Hickory Ridge Landfill Solar Plant, Conley, DeKalb County, Georgia. Sunday, October 20th, 2019. 09:30

"Greener than grass, they said," a female survivor said as she surveyed the landfill cover. "I'm impressed."

Hickory Ridge was closed as a landfill back in 2011 and covered with a "geomembrane" with solar panels. With a nominal power production capacity of around 1MW, it was more than enough for the survivors at the university.

Ten acres of apparently intact solar panels.

"Panels look nice," a male survivor said as the group of three walked among the black rectangles. "No damage so far. Not even soot."

"They said it rained after the meteor shower," a tall man commented.

They spent some time walking between the panels, but everything seemed in working order. No damaged panels, the wiring looked fine, and the survivors got their hopes up as they went to the main building.

As they pried the door open with a crowbar, the first sign of a problem appeared. They smelled burnt electronics, molten plastic, and leaked battery fluid.

"That's lead-acid battery fluid," the first man said with an impressed whistle. "Haven't seen a mess this big since an intern burnt a car whole at Jackson's dealership."

"Lead-acid? Why weren't they using lithium-ion?" The tall man inquired.

The first man shrugged. "Cost, maybe? Those are truck-sized battery casings. Lithium-ion is too fancy and too expensive for this."

"How bad is it?" The woman asked.

"Everything is burnt up. And electrified, if I'm guessing correctly. I can feel the hairs on my arm rising."

"We need to disconnect the panel arrays, then check the inverters."

The four inverters, one for each section of solar panels, were also burned. It seemed it was going to take a lot of work and some scavenging for replacement parts before they could route the electricity several miles south to the University.

*

*

Jonesboro Road's overpass on I-75, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Sunday, October 20th, 2019. 09:40

Patricia returned driving a front-loader construction vehicle. Yellow as it should be. Standing next to Keynes, Sara wondered why construction vehicles were yellow. Maybe to increase visibility, she read somewhere that human eyes were extremely sensitive to yellow.

The tractor was followed by two cars. Patricia looked excited in a rather maniacal way as she waved at Keynes and proceeded to use her vehicle to push the crashed cars off the access ramp leading to the overpass.

"If this works, maybe we can gain access to other portions of the city. Gather more survivors," Keynes remarked.

"The undead won't let you," Sara bitterly retorted. "How many people died here today to clear the highway below so we can work in peace?"

"Too many," Keynes grimaced and lamented.

"Did you get home safely that day?" She asked just to keep the conversation going.

"No. People didn't believe you. Not your fault, actually. I may have made some untrue statements about you."

Sara snorted, "A cop making wild and untrue assertions about innocent people that land them in trouble. The world really went to shit. What did you tell them?"

"That you were on drugs."

"Ha!" She sputtered and grunted. "I've seen what drugs do to people back in Seattle. I've seen people OD on crack and die. Not for me. Never. Besides, with the Marshals keeping watch over me and the mafia seeking revenge, it would be pretty stupid to do anything that would get me kicked out of the program. So, no. Never, ever. I'm as clean as a newborn baby. You can do a blood test if you don't believe me."

"I stand corrected. My apologies."

They watched Patricia cackle as she flipped the cars. The survivors that came with her went to the massacre trailer and recovered their comrades' bodies, as well as the weapons.

"It looks like she's having fun. How's the undead situation down there?" She asked Abby.

The two cars entered the Tourist center parking lot. Unwilling to meet more survivors, Sara pointed at the massacre trailer. "I'm going there to check the bodies. Don't worry, I'll stay safe."

Keynes grabbed her wrist. "Don't. We have some fugitives on the other side. They might be watching and they'll probably take action if we expose ourselves too much. Sara, you shouldn't take stupid risks."

The front-loader kept hissing and groaning as it shoved metal around.

She jerked her arm free and rubbed her wrist. "Okay, then."

The detective traced her gaze and understood what she was worried about. "Don't worry. They're good people."

