The volunteer held the stairwell with a broken door.
He had wedged it sideways between the wall and the railing, leaving a gap just wide enough for people to squeeze through. Three residents crowded behind him: a woman with a child against her shoulder, an older man gripping the railing, and a teenager who kept looking back toward the apartments above.
On the other side of the door, something struck hard enough to shake the frame.
“Don’t let it through,” the teenager said.
“I’m trying,” the volunteer replied.
He wore a yellow emergency vest over a dark sweater. Blood ran down one sleeve, though Eli couldn’t see whether it was his. He had one foot braced against the door and both hands on a length of pipe. When the creature hit the barrier again, he drove the pipe through the gap. A harsh cry came from the other side.
“Can you walk?” he asked the older man.
The man nodded, then failed to move.
The volunteer shifted his grip. “Keep going down. There’s a responder outside.”
“My wife,” the man said. “She’s on six.”
“The people above are coming down.”
“You said that before.”
“And I haven’t seen her yet.” The volunteer looked up the stairs. “What apartment?”
“Six-fourteen.”
“I’ll tell the next person going up.”
Eli reached the landing as the door jerked toward him. A dark claw appeared through the gap, caught the edge of the volunteer’s vest, and tore away a strip of yellow fabric. The man stumbled. The older resident grabbed the railing instead of falling, but the child began to cry.
Eli picked up a length of broken trim from the landing and shoved it against the door beside the pipe. The wood bowed under his weight.
“Move,” he told the three residents.
The teenager took the older man’s arm. The woman followed with the child. Their steps echoed down the stairs, slow at first and then faster when the creature struck again.
The volunteer looked at Eli. His face was gray beneath the dust, and a scrape crossed his cheek. “You with the response team?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
Eli had left the assessment center less than an hour ago with a worthless public rank and a private notice he didn’t understand. He had been heading toward a gate where a recovery crystal would soon be worth more than his rent for an entire year. He had not planned to spend the morning in a collapsing apartment building.
“The people upstairs needed help,” he said.
“That they do.” The volunteer shifted the pipe to one hand and pointed at the landing above. “There’s a woman in six-fourteen. If you can get around to her, send her down the west stair. This one won’t stay open.”
Another blow struck the door. The trim in Eli’s hands cracked.
“What about you?” he asked.
“I’ll follow.”
A metal badge hung from the volunteer’s neck on a cord. It swung as he leaned into the barrier. Eli caught a name beneath the emergency service emblem.
DARIUS VALE.
For an instant he forgot the weight against his hands.
Vale was not an uncommon name. The badge gave him no reason to be certain. But he knew Tessa’s father had died during the first outbreaks. She had mentioned him once after a raid, years before the one in which Eli died. She hadn’t given details. Eli remembered the way she had changed the subject when someone asked whether her family still lived nearby.
“You have a daughter?” he asked.
The volunteer’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
The trim splintered. A claw slid through the opening, and Eli shoved the remaining length into the gap. The claw withdrew, scraping paint from the door.
“Because I’m trying to work out who’s still upstairs,” Eli said.
Darius studied him for a moment. “Tessa. She went up with the neighbors before the gate broke through the lobby.”
The name landed with more force than the creature’s next blow.
Eli had seen Tessa at the end of his first life, fighting to reach him through the dust. He hadn’t known whether she got out. In that life her father had already been dead for years. Now he was in front of Eli, bracing a broken door with a length of pipe.
There should have been time to think. A warning to give. Some sentence that would make sense of the second chance.
The door buckled inward.
Eli dropped the splintered trim and caught the handle with both hands. The creature pulled from the other side. Its grip dragged the door against the railing, widening the gap near the floor.
Darius swung the pipe down. It struck something solid. The creature shrieked and released the door, leaving a dark smear on the pipe.
“Six-fourteen,” Darius said. “Tell her husband to wait outside. He’ll try to come back in if he doesn’t see her.”
Eli looked at the broken barrier. “If that gives way, I can’t bring people back down past it.”
“Then use the service corridor.”
“Where?”
Darius pointed upward with the pipe. “Fourth floor, past the laundry room. Door should be open.”
A crash sounded below them. Both men turned.
The people they had just sent down were on the lower flight. The teenager had reached the bottom, but the older man had stopped halfway. A section of ceiling had fallen across the landing beneath him. Dust rose around his knees.
From the hall below came a second cry, higher and sharper than the creature behind the door.
Darius swore. “They’ve got around us.”
