Katrina screamed. And screamed. And screamed. She only stopped screaming when Wyne pulled the bloody finger out of her hand and threw it away, as hard as he could. She didn't notice that he had waded in after her.

"Relax," Wyne said, hugging her tightly. "There's nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about!" Katrina laughed hysterically, pulling out of his embrace. "I found a finger! A finger!"

"I know you did," he replied calmly. "But that doesn't mean that people died here. Look around. Do you see any blood? Any sign of a fight?"

Katrina glanced around them. Wyne was right.

"If you don't think that there was a fight, how do you think a finger ended up in the fountain?" Katrina demanded.

Wyne hesitated before speaking. "I'm sure there are plenty of logical explanations."

The hesitation was all Katrina needed. There was a fight, she was sure of it.

Katrina waded out of the fountain, thankful that the bloody finger was not in the water that they had just drank. She shook off the excess water on her and put on her shoes and socks.

Katrina explored the ground floor of the mall, looking for any other blood. She found nothing.

"Let's go upstairs," she called out to Wyne, who was also searching.

"Why?"

"I don't see anything down here. Maybe the fight was upstairs, and the finger had fallen from one of the mezzanines," Katrina said, already climbing up the stairs, as the escalator and elevator didn't have any electricity to power it.

Katrina searched the second floor, but it, like the first floor, was devoid of anything unusual. However, when she arrived at the third floor, she hit a jackpot.

"Wyne! Over here!" she called. Wyne immediately teleported next to her, gasping when he saw what she did.

People, all of them from their group of ten who went exploring, were lying in a large pool of blood. They were all obviously dead. Blood was on the walls and covered most of the ground. The person closest to them was missing his right index finger, which must've fallen into the fountain below. There were dead coyotes around them.

Wyne looked at Katrina nervously.

"Don't worry, I won't faint or freak out again," Katrina said, even though she wanted to.

"There are only six people here, which means that only three, four including you, survived," Wyne observed.

"Dean, Blythe, and Derrick survived," Katrina said, doing a quick sweep of the dead with her eyes. Katrina crouched down and felt one of the kids' bodies. It was cold and clammy.

"His body is cold. The attack didn't happen recently," she said, straightening. "Come on, let's get out of here. This place is creeping me out."

Wyne gladly obliged, leading the way down the stairs.

Katrina? something said.

"What?" she jumped. She turned to Wyne. "Did you say something?"

"No," Wyne replied, confused.

Katrina, it's me, Dean. I'm talking to you using telepathy, the voice said again.

"Dean? Where are you?" Katrina said aloud.

"What are you talking about?" Wyne asked.

Blythe, Derrick, and I are in the pharmacy on the third floor. Please come.

"Katrina?" Wyne asked uncertainly.

"We need to go back," Katrina announced, heading upstairs again.

"Wait, what? Why?"

"That's where Dean, Blythe, and Derrick are. They're in the third-floor pharmacy. Dean told me using his telepathy," she replied as she arrived onto the third floor. Katrina looked around for a pharmacy but didn't see one. The pharmacy must've been on the other side of the large mall.

"Give me your hand. I'll teleport us," Wyne said.

"I thought you needed to know what a place looks like before you can teleport there," Katrina said.

"No, I only need to know a description. Like right now, I'm thinking of a pharmacy in this mall on the third floor." Without farther ado, he grabbed her hand and they teleported away.

They landed at the front of a pharmacy. Entering it, they found Blythe cradled in Dean's arms and Derrick pacing, grabbing medicine off the shelves at random. Blythe was covered in blood and there was a huge, gaping wound on her arm.

Dean didn't fare much better. He had long, deep scratches all over his body and was bleeding profusely. Derrick was unharmed, except for a few minor scratches.

"Thank god you're here," Dean said weakly. "Blythe's injured and we don't know whether she's going to survive. She can't use her power to heal herself and doesn't have enough energy to heal anyone else."

"You two know any way to help?" Derrick growled, slamming his fist onto the shelf in frustration. "I can't find any wound closing bandages."

"Wound closing bandages won't help," Katrina said. "Those are only for minor scratches, like the ones you have. They won't help Dean or Blythe at all."

"We need the blood increasing pills," Wyne added. Katrina nodded, showing her agreement.

"Well, where are they?" Derrick demanded.

"Those pills aren't OTC medicine," Katrina said. "You need a prescription."

"Well, get a prescription then!"

"That's not how it works," Katrina replied. "Wyne, can you check all the other pharmacies in this city for blood increasing pills?"