She could only hope. Was it too late to run away? No! She wouldn't run away, these were normal people and she didn't have social anxiety. "I hope all those points of Composure are doing something," she muttered under her breath.

"Composure is a good skill to practice," Keynes remarked absentmindedly.

"Just die, stupid piece of metal!" Patricia got stuck at a particularly stubborn and apparently inseparable amalgam of two cars and a truck.

"Hey, Winston!" A guy in his late twenties waved as he approached with a group of people behind him. They had already wrapped their dead in body bags.

Behind him, was a worn-out but stalwart and motivated group of survivors. All of them wore army-issued bulletproof vests and carried AR-15 rifles. They came ready for war.

"Sara, let me introduce you to the guys. These are Joe, Trevor, Mr. Brown, and Patrick."

"Is that the drug dealer girl?" An excited Joe asked, measuring Sara. "What you got for sale?"

"Hey!" Sara protested. She immediately disliked Joe. "Even if I had drugs for sale, you wouldn't have any." The girl sneered.

"Joe, that was a misunderstanding," Keynes warned with his cop voice. "I talked to her and cleared any suspicion. She's never either used or sold drugs. In fact, she has family in law enforcement."

That must be some kind of cop pact he was pulling her into. Even where they didn't have a union, cops were a tightly-knit group.

"Don't mind him, please," Mr. Brown offered with a captivating fatherly smile. The guy was one of those friendly easygoing people you cannot help but like at first sight.

Sara grinned back at him. Mr. Brown's presence eased her nerves.

"Was just joking," Joe clicked his tongue and shifted his focus to Patricia's wrecking derby.

"Don't mind Joe, he's a redneck," Trevor joked. "You've become quite the urban legend, Sara. Nice to meet you."

Sara shook hands with the other three, skipping Joe. Instant mutual dislike.

Patrick handed Keynes another bulletproof vest.

"Are you guys going on a manhunt?" Sara asked. "And do you have one of these for me?"

"You're not coming with us," Joe snapped. "Can't let you shoot while tripping," he poked a tongue at her.

"Try and stop me," Sara challenged.

"Guys, guys," Trevor stepped in between the two. "Joe, what's wrong with you, man? Why are you picking a fight with a child?"

Sara sputtered, ground her teeth, but kept her silence. She was legally a child, not that it mattered now that the world had gone to shit. Keynes glanced at her and nodded with an apologetic grin. Being around grownups always reminded her of how short she was. Barely 5'1''.

"I'm not babysitting her," Joe protested. "Besides, she should at least share some pot!"

Sara eyed her bicycle. Keynes shrugged and grimaced as another apology.

"Nobody is asking you to do that, dude," Patrick clapped Joe's back. "Chill. Besides, the girl was hiding right under the... Necropolis King's nose."

"From what I heard, Sara has survived on her own for half a month already. Give her some credit, she can take care of herself," Mr. Brown added.

"Sara hadn't joined us yet," Keynes commented. "We cannot forbid her to go wherever she wants to," he then turned to stare at her, "but we expect you to stay out of trouble."

"Roger wilco, sir!" Sara mocked a salute.

"YEEEEE-HAW!" Oblivious to the tension Patricia shouted in joy as she tossed the massacre trailer down onto the interstate, splattering bodies everywhere down below.

*

*

Jonesboro Road (north of I-75), Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Sunday, October 20th, 2019. 13:00

At the cost of fourteen lives and a few hours, the way to Southern Morrow was open. Southlake mall, Costco, and a Target store that opened in a former USPS distribution center that was sold as the post office downsized their shipping operations a few years ago.

The survivors led by Keynes went ahead as Sara remained behind to find a working ride. The girl intended to carry a massive haul of food and supplies, and a bicycle wouldn't cut it. She went to a nearby fast-food joint and searched the dead customers for car keys, finding several. She tested the key fobs and got four vehicles. Two compact cars, a sedan, and a double-cab Silverado.

