Mandy was just thinking that there had to be some sort of—spot that was clear enough for her to take some pliers and slip through a hole without being chomped on when—pop. Suddenly, Amanda found herself standing several feet away, a slim-Jim half half-eaten held in one hand, her eyes narrowing a fraction as time froze all around her. There was no pain, no lingering sensation that death had scooped one of her theoretical selves up and swept it away… Just—confusion, annoyance, some suspicion and, of course, the delicious meat stick.

Immediately, she finished the slim-jim. Tossing the wrapper over her shoulder before whipping out her sig and pointing it at the kid's head. But right before she was about to pull the trigger, she hesitated. The boy was still just hovering there, hands holding onto the lapel of his jacket, weapon still slung on his shoulder. His age, though tough to pin down through all the clothes, was somewhere in and around sixteen, by her best estimation. Age was another one of those tough things to gauge as everyone post-civilization simply held themselves with the air of someone more mature than their pre-collapse counterparts. For all she knew, he could be twenty-one! And just have something of a baby face!

She blinked, the barrel of her weapon slipping slightly from its unerring aim… well, if not him, then—who? Time unfroze again, Mandy making sure that her gun was strapped back in its holster. The poney cannon suspiciously still attached to her thigh… Hmmm… She’d need to revisit that little quandary when she managed the time to do so, but… Pop-pop!”

Again, time froze, this time, the instant she realized that her perspective had been unceremoniously altered—without her desires. And again, her gaze shot up to the boy above her to see that he’d scarcely moved more than a twitch…

“The fuck?” She asked aloud, now not really sure what was going on. There had been definite echos of gunfire. Which had also killed her… well, not killed-killed, but definitely murdered her current poor and innocent iteration selves... The question was—how? She still didn't see anything obvious. No plume of smoke… no shooter lying on some roof… And, if there was a speedster, she should see him in frozen time… Unless he was hiding, but… “So, they’ve got snipers or… something else?”

Well, screw them! If they wanted to mess with her, then Mandy was perfectly willing to fuck with them right back! She pulled the pin on one of her grenades, tossing it at a pole in the large chainlink before getting another one and throwing it a little further down the road. Then, she wandered across the street to where she saw an Ihop. Casually seated herself at a window booth and allowed time to resume. The thing about grenades was that they were very loud. Thus, when the two deafening booms rocked the air, Mandy watched the very startled young man in the sky bolt away, flying both higher and off into the cover of a billboard.

As it happened, her little middle finger definitely attracted the right attention. As expected, the explosives did their job. And two rather sizable holes in the fence now allowed the shambling ghouls to extricate themselves from their prison. It admittedly wasn't a fast or even efficient process as the things werent exactly smart. Just sort of—pressing themselves into the jagged metal until one or two managed to flow through…

“What the actual fuck!” A blur that manifested from out of nowhere demanded, stopping to stare at the gaping holes in the fence just long enough for Mandy to freeze time once again. She grinned while slipping a Glock from her waist, stalking towards the speedster that had in his hand what looked like an old Berreta. Normally, she could catch such mutants as they were running away or simply standing around trying to figure out what was going on. However, some of the smart ones never stopped moving when in a fight. And if they were quick enough, even that split moment between her realizing she’d been killed and activating her power could be enough time for a speedy enough mutant to disappear from sight.

It was a tactic most employed while fighting against other speedsters, as their powers didn't ramp up their body's functionality until they were actually moving at increased speeds. Thus, a speedster, unless moving at a similar pace, couldn't see those that moved so quickly as to escape the frames provided by human eyesight.

And this asshole had just killed her twice. Mandy, not bothering with any niceties at this point, stormed right up behind him, levelled her gun at the back of his head and fired every single round in her magazine until the slide clicked. Then, she reloaded! Putting a dozen more in his heart to seal the deal.

When time resumed, the speedster exploded in a shower of his own viscera. His gun already tucked in her pack, Mandy kicking his already crumpling body towards the ghouls, who fell upon him with savage delight. Then her gaze snapped to the boy now holding his rifle and pointing it at her, his aim, much like Jons had been, shaking as he stared at her, eyes wide with horror and paralyzing fear!

