Jenny stared in disbelief at the hatchet in her hand. It felt real. It existed. And it only existed because she thought it into being. It had cost energy, and she had a sneaking suspicion that the only way to get more energy was through killing, but it was still satisfying to have created something with her mind.

“How did you do that?” asked Susan. She touched the flat side of the metal with her fingertip.

“That system thing,” said Jenny. “Inside our head. I killed that… thing, and it gave me Energy that I used to make this.”

Susan’s eyes went wide. She stared at Jenny, their faces very close. Then she gasped. “It says you’re level 2!”

“Oh, yeah.” Pulling up her stats again, Jenny focused and figured the best place for her two stat points was power. As soon as the numbers shifted, she felt the slightest change in her arms and legs, and she climbed to her feet. Her head spun and, as Susan watched, she twirled the hatchet and moved her arm.

The hatchet felt light in her hand. She pictured splitting an angel’s head open like wood. Gruesome, but at least she wasn’t defenseless. And she could keep getting stronger by killing them?

Jenny quickly explained to Susan what she’d figured out about the system. How getting the first kill would give her a lot of Energy to use.

This felt like a survival game. The Survival Challenge has been issued. Jenny shuddered. She didn’t look at the angel or Mrs. Rivera’s body. Their English classroom was a mess from the earthquake and the mad rush to escape, but if there were more angels out there, then there was no point in staying here.

She thought of Oliver. He was just a little kid. An idiot sure, who followed her around everywhere and seemed to always want attention, but he was just a kid. All the freshmen were. Hell, she was a senior, but she was just a kid too.

“I have to go find my brother,” she said.

Susan used the desk to pull herself up. Her legs were still shaking, and Jenny tried not to look at the wet stain on her tights. They were both covered in much worse now.

What would be waiting for them out there? The thought of seeing another angel made Jenny want to throw up.

“Survival challenge,” said Susan quietly. “Does that mean we have to either fight or die?”

Jenny didn’t know what to say. “It kind of feels like a Battle Royale game. Except with zombie angels.”

Susan wiped her eyes, smearing blood over her cheeks. “Yeah,” she said. Then she took a deep breath and walked over to the angel and picked up the bloodied hole puncher Jenny used to kill it. “I guess we don’t have a choice.”

“I’ll watch your back and you watch mine?” asked Jenny. It was something they’d say to each other when gaming online.

Susan nodded. “Let’s do this,” she said. There was a determined look on her face, even though she was trembling.

Jenny made her way to the door and looked out the glass window. The hall was dim, lit only by the same sickly white glow of the void. There was nobody out there, nothing stirring, and Jenny turned the knob slowly. She stuck her head outside.

Their classroom was at the end of the hall, furthest from the stairwell. Bodies lined the floor; bloody streaks covered the wall. Jenny swallowed the bile that had risen to her throat. She spotted another angel down the hall beside the blue double doors that separated the English department. It was hunched over someone.

She shut the door and pressed her forehead against it. There was no time to think. No time to process. Those creatures were out there and Oliver, if he was still alive, was in danger. He was still her primary goal, and if she wanted to get stronger, she’d have to fight those creatures regardless.

The shocked look on Oliver’s face from this morning when Jenny had blamed him for not taking out the trash was fresh on her mind. Her heart constricted with guilt and terror.

“What’s out there?” whispered Susan who’d come up behind her.

“There’s another one down the hall,” said Jenny, not opening her eyes. “And there are… bodies.”

The hole puncher rattled in Susan’s hands. She’d almost dropped it. She didn’t say anything.

A part of Jenny hoped that if they waited just a bit, the angel would move on. But that was delaying the inevitable. There had to be lots of those creatures if so many people were already dead. How many people were left?

> Human Population remaining: 765

“Fuck,” whispered Jenny. She’d just wanted to graduate, move out of here, and begin her life somewhere far away. She pulled the door open and stepped into the hallway before she could chicken out.

Susan followed closely, the two of them taking light careful steps and trying not to look at the students lying still on the floor.

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They could see the angel up ahead. There wasn’t a message relaying its name and level. Jenny assumed they had to get closer for that. Susan grabbed Jenny’s arm. She let out a small cry and pointed.

It was Harry Kim, the boy who’d sat behind Jenny in English all year. Now he was lying on his side with chunks missing from his face and arm. His eyes were wide open.

“Don’t look,” whispered Jenny, squeezing Susan’s hand. They moved closer to the angel, and the message appeared.

> Tarnished Angel (Level 3)

This one looked male. Just as emaciated as the one they’d already fought, but it had brown hair and wider shoulders. It was chewing on a girl with her neck in its mouth, her body raised off the floor, hanging limp. A loud sucking noise filled the hall, and Susan cried out. Then she clapped her hand over her mouth.

The angel turned, blood dripping off its face as it opened its mouth and let the girl’s body fall to the floor. It blinked, cocking its head. With a screech, the angel barreled towards them, galloping on all fours.