She cheered her luck and climbed on the truck. With a prayer on her lips, Sara turned it on. Unfortunately, she wouldn't keep it for much longer, as the beast of a machine probably used fuel like the world was about to end. She intended to use it for this mission, then see if some truck-loving survivor would trade something for the truck. Before she crossed the overpass, Sara drove back to Christine's house and fetched a few tools that would help her loot the supermarket. Chief among them were wire cutters, a folding shopping cart with straps to double as a backpack, a multi-purpose flashlight, signal flares, a box cutter, the full-face respirator, and one of those electrical tennis rackets to kill bugs with.

As she drove across the overpass, Sara noticed it was heavily damaged by both the crash half a month ago and Patricia's antics. But she didn't see any way for the dead to climb back on, so they would probably not block the passage again. She felt something creepy pulsing on the interstate below. It must be Christine's "bad-thing". More precisely, the Infernal energy Abby mentioned.

It probably seized the souls of the dead and forced them back into their dead bodies. But that was just Sara's theory.

The front-loader engine was abandoned on the grass near the access ramp. Such was the fate of vehicles in the Apocalypse. They had so many available that they were basically disposable. Maybe later, as most of them broke down they would be cherished and hoarded, but people right now had other priorities. As for the abandoned construction vehicle, they could always come back and get the front-loader if they needed one.

Southlake Parkway was blocked by a sideways toppled eighteen-wheeler that blocked all four lanes. The Silverado went over the lawn, into a parking lot, and back on the road. As she approached the supermarkets, the sounds of a gunfight reached her.

The survivors were already at it, wasting ammo in a stupid faction war. From what she gathered, they were probably fighting remnants from the Necropolis King's army, lieutenants, or something like that. Sara tried not to care but lamented the loss of human life. The girl slowed down and slouched on the seat, trying to avoid getting shot.

*

*

Mt. Zion Road, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Sunday, October 20th, 2019. 13:30

The defending team, the Necropolis King's Remnants, as Sara dubbed them, had barricaded themselves near the supply caches by moving several cars and making trenches between the moats of metal. The crown jewel of their last stand was four armored cash transport cars. Their bulletproof-ness was being tested by the attacking team, composed of Keynes and his merry militia of survivors.

The fight was happening on both sides at the same time. Costco to the north, and Target to the south. Both parking lots connected to Mt. Zion at skewed places but less than a hundred feet from each other. To an untrained observer, it seemed that the attackers were ambushed by a pincer attack. They'd split, three on each side, and were merrily exchanging shots with the defenders, apparently trying to see who would run out of ammunition faster.

Accuracy was nobody's concern. In fact, Sara suspected the defenders were drunk. They were at it for almost an hour by her accounting. More than one minute would pass between shots which made Sara reassess her impression of their standoff fight. It was a battle of the nerves. Nobody seemed wounded and everyone else but Keynes had little to no prior training with their weapons before Armageddon.

She parked next to the delivery trucks on Target's service driveway and went scouting on foot, crossing the road on foot and going around the chainlink fence. Sara stayed down and moved deliberately with stealth learned on Seattle streets. She made a point to stay away from the conflict least a stray bullet found its way into her flesh.

A thought passed her mind, to go and help Keynes. But what role could she play in that fight? Damsel in distress? Sara snorted at the thought.

*

*

Mt. Zion Road near Costco, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Sunday, October 20th, 2019. 14:00

Hiding behind a bush, she waited and waited. One of the defenders on the Costco side, Sara couldn't see who, was shot and fell down, howling in pain and rolling on the ground. The morale on that side plummeted, and the other two guys on that side started to crawl away from the fight. Emboldened, the attackers moved forward to break the siege.

A panicked goon on the Remnant's side took something that looked like a grenade from his jacket pocket. Sara was frozen as she watched as he pulled the pin and tossed the grenade without aiming. Definitely drunk. The explosive device went astray, hit the side of the armored cars, and bounced backward, apparently intending to return to its thrower.