"What if you guys get into trouble? You can't teleport away like I can," Wyne replied.

"Dean, can you send a message to him telepathically if we get into trouble?" Katrina asked.

Dean shook his head. "Even though I can sense the activities of people's minds from miles away if I concentrate, I can only send messages if the receiver is within a mile away from me."

"How about this then: I'll cast a big illusion over the city if we need you to come back," Katrina said.

"Well, if you're sure," Wyne replied, reluctant to leave them alone.

Katrina nodded and he teleported away.

"Also, Katrina," Dean said, "for future reference, if you want to speak to me when I'm using telepathy, you don't need to say the words out loud. Just think of them."

Katrina nodded, making a mental note. She turned to Derrick.

"Derrick, you and I are going to search this pharmacy for wound closing bandages and check if they have blood increasing pills," Katrina ordered. "Dean, well, you just try to stop Blythe's bleeding."

"Why should I listen to you?" Derrick asked. "I'm two years your senior so you should listen to me."

"Even though you're older than me," Katrina said, struggling to stay calm, "I know more than you in the medical field. If you want Dean and Blythe to survive, you're going to listen to me, whether you like it or not. Don't forget about our truce."

Derrick nodded, so Katrina started to browse the aisles. The pharmacy didn't have any blood increasing pills in stock, but it had a hefty amount of wound closing bandages. Katrina also found some elastic bandages, which she wrapped around Dean and Blythe, but they weren't doing much to stop the bleeding. Blythe looked close to death and Dean looked like he was about to fall unconscious.

After Derrick and Katrina decided that they had cleared the store of all useful items, they cleaned up the blood around Dean and Blythe and dragged the dead bodies of the other teens and coyotes to a corner. They also wiped away the blood, making the mall almost as clean as it was before.

Before they went back to Dean and Blythe, Katrina insisted that Derrick find a large piece of cloth from a fabric store to cover the bodies, which was the best burial they could give them in such a short amount of time.

"Can we eat the coyotes?" Derrick asked. "I'm starving."

"Only you would want to eat rotting coyote meat," Katrina muttered offhandedly.

"What does that mean?" Derrick growled.

"Nothing," she replied.

When they got back, Dean recounted what happened while she was gone. When Wyne never appeared with Katrina back when he was teleporting everyone to the city, Dean assumed that Wyne had passed out. He decided that they couldn't afford to wait around for them, so Dean led the others to explore.

Some of the teens had gotten rowdy and started destroying the buildings, making a lot of noise. He assumed that that was what had attracted the coyotes in the first place.

Then, Dean decided to make camp in the mall, as it had the fountain, which was a good water source.

However, when they reached the third floor, a pack of coyotes ambushed them. Everyone except him, Derrick, and Blythe had died, so Derrick dragged the two of them into the pharmacy, where they had been hiding until Katrina and Wyne found them.

In return, Katrina told him what she and Wyne had found.

"It's not normal coyote behavior," Katrina said. "Coyotes don't randomly attack people, much less ambush them like they did to you guys."

Dean nodded. "I wouldn't be surprised if the coyotes were part of the Experiment," he said.

"I suppose we'll never know," Katrina replied. Suddenly, Wyne appeared next to them, holding a plastic pill bottle.

"Guess what? I found some blood increasing pills in a nearby pharmacy," Wyne grinned, obviously pleased with himself. He tried to push them down Blythe's throat gently so that she wouldn't choke.

"The only problem is, it's kind of hard to get an unconscious person to swallow the pills and not choke," he frowned

"Open the pill and shake the powder into her mouth," Katrina suggested.

"What?"

Katrina snatched the pills from Wyne's hands and separated the two plastic pieces before dumping the powder inside the pills into Blythe's mouth.

"Dean, take some too," Katrina ordered. Dean took one and popped it into his mouth, swallowing it dry.

"Also, Wyne, here're some bandages for your wounds," Katrina said, handing him some wound closing bandages that she had tucked into her pocket along with her knife. She helped him apply them to the small scratches he got from their run in with the coyote pack.

"Do you know what happened to the people at the farm?" Dean asked.

Wyne and Katrina glanced at each other, both of them reluctant to tell him the bad news.

"There's good news and bad news," Katrina said. "Which do you want to hear first?"

"The bad," Dean replied immediately. "Might as well get it over with."

"We found a pool of blood inside the barn and the place was abandoned," Wyne said.

"What about the good news?" Dean said.

