Ridgewood Drive, Forest Park, Clayton County, Georgia, Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. 07:30

Mary had two hours to sleep. Then they were on the road. Sara, however, spent that time getting ready. Selecting a few changes of clothing, preparing food, filling water bottles, cleaning her gun and knives, and so on. She also made sure the dogs would have food and toys to spend the day. Getting them soft drinks for the road.

She took the UPS from Missy Pink's apartment and hooked it to a mini-fridge in the trailer of the U-Haul. It would keep cold stuff cold until it ran out of power or she found a generator to recharge it. She could allegedly use her own mana for cooling but she wanted to save it for the ghouls.

They then rode the truck all the way back to Forest Park, north of Fort Gillem. Back before Armageddon, Mary lived so close to Sara that they could visit each other after just a few minutes of walking.

"It's here. The red house," Mary pointed.

"All of them are red." Sara mocked.

"Just stop the car!" Mary hissed.

"Get Bella for me, please," Sara asked and went to fetch Brutus.

Two girls and two foxhounds walked into Mary's front porch. The door was open, and the usual detachment of bugs flew around the place.

"Bella, Brutus, down. Stay," Sara commanded the two. She didn't want them interacting with the corpses. Once she saw they had dutifully obeyed, she entered with Mary. Right off the bat...

"Sara! Welcome!" An old woman, probably Mary's grandmother approached. "Thank you so much for taking care of my little cuddlebug."

The girl snickered at the nickname, then straightened her face. "Sorry for imposing and thanks for having me. May I have your name, ma'am?"

Angered, worried, and anxious at the same time, Mary grabbed Sara by the sleeve of her jacket. "Sara, if this is a prank, I swear I'll feed you to the interstate ghouls."

"Mary Janine Hernandez!" The old lady berated. "That's now how we treat guests, much less our dear friends!"

Sara clapped Mary's shoulder. "You're being scolded, Mary Janine."

Hearing her middle name caused the girl to jump away. "What the hell? How do you? Who's here?"

"Let me guess, were you a chubby baby? Did you like ladybugs? Or cuddles?" Sara wiggled her eyebrows.

Mary was getting creeped out. "Who's here?"

"May I have your name, ma'am?"

"Call me Amelia. Amelia Victoria Rezende. I'm Mary's maternal grandmother."

"Who's there?" Mary asked with frayed nerves, reaching out. Her hand brushed against her grandmother's ghost, and she shivered and shrieked. "I touched something!"

"Abby, did she..."

Sara rushed to comfort Mary. "Calm down, cuddlebug. it's Mrs. Rezende, your granny, who's here to greet us."

Drawing shallow breaths, Mary moved away. "This is not funny, Sara."

"I'm afraid my little cuddlebug don't believe I'm here yet," Mrs. Rezende chuckled.

"What is her favorite Disney princess, ma'am?"

"Call me granny Amelia. It's Snow White."

"Snow White, good choice," Sara crooned. "Cuddlebug."

Mary glanced between Sara, the spot Sara was looking at, and the door. "I touched something. There's something there." Mary's voice broke as she became afraid.

"Mary, there's nothing to be afraid of. It's your grandma, Amelia."

Mary didn't move. In fact, she was glancing at the open door, trying to figure out if she could make a run for it.

Sara was having nothing of that. "Granny, I think Mary needs encouragement. Quick, tell me a funny story about her childhood."

"There's this one when she carried the wedding rings for my son Roger, she was five years old," Granny Amelia told the tale while Sara repeated it word-for-word. The color drained from Mary's face. "And then she stomped on the bride's foot, and shouted that she was the one marrying uncle Roger."

"Please stop. No more," Mary begged. "I believe you!"

"Oh, there's this one. She was late for ballet practice, and we couldn't find her shoes' insoles..." Amelia started.

"Let me guess," Sara said. "She used panty liners as insoles. I did that too once. It's not that bad."

