A man walked toward his car with his key in hand. Before he could open the doors, a figure suddenly walked up from behind, turned him around, and pushed him against his car. The man subconsciously struggled, but that struggle immediately ended when he saw the handgun in Katie’s hand.

Yep. Katie might’ve lost one gun, but she kept at least two on her at all times.

Katie wasn’t in the best situation. The fall that could’ve killed or maimed a normal human being left her with wounds all over her body. Even now, she could feel her guts hurting like hell and blood rushing to her mouth. Also, she wanted to punch any Hollywood directors in the face who showed characters jumping through glass windows and not suffering a single injury. She could feel at least a dozen different glass pieces inside her flesh right now, and at least three of them were in her naked feet. Price of going into action barefoot. Was it hot? Yep. Was it smart? Probably not.

Then again, Katie rejoiced in all her injuries. If anything, the pain only made her move faster.

Bloody footsteps followed her as she moved.

The girl gestured for the key in the man’s hand.

“The keys, now!”

The man bit his lips and wondered what his chances were of overpowering this girl, but one look into the girl’s eyes told him she wasn’t afraid to shoot him on the spot. Fine. A car wasn’t worth his life, especially when insurance would cover for that car. The man backed off and handed the car keys to Katie.

As Katie drove off. the man took out his phone and called 911.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“Yes! My car was stolen!”

“What’s the car’s description.”

“Uh…” The man suddenly realized he couldn’t remember anything from the car, not its brand and not even its color. “I don’t...I don’t know.”

“Well, at least give us its license plate.”

“Hmm...DH something?”

“Sir, I need you to focus. How do you not know your own car’s license plate?”

“I don’t...I don’t know. But I can describe the one who stole my car! She...she is...she is a woman! Wait, is she a woman? Wait, what happened again? Hello? Who is this? 911? Why would I call 911?”

On the other side, the 911 operator sighed and put the phone down.

“Was there a recent budget reduction for mental institutions around here?”

“No. Why?”

“No reason.”

This was the curse at work. As long as Katie and her classmates were involved in Mr. Isaac’s games, the others would subconsciously ignore them. They couldn’t call the police for help. Likewise, if they committed crimes, they couldn’t be arrested either.

For most, this was more harmful than helpful, but for the one and only Katie Lockwood, this was freedom like she has never known before.

Katie rubbed her bare feet on the gas pedal. It was a pleasure that made her want to sit back, close her eyes, and relax.

Unfortunately, she had better things to do then such...basic pleasures.

When she told Kameron she had no way of tracking down Mira, that was a lie. She has watched enough spy movies to know to put a tracking device on the girl. The tracking device was courtesy of the late weapon’s dealer Arnold. Katie found it in his armory and decided it could be handy.

Now, she was heading straight for where Mira was.

As she drove, Katie couldn’t help but lick her lips. Kameron tossed some sort of seed inside her. It didn't work back then in the hotel room, but she had no idea if it would suddenly come back online now and start transforming her into one of those plant puppets.

At this point, Katie had no idea if her rapid regeneration made her immune to the seeds. Deep down, her body rejoiced in the thought of having tree branches sticking out of her body, but she was strong enough to realize that would be quite an issue.

With the help of an app on her phone, Katie located Mira in a motel an hour of drive away. She stepped out of the car. After a full minute of careful consideration, she finally followed what her logic told her to do. She returned into the car, slowly removed the glass pieces in her body, waited for them to heal, and then walked back out.

She still needed a pair of shoes, but it was better than walking in with a dozen blood holes across her body.

The tracking beacon led her to a room on the second floor. She gave the door a few gentle knocks. When no one came to answer, she sighed, took a step back, and charged into the door with all her strength.

The door made a snapping sound, but its mainframe held. Before Katie could make another charge, she heard a light pop.

A bullet flew through the door and hit Katie in the chest.

“Oh come on! Do you know how hard it’s gonna be to remove that?”

Katie complained before giving the door another kick and completely breaking it. She walked inside. Holding a gun and facing Katie was a man with short hair. His expression was cold. But he wasn’t who Katie was here for. Sitting on the bed was a young girl.

“Hello, Mira.” Katie shrugged. “That’s quite a way to welcome a friend.”

But Mira didn't let her guards down. As far as she knew, Katie was just a common gun-for-hire. She had quite the firearms, and her will was stronger than normal human beings, but that was it. Her resume said nothing about taking a bullet to the chest and literally shrug it off.

