Boulevard Avenue near Ralph David Abernathy Freeway (I-20), Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. Thursday, October 31st, 2019. 14:00

"I'm okay!" Sara shouted from the human heap Sparky turned her into. She untangled her limbs, then stood up and dusted her pants. Looking up, she saw one of Kyle's drones hovering a hundred yards to the south. Perhaps he had recorded their fight with Sparky.

"You're bleeding!" Hainsworth said as he scanned around, then lowered the Barret which remained trained on Sparky all the time.

She felt a pang of pain in her back. "My gunshot wound reopened. I'll be fine." Then she felt cold air on her leg. "Oh, great. My jeans are ruined." It had four large gashes from Sparky's claws. "Maybe not, it seems fashionable. Meh."

Each set of clothes she ruined fighting was a step closer to the idea that bikini armor was the way to go. Her skin underneath the pants was fine, just some white scratch lines that would fade in just an hour or so.

Approaching Sparky, Sara noticed the spray of blood and gore on the other side. "I take it back. I'm not bulletproof if that's what your rifle can do." She knelt next to the tiger and put a hand on its head as she closed her eyes and prayed. "Goodbye Sparky. If there's still a tiger Heaven, I hope you made it there. I hope you get to play in a big jungle with all your tiger friends and lots of tasty deer to eat."

Hainsworth approached. "I'm sorry it had to be this way."

"Hubris," Sara declared. "It was human hubris that took him from the jungle all the way here."

"I'm pretty sure he was born in captivity. I now recall something about the zoo buying a male tiger born in Indiana. He was a breeder, going from zoo to zoo."

Something passed through Sara's mind, "Do you think he would attack us? Wasn't he, like, super used to being around humans?"

"We cannot be sure; we cannot take any risks. No matter how long he spent around people, it's still a wild animal. Dogs were originally a very docile wolf breed and we took ten thousand years of selective breeding to get them where they are now."

"I wonder if Chelsea also survived."

"The female tiger?"

"Yeah."

"Let's hope she didn't."

Sara grimaced. "Did you hunt together with Colonel Smith? Would you know how to skin a tiger?"

"Are you serious? Yes, I think I can do it."

Sara ran a hand over Sparky's fur. "It's a tragedy but I agree with you. Sparky would eventually attack and kill people. We killed him, alright. Now, we have a perfectly good tiger fur here, which will go to waste if we don't do anything."

"I thought you were sad about Sparky's death. Besides, the pelt is ruined. We could get the head and one side though it's not worth the time. Let's move on."

"It's just that..."

Hainsworth put a hand on her shoulder, "It was us or Sparky. Or some random survivor who would have not a chance."

The girl nodded, flicked a tear off her cheek, then moved on.

*

*

Intersection of Boulevard Avenue and John Lewis Freedom Parkway (GA-10), Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. Thursday, October 31st, 2019. 15:00

After Sara killed another thirty ghouls, the duo hiked north along the Boulevard Avenue until they reached the next intersection with an arterial road.

"MLK's museum is rather intact," Sara remarked. "We ought to come back later and secure the historical artifacts and documents."

"Hopefully, we will reclaim all of Atlanta. One block at a time, if we need to," Hainsworth vowed.

As they approached the intersection, Abby outlined the ghouls. Forty near the intersection. "Abby, please show me the Skill gains," she requested.

> You gained 2 points of Adroitness.

> You gained 4 points of Prowess.

> You gained 1 point of Brawn. This Skill is maxed out. Upgrade your Class to progress further.

> You gained 2 point of Rapid Healing.

Sara readied her spear. "I'm going in."

"I'll watch the nearby buildings. We might have a shooter lurking around. Can you handle the undead?"

"So long I don't bite more than I can chew."

Sara approached the parkway carefully, drawing the attention of only two or three ghouls at a time. She tried the undead skewer tactic as much as she could, to stretch her MP pool. Half an hour later, the way was clear.

She crossed to check on the north side of the parkway when she heard a gunshot and felt a sting on her flank. She dove down and rolled next to a car.

"Stand down!" Hainsworth shouted.

"Left!" Sara shouted back.

She checked. The shot didn't break skin but it would become an ugly bruise.