Mary became frozen with dread. "Please, granny. Don't tell her how it ended."

"A blister popped during practice, and some blood seeped into the panty liners. She complained and took off the shoes to check the wound. The other girls recognized it and laughed at her saying she was having her period through her feet. It was awful."

Sara nodded and smirked at Mary. "Bloody terrible, indeed."

Mary made a sound like a giraffe dying.

"Granny, tell me a remarkable birthday gift you bought for Mary."

"Barbie's horse ranch," she replied straight away. "She used to keep her ponies there. The colorful ones from that cartoon show on the Hub."

"I know of those ponies and also watched that show. But I never mixed them with Barbie toys, I think the scale is a bit off. Hey, Mary. Are you convinced now?"

"Yes. Are you two done embarrassing me?"

Sara offered her hand, "Now, I'll take you to hug your grandma. Here, give me your hand. This. Touch here. Can you feel it?"

"I feel something. It's cold and tingling. Granny, is it you?"

Mary's hand trembled as it hovered over granny Amelia's arm. The girl seemed too afraid to move it away and lose that tenuous feeling.

"Oh, my dear child. I wish I could tell you how much I love you. Please don't cry."

"Granny, where's mom, dad, and Ernest? Why are you the only one here?"

"They asked me to stay behind," the old woman's ghost said. "They want you to be strong and stop biting on your nails when you are anxious. I wish I could stay longer, my child, but it is time I join them."

Sara didn't relay the last sentence. "Sara, my last wish is that you promise me you'll look after this child."

"I promise, granny," Sara said in her own words. "So long Mary wishes to, I'll be her best friend."

Granny Amelia smiled, then faded. Unlike the Cheshire cat, the smile wasn't creepy and didn't linger more than the rest of the old woman. At the very end, a deep sadness enveloped her as she gazed upon her granddaughter to the very end.

> You gained 1 point in Skill Boost

Mary's previously still hand jerked forward as if pushing against a boundary that no longer existed. Sara braced and put an arm in front of her friend's stomach to keep Mary from stumbling and falling on her face.

*

*

Ridgewood Drive, Forest Park, Clayton County, Georgia, Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. 07:45

"Please don't leave me," Mary whimpered as she reached for where the ghost was.

"It's fine. Granny Amelia stayed behind just for you, now that she's sure you'll be okay, she can move on," Sara replied, an arm still draped over Mary's stomach. She reached with her other arm and completed the sideways embrace.

Mary cried and Sara offered her shoulder to comfort the girl. They stood in the living room for several minutes, the silence of the dead world broken only by the girl's sobs. Eventually, she came back to her senses.

"I felt her," Mary whimpered as her tears dried.

"You did."

"It was granny Amelia."

"Sure was."

"Or you are the creepiest gaslighter ever," Mary conjectured. "Please, don't be."

"Hells, no. Not ever. I just fucking hate gaslighting, I would never do that to you. And you know I didn't give enough fucks to dig into your past before the world ended."

Mary let out a wry chuckle. "You manage to be mean even when you are comforting a grieving person."

"It's so you don't get too comfortable. This is a harsh world, Mary. Soft girls will get eaten, one way or another."

"I think I'll be fine now."

"Yes you will. Unless something horrible happens to me, I'll be here for you."

"But how long will you keep hugging me?"

Sara straightened her, then let go. "You wish. Get your mind out of the gutter, woman. Look, what is it that you want to take with us?"

The other girl nodded. "Before that, would you help me bury my family in the backyard? Say some words for them. You're the closest thing to a priest I can find, Ms psychic."

"Can't argue that," Sara shrugged. "But I need to give Hainsworth a call saying I'll be a bit late. I'll go on the roof to use the radio.

*

*

Ridgewood Drive, Forest Park, Clayton County, Georgia, Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. 08:30

At Sara's request, Mary took the foxhounds for a walk along the street. Bella and Brutus bounced back really quick when they got a new home and rehydrated themselves. Sara had to remind herself that they spent only a couple of days locked up instead of a month because of the time bubble.

