Sara leaned back in her seat, staring out into the white abyss in front of her. The blizzard was heavier than usual. In fact, she couldn't even see more than twenty paces outside of The Wall. Her ‘turret’ was only a light machine gun on top of a tripod.

She hoped it would be enough, when the time came.

Sara was a private something-class with the something-or-other-division or was it a regiment?

It didn't really matter.

She had the easiest job in the army.

Sit with a gun—a rather big gun at that—and defend The Wall.

There were hundreds of others sitting on all sides of her, up and down the hall where she was. Her holo-display lit up with a “CONTACTS SIGHTED” warning.

It pointed at the location, and she pointed her turret in that direction. She knew she didn't need to, but she checked the safety. It was disabled, as expected. Sara waited.

She felt a vibration in her chest as someone to her far right fired their weapon. Her earplugs blotted out the sound entirely, but she could still feel it.

Something moved outside The Wall. She already had her gun pointed in the direction, and quickly sent a notification via her holo-display to those around her.

They all fired together at the dark shape.

If this were a movie, they would call it a zombie and they would shoot the thing in the head and it would die. However, here in the real world, the Risen wouldn't die from a shot to the head. Or a shot to the heart, or anywhere else. In the real world, you had to either blow the head entirely off or dismember it.

Risen weren't at all like the zombies from movies Sara had seen.

They were independent, intelligent, and they didn't need to eat humans.

When a Risen died, another dead body would rise.

It was like a videogame, only the Risen were the player characters with infinite lives and the humans were the mobs. Except the humans didn't respawn like normal mobs, they became Risen.

They were visible now.

She could see their features, make out their weapons.

That meant they were way too close.

One pointed something at her and she ducked as she fired. Suddenly, she flew backwards, off her chair and onto the ground.

She felt a spark of pain and felt her shoulder.

It was wet.

She screamed for help, but everyone around her had their plugs in. They were firing frantically at the Risen, she knew.

A blackness started creeping around the edges of her vision, and she reached to rub her forehead. There was a wetness there, too.

Her breathing quickened, and when she closed her eyes, she thought she could see something. A figure, reaching out for her.

Smiling at her.

Its inhuman eyes glittered in the dark, and to her surprise,

she smiled back.