“Yeah! Pretty crazy how fast things can go downhill when you try to kill strangers, isn't it?” She shouted over the clamour of tearing flesh and teeth gnawing on bones. She considered killing the boy as well; the shot not that difficult for her, even at such a range. But she did have a code. And he had tried to warn her! Still, given how miserable that warning had been compared to the use of force applied when a simple conversation whilst spoken face to face might just have sufficed, well, hopefully he’d learned a lesson about overconfidence. Being coy was for the bedroom. Not when people's lives were on the line.

“You bitch!”

Mandy had just enough of a fractional seconds to register the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching from behind her when she felt her body flung at speeds reserved for freeway travel! Her bones shattered like so many twigs in a hurricane, limp form, all noodle-like and brutalized, smashing into the mass of corpses before she once more appeared several feet away, this time, two guns already in her hands.

“Wait—what?”

Bam-bam-bam! Mandy was already in motion, guns singing the song of their people! Her bullets punched into the living tank of a mutant that had sent her hurtling, the lead pancaking against his epididymis and leaving little more than thin bloody trails for her effort!

“Wow, what kind of car can you lift?” She asked, switching from her nine-meters to the forty-fives. Her finger vibrating over the trigger as two guns simultaneously attempted to perforat the brute's face and chest so fast that it was all he could do to lift his hands and cover his face. Mutants like himself might be tougher than normal, but a flying chunk of metal through the eye still posed a threat.

“How are you even alive?” The man countered, not even sounding that mad she’d vaporized his friend's head, and more sounding earnestly curious. All the while, Mandy’s rounds just—didn't really have the desired effect…

“I'm Subliminal! And I'm very hard to kill!”

“Same here!” He barked back, suddenly slamming his boot into the ground and causing a massive fissure in the road to heave towards her! Mandy had just enough time to pause time and leap out of the way, rolling into a neat tumble and back to her feet, the world resuming as a hole large enough to swallow a building snapped shut like the jaws of death right where she’d been standing.

“No way… that was so cool!” She gushed, staring at the utterly ruined road that had been shifting around like it were a living mouth! “Has anyone actually survived something like that?”

“Only the quick ones…” He ground out, stomping again and causing another wave of rocks to ripple through the earth, this time crashing against one another like miniature tectonic plates too fast to see and showering her in a hailstorm of tiny stone shards that shredded her like a cheese grater! Of course, she merely reappeared nearby, guns fully loaded.

“That fucking hurt!” She accused, having felt the dozens of projectiles literally pick her apart before they’d found something vital enough to actually kill her! In reply, Mandy froze time and did to him exactly as she’d done to his friend. Aiming both her guns at his forehead, at point blank range, before emptying them with extreme prejudice!

Sadly, unlike the speedster, the bullets didn't penetrate his skull. Yet, as doctors the world over will tell you, helmets don't do as advertised. The concussive force of more than thirty, forty-five calibre bullets all slamming into his head in such rapid succession to cause the beefcake's eyes to roll into the back of his skull. His brain deciding it was time for a mental reset as the man, swaying on his feet for several agonizing moments, simply—toppled like a row of stacked bricks. His handsome and square mug bouncing off the broken road as Mandy tossed her weapons away, drew her sig and pointed it directly in the man's ear canal as roughly and deeply as she could.

“Nighty night!” She chirped, grinning as she pulled the trigger, but—nothing happened… She frowned while lovingly caressing the trigger again, expecting a splat but seeing—not that… Her expression of dismay only deepening as the weapon's magazine suddenly just—slid out from the bottom of her sidearm, clattering on the ground!

“Please! Stop!” Again, Mandy turned, white mask coming face to ceramic with a—tall older woman. She stood, pausing in her approach, hands raised above her head, stern but attractive features twisted into a semblance of a grimace that waltzed upon the edge of consternation. Her attire, much as the others, was made up of a sort of duster, a threat-bare but reasonably clean t-shirt, and cargo pants that were tucked tightly into heavy boots. Two eyes nearly the same colour as Mandy's own, watching her with care and caution… “We give up! We're sorry we attacked you! Please, don't kill him!”

