Note: Time referenced below is tied to when chapter six ended.

—Travis—

6 Minutes Earlier...

Travis watched the gray expanse marked with faded, cracked white lines. Yet, everything was fine. The conversations and music playing would have been calming if not for an ominous feeling.

Were these blissfully unaware people the lucky ones?

"Joe, it's been great seeing you again." An elderly man at the bar counter said to the younger man beside him.

How long had they known each other?

Was this the last conversation they'd ever have together?

"Likewise Erick. You take care now." The younger man rose from his seat and gave the older man a light shake on his shoulder. Joe made his way to the door. Anxiety clutched Travis's chest as he held his breath and heard the chime on the door ring out.

Would this be the moment when some patchwork abomination would pop up?

"And another one gone, and another one gone." Yet another horribly timed song. Why did the radio seem to hate him today?

The man strolled through the parking lot.

Nothing...

The man made it to his car.

Everything was fine...

His gaze shifted from the parking lot to the kitchen door. Della had stormed into the kitchen after Fred's yelling made half the diner pause their conversations.

Kendra and Tiffy still hadn't returned.

Was she–

"Hey, I'm gonna get you, too!" Worry recast to anger at the lyrics.

"Fucking song." He growled as he looked back at the fragile barrier that gave an illusion of safety and separation from what lurked outside.

Travis had seen first-hand that glass did little to stop them.

Just watch the parking lot. Be a lookout. The job felt like he was being pitied. "You think your injured ass can save her?" The words festered in his head as he peered out the window to the parking lot and road. Everything was still calm.

"Now, where did that waitress go? I need to get going." The unease returned from her mention of leaving. Travis watched the two women; the one who spoke had her back to him and he could only see her brown hair and the shoulders of her pink blouse.

"She must be busy. You need money for the tip, Kate?" The other woman at the booth asked when a muted thud came from behind him. "Let me see what I got in here." The quick slide of a zipper followed by the rustling of the purse's contents. "Oh, I got a five, that enough?" The woman's eyes shifted to Travis, the two locked eyes. Her head tilted to the side and down, just slightly, a smile on her face.

It wasn't the worst misunderstanding he'd been in.

"Yeah." The bill crumpled as she took it from her distracted friend. A silence formed between the two women. "Angie, what are you..." Travis followed her gaze to the window. "Oh," Travis felt their combined stare. "Okay." The woman in pink rose from the booth. "Just text me how it went when you get a signal again."

Angie nodded. A chuckle came from Kate as she made her way to the door. Travis's focus split between the two women, one walking away and the other sliding out of the booth to approach him.

"So there's no way you're from here." The fake leather of the booth squeaked as the chime sounded out from the entrance.

Travis looked at the woman across from him. "I'm not." He said flatly before switching back to the window as Katemade her way along the wall of windows on his side of the diner.

Just make it to your car.

Then I can let the other one down gently.

She waved her hand in his face to pull him back. "Hey, so what's your name?"

His eyes darted to her. "Travis." He looked back outside. She had stopped a short distance from the windows at a car parked right in front of the booth he was in as she dug through her purse.

"What do you do for work, Travis?" How oblivious was the chick sitting across from him?

"Mortician." The answer put a damper on most people's interest. If only his occupation had stopped his ex all those years ago.

"So..." Despite making the first move, her confidence seemed to vanish. "You ever do it on that table for the-" Travis's stare made her stop.

What the fuck was this conversation?

"Who the hell would–" The quick flash of the headlights from the car parked outside caught his attention.

Get in your car and go.

Where the hell was Tiffy?

The woman sunk back against the booth. "I mean, I read this one dark romance with a mortician who..." Travis tuned her out to preserve what remained of his waning sanity. His gaze went back to the parking lot. The woman in pink had been standing in place as she looked out to the road. A man bound in black and dark red threads sprinted towards the hapless woman who had frozen in fear.

