“Yes, Charlotte?” I asked.

“Um,” she was taken back a little.

It was Charlotte after all! What a twist!

What’s up?

“There’s this place here with two families, and they’re in the middle of packing up to leave.  I thought you’d want to know, in case they were gone before we came back at noon to eat and tell you about it.”

Ahh. Yeah, that makes sense – Taylor bug-sensing a bunch of people leaving the area right after her minions stopped by might give her the wrong idea.

But then there’s another question: Are they leaving the area because of Skitter’s takeover? Or just joining the droves of people evacuating the city as a whole?

“That’s fine.  What’s the problem?”

“Rats.”

Aw, rats.

Of course.  The trash would offer a steady diet to vermin, and the flooding would deter many of their natural predators.  The rodent population had exploded, and it could easily be getting to the point where it was interfering with people’s daily lives.

It clearly is, if it’s actively driving them out of their homes.

“Their neighbors have the same problem?”

“We haven’t been able to get any of them to answer the door.”

Brockton Bay isn’t in a state that’s conducive to people trusting strangers knocking on their doors, especially ones wearing masks.

…try again in October?