Basement, Electrical (O impostor of the vent, what is thy wisdom), "Sky Pencil", Panthersville, DeKalb County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 16:30.
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Sara didn't have to carry Kelly down the stairs. Following Eric's ghost, he had her retrieve a key card from his office, then turn on a private elevator on emergency backup power. They rode it down to one of the five basement floors.
It was similar to a cramped supermarket with aisles of large metal boxes the height of a fridge and half a foot deep stacked side-by-side. She smelled that faint aroma of new electronics, plastic, and the air had a bit of ozone in it. After the initial surprise, she thought the place looked cool, sleek, and straight out of some sci-fi movie. She imagined herself dodging some villains while running in these aisles, trying to shake them off.
"These are all battery packs," Eric explained. "When fully charged, they can power the whole building's normal operations for up two days. Unfortunately, the solar panels cannot keep up with that level of consumption but you won't have to worry about it. I doubt we'll be fully booked anytime in the foreseeable future."
"No, we won't," Sara muttered under her breath.
At the end of the maze, they found the grid switch next to a working computer. On its screen was a top render of the basement, monitoring the battery levels on each of the boxes as well as power output from the solar panel array and the grid. The flow was represented as green chevrons moving along the wires. Right now, they were flowing from the solar panels to outside the building.
Eric clicked his tongue, "The main circuit breaker cut power to the building. All the power from the solar cells is going into the grid and the batteries are close to dead. We need to disengage the grid connection, reset the circuit breakers, and let them charge."
He showed her a panel with several plastic switches the size of her thumb on the panel next to the computer. Sara never messed with electrical stuff outside of Among Us and she was expecting one of those large cartoonish knife switches but it would be out of placed in such a modern building.
"Now, the red switch connects to the grid, blue sends power from the batteries to the general circuits of the building. We want to disengage both. We could do that using the computer to disengage system by system, but it is safer to use the switches."
She had to push each lever really hard to disengage all of them. The computer beeped and painted the outer connection red. The chevrons switched routes and now split along the lines to enter the batteries.
Eric's ghost examined the computer. "Keep it as it is for now. The solar panels on the exterior and roof are all working as intended. The batteries will charge to full in a couple of days. Unfortunately, it's Winter so there's not much sun to be had, but you won't have many tenants anyway. After you turn the blue switch on, if you click on the tab here, you can route power to each apartment individually." Eric explained.
"Can we leave the air circulation on?" She asked. Venting the building would help with the stench.
She wasn't looking forward to cleaning up that many dead bodies. If she could at least vent the stench, it would be a great help.
"Yeah, we can leave the HVAC on. Here."
He gave her a few more instructions including how to operate the HVAC and keep the restaurant's cold rooms powered, which Sara wrote down on a text file in the same computer. She then went through the steps to maximize airflow and cycle it out in all places and heard the whooshing sound from the vents. It would chill the building but also make the smell bearable.
Sara left the building HVAC, private elevator, penthouse, restaurant, and the streamer's apartment powered. That would keep the bodies ventilated, the food from spoiling, and grant access to the penthouse through the master keycard.
"Ask Eric if he has an alternator," Kelly suddenly remembered something.
"Of course, the battery system has one. Otherwise, the whole building would run on direct current," the architect's ghost replied like that was common knowledge, although Kelly couldn't hear Eric.
"He said we do," Sara relayed. "Why ask for it?"
"It's what people need to fix the Hickory Ridge power plant."
Kelly's intentions became clear to the girl as the color vanished from Sara's cheeks.
She wanted to deprive the hotel of the part, leaving the building dead and in the dark, so the other people would have all the electricity they could use. While a small part of her understood that it was for the greater good, Sara still felt betrayed on a fundamental level. The building was hers, it was her alternator, she bathed in zombie brains for it, and she wasn't giving it up. Sara had to learn to be selfish in order to survive, now it was second nature. Everyone always wanted to take something from her.
