Parking lot B, Clayton State University, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 21:00.
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"Sara Atkinson?"
Every ghost called her by name at their first meeting. That this ghost knew her fake ID's surname was troublesome but not impossible. Sitting on the table, enjoying her slightly charred slice of beef, she refused to take her eyes off her plate. Sara couldn't believe the timing. Why had another ghost came to ambush her now of all the blessed minutes God put in a day? Couldn't the Universe wait for her to finish her meal?
"Sara, it's me, Mary!" The ghost called again from behind her. "I'm so glad you survived too!"
The girl lifted her head from her plate and looked behind her with a scowl on her face. Yes, definitely a ghost. Sunken cheeks, trembling bony hands, dark rings around her eyes, frayed hair, yellowed teeth. The two blobs of fat dangling from her chest were still as bloated as she remembered. Yup, definitely Mary's ghost.
After Christine Appleby, she always wondered, dreaded if she would meet another classmate's spectral remains. Here she was, back from the dead to bully her a bit more. Sara looked around. Nobody was paying them any mind. Her body slowly turned around to match her head as she stood up.
"Let's make this quick," she hissed, annoyed. Approaching Mary's ear, she growled menacingly, "What's your last wish? So you can earn your eternal rest?"
"Eek!" Mary's ghost seemed surprised as she jumped away with a screeching yelp. She widened her yellowed eyes and glanced down at Sara's belt, between knife and pistol. "Sara? What is this? I... I'm sorry!" The ghost screamed. "It was just a joke. A harmless joke! Please don't hurt me! It was Pamela's idea!"
She heard the nearby conversations dying and sensed several eyes on her. Sara realized something was terribly wrong, and it might be her assumptions, "Wait, aren't you dead?"
"Not yet! I mean, no! I'm very much alive!" A very much alive™ Mary flinched and begged. "Please, have mercy! Please don't kill me!"
One could hear the rust cracking and flaking as the gears inside Sara's head ground and struggled to turn. Sara glanced to the side and behind her. Yup, survivors were watching them. Back to Mary. She was so afraid she leaked a little pee on her pants. Sara's senses got enough of a boost along with the rest of her body she could smell the urine.
"Stand still, I won't hurt you," Sara said and approached. Mary couldn't even make eye contact. The other girl trembled and cowered. Sara hugged her and shushed. "I forgive you." Then she swallowed her irritation because she was almost a head shorter than Mary. Should she look straight ahead, she would see Mary's chin.
Mary sobbed. "Really?" Then she broke into a fit of hiccups.
Sara waited patiently until Mary grew tired of her cathartic outburst. It also helped her shove her irritation to the back burner.
"Are you really Sara Atkinson? When did you become black?" The big-breasted gossip slammed her jaw shut when she realized how bad her joke was.
Irritation came back with a vengeance. "Strike one. That's fucking racist. And for the love of God, don't use that surname. It's fake and I hate it. I could ask the same. Are you Mary Hernandez? You lost a couple dozen pounds everywhere but where you needed it the most."
Sara's eyes drifted to Mary's exuberant bosom. Mary covered them with her arms and pouted. "Oh, it's you alright! Only you could be so rude! Or so flat," Mary counterattacked by staring back at Sara's torso.
"At least I'm not a mutant!" Sara barked back.
"What?" Mary wasn't expecting the curveball.
"Dude, Professor Xavier sent a message. He said you won't be admitted to his school because big boobs are not a mutant power they are interested in since Jim Lee started to draw the comics."
"What?" Mary's confusion deepened. The nuanced commentary was lost on her.
Sara poked Mary's chest. She spoke slowly like she was teaching a toddler. "Big boobs are a mutation. You are a mutant. I'm normal."
Mary shied away, squeezing her chest with her forearms. "I am not a mutant!"
"Yeah. It's the same for every primate species but humans. Females don't have bosoms unless they are pregnant or lactating. Only human females mutated to have bloated teats to gain a reproductive advantage and spread their mutation. I don't have the mutation, so I'm normal."
