The silence after Mike's question dragged a few beats past uncomfortable. Finally, Skye went to the door and leaned against it with her ear pressed to the wood paneling.

“The ghost is gone,” she announced, “At a guess he's tasked with keeping us in. So long as we don't break any windows Roy shouldn't be a problem.”

“What about the doc?” Alex asked.

Skye closed her eyes, hummed to herself a moment, and said, “There is only one ghost active at the moment. I won't know what she's been tasked with until she's active.”

“So... do we stay here, or move on, or what?” Jacob asked.

“We should find everyone else, before that thing picks them off one by one,” Alex declared.

“Agreed,” Skye said, “although moving around in a large group might become strategically unsound.” She shrugged. “I mostly guard one, two people at most. Not a dozen. Zac?”

Zac looked around and realized he had the most practical combat experience. Skye had talent in spades, but she was fourteen. Alex was a security guard, not a soldier. Jacob was a kid, and Mike... well he was brave enough when his opponent was bound. For all Zac knew he was a door to door vacuum salesman in his normal life.

“The principle is the same,” Zac said, speaking to her because if she continued as she was she would need the knowledge. And because it felt less like helping his enemies if he focused on her. “With a small enough group, you want to stay on the move as much as possible without exhausting yourself. With a larger group you must establish a base camp; a shelter that can be defended until rescue, or dawn in this case, arrives.”

“Okay, sounds good, but how do we find the rest?” Skye asked.

“Well, you should be able to sense them,” Zac said.

Skye shook her head. “Not while they're alive I can't. I sense the dead.”

“Only the dead?” Zac questioned.

Skye shrugged. “Yeah.”

“If you can remotely track the dead,” Zac said, “You should have the capability to find the living as well; you possess the base line extra sense.”

“Huh.” Skye shook her head. “Never been able to figure it out, though.”

Zac frowned. Surely someone had tried to teach her! Yet she used terms like 'figure it out' and 'guess' a lot. Meaning she was stumbling through using her abilities one her own. Without a mentor. Without guidance.

If they lived through this, he would have to correct that oversight.

“Can you do it?” Jacob asked.

Zac shook his head. “Not well.” The truth was if they were, say, in the woods or simply a wooden building, he could do it. All the steel in the construction of modern buildings really threw off his abilities. He didn't aim to just hand over information like that to men who saw him as subhuman.

“I guess we can just wait for the screams,” Skye said.

Just as a scream echoed through the mall.

“I swear I had no idea that was going to happen,” Skye said, already throwing the door open and jogging in the direction the scream had come from.

A second, higher pitched, scream echoed the first.

“Any idea who those are?” Zac asked Alex, as the man ran to keep pace with Zac a few feet behind Skye.

“I think Bob, maybe Bill,” Alex said. “We have to hurry! That sounded like it came from all the way across the mall.”

Skye nodded, “Good news, the slasher isn't exactly where that scream came from. It's...” she pointed, “that way, and the scream came from,” she pointed a few degrees to the right, “that way.”

“But it can teleport,” Jacob panted from behind Zac, “Why is it chasing them?”

“Trying to scare them,” Skye said, “And exhaust them. More fear is more fuel for this thing, remember?”

“I don't remember you ever saying that!” Mike complained from the back of the group.

“Shut up and run!” Alex demanded.

Only a fool arrives out of breath to a confrontation, but if they didn't run there might not be a confrontation to arrive at, only the aftermath of another slaughter.

The group skidded around a corner into the former food court. There were still tables scattered around, most of them rusted and half collapsed. The slasher was at the far end of the court, hefting a table over its head and laughing.

Skye pointed silently to a table some four, five yards from where the slasher stood. Zac saw two men huddled underneath.

“It knows where they are,” Skye whispered. “It's just-” she paused as the slasher threw the table over the counter of one of the empty food stands. “Taunting them.”

Zac nodded. As they watched, the creature stalked up to another table, slightly closer to the two men, and picked it up. It laughed, and threw this one towards the group. It fell short, but Alex and Mike dove for cover anyways.

“Grab them,” Skye ordered, “and retreat to the office.”

“That's our base?” Alex demanded.

“For the moment, yes. Go!” Skye yelled, running across the food court. Zac followed her, skidding aside halfway there to dodge a third thrown table. He aimed for the two men cowering under a half collapsed table. He noticed that Alex was just a pace behind him. Jacob and Mike were nowhere to be seen.

Skye, for her part, stopped some ten feet from the slasher and picked up a chair.

“Hey! Ugly!” she screamed, throwing the chair to impact with the side of the creature's hooded head.

“Is she nuts?” Alex's voice was a strained whisper.

