Chapter 312: A Different Way Out

Tessa put her hand against the ruined house and felt the frame move.

"Not that wall." She said.

Orin stepped back from the loose boards. The opening beyond them would have saved a useful stretch of street, but the roof depended on the post they would need to remove. Belda marked the house as unsafe and pointed toward the next one.

They had been inside the rescue course for sixteen minutes. One survivor was received. A second waited above a broken bakery stair. They had the sling ready, but no position they trusted for the line.

Min examined a beam through the upper window. "That crosses two walls."

Orin checked the ends, then nodded. They ran the rope around it, protected the contact point with folded canvas, and tested the load before putting a person into the sling. The man with the injured ankle watched them with growing impatience until Tessa explained what would happen if the support failed.

He became patient after that.

Belda controlled the lower line while Kesh received him. Orin managed the sling above, Min watched the frame, and Tessa stayed where she could see the street. Their arrangement looked much like lowering cargo through a hatch, except the cargo could be frightened and hurt. They talked the man through every change and kept his injured foot clear.

Two received. Twenty-nine minutes spent.

The creatures tested their retreat near the bakery. Tessa had no wish to fight there, but they could not avoid every encounter. Kesh and Belda held the narrow entrance while she and Orin drove one attacker away from the line. Min brought the survivor through behind them. They escaped the corner with a torn sleeve and a clear understanding of how expensive a prolonged fight would be.

At the shelter, Kesh looked down the street.

"That gets worse if we’re carrying a board."

Tessa agreed. They needed an evacuation route they could defend without five skilled fighters.

They found it through the buildings on the west side. The route crossed an empty shop, a store room, and a yard with a low dividing wall. Two doors needed opening, and the yard needed a stable ramp for a carrying board. Nothing required crossing the square where the largest group of creatures waited.

It took time to prepare. Orin removed a door from its hinges instead of breaking it into useless pieces. Min and Kesh used it to bridge a shallow gap. Belda secured the joints while Tessa kept watch. Their first trip through would be slow. The next three would be faster.

They reached the cellar with seventy-one minutes left.

The walking man helped them find a longer board inside the room. None of the Five Knots pretended to be a healer. Min knew enough first aid to recognize that the second man needed careful support, and she listened when he described where movement hurt. They used the supplied materials and avoided pulling him upright simply because that would have been easier.

Getting the board around the first corner required removing a shelf. Orin did it quickly and kept the screws in his pocket by habit. Kesh carried the foot end, then changed with Belda when the turn left him bent at an awkward angle. Tessa walked ahead to clear loose debris. Their route worked, but it demanded everyone’s attention.

At reception, they had four survivors and a little under an hour.

The fifth gave them locations. The sixth needed a beam lifted. That was work they could understand. Orin built a short lever from timber on the floor, Min established a solid fulcrum, and Belda prepared a sling to move the trapped man as soon as the weight came off. Tessa and Kesh watched the approaches until the others needed their hands.

The lift went smoothly. The exit did not.

A creature entered the yard and struck the door ramp before they could move the board over it. Belda’s fastening held, but the impact shifted the lower support. Kesh put down his end, seized a loose plank, and drove the attacker back long enough for Tessa to close the yard gate.

The gate would not hold forever.

"Reset the foot." Tessa said.

Min and Orin did it together. They carried the board across, pulled the ramp after them, and left the creature breaking through an empty yard.

Six received. Qualified.

Tessa checked the time and looked at her crew. Kesh’s forearm was bleeding through a scratch. Min’s hands shook slightly from the long carry. Belda still had line arranged across her shoulder, and Orin was searching his tool roll for a fitting he had misplaced in the cellar.

"We can stop." Tessa said.

They all knew it. She wanted the choice made before anyone treated the last two survivors as an obligation they had never agreed to.

Belda looked at the north row. "Do we know where?"

"A fallen roof."

"Then let’s see the roof."

They reached it by the prepared route, saving minutes they had spent creating earlier. The survivors were separated by the collapsed floor. Tessa saw the chimney, the trapped arm below, and a clear crossbeam in the adjoining house. A direct descent through the broken floor would place weight on exactly the wrong part of the structure.

"Across first." She said. "Then below."

