The creature did not climb while the first carriers came through the door.
Eli stood at the lower end of the first flight with the metal bar across his body. Owen had found a long-handled scraper in the cleaning cart and stood a step above him. The creature remained below the landing, out of sight, but every few seconds its claws made a soft sound on concrete.
“Could it be eating something?” Owen whispered.
“I don’t know.”
Eli wished he could see it. A narrow strip of light from the upper landing reached the wall beside the creature but left the steps in shadow. If he advanced, he might draw it toward him before Mrs. Larkin was safely around the turn. If he stayed where he was, he had to trust that it would remain below.
Daniel and Jun lowered the front of the green blanket one step at a time. Owen stayed at the lower landing with the scraper. After checking the creature’s position, Eli returned to take a rear corner; Tessa had replaced Owen at the other. The four carriers descended together while Mrs. Larkin’s son counted each step.
“One. Stop. Two. Stop.”
On the third step, the blanket sagged. Mrs. Larkin gasped.
“It’s caught,” Daniel said.
A fold of fabric had wrapped around the rail. Eli held his corner steady while Tessa freed it. He could see Daniel shaking at the front of the blanket.
“Hold it close to your body,” Eli said. “Don’t try to keep the whole weight on your fingers.”
“I’m trying.”
“I know. Let the fabric bunch here.” Eli demonstrated with his own hand. “If you need a break, say so before you let go.”
Daniel adjusted his grip. His mother kept her eyes closed but nodded when Tessa asked if she could continue.
They reached the landing with the blanket intact. Eli and Owen moved the cart farther against the wall. The bucket of water sloshed, and the creature below shifted in response.
“Everyone still,” Eli said.
A head appeared at the turn: narrow, hairless, with a ridged snout and eyes that reflected the light. It was smaller than the creature on the west stair. One shoulder bore a patch of torn skin. It sniffed toward the landing, then pressed back into the dark.
Owen raised the scraper. Eli lowered it with one hand.
“Don’t reach for it,” he whispered. “There’s nothing to hit from here.”
“It saw us.”
“Yes.”
They had no way to make that fact less dangerous. Eli moved the bucket out of the path and returned to the upper door, where Mei and her family waited.
“First landing has room,” he told them. “The creature is still below it.”
Mr. Chao looked at his wife’s splinted leg. “How do we get past?”
“We may not. We’re checking the next flight before committing.”
Tessa guided Leah down while Mara followed with Ben. Jun returned to the upper doorway after setting down his corner; Mei came last with her husband and brother on either side. She kept her injured leg lifted, though each hop drew a sharp breath from her.
The landing filled quickly. There was room for the blanket, the cart, and a line of people against the wall, but no spare space to turn if the creature came up the stairs.
Tessa counted them. “Daniel, your mother, Leah, Mara, Ben, Mr. and Mrs. Chao, Mei’s brother, Owen, Eli, and me. Eleven.”
“My name’s Jun,” Mei’s brother said. He was breathing hard from carrying his corner of the blanket.
“Jun,” Tessa repeated. “Can you hold the door for a moment?”
He took the wedge from Owen and checked the upper fire door. It stayed open toward the corridor. If they had to return, they would not have to fight the latch while carrying Mrs. Larkin.
Eli stepped to the next flight. He could see the creature again, crouched on a lower step. Behind it lay the dark landing and a closed door. A second set of scratches sounded from beyond the door.
“There are at least two,” he said.
“Can we scare them away?” Daniel asked.
“Maybe. If we do, they might run down. They might also come straight up.”
Owen looked at his scraper. “Can you fight one?”
“I fought one in the west stair with help.” Eli looked toward Tessa and the people crowded against the wall. “This isn’t a good place for a fight.”
He had died after trusting a powerful guild to make the right choices. Ten years as a porter had not made the stairs wider or given the residents armor. His experience of watching a dangerous room remained, but he could not see an enemy’s weak points. He could see only what the light showed him and what the creature chose to reveal.
The creature crept up another step. Eli struck the rail. It recoiled, then held its position.
A voice came through the open door above. “Hello? Is anyone on six?”
Mara’s face changed. “That’s my husband.”
She pushed past Jun. Eli caught her arm before she reached the stairs.
“Call him here,” he said. “Don’t go alone.”
“Paul!” she shouted.