More gunshots pelted the asphalt and the car she was taking cover against.

Sara looked at the car door and saw the outline of a person crouched on the third floor of an apartment complex on the left side of the avenue. To the right, some trees, a furniture shop, and a dog park.

She took her radio, which was on a private channel exclusive to the Major and her. Hainsworth voice buzzed, "Are you hurt?"

"Just a bruise. Apartment building, third floor, fifth window from the south."

"Roger that. Stay where you are," the Major's voice came over the radio.

A minute of silence, then more shots fired her way. She heard the Barret M82A1's pop and the outline vanished as she felt the Mana coming her way.

"Abby, see if you can find more people," Sara said as she drew her handgun and ran across the avenue to take cover on the cars next to the apartment complex.

She swapped the gun for the radio, "One down, two on the run."

"Copy that."

"I'll pursue."

"Be careful. They have access to SWAT weapons."

"Great."

Sara jumped on top of the chain-link fence and then to the second floor of the complex. The living room had two dead people, full of maggots crawling over them. She unlocked the latch and reached the corridor, then ran after the two men. She caught a glimpse of them leaving the complex through the front door. By the time she reached it, they were trying to board a car.

With only the spear ready, she bounced it in her hand to change the grip and hurled the spear at the car tire through the glass door of the building. The glass shattered, pushed the spear aside and caused it to miss the car. Sara ran over broken glass and drew her gun. "Boost Brawn!"

The wood-framed figure-eight apartment building had only the eastern half intact. the other side was hit by a piece of falling debris, a section of spotless round marble column the width of Lady Liberty's waist. The column crashed near the western half and rolled west, crushing Jackson Bridge, the next apartment building and stopping a quarter mile away. The Highland avenue to the west was littered with timbers, splintered wood, broken furniture, and the occasional body part.

"Go, go, go!" One of the men shouted. The other shot at Sara. She felt two shots hit her chest. It only made her angry.

She raised her left arm to shield her eyes from gunfire and fired her gun at the tire three times. This close and with the vehicle still stopped, she couldn't miss. The tire started to hiss in a dissonant chord from the three holes. Hollywood had lied to her again as she expected the tire to blow up and become unusable.

"You idiot, you missed!"

"The fuck I did, I shot the girl twice!"

"She's standing up, moron!"

The car's engine rumbled and the tires screeched. Sara kicked her spear up as she holstered her gun and swapped weapons. It started to move and make a sharp U-turn. Infusing Mana into the spear, she ran along the car and stabbed straight into the fuel door in a downward motion, then braced and pulled up and out. She smelled gasoline. Two more shots hit her flank and three missed. Next, Sara delivered spear jabs at the bolts securing the other rear wheel in quick succession, breaking the caps. The turning car lost the wheel, which bounced and rolled away. The chassis dragged along the asphalt, creating sparks and igniting the fuel.

The car crashed into another parked on the other side of the street, where a long and tall apartment building had lost half its size to another falling piece of debris.

"Fire!"

"Get out of my way!"

"Out, out, out!"

Three men, the two who ran out of the building and the getaway driver vacated the burning vehicle before it exploded. Spoiler alert, it didn't. Another Hollywood lie.

"First one to run gets stabbed in the back," she threatened as she ran toward them. "Drop your fucking weapons and reach for the stars!"

Two of them did exactly that while the third pulled his pistol and shot her. She took three bullets to the stomach, then threw the spear at his leg. The other two bolted, going in separate directions.

Sara drew her gun and took a moment to aim, then shot one in the leg twice. She yanked the spear from the first man, kicked his good leg, and ran after the third one. Lithe and agile, Sara would still have a hard time to catch with him due to leg size if she didn't have magic. With her Skills and body enhancements, she felt like she was chasing a crawling toddler. She stabbed his thigh from behind, then kicked him forward, dislodging her spear in the process.

"I surrender!" He clamored.

She grabbed him by the good leg and started to drag him back.

"It hurts!"

"Shouldn't have ran. Pull any smart trick or a knife and you'll regret, you idiot. Shooting me only got me pissed."

"What the hell are you?"