"GRENADE!" Trevor shouted.

"Duck, you idiots!" Keynes shouted from his wheelchair and fired a burst from his AR-15 to keep the other defenders down. Sara couldn't help but remember the movie scene. If you can dodge the grenade, you can dodge the ball.

Time stretched to a crawl as everyone waited for the explosive to go off.

The defenders who could still walk abandoned their wounded companion and tried to run away. The grenade exploded and they fell down. They weren't launched forward like in the movies. In fact, her polluted imagination from years of consuming Hollywood trash made her think at first that the grenade was a dud. it only created a puff of smoke and a firecracker noise, then the sharp sound of metal scratching metal and glass breaking. The two guys who took it in the back fell on the ground where they stood while the wounded one just slumped down. All three were immobile and she felt something whoosh and fall all around her. A hail of shrapnel. She got a few new cuts which almost didn't draw blood.

People must've died because Abby siphoned some mana.

> You gained 2 points of Fast Healing.

What the hell? She was more than a hundred yards away! Is that how grenades worked in real life? Sara was both shocked and scared of the devices.

One of Keynes' men was too slow to run back behind the armored trucks and fell down, dead as a... as almost everyone else. She then saw Mr. Brown stand up as his body remained still on the ground. A ghost. The apparition looked as solid as the others and it made eye contact with Sara immediately. The ghost waved and calmly walked in her direction, passing through the vehicles as any spectral entity would.

The attackers on the Target side and both teams of defenders stopped shooting to assess the damage. The guys defending the Costco side got hit by shrapnel everywhere and laid dead on the ground. Nobody noticed the ghost walking toward Sara even though he was right in their field of view. She thought it was surreal.

"Hello, Sara," Mr. Brown said as he knelt next to her. She raised her finger to her lips. "Don't worry. their ears are ringing from the grenade. They won't hear you whisper back."

"Oh, Mr. Brown. I'm so sorry," Sara lamented with teary eyes. "Are you aware you're dead?"

The ghost chuckled. "It is an unmistakable feeling. Trust me."

She sighed. Even though she had just met him hours before, Mr. Brown was a nice guy. She couldn't see a single sin on his form. Despite that, Sara really didn't want to get roped into some ghost's weird last wish. She had not much choice in the matter, though. Resigned, she asked, "What can I do for you?"

"That's easy. Without me, my daughter is lost in this doomed world. She's at the university with nice people. I only want you to look after her."

Wait, hadn't all children... No. Abby said they couldn't withstand the mana. Maybe Mr. Brown's daughter had a rare talent like herself. Adults went unconscious for a whole week while Sara herself hadn't even fainted. Mr. Brown's daughter definitely had good conductivity just as Sara did, she was sure of it. Maybe she was a mage!

Sara reined in her excitement and told her wavering heart to stay still as she tried to coldly assess the request. "You want me to adopt your daughter?"

She had mixed feelings about that. On one hand, her imagination could romanticize herself taking care of a petite lady, keeping her safe from the dangers of the post-Apocalyptical world, going on adventures and stuff. With a nice dog companion, please. Her practical side, however, reminded her that she could barely take care of herself. She felt conflicted.

"I would be eternally grateful if you did. However, I know the burden of raising a child is not something another child can bear," he said looking straight at her eyes. "I only want you to make sure she is well fed and has clothes for the winter. She's the only child in our survivor camp. Please!"

"You want me to babysit her until winter is over?" Sara hissed. "I'm not sure even if I'll survive until then."

"No. Sorry, I didn't say it right, let me rephrase it. I just want you to promise to get her winter clothes and four pounds of snacks. I am sure she'll be well taken care of after you do that."

With a deep sigh, Sara relented. This many explosions in a day put her on edge. "I won't promise I'll look after her but if the conditions are favorable, I'll keep an eye on her. I need her name, your name, and a few personal details if I am to approach her. I'll pretend I knew you from before the Apocalypse, okay?"

