"And there he is."

"Have you guys checked out any of these stores? They have some cool stuff."

"Not really, not just yet. Anything in particular you have in mind?"

"There's some surveillance gear, binoculars and night vision, pretty well-stocked. Nothing military-grade, but still."

"That's interesting. I'm not sure to what degree I expect us to need night-vision or surveillance cameras but I could see binoculars being pretty useful."

"Who else is waiting for us?"

"His friend, Alice, and Lysander. I don't know his story."

"Apparently his invitation was for a costume party."

"Ours was the usual frat party."

"We're all from different cities. Hopefully we'll figure out what's going on, but right now we should go back."

"Fine, lead the way. Let me just grab my bike and we can go."

Bike is grabbed.

And they get underway.

By this time, Lysander has started getting restless.

"We should make a map of this place. Do you have anything to write with?"

"I have a small notebook in my purse but I don't think it's big enough for a map. That convenience store over there might have pads of paper though."

"Let's check it out."

They proceed to acquire writing materials.

"What are you planning to map?"

"Everything we've seen so far. If we're going to be here for a while, we should be totally in control of the terrain."

"Do you need any help?"

"I think I remember enough of the details, thanks."

Alice will quietly wait and not interrupt him as he's working then.

While Lysander works on his map, Maddie and Riley work on their phones.

"What were you doing, back home?"

The interface makes turning them on and assigning them phone numbers pretty intuitive.

"I was studying to do medical research. It seemed like the highest leverage problem space."

"Is that how you pick? Highest leverage?"

"More or less, whatever seems most likely to let me solve interesting important problems."

"Why not engineering?"