They waited in the ruined cafe for several hours. Lucky, with his uncanny ability to nap anywhere and at any time, allowed himself to drift off to sleep, while Stu started reading the history book he had taken from the Harbor.

  The history of this zombie-world was sort of similar to his own, in that it had begun with the birth of agriculture, which had in turn given rise to a number of great civilizations. That was where the similarities ended, however. Assyria, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China...none of these existed here, or if they did, they were so radically different from the civilizations he knew that he didn't recognize them. There didn't seem to be any point of divergence, where the history of his own world and the history of this one split; this zombie-world had been totally different from the very beginning.

  He had been operating under this assumption that this was some kind of parallel world, but he began to wonder about that now. Maybe this wasn't another dimension -- maybe it was another planet, in another solar system. Maybe the woman in the Hardcore ad wasn't Berly's doppelganger after all, but just a lookalike.

  But that didn't feel quite right either. Sure, the history and geography of this place was totally different, but if it was another planet...why were there humans here? Why was everyone speaking English? And though the differences were strange, the similarities were strange, too -- the cafe he was sitting in right now, for instance, perfectly resembled the cafes of his own world, apart from it being in ruins. Did other planets in other solar systems really have cafes that were indistinguishable from those found on 21st century Earth?

  It was all very confusing.

  Eventually it grew too dark for him to read, so he closed the book and slipped it back in his backpack. Then he poked Lucky a few times to wake him up.

  The kid snapped awake and scrambled for his gun. "What? Where?"

  "Relax," Stu said. The kid sure was jumpy when he woke up. "I thought you might want to get going."

  "Oh." He looked around sleepily. "Yeah, let's go."

  They left the cafe and, under cover of darkness, continued making their way down Highway 8. Though the sun had set, it was a bright, moonlit night, and they had little trouble seeing where they were going. Still, exploring a zombie-infested city at night was a very stressful experience, and Stu was very much on edge, constantly on the lookout for the undead. He considered activating his Night Vision, but decided against it; he preferred to save his skills for emergencies.

  And there didn't actually seem to be that many zombies around at the moment; the Wild Pack gangsters had evidently cleaned out much of this area.

  The men whose voices they had heard earlier, the ones they had been trying to avoid, were still hanging around -- they had occupied the first floor of a former clothing shop, along an intersection. They looked like they were having some kind of raucous late-night party; Stu could see them through the shop's big, broken windows. They had rigged up some lights in there, and fired up some loud, bassy music.

  "They must have found a dynamo engine," Lucky commented quietly.

  "Won't that noise attract the attention of the zombies?" Stu asked.

  "That's what they want," he said. "They draw the zombies in, so they can fight them on their own turf, on their own terms. It's safer than going out hunting for them."

  "Moths to a flame?"

  "Something like that. It's risky, though. Ordinary zombies are one thing. Jumbos and glowies and mutates are another." He gave the gangsters a disdainful look, then said, "Let's keep going."

  They walked for another hour and a half. Finally, just as the moon was beginning to dip out of sight, below the dark and distant horizon, they arrived at Southside Elementary: a very large public school, which rose up before them like a haunted castle. They were now on the edge of Meku City's suburbs, but the school had more of an urban character than a suburban one -- it was surrounded by businesses and shopping malls, and it apparently had its own underground parking garage.

  The school itself was a stout brick building, three stories high. Stu could see why the Wild Pack might have wanted it for a base; it was taller than the surrounding buildings, and protected by a gate and a chain link fence, which encircled the entire property. It looked very defensible.

  There didn't seem to be anyone guarding the gate, however, and they didn't see anyone on the grounds. The building itself was not illuminated, but that probably didn't mean anything; dynamo engines aside, electricity was obviously a rare and precious commodity in this zombie-world.

  They hid themselves behind some bushes and studied the scene. "Are you sure this is the place?" Stu asked, struck by the lack of activity.

  "Pretty sure," he said dryly, pointing to a sign near the main entrance which read "Southside Elementary."

  "It just doesn't look like anyone's--" Stu started to say, but he was interrupted by a distant scream, coming from within the school, followed by a couple of gunshots.

  They looked at each other, alarmed. "That didn't sound good," Stu said.

  "What's going on here?" Lucky wondered. "This isn't how Ben described this place at all. He said they kept it lit up all the time, and that there were guards stationed all over. Where is everybody?" While prying the bushes apart to get a better look, he suddenly stopped and gasped. "Over there!"

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Stu tried to see what he was seeing. "What? What is it?"

  "That's Luna's glider!"

  And indeed, there was a glider parked on the street just in front of the school. Unlike the other gliders Stu had seen, however, which were rusty and ruined, this one was a sleek convertible, shaped like an arrowhead, and with a shiny black finish. It looked brand new.

  "They've got her," Lucky said. "They've got my sister. Bastards! They're going to pay for this!" He stood and started heading for the school.

  Stu put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "We can't just rush into this," he hissed. "We need a plan."

  Lucky shook him off and slung his railgun into his hands. "You heard that scream. She could be in trouble. We have to go."

  Stu wanted to put the dumb kid in a headlock and talk some sense into him, but he didn't think that would go over very well; Lucky was just too stubborn. So, despite the fact that he thought this was a very dumb idea, he followed the kid through the unaccountably open gate and right up to the steps of the school.

  There were three doors leading into the school, but two of them had been boarded up and the third was locked. While Lucky was tugging on the locked door, they heard another series of shouts and screams coming from within the building. "There's something going on in there," Lucky said worriedly.

  "Zombies?"