Footsteps approached. A man in a yellow coat appeared through the upper door, carrying a compact emergency lamp and a roll of bandages. Mara embraced him so abruptly that the lamp struck the wall.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “The east entrance was blocked. They sent me around the outside.”
He crouched in front of Ben. “Are you all right?”
Ben lifted his bandaged arm. “Tessa fixed it.”
“I’ve kept pressure on it,” Mara said. “He says his fingers aren’t numb.”
Paul checked the dressing without removing it. The cloth was wet but not dripping. He looked at Tessa, who told him what she had seen and how long ago the cut occurred.
“I’ve got more gauze,” he said. “Two responders are trying to clear the west corridor. The one with the shield sent me up.”
Eli leaned closer. “Darius? The man on the lower landing?”
Paul looked uncertain. “I saw a responder carrying someone on a sheet. I didn’t see his face.”
Tessa’s hand went to her jacket pocket.
“Was he breathing?” she asked.
“I don’t know. They were below me when I saw them.”
Eli wanted to press him for a better answer, but Paul had already given the one he had. Tessa looked toward the upper door for a moment, then returned her attention to Ben’s arm.
Paul set the lamp on the landing. Its beam reached farther down the stairs, making the creature flinch. Beyond it, a second one moved behind the closed lower door, its outline visible through a narrow pane of wired glass.
“The door is holding one,” Eli said. “We may be able to use that.”
Owen pointed to a small utility recess halfway down the flight. “If you can get past the first one, there’s a panel that controls the stairwell lights.”
“Would light keep it back?”
“No idea. But there are motion lamps in the recess. The contractor left one after the repair.”
Eli looked again. The recess was only a few steps beyond the creature. He could reach it if the animal retreated. He could also find himself trapped between the creature and the closed door.
“What’s on the other side of that door?” he asked.
“Another landing. Then the stairs continue to the rear exit.”
Tessa had come close enough to hear. “Can it open the door?”
Owen shook his head. “I don’t know. It opens toward us, and the handle’s high.”
The creature behind the glass bumped the door. The handle did not move.
Eli picked up the emergency lamp and angled it toward the animal on the stairs. It withdrew until its body was below the lower landing. It did not leave. The light held it at a distance, but nothing suggested it would remain there once they crowded the stairwell.
“Paul,” Tessa said, “can the responders reach the west corridor from here?”
“They’re trying to come up. They told me to bring anyone I found down if there was a clear route.”
“There isn’t.” She studied the group. “We can return to six and try the west corridor while they’re coming toward us.”
Daniel tightened his grip on the blanket. “We just got her down.”
“I know. Going back costs us time and hurts her. But we haven’t reached the difficult turn yet.”
Eli looked at the creature below and then at the upper door. He could try to draw the animal into the utility recess, trap it there, and hold the other door while everyone passed. He could not do all three at once. If it got past him, the people on the landing would have nowhere to retreat except the narrow flight behind them.
“We go back,” he said.
Daniel stared. “You said this was the route.”
“I said the first landing was clear. I should have checked the next one before we brought her down.”
Tessa shook her head. “I chose to move the group. I knew you hadn’t checked it.”
Daniel looked between them. He swallowed whatever he had been about to say and turned to his mother. “We’re going up again.”
Mrs. Larkin opened her eyes. “Then count properly this time.”
The return took longer than the descent. Tessa assigned Paul and Jun to the front corners and Eli and Daniel to the rear. Owen went ahead to clear the upper door, while Mara helped Ben up between Leah and Mei. Tessa stayed with the patient whose breathing had become shallow.
At the third step, the building lurched.
The emergency lamp tipped. Its beam slid across the wall and vanished. A crack ran through the plaster beside the upper door with a sound like a branch splitting.
Daniel lost his grip.
His corner of the blanket slipped. Mrs. Larkin rolled toward the rail. Eli caught the fabric before she could strike it, wrenching his shoulder as her weight shifted. Paul and Jun held the front, but neither could see what had happened behind them.
“Down,” Tessa said. “Lower her together.”
They set the blanket on the stairs. Mrs. Larkin cried out when her injured hip touched the edge of a step.
“Don’t move her,” Tessa said. “Daniel, take a breath. Is anyone else hurt?”
The building continued to tremble. Dust fell from the ceiling. A sharp crash sounded somewhere above, and the door at the top of the flight swung inward against Owen’s shoulder.
“It’s the frame,” he called. “Something moved.”