"Someone you don't want to cross if you're smart. Or if you want to keep the one leg that won't become infected."

"Please, I have a wife and two kids."

Sara sputtered and broke into a fit of laughter. "Nice try, asshole. No kids survived Armageddon."

She tossed the guy over the first one, who dropped the gun he picked up as she approached.

"I'm going to get your friend, stay put. See the holes in my shirt? These are your shots," Sara lifted her shirt. "See the skin underneath? I don't like bruises."

The third guy threw a knife at her. She smacked it out of the air, sending it skittering and spinning over the asphalt. Approaching him, she grabbed him by the hair.

"The only reason I don't smack your face on the pavement is because I'm not sure if your head will burst like a melon. Do you want to try?"

"No," the man whimpered.

"Oh, a cannibal? What a surprise."

"No, I've never—"

She smacked his face on the pavement. The man screamed in pain.

"At least own your crimes, asshole. I can see your sins." She dragged him back to where the other two were. "I should've taken some nylon cable ties with me. Instant handcuffs."

> MP: 149 / 1626

"Dammit, Abby. Warn me earlier," Sara turned off Skill Boost. "Are these two cannibals as well?"

Fucking gaslighting parasite. Sara had no time to dwell on it, though.

"We are not like that degenerate," man two said.

"Fuck you, Jones!" The cannibal cursed.

"Okay, three stooges, here's the deal. I'm going to ask some questions, if I don't like the answers or think you're lying, I'm going to kill you. You don't put your best behavior or try something funny with me, I'm going to kill you. You talk back to me, spit, or something as stupid as that, I'm going to hand you guys over to a very pissed soldier that’s coming here soon."

"First order. I want all weapons. Knives, spatulas, guns, darts, shanks, what-have-you. Hide something from me and I'll punch you in the stomach. I have a metal detector."

They coughed two folding pocketknives and one butterfly knife. Sara tossed them on the roof of the building on the other side of the avenue. She took the ammunition of their guns, then gave another order.

"You three are going to hug one another and hop all the way back to the apartment building."

"I'm bleeding! I need a tourniquet," man one whimpered.

"All of you are bleeding. More reason to cooperate and get it over soon. Medical supplies are a bitch to procure in the Apocalypse. I'll be honest, I'm not going to waste any with idiots. So, you better improve my judgment of you."

Sara sighed. "Look, I don't want to fool you guys. You're probably going to die. But I'll get you a tourniquet so your ghosts don't come back to haunt me. Stay put" She went to a parked car, punched the window, opened the door, then cut four seat belts. She tied the belts tight to stop the bleeding.

Inside the building, she took a fire hose, tied the three of them together, looping the hose around their arms so they couldn't just wiggle underneath it. She went back to help Hainsworth cross the parkway.

*

*

Michael King Jr. Apartments, Highland Avenue, Old Fourth Ward, Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. Thursday, October 31st, 15:30

She had to kill fifteen new ghouls who strayed into the intersection she'd cleared, signaling that, unless physical barriers were put up, a permanent passage wouldn't be possible and that she was running dangerously low on MP.

> MP: 93 / 1626

She recovered only a bit more than six MP per hour. She needed to ration her energy.

By Abby's measurements, they were less than two miles away from the Bank of America Plaza. But now that they knew the gang members were literally camping, in the FPS game meaning of the word, the intersections, they couldn't risk moving the civilians. Fortunately, they had three volunteers for the snitch of the year prize.

"You did a good job, Sara," Hainsworth praised her then turned on the three prisoners, showing them a first-row view of the Barret's barrel, "So, who wants to talk? I'll be honest with you, you'll all going to die. Whoever talks, gets a bullet in the head and a clean painless death. The ones who don't, will be left here to feed the undead."

They protested meekly.

"Trick or treat, assholes. Tonight, it’s Halloween and you already know what happens, right?" Sara added, and watched as two of them, Cannibal and Jones, winced. She pointed at Cannibal, trying not to show disgust at his half-smashed face, "Hey, boss. That one is a fucking cannibal and most probably a rapist also. He doesn't get a chance, let me take him to the parkway to become ghoul food now. Let's see how he likes eating people after that."

