Darius’s grip was stronger than Eli expected.
“Listen,” he said again.
Eli held the bandage against his side. Blood soaked through the first layer and warmed Eli’s palm. He folded another piece of gauze over it, then reached into the emergency kit for a compression wrap.
“Don’t talk,” Eli said. “I need to keep pressure here.”
“I’m going to talk.” Darius’s voice was rough but clear. “My daughter is upstairs.”
“I know.”
“No. You know her name. Listen to the rest.”
The landing trembled. Above them, the larger creature was still tangled in the broken railing. Eli could hear metal bending each time it moved. Below, the resident and the injured woman were making their way down toward the lobby. Their steps were slow, but they were moving.
Darius pointed weakly toward the upper floors. “Tessa went to help a neighbor on six. A woman called Mrs. Larkin. She couldn’t get down the stairs on her own.”
“Apartment six-fourteen?”
“Across from it. Another neighbor was helping the woman in six-fourteen.” Darius swallowed. “Her husband—the old man. Did he get out?”
“Yes. A responder took him outside.”
“Good.” Darius drew a breath and winced. “Tessa was in the corridor when I last saw her. She had a medical bag and a red jacket. She’ll stay with anyone who can’t walk.”
Eli pulled the wrap around Darius’s waist. The man’s sweater was already wet, and the bandage shifted as he tightened it. Darius’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t pull away.
“The service stairs reach six?” Eli asked.
“If the door on five isn’t blocked.”
“It was open when you came down?”
“I didn’t come down that way. Mrs. Larkin’s grandson told me about it.”
The distinction mattered. Eli had nearly treated the route as something Darius had seen himself. He checked the wrap and pressed down again.
“I’ll go up,” he said. “But first we need to get you out.”
Darius looked at the stairs. The broken door lay across the route above them. Another section of railing had fallen between the creature and the landing. It was enough to slow the thing, not enough to hold it for long.
“Can you lift me?” Darius asked.
“I can try.”
“Then try.”
Eli put an arm behind his shoulders. Darius pushed with his good hand, and for a moment they managed to rise. His legs gave way before he could take a step. Eli caught him, but the movement pulled the bandage loose. Blood ran down the wall as they settled back onto the landing.
Darius’s face had gone pale beneath the dust.
“Again,” Eli said.
Darius shook his head. “You can’t carry me past that thing and up the stairs.”
“Down. We take you down.”
“And Tessa?”
“The responders will send someone.”
“They’re trying to keep the street clear.” Darius took a shallow breath. “The man you saw outside has a blade he doesn’t know how to use. He’s doing what he can. There isn’t another team waiting at the bottom.”
Eli looked toward the lower flight. The responder might come back. Someone else might arrive. In his first life, the emergency services had established a perimeter after the initial outbreak, and teams had searched the building. He couldn’t remember how long it had taken. He hadn’t been here then. The first time around, he had watched the news from a crowded assessment hall and counted the names of the dead after the building was emptied.
Darius had been one of those names.
The knowledge made Eli want to deny what he saw. This was the moment he was supposed to change. He had reached the building earlier than anyone else who knew what would happen. He had found Tessa’s father alive. The future should have given him some advantage beyond watching the same death arrive from closer up.
“I’m going to find help,” he said.
Darius caught his sleeve. “Get Tessa out.”
“I’ll do both.”
“Then hear me. She won’t leave someone behind because you tell her the building is dangerous. Tell her the lower exit is open. Tell her to bring whoever she can, but make sure she gets out herself.”
Eli looked at the pressure wrap. He could feel Darius’s pulse beneath the fabric, fast and weak. He had carried injured people out of gates before. He knew how much weight a conscious person could put on another person’s shoulder, and he knew the difference between a patient who could move with help and one who could not stand.
“I’m not a medic,” he said.
“I can see that.” Darius managed a small, tired smile. “Neither am I.”
The creature pulled itself free of the broken railing. Eli heard claws scrape across the landing above. He stood, caught the door handle he had thrown aside, and placed himself between Darius and the stairs.
The thing appeared at the top of the flight. One of its forelimbs dragged. Blood, dark and thick, ran from a cut along its face. It paused when it saw Eli.
He had drawn it away once by making himself the immediate threat. It had followed because he was close. He didn’t know whether it would do the same again.
He struck the railing with the handle. The sound rang through the stairwell. The creature’s head tilted.
“Come on,” Eli said.
It came down two steps. Eli backed toward the lower landing, moving away from Darius. The creature followed. Its injured limb slowed it, but it was still faster than he was on the stairs. Eli struck the railing again and retreated until the creature’s body blocked its view of Darius.
A voice called from below. “Where are you?”
The responder from the lobby appeared at the foot of the flight, blade raised. Behind him stood another volunteer carrying a compact shield.
“Don’t come straight up,” Eli warned. “Its right side is injured.”
The responder looked at the creature and swallowed. “Can you get past it?”
“Not while it can see me.”
The volunteer with the shield moved to the side of the stairs. She struck the metal with the heel of her hand. The creature turned toward the noise. Eli seized the opening, ducked past its injured limb, and climbed back to Darius.
The responder and the shield bearer kept the creature’s attention. Eli heard the blade scrape against bone, followed by a shout. He wanted to look, but Darius’s bandage had slipped again.
“There are two people down there,” he said. “They can help carry you.”
Darius’s fingers closed around the cord at his neck. He pulled the badge over his head and pushed it into Eli’s hand.
“Give her this.”
“Give it to her yourself.”
“Eli.”
