Chapter 16 · The Other Survivor

Keira hit the maintenance tunnel floor and rolled. Rian landed beside her, already moving.

"Go," he said. "Left junction."

She didn't argue. They ran.

The tunnel was narrow, low-ceilinged, lined with conduit and pipes that dripped something oily. Emergency lighting cast everything in red. Keira's boots slapped metal grating. Behind them, somewhere in the dark, something scraped.

"You said the evac code." She kept her voice low. "Nightgrave's code."

"Yeah."

"So you were there."

"Yeah."

"Then you know what happened."

Rian didn't answer. He stopped at the junction, checked both directions, motioned right. They kept moving.

Keira's ribs ached. Her shoulder was still bleeding through the field dressing she'd slapped on two hours ago. She ignored it. She'd had worse.

"The list said you were the only survivor," she said.

Rian glanced back. His face was hard to read in the red light. "The list was wrong."

"Or incomplete."

"Or incomplete."

He stopped again. Ahead, the tunnel branched into three directions. He swore under his breath.

"What?"

"They rerouted the vents." He pointed at a sealed hatch where the left passage used to continue. "We can't get to the surface this way anymore.