"There were no bodies," Katrina replied. "We don't know what happened to the other fifty-three people. But again, we weren't looking very carefully. We left when we saw the blood."

"Can you guys go back and see if you can find the others?" Dean asked. "I need to know what happened to them."

Katrina nodded. She grabbed Wyne's hand and they went to the farm.

"Woah, what happened here?" Wyne asked. The ground was covered in inches of water, like a flash flood had happened. The barn and tool shed had been knocked down, as well as a couple of trees. The animals were nowhere to be seen.

"There isn't this much water back in the city, is there?" Katrina asked, wading through the water to the remains of the barn.

"No, there isn't. It looks normal there. There's a lake between here and the city though. The water probably drained into the lake," Wyne replied, kicking aside a piece of driftwood.

"Yeah, that's probably what happened," Katrina halfheartedly replied as she searched for bodies.

"Any bodies, along with any survivors, must've been washed away," Wyne said, searching the wreckage with her.

"Let's go back. Maybe the survivors went to the ocean or forest," Katrina guessed. She grabbed Wyne's hand and they teleported back to the city. When they arrived, Blythe was starting to stir.

"Blythe?" Katrina said, kneeling down next to her. "Can you hear me?"

Blythe groaned, which Katrina supposed was a good sign.

"What happened?" she asked, slowly sitting up.

"You were attacked by coyotes," Dean gently reminded her.

"Oh yeah, I remember now." Blythe hissed in pain as she moved, clutching her arm.

"It's a pity that I can't heal myself," she said. "It would've made things a lot less complicated."

"No one's perfect," Dean said. "How are you feeling?"

"Well, my arm is literally killing me, but other than that, I'm perfectly fine," she joked.

"What's something that usually distracts you from whatever's at hand?" Katrina asked.

"Reading my medical textbooks, why?" she replied.

Katrina conjured up an old Harry Potter book, which used to be one of her favorite books. "Use this illusion to distract yourself. Sorry that it's not a medical textbook. I would need to know the information inside the textbook in order to create it."

Blythe's eyes lit up as she saw the book. "Are you kidding me? It's great!"

Blythe immediately started reading, with Dean helping her flip the pages. Of course, the words in the book weren't exactly the same as the ones in the real one as Katrina didn't memorize it, but she knew enough to fill in the first half of the book and satisfy Blythe.

"What did you find at the barn?" Dean asked.

"Nothing," Wyne said. "There was a flood that knocked down the barn and tool shed, as well as washed away the animals. The survivors probably either went to the ocean or to the forest."

Dean nodded, his brows furrowing.

Katrina glanced down at her wet, blood-stained, clothes. "Is there clothes shop nearby? I think we could all do with some clean clothes."

Wyne offered her his arm. "I can teleport you there," he said. "There's one not too far away."

"I want to go too," Derrick said, making them all jump. Katrina had completely forgotten that he was there, given all the excitement of Blythe waking up. Her mood immediately soured, but she nodded as she remembered their truce.

"Bring some back for me and Blythe," Dean said. "Get us something practical," he added when he looked at Blythe's summer dress.

Blythe was shivering in the cold, unused to the temperature after living in sunny Miami her entire life. Now that Katrina thought of it, she wouldn't be surprised if they were in Oregon, based on the weather and the nearby ocean.

Wyne nodded, before taking her and Derrick to the clothes shop. They each picked out their outfits. Katrina abandoned her sweatshirt for a red shirt, which fit the early spring weather better, and picked out a pair of flexible jeans. She also found a backpack, which she stuffed full of the bandages and knife that were previously in her pocket.

As Katrina folded up her old clothes and left them in a corner of the room, Wyne and Derrick walked back with some clothes for Dean and Blythe.

"Ready?" he asked. Katrina nodded and they teleported back.

Katrina helped Blythe change out of her clothes and Wyne helped Dean put on his new clothes. When they were done, Derrick announced that he was starving.

Dean rolled his eyes and pulled out some food from his burlap bag which had, miraculously, managed to survive. That night, they feasted on carrots, lettuce, and bread, quieting their ever-growing hunger.

"We should probably get to sleep," Dean announced as he glanced out the window and saw the quickly darkening sky. Everyone chimed in their agreement.

Wyne teleported all of them to a furniture store, where they all found comfortable beds for each of them. Derrick decided to take watch for the night.

Katrina chose a bed near Wyne in case Derrick attacked her in the middle of the night, but soon succumbed to her drowsiness and quickly fell asleep.

...

What's your favorite book?