Jonesboro Road near I-285 "The Perimeter", Clayton County, Georgia. Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. 10:30

Hainsworth had pulled all stops. Two M1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks were parked on the sidewalk next to a strip mall. People were sitting on top of the armored vehicles, talking. Four of them were operating drones and Sara could see a small swarm of the machines hovering around the tanks, a few of them content with remaining still.

Hainsworth was standing on the road, arms crossed, glaring at her. He was fully decked in his field uniform, with a shaved face and well-trimmed hair. He seemed fifteen years younger now.

"You're late," he berated with repressed anger.

Sara stopped in front of him. She looked up and returned the glare as if challenging him to. "Had a funeral to arrange. Another one, a private funeral, I mean. Some shit happened last night after you left. Now, are we going to reclaim our land or bicker between ourselves, Major?"

"Oh," Joe mocked from the top of one of the MBTs, "Someone is in that day of the month."

Sara's mouth twitched but she didn't rise to the provocation.

"Very well. Maybe we can make up for the lost time," Hainsworth replied after also ignoring Joe's jeering and baseless remark.

"What's the situation here?" Sara knocked one phrase out of her bucket list though it brought her no joy. She was too pissed.

"Ghouls from the interstate invaded Home Depot and the rental companies around exit 55."

"They are attracted to places of human suffering. Like the airport, federal prison, and... I guess car rentals too," she stared at a huge Hertz logo on a billboard next to a parking lot.

"Makes sense. Wait, you said federal prison?" Hainsworth dropped his countenance for a tiny moment.

Sara caught it, regardless. She raised an eyebrow at him, then nodded. "It seems you found something awfully interesting there. Let me guess... a passage of some sort?"

The Major nodded reluctantly. "Do you have anything to do with that?"

"Bitch, please. Of course not. I just know what that is, and I recommend nobody gets near it for the time being. It's harmless for now."

"It's isolated anyway. Thanks for the heads up. I would ask more but..."

"NDA."

"Right. Anyway, plenty of ghouls out there for you to play with. Drone footage showed that all bodies in these places are animated."

"More for me," Sara chirped as she removed her backpack. "I need to change."

"Use one of the stores in the strip mall. Do you need light?"

"I got a few here with me," Sara said as she jogged to one of the shops. Time was of the essence.

The girl chose to go into a hair salon, the other choices being a tattoo parlor, an insurance company, or an accountant's office.

"Abby, see if there's a way to kill the ghouls without spending MP," Sara asked once she was inside.

"I don't care if it is gruesome or involves gore. Barely a day goes by without me being covered in dead people's body parts or fluids."

"Okay, maybe... wait. They're dead, how would that kill them without spending MP?"

The way Abby answered gave Sara pause.

It sounded like the fairy... was it okay to call it a fairy still? It sounded like Abby was enjoying the idea of crushing dead people's hearts. A proposition that raised other questions.

"How am I supposed to crush hearts that are inside their ribcages?"

"I'll keep that in mind. So, please keep all gains focused on Skills until I reach half MP. At that point, we can talk about changing strategy."

Half her MP pool meant forty ghouls killed with infused knife strikes.

Sara changed into cheap underwear, yoga pants, an old sports bra, and a man's flannel shirt she tied around her waist. She folded the sleeves around the wrists. She hoped the shirt would keep most of the gore away from her skin. She went with Mr. Appleby's respirator mask because it had a full transparent face plate and wouldn't hinder her line of sight like the gas mask. She didn't want any gore on her face either. Finally, she tied a belt around her waist with two knives attached. Her gun went into the backpack with her clothes.

She stowed her clothes and sneakers in a second cloth backpack and went back. As she crossed the verge, a few men on the tanks cat called.

"Go fuck yourselves, creep pedophiles!" Sara shouted and flipped the bird at them. "Seriously, go look for a girl in the hordes of the dead. Maybe there you'll find one with the same IQ as you!" She shouted. Cursing at those idiots helped her vent some of her anger.

The remaining men jeered and hooted as they harassed the cat callers. Sara paid them no mind as she reached Hainsworth.

Hainsworth stared at her feet. "Barefoot? There's broken glass and debris all over the place."

