Blood thundered in her head.

The migraine which had persisted the whole evening gave way to something.

Haley rose from the cot and collected her things from the belted bag at the foot. She hadn’t kept track of time since going down. Her temples pulsed vibrations of the people still in discussion in the other room. Ms. Manuel came into the room silently, her infant son was asleep on her, the woman slinked to the diaper bag to retrieve something and the women shared each other’s eyes.

Going out? Haley read from the mother and nodded. She rose to full height and went to the hallway, which was dark, only the lamp of an adjacent room provided silhouette to the figure standing there. Haley peered, fear, anger, expectation permeated through her core and through the tips of her fingers.

Blood thundered.

“Who are you? Who the fuck are you, how did you get in here?” A voice alarmed and shouting from the adjacent room. Haley moved when the man did. She pinned his hand to the wall and something solid dropped to the floor. He smelled loamy and sour; he breathed even breathes. As they struggled, he spoke in a chilling docile voice.

“I’m here to see the baby,” he said fraudulent and chipper and leered at the woman Haley could not see. It was completely odd the way he addressed the woman while Haley struggled with him. He turned his stubbly face to her.

“You want us?” He said animal-like and sinister. There were more of them.

Haley bit into his neck and tore his flesh. He cried out something surprised and painful and Haley shoved him to the floor.

The woman screamed, got behind Haley ‘rushing down the hallway announcing,

“Intruders! Barricade your rooms!”

Haley stepped over the bleeding man and tore Skyscraper to full extension. In the rotunda shadows of more men crept in the dimness. A young woman Haley did not know the name of was advanced on by a lanky figure in a mask.

The strike of Skyscrapers spade against his head shattered the ceramic mask and a queer hum was all the man produced before his skull hit the hard floor. The pounding in her head gave her focus.

Haley roared a snarling bey and tripped the fuse to the halos. Light revealed the cockroaches and how they scurried.

They swarmed her, a man grabbed onto the hilt of her weapon and yanked hard attempting to disarm her. She punished the move by bringing up a pulverizing knee into his crotch and sliced his face with the blade. A fist connected with her cheek; a large unarmed man moved to capture her in a bear hug. The speed of her movement as she maneuvered left and followed through with a damning left hook. She spit her blood in his face and stabbed him viciously.

Screaming and loud banging sounds created a hectic frenzy in the home. Haley lumbered with Skyscraper leveled into a dark room with the fuses sliced. The figure was big, a curling haze of fear and danger piqued her instincts. There was something vile about them. With no words she engaged, a fierce horizontal swing was parried with some type of long blunt weapon. The large wooden table set with dinnerware crashed and skidded along the wooden floor as the warrior and the fiend slammed their offences into each other. He bashed the club against her side and she felt a sharp pain from a rib. Her opponent shuddered with energy, tackled her to the floor. The attempt to pin her arms was punished mercilessly. She kipped and kicked the man in the chest hard. She rose fast and brought the edge of her forearm against his fragile jaw. Their roles were now reversed, now he writhed on the floor holding his broken jaw and she collected Skyscraper, measured the weight of her next strike, and brought down the glaive on the back of his head. Pain erupted from her ribs and she winced; her cheek throbbed and her nose wept blood. From her throat she growled deep. Men under the pitiable notion that they possessed strength and momentum. She hunted them.