As soon as Moira’s voice said the word ‘now’ people began running for the door. My companions were ready to do that as well, but I grabbed Reiko by the hand and told the others, “Wait.”

“We’re kind of on the clock here… uhh… sis,” Nishalle said, seemingly eager to get into the action.

“I realize that,” I replied. “Look at them, the event is called ‘Deadrush’ and I get the feeling that a lot of those people rushing in are going to end up dead. I would rather know what we’re in for first. With our party composition running in without a plan isn’t a good idea, we have two magic users, a healer, a tank and an assassin who only has a sniper rifle at the moment. Since Lissany can’t cover all of us at once, intense close combat is a bad idea until we can gear up.”

“The girl makes sense,” Grell admitted, and I was surprised to see that he and Pete had hung back with my party-mates. I cringed slightly at being called a girl, an unwelcome reminder of the strange feeling of wrongness about my virtual body as he added, “I’m not exactly a combat class myself and all that I have to fight with right now is a blacksmith hammer. Would you mind if we joined you? It would be nice to have a party leader with a good head on their shoulders.”

“Yeah,” Pete quickly agreed, unslinging an AK-47 from his shoulder. “Maybe I can help keep the pressure off at close range, at least until I run out of ammo.”

“You’re both welcome to stick with us if that’s what you want to do, I’m sure you’ll both be useful and there’s safety in numbers,” I offered with a shrug. Then I said, “Create Party,” and sent out the invites to the pair, and to my four female companions as well.

Reiko smiled at me once we were all in the party and I could tell that she was still feeling responsible for my current condition, but she would have my back no matter what. “So, what’s the plan then Taelya?”

I took a deep breath as I thought about what to do, then finally I said, “As soon as we get out there I’ll need you to turn into a Sprite my love, and then you and Venika scout from the air. One of you will go east, and the other west, but try to be no longer than ten minutes. Look for likely areas to gather supplies, gear, and vehicles, preferably with a minimum of crowds. We’ll try to find a secure spot to wait near the warehouse entrance until you get back. Pete and I will try to give us some breathing room as soon as we’re out and Nishalle will try to find a good spot to snipe from. If they get in to close, then Lissany and Grell will finish them off. If these undead are anything like in the movies, or other games, don’t let them touch you and go for head shots or fire.”

Lissany nodded, removed her helmet from her belt, secured it in place over her head, and then equipped her shield and war hammer. “You got it Your Highness, let’s do this!”

We were the last ones out of the warehouse and the scene outside was chaos. It seemed to be night and columns of thick black smoke rose in the distance lit an eerie red-orange by the light of fires in the distance that contrasted the city lights. The area we appeared in was heavy with the scent of smoke and blood, and the faint smell of seawater, while the deafening sounds of gunfire and explosions rocked the area. A few players already lay dead, though I didn’t recognize any of them, and the rest were fighting their way northward. “Looks like everyone is heading straight north and trying to gather supplies and shit along the way,” Grell commented as Reiko turned into a Sprite and she and Venika took to the sky and darted off east and west.

“Yeah, which means supplies are going to be slim pickings along that route,” I replied. “They’re also going to be making a lot of noise and that will attract enemies. I’d prefer that we find good place to gear up that won’t be picked clean and then find vehicles to take us north as fast as possible, preferably loaded with supplies and gear.”

“We don’t even know how big this city is or how far north the safe point is,” Pete pointed out.

“Which was the other reason for sending out aerial scouts, Sprites can see as well as other Fae in low light, and they might be able to get an idea of that and a route to get us to... Tierre liantuir!” I cut short my explanation to cast my fire spell on an approaching zombie, drawing the sigils and focusing my will as I spoke the words. The zombie burst into flames and after a moment collapsed to the ground.

There were a few other zombies that had peeled off from the main combat as well, but Pete and I were able to pick most of them off before they got too close. Lissany and Grell went after any who were still twitching to finish them off by turning their heads to red paste with their blunt weapons. Nishalle, for her part, had climbed the fire escape of a nearby building and was covering us as best she could with sniper fire.