“You left without a goodbye. How rude.” Katie stepped into the room like she was the owner of the place.

“Apparently, I made the right decision. Kameron found you and converted you, didn't he?”

Mira’s frown was obvious. There was even a sense of remorse in her voice.

“What?” Katie rose her eyebrows. “Oh! You think I’m fine with being shot because Kameron made me into one of those tree things, right? Well, he did feed me one of his seeds, but I’m not alive because of that.”

“Then how? Who even are you, Katie?”

“That’s a really long story, sis.” Katie tapped the bullet hole in her chest. What should she remove it with? “Anyways. I’m here to tell you you don’t have to worry about that Kameron guy. He had no idea where you are. Well, he tried to get me to help him, but...”

Suddenly, Mira held her hand up.

“Wait! Wait! You said you met Kameron?”

“Yep. Cool guy. Threatened to torture me…”

“Oh god!” Mira suddenly waved her hand. Katie shivered as an invisible energy flowed through her before suddenly joining in one place. That energy lifted something into the air.

It was some sort of tiny seed.

Mira looked up to Katie in horror.

“You idiot!”

“Wow, careful with the language…” Katie watched as Mira jumped up from the bed, grabbed onto a bed and stuffed some things inside, and then moved to the door. The gunman followed her. It was only then did Katie realize her mistake. “Oh…”

If Kameron couldn’t track down Mira before, now he could. Even better, Katie let him straight to her.

The three barely walked out of the door when a car cruised into the parking lot.

“Shit!” Mira turned to Katie and wanted to say something, but the brunette tossed a set of keys to her. “What?”

“The black car to the left. Get in the car and get as far away from here as possible.” Katie instructed before turning to the silent gunman. “He’s under your manipulation?”

She remembered when the two first met. Mira tried to control Katie into taking her to the safety of her house. She wouldn’t be surprised if Mira did the same thing again.

“Yep.”

Katie eyed the tattoo on the man’s arm.

“He’s not a good guy, right?”

“Nope. Gang member that tried to assault me.”

“Good. He and I will hold Kameron off.” Katie reached inside her pocket and pulled out her Walther PK380. She had to admit. She might feel a little uneasy if the gunman was just an innocent citizen forcibly conscripted by Mira. Staying here was practically certain death. Katie knew she herself would probably be fine, but this man...his end would be really painful.

Her body and her instincts didn't care about seeing an innocent die, but her mind resisted it.

A distance away, the car has come to a stop. Kameron walked down from the driver’s side. Apparently, the tree puppet rode shotgun.

“Now, go!”

Mira didn't go. She looked at Katie in surprise.

“You don’t look like the self-sacrificing type.”

Her knowledge of Katie was still the mercenary whose only reason to protect her was the promise of the two-million-dollar reward that Mira could never afford.

Katie stared at her. She had no intention of explaining her whole persona to the girl.

“You wanna go or not?”

Mira bit her lips.

“Thank you.”

Katie waved her hand impatiently.

“Get out of here! I’ve got a battle to enjoy!”

Of course! She was only telling the girl to run because she didn't want Mira distracting her from all the fun! Yes! That was obviously why! Katie whispered to herself as Mira turned and ran for the car.

Kameron and the puppet saw Mira. Before they could intercept her, Katie and the silent gunman put themselves between him and her.

“Hmmm.” If it was just the gunman, Kameron would’ve just had his puppet handle him, but as soon as he saw Katie, his footsteps stopped. “You should’ve run as soon as Mira destroyed my tracking seed, girl. Do you really think there’s nothing I can do to you?”

He remembered very clearly just before Katie made the dive through the window, she made a snarky comment on his performance issues. Not a bad choice if she made it out, but now that she was once again in his grip...well, let’s just say he would have a good time making her pay for every word she said.

Katie silently raised her handgun and took aim at Kameron.

“Your toy can survive bullets. Can you?”

“Why don’t you try it out?”

“Gladly.”

Katie was never one to back down from a dare. She quickly pulled the trigger five times. Five bullets flew out of the chambers with all the fury in the world, but all they managed was land on a thin layer of brown on Kameron’s body.

Besides Katie, the gunman raised his silencer-equipped pistol and started shooting as well.

“The girl’s mine! Take care of the other one!” Kameron commanded. The tree puppet reacted silently but efficiently. She charged forward at the gunman, who immediately changed target.

