The arrow flew.

  Nate caught it.

  His hand snapped out—reflex, instinct, the same reflexes that had kept him alive through five floors of monsters and a tower guardian. His fingers closed around the shaft six inches from his face.

  Silence.

  The defenders stared at him. The archers on the walls stared at him. Everyone stared at him, frozen in place, trying to process what they'd just seen.

  "The dead ones can't do that," Nate said quietly. He snapped the arrow in half and dropped the pieces. "They're slow. Clumsy. They don't catch things."

  No one moved.

  Nate slowly reached up and pulled the first arrow from his shoulder. It hurt—a sharp, grinding pain as the head tore free—but he didn't flinch. Blood welled from the wound. Red blood. Living blood.

  "See?" He held up his bloody hand. "Corpses don't bleed like this."

  The man with the spear—the one Nate had been holding—swallowed hard. He was maybe thirty, with a scraggly beard and hollow cheeks. His eyes darted from Nate's face to the blood dripping down his arm.

  "You... you came from out there," he said. His voice was shaking. "From the west. Nothing's come from that direction in days. Just the dead and the monsters."

  "I came through it. Killed about sixty of the corpses on the way."

  "Sixty?" Someone else spoke—a woman on the wall, lowering her bow. "One person killed sixty of those things?"

  "They were weak. Level 2 through 5. I'm Level 20."

  Silence again. But different this time. Less fearful. More... stunned.

  "Level 20," the bearded man repeated. "That's not... the highest we've got is Level 9."

  "Marcus," someone called from behind the defenders. "Stand down. Let him through."

  The crowd parted.

  The woman who walked through was older than the others—maybe fifty, with iron-gray hair pulled back in a severe bun and eyes that had seen too much. She carried herself like someone used to giving orders and having them followed.

  She stopped in front of Nate and studied him. Her gaze lingered on the arrow wound in his shoulder, the blood on his coat, the scattered pieces of the arrow he'd caught.

  "You're not one of them," she said. It wasn't a question.

  "No."

  "But you came from the west. Through the dead."

  "I was checking on survivor settlements. There's a camp about fifteen miles west of here. We heard there was a group in the warehouse district."

  "That's us. What's left of us, anyway." Her voice was tired. "I'm Director Chen. I was superintendent of this district before everything went to hell. Now I'm just trying to keep these people alive long enough to figure out what's happening."

  Nate shook her hand. Her grip was firm, her palm calloused.

  "Nate. I cleared the tower to the west."

  Chen's eyebrows rose. "You cleared a tower?"

  "Yes."

  "Alone?"

  "Yes."

  She stared at him for a long moment. Then she nodded slowly.

  "Then you'd better come inside. We have a lot to talk about."

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  The settlement was larger than Nate had expected.

  Three warehouses had been converted into living spaces, with cots and makeshift partitions dividing the open floors into something like rooms. A fourth warehouse held supplies—food, water, medicine, weapons. People moved through the compound with the tense efficiency of survivors who'd learned not to waste energy.

  Chen led him to a small office while a nervous young man cleaned and bandaged his shoulder. The wound was already closing—his stats and [Iron Body] working together—but he let the doctor work anyway.

  "How many people do you have?" Nate asked.

  "Two hundred and eighty-seven." Chen sat behind a cluttered desk, rubbing her temples. "We had over three hundred last week. The attacks have been... relentless."

  "The corpses?"

  "Those, and monsters. Started about four days ago—right after the towers opened, we think. First it was just a few of the walking dead. Easy enough to put down. Then more came. Then the monsters started showing up too."

  "What kind of monsters?"

  "All kinds. Things that look like dogs. Things that look like bugs. Things that don't look like anything I've ever seen." Chen shook her head. "We've been fighting day and night. Lost seventeen people in the last four days alone."

  Four days of constant attacks. No wonder they'd shot first when he appeared.

  "The corpses," Nate said. "Do you know where they're coming from?"

  "East, mostly. There's a whole district over there that's just... dead. We sent scouts early on. None of them came back." Chen's jaw tightened. "We stopped sending scouts after that."

  "Any idea who's controlling them?"

  Chen looked at him sharply. "Controlling them? You think someone's—"

  "I ran into some raiders south of here. They mentioned someone. A leader. Said he could raise the dead." Nate watched her face. "You haven't heard anything like that?"

  "No. We assumed the corpses were just another monster type. Something the System created." Chen leaned back in her chair, processing. "But if there's a person behind it... that would explain why they seem almost organized sometimes. Why they patrol instead of just wandering."

  Someone controlling the dead. Building an army. And Chen's settlement was right in the middle of it, getting ground down by constant attacks.

  "There's another settlement," Nate said. "North of here. A hospital complex, maybe twenty miles away. Have you had any contact with them?"

  Chen shook her head. "We've heard rumors, but nothing confirmed. The road north goes through rough territory—monsters everywhere, even before the corpses started appearing. We haven't been able to spare anyone to check."

  Twenty miles north. Through monster-infested territory. And now with the dead walking on top of everything else.

  "I need to get there," Nate said. "Make sure they're still alive. Warn them about what's coming."

  "You just got here."

  "And I'll come back. But if there are survivors at that hospital, they need to know about the corpses. About whoever's controlling them." He stood up. "How many people can you spare to defend this place?"

  "Everyone who can hold a weapon. About a hundred and fifty fighters, give or take." Chen's voice was grim. "It's not enough. We both know it's not enough."

  "It'll have to be. Hold out as long as you can. I'll check the hospital, then come back with whatever help I can find."

  Chen studied him for a long moment. "You really think you can make it? Twenty miles through that?"

  "I made it through fifteen miles to get here. And I'm—"

  A horn sounded outside.

  Long, low, urgent. The kind of sound that meant only one thing.

  Chen was on her feet instantly, grabbing a machete from beside her desk.

  "Attack," she said. "That's the perimeter alarm."

  They ran outside together.

  The compound had transformed in seconds. People sprinted toward the walls, grabbing weapons, taking positions. Torches flared to life along the barricades. Shouts echoed across the open ground.

  "Where?" Chen yelled.

  "South wall!" someone screamed back. "Dozens of them!"

  They reached the wall and climbed a makeshift ladder to the platform above. Nate looked out over the barricade.

  His stomach dropped.

  The street beyond was filled with monsters.

  Not corpses this time. Living things—or what passed for living in this new world. Scavenger hounds, at least thirty of them, their scaled bodies low to the ground. Behind them, larger shapes moved in the darkness. Ironshell crawlers, maybe a dozen. And behind those...

  Something bigger. Something Nate hadn't seen before.

  It stood at the back of the horde, easily twelve feet tall, with a body like a gorilla crossed with a beetle. Massive arms ending in claws the size of machetes. Armor plates covering its chest and head. Eyes that glowed faint red in the torchlight.

  [Hive Brute — Level 18]

  Level 18. Two levels below him, but built like a tank. And it wasn't alone.

  The horde surged forward.

  Chen raised her machete, her face pale but determined.

  "Archers!" she screamed. "Loose!"

  Arrows flew. Hounds fell. But more kept coming, pouring around the fallen, scrambling over each other in their hunger to reach the walls.

  Nate looked at the Hive Brute. It hadn't moved yet. Just stood there, watching. Waiting.

  Directing.

  "I'll handle the big one," Nate said.

  He vaulted over the wall and dropped into the street below.

  The horde turned toward him.

  He smiled.

  "Come on, then."