We managed to have the area around us cleared out and were looting corpses, with Nishalle keeping watch from above, when Venika and Reiko returned. Looting corpses was not like in other games I had played, and neither was inventory space, since they were trying to make the game as realistic as possible to make it seem like you were actually there, so bodies didn’t just disappear and have shiny loot bags appear in their place. Nope, Pegasus Entertainment’s slogan was “As real as reality” so in Apocalypse Dawn, if you wanted your loot, you had to be prepared to work for it. That meant that if you wanted the fur from an animal you had to skin it, if you needed body parts from some monster for a quest, you had to hack them off, and for humans, or in this case zombies, that meant searching their bodies and rooting through their pockets.

Conversely, this also meant that if we wanted to be able to carry more than we could shove in the makeshift pouch we made from some zombie’s jacket, then we would need clothes with pockets, gear belts, waist pouches, or backpacks to carry them in. Vehicles would help with that too, which was why they were on my priority list. Technically I would be able to use magic to help with that one day, but right now I only knew the three spells.

Whatever city we were in it was either on the coast or on an island, and that would explain the smell of salt water. Venika had found the water about ten blocks to the west and the zombies were pretty thick there, following groups of panicked people heading for the docks northwest of our position. Reiko though had found what looked like a large shopping mall twelve blocks east of us, and it looked to be just off a major highway running north-south. There was also a parking lot full of vehicles that we might be able to acquire.

Once Reiko had returned to her two-tailed and fox-eared human woman form, we all made our way cautiously eastward along the street that the warehouse opened onto. Lissany took the lead with her shield and war hammer at the ready and the faceplate of her helm opened, to allow her to use her enhanced senses to spot any danger coming our way. We had gone about six blocks without incident when we found the police car crashed into a street lamp. A search didn’t yield much except for the dead officer’s 9mm Glock, a spare clip, and a Kevlar vest that was in the trunk.

“Grell should have the gun, you’ll need a ranged option until we can get more gear,” I said after a moment’s thought. “Do you have the firearms skill Grell?”

Grell nodded as he took both the weapon and the clip. “I’ve got it, and I appreciate having something more long ranged than a blacksmith’s hammer but, what about the vest? I think you or Reiko should have it since you’re our mage and priestess.”

“Taelya gets the vest,” Nishalle said, with a look on her dark blue elven face that would accept no argument. “She’s the party leader and the princess of the Autumn Court. As her royal guard I’ll feel more secure knowing she has the extra protection, in case Lissany or I can’t cover her in time.”

Reiko quickly nodded in agreement. “Yup, I’ll feel better knowing that my fiancée is better protected. Besides, the vest might be awkward with my shapeshifting.” She took the vest from the trunk and handed it to me and suddenly Lissany was covering us both as the gunshots rang out. “Everyone find cover! We have a sniper!”

The bullets rang off Lissany’s shield. “Lissany! Are you okay?!” Venika’s voice called out from the open trunk of the police car.

“Relax Mom, I’m fine,” Lissany replied while using her shield to keep me and Reiko covered. “Those bullets didn’t even penetrate the shield, it’s like an inch thick of steel with Kevlar lining. Even if it did, my armor is pretty tough too. Besides, I was doing my job.”

“Is everyone okay? Does anyone need healing?” Reiko called out from beside me.

“We’re all okay,” Nishalle responded. “I’ve spotted our sniper, it’s an old man NPC with a hunting rifle in a second story window at the next intersection after the one in front of us, about a block and a half down the street. Should I take him down?”

“Don’t!” I quickly shouted as I tried to put on the Kevlar vest while staying behind Lissany’s cover. “We’re supposed to be getting Humans to trust us so we can work with them, the whole point of the game is cooperation between Races. I’m more worried about what else that gunfire is going to attract.” No sooner had those words left my mouth than the flickering street lamps of the intersection just ahead of us showed a little blonde girl, no more than six years old, running into view with over two dozen zombies chasing her as she screamed for help.

“I’m guessing that I can shoot those though Your Highness?” my Tokh'dhraí sister asked sarcastically as she lined up a shot.