Eli leaned over the railing. A small creature darted across the lower landing and vanished behind the fallen plaster. He saw too many joints in its legs and a mouth that opened wider than its head should have allowed.
The teenager picked up a broken piece of rail and swung. The creature recoiled, then rushed him. He backed into the wall, leaving the older man alone on the stairs.
Darius released one hand from the door and reached for the radio at his belt. It hissed when he pressed the button.
“West stair, lower landing,” he said. “Need a responder inside.”
No answer came. He tried again, then clipped the radio back in place.
“I’ll go down,” Eli said.
Darius looked at the damaged door. “Can you handle it?”
“No.” Eli picked up the fallen length of trim. “But I can keep it busy.”
Darius started to object. The lower creature lunged again. The teenager struck it across the head, but the blow drove him backward and left the older man exposed.
“Don’t let it get between you and the stairs,” Darius said.
Eli took the steps two at a time. The trim was too light to serve as a club, but it gave him reach. He brought it down on the creature’s back. The impact barely slowed it. He hit it again, aiming for its eyes. It turned toward him, showing a row of uneven teeth.
The teenager grabbed the older man and tried to pull him down the stairs. His foot slipped on loose plaster. They both went down.
Eli backed up one step, drawing the creature away. It followed, quick enough that he barely raised the trim before it jumped. Its claws struck the wood. The piece snapped, and the creature landed against his chest.
He fell into the railing. Pain shot through his shoulder. The creature’s mouth opened inches from his face.
Eli drove his forearm beneath its jaw and pushed. Its breath smelled like spoiled meat. One claw caught the fabric of his sleeve and tore through to the skin.
The creature jerked sideways. Darius had reached over the railing and hooked the pipe beneath its body. He heaved it away from Eli, then brought the pipe down across its neck. The creature fell to the lower landing and scrambled behind the plaster.
“Now,” Darius said.
Eli hauled the older man to his feet. The teenager took the other arm. Together they guided him down the remaining steps and around the fallen ceiling. The woman with the child was waiting at the doorway, her face pale.
“Outside,” Eli said. “Don’t stop in the lobby.”
The teenager pushed the door open. Rain showed through the broken front windows. A responder in a dark jacket ran toward them from the pavement and took the older man’s weight.
“More inside?” the responder asked.
“Upper floors,” Eli said. “And another creature near the west stair.”
The responder shouted to someone outside, then drew a short blade from his belt. Eli recognized the man’s badge: a recently registered hunter, probably as new to the work as most of the people who had awakened that morning.
“Can you clear the exit?” Eli asked.
“I’ll try.”
Darius came down the last steps, still carrying the pipe. He stopped beside the responder and gave him a quick account of the two creatures. The man’s eyes widened at the mention of the larger one behind the stairwell door.
“We don’t have enough people for that,” he said.
“You have enough to keep the lobby open?”
The responder looked toward the street. Another uniformed volunteer was helping the woman with the child. A third person was dragging a barricade toward the entrance.
“Yes,” he said, though he sounded uncertain.
“Then do that. People are coming down.”
The older man twisted in the responder’s grip. “My wife—”
“Six-fourteen,” Darius said. “I’ll send word.”
The responder led him out. Eli watched them reach the pavement before he followed Darius back into the building.
“You should leave,” Darius said.
“So should you.”
“My daughter’s upstairs.”
“I know.”
Darius stopped at the foot of the stairs. “Then you understand why I have to go back.”
Eli did. He knew Tessa from a life Darius had not lived, but explaining that would cost time and give Darius no practical reason to trust him.
The larger creature struck the damaged door above, and the choice between argument and action narrowed.
“I was on my way home when the first alarm sounded,” Darius said. “Tessa was already inside helping an injured neighbor. I thought I could get up to her.”
“Did you see what opened the gate?”
“No. The lobby floor split and things came out. We got most of the people on the lower floors into the street. The lift stopped before we could reach the others.”
He rubbed his injured sleeve against the wall. The blood had spread through the fabric.
“You’re hurt,” Eli said.
“Scratched.”
“Let me see.”
“After we move.”
They climbed together. The door still held, though the handle was bent and the gap beneath it had widened. Eli heard the larger creature breathing on the other side.
Darius pointed to the upper flight. “Service corridor on four. I’ll keep it here.”
Eli looked at the pipe. One end was bent from the blow on the lower landing. Darius could hold the barrier for a short time. Eli doubted he could hold it until everyone came down.
“We can block it better,” Eli said.
“With what?”
