"Don't come any closer!" She shouted out as she held her hands up in front of her.

Lance smiled. "Who are you?" He asked, walking toward her slowly.

"Thank you for helping me," she said nervously.

"That's okay. I'm Lance." He replied. "What's your name?"

she thought, but she didn't speak.

He approached her cautiously, keeping his gun ready.

"Are you here alone?" he asked.

"Yes. My friends were killed by those…things. They came after me, but I managed to stay ahead of them."

Lance nodded. "You're lucky to be alive, Sophie."

Her expression changed to one of surprise. "How did you know my name?"

He smirked. "It's the first thing that popped into my mind."

She eyed him suspiciously. "No. I refuse to believe that."

"Hey, can I trust you?" Lance asked.

"What kind of question is that?"

"Answer it."

"Yes, but anyone would say that." She seemed genuine enough, at least. Lance didn't get the impression that she would blab to someone else.

Not that there was anyone left to blab to.

"There's this... weird text that I can see if I close my eyes," Lance said.

"I thought it was just me," Sophie said, wide-eyed. "I'm not going crazy."

"And it says I have the special ability to read minds."

"No way," the woman said, her earlier apprehension forgotten. "That's so... creepy. But also really cool!"

Lance smiled guilelessly. "Yeah, I think it's pretty damn amazing too. So if you know about the text, why haven't you destroyed it?"

"Because it gives me hope," she answered.

"Hope?"

"I was a nobody," Sophie admitted. "And now, I guess, I can be somebody. I have a special ability too. Maybe I can make something out of it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean that if I have these powers, I could be a hero."

"Oh!" Lance laughed. "I never thought of myself as a hero, but now you mention it..."

"I think we could do something," Sophie said. "Look."

Between her hands, blue energy formed, so bright that it hurt Lance's eyes when he looked at it head-on.

She pushed her hands out, and the energy flew out, a beam of blue smashing into a dumpster.

When the light faded away, ice had formed across the dumpster, a thin layer of frost encasing the whole thing.

"Cool, huh?" Sophie asked with a grin.

Lance groaned at the pun, but he had to admit, it was. "It's really something, isn't it?"

"So do you want to help me? We can stop this madness together." She moved toward him.

Lance hesitated for a moment, looking down at her, then back into the streets, where a a flood of monsters awaited them.

"Sure," Lance said. "Let's go."

They both headed back through the streets, trying to avoid contact with any of the monsters.

They didn't make it very far. Less than a hundred feet out, Lance sensed beings in his immediate area, and then the air was filled with the screeching of a dozen ex-humans.