“Yes! Those you can shoot! Everyone take out those zombies, but be careful that you don’t hit the girl!” I quickly snapped out the orders as I watched the girl, fear clutching at my chest. In my head I knew that she was just an NPC, and that this was probably some sort of hidden quest triggered by searching the car or grabbing the vest, but my heart said that she was a child and needed our help and protection. I felt such an intense need to keep her safe.

The little girl stumbled and fell and the zombies were closing in on her. I couldn’t let them have her, but except for the spell to teleport me to a specific place or person, my spells were all offensive. Using the teleport spell would just end up putting me in danger too. All of the various elven sigils and their meanings ran through my mind as I tried frantically to think of some way to help her, and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Then I stopped thinking and acted as I drew mana from the ground beneath me, traced a pair of sigils in the air and called out their spoken names, “Tanuus ysoldir!”

As I released the mana and directed it at the girl, with my thoughts firmly on what I had in mind, she floated up into the air, up out of the reach of the zombies trying to grab at her. “Okay guys, hit them with everything you have, I’m not sure how long I can keep this spell up!” Already I was working on a second spell though, one I had already been familiar with as I divided my attention between the new spell and keeping the girl in the air. Meanwhile a zombie erupted into flames as Venika cast a spell and foxfire from Reiko lit up a second. Pete was unloading his last clip into the pack of zombies, Grell was picking his targets as best he could with the Glock, and Nishalle was exploding zombie heads with her sniper rifle.

Apparently the sniper had figured out that the zombies were the bigger threat as the fire on our position had ceased. “Tierre liantuir!” I hit one of the zombies with my fire spell, but the effort of casting that while holding another spell in place was tiring me and giving me a headache. We had another problem as well; now that the girl was out of reach the remaining zombies were moving in on our position, drawn by the sound of gunfire. There were still ten of them and it wasn’t really reassuring when Nishalle started cursing about having only one shot left, especially since Grell was well into his last clip for the Glock as well.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” Lissany said as she lowered the faceplate on her helm and pulled her tail as close to her body as she could. Venika and Reiko had flambéed another pair of Zombies, leaving us down to eight left, and a pair of well-aimed head shots from Nishalle and Grell took out another two, as Lissany got to her feet and ran into the midst of the six remaining zombies. She batted two aside with her massive shield and smashed another’s head in with her war hammer before they even knew what hit them. Venika and Reiko were quick to set fire to the pair that she had sent flying with another round of spells, but from all the clicking that I was hearing, those of us with guns were all out of ammo.

“Tierre liantuir!” I set fire to another zombie that was going after Lissany from the side, my headache intensifying as I tried to keep the girl aloft as well. Another fell to the ground with a red mess where it’s head should have been, thanks to Lissany’s war hammer, and she blocked the last with her shield, before finishing it off as well. When all was done, the Beast-kin Guardian began making sure that the other zombies weren’t going to be getting up and I was able to slowly lower the girl to the ground. The battle, which had seemed to last an eternity, had in actuality taken less than ten minutes and we were all exhausted.

As tired as we were, there was still the threat of that human sniper out there and we still had to gather supplies and get to the northern edge of the city. Surprisingly the sniper hadn’t shot at us again yet, was he out of ammo like us? Suddenly an old man with a rifle slung over his back ran up and wrapped his arms around the girl. “Oh Christina! I was so afraid that those horrible creatures had gotten you!”

“That’s the sniper,” Nishalle said in a hushed tone. “Should we rush him before he can use that gun?”

“No, I think the quest may be done so let’s just wait a moment,” I replied just as quietly.

The little girl Christina was hugging the old man and said, “I was so scared, there are scary monsters all over, and I tried to run home, but they chased me. I’m okay now though Grandpa, these nice people saved me.”

‘Grandpa’ looked up at us and looked us over curiously as I stood up and carefully approached. “Sorry about the shooting, I thought you were monsters like those zombies. Ya ain’t human, but maybe ya ain’t monsters neither.”

“We’re here to help fight the monsters,” I said with my hands raised to show that I meant no harm. “I am Princess Taelya of the Autumn Court and these are my friends.”

