The tension in Carl’s voice made David's mind kick into overdrive. Movement could mean anything. Survivors, zombies, mutants. Or something new.

  "Carl, I’m coming your way. Please specify. What kind of movement? Do you need reinforcements?"

  Static. Then Carl's voice came back, measured but tight. "Not sure. Multiple contacts at ground level. They're... hell, they're just watching us, using the parked cars and buildings as cover and moving up to the boundary. Nothing has moved past the line of stakes."

  David turned to Charlie, who'd gone pale beside him. "Keep on top of things here. I’m going to take about half the people we have here back to reinforce Carl. Keep watch and get ready to move fast, either to back us up or deal with new threats from behind. Quietly. No panic."

  He keyed the radio again. "Carl, we're coming to you. Hold position. Don't engage unless they do first, I’m bringing more people to reinforce you, hang on."

  "Copy that. We're holding."

  The walk to Carl's position took less than two minutes, but David's mind was already running scenarios, planning actions.

  Don’t run, they might behave like Earth predators and attack if they see fast movement as aggression or weakness. He walked steadily and deliberately waved the raiders with him down when they started to move quickly. He raised his radio and spoke to the whole group.

  “No sudden moves anyone. Let’s not start something by accident.”

  The barrier of headless corpses marked a clear territorial claim. Whatever had made it was clearly invested in territory. So maybe if they didn’t cross there was no problem…

  That display took planning, effort, intent, brutality. So maybe not. He wouldn’t bet on withdrawing getting them a free pass if they were sloppy or vulnerable.

  His spiritual hearing began picking up a faint buzzing as they approached, he focused on sending his spirits ahead of him trying to scope out what was going on. His Domain was too small to give him the range to get his newly boosted senses into their territory, but he could detect them ahead, sending a couple of spirits gave him a stronger sense of their presence.

  Carl stood with his gun raised but not aimed, flanked by three other raiders. Another four were on the other side of the lead truck. All of them stared down the street past the grisly barrier. David followed their gaze and felt his breath catch.

  There were six of them visible, three on each side of the street. They moved wrong. Not the lurching shamble of zombies this was the smooth wrongness of something that had too many joints and too much flexibility. These things flowed. Sinuous, serpentine movements, staying low to the ground and near cover, their movement shouldn't work with a humanoid frame, their elongated spines giving them flexibility and body length that felt wrong their limbs were too long as well.

  David stepped up beside Carl, keeping his voice low. "How long have they been there?"

  "Maybe ninety seconds before I called you. They just... appeared. At least one came out from the buildings. Another out of the alley between two buildings."

  The creatures stayed close to the walls, hugging the shadows of the storefronts and apartment buildings. Their bodies were covered in greenish scales that caught the light oddly, creating a subtle shimmer with each movement. The scales looked wet, but David suspected it was their natural texture.

  What had been human was still recognizable in the general shape, bipedal, two arms, a head. But everything else was transformed. Elongated limbs, too-long fingers fused and tipped with what looked like long extended claws. Their heads had stretched, faces pushed forward into something almost snout-like, their skin was the most noticeable – greenish mottled patterns that looked like repeating scales, larger and paler on the belly and smaller and darker on flanks and shoulders.

  And they wore paint and little else, where they had anything it looked more decorative than functional. Crude streaks of what looked like dried blood or black zombie ichor smeared across their bodies in deliberate patterns. Two parallel stripes ran down the center of their throats and bellies, garish against the green scales.

  "They're marked," David said quietly. "War paint, maybe. Or territorial markers."

  One of the creatures shifted, and David caught a glimpse of its eyes. Inhuman, but still recognizably human. His brain dropped a label unbidden, the uncanny valley. Most of them had crossed over fully into monster but the eyes, they were still in the uncanny valley, causing atavistic repulsion was triggered.

  David gestured, speaking softly to keep people steady as the raiders following him reinforced the people on both sides of the lead truck.

  They now had almost half their force here. Twenty raiders plus most of the core group. Only Charlie was missing coordinating the people left to hold the intersection and their line of retreat.

  David was starting to wonder if that had been a bad call, Charlie’s fire was one of the few things he was reasonably confident could hurt these things. Then he paused, remembering his objective wasn’t to kill everything they met, he wanted to get his people out intact.

  David held up a hand without looking back. Stop. Wait. He wanted to see how they reacted to reinforcements before doing anything else.

  The buzzing in his spiritual hearing grew stronger. He didn’t know if it was communication, or something else. Unlike with the Nath his bloodline didn’t give him a feel for this. Despite their lack of verbal communication, the things started to move, closing on the edge of their territory.