"Wait, no! I'm not, I—" Cannibal's protests were interrupted by a rag in the mouth.

"Take him," Hainsworth stood up, cleaning his hands.

Sara grinned wickedly. All an act to intimidate the other two. She untied the fire hose, dragged Cannibal away, then winked at Hainsworth, "Don't start the fun without me, boss."

"Right, I'll wait."

She dragged Cannibal screaming and kicking away from the other two, out of the building and across the corner. Somewhere along the way, he'd spat out the rag. She half-expected another gang member to reveal themselves by shooting one of them. It didn't happen.

"Shut up for a moment, I'm not killing you or leaving you for the undead. I know you didn't eat people, it was all just an act," she lied. "Tell me what I want to know, and I'll let you go."

Sara dropped him to sit with his back to the building fence. She took a bottle of hand sanitizer, cleaned her hands, then took one of the brown bags with a yellow M. She fished inside and fetched a stick of golden fried potato. Cannibal followed the food in her hand as she tried to push it against her pursed lips.

"I bet some fries taste better than people," She wondered, then looked inside the bag. "And look, there's a burger here! Freshly cooked! Oh, boy, after three weeks toiling and struggling to find food, I would give anything for a burger. Do you know the song? 'Two beef patties, forgot the middle, yadda, yadda, cheese, pickles, sesame seed bun'."

Cannibal was salivating like Pavlov's trained pet. Sara ate the fried potato stick slowly.

"Salty," she teased.

"Can I have one?" Cannibal begged.

"Speak. Lie to me and you'll regret. Have you eaten people?"

He whimpered, "I was starving!"

"How many women have you raped?"

"I didn't–" he grunted and wheezed as Sara sucker punched him. "Five."

Sara wanted to rip his head off, she was barely holding back, only because she needed intel. "How many men does your gang have?"

"Twenty-seven."

"Who was leaking information to you about the drone supply shipments?"

"A guy named Joe. He was the boss' cellmate a while ago!"

She dashed to the left but not before a hail of automatic gunfire struck her back, the pavement, and Cannibal. The food bag fell on the curb and Sara rolled on the sidewalk to reach a parked car. More shots struck the vehicle as the new attacker tried to pin her down behind it. Mana entered her channels, probably from Cannibal.

Her back burned. She turned around to face the car and saw the outlines. They were on the roof of a hospital a block north along the Boulevard. With heavy weapons as she realized after touching her new wounds and coming back with bloody hands.

"No shit," Sara took her radio. "Stay safe. Boogies on the roof of the hospital. Heavy weaponry. I got hit but nothing serious."

They had agreed to not use call signs or names. Since the channel was exclusive between the two, it was a reasonable precaution.

"Understood."

> MP: 178 / 1626

She reached for her radio, "My guy got hit by friendly fire and died. I'm under fire."

Bullets rang against the car, then stopped. They probably thought her dead.

"That's probably the people watching the other intersections trying to figure out which one we would use."

"Negative. They had more people camping, at the hospital."

"It's rather intact, they are probably using it as their FOB. Don't damage the building."

"Roger that. He said the gang had twenty-seven members. Probably all of them were rapists."

"Motherfuckers."

"But no confirmation on that front. Hain—" She heard two gunshots both over the air and through the radio. Two waves of Mana reached her.

Hainsworth's voice came through the radio, "I'll try to find a place to fire back. Stay where you are."

A bullet pierced the car through and through and struck the sidewalk, sending a spray of concrete dust everywhere.

"No can do. They're using armor piercing rounds. Stay safe, I'm engaging. That wooden building will not protect you and I was already hit twice. It broke skin but nothing serious. You have a date today, Major, and God knows I'll make it happen. No girl deserves to be without a father."

"I'm sorry. You know what you'll have to do, right."

Sara sighed as more bullets rained on the car. She knew very well.

"They're cannibals and rapists. In my book, they're just smarter ghouls."

Not people, monsters. She repeated it to herself several times. Sara looked around. Her spear and the burger bag were nearby. She would have to relinquish the food and get the weapon. She removed her backpack, filled her magazine with fresh rounds from the Stooges, readied a spare magazine.

Sara left her pack behind the car, prayed, and ran.