“Thank you for savin’ my Granddaughter, I’m going to try to take her north to safety, now that we’ve been reunited. How can I possibly thank you for your help?” He paused a moment as if in thought and then nodded to himself. “Well, since we’re headin’ north, I guess I won’t be needin’ to worry about my store anymore. I’ll show you the way there and you can take anything you need.”

“Thank you sir, we’d appreciate that,” I replied with a smile, motioning to the others that it was safe to join me. He led us a block and a half to the building he had been firing from. It had a sturdy door and barred windows and the sign said Grady’s Guns an’ Ammo.

As soon as he had unlocked the door and led us inside, he said. “Take anythin’ ya like. I’m gonna load some extra ammo into my pickup an’ then Christina an’ I are headin’ north. I heard there’s a safe zone there. He snatched up several boxes of ammo and shoved them into a shopping bag and then said, “Thanks again strangers, hopefully we’ll see ya up north.” Christina hugged each of us in turn and thanked us for saving her and I have to admit that I was a bit teary-eyed, and a lot relieved, as they both climbed into the pickup and started driving north as fast as they could.

“Well that was interesting, and rewarding,” Pete said with a smile. “Good call there on the secret quest Taelya.”

“I’m just glad we were able to save her,” I replied, not really wanting to say that I wasn’t even sure that it was a secret quest, until after we had done the saving. I just needed to help her. Did I had some sort of digital maternal instinct or something? I was aware that I hadn’t really been acting like myself since entering the game, but was it due to the alien sensations coming from my virtual body, or was I just getting into character?

Still this was a big win for us and we were quick to start gathering up weapons and ammo as quickly as we could while we had the chance. Venika was too small for the weapons to be of any use to her, and Nishalle only really had the skill for sniper rifles, but the rest of us took what we felt that we would be useful and practical for us. I took a pair of Colt 45’s with a twin holster belt and four extra magazines, while Pete grabbed a Glock to supplement his AK-47, and he and Grell both grabbed a pair of extra clips for the Glocks. As for Lissany and Reiko, they each snatched up a USAS-12 shotgun with a shoulder strap, drum magazine, and 2 box magazines. Then we took all the ammo that we could find for all of our respective weapons, loaded all of our magazines, and put the rest of it, along with what spare weapons and clips that we could find of our chosen type, in a pair of large duffel bags that Venika had found while searching the back of the shop for anything useful.

Now that we at least had weapons and enough ammo to last a while we headed off toward the mall at a quick but cautious pace. We didn’t encounter anything else before arriving and by the time we got there we had just under five hours left on the clock. We entered the west entrance of the mall by breaking one of the glass doors. The mall was dimly lit and all of the stores were locked up, so it had probably been closed for the night when all the chaos had started. I was hoping that that meant we wouldn’t encounter much of anyone, or anything else, but the whole place was eerily quiet. We made our way silently to one of the mall maps with the help of balls of pale white light that Reiko had created, and when we got there we saw the truck. It was a brand new, black Ford Super Duty Crew Cab with a canopy, and a bright red and yellow sign sitting on top of the hood that said, “Win this Truck!”

“That could be useful,” I said with a grin. ”I wonder if the keys are kept in the mall…”

“Keys? I don’t need no steenkin’ keys!” Grell replied with a grin of his own as he tested the driver’s door and found it unlocked. “I think that with my electronics and computer tech knowledge, and a little artificing magic, that I can get it to start.” He got inside and was fiddling around in the driver’s seat for several minutes and then the engine came to life and the headlights illuminated part of the darkened mall ahead of us.

“Great work Grell!” Pete offered as his friend stepped out of the truck and he slapped him on the back. “It might be a little tight, but we should all be able to fit inside and we can load the supplies and stuff in the back.”

With one less thing to worry about, I laid out what we needed to do. “Okay everyone, we have just under five hours left on the clock and I’d like to give us an hour of that to drive to the north side of the city, to be on the safe side. We’ll need clothes, food, medical supplies, and various other supplies. Let’s try not to get too crazy, but get enough to last a while. We stick together for now, keep your senses peeled for any possible enemies.”