Mandy glanced at her Sig which, now, was starting to rust around the hammer. Her mind whirling as she tried to get a read on whatever was happening here. She felt fine… but her gun now looked like someone had tossed it in a river for a few years… Mandy visibly watching the corrosion spread before she dropped the thing and pulled out a Glock. Plastic, in the end, was apparently a superior building material, even if everyone had always given the stuff a hard time about environmental safety!

Yet, as she aimed it at the large lug, a spring along with the bloody damn slide suddenly exploded from the weapon, and she had just enough time to release it before the gun fucking blew up, the ammunition within all detonating! Mandy needing to pause time just to save her freaking fingers! It helped that she’d developed a sort of instinct for her ability. Her brain oftentimes just activating it as a reflex to defend herself. It only worked if she had a semblance of understanding that something bad was about to happen but, her, it was better than nothing!

She rose, turned to eye the still ‘surrendering’ woman whilst in her private realm, then pulled out a knife and walked over to Missus; ruin all you're guns! She wasn't sure what exactly was happening under the hood with her power, but, obviously, she was aytypical like herself. Assuming, of course, that the woman was the one causing the sudden bizarreness she was dealing with rather than it being someone else nearby. And if there was one thing that she’d learned about atypicals, it was that they could be fucking scary…

She pressed the knife to the woman's neck after kicking out one of her knees, dropping her while bundling a fistful of the older gal’s hair. The next moment, when time resumed, she was kneeling on the ground, cold steel creating a thin crimson line on her skin; Mandy roughly pulling her hair to make sure she understood who was in charge.

“You owe me new guns.” She whispered quietly, fury filling her every thought. The weapons she used were her favourite of those she’d collected. Each of them was lovingly cared for, modded to her professional standards, and not so damned easy to replace! Okay, technically, she could probably find an errant branching version of herself where the weapons were still in pristine condition, but that required a potential shit ton of effort on her behalf! Effort she found as interesting as taking a messy dump!

“Agreed.” The woman whispered, her entire body tensing as she realized how drastically her situation had changed again, in little more than a blink of an eye. Yet, Mandy had to give it to the older woman; she had looks and nerves of steel. And though she was panicking, left hand quivering with uncontrolled jitters, she was handling her shit like the best of them.

“You shot first…”

“Agreed!”

“You're at fault here. For the fence, for the speedster currently feeding the ghouls.”

“A-as you say… I agree to that as well!”

Mandy—considered her prisoner for a few moments, teeth worrying at her lower lip as some small part of her mind told her to just slit the bitches throat and be done with it. But that wasn't how she rolled… hero and all that… So, the young woman released the girl's hair, stepping away without sheathing her knife and watching the odd mutant with expectant eyes.

“Jason!” the woman called out, not yet rising from her place on the ground. “Please come out! Don't do anything rash, and do not, for the love of god, touch your weapon!”

“Really?” A young and slightly disbelieving voice called out, the boy no doubt hiding somewhere nearby.

“Really! I'm not joking around kid! Play times over. We're done.”

Slowly, Mandy saw a head peak out from the side of a car, staring at the scene with a horrified expression. He looked between the woman, yet on her knees, then at the stranger who was standing well within knife-lunging range, his lips thinning to a grim line.

“She’s just going to kill us!”

“If she were going to kill us, she’d of done so.” The woman reasoned, the patience of a saint or a kindergarten teacher on full display. “Please don't shoot him if he runs…” She intoned a moment later, body stiff as a board but words clearly directed at Mandy.

“I make no promises Im not liable to keep. Besides,” she added a moment later, “I don't really know what to do with prisoners so…”

“We’ve surrendered and are no threat to you.”

“Could have fooled me…”

“Then what is it you want? A ransome? My husband is the governor of Highrise! He will pay you to make sure his team comes back alive!” Mandy—eyed the feasting ghouls, still stripping the speedster limb from limb. The other woman seeming to notice the same cracking tear of something important being ripped from ligaments before she sighed deeply… “Mostly all alive…” She corrected softly.

“It's not like I can transport you!” Mandy laughed, shaking her head at the absurdity of it all, but she didn't stop the other woman from slowly rising to her feet, her expression pensive as she looked her way…

“Then call it a reward for saving our lives.”

“Pfft! Okay, that’s bending the truth just a little, isn't it?”

