Though the others were more than fifty meters away from him, Sauer caught up quickly. Between heavy breaths, he asked “What, exactly, are those creatures?”

“I dunno, sir,” Rob was barely able to wheeze out as he ran. “I don’t know what I was expectin’, but it sure as hell was not that.”

“Thomas. You asked earlier if I believed this was a result of the disease from Paris,” Gladisch said. “Do you truly believe that is possible?”

“If they are,” Sauer replied, “they are not the result of any disease I have ever treated. Schmidt, did you not say that you knew what those things were?”

“I never believed that anything like this would happen…” Schmidt said, his voice laced with fear. “My original theory was that they were the dead that were born again to serve some kind of purpose. I thought maybe they would have had some kind of master that they served or something. But… I never expected any of this to happen… Those things aren’t the dead, they’re something else. Maybe they take over corpses and that’s why they look like people, but they’re not human, dead or alive…. But… I honestly have no idea, I’m just grasping at straws here.”

“What, exactly, makes you think they serve a master?” Sauer asked.

“They’re clearly intelligent,” Jakob said. “They had a strategy, and it worked. We lost at least two dozen men and they haven’t lost any. That suggests they are being commanded somehow.”

“Dude, what the hell are you talking about?” Rob asked. “They didn’t have a strategy, they just rushed us. It worked because they weren’t hurt by our bullets.”

“No, Rob,” Schmidt said. “I think Jakob has a point. Not a master so much, more like a commander. And they chose to attack at dawn.”

“What, exactly, about dawn is important?” Sauer asked. “What was stopping them from attacking us earlier in the night, when we had less warning? At night we would have been at more of a disadvantage.”

“They chose to attack at dawn because of the sun,” Jakob replied. “They were using the shadows of the trees to hide in and confuse us. I don’t know why they didn’t just attack us at night, though. Thomas is right, we would have been at a worse disadvantage if they did that.”

“Maybe…” Rob began, “they were just asleep?”

“That’s stupid, Rob,” Schmidt said.

“No,” Gladisch said, “he might be onto something. We can not discredit any theories yet; we know nothing.”

“But they didn’t have eyes,” Schmidt said.

“Perhaps it was just a coincidence that they attacked at dawn, and it has nothing to do with a strategy,” Sauer added.

Rob seemed somehow more terrified than he was before. “If they don’t have eyes, then how were they able to attack us like that? If they can’t see, shouldn’t they’ve not known where we were? And like Jakob said, they were moving in and out of the shadows, but wouldn’t they need eyes to do that?”

“My shot…” Schmidt mumbled. “Maybe they heard my musket shot. And then everyone started panicking… the monsters just moved toward the sound. But them using the shadows is a good point. How would they be able to do that if they couldn’t see?”

“That is an interesting theory, but they did not seem to have ears, either,” Sauer said. “Maybe they have other senses that we do not know about that allow them to see shadows, or hear without ears. Gladisch is right. We have not seen anything like them before, so we should not compare them to anything we know or discredit any plausible theories.”

“That’s great and all, sir,” Rob’s voice cracked as he spoke, “but how are we supposed to kill them if we don’t even know how they see?”

“We can not,” Gladisch replied.

“Wow, great help, ma’am.”

They continued to retreat to Dijon, their heavy breathing filling the early morning silence. At one point, Rob began to slow down, but Schmidt shouted “You can’t die first, Rob!” and he eventually caught back up.

Every few minutes, Sauer would glance behind him. If the creatures were still following them, they were doing an excellent job hiding themselves. The sun had risen as they approached Dijon, and Sauer saw that the soldiers had armed cannons on the top of the wall, aiming them to the west. The gate was open, guarded by a large group of soldiers, as well as two cannons in the middle of the main street. They were motioning for people to get inside.

Sauer’s group entered the relative safety of the city. Only a few other stragglers came through the gate after them and the gates were closed.

Sauer’s group entered the relative safety of the city. Only a few other stragglers came through the gate after them and the gates were closed.