"You're being sexist!" Mary protested, trying to pay back Sara's previous claims of prejudice.
"Mutie dude, that's like, uh, biology. And the scientific truth."
"You don't make sense. I'm not mute!"
"Know what?" Sara huffed in dismay. "Let's start over." She inhaled deeply, then recomposed herself. "Despite all the bickering and bullying, I'm happy you are alive, Mary."
The girl's social Skills helped her convey her honest feelings. And those might be the exact words Mary was hoping to hear.
Sara felt Mary's over-nurturing chest pressed against hers as she was caught in a hug. Mary was now weeping profusely, shaking, and rubbing her cheek on Sara's shoulder. The nearby survivors, starved for entertainment, were content watching them.
"Thank you!" Mary squeezed harder. It seemed that she was desperate for human contact.
The girl felt a bit of guilt.
"Yeah. So long you remain alive. Are you sure you're alive?" Sara asked just to be sure.
A no small part of her felt sorry for the other girl. It must've sucked to see all her family dead. Against her belligerent nature, Sara decided that she had helped fewer deserving ghosts without a second thought. Why not lend Mary in front of her a hand? A shoulder? Hugs, even. It's not like she was being hurt by a hug. Forgive her and turn on a new page, in this new shittier world? She decided to do exactly that.
Their interactions at school felt small and childish. Kelly was right, she had grown a lot this past month. The magical Skills helped but didn't explain everything.
Sara rubbed the back of Mary's head, noticing the spots without hair. Whatever happened to Mary, it did a number on her body.
"How are you holding up, Mary?" She asked without letting go.
Mary's reaction told Sara that she'd reached a similar conclusion. She nodded and sniffled. "Barely. It was horrible, Sara. I thought I would never see anyone I knew. I thought all of my friends were dead, but you're here! I'm not alone!" Mary made dying squirrel a noise that was half hiccup and half squeal.
"Did you just call me your friend?" Sara teased with an accusatory tone.
"Maybe?" Mary let out a nervous titter. "Hopefully?"
The other girl's smile was odd, strange, maybe deranged but that was stretching it too much. Like every other survivor, the ordeal broke something or many things in Mary's head. The other girl seemed to be emotionally unstable, in desperate need of validation and something to anchor herself against, to be the foundations of her new life. Her eyes were unfocused and her voice quaked and shifted notes up and down like a teenager who's leaving their childish voice behind.
Sara stammered at how fast Mary shifted gears. She dubbed Mary a social remora for a good reason. Mary had to appear harmless to the sharks she latched on. She couldn't believe how brazen and conniving Mary could be. She still remembered how she was manipulated into giving up her RPG debut. Speaking of which...
They were still hugging when Sara decided to air the dirty laundry.
"Why did you lie to me about Pamela's party?" She asked straight out. No curve balls. No training wheels. Sara was sick of all the world's duplicity, both old and new.
Mary didn't answer at first. She trembled and started to cry. Bawling, actually. She finally articulated something a minute later, "It was a stupid prank! I'm so sorry, Sara!"
"Tell me all about it," Sara tried to ask with a neutral tone but she all but demanded in a rather icy growl.
Mary's sobs intensified. "It was all Pamela's idea!" She shifted the blame with practiced ease. "She didn't want you tagging along with those geeks! She said something about you guys unionizing and taking over the school!"
Classic Pamela. She was a mastermind of abusing buzzwords to inflame people and manipulate minions, never getting a single smudge of dirt on her hands. Sara thought Pamela would have a splendid career on politics. If she hadn't burned during Armageddon. The thought filled the girl with schadenfreude and made her change her mind. She felt so disgusted she struggled to get out of the bear hug. To her, Mary's very presence caused everything to rot. Or maybe Pamela since Mary didn't seem able to form her own opinion. Her squirming triggered something in Mary.
