Immediately, I put my guard up, raising my still-glowing machete a touch higher.

“How do you know my name?”

The woman blinked several times, eyes flashing left and right across the horizon. Was she reading her menu?

“I know because Luna told me. I heard you’ve been in contact with her before?”

Luna. The system administrator was an enigma in itself. But did I trust this woman? Did I even have a choice?

“I’ve briefly spoken to her before. Come with me. We should get away from here before anyone else shows up.”

Quickly nodding, I expected her to move towards me outside the door. Instead, she returned to the cell I found her in.

“It’s safe now. Let’s go,” she whispered to someone out of sight, voice gentle and calm.

Moving to see who it was she was speaking with, I found two injured police officers. Both looked ragged and bloody but didn’t seem in immediate danger. That was pleasantly surprising and also explained why she was still here, to begin with. I suspected it was her that tore those cultists to pieces in the hallway.

Rushing to the side of one of the officers, a dog beastkin by the looks of it, I moved under his arm to support him and began the trek out of the precinct.

“I’m Victoria Gale. With a group that set up camp not too far from here.”

“I’m Officer Daryl Walls. Good to meet ya. That rabbit-eared one behind me is Rupert.”

Officer Daryl Walls had a deep south drawl that crept over his words like thick syrup.

“Just to let you know, outside of the precinct, things are… bad. Really bad. Just… brace yourself.”

I could tell that my words fell on deaf ears, but when we left the door, I could hear the officer suck in a breath of shock.

“My God…”

We moved quickly into the woods, continuing the long hike. Getting back to the hotel would take several hours, much longer than I should have been gone. I was supposed to be on a quick scouting mission. I was sure the others would worry.

As we walked, the police officers seemed to walk better and better, until finally, Daryl asked me to let him go. I thought he would limp or struggle, but instead, he continued sauntering onward, gaining even more surety.

Throwing a questioning glance at the woman, she realized my curiosity and elected to fill me in.

“It’s a regeneration ability I can zap people with. It’s dependent on how much life is in their vicinity, so a forest is likely an ideal location.”

I leveled a suspicious gaze against her. I didn’t trust her, not even a little bit. There was just something… off about how she acted. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

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Daryl paused his steps. He must have noticed something in my expression, as his face turned deeply sincere.

“Ms. Williams here is the only reason we lasted so long against those goons. She’s trustworthy and honorable, and a strong fighter.”

I wasn’t going to argue with him there. She DID spend at least two days protecting police officers from a band of raging cultists. That would at least earn her the benefit of the doubt.

“Thank you, Daryl," she said with a slight smile, "That’s very kind. We haven’t been introduced yet, I think, Ms. Gale.”

Moving square in front of me, the woman reached out a hand for me to shake.

“I’m Stephanie Williams. I was a researcher working with the government trying to understand the Greene wave, visiting here on a business trip. I was near the precinct when all of this happened.”

As I reached out to shake her hand, I felt a small static shock against my palm.

“The Greene wave? What's that?”

"You haven't heard of it? Sometimes called the Kansas flash?"

I shook my head.

"I suppose that's understandable. The actual specifics of the phenomenon aren't important, but essentially, a bright light appeared over the town of Lecompton, Kansas in 1985. At its epicenter was a suburban house occupied by a single child. A boy named Howard Greene. When the light exploded out, the boy went missing, and so it was named after him."

She paused, her eyes lighting up as she started discussing her work. Clearly, the woman was passionate.

"It was a groundbreaking event. A surge of unidentified energy appeared over the town, rippling across the entire face of the planet. Even more fascinating, the only reason we even found out how far it spread is that you can pick up the wave’s unique signature as broadband radio interference. Mind you, that’s not common knowledge. The government didn’t want that information getting out.”

“That’s pretty crazy, but why does it matter? Why were you studying it in Austin? Shouldn't you be in, you know, Kansas?”

“I was studying it in Austin because the Greene wave never stopped. It just faded into the background, and we only managed to realize that two years ago. And because three days ago, we picked up a second Greene event here. Then we picked up another one again, exactly 24 hours later, at 2 pm.”

I didn’t know much about energy science, but I understood that the amount you needed to send something across the globe was insanely high. The amount of power that you would need to continue sending that signal across the globe for almost forty years, though, must have been unbelievable. The timing of when she picked up the signals was also deeply suspicious.

Two days ago, at exactly 2 pm, was when the first wave happened. But if there was a wave that took place three days ago, something must have been released with it. Something that wasn’t obvious immediately. It might even be the source of our current problems.

“So, you’re saying there was an extra wave? Something that took place before what the system called the first one.”

“Yes, Ms. Gale. That’s right.”

She took a moment of silence to think, before continuing her line of thought.

“Tell me, do you know why the original phenomenon was called the Greene wave?”

I was thrown off by the quick change in topic, my mind reeling for the proper information. I didn’t know why, but for some reason I wanted this girl to think I was at least semi-intelligent. She had some kind of innate teacher energy.

“Sure, it was named after the kid that disappeared at the same time.”

Her expression grew grim, as she nodded.

“That’s correct. Do you remember his full name?” she asked, voice somber.

Cautiously, I shook my head. What was this leading up to?

“His name was Howard. Howard Greene. Do you understand, Ms. Gale?”

I froze in place.

“H.G., the one from the original messages! You think this person is Howard Greene.”

“No, Ms. Gale. I know that H.G. is Howard Greene.”

“But how could you possibly…”

Before I could finish my question, I system alert grabbed my attention.

*ding!*

Curious, I pulled up the menu to take a quick look and was immediately glad that I did.

SysAdmin_Luna: Um… Hello, again, Vic. She knows... mostly because I told her.

Ah. This was starting to get complicated.