The creature pulled itself through the broken wall on six jointed limbs. Its body was low and broad, armored in plates the color of damp rock. Dust poured from the gaps between them. Two short feelers swept the air in front of a blunt head, and a serrated ridge ran down its back.
Cole swung his metal bar at the nearest limb. The blow glanced off the armor, turning the creature toward him. Jory thrust his spear and struck a seam beneath its head. The point went in a little way before the creature jerked sideways and tore it free of his hands.
“Back!” Corvin shouted.
The creature lunged. Cole stumbled against the opposite wall. A shower of loose stone fell over him, and he slid to the floor with one arm raised over his face.
Eli got to his knees. Through the dust he saw Jory lying on his side near the breach. His chest moved, but there was a wet, obstructed sound each time he tried to breathe.
Tessa reached him first. She dropped beside him and checked his mouth, then turned his head carefully to clear it. “Cole, can you hear me?”
Cole answered with a curse. Blood ran down his sleeve. “My arm.”
“Hold pressure on it. Eli, the kit.”
Eli grabbed the outer kit from the pack and brought it to her. She opened it one-handed while keeping Jory’s head positioned. His breathing was still noisy. She asked him to cough; he tried, but the sound caught in his throat.
Anton stood frozen at the bend, staring at the creature. Vera pushed past him and dragged the fallen lamp away from the center of the corridor. Its light swung wildly, throwing huge shadows across the wall.
Corvin and Cole struck at the creature from opposite sides. Corvin’s blade scraped across its shell without finding a gap. Cole swung again, using his uninjured arm. The creature recoiled, then drove one limb into the floor. The impact rattled the loose support overhead.
A sharp cry came from farther back. Anton had fallen against the stone, his leg pinned beneath a slab that had broken from the wall. Blood spread through his trouser leg.
“Help me!” he shouted.
Tessa looked up. She could see the blood. She could also hear Jory struggling for air.
“Vera, get that slab off him if you can do it safely. Eli, gloves.”
Eli opened the packet and handed her a pair. She pulled them on, checked Jory again, and spoke close to his ear.
“I’m going to turn you toward me. Keep breathing. Don’t try to stand.”
Anton cried out when Vera lifted the stone. She set it aside and pressed a folded dressing into his hands.
“Put this on the wound. Hard.”
“I can’t see it.”
“Here.” She guided his hands. “Both hands. Push.”
He obeyed, his face white beneath the dust. Blood seeped through the edges of the dressing.
“She’s helping him first?” he said, looking at Jory. “I’m bleeding.”
“I know,” Tessa said. “Jory can’t clear his airway. That’s more urgent right now. Keep pressure on your leg, and Vera will stay with you.”
Vera added another dressing over the first. “Don’t lift it to look. Press.”
Anton looked as if he wanted to argue. Then Jory made a harsh sound and coughed, and Anton pressed harder.
Eli held the lamp while Tessa worked. She kept Jory on his side, cleared what she could from his mouth, and checked that he was breathing more freely. The noise eased. Jory’s eyes opened, unfocused at first, then fixed on her face.
“Can you tell me your name?” she asked.
He did. His voice was hoarse.
“Good. Stay where you are.”
A second impact shook the corridor. Cole stumbled back, pulling Corvin with him. The creature advanced through the dust, its feelers brushing the floor. It turned toward the nearest movement: Eli’s lamp.
“Behind the packs,” Vera called.
Eli had placed the packs in the recess, clear of the main route. He pulled the water pack closer to the wall and rolled the box of lamps aside. Tessa and Vera guided Jory behind the shallow projection, where the stone offered some cover from the breach. Anton could not walk without help. Eli and Vera lifted him by the shoulders and brought him across, his injured leg dragging only a short distance before Tessa stopped them.
“Wait. We need to support it.”
Every second felt borrowed. The creature scraped against the floor behind them; Cole shouted as Corvin tried to draw it away. Eli wanted to lift Anton and run. Tessa took a rigid splint from the kit, checked the position of his leg, and wrapped it firmly enough to limit movement without hiding the dressing.
Anton gripped Eli’s sleeve. “Am I going to lose it?”
“I don’t know,” Tessa said. “We need to get you out for proper treatment.”
“Can I walk?”
“Not on that leg.”
“My ability—”
“Can wait until we know what you’re asking it to do,” Vera said.
She and Eli lifted him again. This time they kept his injured leg supported. Tessa followed with the kit and the spare dressings. Jory crawled behind them, stopping twice to catch his breath.
Corvin backed toward the group. “We can take it if we hold the passage.”
“We have two patients to evacuate,” Tessa said.
“Jory can walk.”
“I can,” Jory said, though his attempt to stand ended with one hand on the wall.
Tessa looked him over. “You can try with help. You are not fighting.”
Corvin pointed his blade toward the creature. “We can’t all carry people. Someone has to keep that thing away.”
“Then assign a guard and carriers. The contract says medical judgment triggers evacuation.”
“The contract doesn’t say we throw away the mission because of a scratch.”
Anton lifted his bloodied hands. “This isn’t a scratch.”
Cole glanced back. “He’s right.”