The ghost nodded and they spent a few minutes sharing information. The gunfight resumed, the defenders on the Target side now facing redoubled offensive from the angry attackers. Keynes was letting lead rain from a pistol in each hand.

"I promise, Mr. Brown," Sara vowed from the bottom of her heart.

Mr. Brown's ghost vanished.

> You gained 1 point in Presence.

> You gained 1 point in Brawn.

Sara wiped a few tears.

*

*

Costco's parking lot, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Sunday, October 20th, 2019. 15:20

A disgruntled Sara went around the fence until she found a spot under the shade of several trees inside the parking lot. These were manicured to provide shade to the cars parked underneath but their crowns extended outside the chain-link fence. It was a good place to make an entry point.

The grass around was overdue for trimming before the world ended, and it had two weeks to grow even more. She took the wire cutters she brought with her and carefully snipped along three sides to make a large "door" for her to pass with the folding shopping cart strapped on her back. She bent the tip of the cut wires away from her, making sure she could escape quickly without getting snagged on them. All she had to do was to pull the mesh out and force the wires doubling as hinges to bend and keep the passage open.

The crazed trigger-happy people resumed their game of wasting ammunition in each other's general direction. So long Sara remained close to the ground she had walls of steel between her and the wild flying bullets. The shots coming her way were fired all the way from Target anyway.

Checking she had her trusty kitchen knife and handgun ready for any emergency, Sara entered the parking lot and immediately put her respirator on.

It was crowded with cars and a dark cloud of bugs hovered over the whole place. The world ended at rush hour and several people who left work earlier went shopping for groceries instead of going straight home. She sidestepped several corpses that fell dead right in front of their vehicles and spotted several shopping bags scattered around. In one case, a guy died right after he'd filled his trunk with groceries but he fell inside the trunk and oozed dead people's fluids all over the stuff. All of them had that burnt skin and horrified faces. It was easy to discern a survivor's dead body from the ones killed during Armageddon.

"Anyone inside the store?" She asked Abby in a hushed whisper.

Remarking that Abby's speech was becoming more human-like, Sara nodded and resumed her crouch walk between the cars. She noticed the dead people all had bite marks from rodents and other vermin. She sighed and said a prayer for them. She wasn't a very religious person before anyone meeting a real Seraph and interacting with the dead would start believing.

Entering the Costco shop unchallenged, she saw several bodies in everyday positions one would expect people to be in a supermarket, like a macabre diorama portraying the moment the world ended from the perspective of the shoppers. The inside of the store would be pitch dark were it not for some translucent sections of the roof letting some sunlight in. But it was as gloomy as it stank of the dead. A horde of mice and rats ran on the floor.

"Any ghosts?" She asked Abby, hoping to hear a negative.

Sara frowned but she needed the Skill points. Raising [Rapid Healing] was her top priority now. She found the stairs to the observation deck and climbed the metal steps carefully, trying to avoid making noise. A few yards from the landing she saw a woman huffing before the manager's office. The woman sensed Sara's presence and turned to face her as her mouth cracked in a smile.

"Sara! I was waiting for you!"

The girl approached the female ghost. "Good afternoon, ma'am. How may I help you?"

"Would you be a darling and go inside this office to fetch my money, dear?"

Sara nodded. "Your money? Where is it?"

"In the manager's safe."

She wished to ask how her money ended up there but Sara had no time to waste. She pulled her lock picks out of her pocket and worked the four locks that blocked access to the manager's office. She thought about breaking the glass but she was pretty sure it was reinforced, not to mention it would make a lot of noise. Entering the office, she had to use her flashlight to see. The lady entered after her and pointed out the safe's location. It was partially hidden inside a cabinet. She had no idea how to open the combination lock, though. It looked sturdy enough to withstand a hundred grenades.