He hadn’t told Darius his name. Then he remembered the temporary assessment badge clipped to his vest. It showed his name in plain letters beneath the large F.
Darius was looking at him, not at the rank.
“Please,” he said. “Get my daughter out. Tell her I tried to get back to her.”
It was not a trade. Darius did not ask what Eli could offer, and he did not know that a system notice had appeared after the assessment. He was asking the person in front of him to do what he could no longer do himself.
Eli closed his hand around the badge.
“I’ll bring her out,” he said.
“Tell her—” Darius stopped to breathe. “Tell her I didn’t leave.”
“I will.”
The responder called from below. “It’s moving back!”
Eli looked over his shoulder. The creature had retreated onto the broken landing, where the shield bearer held it at a distance. The responder was staring at the bent railing, perhaps deciding whether to follow.
“Don’t chase it,” Eli said. “We need help up here.”
The responder climbed toward them. The shield bearer stayed below, striking the metal whenever the creature tried to move down. She had a cut on her forehead and was breathing hard.
Darius’s grip loosened. Eli pressed the bandage firmly into place and felt the responder kneel beside him.
“What happened?” the man asked.
“Claw wound. He couldn’t stand. I wrapped it.”
The responder checked Darius’s breathing and looked at the blood spreading beneath him. “We need a stretcher.”
“There isn’t room to get one up past that thing.”
“Then we’ll use a carry sheet.”
The responder opened his bag and pulled out folded fabric with handles along the edges. Eli helped spread it beside Darius. They rolled him carefully onto it, keeping the pressure wrap in place.
Darius made a sound when they lifted. The responder stopped.
“Can you hear me?” he asked.
Darius’s eyes were open, but he didn’t answer. His hand moved once against the fabric. Eli put the badge back against his chest, thinking he should not take it while there was still a chance.
Darius pushed it weakly away.
“Tessa,” he whispered.
Eli took the badge again. “I’m going.”
The responder looked at him. “There’s another person?”
“His daughter. Sixth floor, near six-fourteen. She has a medical bag and a red jacket.”
The man glanced up the stairs. “I can’t leave him.”
“I know.”
“There’s a second team coming from the east entrance. Tell them the west stair is compromised.”
Eli looked down at Darius. The responder had one hand at the man’s neck, checking for a pulse. His expression didn’t give Eli an answer.
“Will you get him out?” Eli asked.
“I’ll do everything I can.”
It was not a promise of success. Eli was grateful that the man didn’t pretend otherwise.
The shield bearer shouted as the creature surged forward. She blocked its first strike but was driven back against the wall. The responder picked up his blade.
“I need you to go,” he said. “If you’re going upstairs, go now.”
Eli wanted to stay until Darius was safely outside. He wanted to be there if the responder needed help, if the carry sheet caught on a step, if another creature appeared in the lobby. Every reason was real. So was the time passing while Tessa and the other residents waited above.
He tucked the badge into his pocket and climbed.
The service door on the fourth floor still stood open. The small creature that had followed Darius was gone. Eli listened before entering, but the corridor held only the sound of water dripping somewhere behind the walls.
A hand-painted sign pointed toward the service stairs. He followed it past the laundry room and found the stairwell door. A chair had been wedged beneath the handle from the other side. He pushed; the door moved only an inch.
“Hello?” he called.
Someone answered from above. “Who’s there?”
“Eli. I’m helping with the evacuation.”
“There’s a creature on four.”
“It’s gone from the corridor. I don’t know where it went.”
Silence. Then footsteps descended, and the chair scraped away from the door.
A young man opened it far enough to look through. He held a kitchen knife in one hand and wore slippers despite the broken glass across the floor.
“Are the responders here?” he asked.
“There are two in the west stair and more coming from the east. The lobby exit is open.”
The man looked relieved, then looked past Eli toward the sound of fighting. “My mother can’t use the stairs.”
“Where is she?”
“Six. A woman is helping her.”
Tessa. Eli gripped the badge in his pocket.
“We need to get to them,” he said.
The young man led him up the service stairs. On the fifth-floor landing, a fallen cabinet blocked half the passage. They moved it together, making enough room for a person to pass but not a stretcher. Eli marked the narrow point in his mind. If Mrs. Larkin could not walk, they would need to change the route or the way they carried her.
On the sixth floor, voices came from an apartment corridor. One was calm and firm, giving instructions about pressure and breathing. Eli recognized it before he saw the woman speaking.
Tessa knelt beside an injured resident. Her red jacket was tied around her waist, and her medical bag lay open on the floor. Two neighbors stood near her, one holding towels, the other trying to keep a child away from the broken window.
She looked up as Eli entered.
“Are you a responder?” she asked.
He opened his hand. Darius’s badge lay against his palm.
“My father sent you?”
“He asked me to bring you out.”
The words were true. They were not the whole truth, and Tessa saw that at once.
“Where is he?” she asked.
The building shook. Somewhere below, metal struck concrete. Eli heard the service door slam, followed by a shout from the young man who had let him through.
Tessa rose, taking the badge but not looking away from him. “Where is my father?”
Eli glanced at the injured resident, then at the narrow stairwell behind him. He needed to tell her. He also needed to tell her that the west route was failing and that the people here could not use the service stairs as they were.
“He was hurt on the lower landing,” Eli said. “A responder is with him.”
Tessa’s face tightened. She looked toward the stairs. Before she could move, the injured woman beside her reached for her sleeve.
“Please,” the woman said. “My husband—”
“He’s outside,” Eli said. “He got out.”
The woman closed her eyes. Tessa held her hand for a moment, then looked back at Eli.
“Show me the way down.”