We placed the duffel bags of spare weapons and ammo in the back of the truck and drove it slowly through the mall toward the destination that we had chosen, a large chain grocery store. Nothing moved as we made our way through the mall and the quiet was making me very nervous. It was as we were on our way there that Nishalle said, “Wait, stop here. There might be something useful in that shop, and I can see three or four clothing stores that we can check out too.”

The shop that had interested my sister was called Cutting Edge Creations and was apparently geared to people interested in the SCA, LARPing, or authentic historical reenactments. They sold weapons and even some armor meant not only to look realistic, but to be sturdy enough to be used in battle reenactments or SCA duels. Inside she found a katana that she really liked and over a dozen throwing stars as well, and Grell thought that they would make for good, serviceable weapons once they were properly sharpened. She wasn’t the only one to get weapons there either, as Lissany snatched up a sheathed long sword, which joined the war hammer on her belt, and Pete chose a massive claymore as big as Reiko was tall.

They had some armor too, and I managed to get a leather breastplate, skirt, vambraces, and bracers that could be worn over clothes. Nishalle got some leather armor similar to my own, and the guys got chainmail hauberks, leggings, and hoods. Lissany didn’t need any armor, Venika was too tiny to find anything for herself, and Reiko thought that it would be awkward with her shape shifting, so they didn’t get anything armor-wise.

We made our way into the clothing stores that Nishalle had spotted next, though for each store that we entered we would have to break through the security gates, making a lot more noise than I was comfortable with. Between Nishalle’s night vision, our elvish hearing, and Lissany’s enhanced senses we weren’t able to sense any enemies nearby though. Still, the eerie silence bothered me tremendously, and Grell and Pete stood guard outside the stores while us ‘girls’ looked for clothes. We tried to be as quick as possible, but we did need to make sure that things would fit, especially undergarments in the intimates store we went to first. Well, not all of us since Venika would never find anything that would fit her tiny Sprite body and Reiko could just shapeshift to fit whatever she was wearing, though she did try to get things in mostly the same sizes that she was wearing at the moment to make things easier.

Getting out of my black bathing suit and trying on underwear in the first shop was probably the longest, and most awkward, moment of my life. Not only did being naked bring stark attention to just how wrong my body felt to me, but Lissany, Nishalle, and Reiko were doing the same thing right there with me, because there was safety in numbers. I was used to seeing Reiko naked, as Jess, and seeing her new body naked was a bit of a turn on, but having my sister and a fifteen year old girl that I barely knew doing the same thing beside me killed any desire that I might have had, made me feel self-conscious, and only increased my awareness of my body’s wrongness, especially since all of our bodies looked, and felt, so damn realistic.

I knew that Lissany would at least have her vision of this censored a bit, but still I was feeling very uncertain about this. Unfortunately, I knew nothing about women’s clothing and I needed their help, even if it weren’t for the safety factor. Reiko was leaning in and helping me with a lacy black bra when she whispered, “How are you holding up sweetheart? I know that this has got to be rough on you, but thank you for doing this for me and for making yourself so damn sexy. I’ll try to make our time here as much fun as possible for you.” Then louder she said, “Okay it’s latched, now lift your breasts and place them in the cups and tell me how it feels. You don’t want it too tight or too loose.”

I turned to kiss her. “I’d do anything for you my love, and you know that.” Then I did as instructed and placed my breasts in the cups, trying to keep down the feeling of anxiety that doing so generated in me. “It seems good, it’s not squeezing them too tight and they’re not loose in there either. The panties are comfortable too.”

“Okay I’ll grab three more sets for you in the same size then, but different colors, and maybe a few pairs of cotton panties and some sports bras as well. You might as well just keep those on, and just put your F.I.T suit back on, if you’re uncomfortable. We’ll get clothes in that store across the way,” she said as she took off for where she had found the underwear set I was currently wearing.