But Mary's family hadn't had that much luck. The corpses were decomposed, full of maggots, and even the bones had been chewed on by vermin. That's one reason she sent Mary away. Seeing one's family like that would scar the other girl even more than she already was.

Before he messed with the month-old decomposed corpses, Sara went into the neighbor's house and removed two doors, taking a bunch of blankets as well. She split the doors in half along the length, making four stretchers out of the pieces. Next to each corpse, she laid a blanket down, then the half-door, and then carefully placed the bodies of Mary's family on the doors, doing her best effort to assemble the parts the right way. She even crossed the forearms over the chest. She then layered another blanket over the bodies and stretched a white bedsheet over everything so the general shape of a person formed but the corpse underneath wasn't visible through the fabric.

She then rummaged through the master bathroom, finding the perfume brands Mary's parents liked to use. Actually, she just assumed that the most depleted bottles were the ones she wanted. She also found a bottle of Iron Man branded eau de toilette in the main bathroom and figured it belonged to Carlos, Mary's little brother. For granny Amelia, she took a lavender fabric perfume. Sara dumped all the essences on the bedsheet, to hide the smell of decayed flesh.

Next, she went to the backyard, where she dug four graves and assembled four crosses using the bed frames. With everything ready, she jogged north to find Mary.

The mood shifted as girls and dogs reached the backyard. Sara didn't complain when Mary sought and grabbed her hand at the sight of the four stretchers ready to be buried. The tears flowed freely.

"I'll begin. Don't mind if I screw up the words." Mary nodded. "We are gathered today to pay our last respects to the beloved Hernandez family and consign them to God," Sara started awkwardly, measuring her words as she presided over the funeral services. "A loving family that despite their flaws, remained together until the very end."

Sara shoved her budding envy deep into her subconscious. Yeah, having a family was nice, but it was like skydiving. Everything is nice and floaty until the parachute breaks.

"We ask you, Lord, to usher your lost children back into the Garden of Eden," she continued. It had to be the Garden because Heaven went to shit. And by shit, she meant Earth. "Open the pearly gates and let them back to the land of our ancestor."

Silence followed as she struggled to find something nice to say. Finally, she settled for an awkward, "Amen."

"Amen," Mary prayed.

Sara slowly slid the stretchers into the graves, gave Mary a minute to say her last goodbyes, then started shoveling dirt in silence.

*

*

Laker Village dorms, Clayton State University, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia, Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. 10:00

"Pretty please, Kelly?" Sara begged. "I know you are super busy with wedding preparations but I need someone to keep an eye on Mary. Look, I'll owe you a big one."

Half-buried underneath lace and white satin, Kelly stared. "Why can't you take her with you?"

"I'm going to hunt ghouls with Hainsworth. It'll be fucking dangerous. And we just buried her family. I don't know if she'll be okay."

"You did WHAT? Why would you take Mary back there? She..."

Sara raised both hands to placate Kelly. The girl felt a knot in her throat. "She's better now that she had some closure. Her granny's ghost appeared."

"Isn't that too convenient?" Kelly's tone had no hint of an accusation. "Do you mean Mary's grandmother watched her suffer all these weeks?"

"I also thought it was too convenient. I intend to seek some answers about that. Regarding your last question, yes, granny Amelia watched over Mary but the dead don't have the same notion of time as we do, and their morality is different. The ones who are not corrupted usually don't feel despair. I guess. It's complicated and I just got the gist of it."

Kelly relented. "Fine, maybe she can help me with this dress. But you owe me two. A favor I'll ask sometime in the future, and a venue for the wedding."

Sara immediately knew what Kelly meant. "When is the wedding? I need to know if I can clean up the hotel for that."

"It'll be in early December, after the elections. Peterson will run for the county commissioner board. Amanda is on cloud nine her husband will be in politics. She's already dreaming of getting him on the Senate or something."

