” “Yeah, but if they don’t, I guess that’s their business.”

The creature drew near to them, making its way along above the alley, approaching with the patience and silence of a lethal predator. It was nearly right above them.

“I just find it really strange that they’re all gone at once.” They stopped. “Now that you mention it, yeah…it’s weird, but it’s got to just be a coincidence or something.”

Directly above them, the beast perched, ready to attack. Suddenly, a trail of dark orange blood from its throat ran down over its lip. A single drop collected at the tip of one snaggletooth…and began to fall. The creature bit at the drop, trying desperately to catch the blood in its mouth and prevent it from dropping, but it missed, and the drop plunged to the snow, spattering orange across the white.

As they were about to go on, Dixie happened to look down in front of her, and at first thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. Yet as she looked on, she discovered that there was, in fact, a gooey-looking orange splotch on the snow. “Huh?” she said. “Where did that…” She and Sylvie both looked up…and found themselves staring right into the eyes of the monster. They both screamed, and it took a swing at them. They dodged, and the creature missed, cutting trenches in the snow with its flagellum-like clawed fingers. Dixie and Sylvie darted out from underneath it, but were too frightened to flee. The beast dropped, letting its legs fall before its upper body, so it could drop a short distance onto its feet. It had blue skin that looked rubbery and glossy, and this skin had to stretch over a pair of arms and legs of rather disproportionate length, and a bent-over body. The arms and legs looked loose, like tentacles, almost as if they had no solid internal structure. Its fingers were clearly tentacles, long floppy digits, each tipped with a straight blade of several inches that resembled an epee. It face was a fright to behold, with its eyes that continually rolled around and its multiple buckteeth. A trail of saliva, laced with traces of blood, continually dripped from its mouth. “What a shame,” it said, with a low voice. “I like it so much better when I can make silent kills.” “Kills?!?” Sylvie shrieked. “Leave us alone!” Dixie cried. The