Belda took the line through the upper window. Orin and Min examined the chimney’s supports. Kesh carried timber from the room behind them while Tessa watched both the clock and the lane. The woman above had enough strength to help if given clear instructions. Belda secured her before asking her to move.

The lower rescue needed a brace anchored against a sound wall. They cut nothing they did not understand, tested every shift, and worked faster when the pieces began to take weight. The trapped man’s arm came free with the chimney still standing.

Then a creature struck the rear shutter.

Tessa could not leave Orin alone with the brace. Kesh met the attacker at the opening and forced it back. Another came along the lane. Belda called that the upper survivor was clear, and Tessa sent her down to help Kesh while Min secured the man on the board.

They withdrew with eight minutes remaining. The damaged ramp had already been reset, the loose shelf removed, and every corner of their chosen route inspected. Those earlier jobs paid them back at each turn. Tessa kept calling the next obstacle so the bearers never had to stop to discover it.

They crossed the reception line with less than a minute left.

Belda handed over the sling before sitting. Kesh stayed upright until the official confirmed the eighth survivor, then leaned both hands on his knees. Orin opened his fist and discovered he was still carrying three shelf screws.

Tessa took them from him and put them in the tool roll.

The next morning, Golden Axe entered with a very different plan.

Before they went in, the field leader had each member name the equipment assigned to their pack. This exposed a missing water flask and a duplicate tool they did not need. They corrected both without changing the whole arrangement. Matthew stood outside the marked preparation area and watched. The team had reached the point where another instruction from him would serve mainly to reassure himself.

He asked one final question about withdrawal. The leader gave a clear answer: when the remaining objective could not be completed with time to bring everyone out, they would stop. A dangerous choice made with full information could be justified. Continuing simply because turning back felt embarrassing could not.

Their healer checked the carrying equipment while the official verified the roster. The scout studied the supplied map without trying to turn it into a complete plan before seeing the buildings. Each had been selected for a reason, and the opening minutes would give those reasons practical shape.

Matthew moved toward the viewing room after the gate closed. Several guild members followed, talking about the likely route. He let them talk until the screen showed the party’s first decision. It differed from the one the onlookers expected. Nobody inside could hear their objections, and Matthew kept his own opinion to himself while the five competitors made it work.

Matthew’s chosen team carried sufficient equipment to move people without improvised repairs. Their opening search was efficient. They used a slate to record locations, assigned two people to escort the first survivors, and kept the others within a distance from which they could provide immediate help.

They were fastest through the square. The guild’s fighting experience showed in the way they opened a lane and withdrew before pursuing could break the formation. Their healer made clear decisions about who could walk and who needed support. Four survivors reached reception with time to spare.

Their problem developed at the north row.

They had passed the minimum and rescued the seventh when the upper floor shifted beneath a support. Their first brace was too short for the safest position. They could fetch another, but their best return route ran through a street they had cleared earlier and not secured.

The field leader sent the scout to measure the alternative. The answer came back in time for a choice, not a miracle. They could attempt the eighth and risk leaving themselves inside when the clock expired, or withdraw with seven.

He withdrew.

Matthew watched the recorded attempt after the team came out. The field leader explained the brace, the route, and the time. No one pretended the eighth survivor had been impossible to save. Their decisions had made him too expensive to reach safely within the remaining minutes.

"You made the right call at the end." Matthew said.

The scout looked at the image of the north row. "We could have made a better one before it."

They stopped the recording and worked backward from that point. The team still had a place in the medal hunt. Matthew left them space to decide what they wanted to change before the next round rather than giving them his own list immediately.

In Sanctuary’s viewing square, the Five Knots’ final carry played again for people who had missed it. Several spectators followed the board through the narrow rooms with the same tension they had shown for fights. A dock worker recognized Belda’s knot and argued that the lower turn had been harder than it looked.

Tessa heard about that while inspecting Kesh’s scratch. It needed cleaning and a proper dressing, but he would be ready for the next round. Min had already booked a quiet table where they could review their own recording.

"After food." Belda said.

Tessa agreed. She still had the result folded inside her coat and kept touching it as if it might disappear. Orin placed his tool roll on the table, opened the small compartment for screws, and counted them.

"Three." He said.

Min held out her hand for the screws and put them in a small packet. Tessa opened the crew’s supply list beside the result, and they began counting what needed replacing before the next round.