"Poor Peterson," Sara honestly lamented. She believed politics would corrupt the philosopher. "Anyway, Mary is gathering her things in her apartment, she's moving in with me. Bella and Brutus will stay behind with her, I don't trust them around ghouls yet and I don't want them biting the corpses."

"Right. Oh, you'll come back later today, right?"

"Yeah, sure, I have to pick up Mary."

"They'll throw a party to celebrate the link with Hickory Ridge today, we'll have all the electricity we can use. Brett said he has a surprise for all of us."

"I'll be there, definitely. If the ghouls don't eat me before that."

"Sara!"

"Just kidding. Abby said it will be totally safe for me. We need to do that because tomorrow... tomorrow will be a bad day."

"Of course it will, you ate all the candy before the time!" Kelly joked. "Go, little warrior. The women will make sure you have a home to come back to."

"Hey, that's sexist," Sara protested.

Sara left the apartment building and jogged north fast enough to get a speeding ticket, along Jonesboro all the way.

*

*

Ruins of the "Necropolis King's Castle", Jonesboro Road, Forest Park, Clayton County, Georgia, Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. 10:20

She met Patricia and Trevor. The engineer was on her favorite front-loader tractor, pushing rubble out of the road to clear the way. It was a crucial point connecting north and south of the survivors' territory.

"So, are you trying to find the Necropolis King's treasure? I'm afraid his kingdom's currency was only skulls and human tears."

"Hey, Sara!" Trevor waved at her. "You better hurry, the boss is pissed at you."

She slowed down a bit, "Nay, I'm only four hours late. But it was for a good cause!"

"Keep your damn radio on!" Trevor warned as she bounded over the pieces of rubble and disappeared on the other side.

Sara ran on the debris-infested road until she passed the ruined five-over-one apartment buildings. Once she reached a relatively open section of the road, she slowed down.

"Abby, what the hell was that?"

"Even Kelly saw through it. Mary's grandmother? Seriously? I dare you to deny it."

"And the others?"

the "fairy" admitted nonchalantly.

She stopped and kicked a crashed car. "GODDAMMIT, ABBY!" She punched the hood and dented the metal. "I told you to not try and fool me! What else was fabricated? The fucking Skill list? Is it just an illusion too? The System? Is there such a thing?"

She felt sick. Her head spun. Sara screamed, gagged but nothing came out. She remembered Abby said her food intake was under their control and clawed at her chest.

She felt deceived. Tricked. All she lived, all she went through, a lie. Sara huffed a cloud of mist out. Her mana took on her feelings and churned inside her.

At least she didn't use the feather last night. What would happen to her? How would it change her? Why was Abby literally...

Tempting her.

Ice Mana notwithstanding, Sara felt a deathly chill take over her. She crouched next to the crashed car and wept. Her tears froze before they could fall, sticking to her skin and forming tiny icicles as more tears flowed out.

Abby and Verachiel. Were they Celestials? Most likely. Were they... good? What proof did she have other than what they told her and her preconceptions?

She shivered and gasped for breath. She grabbed the hoof of the car and the metal crumpled under her hand. Sara wiped the dust off the hood and looked at her muddled reflection on the painting. She felt dirtier than that car. And in no better state of repair.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" She screeched. Sara wiped her face, tossing the frozen tears down on the ground. "GODDAMNED GASLIGHTER!"

She shoved the car to the side, the vehicle flipped on its side and moved almost a yard. The girl looked north. She had a thing only she could do.

"Just answer yes or no. Is the Halloween thing true? Will the dead walk freely on All Hallow's Eve?"

"That's enough for me. Not a peep without me asking, Abby. Not even those stupid System messages," Sara demanded.

The girl ran as fast as she could North on Jonesboro. With cat-like grace, she jumped over cars, jumped on cars, and never lost her footing. She only stopped when she saw the military MBTs parked next to a gas station.