It must've showed on her face because Kelly withdrew a step and became apologetic. "No, we are not taking the one here. And Hickory Ridge needs about four large-scale alternators, I'm sure the one here is too small for that," the musician tried to amend the situation.
"The alternators I installed here are all top-notch," Eric revealed, sounding offended. "It's nothing like the cheap lowest-bidder crap they installed on that plant. No wonder it blew up at the first overload," he scoffed. "But we don't have spares."
"Wait, you know Hickory Ridge?" Sara asked the ghost.
"Why, of course I do. I worked pro bono, helped them design the power plant. Learned a valuable lesson to apply on my own building."
Sara shook her head. "Kelly, we shouldn't cannibalize the hotel."
"I know. I just got excited and didn't think this through before speaking up. Sorry!" She apologized.
The girl knew Kelly's heart was in the right place and she was the one who was being selfish. Yet it was a point she wouldn't concede.
"We'll search for an alternator, okay? I'm sure we can find one somewhere around the shipping warehouses," Sara compromised.
Because of their proximity to the busiest airport in the world, their region was blessed with dozens upon dozens of shipping companies. Sara thought they could build a castle entirely out of shipping containers, walls and tall towers included. Every survivor could own five semi-trucks and they would have spares for their grandchildren.
"People are searching for that for days now. They went through a lot of the shipping companies." Kelly lamented.
"They don't have magic. Much." Sara bragged.
"It's fine. Can we forget I gave that unfortunate idea? I don't want to put a dent in our friendship," Kelly compromised.
Friendship. Something as rare in Sara's life as money earned through hard work and neither welfare nor larceny. In her defense, she was still underage.
"I'm also sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like that," Sara also compromised.
"No. I felt like stealing the batteries straight out of your Christmas gift. Or birthday gift," Kelly deftly winked and poked her tongue out to add some levity to the situation.
"Are you guys done?" Eric's ghost acridly complained.
"We'll talk about that later, 'friend'," Sara drew out the last word. "I'm at work right now." The girl spared a nudge Eric's way.
Kelly looked at the empty spot and nodded, "Right. Sorry. Again." She then clamped both hands over her mouth.
"Let's finish it, Eric. Sorry about the delay," Sara said.
After she finished with the electrical management computer and made sure the HVAC had enough juice to run, Eric was eager to complete the next step. They rode the elevator all the way the way back to the penthouse and find his laptop. This time, they took the elevator. In the penthouse bedroom, he pointed at one of the desk drawers.
"These are the keycards to the building and the codes to access the vault," The architect pointed at a bunch of blank magnetic keycards from a drawer. "The security readers are hidden inside the walls; you need to pass the master card near the right side of any door and not the lock. With this you can disable the elevator, lock the front door, and access any apartment or facility, including the penthouse. If you need to change the behavior of the cards, you can do that on the master computer here in the basement."
"Got it!" Sara said, taking the card ring with herself. "What now?"
"I'll guide you to signing the electronic deed to the building with my digital certificate. The notary office is probably closed since almost everyone is dead, but It will be enough proof that you own this place."
Enough to send the ghost on his way to the afterlife or wherever else, Sara sighed.
The two women and the ghost rode the private elevator back to the penthouse. There, they used Eric's laptop to edit his will and transfer the building's title to her name.
Eric told her the passcodes to use his certificate. They just had to edit the digital deed, then sign and encrypt it with the certificate. The electronic document was probably worthless as far as the defunct government was concerned, but to the ghost it meant severance of his last attachment to this mortal world.
As a green checkmark box appeared on the screen, Eric started to fade. "Take good care of my baby, Sara. And thank you."
> > Assignment Complete.
>
> > You gained 1 point of Core Strength.
>
> > You gained 2 points in Brawn.
>
> > You gained 2 points in Thermostasis.
>
> > You gained 2 points in Skill Boost.
