Outbreak: The Hunger by Scott Shoyer

some lab, and hadn’t wanted to take the chance of them infecting the others.  If that were true, they could have been testing anything on those poor animals.
    “Okay, okay, Jim,” she agrees. “I agree that there’s something odd about these animals, but what can we do?  They still need our help.”
    Jim shivered.  “They are freaking me out.”
    “Well, let’s get them fed.  Maybe that will get them back to acting normal.”  She suspects it won’t.
    They both go to the cabinets to prepare the food.   Once it is all portioned out, they return to the cages.  With a bowl of food in his left hand, Jim reaches out to unlock a cage that houses five cats.  Just as he lifts the latch, all five cats attack his hand.  The closest sinks its teeth into the tender flesh between his thumb and forefinger.  Jim yells and drops the bowl,trying to pull away.  By this time, the others  have taken advantage of his fingers.  All five cats are attached to his hand, sinking their tiny, needle-sharp teeth into his fingers and thrashing their heads around.  The ones that come away with flesh seem satisfied they will feast on their prize. 
    The cat that has him by the hand has already ripped away two chunks of flesh and is coming back for a third.  This sets off all the other animals in the room.  They are all thrashing against their cages, trying to get out.
    Jim screams.  He can’t pull his hand out of the cage.  To Julie, it looks like the cats are pulling him further into the cage.  She grabs his arm around the elbow and tries to pull it out of the cage.  She can’t believe the grip those cats have.  Finally, the main cat must have had its fill.  It releases John’s hand and darts out of the cage.  The other cats follow, leaving behind a bloody cage filled with bits of Jim’s flesh. 
    Jim grabs a towel and wraps it around his bloody hand.  Julie noticed that he looks pale and is worried he would pass out.  “Let’s sit you down,” she says as she walks him over to the office chair.
    In the other room, Julie hears the screams and screeches from her four tabbies.  She runs in to see the cats that had just attacked John have cornered and are attacking her tabbies.  For a second, she freezes in fear.  The largest of the cats, the one that had captured Jim’s hand, has taken down one of the tabbies as if it were a mouse.  It immediately goes for the throat, and in a fast, fluid motion, tears out the cat’s windpipe.  The cats are completely oblivious to Julie being in the room.  They are focused on the tabbies and won’t stop until they kill them all.
    Looking away from her dying tabby in horror, she turns to see that another of the feral cats has already taken down and is eating another tabby.  Tears fill Julie’s eyes as she watches the cat tear into the tabby’s stomach, but these cats weren’t just killing; they are eating their fallen prey. 
    Julie grabs a nearby broom and runs at the cats.  They don’t seem scared at all by Julie’s threatening advances.  She gets to the cat  that has torn out her pet’s throat and smacks it hard with the broom.  It doesn’t even move.  It keeps eating her tabby.  She pulls the broom over her head and brings it down hard, but that only makes the cat look up at her.  It stares at Julie as she is about to smack it again, but this time, flees and runs out the door.  The other four cats follow. 
    Julie looks around and sees that all four of her tabbies are dead.  Those fucking cats tore her tabbies apart, fed on their insides, and then ran off.
    Julie starts crying, but was interrupted when she hears Jim moaning in the other room.  He is still sitting in the chair, holding his hand.  The animals are going absolutely fucking crazy, almost like they picked up the scent of blood and wanted a taste.
    “What the fuck is going on here?” Julie screams.  She reaches for the phone to call Austin Animal Control.  She hates herself for doing it,