“Does it really matter? We're not animals. I give you my word that you'll be safe if you return with us whereupon you will be rewarded for sparing our lives. I get we got off on the wrong foot. But we've given up. What would be the point in picking a fight all over again when we’d clearly just lose?”

“You can't be that pragmatic about seeing one of your friends getting eaten…”

“I wouldn't apply that label to Ian. But I see you're point… If it helps,” she offered, tone not quite yet reaching the sociopathic, “he wasn't actually one of ours. Just a mercenary we’ve been paying for a few weeks. William, however.” She gestured, pointing at the large and unconscious man who was getting dangerously close to becoming an afternoon entrée for an encroaching wave of ghouls.

Amanda just—sighed… “Don't fuck with my guns again, or the deals off.” She muttered, striding towards the mass of zombies and starting to clear them away, her mind going on auto-pilot…

-----

“Ugh… wha… what happened?”

“You got you're ass kicked,” Isabella stated, pouring another half bottle of water on the big mutant as he spluttered and coughed, rolling over to start hacking away as the tall woman slipped the bottle back in her pack. “We surrendered by the way. No more fighting.”

“For real? But what about—”

“Will.”

“Yeah?”

“Please shut the fuck up and just do as I say. We have bigger concerns like blocking the holes in the fence.”

Mandy watched as Isobella, the evident leader of the gang she’d run afoul of, directed her super-strength companion to haul over a barricade of larger vehicles that would serve as a temporary wall while she killed any Ghouls that got too close. The other woman not even seeming to bother with trying to keep an eye on her as she—did things to the fence.

Mandy wasn't sure exactly what she was seeing, yet the singed wires seemed to almost—curl then weld onto the vehicles, sealing the holes in a rudemetery but effective manner that, quite frankly, looked like voodoo magic to Amanda.

The woman herself was begining to perspire quite profusely as she worked… only halfway through sealing the first opening, and Mandy swore she could watch the flow of her attention as the mesh bonded with steel, the phenomenon flowing in a slow circle, and along the perimeter of the damage until the work was done. Isobella, upon finishing the first patch job, needed to catch her breath for the effort, pulling out yet more water before guzzling the stuff down by the ounces! As though the precious liquid wasn't hard to come by! Well, fresh water, that was. The kind actually drinkable rather than simply looking pretty within a lake or pond, of which, would give an individual horrible stomach malady’s unless boiled.

“Alright, on to the next one!” She heaved, voice clearly strained as William glanced at her with evident concern written across his chiselled features.

“Why don't we just throw a few more cars at this one? Then come back later after you’ve had a rest.”

“And, on that note, what exactly does your power—do?” Mandy butt in, intently curious and uncaring that she might be interrupting.

She got a glare from William, as well as from the kid who was floating over the hoard, baiting them so they kept away from the holes, but Isobella didn't seem to mind the question.

“It's a—difficult thing to try and explain…”

“That’s fine! I don't mind listening to you try you're best at it.”

The other woman smiled at Amanda, her thin lips quirking at the edges with a surprising amount of condescension in her gentle smile. Once more, making her liken the woman to some teacher who was dealing with an impertious student. “I—alter reality to suit my desires—within a very small area and not without limitations.”

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Huh…” Amanda muttered, her tongue clucking before she asked, “So, my guns?”

“I didn't want you to kill William, so my powers made it so you're guns couldn't hurt him.”

“And the fence?”

“I wanted a strong barricade without any significant weaknesses.”

“Well, that’s freaking overpowered!” Amanda exclaimed, her brain spinning with ideas! “So, can you unfuck my guns?”

“Don't you already have them back?” Isobella asked, her eyes glancing at the pristine weapons in their hosters with a perfectly scuptled brow rising with clear interest but no desire to ask as to the how. As it happened, there were actually quite a few Mandys kicking around who evidently hadn't gotten into a fight. She was still pissed, Amanda never liked when people hurt her babies, but the sting was defiantly gone…

“Call it more of a theoretical problem.”

“Probably not… I mean… maybe? My power is far less a perfect tool and more something that just—works… I could probably return it to pristine condition, but then, any customization you've done to them would be gone because that was all aftermarket… O-or, I could try from the angle of desiring it to be as it was before we started fighting, but… that could mean it might turn out as it looked entire years ago… It works much better when I'm vague about what I want…”

“So fixing the hole in the fence works because—what? You're not asking it to weld each individual wire?”