  "Heck," Carl said softly. "What are we looking at here? Six of them, I can get one, you can get one. Sarah can get one. That leaves three for the others to deal with at range. Camila and Mark can cover close in if needed…"

  "These things think, smarter than the Zombies at baseline, just look at that fence. I don’t want to find out the hard way what tricks they have in a fight…" David’s reply tapered off for a moment.

  "Something that claims territory and marks its borders might not start a fight if we don’t challenge that. Or they might just attack if we are seen backing away from them…"

  “Your call. I’m not much use unless they rush us.” Camila was standing forward with her crowbar raised.

  The monstrous mutants began to move again, still staying within their territory but closing the distance to the barrier. Their movements remained fluid, predatory. One of them opened its mouth slightly, Inhaled sharply then closed its rows of disturbingly human like teeth and made a loud hissing noise.

  A moment later and all of them were making sounds. Hissing noises, a sort of guttural vocalization that sounded like throat singing, and one even banged its clawed arm against a mailbox to produce a booming thumping noise.

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  "They're threat displaying," someone behind him whispered.

  David's work brain activated, categorizing the situation. Threat displays implied there was a chance not to fight. Did that mean these creatures were not confident of winning outnumbered like this? He worked on the puzzle. They could take them. Carl’s alpha strike plan could drop half of them before the fight even began. He just needed them to come a little further out of cover.

  “OK people, I want you calmly numbering off. I want four people targeting each of those things. Talk to the people next to you. DON’T attack unless I call it. Just sort your targets out.

  Carl, I want you taking the one furthest to the left, Sarah the one further to the right. Everyone switches to the closest one after their target is taken out or stays focused on it if it gets to cover. Let’s get ready to end this if we have the chance.”

  Everyone stirred uncomfortably but started sharing targeting in low voices.

  “If this goes off I’ll lock down the one that gets closest, Katie, Mark, Camila you take it up close as soon as I do.”

  Sarah’s voice came tense from the other side of the Truck.

  “We are light on people, I’m the only one targeting the outer one.”

  The threat display was becoming bolder and louder, one then another would dart from cover rearing upward and making noise. Then they would dart back. Never more than two in the open at a time.

  It was like they were psyching themselves up to attack. Once three, no four are exposed I’ll give the order David thought. Then he paused. These aren’t animals, they’re smart so why do this? Fear? Or are they trying to distract us?

  David felt a chill as he realized they were all fixated on the six at ground level. They knew these things climbed and liked the high ground. With a flex of his will David sent spirits up and out to scan the rooftops.

  His blood ran cold, multiple buzzing sources. Softer, sneakier. There were more of the creatures up high than at ground level. Worse, these were already over their borders and starting to flank the convoy.

  Everything snapped into focus. Variables: unknown number of hostiles, he had sensed at least a dozen up high but they were harder to spot than Nath, at least to him with his current senses.

  He wasn’t confident that he had found them all, they seemed to be able to be stealthy after all, the buzz he now associated with them not being constant.

  They had the high ground advantage, territorial behavior suggesting they would attack if threatened. They might not pursue if not provoked.

  So what did he want. Well, killing them all cleanly was clearly a pipe dream. So, get everyone out safely.

  More movement. David's eyes snapped to the rooflines on both sides of the street. His stomach dropped. The ones above were moving up, risking being seen to get into position.

  "Mark, Katie, Camila" David said quietly. "Start moving people back.” Then into his Radio “All vehicles. We need to start slowly getting you out and back to the intersection.

  Everyone there are more of them up on the roof, repeat flankers up on the roof. DO NOT ENGAGE. Watch for threats and clear the path to get the trucks back. Slow and steady. No sudden movements."

  "You sure? We could hit the ones on the ground hard. Take them out before they react."

  David shook his head, still watching the creatures.

  "Look at the rooflines. These things are fast and prefer attacking from above. We are like the guy from Jurassic park. We're in a killbox, the only difference is we noticed early enough to get out, at least I think we did...

  They've got high ground and rather than going for the shot we need to extract ourselves before they are ready to go for us. We need to do it without triggering whatever instincts these things have."

  He could feel the tension in the raiders around him. They'd just won a fight against the zombies. Confidence was high. Some of them wanted this fight.

  "David," Carl said, his voice carrying a question.

  "We back away," David said firmly. "These things are smart enough to set a trap. Smart enough to mark territory. That means they're smart enough to know when we're leaving versus when we're challenging them. We don’t want casualties to kill them and I’m betting if we don’t start things they don’t either."