It was terrifying to watch something almost human move like that, but Jenny pushed Susan to the side and held up her hatchet with both hands. She was going to swing it like a bat.

The angel leaped as soon as it was close enough. Jenny shut her eyes and swung.

The impact was nothing like chopping wood. It felt more like cutting through a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The hatchet sliced through the angel with ease, and it collapsed to the floor, howling.

Jenny watched it wriggling, its side cut open by her hatchet. Guts and dark blood leaked from the gash, and she stepped away, wanting to retch.

Hissing madly, the angel crawled towards Susan who’d dropped to her knees. She was shaking like mad. Jenny was about to attack again when Susan raised the hole puncher over her head, holding it with both hands. The angel reached for her legs, and she slammed the hole puncher down. It connected with the angel’s skull with a resounding crack.

> You’ve defeated Tarnished Angel (Level 3)

>

> Experience has been awarded

>

> +10 Energy

The messages appeared in Jenny’s head even though Susan had been the one to finish it off. So they must have shared experience, but it seemed like she got the same amount of energy for the kill.

Now that the blood wasn’t pounding her ears, Jenny could hear faint screaming. Was it from the floors below? Or just beyond the double doors?

The angel lay lifeless and still. Susan leaned back and rested her head on the wall. “I got the bonus. I leveled up.”

“You can get a weapon now,” said Jenny. Her hatchet was covered in blood and slime. She wiped it on her sweater, then shivered in disgust. “Maybe something sharp. I already tried making a gun but we need more energy for that.”

“A knife?” asked Susan. “Or should I get something like yours?”

“What are you familiar with?”

“Okay,” said Susan. “I think I’ve got it.” She shut her eyes and her brows furrowed in concentration.

Jenny kept glancing down the hall. She half expected another angel or something to burst out of a classroom. But it was unsettlingly quiet.

A moment later, the same golden light as before appeared in Susan’s hands. Strands of the light coiled and formed what looked like a stick. Jenny thought for a second she’d chosen a hatchet as well, but no sharp metal face appeared. Instead, it looked like a black baton.

“What is that?” Jenny asked, stepping over the angel to get a closer look.

“A cattle prod,” said Susan in a low voice as she inspected it. “It cost 85 but it looks exactly like the one my granddad had on his farm.” She stood up and tried it out. There was an electric crackling noise, and she switched it off, looking perplexed. “It’s not supposed to make a sound.”

She jabbed the air again. And again it made that sharp static cracking as it moved through the air.

“I’ve never seen one before,” said Jenny, wondering how effective it would be against an angel. They’d probably find out soon enough.

“My parents would take me every summer,” she said, switching it off and holding it. “I’d sneak out to the barn and fight… bad guys with this.”

“Bad guys?” Jenny pictured a younger Susan swinging the prod through the air and keeping her family safe from invisible enemies. How did she manage to be so cute even in the depths of hell?

Susan was blushing. “I’d never use it on a cow…” She clicked it on and then off. “It’s crazy how it smells the same when you butcher an animal.” She motioned towards the angel on the floor.

Its guts had leaked out with so much blood that some of it had reached Jenny’s boots. Looking at all of it made her feel even sicker, and the stench of decay and insides wasn’t helping.

“Seven hundred and two,” whispered Susan.

Jenny didn’t have to ask to know what that number meant. It hadn’t been that long since this survival challenge had started. Dread wrapped its cold sharp claws around her chest and squeezed. She grabbed Susan’s hand, feeling like she had to say something. “Thank you for not leaving me in that room.”

Susan blinked, her eyes watery. “If I’d left, I’d probably be…”

“Doesn’t matter,” said Jenny firmly. “If you left, we’d both be dead right now. But since we’re together… I don’t know. I feel like…” She took a deep breath. Prom felt so silly and stupid and far away. “I feel like we can do this.”

“Me too,” said Susan. She tried to smile but it looked more like a grimace.

“Let’s just pretend it’s a new game we’re trying out,” said Jenny. “A horror game and we only have one life. But we’re a duo.”

Susan shut her eyes and nodded. “I hate horror.”

“Same,” said Jenny.

“Okay. Where’s your brother?”

“His geometry class was downstairs.” Jenny swallowed hard. “He might still be in his room or…”

“We’ll find him,” said Susan. Then she straightened her back and took a deep breath. It was something she always did when she wanted to focus. “Alright. I’ll stop whining. Let’s go find your brother and anyone else we can help.”

Holding her cattle prod like a sword, she marched over to the double doors and looked through the little glass circular window each door had.

Jenny wondered if Susan was also thinking about their other friends. Their teachers. Their classmates. She tried not to think about Harry or the girl whose neck that angel had been sucking on.

She hoped there were others who’d figured out how to use the system. Maybe if they could find a group, they could fight back. But what had the system said? The victor shall be rewarded.

Did that mean there would only be one victor? Would this survival challenge last until one human was left? Jenny squeezed her hatchet. She wanted to pray, but she didn’t even know what to pray to anymore. It looked like she’d managed to give Susan some courage. Now if only she could give herself some too.