"Hey, what's wrong?" The woman sitting with Travis asked. She turned her head when she made the same harrowing discovery. "What the hell is that?" The diner went silent. One by one, they all saw it.

A mummified man controlled by strings.

The old man sat at the bar across from their table was the first to see it. "What in god's name is that?!" He asked as he nearly stumbled out of his chair.

His malformed body left them all transfixed. His limbs were like crudely wrapped spools of thread, unevenly wrapped and layered, with sporadic sections of flesh or tattered clothing to remind Travis of the tragedy ensnared underneath.

Would that have been him if he'd failed to escape the deer?

The man had reached his target, yet he stopped and tilted his head observing the trembling woman before him. He spread his arms outwards as if looking for a hug.

"Kate! Run!" The glass shook as Angie pounded her fist against it to warn her friend. Kate turned and met the gaze of her friend as tears streamed down her face. The man crept towards her. Dozens of needles rose from the threads that encased his arms and chest. "Kate!" She cried as the woman turned back to see what stood behind her. He jerked forward and lifted her off the ground with his prickly embrace.

"Shit," Travis said as the woman let out a brief scream before blood spilled from her mouth. Her pink blouse became stained with trails of crimson and her erratic motions grew weaker until she went still. The man released her and she fell to the ground like a rag-doll.

Travis needed to get help.

He wasn't waiting for it to break through the glass to act this time.

He fled from the booth, ignoring the pain from the hurried movements. He took a last look at the creature to see it standing still as it observed Travis.

Whatever it would do next would be much worse.

"Kate... Oh god..." the woman said between sobs at the death of her friend. As he closed in on the door he heard Tiffy's voice.

"Fred, I–" The conversation paused as he burst through the door.

—Tiffany—

Travis's labored breaths cut through the silence as he stood before the others. "Travis, how many are out there?" Tiffany asked as she took her rucksack off and dug through it. She pulled out a waist bag, and then looked back at him. "Travis. How many?" Her curt tone broke through his shock as she secured the bag on herself.

"It's just one, but it already killed someone!" He said, his words hurried by rushing adrenaline. "Right now it's outside–" Glass shattered and a woman screamed.

"Get off me! Get off!" A chorus of terrified customers followed her wail of agony.

"It's gonna kill us all!"

"It's climbing through the window!"

"Someone stop it!"

Tiffany had to act. She needed to stop this thing.

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She stared down the line cook. "Fred, give me the fucking shotgun."

He shook his head. "Not happening. I can't trust you with this." Another scream came from the dining room.

They didn't have the luxury of time to argue.

"I think it got the old man who was sitting across from me," Travis said as he crossed his arms and quaked in fear.

He was at his limit.

"Fine," she unzipped the pouch and reached for the black and yellow grip of the weapon. "You want to play hero? You're coming out there with me." Looking over the taser, she tapped the button on the battery to see all the lights turn green.

"Where did you get that?" Fred asked.

She flipped the safety off. There was no time for stupid questions. "Shut the fuck up and listen, otherwise more people will die." She took his silence for compliance. "The thing you're about to see is not human. It just uses the bodies to get around."

Her statement puzzled him. "It uses the–"

"What part of quiet don't you get?" She moved towards the door and put her back to it before questioning Travis again. "Could the monster see or did it hunt off of sound?"

"It could see," he said when her lips tightened.

Another fresh kill.

"Great, so we got a fresh one and three more that are soon to rise..." The taser had ten shots loaded and ready to go. She needed to get two to land per hostile to stun them.

Not much margin for error to work with.

Giving her weapon a last look, everything looked ready to go.

"Travis, Della, you both stay back here." Her focus went to the stubborn line cook with the shotgun. "Fred, you better be ready to shoot." She said matter of fact. "Once I go out there, give me ten seconds, then come out, get its attention, and aim for the head!" He gave a nod to the order.

Tiffany pressed against the door enough to peer into the dining room.

Absolute chaos was the best description for it.