"Where are you going? Please, don't leave me!" A desperate Mary tried to cling to Sara. "Everyone left me! They all died! My mom, my dad, my brothers! They all died right in front of me! I ran to my room and stayed there for days. They trapped me in there."
Sara felt her stomach churn with guilt. Surely the other girl must've gone through hell, she lost weight, Sara could see patches of empty scalp on her head. her formerly well-manicured fingernails were chewed almost to the naked flesh underneath. Sara couldn't recall an occasion she saw Mary without spotless makeup but now her skin was bare, every tiny imperfection exposed for the world to see. She hadn't even lipstick on. Yet Sara felt sick. She owed Mary nothing, and everyone in this campus had lost loved ones.
Except for Sara, because nobody she loved was alive the day the world ended or a decade earlier for that matter. She was indeed a craven bitch.
Standing a pace away from each other, Sara studied the other girl.
One more thing Mary said bugged Sara. The people who died abandoned HER? While Mary's desperation was real, the way she wove everything around herself was disgusting. How self-centered one needed to be to really believe that? Sara wasn't fooled for one second. The old conniving bitch was still there, only malnourished and grieving. She thought to ask Abby but what would the Celestial System Core know about human psychology? No, Abby was useless in this situation. She needed Kelly. But Kelly was sucked by a black hole called Amanda the Bridening, far past the event horizon.
Mary was a basket case; Sara was sure the other girl needed therapy badly. All Sara could see and hear after her initial bout of anger simmered down to a slow cooking was a kitten mewling for attention. Sara grasped Mary's hand and led her away from the bonfire.
Yes. She had helped pedophiles, hook-handed ladies with grudges against public transportation, perverted nerds, a lot of crazy dead people. Mary deserved more for the simple fact that she was alive and they knew each other. It was basic human decency. She was aware that her Social Skills made her understand and empathize with Mary but that wasn't too bad.
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The girl looked inward and was appalled by that budding sense of responsibility. When did she start giving fucks to people? Was it because of the ghosts? Of the dead people? Was it Kelly's fault? Kelly could surely help unravel the puzzle called Mary. She searched the bubbly musician in the crowd of women fawning over Amanda's bling and the two made eye contact. Kelly shrugged apologetically and Sara returned a nod.
Sara decided her odd behavior was definitely Kelly's fault. Dammit, Kelly!
"Come with me, Mary," she said. "Let's go somewhere quiet to talk."
*
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Mr. Brown's Classroom-Apartment, Clayton State University, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 21:20.
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It was the only place Sara knew was available, relatively secluded, and with few amenities. Almost everyone was living in the dorms now. She flicked the lights on and checked the room.
The place was abandoned. It seemed none of the survivors had attempted to either claim or clean the room, which showed some water stains from the downpour a few days ago because Sara left some windows open. Oops. And the cardboard walls were all down on the floor.
"Why are you taking me here? Whose room is this?" Mary asked as she stared at the mattress.
"Oh, don't you know? This is my den of iniquity," Sara teased.
"Eww. Did you... on that mattress?"
"Sleep? Yeah, a couple of nights," Sara deadpanned. Mary winced. Sara advanced on the other girl, "Wait, what were you thinking? Oh."
"I hope the misunderstanding is because you don't know the meaning of 'iniquity'."
"Isn't it 'naughty stuff'," Sara replied with a shrug. "I did a lot of these on that mattress."
She classified engorging herself with ridiculous amounts of chocolate candy as naughty.
"Did you at least clean up?"
"Nope," Sara quipped. "Come, let's sit there," she pulled Mary toward the mattress. To her surprise, the other girl didn't resist.
Funny how Sara felt like she was at least five years older than Mary. The last few weeks made her shed most of her childish self, becoming a rugged survivor. It wasn't all her, she was well aware of that. Abby and the Skills she gained helped a lot in keeping her mental stability. She remembered the moments she felt oddly calm when everything told her she should be freaking out. Under that prism, she looked at Mary and saw a version of herself where she didn't meet Verachiel.