“That's somewhat close, I suppose…”

“Still wildly overpowered.”

“Says the girl who can zero a team of mutants all on her own.” The kid floating over the ghouls accused, sounding somewhat sarcastic.

“Yeah, great, I can kill people! Who can't?” Mandy laughed, trying to imagine what she’d try to do with Issobella’s powers in her shoes. “I could shove one of my guns in the hands of a baby, and it would probably manage to hurt something! You've got a walking miracle on legs over here, and you think making bullets hit things is impressive?”

“You're also fast.” He countered, scowling at her as he did so. “And hard to kill. I saw Will send you flying into the hoard, only for you to appear like nothing happened! And I saw you get ripped apart by the stones! You're either immortal or… I don't know, but…” His words trailed off as Isobella gave him a stern look.

Yet, Amanda merely kept silent. She didn't really care if people knew she was hard to kill, or just popped back up somewhere else when she died. So long as they didn't get too close to the real truth, she’d ignore people accusing her of having this power or that ability so long as their guesses didn't hit home. And, if they did? Well, as the old saying went, a secret transitioned into a story the moment more than one person knew about it… And, so far, nobody who had gotten close to her secrets we’re still alive to share them.

“Ignore him.” The older woman said, moving to the next hole in the fence with prim and proper strides. “Jason is young and inexperienced with life and likewise doesn't understand when his brazen attitude endangers everyone nearby.”

The boy—seemed to flush at that… his dark cheeks filling with deeply rich colour that walked hand and hand with embarrassment. He dipped a fraction in the air, seemed to realize that he was now within grabbing distance, and quickly adjusted his altitude to correct for his lapse.

“The others aren't going to be happy that Ian bit the dust, you know…” William said aloud, as much talking to himself as anyone within earshot. “His whole little crimson rider’s gang, or whatever else they want to call that ridiculous name, are going to want to know what happened to him and who did the deed.”

“Then you can tell them that Subliminal was the one who fed him to a bunch of ghouls!” Amanda twittered, still quite happy with herself over the fate that had befallen the man. “I'm Subliminal, by the way,” she added, waving first at the big mutant, then at the professorly atypical, “And I'm a hero for hire!”

“A—what?” Willian deadpanned, pausing as he was pushing a car along the road to stare at her with an air of complete confusion.

“A hero for hire! I help people who pay me!”

“So a mercenary.” The man grunted, continuing to push and turning away.

“Nope, I’ve got my hero's license! I'm allowed to call myself that, legally.”

“The fuck does the legal system care what people do anymore?”

“Well, since I'm part of the NHA, I still follow the code of conduct provided, which states, when in the absence of immediate authority, be it judicial, governmental or through an individual within the hero's association themselves, then I am supposed to self-regulate. Just because the country’s gone doesn't mean the NHA is, I'm still here after all!”

“And has anyone recently contracted your services?” Isobella asked, watching Amanda with a sidelong glance as Will hauled another vehicle over.

“Yup! I'm heading over to Quonset airport to check out a few helicopters.”

“For who?” William demanded, the sound of the car he was carrying smashing into the ground as he squared up, turning to face Mandy as though ready to roll right into round two!

“For a bigger Brawler than you, Mr. I’ve already lost to a girl half my size. His name’s Big Burt. Not the most friendly guy, but…”

“Big Burt… would that by chance be Burtrom Kole from the eastern settlements?”

“No idea what his last name is,” Mandy admitted with a shrug. “But he’s like—pfft… seven-seven, looks like he can't fit through doors, treats metal like folding paper. Oh! His abs have abs and you can absolutely see them through his shirt!”

“That’s him alright… And you say they hired you to—what? Break into Quonset all on you're own?”

“I don't think they really believe I can do it.” The young woman admitted, though her tone was jovial as it was unconcerned. “But I planned on hitting this airport to see if there were any more guns I could find before heading down there. Probably tomorrow since it's such a long walk, but it's just a bunch of ghouls in there!”

“I see.”

