The first stone struck the floor while the announcement was still calling it a simulation.
Eli had already found the second marked exit locked, marked its location and brought the map to Tessa and the combined group at the damaged passage. Keir and Lysa, the radio carrier, were with him. The control room had not acknowledged Sera’s warning; a supervisor had called emergency response after seeing a contestant’s real shoulder injury.
Then the floor shifted beneath Eli’s boots.
Another panel rattled overhead. Dust spilled from a seam near the ceiling. The announcement repeated that the disturbance was part of the exercise and instructed contestants to follow their assigned routes. A fist-sized fragment broke free and struck the floor between Pell and Lysa.
Pell jumped back. “That’s real.”
The judge at the partition raised a hand. “Remain in your lanes.”
A second piece hit the rail hard enough to bend it. Lysa raised her own hand and shouted the emergency call the briefing had specified. The nearest task stopped; whether the whole exercise would stop was less clear. The judge spoke into his radio, received no audible reply and waved the group away from the rail.
Keir pointed away from the marked exit on the map. “We can’t use that one. Back to the junction.”
