From Human to Skeleton: Revived with Infinite System Crystals

The red tape made Waddell's screw too thick for the bracket.

Palla pressed until the damaged threads scored the metal, then pulled it free before the tape peeled. The monitor tile lay facedown across her thighs, with four mounting holes around a backplate stamped with the number four and fresh scratches where someone had failed to grind the mark away.

Below the floor grille, Denna's ruined key remained wedged in the old keeper notch. The black wire ran through its melted teeth and disappeared into the seam. Each time the funeral engine circled Switch Nine, the wire tightened enough to lift the key from the floor.

Palla set the screw beside it and wiped her palm on her trousers. Blood had reached the base of her thumb beneath the bandage, where she could still feel it.

"The tape is the only part wide enough to hold, so cutting it off wastes what Waddell sent us."

Toman opened the repair drawer beneath the bell controls. Half its tools carried blue paint from the false drainage map. He handed Palla a flat screwdriver and kept the rest of himself away from the hinge.

"Use mine before you put another piece of your hand into city property."

"Your city put the hinge through it first, so we are past that argument."

Palla shaved rust from the lower mounting hole. Two curls came free. The third buried itself beneath her thumbnail. She worked around it until the screw caught halfway in and the red tape compressed against one side.

The backplate now sat away from the hinge by the width of a fingernail. It had room to turn and none to spare.

Jade held the tile level while Palla tested the bracket. Ty stood on Jade's left with one arm tight against the opening in his ribs, while the Reaper waited near the maintenance door with its damaged hook resting across both palms.

Denna moved between three speaking tubes on the upper platform, where a patient lift had stopped between floors again and the workers lowering it by hand had lost count of the chain.

"Mark every tenth link with grease and start from the counterweight," she said into the clinic tube. "Nobody changes the count until the hand pump reaches the upper floor."

She covered the mouthpiece and looked down at Palla.

"The engine reaches our window in less than a minute. Make your choice before I have another patient hanging between floors."

The tile showed Earth's empty laundry wing whenever Kegaku's heart sent six beats through the buried return. Waddell stood beside the bolted steel cover with a pair of cutters open on the floor. Tyree waited behind the second barrier. Caelin and his aide remained beyond the fire door.

Waddell watched the wire without seeing what one screw had done on Sadle.

"We give it one turn and no more," Jade said. "He needs the cost before he decides whether to cut the road."

Palla heard the funeral engine enter the yard, its warning horn reaching the switch house before the wheels. The tank car appeared between two freight sheds, followed by six sealed funeral cars and Kegaku's pressure bed on the rear platform.

Jade carried the tile to the window and raised Waddell's taped screw where Kegaku could see it.

He understood before the engine reached them. With one strap cutting into his chest and the arm Kieran severed ending above his elbow, he twisted far enough to shout across the narrowing distance.

"One turn, then close it after six whether Earth understands us or not."

Inside the tank car, the unnamed woman struck the glass with her living hand. Her returned graft remained buried in the right pump sleeve, where black fluid had climbed beyond the wrist seam.

JJ looked from her to Palla through the window.

"She heard him, but that does not give us a second turn."

The engine carried the pressure bed beyond the far wall. Erebos followed through the next window. Kieran stood between him and the brake lever with the repaired flute wrapped inside its case.

Palla fitted the tile into the missing wall's old hinge, where all four holes matched, then drove Waddell's screw into the lower one until its red tape tightened where the original keeper should have been.

Ty braced the tile with one hand. Every wheel strike outside made the exposed edges of his ribs rub against his coat.

"Warn me before your damaged grip gives out. I can carry the tile while you turn it."

"If my grip goes, the hinge takes my fingers with it. You will see that before I can warn you."

He shifted his thumb away from hers. Palla preferred that to an apology.

The funeral engine would need most of the yard before it returned. Denna spent the wait talking two workers through a stalled lift while Toman counted the chain beside her and crossed each tenth link from a grease pencil list. Near the maintenance door, the Reaper changed its grip on the hook whenever the monitor showed Waddell's cutters.

Palla kept the screwdriver in the slot until the next warning horn reached the building.

The engine entered the window line, and Palla turned the screw.

Tape bunched between the threads. The handle pushed back against her damaged palm, opening the old cut across the bandage. The tile rotated while Kegaku waited for a heartbeat that failed to arrive.

The tank woman drove her graft farther into the pump sleeve. Teeth beneath its gray skin caught the rubber seal and pulled pressure into the return. JJ grabbed the hose with both hands as black fluid ran over her wrists.

