Jax was running again. He ran on and on, into the cold night with a purloined scarf hanging about his neck, bulked up against the cold with Cotton's jacket and with his canvas bag banging against his shanks. Cotton would not need his jacket again, no siree, and a thick coat it was too; Jax knew he could brave the colder weather up north now. In fact he meant to. In fact, shit! Jax was going to rehab. He'd go up north, find some community group that'd help him out. Get rehab. Get a real life. Yes siree, Jax was running to someplace rather than from it.

Please God, he did not want to end up like Cotton. He should not have been there. He should not have seen what he saw. He was fucking scarred, man! It was wrong. It was a sign, yeah, had to be. No one would do what he just saw.

The squat was good. Okay, so it was just another vacant building. Times were tough you know. But the power was still on and the building was still managed. It was, you know, just empty between one failed store and the next. The location wasn't all that good. But thats what made it a good squat. Jenny and the Boys found it first, but there was less than a handful of them, not enough to hold the place once the word got out. Besides, they didn't mind sharing so long as you kept out of the way of their dealer. She of the pale, skinny looks - like out of that danish movie that was doing the rounds some time ago. Dragon with the Girl Tattoo yeah, that was it. Lumpy was reading the book until Skivy Dick burned it for fuel (dumb-ass!).

Cotton was a bully who thought he could muscle in on things because his arms were like thick cables and he had abs of steel. Cotton heard of this squat and decided he'd have the top floor for himself. That floor was for Jenny and the Boys - any other fucker could claim the rest of the building but the top floor was theres... and their dealer, right?

So Cotton marches up there with a piece of old pipe to law down the law. Jax followed because he wanted to see what happened next. He wanted to see Cotton take a fall. He wanted to see Jenny and the Boys who were usually docile little lambs do some shit. Jax snook up the rickety stairs and stuck to the shadows. He followed the sounds of the raised voices and the shrieks. It was easy. He got there just as the hollering reached its climax. He heard the dealer (how the fuck did she get up there with no one seeing her?) and he heard the terrible thud.

The silence was excruciating. Jax peeped from his hiding place. The tableaux: shadows and candlelight; the huddled mass of Jenny and her Boys, cowering with hate filled eyes - cornered rats. Cotton had his back to them and was whacking away at the dealer, who was down. Cotton had stopped, improvised club raised. He seemed stunned. Jax saw why...

...The Dealer was slowly getting up. He swore he saw her busted arm fix itself before his eyes. The dealer looked even more zombie like than normal. She mumbled something. "Hungry. So fucking hungry..." yeah, that was it. She fixes her eyes on Cotton as she hauls herself up before him. And remember, he has just been at her with a pipe for crying out loud!

The dealer steps forward. Or was it shambles, twitching bad like she is on something. Shit, she must have been to take that...

Cotton steps back. Jenny and the Boys lunge like ravenous rats, beating with fits and feat. They try to bring him down, bear him down. He fights free only to blunder into the dealer who flings a really heavy punch into him. He tumbles. The Boys pounce on him again while Jenny is fumbling for something sharp. Glass. Jax panics and retreats but he can hear Cotton fighting on. He hears the man howl when he gets shivved. Still Cotton beats them back and tries to get away.

The bruiser's strength fails him just short of the stairs. Just short of where Jax has fled to. Cotton is begging Jax. Uncertain, Jax approaches. He could get Cotton's coat at least... He slinks over, and begins helping Cotton away (just as he is slipping the wounded man out of his jacket). And then he finds himself staring at the glaze eyed dealer, like she is the monster in Alien and he is that Ripley character. Jax shrieks and finds himself on his ass, scrabbling away.

And the dealer has her way with Cotton. She was a zombie after all. A fucking zombie!