“Probably was causing the settlements all kinds of grief, so the shitheads sent her down there to get herself killed,” William murmured, letting out an exasperated expenditure of air while placing the last vehicle in place. “Would be right up their alley to pull a stunt like that with anyone who didn't belong.”

“Yeah, they were a bit xenophobic about the whole location of their settlement! I even wanted to trade with Brainiac Tech, but they wanted to use pictures as an intermediary for any deals! I mean, I’ve seen a lot of paranoid people, but they were freaking up there!”

“You have brainiac tech to trade with?” Isobella asked, turning from her work on the fence to stare at Mandy with widening eyes.

“Of course! I’ve met a lot of people coming up from Florida, so I’ve picked up a whole bunch of stuff! Insane what some of those people can come up with… And, usually, they’ve got more than a few problems, so they hire me and pay me with what they’ve got!”

“So—you're planning on using some crazy weapon to blow through the hoards at Quonset?” The brawler asked, his head tilting slightly as he spoke.

“Naw, just my regular old forty-fives and nine-mills! But, if I could get my hands on something that holds a bunch more rounds in it, then that’s what's going to be the real workhorse. It's why I'm gonna head into the airport here and see if there isn't anything useful the military left behind.”

“Wait, no! Hold on, you're not going in there after we just plugged the holes!”

“And whose gonna stop me, big man?” Amanda cooed, voice honey-sweet as she waited for his reply, both hands resting on her hips.

“There’s actually a large cache of weapons sitting right next to that second passenger jet to the right,” Isobella commented, face a mask of neutrality. For a moment, it looked like the brawler was about to blow a gasket—until his brain seemed to lurch into gear. His expression shifting to something unreadable as he met the momentary glance of his small group's leader who looked back to Mandy after a second of silence. “It's one of the piles of supplies we haven't yet tried for, mostly because it's sitting right in the middle of the old temporary neighbourhood the old National Guard set up. There’s only a few bundles left, everything else, we've more or less secrued and extracted.”

“And—why haven't you touched those in particular?”

“Too dangerous.” Isabella offered without missing a beat. “It's surrounded, and the nearby shelters are short enough that Ghouls can climb on top and try to grab any flyers we send. The whole area is fenced in so the zombies there don't ever wander away… and, there’s a hulk nearby…”

Mandy felt her expression twitch slightly, her heart starting to beat ever so much quicker in her chest! It had been ages since she’d last come into contact with such a creature, and the last time, she’d had to blow the damned thing up! They were rare specimens of ghoul kind. A happy mistake for the side of Doctor Splice and those that had commiserated with his designs. A mutation of the mutation. A zombie with superpowers… now, for whatever reason, the only documented variation of such to be observed in ghouls was super strength. But that meant they were also super durable and could heal over time. The degree of how powerful such a creature would be also varied rather widely. However, that wasn't at all a good thing as one could typically assume that, were this one weak, somebody would have already put it down. The silver lining was that they usually didn't seem interested in, or more simply, couldn't replicate themselves. But it was a small mercy at best…

“How—big?” She asked calmly, head turning as though her tiny stature might be able to see over the sea of heads in her way to view so said abomination with her own two eyes.

“It's a deviant.”

“For real?” Mandy exclaimed, laughing behind her mask as she did so, “That can happen to Hulks as well?”

“It can. One of our—braver comrades managed to spray paint the creature yellow and red—before it jumped at him and yanked him down into the hoard… Ghouls aren't typically known for their cognitive activity. However, this one, as other deviants so often do, has displayed an animal-like cunning when confronted with nearby humans. It hasn't ever shown interest in leaving the airport, content to simply hibernate as all the others. But when somebody wakes it up… well… It has claimed several good people from our community.”

“Yeah… I’d imagine so… Hulks are nothing to mess around with…” Mandy agreed, even if she wasn't one to follow that advice. “I’ve killed a few of them, and not one was ever easy. Usually, the best thing to do is lead it off a skyscraper!” She explained, noting the several dubious looks around her that she didn't care to put to rest.”

“So, you're still going to go in there?” Isobella asked, just blinking at Mandy like she couldn't understand what she was looking at.

“Mmmhmm! I need something with a little more oomph anyways, so hopefully, there’s a few goodies in there that I can liberate!”