She thought of turning the dial and trying to feel or hear any loose spots but stopped when she spotted the manufacturer's brand plate had a different screw on either side. She knew that safe model from the nice hands lawyer on YouTube. She removed one of them and turned the plate, revealing an override keyhole. She remembered someone telling her a security system was as strong as its weakest link. The supermarket probably relied on CCTV, security guards, and other elements to keep the safe, well, safe from thieves.

Or people attempting to reclaim their rightful money the evil chain store stole, she guessed.

Sara spent ten minutes trying to pick the complex lock. It had lots of security pins and false settings which delayed her a lot, forcing her to restart from zero a few times. She even begged Abby to not give her more points in [Lockpicking] in favor of [Rapid Healing]. After a few more failed attempts, she managed to turn the cylinder and open the safe.

Inside, she found dozens of straps of banknotes of several denominations, most of them very low. Ones, twos, fives, and tens were the majority. it was probably change for the cashiers. Sara removed all of them and placed them on the manager's desk.

"How much did the store owe you?" She asked as she pushed the whole bundle toward the ghost.

The woman smiled and touched the money. "That's more than enough. Thank you, Sara," she said as she faded away.

The money remained on the desk. Sara gained three Skill points for basically cracking a safe and wasting time. But it was as they said, possession was nine-tenths of the law. She placed the higher denomination bundles in a bag and thought about stowing the bag in the shopping cart strapped to her back. Which she should also remove now that she would assemble it to haul her loot. She threw the lower denomination bundles in the cart anyway. it would be always easier to discard the money later than come back here to fetch it.

> You gained 2 points of Rapid Healing.

Just as Sara was about to set foot on the steel catwalk, Abby warned.

Voices confirmed what the fairy said. Sara withdrew back to the manager's office and slowly peeked outside.

"Hang on, Jeff," a man drawled. Jeff only grunted. "I think I can find something for your wound in the pharmacy."

"Don't leave me alone," Jeff begged with a hoarse voice.

"Where did they come from?" Sara asked Abby in a shocked whisper.

Where did these guys come from? Did she miss someone? Was Abby lying? Did they have the ability to hide from the fairy? Were they hiding somewhere else? Sara couldn't believe how careless she was coming in. They could've spotted her!

She focused and replied mentally, Sara winced from the headache.

"Stay with me, Jeff," the first man pleaded like someone who was about to lose his dearest friend. "Don't go."

"The angels are calling me. I can see the light..."

"JEFF!" The first man shouted and started to cry.

Jeff stood up from Jeff's body and looked straight into Sara's eyes. She withdrew back into the office but didn't move the door. Amateur mistake avoided right there.

Abby remarked mechanically.

The wholesaler would be dead silent if not for the man sobbing and weeping for his lost friend. She heard a knock on the door and almost screamed in surprise.

"It's me, Sara. Jeff. I'm coming in," Jeff's ghost said.

"How do all of them know my name?" Sara whispered, indignant.

As if to punctuate Abby's statement, Jeff walked through the door. "Good afternoon, Sara."

She rolled her eyes. Talking with a thug downstairs was not what she intended to do. She resorted to the faintest of whispers. "Jeff, before we move on, were you working for the Necropolis King?"

"You called Pete that?" Jeff chortled. "It was a fitting moniker!"

"Is he dead?" She asked.

"Yup. Dead as a doornail, the guy went down with his building and his personal whores."

More like sex slaves, Sara remarked to herself. Behind the respirator, she put on her business face. "What can I do for you, Jeff? Any last wish?"

Abby warned.

In the gloom of the office, shadows stretched as Jeff's visage became sinister. "Kill the bastards that murdered me!" Jeff shouted.

Sara's hand went to the kitchen knife's handle. She had no idea if it would work against a rogue ghost but she wouldn't be caught dead without a ready weapon.

Sara's lizard brain had taken over. It was the airplane crash all over again. She felt no growth at all. Was she being a coward and leaving another person to die again? No. Her hand slowly crawled toward her belt, pulled the button holding the knife in place, and slid it out. Too little, too late.

