The lobby of the police station greets us with dim silence and the faint scent of something rotting. Immediately in front of us is a wall with a large window set in the center.

  From the looks of it some kind of secretary would stand behind the window and guide people to what they need. To either side of the window are thick looking doors.

  Instead of wasting mana on a floating orb for light I command the mana in me to surge. Lines across my skin burn with a blue light casting new shadows across the room. I ignore the stares of the others as I push out the feeling of being a glow stick.

  We slowly make our way to the wall with doors set in it. Through the glass in the middle of the wall I can find a few desks. The door to the right seems to lead immediately into this office room while the door to the left leads somewhere unseen.

  I push my mana through a gap in the bottom of the window and use it to explore the room. The desks are messy and unorganized giving me the feeling that the room was abandoned in a panic. Yet I don’t sense or see any bodies.

  With that I move to the door to the left. It’s a solid metal door with no glass section to peer through. Through the gaps between the door and it’s frame I can tell that the door is thicker than normal doors. My mana stretches beyond the door into a hallway but I don’t feel anything within my range.

  I pull back my mana and move to the other door. I push mana through the gaps in the door exploring what’s on the other side. I explore the office space again but this time I feel more doors lining the wall.

  “Which door?” I ask the group behind me.

  Abby turns to Kyle who shakes his head. We turn our focus to Andy who just shrugs and looks wholly uninterested.

  “Let's try this one.” Abby says.

  I pull and push on the handle of the door only to find it locked. I take out my tire iron ready to saw my way through the door when an idea hits me. I’ve used my mana as a kind of telekinesis before by wrapping it around my weapons. Can I use it to pick the lock in the door?

  I push my mana into the lock of the door. Through it I get a mental image of the locking mechanism. Five pins rest at different lengths with notches grooved through them at different points.

  I wrap the pins with my mana and push them up so that the grooves line flush with the rotating part of the lock. Then I push the rotating part of the mechanism clockwise drawing a bolt into the door.

  I hear an audible click as the mechanism snaps into the unlocked position. A wave of satisfaction washes over me. Instead of wasting my mana on cutting through the door I manage to unlock it barely using a percent.

  I push the door open letting the group walk through. As they do so I can’t stop myself from smiling smugly.

  “You have to show me how you did that.” Abby says as she passes through the open door.

  Now inside the office space behind the wall I realize we’re in the dispatcher’s area. Three desks line the wall with the window all with multiple monitors and headsets. The other desks I assume are work spaces for the policemen or something.

  After a moment of observing the room I count three doors. One set in the far wall next to some kind of supply closet. While the other two are set into the wall to the right after entering the room.

  Tags next to the side doors label them as ‘Lunchroom’ and ‘Locker room’. The lunchroom is the closest of the doors to me so it’s the one I choose to check out first. As I walk up to it I call Abby over.

  “Push your mana through the gaps around the door and try to feel for what's on the other side.” I tell her.

  She nods and closes her eyes in concentration. A few moments pass in silence as I and the other two guys watch the girl furrow her brow in concentration.

  “I don’t feel anything on the other side but I also can’t see the whole room.” She says.

  “That’s fine.” I say.

  I push my mana out to the other side through the gaps. Although I can’t cover the whole room I do confirm that nothing is immediately behind the door.

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  I push on the door and find that it’s unlocked. Turning back to the other I get a nod from them before advancing.

  The powerful stench of rot and decay washes over me. My eyes water and it’s all I can do to stop myself from gagging.

  Towards the end of the room four zombies stand facing the wall opposite to us. Countless flies buzz around the room hovering mostly around the zombies and an open refrigerator.

  My mana surges in me burning hot at the sight of the undead. Blue rectangles flash into existence above their heads indicating all of them are lower leveled than me. Three level ones and one level 3.

  “Abby, do you have level three?” I ask.

  She nods as a blue orb of energy exits her palm.

  “Alright, Kyle and Andy take care of the level ones. They shouldn’t be too hard but Abby and I will watch your backs just in case.” I say.

  With that we rush into action. Abby lets her spinning orb of mana fly. It zips through the air leaving a familiar glowing trail. It collides with the head of a zombie dropping its health to zero.