A discarded metal shelving unit lay across the landing above. Its wheels had broken away, and two shelves were twisted, but the frame was intact. Eli dragged it down one step at a time. Darius kept the pipe in the door while Eli turned the unit on its side and pushed it against the damaged panel.
The creature struck again. The shelving frame rattled, but it held.
“That gives us a little time,” Darius said.
A scream came from above. Eli started toward the sound. Darius followed, stopping only long enough to wedge the pipe through the frame so it could not roll away.
On the fourth floor, a resident stood outside the laundry room. A woman sat against the wall beside him, holding her ankle. The man’s hands shook as he tried to lift her.
“Something’s in the corridor,” he said. “It came through the vent.”
The service door beyond them stood open. From inside came a scraping sound.
Darius tested the pipe in his hand, then grimaced. He had left the stronger length bracing the stairwell. What he carried now was a smaller piece from the shelving unit.
Eli picked up a mop handle from a bucket near the laundry room. “We don’t need to chase it.”
“No,” Darius said. “We need it away from them.”
He stepped into the service corridor and struck the wall with the metal piece. The scraping stopped. A moment later the small creature appeared at the far end, low to the floor and moving in short, quick bursts.
Eli waved the mop handle. “Here.”
It came toward him. He backed down the corridor until the creature had passed the laundry room entrance. Darius struck the wall again from the opposite side, giving it another target. The animal turned. Eli ran to the injured woman and helped the resident lift her.
“Can you put weight on it?” he asked.
“Some.”
“Then keep your arm around him. I’ll clear the stairs.”
They moved toward the landing. Darius stayed between them and the creature, retreating a step at a time. When the woman stumbled, Eli caught her before she fell. The resident took more of her weight.
Below them, metal groaned. The larger creature was pushing against the braced door.
“Go,” Darius said.
The resident guided the woman down. Eli followed to make sure they reached the next landing, then looked back. Darius was still in the corridor. The small creature had vanished behind a row of pipes.
For a heartbeat Eli considered leaving. Darius had given him an order. The woman needed an escort, and there were still people above. If he returned to the corridor and died there, he would not save Tessa or anyone else.
Then he heard a cry behind him.
The resident had lost his footing. The injured woman slipped from his grip and fell against the stair rail. The larger creature struck the door again. One of the shelving legs snapped, and the panel swung inward.
Its head forced through the opening.
Eli dropped the mop handle and grabbed the woman beneath her arms. The resident pulled at her other side, but her injured ankle caught against a step. She cried out, and they had to stop long enough to free it.
Darius came from the corridor at a run. The smaller creature followed him, darting between his feet. He kicked it aside and reached the landing as the larger one tore the door loose.
“Take her down,” he shouted.
Eli lifted. The woman’s weight dragged against his injured shoulder. The resident stumbled ahead of them, clearing broken plaster from the stairs.
Darius planted himself between the creature and the narrow flight. With the heavy pipe trapped under the fallen door, he had only the short piece of metal in his hand.
The creature lunged.
Darius struck at its face. The blow turned its head, but one claw caught his side and drove him against the railing. Eli heard the impact above the woman’s cry. Darius stayed on his feet long enough to swing again, buying the two residents another step.
Eli lowered the woman onto the landing. “Keep going,” he told the resident.
He ran back up. Darius had fallen to one knee. The creature loomed over him, trying to pull its claw free of the damaged railing.
Eli seized the broken door handle and struck the creature’s forelimb. It turned toward him. He hit it again, harder, and backed away from Darius.
The creature followed.
Eli had no skill that would help him fight it. Gravekeeper would tell him who lay dead after the battle. It would not make him faster, stronger, or harder to kill. He had a piece of metal, a narrow landing, and the few seconds Darius had bought.
He threw the handle down the stairs. The creature’s head followed the movement. Eli grabbed Darius under the arm and pulled.
Darius cried out. His hand pressed against his side, but blood was already running between his fingers.
Together they reached the next landing. The creature struck the railing behind them, and the old metal gave way with a scream.
Eli lowered Darius against the wall. The wound was deeper than a scratch. The yellow vest was dark across his side.
“Stay with me,” Eli said.
Darius tried to look up the stairs. “Tessa.”
“I’ll get her.”
Another impact shook the landing. Dust drifted from the ceiling between them. Eli tore open his emergency kit and pressed the cleanest bandage he had against the wound, knowing from the amount of blood that pressure alone might not be enough.
Darius caught his wrist.
“Listen,” he said.