  He didn't answer. Instead he turned to Stu and said, "We need to get inside."

  Stu gave the door a thoughtful frown. Would his newfound strength allow him to break the door down? He decided to give it a try. Handing his backpack to Lucky, he took a few steps back to get a running start and gave the door a good, solid kick. To Stu's own surprise, it burst open, the lock breaking easily.

  Lucky stared at him. "You...you're stronger than you look."

  "It was nothing," he said, shrugging. It occurred to him that it might not be a good idea to show off his strength and skills in front of people, if he could help it; it might seem suspicious.

  Lucky tossed him his backpack. He took out his Midnighter, while Lucky raised his railgun, and together they entered the darkened school, broken glass crunching beneath their feet. It looked like a pretty typical elementary school to Stu, with colorful walls and posters featuring cartoon animals, but of course the cheery, friendly decor contrasted sharply with the spooky, dilapidated state of the place.

  "Doesn't look like anyone's around," Stu whispered.

  "This is supposed to be the Wild Pack's headquarters," Lucky said doubtfully. "What happened here?"

  They got their first clue a few minutes later, while making their way down a long, dark hallway. There was a body lying on the floor.

  Lucky, who had taped a flashlight to the barrel of his railgun, shone his light on it. It appeared to be the body of a young man, barely out of his teens, although it was hard to tell; most of his face had been destroyed, smashed to a bloody pulp. That was horrifying enough, but as Lucky moved his flashlight down, Stu suddenly realized that his one of his arms had been ripped off as well -- it was lying a few feet away, next to a set of lockers. The scene was slick with blood.

  Stu was so disturbed by the sight that he had to look away. Lucky was not so squeamish -- in fact he bent down to examine the body, even touching the young man's arm. "He's still warm," he said. "And the blood is still wet."

  "What does that mean?" Stu asked.

  "It means that whoever or whatever did this is probably still in the area." He rose to his feet. "This place rots. We have to find Luna, and fast."

  They continued down the hallway, where they found even more bodies, some of which had silver-streaked blood. A battle had obviously taken place here -- the Wild Pack gangsters had apparently been set upon by zombies, and although they had managed to take a few with them, most of them had perished in the attack. They must have been caught by surprise.

  How had these zombies managed to enter the compound, though? And Stu didn't think an ordinary zombie had the strength to tear a man's arm completely out of the socket, which meant that there were probably some irregulars mixed in with this particular horde.

  He swallowed hard. The irregulars he had seen so far -- the mutate that had killed Virge, the speedy in the subway, the disgusting slobbish Brute -- had been absolutely terrifying. He did not want to run into another one of these monsters in this creepy school.

  They reached the end of the hallway and climbed a flight of stairs, to the second floor, where they found a set of large classrooms. Lucky shined his light into these rooms as they passed by them, and quietly called out his sister's name: "Luna? Luna?"

  Privately, Stu doubted that Luna was still alive. If she had been brought here -- and she probably had, considering the fact that her glider was parked out front -- she had almost certainly been caught up in the zombie attack. But he didn't share his doubts with Stu; he knew the kid wouldn't want to hear them.

  But then he stopped, frowning, as a thought suddenly occurred to him. If Luna was dead...wouldn't that mean that he had failed the "Looking for Luna" quest? And wouldn't the ICON system let him know that he failed, by giving him some kind of message? He wasn't sure how any of this worked, but if it worked anything like it did in a video game...

  Well, maybe she was alive, then. Maybe she had survived somehow.

  They were making their way down the hallway, as quietly as they could, when a ragged zombie -- a Level 1, according to the ICON system -- suddenly burst out of one of the classrooms and made a grab for Lucky. The kid was startled, but he managed to avoid it by hopping back a step. Quickly raising his railgun, he lined it up and pulled the trigger, striking it right between the eyes. The zombie crashed to the floor instantly; in fact it fell so quickly that Lucky had to hop back another step to get out of its way.

  "Nice shot," Stu commented.

  "Damn right." He peeked into the classroom that the zombie had just jumped out of. "Zombies are like roaches. For every one you see, there's a hundred you don't see...at least, not until it's too late. We have to find Luna--"

  "And fast," Stu finished. "I know." He looked into the classroom as well. There didn't seem to be any other zombies inside, but...

  He stepped into the classroom. There were three more mangled bodies here, but they were all mixed together, which made it hard to tell which ones might have been zombies and which ones might have been Wild Pack gangsters. It looked like a bomb had gone off in this room -- desks and chairs were scattered all over, and there was a residue of smoke in the air. There was also a large hole in the floor, and when Stu stepped into the room, he heard some ominous creaking beneath his feet. The bomb had evidently caused some kind of serious structural damage.

  He started to back out of the room...but stopped, because he had just bumped into Lucky. He turned around to ask the kid what was the matter...and that was when he saw the zombie.

  This one wasn't a Level 1. It wasn't even an ordinary zombie; the message over its head, which flickered to life as it shuffled closer to them, read "Level 3 Rager." It was approaching from the left.

  That was bad enough, but a moment later another zombie stepped into view, coming down the hallway from the right. This one was female, and it was giving off a pale green glow, which lit up its surroundings. Most of its clothing had been shredded, and there was a knife sticking out of its thigh. According to the ID hanging over its head, it was a "Level 2 Glowie."

  Both zombies saw Stu and Lucky at the same time. The rager's grotesque face twisted itself up into an angry scowl, while the glowie raised her chin and, to Stu's horror, smiled.

  "Uh-oh," Lucky whispered.