The creature had corralled the many people to the far wall of the dining room. A man bound in threads stood in the middle of the diner. His body had become an amalgamation of dark threads with occasional red woven into the masses.

Some of the stitched will combine the threads of older creations into the newer ones. The file had warned her of these types and their erratic behavior compared to other stitched abominations.

With the biggest threat preoccupied, she scanned the rest of the room.

An elderly man lay collapsed on the floor as the needles wove through his back. Red threads weaved over his clothes dyed a similar color. To the right, the booth next to the one she'd shared with Travis earlier had the window broken and needles dug into the body of the woman slumped back in the booth.

Both of them could be a problem if they got up in the middle of the conflict.

She inched the door further open and took aim at the old man's body. The probe shot out and stuck into his upper back. The needles stopped weaving. Then, a few strands rose from the body. Needles moved about, then flew towards the screaming people in the diner. The one who got hit screamed out loudest.

"Fuck." Tiffany grumbled to herself. She needed to be quicker at landing the shots. With its attack complete, the remaining needles resumed their sewing as the threads wove across the corpse it claimed as a canvas.

Keep the probes a foot apart to achieve NMI. Tiffany recalled that detail from training as she aimed the second shot. The shot landed. As the hook sunk into the flesh, a lighting symbol lit up on the taser. The threads began their ascent when they seized up. A shock discharged. The threads went limp on the body and the lighting symbol vanished.

With the old man set, she turned her focus to the woman in the booth and took aim. The first shot landed in her abdomen. Threads weaving through her body rose. They slithered and prepared to attack the crowd. Before they could release their needles, the second probe landed. The shock made them go limp. With her immediate area cleared, she entered the dining room.

She only had a minute or two until they'd recover from the shock.

"Help us!" A person in the group pleaded. The rest looked at Tiffany. The creature tilted its head, then slowly twisted its neck in her direction. Before it could see her, she ducked behind the counter.

"Let's go!" A man said and she heard people run. The monster didn't pursue the fleeing people. Tiffany rose enough to see over the counter as needles covered the man's body like spines on a cactus.

"Everyone get down!" She said, the group had mixed reactions. Some ducked down, others stood in place while two made their way to the kitchen door on their side of the diner. The creature raised its needle-filled arms and curled them back.

Her mind raced as she realized what she was up against.

There must have been hundreds of needles in it.

A group of late-stage hosts must have dumped their needles into this new body. It had bound itself in the threads of the rotting corpses that had hunted down this unfortunate soul.

Tiffany could only fire the first shot into its upper back as it flung its arms forward and a barrage of needles flew and skewered the fleeing couple and anyone who was still standing. They fell to the floor and howled in pain. Before she could aim her second shot, the kitchen door behind her flew open. Fred stormed out of the kitchen.

"Get the hell away from them!" He took aim at the creature and fired.

The buckshot tore into the back of the man and the probe she had fired into it, destroying the wire.

"Dammit, Fred! Avoid where I shoot it!" She said while lining up another shot. Despite their assault, the creature ignored them and continued towards the cowering group spreading its arms as needles emerged from the slivers of exposed flesh. The needles paired into scissors as they cut away at the threads leaving them to dangle and sway from the spread arms of the creature.

It was planning a new attack, something worse.

"Oh, no you don't," Fred said as he pumped the shotgun and moved forward. The second burst hit its right arm, severing it at the elbow. Another pump followed by an explosion. The newest shot landed close to the first and revealed the insides of the man as the many threads and needles pulsed and slithered about inside its host.

"Fred, stop!" Tiffany said as she fired a new probe into it. The man ignored them as it brought its remaining arm down and gripped the threads. Needles emerged when it cracked the dark strands and whipped one of the remaining people. It roared at the dwindling crowd. The small group returned their focus to the monster when it went still.

Did it want their attention and lash out when ignored?

Was that why it didn't attack her and Fred? Because... they weren't ignoring it?