The tile cleared the hinge and faced Earth.

Waddell saw Palla first, bleeding over the hinge. Behind her, Switch Nine was crowded with route wheels, speaking tubes, a burned key, Jade's damaged eye, and Ty's open ribs as the funeral engine began crossing the windows at her back.

Palla held her bleeding hand beside the taped screw. She lowered it when Kegaku's heart returned hard enough to lift his back from the mattress.

Jade turned the tile toward the pressure bed. Waddell saw the missing arm, the straps, and the right pump taking pressure through the woman in the tank.

His cutters closed halfway around the wire on Earth. Tyree caught his wrist.

Kegaku's chest moved again. The beat was weak but present. Ty opened his coat with two fingers, letting the Earth side see what the Reaper's hook had done to his ribs. When the train shook the switch-house windows, he remained upright while Toman grabbed the bell controls.

Erebos reached the third window.

His shadow crossed ahead of him and spread over the monitor's backplate. It searched around Palla's fingers for the screw and the red tape that connected it to Earth.

Kieran swung the wrapped flute across his wrist. One metal brace struck bone through the case. She used both hands to drive him away from the window while the engine carried them past.

Kegaku's next beat came with a tear inside the pump sleeve, bending the tank woman's graft where no elbow belonged and throwing black fluid against the glass. JJ lost the hose, caught it against her chest, and shoved the split end over a brass fitting before the return emptied onto the car floor.

Waddell let the cutters fall open.

Caelin's aide pulled a fresh strip of red tape from the roll, left it blank, and fixed one end to the steel cover. She held the other where Waddell could reach it.

By Kegaku's fourth beat, the Reaper had moved.

It drove the hook between Jade and the tile. Ty caught the shaft with both sickles, but the inner curve slid around the lower blade and caught Jade above the elbow. The pull dragged her into the old bell rope. White spread beneath the skin around her damaged eye.

Palla grabbed the screwdriver as Kegaku's fifth beat shook through the hinge. On Earth, Waddell pointed at the cutters, pointed at Tyree, then drove the tool into a canvas bag and zipped it closed. His mouth moved, but the wall delivered nothing.

The Reaper pulled Jade across the floor grille. Ty locked one sickle around the hook and caught her waist with his other arm, forcing his weight backward until bone shifted inside his open side.

Erebos recovered before the engine cleared the last window. His shadow ran beneath Kieran's boots, left the moving car, and reached the hinge from below.

Palla turned the screw back. The handle rolled in her wet palm. She trapped it between two fingers and forced another quarter turn while Erebos held the backplate and the Reaper pulled from the face.

On Kegaku's sixth beat, the tank woman's graft tore lengthwise inside the sleeve.

Palla put her shoulder into the screwdriver. Skin gave way across her palm. The red tape crushed flat, the screw bit through it, and the tile slammed around in its frame.

Earth vanished before the Reaper's hook reached the glass.

The hook struck the numbered face and broke one corner from the tile. Erebos's shadow remained caught beneath the backplate after the train left the window. Palla drove the screwdriver through it and pinned it to the old hinge until the black shape pulled apart.

Kegaku waited for another heartbeat somewhere beyond the freight sheds.

The tank woman could not replace it again. Through the final window, Palla saw her living hand slide down the glass while JJ clamped the torn graft with both forearms. The engine carried them out of sight before Kegaku's chest moved.

His next beat reached the floor collar without help from the tile. It was thin enough that Palla felt it through the screwdriver before the lower gauge answered.

Denna came down from the speaking platform and wrapped Palla's palm with the clean end of the bandage.

"I am staying with the lifts, and that road remains your problem until the last patient reaches the street."

"Keep your patients off this floor because the road has learned which way the window turns."

On Earth, the steel cover over the intake vent kicked once and stayed down.

Tyree pulled the damp blanket from his arms. "They showed us exactly where the cost lands, so let me cross before that machinery loses another chance."

Waddell picked up the bag containing the cutters and passed it to the guard farthest from the vent.

"You saw one picture and no proof that a living body fits. Volunteering does not make the hole larger."

Caelin looked at the blank strip his aide had fixed to the cover. "Are we sealing the corridor or keeping people ready?"

Waddell took the marker and wrote the date, both guard names, and the time of the last movement. He left the center of the strip empty.

"Post two guards outside both fire doors, keep the wing empty, and bring me every load scale in this shelter. Nothing living crosses until the road proves what weight it can return."

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