Eli saw the crack widen beside the hinge. The upper part of the door had dropped, trapping Owen between it and the wall. He shoved it back with both hands, and Owen pulled himself free.
The door remained open, but a piece of the ceiling had fallen across the corridor beyond it. Eli could see the broken edge of a wall panel and a tangle of metal studs. Their return route was no longer clear.
He climbed over the last step and tested the debris. One panel shifted when he touched it. Another was pinned beneath a beam. Without knowing where the load rested, he could not tear it away safely. He watched the crack in the wall while he pulled the loose panel to one side.
The creature below rushed up two steps. Paul retrieved the lamp and flashed it toward the animal. It stopped at the edge of the beam, snarled, and dropped back.
“We have to move,” Daniel said.
Tessa was checking Mrs. Larkin’s breathing. “We do. First I need to know whether the fall changed her condition.”
“She didn’t fall,” he said, though his face showed that he had felt her weight slip.
“She struck the step. Help me ask her where it hurts.”
Daniel knelt. His mother opened her eyes.
“Same place,” she said. “More than before.”
“Did you hit your head?”
“No.”
Tessa looked at her leg and the position of the blanket. “Can you feel your foot?”
“Yes.”
“Can you move your toes?”
Mrs. Larkin did. Tessa nodded and turned to Eli. “What can you clear?”
“The loose panel. The beam is holding the rest. If I pull it, I don’t know what comes down.”
Owen came up beside him and examined the frame. “The lift lobby is through there. If we clear the panel, we might get across to the west corridor.”
“Might?”
“The wall’s moved. I can’t see the other end.”
Eli checked the beam’s position again. A hairline crack extended from it toward the ceiling. No talent showed him the forces hidden inside the material. But he could see dust falling each time the frame shifted, and he knew not to put people beneath the part that was moving.
“We clear what’s loose,” he said. “Nobody touches the beam.”
Owen took the other end of the panel. Together they lifted it over the cart and set it against the inner wall. The opening beyond was narrow but passable. A person could squeeze through. A blanket carry would be harder.
From the corridor came a distant shout. Paul answered, and a voice replied: “West stairs. We’re coming up.”
“The shield bearer,” he said. “She made it past the landing.”
Mara leaned toward the opening. “Can you hear us? There are eleven—twelve with Paul.”
“Stay where you are!” the voice called. “We’re clearing the corridor.”
A crash followed. Someone shouted again, too indistinct to understand.
Eli looked back at the lower flight. The creature had climbed to the step below the landing. It watched the light and the movement above it, deciding whether to advance. The second shape remained behind the lower door.
“Paul, keep the lamp on it. Don’t throw it,” Eli said. “We need the light.”
Paul held the beam steady.
Tessa reorganized the group. Jun and Daniel would take the front of Mrs. Larkin’s blanket; Eli and Owen would take the rear. Paul would remain with the lamp until the last possible moment, then follow. Mara would bring Ben through before the blanket so the boy would not be trapped on the wrong side if the opening narrowed.
Leah tried to stand without Tessa’s support. Her injured leg held for one step. On the second, she caught herself against the wall.
“I’m slowing you down,” she said.
“Yes,” Tessa answered. “So we plan for it.”
Leah looked startled. Tessa offered her shoulder again, and this time she accepted it.
Eli and Owen tested the turn with the empty end of the blanket. The fabric would pass through the opening if the front carriers moved sideways and kept the patient low. There would be almost no room for a mistake.
“Short shifts,” Eli said. “When we reach the other side, Paul takes my corner. Jun, if your hands go numb, say so. We’ll stop and change.”
“Stop where?” Daniel asked.
“Anywhere we can put her down without blocking the door. That’s why we tell each other before we lose the grip.”
Daniel nodded. He flexed his fingers and wrapped them around the rolled edge again.
Tessa sent Mara and Ben through first. Mara ducked beneath the damaged frame, guiding Ben by the shoulder. He squeezed through, then turned to watch the others.
A dark stain had spread through the dressing on his arm. Tessa had added gauze at the edge of the landing, but the new layer was already wet.
“Ben,” she said. “How does your hand feel?”
He held it up. “Cold.”
Mara looked at the bandage. Blood ran between her fingers.
“It’s getting worse,” she said.
The creature scraped against the step below. Behind the fallen wall, the responder shouted that the west corridor was still blocked.
Tessa set down her bag.