SFX: SLAM!
Georgette: "Please... Keep it down Jana... Francine finally got Ron to sleep."
Jana: "Oh, sorry. Just... Those damn rats are still down there! I thought maybe after a few hours they'd just eat each other or go somewhere else..."
Alex: "Nnghh... What's happening?"
Georgette: "Jana just got back from checking the stairwell. The rats still haven't given up."
Alex: "Really? Same at the other two stairwells?"
Jana: "Yeah, the others hadn't done as thorough a job as us so they had to hit the rats back down as they leapt from the floor up to some of the stairs a bit higher up."
Alex: "Shiiiit. They got that bit hacked off now though, right?"
Jana: "Believe me, after one of the rats almost gnawed someone's ear off they made damn sure at the central stairs that they wouldn't have that problem again. Killed a few of the rats and threw them at the rest. Damn things completely ignored them despite how sickly they looked..."
Georgette: "Sickly? How so?"
Jana: "You haven't been down to look at them again while I was sleeping? Huh. Thought everyone else had."
Alex: "Well, I haven't either, but having to haul myself up when the ladder tipped over kinda made me not want to go back down there."
Georgette: "So, sickly?"
Jana: "Okay, okay. Well, like... I've never seen one up close before, but... These rats seemed to be losing a lot of their hair, and there were these... Splotchy patterns underneath."
Georgette: "Huh. Curious and curiouser..."
Alex: "What? Aren't rats very territorial? Fighting and pulling out hair should be pretty normal, right?"
Georgette: "Well, yes, but they don't usually swarm a body like they did that person outside or stay put when they can't get at their food... Whatever's making their hair fall out and skin underneath look like that might have something to do with their behavior. Some kind of infection like rabies but not quite? It might be something no one's seen before..."
Jana: "So then you'd get to name it, right?"
Georgette: "Perhaps... But I think more study would be needed then, and beside that, I think we need to figure out how to deal with the rats safely before that could happen. After all, what'll happen when supplies dwindle below what everyone in the building can ration? Who would make the run for food, knowing those things would be waiting for fresh meat?"
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