>
> You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Sara already knew how she would enforce ownership of her building. She would use the System to stop any would-be criminals dead in their tracks.
"Congratulations, landlady. Can we negotiate rent now?" Kelly joked.
"One thousand, four hundred and forty hugs a month," Sara sneered back.
"Oh," Kelly smirked. "Someone is emotionally drained."
Sara huffed a long sigh. "Yeah, these ghosts are tiresome. Especially the vain ones. They are a pain in the ass to deal with."
The musician nodded. "I bet they are. I got anxious just looking at you making faces and trying to be nice to them."
"Who would have guessed? Me, being nice."
"You're quite nice when you want to," Kelly rebutted.
"Fair. Say, do you want to talk about that?" She was referring to the staircase incident.
*
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Rooftop, "Sky Pencil", Panthersville, DeKalb County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 17:30.
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Far from Eric's rotting corpse and without their gas masks, they were back on the roof, walking carefully on the solar panels despite Eric's claim about their tenacity. Sara admired the view of her new penthouse, while Kelly squinted at the horizon.
They were more than thirty stories above ground level. From there, she could see more than fifteen miles in each direction, because the area around the lake was lower than the surrounding countryside. She scanned the farms and isolated houses on the far shore of the lake. She intended to go there, to see if she could secure some livestock and maybe some crops or seeds of some sort.
Sara started to draft a plan regarding the area around the lake, then put it on hold when Kelly approached.
"It is going to get dark soon, we should head back to the campus and call it a day," Kelly said, regretful. She probably wanted to fetch the U-Haul and move in today. Kelly kept scanning the horizon toward the southwest.
Curious, she asked, "What are you looking at?"
Kelly tugged Sara's sleeve and made the girl follow her gaze, "Funny how there's no meteorite crash near us, but after a while it is like the whole landscape was upturned and churned. Look, I can see the university campus, the supermarkets, both malls, the military base, and... goodness. It forms a circle!"
"Huh? I don't see it," Sara stuttered as she forced her eyes.
Kelly approached from behind and placed her stretched arm over hers. Pointing, she drew an imaginary line a little before the horizon. "See the green of the trees. There, follow that furrow, then there's the next one, and that other," she went in a full circle.
The jagged scars the meteorites left didn't form a perfect circle by themselves but with a little abstraction and blurring the edges a fair amount, one could see that a round section of the city, roughly four or maybe five miles in radius was spared the destruction, while the lands beyond suffered greatly. The same happened around the lake, where a large band of farmland was also spared. Together, the two areas formed a uneven eight-figure, with the lake circle being way larger than the Forest Park one.
A shiver ran up her spine. After she saw the circle, she attempted to pinpoint its center. She had a hunch but asked Kelly anyway.
"Where do you think is its center?"
"There," Kelly pointed. "Around the building the 'Necropolis King' took as his base of operations. Maybe that's why he picked that spot."
"Are you sure?"
"Give or take two or three city blocks. We could try to find a drone and look from above."
"I wonder where the exact center is," Sara said out loud, then added, "Abby?"
The otherwise mum fairy surprised her when an answer came forth.
She felt a heavy weight on her shoulders. She had only one question, which she should've asked from the beginning. "Why me?"
"I beg your pardon?" Kelly stammered, clearly distracted with the view. "What did you say? Is it another undead?"
"No, never mind, Kelly. I was just talking to Abby," Sara wriggled out of Kelly's embrace. She was feeling down and wasn't as comfortable with people touching her as most people even with Kelly supernatural personal space invading power.
Sensing the mood, Kelly silently wandered to the other corner of the roof to give her some room.
She bit her lower lip as she squinted at the distance, holding back the tears, trying to find her old building. There it was. "I'm not worthy," she whined.
"I didn't have much choice," The girl shrugged bashfully.
Sara snorted. "As if. I fight with everyone I meet."
She felt a deep, meaningful silence from the System Core inside her. She could tell Abby was in deep thought.