"Don't worry about that. My feet are really tough. I was thinking, why the tanks?"

"We are sending a message to the gang harrying the survivors downtown. After you clear the overpass and we can finally travel up and down Jonesboro, we are making a live fire demonstration."

"Basically, warning shots."

"The survivors already know our targets, in fact, they're going to be our spotters. We are shooting at empty ruined buildings for maximum psychological effect."

"The Downtown Connector, you mean?" Sara asked in a whisper.

"What about the Downtown Connector?" Hainsworth retorted with a hint of worry.

"Hope it's not one of your targets," Sara smirked. "Because there's something evil brewing there but it is better left alone. At least for now."

The Major's head lowered as he whispered, "Martha called it the 'Heart of darkness."

"She's half right. The thing she thinks is the 'Heart of darkness' is actually a containment unit for the actual darkness. Breaking it will only let it rampage freely. Like what we got here, but a hundred times worse."

"Why would the Connector be a place of human... right, a lot of people died in traffic."

"The world ended at rush hour, Major," Sara quipped. She readied her knives by tying sturdy cellphone straps around her wrists, bound to the knives' handles by a carabiner. The risk of cutting herself was nothing compared to getting disarmed next to a ghoul horde. She showed a knife to the soldier. "This one belonged to Maloney."

"He would be proud his weapons are used to help people. Will you be fine?"

Sara inhaled deeply. "No idea. Only one way to find out but if they are this spread already, I dread what will happen tomorrow night."

"I have some volunteers ready to go in to help you," Hainsworth revealed and waved his hand.

Four men wearing full ice hockey goalkeeper equipment minus the skates walked in. They had funny guns. One model seemed like a Tommy Gun but with an oversized barrel, she could fit her hand inside. The other was hooked to a tank by a hose and had a long metal tube at the front. This one reminded her of bug sprayers.

"We determined that the ghouls cannot bite through the hockey armor. And these are riot sticky foam dispensers, in grenade and spray versions," Hainsworth explained. "Should anything happen to you, call for help and they will go into the horde to immobilize the ghouls and rescue you."

Sara was equally impressed and elated. They made a rescue plan for her! She approached the men.

"Hey guys. Glad to have you covering my back," she made a point to shake their gloved hands. "Well, that's it. Let's exterminate some undead."

*

*

Exit 55, Intersection of Jonesboro Road with I-285 "The Perimeter", Fulton County, Georgia. Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. 11:00

With a combat knife in each hand, Sara approached the horde of Mana-burnt, sun-dried, hell-spawned undead. Walking among the cars, over the cars. Struggling and writhing inside the vehicles. The tormented dead, souls with enough attachment to the mortal world to linger behind but exposed to enough darkness to become corrupted. The victims of rush hour.

"Sa-ra!" They moaned not in unison but staggered, overlapping the vowels, their voice a dissonant choir of mismatched voices. She felt every hair on her body attempt to flee their follicles.

"Sara! Help me!" Another ghoul shouted.

"SARA!" They screamed, over and over. "SARA!"

Even through the filter of Composure, she felt creeped and had half a mind to run away.

Then some of them rushed toward her. Stumbled and hustled, more appropriately. She could see skin crumbling and flaking off.

Almost dropping the knives, Sara covered her ears and screamed.

She thought it was over. Abby had warned her over and over. Do not come near the interstate. What changed now? Survivors on the other way? Why should she care? The girl feared he was about to become a tasty morsel for the ravenous dead. Frozen in place, Sara screamed and shrieked.

Abby finally came through. in other words, Sara finally understood what he was saying.

"I can't!" She whined.

"SARA!" Hainsworth shouted. "Come back!"

Abby urged.

The previously unfocused glazed gazes of the horde were now focused on the girl. They were closing in, fast.

Sara clutched her knives and stared at their waists. She only needed to connect the blow. "I'm okay!" She lied as she shouted back. "Remember, Abby. Shower me with Skill points. Your pick."

She pointed both knives ahead and ran. She felt more than heard the sound of the knives sinking into flesh. Her heart squeezed when she remembered she'd forgotten to infuse the weapons. Focusing on the skill, she felt two pulses of Mana run down her arms, then a cloud of Mana washing over her, coming from the corpses.