“How are you feeling… uh… sis?” Nishalle asked. “I remember when I tried the game the first time, it was really weird being the opposite gender, and I only experienced a few hours. You’ve been acting a little weird too, your reactions to some things… well you’re kind of acting like a girl.”

“Am I?” I wondered aloud. I didn’t really see it, but my sister knew me better than anyone. “I guess I’m just trying to get into character, it’s not like I have much choice. I’ve been meaning to ask though, what’s that green goop that our real bodies are laying in? It was all tingly, and made me numb, I’m kind of worried about how our real bodies are doing.”

“I asked about that when we got in the F.I.Ts. When I went in the first time they just used water, but that was very short term,” the shadow elf began to explain. “Since our bodies are going to be in those tubes for two weeks, they’ve been filled with an herbal solution that will dull our senses to add to the sensory deprivation and also act as a nutrient bath. It’ll be absorbed through our pores to give us additional nutrients, and it was developed for long term immersion. That’s why the F.I.T suits only cover the important bits of the body, they’re there for modesty and leave a lot of skin free to absorb the nutrients.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense,” I agreed. Soon Reiko returned with the rest of my underwear in a shopping bag. It seemed that she had bags for each of us, with our names written on them by a black sharpie. Once we all had a good amount of underwear in our bags we tossed those bags in the back of the truck, helped Lissany back into her armor, went on to the clothing shop across the way, and then other shops we found toward the grocery store.

We tried not to spend long in any of the shops; just going in, getting what we needed, and getting out. By the time we got to the large grocery store we all had four new sets of clothing, including what we were wearing. We kept mostly to practical clothing, since we’d probably be seeing a lot of combat; jeans or leggings, socks, combat or hiking boots, tops that were easy to move in, hoodies, a warm jacket, and a pair of gloves for all of us girls. None of it was over the top girly and I was feeling a little less self-conscious in them, especially since we had determined that dresses would not be practical for now.

Grell and Pete managed to find some clothes that fit too, and a few spare sets as well, in a store geared toward outdoors wear, sporting goods, and outdoors equipment that we discovered not far from the chain grocery store. Reiko grabbed a couple sets for whenever she was in a male form as well. They also managed three tents, a camp stove and cooking gear, a pair of propane lanterns, extra propane bottles, and enough sleeping bags for all of us, in case we had to rough it. Grell also found a baseball bat that he thought would give a little more reach for close encounters than his hammer, a few pairs of wraparound sunglasses for Nishalle to wear during the daylight hours to protect her light sensitive eyes, and some fanny packs that he thought we could use as ammo pouches. With all of us having proper clothes and armor now, we all got into our respective armor and strapped on our gear to be ready for anything before proceeding further.

Another important find along the way was a small pharmacy, where we got two big packs of toilet paper and loaded up on personal hygiene products, vitamins, any possibly useful medications, first aid kits and extra bandages, and other first aid supplies. We tried to be as thorough as possible and get anything that we thought we might have need of. By the time we were done, the back of the truck was about a third full and stacked carefully to the top of the canopy to allow us to fit as much as we could once we got to the grocery store.

At the grocery store we backed the truck as close to the entrance as we could and then we each grabbed shopping carts and split up, while keeping a careful eye on the game clock. Grell and Pete went searching for bottled water and other beverages. Nishalle, Venika, and Reiko went off in search of dry goods, canned goods, and stuff that would be filling but not take much space, like trail mix and such. That left me with Lissany who was watching me, and our surroundings, very carefully as we hurriedly pushed our carts along. First we would load her cart with fresh produce, and then move to the meat and dairy section to fill mine with meat, cheeses, and such.

Occasionally we heard sounds, which were probably the others going about their tasks, and each time the Beast-kin girl was quick to place herself between myself and the sound as she looked around cautiously. That, and the fact that she had requested to be with me for this task, prompted me to ask as we piled bags of potatoes and carrots in her cart, “What’s up? You’ve been watching me like a hawk since we left the warehouse, you put yourself between me and a sniper, and now you’re sticking to me like glue.”