Jeff shifted entirely. He was only barely human. His body had stretched and the crouching wraith was now more than ten feet from head to foot. Long arms, six-inch claws, and a fanged maw that would make any mother anglerfish proud. The eyes became feral and bloated. Jeff-wraith hissed and clumsily lunged at her.

Sara screamed and rolled on the floor, dodging the attack. She'd dropped the knife and her only thought was to reach the door and get out of there. The wraith formerly known as Jeff seemed to have trouble adapting to its new body and was morose in recovering from its initial attack. It seemed as surprised as Sara.

As if she could muster an iota of bravery. She shamelessly screamed like the heroine in a slasher movie. Sara grabbed the door handle and fumbled as she tried to open it, trying to pull it inside when it opened to the outside. Jeff thrashed and slammed the shopping cart on her back, breaking the wires, ripping the bag open, and throwing bundles of money everywhere. Sara struggled and pushed the door open, running outside as she shrieked for dear life.

Jeff's friend said as he saw the terrified girl stumbling down the stairs, raining cash as she went. He was so startled by the screaming girl and falling money he didn't even raise his gun. He decided she was not a threat to him because she wasn't even looking at him. He wasn't looking at her either.

They were both looking behind her.

"MONSTER!"

Sara screamed with a sharp eardrum-rupturing shrill and ran for the daylight of the dead parking lot.

The office door flew out of its hinges and crashed to the floor below. Jeff-wraith was hot in pursuit.

Frightened by Sara's panic and the door that flew on its own, Jeff's friend forgot his wounds. The man decided he didn't want to be in a dark supermarket full of vermin and dead people and whatever had the strength to toss a door free from the hinges and down the first floor. Panicking as well, he ran after Sara.

In the parking lot, Sara almost tripped on a dead body as she ran straight ahead from the exit. Jeff-wraith was jumping on the roofs of the cars, denting them. It seemed nobody else could see the monster but the groans of bending metal were loud and real. Jeff's friend turned and ran the other way, toward the back exit.

Sara kept screaming, her soprano contrasting to the drumming of a ten-foot wraith monster beating on car roofs.

Abby tried to help but Sara had already run past it.

The psychic shout made her snap. She reached out and fetched a rather large skillet from another derelict cart. She was approaching the armored cars by the entrance.

Trevor peeked behind one of the cars. Jeff-wraith locked eyes on him.

Abby commanded.

Sara felt fire run down her arms. Holding the skillet in both hands, she channeled the fire toward the kitchen utensil. The wooden handle singed as raw Mana flowed into it, giving it a faint glow under the bright sunlight.

Jeff-monster, meanwhile, was growing used to his deformed body. He reached Sara and moved past her. He wasn't interested in her, his focus centered only on vengeance. He singled out Trevor. Jeff poised to leap over the armored cars. He readied all ten claws poised to strike down on his murderer.

"Ha ha ha ha!" Jeff laughed victoriously. "VENGEANCE IS MINE!" The wraith hollered.

Trevor shuddered as he felt a cold rise in his spine. He had no idea why.

"NO!" Sara bellowed and swung for the rafters. The red-glowing skillet clipped Jeff's legs and caused his spectral form to dissipate. Legless, Jeff-wraith spun and fell on the pavement face-first.

"What the..." Trevor gasped. He couldn't see the undead monster, just the girl swinging the neon-like skillet over thin air, leaving a blur of red streaking trails behind it for a moment like a trick of the light on the eyes.

The berserking girl didn't hear the fairy. Sara went postal on the wraith. She brought the skillet home on the monster's back four times as Abby desperately shouted at her to stop.

> You gained 1 point in Composure.

> You gained 2 points in Mana Infusion.

Sara fell to her knees. She'd done it. She'd slain her first undead. She felt ecstatic and exhausted. The world spun, and her vision blacked out. She felt cold.

Then she fainted.