The two ghouls she struck slumped down, their animating force gone. The weight of their corpses leaned on Sara's arms. She shoved them away and pulled the knives free. Pushing more Mana, she slashed outward with both arms, roaring and cutting another three ghouls that were too close. Sara jumped backward.

> You gained...

"Shove it, Abby. Just tell me or show it all later," Sara said as she willed the visual hallucination to disappear.

"Sara!" The dead clamored as they closed in. Drivers, passengers, shoppers, even one wearing a car rental company uniform. Most remained silent, though, their vocal cords too damaged to talk.

She slashed another two and dodged the ghouls who tripped on the fallen bodies. With seven kills, her fears started to ease out.

"It's really creepy when they call out my name like that."

Abby encouraged.

What was going on with the parasite inside her, Sara wondered. She dodged what could only be called the clumsiest hug in the world from a ghoul, stabbed it under the armpit with an infused knife, then cut another two.

"Thanks!" Sara said as she slashed four in quick succession.

The girl heard a buzz and saw a drone hover down close to her. She dropped a dagger, picked a rock from the broken curb, and tossed it at the machine. With a swift motion, she returned the knife to her hand by swinging her arm and catching the knife as the strap tugged it up.

"NO EAVESDROPPING!" She shouted to the bystanders behind her.

"I see why a serrated knife would be bad," Sara mused. "They would get stuck in the corpses."

She had to move around, to avoid getting swamped in dead bodies and surrounded by animated ones.

Sara found it easy to move around the stiff brittle undead with her enhanced body. To her, it seemed they were moving in slow motion. Now that her fears dimmed and almost entirely faded, she sped up her killing speed. Sara figured out the reason her Mana Infusion cost 10 MP per strike but only 1 MP per six seconds of use on a tool. When she struck a ghoul, the mana inside the weapon flushed violently into the body and spirit of the undead. She basically had to recharge the knife every time she attacked.

That capped her killing speed to the speed she could infuse the weapon. She also noticed that channeling Mana into an object she was holding belonged to a sweet spot where it should've counted as neither internal manipulation, where she would gain the bonus of her Magic Type nor external manipulation where she would receive a tenfold penalty. And yet, the Skill gave the internal bonus nonetheless. As she killed her next dozen undead, she figured out why. Every time she infused the knife, her sense of touch became oddly aware of the handle's texture. Her Mana Channels were reaching inside the knife, making it part of her momentarily, then injecting the Mana. She asked Abby about that.

"Don't explain that new concept to me now," Sara said, unwilling to divide her attention.

Sara retreated a good twelve paces and looked at the horde. The undead were slowly coming from Home Depot's parking lot and the Perimeter freeway's access ramps. They numbered more than a hundred, by her estimates.

"Warn me when I reach sixty," She said and jumped back into the fray. Afraid of wasting Mana, she moved carefully, attacked only when she was sure of delivering a killing blow.

*

*

Exit 55, Intersection of Jonesboro Road with I-285 "The Perimeter", Fulton County, Georgia. Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. 12:30

Abby warned.

Sara sighed, then killed four more ghouls to clear her surroundings. She moved backward for a couple yards, then turned and walked back to the MBTs.

"How's my MP?"

> MP: 236 / 820

"Is this right?"

"Are double kills a thing? I need a longer blade."

"A katana. What Skills did I get for all my trouble?"

> You gained 2 points of Prowess.

> You gained 1 point of Rapid Healing.

> You gained 2 points of Thermostasis.

> You gained 2 points of Presence.

> You gained 2 points of Flattery.

> You gained 3 points of Mana Infusion.

Abby informed.

One more thing Abby kept from her. While inconsequential, any small hit after a wound was made hurt.

She didn't say anything else, because she reached Hainsworth. Sara removed the knives from the carabiners and sheathed them.

"Good hunting so far. Seventy down."

"Sixty-five," Sara corrected.

Hainsworth was about to say something when someone else spoke first.

"What's the matter with those bullshit zombies?" A survivor Sara didn't recognize asked. "All it takes is a little girl stabbing them once and they fall down! Tell me why we shouldn't shoot them in the head and be done with it." He was a man in his fifties, with rugged features and already some spots on his face showing signs of long hours working under the sun.

