Kellan asked about the hospital before asking for the gate.
His supplies waited at the surface checkpoint, inspected but not yet permitted through. The damaged mechanism stood closed under a local scout’s watch. A council reply had authorized a short reopening for urgent deliveries only after the scout confirmed the safe opening width. No one was promising another evacuation run on the strength of a crate arriving.
Tessa answered from the hospital through the working channel. The patients already received were being assessed. The corrected adapter had reached the bed that needed it. The local interpreter was helping staff understand the equipment, and the ward had arranged a separate review for the facility worker’s injured hand.
“Anything here should go to you first?” Kellan asked.
They compared his list with the hospital’s request. One small packet was better left on the surface for the receiving ward. Kellan removed it from the underground delivery record and obtained the receiving reference before giving it to the assigned carrier. A useful supply did not need to cross a failing gate twice to prove he had brought it far enough.
He had a message from Theo as well.
It had arrived through the brother’s ordinary contact route, folded into the delivery coordination rather than broadcast to the whole checkpoint. Survivors of the bridge evacuation had organized a continuing-care fund. Affected residents would control its decisions. The message named the first contributions and the process for requesting help, then stated plainly that the fund could…