"Also?"
After stealing a glance Kelly's way, Sara didn't have a single quip or angry retort to throw back at the fairy.
"Tell me what is going on when you can," Sara negotiated. "And please don't screw me over."
Pissed at the apparent collusion between fairy and Seraph, she leaned down and braced herself against the railing. She felt a scream building inside her and let it out at the top of her lungs, "FUCK ALL OF YOU, ASSHOLES!"
Kelly gawked, "Goodness gracious, language, young lady!"
*
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Penthouse, "Sky Pencil", Panthersville, DeKalb County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 18:30.
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They climbed down, back to the first floor of the penthouse. This far, the smell of the dead architect didn't bother them that much and the gas masks were stuffy. So long they kept the windows open, it was bearable.
"If I knew doing god's work would net me a yacht ride and ownership of the city's sleekest building, I would be a nun," Kelly joked, trying to lighten the mood.
Still not in the mood for levity, Sara deadpanned, "You are forgetting the brain shower in between those. And running away from a monster at Costco. And breaking down when the little girl you just met for a sleepover vanished after saying goodbye," she took the LEGO Spiderman out of her bag. "And many others."
"There's a story there," Kelly said, looking at the mini figure. "It helps if you share them with someone," she hinted, clearly suggesting that someone should be her. With a wink, she added, "Landlady."
"I don't remember agreeing to rent you an apartment," Sara poked her tongue out. "What about your parents?"
"I think they'll move into the campus. I just want a place here to escape the campus sometimes. And please, a room with a view to the lake."
"You can bunk in with me at the penthouse. I mean, place is so big I won't even know you're here."
"Unless I seek you out," Kelly teased.
Unaware of the innuendo, Sara spoke before thinking, "I just don't want Brett moving in." She didn't want people, especially men in her building, period. Kelly was an exception and she felt conflicted so she had to concede or maybe shouldn't have talked about that at all this soon and yet she kept rambling. "I won't stop visitors, but—"
Kelly's smile vanished, "Why would I..." then she widened her eyes as she understood what Sara meant. "Oh, goodness. No. Brett and I are just friends. The third and fourth well to Amanda and Peterson." Sara wasn't convinced and crossed her arms. Kelly fidgeted. "Sara, I too believe that boys are yucky," she confessed candidly, disarming Sara as she didn't expect that.
"And Brett thinks girls are yucky," Kelly added with a wink and a shit-eating grin.
"I kind of suspected, but it would be rude to assume. I wasn't romantically interested in him anyway. But I have to confess, I lied."
"Yeah, you didn't convince anyone," Kelly deadpanned and shook her head. "You're a tomboy but we caught you many times checking the guys."
"No, you didn't!" She protested. "You're making stuff up!"
Pouting, the girl turned around to look at Atlanta's ruined skyline. "Is that fire at the top of the only skyscraper left standing?" She squinted at the Bank of America Plaza.
"A bonfire, yes," Kelly replied. "Brett is in contact with the survivors over there. They are using military drones to make supply deliveries. Things over there are... not good."
Kelly's not good might as well be catastrophic by her tone. Sara wondered if she was strong enough to break open a passage like Hainsworth wanted her to. Maybe she should try her luck at culling the ghoul infestation at a weaker location sometime soon.
"Earth to Sara?" Kelly asked inches away from her face.
She startled, then pushed her current train of thought away. "Yes?"
"It's time to go. We don't want to be out at night."
Before they left in a borrowed car from the hotel garage, Sara parked the refrigerator truck in the loading dock. She made a note to fetch her U-Haul from Kelly's neighbor and bring it home tomorrow. And probably visit Costco to get some cleaning products. She had a lot of body fluids to mop. Eww.
*
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Clayton State University, Morrow, Clayton County, Georgia. Monday, October 28th, 2019. 20:00.
