Taichi caught Caleb's left forearm and pulled him out of the water. Caleb got one knee onto the platform. His right arm would not take his weight.
Kei had dragged Suzu against the broken advertising pillar. A split in her chest plate showed the dark padding beneath. She held it shut with her left hand and breathed through her teeth.
Caleb stayed on his hands and knees until he could draw a shallow breath. The railing had caught him across the ribs. Each attempt to fill his lungs sent pain through his side.
Up at the rim, medics were hauling Barrett away. A soldier waved toward the platform, then backed out of sight as masonry slipped from the edge. They could see the four recruits. Getting down to them would take longer.
The creature had gone along the tracks. Caleb could hear it moving beyond the floodlights.
Between them and Bristow's shield team, the derailed car shifted. Rubble dropped into the remaining gap. Kei tried the local channel again and got the same burst of static.
"Help me."
Kei's head came up. His mouth was closed.
His own voice continued from the steam at the far end of the platform. "Please. I dropped my rifle. I can't get up."
Kei looked down at the weapon still hanging from his sling. He tightened his hand around the grip.
"Don't answer it," Suzu said.
Caleb sat back on his heels. Warmth gathered under his ribs, easing the pain enough for a deeper breath. The hunger that followed made him bend forward again.
His rifle was under the fallen slab. The combat knife was still on his belt.
He drew it with his left hand.
Taichi looked at the knife, then at the fog. "What are you doing?"
"Keeping it busy."
"You have a knife."
"I know."
"Caleb."
"I know, Taichi."
Suzu shifted away from the advertising pillar. The movement made her stop and press harder against her ribs.
"Stay close to the rail," she told him. "If you go under again, we can't reach you."
He looked down the ledge. The collapse had cracked the tiles beside the far support column. A section hung above the water, held up by the column and whatever concrete remained beneath it.
"Taichi. Watch that pillar."
Taichi followed his glance. He kept the scatter-gun across his knees.
Caleb's viewer count passed eighty thousand. Somebody in the chat asked why no one was helping them. Somebody else told him to get up.
He folded the chat out of his sightline and moved toward the cracked section.
"Caleb."
The voice still belonged to Kei. The creature had heard Taichi say his name, and now it was trying that too.
"Caleb. Help me."
"You picked the wrong one for that."
It stepped out of the steam.
Its leg plates glowed dull orange around the joints. The water touching them boiled. Caleb's thermal overlay could not separate its body from the heat around it, so he stopped trying to use the colors and watched its feet.
He needed it to put its weight on the broken tiles.
The creature lifted a forelimb. Caleb backed along the rail, keeping his left hand low. The knife was small enough that its sensory pits stayed fixed on his face.
It swung.
He dropped beneath the blade. His chest seized halfway down. For a moment his ribs would not let him bend far enough, then the pain loosened and he scraped clear beneath it.
The creature planted a leg beside him to turn.
Caleb had seen that joint stripped bare in the yards. The plates slid apart when the leg took weight. A narrow fold of membrane showed behind the knee, there and gone with each step.
He drove the knife into it with his left hand.
The edge passed under the plate. He pushed until the guard struck shell, then turned the blade toward the cord inside the joint.
The cord parted.
Black fluid sprayed across his glove and sleeve. The canvas smoked. Heat reached his forearm before he could pull the knife free.
He stumbled backward, scraping the hot fabric against his chest plate. The armor cuff had stopped most of the fluid. A blister rose at its edge, but he could still close his hand around the knife.
The creature shrieked. Its damaged leg folded, then dragged through the water as it tried to follow him.
Caleb reached the cracked tiles. He tried to take another step and dropped to one knee.
The hunger had caught up with him. He could breathe now, but he could not make his legs straighten.
The creature hauled its ruined joint onto the ledge. Its good leg struck the damaged floor beside the support column.
"Taichi. The pillar."
Taichi was already standing.
"Get off the tiles."
Caleb tried. His boot slid in the creature's blood.
Kei caught the rear strap of his suit and pulled. Caleb's knee scraped across the broken floor as Taichi fired into the exposed crack at the column's base.
The first heavy round broke away the remaining concrete. The second struck the exposed supports. The column settled with a sound Caleb felt through his teeth.
Suzu shouted from beside the sign. "Back!"
Taichi caught Caleb under the left arm as Kei dragged him clear. The three of them fell against the intact section of railing.
The platform gave under the creature's good leg.
It dropped into the runoff. The column followed, bringing a slab of the ledge down across its black shell. Water struck the underside of Caleb's boots and burst over the rail.
Kei held on to his harness until the platform stopped moving.
Nothing came back through the hole.
Taichi stared at it. "Holy shit."
Caleb tried to answer and vomited onto the tile. There was little left in his stomach. He turned his head away from Taichi's boots.
"Sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Be alive."
Kei pulled a loose piece of canvas away from Caleb's blistered wrist. "This is burned."
"Leave the cuff. It's stuck."
Kei stopped pulling. He sat beside him with the rifle across his legs, facing the hole. Suzu kept her own barrel trained on the tracks. She had not let go of her chest plate.
Caleb looked at his display.
One hundred and fifteen thousand viewers. Beside the count, the engagement estimate had climbed higher than he had ever seen it.
If the settlement cleared, it could cover this month's interest. He could stop thinking about his mother's door for a little while.
He checked the figure again. An estimate was not a transfer. He had been working too long to confuse the two.
Caleb let his head rest against the rail. His ribs no longer caught on every breath. His right arm still hung uselessly at his side, and hunger made his hands shake.
Above the broken roof, someone called for a rope.
He kept his eyes on the hole until Kei shifted closer and took that side of the watch.