Vas opened his eyes to stare at a dark ceiling.

At first, he thought he was in his room.

It wasn’t until he turned and saw Selene sleeping next to him that Vas realized where he was.

It had been almost a month since the ambush that had killed the majority of the Scouts in expedition.

Vas’s group had made cautious, slow progress.

At first, there were long stretches in-between old suburbs. These would often be covered in snow and the Risen inside each house would be standing by their respective front doors.

After a couple of weeks the snow was barely even deep enough to cover half a door. Houses were getting closer together and it wasn’t more than another week until the houses were replaced by modern housing complexes (which were like 7-story hotels as opposed to individual houses).

The Scouts had dodged around Risen patrols until this point and had made fair progress each day.

Once they reached the city, they barely moved a street a day.

Sometimes they were forced to stay in a building for multiple days, clearing floors upon floors of Risen.

The monsters were everywhere.

They weren’t clustered like what Vas and the Decoys had encountered out in the wastes.

There was a Risen in every apartment.

In every condo.

In every house.

Sometimes there were more than one, up to six.

These Risen were never armed. They were always standing behind their front door, waiting.

The doors were always ajar since the EMP had forced the safety switch and opened every door in every city (aside from those programmed without safety switches, which was an option very few people took advantage of).

Alex and Joust had worked together and written out a proposal for a research project on the Risen, and Vas had approved it conditionally.

If it didn’t get in the way of the mission, what could it hurt?

Also, since the mission was so ambiguous, could much of anything really be detrimental?

Joust had started categorizing Risen and monitoring their behaviors, and had allowed Alex to name and document their findings.

The Scouts had spent two days clearing the huge (15-story) housing complex they were currently in, and still hadn’t touched the floors above the tenth.

There had been multiple scouting attempts to nearby buildings and shopping complexes, but the Scouts always returned well before nightfall.

They all stood together in the apartment room they had picked as their base of operations.

Alex was presenting the findings she and Joust had during their research.

“Because of that we are categorizing Risen now. We believe the way people have studied multiple breeds of dogs, horses, and animals in general can be applied to the Risen. For example, the Risen who stay in their homes are Sleepers. Risen that travel alone will stay categorized as Wanderers. Risen that form their freakish hordes will be known as Goblins.”

Joust sniffed loudly and took a step forward, frowning.

“—Just kidding! We’re calling them Brawlers.”

“Because they fight without much skill or experience, we found this description fitting.”

Joust interjected, obviously trying to take control of the storytelling from here on.

“Which is why we should also make a category for the Risen who are experienced and deadly. We’ll call them Lords!”

Joust shook his head and rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t fit with the types of categories we have. That would be more like a ranking system, defining which Risen are grunts, officers, etcetera. But they aren’t an organized army even when they gather, just a mindless horde. Like how a mob of people functions.”

“However,” Zy broke in, “The Risen are obviously different when they are first created as opposed to those who come back in a new body. Much like we have children and adults, except the aging criteria vary.”

“Is it possible they get stronger the more times we kill them?”

A few people shifted uncomfortably at Selene’s question. If the Risen kept getting stronger. . .

“No,” Vas broke in, “The big Risen I fought didn’t really improve from the first time I fought him. He had a bigger body and a better weapon the second time, but I was tired and wounded before our fight began.”

As he spoke, Vas flexed his wounded hand.

The hole had closed up, and he could use his hand like it was new again.

He supposed he was lucky, but one small bit of luck didn’t really make him feel lucky. He’d give up his entire arm if it would bring Jade back.

Joust cleared his throat, which was effective in bringing attention back to him.

Attention that Alex had no trouble stealing for herself. She clapped once.

“We have found no evidence that the gender or age of a person before they rise has anything to do with what kind of Risen they become.”

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She said the words as if she’d practiced them, and Vas took a few moments to process them internally before he started slowly nodding.

He still didn’t really get what she was saying. No evidence that the gender or age of a person will define what kind of Risen someone would be?

“You’re just saying we can’t tell what kind of Risen someone will become, right?” This was the question Vas had been forming, but it was Tapo who asked.

“Not quite,” Joust held up a finger, “While I believe gender and age have nothing to do with it, there is a good chance something we do as humans effects our type as a Risen. For example, every Risen we saw up north was a Brawler. They instantly become hostile. There must be a reason for that. We know all Risen are hostile, but Sleepers and Wanderers are often capable of restraint where Brawlers simply rush in.”

“But Sleepers and Wanderers do still rush in once they notice us so the types of Risen are really all still the same thing.” Alex attempted to take the conversation back.

“Why does any of this matter to us?” Selene asked.

The group looked at her. Vas could think of multiple reasons why studying the Risen would matter. They were reasons of emotion, logic, strategy. He decided not to say any of them.

It was Joust and Alex’s project, after all.

“Has humankind ever been the strongest or fastest creature on this planet?” Joust queried.

“When you think back to the beginning of our race, do you think we prospered because we were strong? I rather suspect it was because we were weak. We created tools and weapons because our hands and teeth were not enough. We created clothing and armor because our skin was not enough. We learned and adapted. We learned to make fire, captured lightning to use for our own purposes, and even defied gravity.”

“And?” Selene broke in just as eyes in the group started glazing over.

“And we did that because we kept learning things. A bear could track you by looking at your footprints, but he chooses to use his sense of smell because it is more efficient and natural. Because we know this, we know that hiding our tracks is insufficient to escape a bear. Effective methods include staying downwind, finding water, finding smelly plants or animals. The more we document and figure out about the Risen, the more complete a picture we can create. What if the Risen have an entire social structure we have no idea about? A command structure? A method of reproduction? An economy? A leader? A hive mind? Tribal structure? What if this is some sort of extra-terrestrial invasion force? For now I believe all we can do is try to document and categorize their actions so that further study can take place.”

“If we ever make it back north to show your findings off, do you think anyone will care?” Azul rarely spoke, but now he voiced the worry they all had.

The first part, not the latter.

They’d made it south. They would keep going south.

Would they ever return north?

“When our work gets in the right hands,” Alex stated confidently, “It could help us beat the Risen for good.”

“The point of all this traveling cannot just be to scout. Discovering patterns and habits, researching, becoming acquainted with our enemy. It is these things that will turn the tide.” Joust crossed his arms.

“Then,” Selene took a step forward so that she was in the middle of the group, “We should all be researching something. We should be capturing and studying the Risen we find. We should torture them, feed them, converse with them, and interrogate them.”

The others nodded.

“There are more samples here than up north. I believe we should turn this building into a research complex. With the first few floors being our defensive locations, we could turn other floors into laboratories. We still have yet to clear the top floors. The Risen there could serve as our first subjects.” Zy rubbed his chin as he spoke, which he seemed to think would lend him an even more dignified air than his intelligence already provided.

Vas was uncomfortable at the idea of becoming a scientist, but this seemed to be the safest path to knowledge. Controlled environments, interrogations, tests. He could see Fem nodding at him.

These things were more likely to keep his people alive than scouting blindly through the city.

Alive.

They were going to survive this.