The Special Ability that these new presences were using didn't seem to immediately be hostile, at the very least. Hopefully, they were good people like Sophie—people who just wanted to live their lives in safety and were being forced into some sort of desperate situation where they needed to fight back against these lunatics. Maybe even those lunatics were people who had started out normal and now had been brainwashed by the System.

Regardless of their original motives, Lance was ready to try talking to one of these people first before resorting to violence himself: he hoped he wouldn't have to though. These people would hopefully also be willing to resist the influence of this apocalyptic force. There might be something useful he could learn from them too; maybe they could provide him with a way to escape or to find more help elsewhere.

He stepped forward slowly so he could keep an eye on the hallway while he went inside the room next door, trying his best not to make any noise or draw attention to himself. His gun was holstered but still at hand—it wasn't like he expected it would do much good against these guys anyway; the constant sound coming from their end indicated that Special Abilities seemed to be working fine right now, after all. If worse came to worst and they couldn't talk things through, then he could always kill them later with Sophie's help instead of taking them out now; that was what he told himself as he continued towards the other room's entrance.

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He rounded the corner and came face to face with a pair of college-age students, not much younger than Sophie. They were both wearing brown hoodies and jeans: one boy with short black hair and blue eyes, and the girl had long straight blond hair and pale skin. Both of them looked like they'd seen better days: the woman was bruised around her left eye while the man's hands were bloody.

The two wore expressions ranging from careful fear: clearly, Lance hadn't been spotted yet since none of them so far had made a move for him yet. He breathed an inward sigh of relief—they must have just come back from somewhere in the city before all this started going down. That explained why neither of them had brought any guns or equipment along—and also perhaps why they resisting the influence of the System as well. Maybe these guys weren't involved like everyone else so far; maybe they really did want to live their lives normally, despite the advent of the System?

Lance raised his hand slowly to try waving at them without drawing attention to himself. "Hey," he said softly. "Are you guys okay?"

"Who goes there?" the young man asked.

the woman thought.

His voice was calm and even, not panicked like those that had been outside, and he spoke with confidence and determination. Lance didn't recognize either of them and couldn't guess what Special Ability they might have. He'd never heard anyone speak like this before though; almost every other person seemed terrified and on edge while trying not to show their fear: these two sounded determined instead.

"My name is Lance Samson," he said. "And my friend Sophie is in the room back there. We don't want to hurt you.”