Allie, Nick and Lief reached the abandoned pickle factory, just like Skully said. The first thing that they noticed was that there were many things that the Haunter had taken from the living world, including gormet food. There, they met the Haunter and asked him to teach them how to influence the living world. The Haunter gave them a test: to pick up a stone that was from the living world. Of course, because they were afterlights, Nick and Lief both failed to pick up the stone. The Haunter then said that he can't teach, you only have the skill or you don't. When Nick and Lief failed to move the stone, the Haunter's goons grabed them and nailed them into barrels of pickled juice. This horrified Allie, and she was told to move the stone. She nearly failed, but she managed to shift it a tiny bit. As a reward, the Haunter threw her out of the pickle factory, telling her to come back when she was ready to learn. However, Allie only thought of rescuing her friends. She returned to Mary and tried to ask her for help. However, Mary refused, saying she wouldn't risk any other children in a rescue mission. Allie, furious, left the World Trade Center, determined never to go back. Shortly thereafter, Allie learned that she in fact did have a skill: She could do something called Body Surfing: she could read the minds of and even influence real-world people. However, she still needed allies, so she when to the only other people she knew: Johnnie-O's gang. Johnnie-O was skeptical at first, but he finally decided to help Allie when she told him about the food in the Haunter's hideout. They staged an attack on the Haunter's hideout but they were in for a surprise: The place was deserted, except for one single barrel and all the food. The gang fell upon the food immedietly, but Allie focused on the barrel. After a bit of investigation, Allie found that the Haunter was the one trapped in the barrel. He said that the McGill had raided his hideout and that he took everything to his ship in the harbor. He begged to be let out, but Allie wouldn't allow it. She asked the gang to help track down the McGill, but they wouldn't risk it. So Allie left them and headed towards the harbor. Meanwhile, Nick and Lief were chilling in their barrels, which had now been seized by the McGill. Lief had adapted pretty well to his new situation: he had attained some state of Nirvana. Nick however, was miserable. On his ship, the McGill was openning his barrels one by one. Only three of them were filled: Nick, Lief and a kid who never stopped screaming. The McGill decided to have them all chimed, and Nick is very apprehensive.

If I were an afterlight, or Allie, and I had to rescue, my friends, it would have been in a similar manner that Allie did. I would have gone back to ask Mary for help, and when she refused, I'd have too been furious. However, I wouldn't just leave. I would have stuck around for a while and tried to absorb any other useful information from the gathering of afterlights in the Global Trade Center. Once I did that, I'd have left to go find help elsewhere.