“And would you care if I watched as you perform this—feat… from outside the fence of course… And if you do come back, I’d be very interested in hiring you for a job or two as well mis—Subliminal…”

“So long as it doesn't interfere with what I’ve already got on the go, sure! I’ll hear you out!” Mandy replied, always happy to have a new client. But she’d also gotten the official go-ahead! And wasn't one to waste opportunities presented!

With Jason still flying over the hoard, distracting a good deal of them away from the fence, Amanda decided it was as good a time as any to delve right in. Time slowed to a crawl. The young woman simply walking away from the conversation she’d been having before climbing up onto the tallest portion of the barricade and pulling out her pliers. She was near enough to the top that she could have presumably leapt over and stuck the landing on the other side. Yet, this fence was defended by cruel and very painful barbed wire. Mandy was a lot of things, but masochism wasn't often a desire she chased after outside of—specific circumstances. And now that she knew miracles over there could just fix what she broke, Mandy really didn't see a reason to hold back.

She left her pack at the top of the truck. Knowing it had a lot of useful things in it, but she was rarely without alternatives in life, so she opted to protect what was inside to the best of her abilities. Once she’d crept through the fence, dropped down within the airfield perimeter and had a good look around her, she flickered her power to reset her theoretical selves to a new quantum state that repopulated the world with dozens of nearby alternates that were all locked and loaded, many already aiming down their sights.

While her power didn't seem to push into what she’d name the future, it could sometimes skew the line… For instance, who was to say that a different version of herself wouldn't have dropped in, laughing with excitement, her guns already blasting the nearest ghoul in sight? Chronologically, they should be at the same state of existence. However, one had merely started shooting sooner than the other. Now, if one really wanted a headache, Mandy would try and explain the paradox that was appearing in a body younger than the one she’d swapped to that had somehow been standing near enough to her present self within the murky flow of time that she’d actually managed to regress in age, and in doing so, fucking her own timeline so bad that all nearby Mandy’s were just as young. God’s, that shit even made her head threaten mutiny by migraine…

Yet, while the past seemed somewhat open to her, all assumptions and guesswork of course, the future was never an aspect that her power breached. And no, she didn't have a clue as to how any of it actually worked behind the scenes. Though, maybe one day, she’d pop into a version of herself that had been gifted super-genius level intellect! Wouldn't that be fun!”

The first wave of undead had their noggins popping like party favours at New Year's! Mandy dipping in and out of her liminal timescape simply because leaping into a new version of herself cancelled her time-cancelling ability in a most comical fashion. However, when she was expecting it and had the mind to make a real mess of things, Mandy knew how absurd things would look for that initial micro-beat for outside observers.

For them, Mandy would appear in a series of flashes so quickly that, by the time one even registered that they were seeing dozens or more Subliminals, all at the same time, her work was already finished! All but a single iteration of her dark-clad figure remaining behind as their minds curled in upon themselves to protect it's fragile sanity from eldrich evils that did indeed walk the planes of existence!

For Mandy, well, what happened was a lot less impressive. She didn't move at any greater speed than her usual self. She didn't even try to hurry or scramble! All she did was carry on at her typical pace, spending a near two hours in her personal world while she butchered ghouls by the hundreds. It only took a fractional second her her to engage her power, and she only ever traded bodies when she was out of ammo, bored of stabbing heads, throwing what few grenades she still had, or simply walking around to do some light scouting. It was sometimes tough to move through the throng of bodies, but that’s where being small could come in handy. And though her power seemed to have a sort of—honour system when it came to how inanimate objects reacted with her sub-space, living matter, of which ghouls did count, were never activated to join her, even by touch. She could push and shove and move whatever she desired to, and by the time she’d cleared out everything nearby that hadn't slipped her notice, there were several snaking paths between her new associates and the fenced-off camp.

