"Drop your weapons," Luna said.

  Stu dropped the machete Madhouse had given him. Madhouse slowly placed his pistol on the floor, but he was still wearing that big smile, as if he found this whole situation amusing.

  "Your rifles, too," she prodded him.

  The Wild Pack leader shrugged the two rifles off his back and placed them on the floor as well. Stu hadn't paid them any attention before, but he saw now that one of the rifles was a huge, high-tech thing with a silver finish, similar to Lucky's railgun.

  "Now," she said. "Give me back my keys. I won't ask again."

  Stu studied the woman. He had been expecting Lucky's sister to be a little younger, a teenager perhaps, but this woman was at least twenty, and possibly even older. The resemblance was definitely there, though; she had the same dark hair and eyes as her brother. And in addition to that, her face was covered with grime, her hair was a rat's nest, and her clothes were ill-fitting, just like Lucky's.

  She had her gun up and aimed at Madhouse, her finger on the trigger. Even disarmed, however, the man did not seem particularly alarmed by any of this. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said innocently.

  "The keys to my glider," she hissed. "Sever said he gave them to you."

  "It's not your glider anymore."

  "The hell it isn't."

  They heard a groan then, coming from somewhere in the hallway behind Luna -- more zombies were on their way. "I don't have time for this," she said. "I'm going to count to three. Give me those keys, or I'm going to blow both of you away. One."

  "Wait," Stu said. "I'm not with him."

  "Yeah, right." She had sounded almost like Lucky when she said that.

  "Luna--"

  She swung the rifle back over to him, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "How did you know my name?"

  That was all the distraction Madhouse needed. Before either of them could react, he suddenly dipped, rolled forward, and almost instantly closed the gap between himself Luna. She turned the gun back on him, but he caught the barrel, wrapping his fingers around it and turning it aside just as she opened fire. The blast tore through the air between Stu and Madhouse.

  She pulled the trigger again, firing wildly, forcing Stu to run for cover. After two more shots, Madhouse yanked the gun out of her hands and tossed it aside. In a fury, she tried to slug him, but the man was much bigger and stronger than her, and he merely caught her wrists as he had caught the barrel of her gun. The Wild Pack leader, Stu noted, had unusually good reflexes.

  "Let go of me," she snarled.

  "Whatever you say." He pushed her off of him, then punched her in the gut. She staggered and fell, clutching her stomach.

  She looked up at him, her eyes bright with anger. "You...you..."

  "You deserve worse," he said. "Fortunately for you I've always had a tender heart when it comes to stupid young women like you." He retrieved his rifles and slung them over his shoulders. "G'night, kids." And he jogged out of the room, turning left into the hallway.

  Luna went for her gun, but she was still doubled over, and by the time she got there he was long gone. "Shit," she muttered, through gritted teeth.

  Stu emerged from cover. "Are you all right?"

  She whirled on him. "Stay away from me."

  "I'm not going to hurt you. I've been looking for you. I'm with Lucky."

  Her eyes widened. "Lucky? Lucky's here?"

  "He's upstairs, fighting a glowie. Or he was, the last time I saw him. We have to get back up there..." He trailed off, because three zombies -- a Level 2, a Level 3, and a Level 5 -- had heard them talking and were now stumbling into the cafeteria from the hallway. The Level 2 was short, bald, and missing an arm; the Level 3 was a female whose entire lower jaw was hanging by a single flap of skin; and the Level 5 was a fat, brutish-looking monster with a big gut, although it did not appear to be a bomber.

  Luna picked up the gun which Madhouse had tossed away and opened fire, hitting the Level 3 in the face and dislodging what remained of its jaw, which flew off and shattered when it hit a nearby wall, littering the area with broken teeth. The zombie remained upright for a second, but a second shot to the head finished it off.

  She turned to face the two other zombies, but when she pulled the trigger, the rifle merely clicked. She was out of ammo.

  She started backing away, but the Level 2 had picked up its pace, reaching for her with its single arm. By now Stu had picked up Madhouse's machete, however. Jumping into action, he severed the zombie's other arm and pushed it away, then spun on his heel to deal with the Level 5, which was a much bigger and more dangerous threat. He tried cutting its head off with the machete, but it put an arm up to block the blow, and the blade stuck itself in its bony forearm. It then reached out for him with its other arm, trying to pull him close and bite him. He slapped the arm away, wrestled the machete free of the zombie's arm -- it came out in a burst of blood -- and tried chopping at it again. He managed to hit it this time, but his aim was off, and instead of striking its neck he struck it near the top of the skull instead, and the blade rebounded off of it.

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  He was forced to duck low and slip past it as it lunged for him again, trying to wrap him up in a bear hug. Instead of turning around and following him, however, it decided to go after Luna instead, who had just now finished off the unarmed zombie by smashing its head in with a piece of rubble from the collapsed ceiling. She tried to defend herself from the Level 5 by picking up another piece of rubble, but she slipped on something and fell backwards, on her rear end, and the big zombie was now bearing down on her.

  Stu rallied. Just as it was about to fall upon Luna, he ran up to it and, holding the machete with both hands, swung it as hard as he could, like a baseball player swinging a bat. And his aim was better this time -- he got in the neck, decapitating it from behind in another spray of blood.

  It fell forward, dead...right on top of Luna.