Not wanting to test her theory, she fired the second shot. The lighting symbol returned as the creature tensed, staggered, and then toppled to the ground with a heavy thud.

It was down.

She couldn't save all the people it had trapped, but she could get the uninfected people out.

"Okay, everyone, get up," she said and watched as six people rose. "We need to evacuate–" Another scream of terror came from the group as one person moved about in a panic, frantically kicking his leg around.

"Get it off me!" A middle-aged man said as he stumbled to the ground and grabbed at his left leg. One person moved towards him while the others backed away. Tiffany saw what had him frantic. The arm Fred had blown off the entwined man was gripping his ankle.

"Honey!" A middle-aged woman grabbed just beneath the stump of the forearm where the black threads had fallen away.

"Sit still-" The pair went silent as needles shot out of the flesh of the arm and into their hands and his ankle. The pain registered and they screamed in near unison.

"The hell?!" Fred spat. "The rest of you, get over here!" Tiffany's eyes widened at the arm as threads rose from the stump.

Goddammit Fred. His decision had doomed them.

The group of four wasn't even halfway to them when three fell to the ground. The needles that stuck out of their back had already wormed their way into them. It seemed only one was lucky enough to escape.

The man reached Fred. "What do we do?"

"Be quiet!" Tiffany said in a hush as she stayed behind her cover. "We get to the back and get out of here!" It was only a matter of time till the stitched she had stunned would rise back up. She stayed in place, listening for any needles coming her way.

The silence lingered. It hadn't heard her. She rose from behind the counter. She looked at the only two people in the room that weren't dead or dying.

The screams lingered. It didn't hear her. She rose from behind the counter. To the left, the arm continued to shoot needles into the downed screaming people.

At least it would end their suffering quicker...

Once the needles are in the chest or head there there is no chance of survival. If equipped and able, amputation can save the affected before it reaches the chest or head. The files she read about surviving an attack by this creature were bleak.

They needed to make it to the kitchen.

Tiffany turned and gestured to the door out of this massacre. As her eyes shifted back to the two men, the periphery of her vision caught a figure standing outside the shattered window.

"Look out!" She dove back down as another needle whizzed overhead.

Her heart sank when she heard the two men on the other side of the counter make pained noises and fall to the floor.

It had gotten them too...

Once again, everyone around her had died...

She'd failed to save anyone...

No!

Travis and Della were still alive. Kendra had to be okay.

She could still get them out of here!

Tiffany poked her head up to see the creature that had fallen. The last of her group was a woman in a pink blouse streaked with crimson. The woman grabbed onto the window frame. Despite her hands being cut by the shattered glass, she pulled herself in and fell onto the table.

She needed a distraction. These things were dumb. She wasn't.

With a swift movement, she gripped the handle of the lone coffee mug on the counter she hid behind. Some lukewarm coffee spilled on her.

She'd take coffee over a needle any day.

She waited and listened to the pained sounds playing out in the diner. Cries for help, begging god for mercy, and the sound of the woman's shambling as she moved about the dining room.

It was time.

She chucked the mug towards the far end of the diner. As the ceramic shattered, the woman's footsteps moved toward it. Tiffany rose from behind the counter and aimed her weapon. One shot, followed by another, and the woman fell. She just needed to tiptoe her way to the kitchen now.

Tiffany reached the door and pressed against it slowly, hoping it wouldn't creak. As the door opened, she looked back to the scene. Fred, the man who had reached him, and some people on the other side of the diner still cried out begging for help or death.

The latter would free them all soon.

The opening was nearly wide enough for her to slip through when the man bound in threads stirred, his many threads pulsated.

He was about to rise back up.

She got the door opened, slipped through, and slowly closed it.

Tiffany had escaped.

Only her...

Tiffany entered the scullery room where Travis and Della stood. She made a b-line to her rucksack, digging until she found the case with another magazine of probes for her weapon. "We have to go." Neither one of them argued with her.

They just wanted to live.