Katie emptied the last three rounds within her handgun. All three of them did absolutely nothing. Katie silently cursed and tossed her pistol to the side. She had a full arsenal of automatic weapons and explosives, but when she first went to the Sherton hotel, she didn't expect a real fight. Plus, how the hell was she supposed to bring automatic rifles inside a bag through Uber?

So now, she had to resort to the most basic methods to kill.

The kitchen knife that has accomplished so much appeared in her hand.

Kameron smirked. Still with the armor of wood, he flipped his hands, and two sharp tree branches formed in his grip. A ring of thorns slowly crept out. Were they especially deadly? Maybe not. But the one thing for sure was that they could make their victims hurt like hell.

“You are lucky.” The man smirked as he slowly approached Katie. “If it’s my father here, he can slit your throat with a single leaf.”

On the side, the gunman made a scream as the tree puppet ripped his arms off their sockets before punching through his chest and crushing his heart.

“Tempting.” Katie knew she couldn’t afford to wait. With another scream, she raised her knife before screaming and charging forward.

Kameron swung his tree swords. He was actually a surprisingly good swordsman. His weapons easily deflected Katie’s dagger while leaving grooves and grooves of blood across Katie’s body.

The tree puppet moved over, but Kameron ordered her to stop right there. He was winning this!

Katie brought up her left knee and went for Kameron’s stomach, but she only reached solid armor. No retreat! She rolled her weapon in her palm and tried to push forward, but her efforts were cut short when a thick tree branch leaped out of the ground and wrapped itself around Katie’s entire lower body.

“Oops.” Kameron smirked. Now that she was restrained, his eyes lingered on Katie’s only weapon left. It was a knife, but if Katie wanted to hit Kameron from all the way across, she only had one chance. “Go on. Throw it out.” He tempted. “I really want to hear what you have to say when you miss the shot and is finally defenseless.”

Katie looked at Kameron. She knew Kameron was well prepared. If she attacked him, she would certainly miss.

There was no fun when someone else was the one smiling.

Katie suddenly had an idea. She slowly raised her knife. When Kameron got ready, Katie, in an instant, turned around and tossed that knife into the tree puppet in the form of the hotel clerk.

“No!” Kameron screamed as the seemingly normal knife somehow pierced its way straight into the clerk’s chest. Under the man’s shocked eyes, the bioweapon that he spent so long to create, the one capable of withstanding multiple bullet shots, simply collapsed, never to rise again.

He snapped back to Katie.

“Do you have any idea how much effort I put into forging her?”

“Ummm? A lot?” Now that she was unarmed, Katie put up an innocent smile. “Well, here’s the thing, Kameron. Mira’s gone. I’ve deleted the app on my phone so even I can’t really track her down. You can’t convert me, and here!” She tapped the bullet hole in her chest when the gunman shot her. “You can’t kill me either! So, how about we just call it a day and each go our own separate ways? I’ve got classes to go to tomorrow, and education is important!”

For a moment, Kameron couldn’t believe his ears. And then, his lips formed a curve, and he suddenly started laughing. He laughed so hard there were tears at the corner of his eyes. Katie gave it a slight grin as well.

“So, peace?”

“Peace...yes...peace!” Kameron suddenly leaped forward and grabbed onto Katie by the throat. He yanked her forward until she was directly staring into his eyes. “There’s the peace you want!”

Kameron’s eyes turned completely green, and Katie could feel something malicious entering her body. She could guess what was going on. After his seed failed, Kameron was transforming her into one of his puppets by brute force. Sheer waves of energy exited his body and poured into hers.

Katie was almost coughing her lungs out. An excruciating pain started spreading across her intestines. Her guts. Her heart. It was as if something was latching onto her body, modifying her. She struggled as much as she could, but Kameron stood tall.

This is really a bad way to die! Also, if I die here, does that mean Caitlin will just stay with Zach forever? Shit! Just the image of that makes me want to gauge my eyes out!

Suddenly, a gentle pop echoed through the sky.

Kameron collapsed with a bullet hole through his forehead. Surprisingly, his forehead was where the bullet left, not where it entered.

As Kameron fell, Katie hit the ground as well, but even now, the burning feeling inside her body was still spreading. If anything, it was getting worse after Kameron’s death.

The brunette’s eyelids felt heavier and heavier. Distinctly, she saw a purple-haired figure walking over. A pistol in her hand.

“I hate it when kids ignore me…”

That was what Katie whispered before she finally passed out.