  "Augh!" she shouted. "Get this damn thing off of me!"

  Stu hurried to extricate her from beneath the bleeding zombie. When he offered her a hand to help her to her feet, however, she slapped it away. "Get away from me."

  "You're welcome," he said dryly. He was distracted by the ICON system, which had just given him another alert:

  Level 5 Zombie defeated!

  Critical Bonus!

  Checking the system, he saw that he was now on level ten, and that he had a total of nine skill points. He had gone up three levels in just a few minutes, and although it wasn't a huge difference, he did feel a little fresher now, a little lighter on his feet. Perhaps his speed stat had gone up.

  "I could've handled it myself," she said, climbing to her feet on her own. The front of her jacket was completely drenched with zombie blood, so she simply removed it and tossed it aside. Beneath the jacket she was wearing a tank top, which showed off her surprisingly lean and muscular arms.

  Stu gave her another look. He wasn't sure whether to classify her as pretty or not-pretty; she had a noticeable gap between her front teeth and her eyes were just a little bit too far apart. The fact that her face was covered in grease, and that she was scowling at him like he owed her money, were additional complicating factors. On the other hand, with her jacket off, he could see that she had a very nice figure, at least as nice as Berly's.

  But he didn't have time for any of this. "Lucky's in trouble," he said. He closed the ICON system and, with the machete still in his hand, ran out of the cafeteria, looking around desperately for a set of stairs to take him back up to the second floor.

  "Hey!" Luna shouted after him. "Wait!"

  He didn't slow down, however -- he kept running, racing down the school's long corridors. Another zombie exploded out of a janitor's closet, right in front of him, but it was only a Level 1 and despite being startled, he made quick work of it with the machete.

  The smell of smoke was becoming more and more pronounced -- the fire that the glowie had started on the second floor was apparently spreading. Indeed, when he finally found a set of stairs, he could hear the fire crackling on the floor above; and the stairwell was full of black smoke.

  Where was Lucky? Had the glowie overpowered him? Stu grit his teeth. He didn't want to die of smoke inhalation, or receive a bite from a burning zombie, but he wasn't about to leave Lucky behind -- he had to find the kid.

  So he took a deep breath, put his shirt up in front of his nose and mouth, and ran up to the second floor. Green flames were licking the walls, and the smoke made it difficult for him to see, even with his Night Vision active, but he pushed on, into the inferno. It was extremely hot.

  "Lucky!" he screamed. "Where are you?"

  He got no response, or if he did he didn't hear it, so he kept going, kicking open classroom doors and shouting for Lucky. Glancing over his shoulder, he suddenly realized that Luna was right there with him, choking on the smoke, trying to wave it away from her face.

  They weren't going to last long in here. There was a skill in the ICON system, Firewalker, that would allow him to endure heat and flames, and it was only two points, but he wasn't sure if it would protect him from smoke as well, and he didn't have time to mess around with the system right now in any case. He only had a few seconds to work with here.

  Rounding a corner, the two of them found themselves in the hallway near where Stu and Lucky had encountered the rager and the glowie earlier. This area was even more thoroughly enveloped by flames. "Lucky!" he shouted, one final time.

  Over the crackling of the fire, and over the hammering of his own heart, he heard a voice call out to him from the end of the hall: "Stu?"

  "Lucky? Are you all right?" Without waiting for a response, he started running through the fire...and that was when the glowie appeared, screaming bloody murder, flailing out of the flames. It was completely naked now, the fire having burned off what it remained of its clothes. Its face had been lacerated by Lucky's railgun, and it still had the knife stuck in its thigh.

  Stu reacted instinctively, slashing at it with the machete. The blade cut into its body, splattering the scene with more of its flammable blood. But it wasn't enough to back it off; the zombie was right on top of him. And as soon as it touched him, he knew, his clothes would burst into flame, incinerating him.

  He pulled back, but he wasn't fast enough. The glowie reached for him.

  Just as it was about to lay a hand on his shoulder, however, its head exploded, igniting a firestorm; green flames burst out of its neck like a ruptured gas main. Looking past it, Stu saw that Lucky had propped himself up against the wall at the end of the hall, his railgun in his hands. He had shot the thing in the head, and just in time.

  The ICON system flashed another assistance penalty warning at him, but he ignored it, rushing to Lucky's side. "You okay, kid?"

  "Twisted my ankle," he said, coughing on the smoke.

  Stu didn't hesitate. Dropping the machete, he hefted Lucky over his shoulder, turned around, and started running back down the hallway. On his way he grabbed Luna as well, before she could protest, wrapping an arm around her waist and slinging her over his shoulder as well. With the Strong Arm skill enhancing his strength, carrying the two of them was not particularly difficult, but he was tired and bloody and sick from the smoke, and he was having a hard time seeing where he was going. His eyes were burning.

  The flames were everywhere. Rushing through the furnace, he threw himself down the stairs, barrelling through the burning school, and when he reached the exit, he delivered a titanic kick to the door, knocking it completely off its hinges. He ran out of the building with his charges, coughing and hacking, and finally dumped them on the grass outside the school. Then he fell to his hands and knees, exhausted.

  Luna was staring at him. "Who the hell are you?" she asked.

  He looked at her. "Stu," he answered weakly. "Nice to meet you."