  At the sound of the attack the other three zombies turn their attention to the falling zombie. Kyle races out his legs pumping powerfully against the ground. He’s faster than any speed I could reach but still slower than Decker.

  His spear points out in a powerful thrust piercing into the skull of one of the zombies. The blue light above it’s head flashes black. It falls to the ground and as it does so Kyle yanks the spear out of it’s head.

  Andy stands behind me still unmoving. The bat in his hands hovers above the ground unmoving.

  I feel anger boil inside of me at the man's actions. However, I’m quickly distracted by the fight still going on at the other end of the room.

  Kyle back pedals as a zombie reaches out for him. His spear races forwards missing the thing’s head. In that instant the tingle in my mind blares.

  Mana surges out of me instantly forming a spinning orb. The energy is already sailing across the room when I realize what I’ve done. It crashes into the head of the zombie who is only inches from sinking its teeth into Kyle.

  It’s head explodes as it’s killed instantly. The last zombie falls to the ground after eating a face full of mana from Abby leaving us four alone in the bad smelling room.

  I take a second to make sure Kyle is okay before turning my attention to Andy. Rage boils inside of me as I look at the man.

  “What the hell dude.” Kyle yells in a whisper. “I was expecting you to take care of the other one.”

  Andy remains silent as he stares at the floor.

  “I don’t know if we can trust him to be out here with us.” Kyle says.

  I agree with him. I mean at this point if Andy is unwilling to fight with us then he’s dead weight that we’re forced to look after. Still it would be a waste of time to walk him back. It also feels wrong to just abandon him.

  “Come on guys, let's not fight. Andy, we can trust you right?” Abby says.

  She walks up to Andy forcing him to look her in her eyes. He squirms under her gaze for a second before snapping.

  “Yeah.. Sorry I just froze. It won’t happen again.” Andy says.

  “Everything is good. No one is hurt and he’s willing to help. Shall we continue?” Abby asks.

  I look at Kyle. Rage burns behind his eyes and I don’t blame him. He nods and we search the break room finding nothing of note. We leave it and move to the next door claiming to lead to the locker room.

  While I feel like Andy is unreliable and shouldn’t be with us I don’t see what we can do with him. It feels wrong to just leave him behind but if we hope to check Abby’s home we shouldn’t be wasting daylight.

  I put my worries on the back burner as I focus on the potential danger in front of me. Abby pushes the door to the locker rooms open. A short hallway with three doors greets us. Two of which lead to the men’s and women’s locker rooms. The third door is labeled garage.

  All three doors reveal themselves to be locked. So I take a second to explain to Abby how I pick the locks with mana. She focuses on the lock to the women's room and I hear metal quietly click against metal.

  Sure that she’ll get it I turn my focus to the door leading to the guys side. I push my mana over to the other side of the door trying to feel for anything out of place. I get a sense of lockers and benches but no zombies.

  It takes me a few seconds but I manage to unlock the guys locker room before Abby unlocks the women's.

  “Is something wrong?” I ask her.

  “I’m not feeling that groove you talked about.” she says.

  “Your perception may not be high enough. Let's check the guy's side then I’ll unlock this door.”

  She nods and I feel her mana leave the locking mechanism of the door. We enter the guys locker room finding nothing. It’s a small rectangular room with lockers lining the walls and some being set in the center of the room.

  Most of the lockers are left open and empty. Some have padlocks on them and a few others are closed. I open a few of the closed one revealing things ranging from deodorants, clothes, to food containers.

  Once sure that the room is of no threat we leave and I unlock the women’s locker room. We find much of the same there. Empty and open lockers mixed in with locked ones. The room smells faintly of perfume and I’m left to wonder if someone used it recently or if enough perfume has been sprayed in here that it’s been soaked up by the walls.

  With nothing for us in the rooms we leave and head to the door sealing us off from the garage. Through Magical Sonar I can tell that the garage is a large open space. It takes me a second to unlock the door. As I do so the tingle in the back of my mind hums.

  The smell of the undead bombard my senses as I open the door revealing a horde meandering around a gated area. Something we’ve done must have caught their focus as many in the horde turn to us. They howl with hunger and charge for us.

  HHHHHUUUUUUGGGGG!