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Speeding in the cluttered roads of the Apocalypse was akin to suicide or a demolition derby, take your pick. One had to drive slowly, take detours because of blocked streets, dodging abandoned vehicles, random debris, and dead bodies.
As they drove into the campus, Sara noticed fewer streetlights on. Were they saving fuel? It added fuel to her guilt for refusing Kelly the alternator. Especially omitting the fact that it was the part they needed. Lighting was provided by a bonfire in the middle, and maybe that's why the lights were off.
Many cars were moved out of the parking lot, to make room for the event. Tables and chairs occupied the asphalt and people mingled and talked. She could hear the buzz of animated voices. She could smell the smoke and the fat in the air. A barbecue.
"Told you they brought a whole cow. Come, let's check on it!" Kelly dragged her toward the bonfire.
The two women approached the gathered survivors numbering a bit shy of forty around the bonfire. A cow was being butchered on a corner of the parking lot, and the slices of beef went straight to the grill with just salt and pepper sprinkled on top. She saw some new faces, emaciated people with large dark rings around their eyes, wrinkled stained clothes, and very little body fat. Most of them gravitated near a table with several plastic cups and bottles from whiskey to soda to water.
"Those are the survivors the ice cream van rescued from their homes. People who couldn't abandon their dead loved ones, people who gave up hope but didn't commit suicide, this party is mostly for them," Kelly explained.
Sara could see that the university regulars were hard at work to make the new survivor batch feel at ease. Feel at home. Something Sara couldn't relate to.
After half a month of solitude, the chatter of dozens of conversations at the same time unnerved Sara. She felt a bit of social anxiety, muted by Composure. Most faces were unknown to her as she wandered between the groups. People treated her nicely but she thought it was only because she was the youngest one around. It saddened her to remember the fate of the children.
The loss of life. Especially that which could've been avoided. How many did the likes of the Necropolis King killed for frivolous reasons? Sara shivered at the thought. Would she be one of those if she went out of her building? If she hadn't had Abby?
Most conversations were about the raid on the prison complex. Some of their veteran warriors were wounded but they managed to kill all the rioting inmates that took over the facility without anyone on their side dying. If they would survive their wounds, that was another story. She felt a jolt of schadenfreude at the sight of Joe with his arm wrapped in bandages.
Kelly pointed at a group of squealing women on the other end of the parking lot. Sara quickly identified the one in the center, Amanda. Loudly boasted and showed off her new accessories to the crowd, the irritating woman was decked in gold and jewelry, like they'd robbed a jewelry store. Yes, it was probably that, Sara thought.
"Oh, it seems Amanda found something nice in the shopping mall," Kelly said from behind the girl. "Let's go talk to them!"
Against her will, Sara let Kelly drag her in that direction.
A few gazes shifted from Amanda to them, causing the infuriating bitch to turn and find them. "Oh, Kelly! You won't believe what happened today!"
Kelly let go of Sara's arm and moved ahead and to the side, breaking line of sight between Amanda and her. "Don't keep me in the dark, woman! Spit it out," she playfully teased her fellow college student.
"While you were busy babysitting, Peterson and I went to Tiffany's!" Amanda showed her hand full of expensive diamond rings, so many it was gaudy. They didn't call it a solitaire diamond for nothing. "You won't believe what he did in there!"
'I don't believe he didn't strangle you', Sara thought. Babysitting? Really?
"I have no idea," Kelly said, pretending to be infected by the giddy mood.
"HE PROPOSED TO ME!" She squealed so loudly everyone stopped to look at her. People crowded around the blushing bride to congratulate her.
Sara used the opportunity to slip away. While a tiny bit of her was happy that life would go on, she thought this scorched earth did not deserve to suffer Amanda's spawn. She got a plate and a cup of soda, then asked one of the guys working the grills to fill her plate with some meat for her. As she was enjoying her charred meat on one of the picnic tables, a soprano voice called her name.
"Sara?"
The girl froze as a chill ran up her spine.