As it happened, there were just as many ghouls over there as there had been here. And after a near two straight hours of pushing herself, Mandy admitted she might just need a break… If she weren't doing anything but walking, then Amanda had remained in her special realm for entire days at a time when leaping between bodies because fuck you, even her powers limitations could and often were reset in doing so. But when she was constantly exerting herself both physically and mentally and abusing her alternate selves? Well, that could tucker her out quite effectively…

So, Mandy climbed back up the chainlink fence. Her light weight and very athletic musculature allowing her to scale the thing like a spider monkey. Mandy crawling through the small hole she’d made before rummaging through her pack for a bottle of water and some jerky. As an aside, she also made sure to cover her ears the best she could with both hands before allowing time to resume at a normal pace, the young woman wincing at the deafening decibel of noise that erupted behind her that could make a pre-collapse shooting range sound like a domestic argument between two introverts.

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Issobella felt a sudden—gush of hot air… the momentary sound of a full-scale war erupting in her ears for but a single moment before it was gone! Almost like someone was watching an old movie, hit play, then immediately paused it a heartbeat later as they realized their headphones weren't plugged in! The sheer sensory backlash of so many amalgamating sounds, bright lights and searing smells of gunpowder causing her to jerk away with violent terror!

Her heart quickened to a frantic pace, adrenaline injecting into her bloodstream as her eyes shot wide with shock and confusion! The momentary spark of illumination from the airfield culminated in sweeping clouds of fine smoke that were quickly picked up and swept away on the modest breeze, the plumes dwarfed by the lingering haze of blanketing red mist that seemed to settle on the world as bodies plummeted to the ground!

Dozens, hundreds! Too many for her to immediately count, all suddenly dropping to the tarmac without an utterance of sound beyond their collapse! Just their collective thud seeming to ring out through the air with ominous stillness, a thickening disquiet filling the space between like an expanding gas, leaving Isobella not just at a lack of words, but truly stunned beyond reasonable expectation… Her mind struggling to understand how such a thing could even be possible… trying to reconcile the last image she’d recalled of the army of undead that had been groaning and scraping against the fence and—this…

From above, Jason lost his concentration, his flight wavering as panic set in, and he screamed, voice shrill, arms flailing as he fell! Isobella reached out with her power almost on reflex and managed to steady the young man as he, with her aid, inexplicably appeared to steady himself at the last moment! His breaths were ragged, face pale; his arms stretched out as if to arrest his fall before he snapped back into focus, gasping like a fish!

“Oh god!” He whimpered, nearly at the verge of tears! His entire body coated in a liberal sheen of dripping gore! He screamed again, this time lurching through the air fast as he was able! Firing himself as though from a cannon before landing hard on the other side of the fence, starting to strip himself as quickly as he was able! “It's in my mouth!” He cried out, vomiting as the thought seemed to arrive in his own head, doubling over as the contents of his stomach abandoned all hope and jumped ship!

Isobella made to approach the youth but William was already there, helping the boy remove his jacket and pants, wiping him down with whatever clean surface he could find, all the while, someone else sat atop a, only minutes before, reinforced barricade and, behind them? A fresh incision in the fencing… Isobella just stared at the creature wearing that chilling white mask… Its surface chipped and worn, burn marks fraying one of its edges… the exterior featureless of any human detail beyond two dark mesh eyes that were impossible to see through…

The figure wearing the haunting disguise had lifted the region around her mouth and was currently taking a sip from a refillable bottle. Clearly watching the proceedings between Jason and Will while also snacking on what looked like a package of old-world jerky, teriyaki flavoured… Isobella still remembered the company that made it… Hell, she’d eaten that exact same jerky herself! Overpriced and overstocked at almost every convenience store she’d ever visited…

Subliminal—as the bizarre woman had named herself, didn't look a touch worse for wear than she’d already been. Leggings ripped and torn around the knees and shins, boots dusty and bleached; her small bullet-proof vest tightened around a spandex long sleeve of similar disrepair to her tights. There wasn't a spec of fresh blood on her… Not a scrape or wound or injury that she could visibly see. And yet, the girl's posture was—weary… As though she’d just spent ten hours sitting in a cubicle without getting up… Not sweaty, not breathing hard, just fatigued and out of energy… She couldn't help it… Isobella tore her gaze away and looked back at the legion of unmoving ghouls that littered the airport, so thick you’d never be able to move through it without stepping on the bodies… Her legs buckling beneath her weight until she gave up on trying to stand… letting herself collapse onto her rear as the thing hiding behind the mask turned to regard her with momentary interest….