Kellan saw the bus before he saw what pursued it.
It had stopped short of the narrow turn, its rear close to a delivery cart abandoned against the wall. People inside leaned toward the windows on the side away from the river. The driver stood halfway out of his cab, shouting that the road ahead was blocked by a parked service vehicle.
Behind the bus, something dark climbed from the drainage mouth.
Kellan put the bracing kit down. The worker transporting Juno’s prototype had reached the same junction with the housing secured on a low trolley. He had been taking it toward a possible evacuation bottleneck, following the operating copy attached to its red tag. This was not the planned placement. It was a bus full of people caught between a turn and an emerging creature.
“How many inside?” Kellan called.
The driver gave a passenger count and said nobody could leave safely by the rear. A relative tried to open the side door. Kellan told him to remain inside while the road was cleared; stepping into the turning space would keep the bus from moving.
He called Juno from the public corner. She answered from the outer dam post.