Sara widened her eyes in horror as she remembered Phillip being sliced in two. "You ha—" Hainsworth put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. The two exchanged a glance, the Major shook his head and the girl stepped back, to let him handle his men.

"These are not zombies!" The officer shouted. "These are ghouls, corpses animated by malevolent spirits. I see you are skeptical, Mr. Niles, but that's the truth. You shoot one of these undead, and next, you know, well, you won't know anything, because the malevolent spirit will cut you in half. A cautionary tale for all who would think about doing that after you.

"While I advise you not to try your course of action, I won't forbid you from doing what you feel is best. So, if you think you can kill the undead with your gun, by all means, jump down here, go there," he pointed at the horde slowly shuffling around now that Sara was too far to sense. "And do your worst on them. We have dozens of drones recording. Maybe you are right, and then I'll apologize for saying the wrong things. But if you are wrong, then, well. We have too few people to rebuild our society. You are important. Don't throw your life away because you believe what fiction TV told you."

Mr. Niles climbed down from the M1 Abrams and walked toward the Major. Hainsworth kept a steel face and Sara moved down the road to step away from the man's path. Then Mr. Niles sneered at the girl and glanced askew at Hainsworth as he walked past the officer.

Sara's hands balled into fists. She wanted to shout, to maybe use her social Skills to convince the man out of throwing his life away. But those same Skills evaluated Mr. Niles' body language and pointed to her a grim conclusion. Mr. Niles was a man of action, one who wouldn't be convinced by mere words. His worldview was set in stone and to him, everyone else here was an outsider. She also noticed he was resentful of them for some reason.

When she added those facts with how she had never seen his face before, she concluded he was an outsider from the south, a survivor from the meteor shower who was contacted or rescued by the expeditions sent there to check the farms and gather food. He might be a new addition to the community, that's why he was suspicious.

As Mr. Niles approached the horde with his gun in hand, Sara went back to Hainsworth's side.

"He's going to die."

"Yes, that's regrettable."

"And nothing we say will dissuade him. We could restrain him but..."

"That wouldn't work. All we would achieve was to make him a mortal enemy. I know of his kind of people. He's one to hold a grudge forever. To solve matters with his own hands, maybe with a knife fight. He feels belittled because we are here, apparently afraid of an undead horde while a little girl goes and slaughters dozens of them. Easily, it seemed. How are you?"

"I used about three-quarters of my tank," Sara confessed. "If I had a longer blade, maybe I could line the strikes to kill two with one blow but..."

"What does it take to recharge?" Hainsworth asked as if he believed a hundred percent of what she said.

"Time. I recover a tenth of my energy every day."

"So even if you had a longer blade, you would still only take out about forty more of them."

Mr. Niles seemed to be considering his life choices. He was ten yards from the undead horde but because his Mana density was not exceptional, the undead ignored him.

"Are the ghouls I killed bleeding?" Sara asked as she checked her clothes. She was more or less clean, with no dead people's juices on her.

"I don't think so," Hainsworth said and flagged one of the drone operators, "Kyle, send a drone in to do a close-up of the dead ghouls. See if they are bleeding!"

"Roger that, sir!" Kyle replied and swapped remotes. One of the drones hovering above zipped down and went past Mr. Niles.

The southerner looked behind him. "Hope you film me from my left. It's my best angle!" He smirked and turned to point his gun at the nearest ghoul.

Mr. Niles braced the pistol with his left hand and fired. Two ghouls were hit in the head and fell. The two wraiths rose right after. Sara could see they were as evil as the crashed airplane pilot. She shook with dread as she knew what would happen next.

Hainsworth held her arm right above the elbow, to stop her from doing anything. Sara whimpered, feeling impotent.

The wraiths stared at Mr. Niles and dove right in. Sara closed her eyes. She heard the men on the MBTs bemoan and whimper in repulsion and the sound of something wet hit the asphalt. Next, she felt the burst of Mana enter her channels.

> You gained 2 points of Composure.

> You gained 2 points of Prowess.

She took heavy breaths. The coppery scent of blood reached her. "Release me," she hissed to the Major, "and never again grab me."