It clicked. Sara found her connection to Mary. She found one reason why she should help Mary. Empathy and compassion. Maybe two reasons, who cared? Whatever happened between them before the world ended should stay in that world. Mary deserved help just because she was alive.
She climbed on the mattress, slipping out of her sneakers by using the heels to pull them off. Mary removed her designer boots and sat next to her, fidgeting.
"I have a proposal, Mary," Sara broke the silence.
Mary's eyes widened but she declined to comment. She surreptitiously rubbed her ring finger, though.
Though one might consider them best buddies from high school now, it was so just because of a process of elimination. Every other student in their school was probably dead.
Sara patted her bag, "Do you want a change of clothes? I have gym shorts and a tee here with me."
"We should've gone to my place," Mary protested.
Sara lowered her head, smirked, and narrowed her eyes. "Oh, so you don't mind the naughtiness of the room."
Mary's cheeks burned as she pulled the duvet to cover her lap. "I'm fine, thank you. I got a room at the dorms; my clothes are there. I'll get changed later." She rubbed her hand on the fabric, "Is this chocolate?"
"Yeah. Some slob with a huge, sweet tooth slept here," Sara raised an eyebrow. "I did it, if you—"
"I got it," The corners of Mary's mouth cracked slightly into a grin. "You are such a slovenly kid! Is this the naughty stuff you were doing here? Man, this duvet is filthy. We should burn this bedding tomorrow."
"That's a great idea," Sara chuckled. "And never talk about it again."
"That would be lovely," Mary agreed, finally able to form a smile.
Sara mimicked locking her mouth and throwing away the key.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" The other girl broke the silence.
"Look, Mary. Let's leave the old world where it belongs and turn on a new page. I don't know if we can be friends, I'm not against it and so much happened in this month that your pranks with Pamela now sound small and childish. Nothing more than just pranks." Sara closed her eyes and let her body fall back on the mattress. She stared at the ceiling. "I don't resent or hate you, Mary. I'm willing to spend some time getting to know you, and who knows? Maybe we can be friends. I'm glad to have someone my age to talk to, at least."
Mary nodded. She leaned forward on the mattress, then asked, "How can you be so calm? Sound so... grown up? And what happened to your skin, it is so dark! Did you spend the whole month sunbathing?"
"I just tan easily, okay?" Sara protested on the defensive. "I've been working under the sun for weeks now. And you were half-right. I'm... multi-ethnic, with a good amount of black in the mix. I never flaunted nor denied it."
Apparently, Mary wasn't willing to force the subject any further. Instead, she became indignant.
"How can you be so nonchalant with..." Mary waved her arms around, "all this happening? People said there are zombies on the freeways!"
Despite her defensive outburst, Sara felt a pang of guilt. 'Because I have superpowers', she wanted to answer with. Instead, she shook her head and spun a lie with just a large kernel of truth. "The end of the world didn't affect me as much as it did you or most other people. Not only I'm a bitch, I'm also an orphan."
"You're an orphan? But I met your parents..."
"Foster parents. I was in Witness Protection, the mafia wanted to kill me. We had to pretend we were related by blood; they earned a big paycheck from the Marshals. I had nobody to lose and I was a edgelord bitch. Was. Because I changed," Sara admitted with a shake of her head. "Apparently I now have fucks to give. Here, have one."
"Is it a naughty fuck?" Mary joked then giggled. There it was, the other unhinged girl switching moods as quick as air changes directions in one's lungs.
Sara stared askew. "I'm afraid you'd smother me with those fat jugs of yours. I pass."
"I can let you go on top," Mary purred.
"Back off, 'mutie'. I'm calling the Sentinels."
"Pfft. Geek!" Mary nodded, laughed, sniffled, then broke down in tears again. It could be that she felt aggravated by what Sara said but the girl had no way to tell.
