The five of them (six if you included Winslow) watched as the zombies lurched towards a higher sort of... town? Well, there were houses, at least.

Walking up the stairs in complete silence- the strangeness of the whole situation actually made it a little scary for them all, even Cassie (and she was the genius when it came to creepy things), they came to the level of the houses.

"I don't see any people anywhere," Petra said, sounding a little worried.

"This architecture's fascinating. It's all sand and clay-based. It's awesome," Lukas said, looking around so fast Jesse was fairly certain the ocelot hybrid was going to crick his neck.

"Of course you'd say that," Ivor drawled, "you're the one who was trained by Soren the Architect at age five."

Cassie frowned a bit in the corner of Jesse's peripheral vision; did she recognize that name?

"Hey!" Petra said, with a grin, and pointing at a small pile of red blocks nearby, "told you guys there'd be redstone!"

"Speaking of redstone," Ivor said, in his usual rather hushed voice, "I'd like to investigate those..." he trailed off, as if searching for a more satisfactory term.

"Chips," Cassie offered.

Honestly, Jesse thought they looked like 'chips' in the barest sense of the word- chips were usually thin and small, not big and bulky and the size of a fist like these, but whatever, it was better than calling them 'those thingies'.

"Yes, those chips on the back of the zombies' heads," Ivor said, giving Cassie a nod for the suggestion. Cassie perked up slightly.

"Ooh yeah," Lukas said, his ears perking up with a cheerful look, "I wanna see those too."

Jesse watched as Ivor approached one of the zombies, which wasn't facing him, and then started to yank on the red... uh, 'chip'.

"Whoa, wait, what are you doing, D-Ivor?" Jesse asked, hoping her face wasn't turning faintly pink. Honestly, it was getting harder and harder for her not to call Ivor her dad.

If Ivor noticed the slip, he didn't let on. "What's it look like? I'm going to rip this thing out of this zombie's head. For science. They're... sleeping, or something. It'll be easy!"

Jesse blinked at that. "Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

"More so for the zombie than for me," Ivor responded promptly, and turned back around to resume 'ripping out that thing for science', before pausing. "I think."

That wasn't very reassuring.

Ivor started to pull, which got harder, and harder, until he was practically bracing one foot against the zombie to yank it off- when there was a dazzling flash of white, and Ivor was flat on his back with a yell.

"Are you okay?!" Lukas exclaimed, while Jesse stared at him, utterly nonplussed. On the inside though, she was having a panic attack.

"It shocked me!" Ivor snapped, sounding more annoyed than anything.

"At least we learned something new," Cassie offered, from where she was setting Winslow down on the ground.

"And what would that be?"

"They can't be removed. Not- not with our bare hands, anyhow."

Lukas's ears twitched, and he put a hand around his ears, cupping it with a look of concentration on his face. "Do you hear that?"

Jesse looked about, before spotting someone walking along a ways away. "Hey! There's someone!" Jesse exclaimed.

"Think he's friendly?" Cassie asked, a little anxiously.

Jesse waved her arm. "Hello?" she called. The person didn't turn around. She tried again, waving a little harder. "Hello?"

The person kept on walking.

Jesse crossed her lower arms, scratching her head with her uppermost set of arms. "Maybe his... hearing is bad, or something?" she reasoned.

Lukas shrugged, a bewildered expression on his face. "Um, that makes sense. I... guess."

Jesse started walking forward, before pausing and looking back at them. "Um, do you guys have like a cloak or something? He might not be too excited to see someone with... y'know."

Petra shrugged, a disappointed look coming over her face. "That's right, I forgot."

Lukas patted his pockets, shaking his head with a small frown. "Uh, nope- sorry."

"Um, I think... yeah, here," and Cassie fished out a large wad of red fabric, which unfolded into a cloak when she shook it out a bit. It was a bit wrinkled up from its time spent in her pocket, but it was good enough.

"Thanks," and Jesse's lower arm snagged the cloak, tossing it over her shoulders while her fingers quickly did up the clasp. "Okay, hang back a bit, guys- Imma go talk to him."

"Okay, just- be careful," Petra said, a bit gruffly.

Lukas nodded. "Yeah, I mean, there's- still a lot about this place we don't know."

Jesse nodded, giving a thumbs up, and then started towards the guy.

"Um, hi there," she said, cheerfully enough, rubbing her head awkwardly as she looked at the guy.

Still nothing. "Um, hello?" Still nothing. "Um, my friends and I could just use-" He turned, and Jesse's eyes widened. "GAH!" she screamed, jumping back, tripping over her feet and landing neatly on her butt, staring at him as he just turned and walked away, the big red chip on the back of his head now obvious, his eyes a glowing red. "Who the- what- huh?" Jesse stuttered out, staring at him with her green and red eyes the size of saucers.

Ivor ran over to Jesse, checking her over frantically. "Oh dear, are you hurt?" he asked, looking over her frantically.

"Y... yeah, I'm... I'm okay. Just... very... startled... is all," Jesse eked out, eyes wide.

"Did the conversation go badly?" Cassie asked, her eyes turning red (and yep, there was no mistaking it this time) as she whipped her axe out over her shoulder, "Do I need to hurt someone?"

"There is something," Jesse said, shakily, pushing herself to her feet, "Very, very, very wrong going on here. We need to help these people."

There was a skidding sound before any of them could say anything else, Cassie's hands still strangling her axe, and Jesse looked over to see a small dust cloud rising from a staircase nearby.

"Jesse?"

Jesse looked back to them, blinking. "Someone just ran into that house. Whoever they are... maybe they've got some answers."

And with that Jesse ran towards the house, the others following her, dropping to all eights and scrambling up the stairs before slowing to a stop, on her feet, to see someone with her back facing the spider hybrid. She had on a sort of brown hood over a worksuit. Had Jesse seen that before? She felt like she had...

"Hello?" Jesse asked, tentatively, as the woman rummaged through the chest, talking to herself as she was pulling out... the chips?

She turned to look at her, revealing a pair of orange-lensed goggles and a shock of long white hair over dark skin.

A/N: Ha! Yes! Managed to fit Harper in!

angelwings: Aw, sorry to hear that :/

Choco: Ehehe (evil grin) The world may never know... (no seriously I completely forgot about it, I'd better start writing that back in crap)

GuestPerson13: You're not the only one! And yeah, Winslow exercises excellent self-control.

x.X. A.L. X.x.