From Human to Skeleton: Revived with Infinite System Crystals

Tyree's fist struck the cot rail twice.

Waddell had one hand on the laundry return valve and the other around a pair of tongs. The knocks came through his boots before he turned. Canvas still pinned Tyree's forearm beneath the damp blanket. His knuckles had found the rail by dragging the whole cot sideways.

Through the north service door came three blows, the first bending its chain plate inward and the next shaking plaster from the frame. On the third, return pipes knocked against their wall brackets.

Tyree looked down at his trapped hand. "The old count never started, so those five beats are gone."

Waddell set the tongs on the floor. "Keep the buckle closed because your hand just sent the opening."

"I was planning to remain tied until my fingers stop taking outside work."

The burn blanket smoked where his thumb pressed against it. Waddell soaked that corner from a detergent pitcher, then checked the release tab. It still faced him. The cot brake had slipped half a tooth under the two knocks.

He kicked it back into place.

Gojaro's voice came through the floor tablet. "The chained one struck your door three times, then returned to tightening the exit."

His body feed showed the north alley from behind Oscar's raised barrier. Rosa's low fire web held the mechanic by one leg near the heating box. Burned skin had peeled from the trapped knee, yet both hands kept sorting brass route plates by size.

The third body had reached the apartment roof. It crouched behind a water tank with the stolen heating placard across its thighs, turning its head before each change in Gojaro's position.

Waddell had disliked the shared pattern of six. Two inside and three outside gave him a worse problem. Anyone counting toward six could wait for a final command that had already changed jobs.

"Treat every count as complete once it changes a hand or door."

Gojaro shifted the feed toward the chained body. "Rosa can burn through its forearm before I remove the chain."

"Keep her fire on the plate because that chain may be holding more than metal."

Rosa heard him over the open channel. Her web tightened around the mechanic's ankle while one narrow strand crossed the nearest route plate. Numbers surfaced beneath the grime as the brass warmed.

The chained body leaned away from the door and pulled harder. The chain passed through a municipal padlock, around the crash bar, then beneath its own left arm. Cutting the arm would leave the loop under tension and the exit sealed.

Oscar moved his sword point toward the pavement anchor. "I can move the barrier through the chain and take its weight."

"Take the door's load before anybody cuts the body away."

Oscar rotated the blade. His clear wall narrowed until one edge pressed beneath the chain. The north exit opened the width of two fingers, enough for the crash bar to return to its resting notch.

Waddell watched the notch through the shelter camera. The chained body stopped pulling when the door recovered. It abandoned the chain, seized the barrier edge with both hands, and tried to drag Oscar's wall across the threshold.

One assigned task had failed, so it changed tools without waiting for another note.

Tyree pulled once against the restraint. The motion stayed his. Waddell knew because Tyree used his shoulder and swore when the bad cot wheel turned toward the wall.

"My hand feels empty now, which worries me more than the fire."

Waddell pressed two fingers to the blanket over Tyree's wrist. Heat remained under the skin while the tendons lay slack.

"You stay tied until empty stops being useful."

Caelin's aide opened the inner fire door far enough to slide a paper facility map across the floor. She kept her shoes beyond the red tape.

"The boiler worker can bypass this branch through the cafeteria loop without cutting heat to the cots, but both valves have to close in the order I marked."

Waddell studied the pencil marks. One valve sat beside him. The other was inside the service room beyond the second fire door. Closing them in the wrong order would push hot return through the vent containing the black wire.

"The service room valve closes first while mine stays open for pressure."

The aide repeated the order into her radio. Farther inside the shelter, a wheel squealed for four turns and stopped. The laundry pipe above Tyree jumped against its brackets.

His hand remained still.

Waddell caught his valve with the tongs and pulled left. Old grease fought for half a turn. Hot water moved through the wall toward the cafeteria loop, rattled beneath the floor, then left the laundry return quiet enough for him to hear Tyree breathing through his nose.

The north door took another blow.

One this time.

The altered body had thrown itself shoulder first into Oscar's barrier. It struck again after a pause that matched nobody inside. Two impacts with different spacing. The controller had stopped relying on a shared clock, or the bodies had learned to continue without it.

Waddell dragged the empty laundry cart across the intake cover and locked its bad wheel against the wall. He threaded a cot strap through both fire door handles, then braced the inner door with the steel cover from a dead washer.

He and Tyree remained inside the sealed strip of hallway.

Caelin reached the radio first. "You can secure that brace from our side after you cross the red line."

"Opening this door gives the pipe another moving hand, so hold your side."

Tyree looked at the washer cover, then at Waddell. "This is the part where I complain that your plan includes you."

"Your complaint can wait until both of us stop answering doors."

On the tablet, Rosa heated the route plate until its stamped numbers stood clear. Gojaro copied them into his sleeve camera. Oscar carried the north door's load while the altered mechanic tried to crawl beneath his barrier with one working leg.

When the rooftop body moved west, Gojaro turned to follow until Waddell caught the radio button. "Keep the alley because chasing the map leaves their chained exit unguarded."

Gojaro watched the body cross one roof. His weapon stayed raised for an extra second before he lowered it and turned back toward the shelter.

"Rosa recovers one plate while Oscar keeps the doorway usable."

The mechanic released the sorted brass and reached for Rosa's nearest fire line. She let it catch the strand. Fire wrapped its hand, climbed the wrist, and pulled its torso away from the plate. Gojaro slid the brass behind Oscar's barrier with his boot.

Caelin's aide was typing when Waddell looked back toward the inner door. Her first draft used the shelter name twice. He made her read it aloud.

"Three altered bodies are stealing district heat maps near an occupied emergency shelter."

"Remove the building type because cameras will search every shelter entrance."

She deleted it. The second draft warned people to avoid basements, heat boxes, service doors, and bodies carrying tools or route plates. It directed witnesses to report movement and equipment through the city line while withholding faces, names, private exits, and anyone inside nearby buildings.

"Add that the bodies pass exposed people when the route matters more."

Caelin leaned over her shoulder. "That detail prevents panic while telling people the danger is coordinated."

"Then publish the useful fact before somebody replaces it with hunger."

The aide sent the warning through the official office feed and municipal text line. Beyond the fire door, ringing phones blurred into conversation. Caelin assigned four workers to the queue and raised the fifth caller over speaker.

"A body is prying numbers from the laundromat boiler three blocks west."

Another caller had filmed a basement door. Caelin's aide made her delete the address before accepting the clip.

Rosa tilted the recovered plate toward Gojaro's camera, revealing three square punches around an empty center. Heating office tools had battered the district numbers on its front, but these cuts remained clean. Fresh heat darkened their edges without touching the older stamps.

Tyree's hand knocked twice against the cot rail again.

The laundry pipe stayed quiet above him.

Outside, the altered body caught in Rosa's web raised its burned hand and tapped three fingers against Oscar's barrier.

The rooftop body kept moving west without looking back.

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