Sara pulled her into a hug. "Mary, I'm going to help you. But you must understand that I'll say harsh words... truths to you. You need a friend? I'll be that friend. We were just classmates before but if we make an effort, we can get to know and even like each other." Mary leaned on Sara's shoulder and sniffled.
She suspected Mary had went through quite the ordeal if she only showed up in the survivor camp now. Didn't she mention something about locking herself up in her room for days? The way she dried up was unnatural. She looked sallow, gaunt, and her skin felt dry.
They spent a while too long lying down on the mattress, basically hugging each other. Until Mary calmed down and screwed up.
"Sara, are you gay?" Mary asked out of the blue. She sounded... disappointed?
"Uh?" The girl stammered. "That again?"
"You bring me to an empty dimly-lit room, pull me down on a mattress, and start to feel my skin, I can't help but wonder..."
Sara pushed Mary away, who yelped then started to chuckle.
"Dammit, woman!" Sara protested. "Give me my fucks back."
"Oh, so you want a fuck," the big-boobed bimbo teased.
"Not from you," Sara pouted. "Or anyone else, dammit. I'm out of here."
She tried to stand up but that triggered Mary's traumas. The other girl grabbed her arm. "Please don't leave me!" She begged.
Sara's resistance weaned. "Calm down, Mary. I just need some space."
Mary let go and whined. "Sorry."
Sara grabbed her sneakers, "I think the mattress was a bad idea. We should just take a walk around campus."
"Okay," Mary smirked as she stood up and put her boots back on. "Are you sure you're really the same Sara? Because I'm waiting for you to tell me to go fuck myself."
"No. I'm not. I might be an alien or from an alternate reality," Sara replied. "And fuck you."
Mary grinned, "That's the Sara I know. Uh, that uncaring brashness."
"Hits the spot, eh?" Sara jested, afraid that Mary might be onto that. "I knew you were a masochist."
"Am not!" Mary protested. "But this," she pointed at Sara, "gives me a sense of normalcy. You weren't this outspoken before. It seemed you were happy to slink along the sidelines. It was fun to tease and try to trap you because you were that slippery."
Sara narrowed her eyes. What was Mary's point? Was she bragging about her bullying? But again, she lost everyone she knew. All of their family members. Everyone but Kelly did. Maybe she should cut Mary some slack and... damn. She really had fucks to give. Plenty, apparently.
They left the classroom building and Sara vowed never to return to that classroom unless it was to commit arson.
"No pranks going forward," Sara demanded. "No practical jokes, no lies. Also, no hate speech. You've already been racist and homophobic in the same night."
"Uh," Mary hummed as she gave it some thought. "I can do that."
Half the streetlights were on and they could barely see where they were going. Sara used her flashlight and headed for the dorms. They walked in silence for a few minutes.
"How are you feeling?" Sara asked.
"Better but still like shit," Mary blushed and nervously giggled. "You gave me quite the scare out there. I thought you were going to kill me. Shoot or stab me, who needs that many weapons?" Mary's eyes went to the gun holster strapped to Sara's belt. "That gun, did you shoot someone? Did you kill someone?"
"No and no," she said, telling herself that the undead didn't count. "I only fired it like, four times. On inanimate objects only. Can we forget about the gun?"
"Okay, so are we going to talk about the knife now?" Mary tried to giggle but it turned into a grimace and a shrug. "When did you become some tough-as-nails action movie hero? I heard people talking stuff about you but I didn't know the Sara they told stories about was my Sara. I mean, not all of them anyway. The part where you became the local drug kingpin? Totally you."
Her Sara, Sara remarked. She wanted to ask what they were saying but she feared it was bait. With Mary, it could go either way. Sara decided to err on the side of caution as she shook her head. Later on, tomorrow, she'd ask Kelly.