The creature struck again. Cole met the blow with his bar, but its limb knocked the weapon aside. Corvin slashed at the joint, drawing a thin line of dark fluid. The creature pulled back with a chittering sound. It did not retreat through the breach.
Tessa checked Anton’s dressing. The bleeding had slowed, but his breathing was quick and shallow. She told him what she was doing before tightening the bandage. Eli had seen her give the same calm explanations in the clinic, even when the patient seemed too frightened to listen. Here her hands moved faster, but her voice remained steady.
“We’re going to carry you in short shifts,” she said. “Tell me if you feel faint or the bandage loosens.”
Anton nodded. “I can shift some weight.”
“Not yet.”
“I can help.”
“You already are. Keep pressure where I showed you.”
Vera pulled a folded rescue sheet from her pack. It was smaller than a stretcher, reinforced at the edges with handles. She spread it beside Anton.
“On three,” she said. “Eli, support his leg. Tessa, watch the bandage. Anton, keep your hands where they are.”
They rolled him onto the sheet. He cried out despite their care, then apologized for making noise. Vera told him to save his breath.
Jory was sitting upright now. His face had regained some color. Tessa asked him several questions, including whether his neck hurt. He answered slowly. When she helped him to his feet, he swayed and caught her shoulder.
“I said I could walk.”
“You can walk with someone beside you. That’s different.”
Cole and Corvin had fallen back to the edge of the recess. The creature did not seem interested in the pale mineral at the end of the passage. Its feelers swept toward the group, following movement or sound. One brushed a fallen lamp, and the creature struck it, crushing the frame. Darkness swallowed part of the floor.
Eli looked up at the support. Weak-Point Sight showed the fractures more brightly now. One ran from the broken wall across the beam above the corridor. Another descended along the stone rib toward the floor. They met at a narrow section already shedding dust.
If the beam fell, it would cross the passage between the group and the creature. It might also bring more of the ceiling with it. He could not see every weakness beyond the reach of his lamp, and he could not predict where each stone would land.
A fragment bounced off his shoulder. He moved back.
“Vera,” he said, “the support’s failing.”
She looked where he pointed. “Can we get everyone past it?”
“Not before the creature reaches us.”
She studied the passage. The triage point was behind a projection but still within reach if the creature came forward. The route back narrowed at the bend. Four people could not lift Anton’s sheet and move through there at once.
“We need two carriers, not four,” she said. “One at the front, one at the back. Change when you tire.”
“I’ll take the front,” Eli said.
“Your shoulders are already loaded.”
“The packs stay.”
Corvin heard him. “The equipment belongs to the expedition.”
“So do the people,” Cole said, then corrected himself. “They’re on the expedition. We bring them out.”
Corvin stared at him. Cole lifted his injured arm, showing the blood soaking through his sleeve.
“I won’t be much use carrying. Let me hold the opening.”
Tessa started toward him, but he shook his head. “I’m still standing. Check me when we’re moving.”
She glanced at his wound. “Wrap it now and keep pressure. Don’t use that arm.”
Eli retrieved a dressing and handed it to Cole. He wrapped it awkwardly with his good hand and his teeth. Corvin held his blade between the creature and the group while he finished.
The creature moved left, testing the edge of the passage. Cole struck the floor beside it. The sound turned it toward him. He backed up a pace, keeping it away from the recess.
Eli lifted the front handles of Anton’s sheet. Vera took the rear. Anton’s weight settled unevenly between them, and Eli adjusted his grip. Tessa supported Jory with one arm while keeping the medical bag in the other hand.
“On my count,” Vera said. “Slow enough that we don’t swing him.”
They took three steps. The sheet brushed the wall, but Anton’s leg remained supported. At the bend, Eli turned sideways and guided the front through. Vera had to lower her end briefly to clear a protruding stone.
Behind them, Corvin shouted. The creature had driven forward again. Cole’s bar struck its shell. Stone cracked overhead.
“Stop,” Eli said.
A line flashed across the support. He saw the narrow section bend under the creature’s next impact. Dust spilled from the ceiling directly above Cole.
“Cole! Move back!”
Cole retreated. A chunk of stone fell where he had stood. The creature pushed its head through the dust, then paused as the beam shifted above it.
Eli and Vera lowered the sheet carefully onto the floor. He let go of the front handles while Vera steadied Anton.
“Can you stay with him?” he asked.
“For a moment.”
He took a step toward the support, looking for a place to strike. The weak section lay above the creature’s path. A blow there could bring the beam down between it and the retreating team. But the fallen stone would seal the passage toward the mineral, and the team had no confirmed alternate route.
The crystal had been the reason Eli came. Without it, the clinic’s order remained unpaid. Without the patients, the promise of money would be meaningless.
He turned toward Tessa. “I think I can bring the beam down. It may block the creature—and the way to the reading.”
Another stone fell. Tessa looked from the beam to Anton and Jory, then toward the bend where the others would have to pass.
Her hand stayed on the rescue sheet while she assessed the route. She did not tell him to strike immediately. First she checked that Anton was clear and that Jory could move behind the bend.
“How much time?” she asked.
“I don’t know. It could fall on the next hit.”
“Then give us room to move.”