She lifted the faceplate of her helm and gave me a serious look. “I’m doing my job. When I did the class part of my tutorial I was introduced to an NPC called Queen Amoiraishe to take my Guardian’s Vow. She told me that each Guardian has a person to guard above all others, and that mine would be her daughter, the princess of the Autumn Court. I’m not just a Guardian Taelya, I’m your Guardian.”

I wasn’t quite sure how to react to that, so I just stared at her as she finished loading the cart with fresh veggies. Did they game creators somehow know about the gender glitch in my race, was it a glitch at all? If it wasn’t, then why hadn’t I been told? Then there was Queen Amoiraishe, who reminded me an awful lot of Moira Llewellyn. Why the hell was my character so important in this? And why create the Guardian class at the last minute for Danielle and have her protect me? I had far too many questions and no way to get any answers for the moment.

Could it be that she wanted to show off the Yseil'dhraí as a race during the competition at the end of our time, but she needed a powerful one to represent her own server? I was the only one who had picked the race for our server, and keeping me alive would mean I would get experience and grow in my skills faster. But then why the gender thing? Was it a gender limited race and I just didn’t know? No, that didn’t make sense, it had the male option it just hadn’t worked. I was deep in thought as we proceeded to the meat and dairy section and loaded up my cart, but no closer to an answer by the time we were done.

We finished loading up the truck with one hour and seven minutes left on the clock for the event, but we still needed to get to the north side of the city and the safe zone. Once both the tailgate and canopy were securely closed we all piled into the truck, though it was a tight fit with Grell, me, and Reiko in the front and Lissany, Pete, and Nishalle in the back, especially with Lissany in her armor. At least Venika didn’t take up much space, being only five inches tall. Once we were all squeezed in though, we drove back through the mall as safely as we could to the nearest exit, where Grell gunned the engine and barreled through the glass doors and into the early morning light of the parking lot outside.

After a moment to catch our bearings I pointed toward the northwest. “There! That’s the exit to the northbound highway!” Then I cursed as I saw the horde of zombies approaching between us and the exit. “Oh shit.”

“Great, what do we do now? Should we try to plow through, find another route, or get out and take care of them?” Pete asked in concern from behind me.

“There’s no time to fight and try for loot, we’ve got just under an hour and we have no idea how far away the safe zone is,” Nishalle pointed out. “Our best bet is to plow though and hope that the highway is clear enough.”

“Yeah, but that’s a lot of zombies and they’re grouped together kind of tight, that might be a problem if we drive through them,” Reiko countered.

“One of us could try to draw them off so the rest can get away,” Lissany suggested.

“No, we’re not doing that, we all get through this or none of us do,” I said firmly. Then I turned to Venika and asked, “How were you taught to cast spells?”

“I draw Elven sigils in the air and speak them out loud, the same as I’ve seen you doing, I think that most Fae do it that way,” the Sprite replied. “It’s going to be a while before I can memorize all those sigils and their meanings and start combining them for new spells though. Why do you ask?”

“Really?” I asked, a bit surprised. It had all seemed so easy to me when I first read through them under Queen Amoiraishe’s tutelage. “Okay, maybe my racial skill is more useful than I thought then, I already have them all memorized. I have an idea, so watch me carefully in case it works and we need to do it again.”

“You got it!” She said flying into the front of the cab to sit on my shoulder so she could keep a close eye and ear on what sigils I was using.

I turned to the Atlantean in the group and said, “Grell, if this works, you’re going to know it. As soon as it does, floor it.” His response was to begin revving the engine as I started drinking in mana from the world around me. I took my time as I drew the sigils in the air and spoke them, focusing on the effect I wanted as I did so, first the two sigils from my combustion spell and then I added a third, the sigil for ‘wrath’. “Tierre liantuir hannira!” Then I released the magic, directing it not at one of the zombies in the front, but a particularly tall one near the center of the horde.

A firestorm erupted in a ten foot radius around my target, incinerating those within the area of effect and sending others flying as Grell hit the gas. We barreled through the remains of the horde, flaming zombies being knocked aside, run over, or sent flying over the hood to land behind us as we went. Grell didn’t slow us down until we were well down the highway, with the city in our rearview mirror.