Sara covered her eyes with her hand. "Ugh, damn Keynes and his huge mouth. Did you meet Keynes?"
"Former, cop, wheelchair, severed leg? I did. He actually asked if I knew you since we went to the same school."
"He is a pain most of the time. Good intentions, terrible execution," Sara stated.
"He seemed to be in a lot of pain too," Mary said.
"I heard his leg wound isn't healing right."
*
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Laker Village, Clayton State University, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 22:00.
> MDW: The apartments' floorplan: https://www.clayton.edu/housing/laker-village/index / Official Promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltQHK-QBosc
>
> MDW: This should not be considered an endorsement.
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Mary was clearly upset by that but not out of sympathy for the detective. Maybe something about her traumas but Sara didn't ask. They crossed the deserted road and walked through the dorm complex in silence.
"My apartment is on the second floor," Mary pointed.
The apartment shared the same blueprint with Kelly's. Two bedrooms on either side, a small living room and a tiny kitchen in the middle. At least each bedroom had its own bathroom. They made themselves comfortable on the couch.
"Did you meet someone else from school?" Mary asked. Sara flinched. "You did! Who?"
The cat was out of the bag. "Christine Appleby," Sara shared. "You won't believe who she was dating."
Mary gasped and fanned herself with her hand. "Shut up! Sit down, woman! I need ALL details!"
That interjection always puzzled Sara. Was she supposed to shut up or talk? Like she had a choice. So she told Mary what Christine said to her.
"Where is she now? I didn't see her at the campus!"
Mary was so excited, Sara felt sorry for popping her bubble. She had no idea how the other girl would react to it so she decided to rip the band-aid.
"Before that. Let me show you one thing. Let me get some water."
She brought a soup plate and a glass of water. She poured the water on the plate, then placed it on the coffee table. Sara put her hand on the water, then started cycling mana. It was a good exercise for her concentration and control as well as proof of her magic. A minute later, frost started to form around her hand. She pushed harder, focusing on sending the orange away and pulling the blue in. The color metaphor worked very well for her.
"What are you doing? How?"
Sara felt the cold rise on her arm. Despite that, her skin never felt numb. A thin layer of ice formed on the water's surface around her hand, spreading to cover the plate. She felt some of the mana seeping out of her hand and freezing the bottom as well. When it started to hurt, she removed her hand. It was purplish. Mary grabbed it.
"You have frostbite!" The other girl gasped. "What did you do? Where's the hidden device?" Mary examined Sara's hand.
Cycling heat mana was harder and she would struggle with efficiency issues forever, it seemed. Over the next five minutes, Sara warmed her hand and arm while Mary bombarded her with questions. The ice on the plate had a hand-shaped hole.
"It's magic, Mary. I can use ice magic," Sara explained. I'm also able to talk to the dead."
"The zombies? Can they talk?"
Fortunately for Sara's claims, the freeway undead infestation was common knowledge by now.
"Ghouls. They're not zombies, you cannot shoot their heads out and they do not infect when they bite. They don't eat flesh or brains either. But no. I can talk to ghosts. I met Christine when I broke into her house. She was with her family on the interstate when they all died."
"Since when are you a medium? Was that why you were a loner freak at school? Is there any of 'them' in here with us?"
"I gained this power after the world ended. And no, ghosts are scarce. I already checked the dorms days ago, it's not haunted.
Mary grabbed her hand. Apparently, the teenager believed Sara hook, line, and sinker. All Sara had to do now was make the other girl write a check.
"Can you talk to my family? My parents? My granny?" Mary begged, eyes sparkling with hope.
"We can go to your place tomorrow, and check if any of them lingered there. It's our best bet. But not everyone who died became a ghost. Only those with unfinished business."
"Please! Can we go now?" Mary used puppy eyes. It was very effective.
Though it backfired. Sara was moved but suddenly remembered how manipulative this person could be. "Tomorrow morning. It's dark now and we have a new moon."