  The creatures on the ground moved closer to the barrier. The hissing grew louder, more aggressive. One of them raised its clawed hands, spreading them wide in the clearest threat display yet.

  "Everyone, listen up," David raised his voice just enough to carry. "We're going to back away slowly. Keep your weapons ready but don't aim at them. We're showing them we're leaving their territory, not challenging it."

  "Boss, we could take them," someone protested.

  David turned his head slightly, keeping the creatures in his peripheral vision. "Maybe. Maybe we take out the six on the ground before the ones above drop on us. Maybe our casters can hit the rooftops fast enough. Or maybe we lose people trying to win a fight we don't need to have. Nobody left behind. This isn’t worth it, we can go around them."

  He let that sink in for a moment. "Carl, you and your squad are rear guard, along with Sarah and hers. Watch those rooflines. Everyone else, weapons ready, start backing toward the intersection. Smooth and steady. Get the vehicles moving and take it slow everyone. I don’t want a collision. I’m staying here with the rear guard, so everyone follow Charlies lead, get the convoy repositioned. Radio when you are ready to move the lead truck so we can back out with it."

  The raiders began to move. David watched the creatures closely, looking for any sign they might pursue. The ones on the ground held their position, still hissing, still displaying. But they didn't cross the barrier.

  "They're holding," Carl observed.

  "Territorial behavior," David replied. "Like wolves or big cats. They'll defend their claim, but they won't waste energy on a fight if we respect the boundary. At least not today against so many of us. I would not want to be a small group though…"

  The buzzing in his spiritual hearing shifted, the ones above were flanking them, though looking up he couldn’t see them. The creatures were tracking their withdrawal but not preparing to attack, at least that’s what he hoped.

  Everyone was backing up as his radio crackled and the most nerve-wracking part started. Their front lines were giving ground.

  The first truck reached the intersection as David started inching back, the last to move. His heart hammered against his ribs, adrenaline flooding his system as he knew he had painted a target on himself. It was the smart move, he was the strongest in their group, if it went sideways he might survive where others wouldn’t.

  More of the creatures appeared on the roofline, emerging from the cover they had enjoyed. David kept moving his head smoothly from side to side as he counted at least twelve visible, probably more he couldn't see. All of them staying up high, but the message was clear: we could have ended you.

  "Keep moving," David said. "Nice and easy. Show them we got the message."

  Carl backed up beside him, rifle still ready. "Hell of a thing, backing down from a fight."

  "It's called being smart," David replied. "You don't have to win every fight. Sometimes the win is knowing when not to fight at all."

  The creatures followed them until the intersection shifted the advantage. One side of the box couldn’t follow up high. When the last raider cleared the intersection, David allowed himself a breath. They'd made it.

  “Let’s back straight all the way to the next intersection, I don’t feel the first side street is going to be a good idea…”

  David’s order was met with silent obedience, even the naysayers had got the idea as they kept moving back. David supervised, pulling his spirits back to fan out and cover them to give warning rather than trying to track the enemy that appeared to have halted at the first intersection.

  Once they had a side street to turn down that wasn’t right next to the mutant’s territory it took less than five minutes to get everyone loaded and the convoy moving. David rode in the lead truck with Carl, both of them watching for trouble.

  "They're still there," Carl said. "Just standing on the rooftops where they can see us."

  "Good," David replied. "Means they got what they wanted. We acknowledged their territory and left."

  The convoy turned onto the side street, putting buildings between them and the creatures. Only then did David feel the tension start to drain from his shoulders.

  That was when the shakes started, even a system it seemed didn’t protect you from an adrenaline crash.

  Charlie's voice came over the radio from one of the other vehicles. "Dude, what the hell were those things?"

  David picked up the handset. "Mutants. But organized. We need to remember the location so we can avoid it in the future."

  He switched to the general channel. "Everyone did good back there. I know some of you wanted to fight. Hell, part of me wanted to see if we could take them. But that's how you lose people. We had an exit, we took it. That's smart tactics, not cowardice."

  Static, then Mark's voice. "How did you know they wouldn't attack when we backed off?"

  "I didn't," David admitted. "But I read the situation. They were defending territory, not hunting. Animals defending territory usually give you a chance to back down, so do people. These things were acting territorial, so I gambled they'd follow the same pattern."

  "And if you were wrong?"

  "Then we'd have fought and probably lost people doing it. But I wasn't wrong. They let us leave. Now we go do what we came for and bring our people home. Nobody left behind."

  Over the radio he heard an answering chorus of “Nobody left behind.”