“She has its attention,” Zac replied.

He dropped to his knees next to the table and held out his hand. The men under the table looked rough; one sported a bruise the size of Zac's fist on the side of his face. The other was covered in dust and cobwebs. They were both shaking violently.

Zac didn't recognize either one of them.

The smaller, blonde man with the bruised face shrunk back from Zac's outstretched arm. The other one took his hand and let himself be drawn to his feet.

“Who is that?” the man whispered.

“Back up,” Alex declared. “Come on, Bob,” he said to the other one.

“But it'll find us,” Bob whimpered.

“It'll find you faster if you don't come with us,” Zac declared.

Bob whimpered some more. Zac glanced over the table. Skye had engaged the slasher again; she had that tiny black knife in one hand and what looked like a ripped off chair leg in the other. She seemed to be amusing herself mostly by repeatedly bashing the thing in the gut with the chair leg, occasionally defending herself from its return attacks by slashing at its hands and arms with her knife if it reached for her.

She was probably fine.

“Let's go already,” Zac growled. “She can't keep that up forever you know!”

He gripped the hand of the still unnamed man, who seemed not much older than Jacob, and turned to run. He hoped the human could keep up because Zac had no intention of stopping until he had stowed the humans someplace safe. Then, he was going to come back for Skye.

Alex seemed to have the same idea. He dragged the whimpering Bob out of hiding and glanced back.

“She's got it turned away from us,” he whispered. “On three, run.”

Zac nodded.

“One, two... three!” Alex took off with admirable speed for a human dragging an uncooperative running mate.

Zac had an easier time of it, as the other man seemed to realize Zac was his best chance for survival and followed his every movement with the agility built of desperation. They had to dodge around broken chairs and collapsed tables while the slasher laughed. Zac refused to look back. It would only slow them down.

They reached the intersection that separated the food court from the main part of the mall. Jacob and Mike waited there. Mike had a gun drawn.

“What do you mean to do with that?” Zac asked. “You know it's bullet proof!”

“Yeah, but it makes me feel better,” Mike grumbled.

“Put that away,” Alex ordered, “And come on. We're meeting back at the office!”

“But... she's still fighting,” Jacob protested.

“And she will be until we're clear,” Zac said. “She's fine. She'll break off once we're safe.”

At least he hoped she would. Leaving her behind tore at something deep inside Zac's chest that hurt more than the busted ribs. But he knew better than to undermine a fellow warrior. So he ran.

They reached the office out of breath and panting, unified for a moment in the universal need to get oxygen into their lungs. Naturally, this moment only lasted until the man Zac had dragged across the mall had enough air to think again. Then, of course, he realized that his rescuer was not one of them.

“What the hell! What is the elf doing loose?” he demanded.

Alex gave a deep, tired sigh. “Bill, the situation is not what it was this afternoon.”

“He's not still a filthy monster? Because I'm looking at it, and I'm still seeing pointed ears!” Bill declared.

Zac crossed his arms and leaned against the door, ignoring a faint spike of pain from where the glass had been. He kept his posture casual and relaxed. He refused to count heads. He refused to panic at being in an enclosed room with a group of humans who had already hurt him, with the only person on his side a fourteen year old girl who was currently off fighting a monstrosity.

“He's the lesser of two evils,” Alex replied. “He's trapped in here, too, and for whatever reason the girl back there? She seems to care about him. So if we want her to keep protecting all of us, we have to tolerate him.”

Zac shrugged as all eyes swiveled towards him. Alex wasn't wrong. Skye made no secret of her disdain for the Hunt Initiative or her favoritism towards Zac. He wasn't entirely clear why she seemed to have affection for him, but it was a nice change from the other humans' open hatred so he didn't bother to question it.

Someone knocked on the door behind Zac. Presuming it was Skye he leaned away from it and reached for the latch.

A hand caught his. Mike's.

“It could be the creature!” Mike hissed.

Zac shook his head. “It wouldn't knock,” he pointed out, “also, it teleports.”

He shook the man's hand off disdainfully and opened the door. As expected, Skye waited outside. She looked okay, barring a new bruise on her cheek. Her hair was a tangled mess and one sleeve was slightly ripped.

She looked him up and down with a small, concerned frown.

“Everyone made it in one piece,” Zac reported, then asked. “The slasher?”

“Momentarily dispelled,” Skye said, stepping into the room and sliding her black knife into someplace on her suit. She looked around, relaxed now that she saw they hadn't used the opportunity to do something unpleasant to Zac.

Just when it looked like they might have a single moment to breathe, one of the newly rescued men started screaming incoherently, pointing at Skye.