I Choose the Skills Everyone Else Rejects

The first mound broke open to Nate’s left.

Kellan fired before the burrower cleared the soil. The round struck one of its front limbs and sent it sideways into a tree.

"Road."

Nate turned with him.

A second creature surfaced between them and the transport.

It came out at an angle, recovered quickly, and blocked the shortest path back to Cade.

The ground behind Nate trembled again.

There were more of them.

Kellan moved deeper between the trees.

"That’s not the road," Nate said.

"The road is occupied."

The wounded burrower crashed through a fallen branch behind them.

Kellan fired over his shoulder without slowing.

Then the voice came again.

"Help!"

Closer this time.

Nate saw a cable stretched between two trees ahead. It ran down a steep slope and disappeared below the exposed roots.

Kellan stopped beside it.

"Recovery line."

They reached the edge.

A man hung several metres below them.

His field jacket was torn open. Blood covered one side of his trousers, and his lower leg sat at an angle that made the injury obvious even from above.

A harness supported most of his weight.

Attached to the front of it was a black recorder unit.

Nate crouched.

"Can you hear me?"

The man lifted his head.

"Yeah."

"What’s your name?"

"Ellis."

Kellan touched his radio.

"Cade. We found a survivor. Recorder is still attached."

Static answered for a moment.

Then Cade’s voice came through.

"Position?"

"About eighty metres northeast."

A pause.

"I gave you fifty."

"Survivor was farther in."

Gunfire sounded behind them.

"Hold there. We’re moving."

Ellis grabbed the cable above his chest.

"Don’t leave."

"We’re staying," Nate said.

Kellan looked down the slope.

Several narrow holes opened between the roots below Ellis. Torn pieces of equipment lay around them, along with bones Nate could not identify from where he stood.

The ground had been disturbed recently.

"What happened?" Nate asked.

Ellis swallowed.

"We found the quarry. Four went inside."

"And the rest?"

Ellis looked down.

Nate followed his gaze toward the tunnels.

He understood.

Kellan examined the anchor around the tree.

"They were trying to pull him up."

"Can we finish it?"

"If the line still holds."

Ellis coughed.

"My leg’s caught."

Nate leaned farther over the edge.

The cable ran cleanly upward, but Ellis’s injured leg had become trapped beneath a thick exposed root.

"Can you move your foot?"

"I tried."

"Stop trying."

Ellis gave him a tired look.

"Wasn’t planning to do it again."

A burrower screamed somewhere behind them.

Kellan raised his weapon.

"Company."

The creature appeared between the trees at a run.

It was younger than the adult Nate had killed on the road, but there was still enough bone around its head to make his knife useless from the front.

Kellan fired.

The burrower lowered itself and kept coming.

Nate opened his Circuit.

Pain tightened beneath his shoulder almost immediately.

The creature charged Kellan.

Nate watched its movement.

Its front limb hit the ground.

For a moment, the same opening from the road seemed to appear.

He started forward.

Then stopped.

The angle was wrong.

The tree beside Kellan restricted the space Nate needed, and the burrower still had enough weight on its rear limbs to change direction.

Kellan threw himself aside.

The beast corrected after him.

That was the moment.

Its second front limb planted hard as it tried to turn.

Nate moved.

He passed beside its head and drove his knife between two neck plates.

The blade only entered a few centimetres.

The burrower twisted violently.

Nate released the handle before it could take his arm with it.

Kellan rolled onto one knee.

His next shot went into the opening Nate had created.

The creature struck the tree and collapsed.

Nate closed his Circuit.

His shoulder burned.

Kellan stood and checked his own arm where the creature had clipped him.

"You waited."

"It could still turn."

"And the second time?"

"It couldn’t."

Kellan looked at the dead burrower, then at Nate.

"You’re getting better at that."

Nate pulled his knife free.

"I’d rather not practice by standing next to its mouth."

"That seems reasonable."

Voices came through the trees.

Cade appeared first, followed by Nima and Dax. Varek arrived behind them with his cutter in both hands.

Cade saw the corpse.

"I told you to hold."

"It reached us first," Kellan said.

Cade checked both of them.

"You hurt?"

"My shoulder’s fine."

Kellan rotated it once.

Nate said, "Pathway strain."

Cade’s eyes settled on him.

"You opened your Circuit."

"Yes."

"I authorized one use."

Nate looked at the dead creature.

"It wasn’t interested in the paperwork."

Cade stared at him for a second, then moved to the slope.

Nima was already examining Ellis.

"Conscious. Heavy blood loss, but the harness pressure slowed it."

"Can we bring him up?"

"Yes, if we free the leg."

"How long?"

Nima looked at the root.

"Two minutes, maybe."

Varek stepped closer.

"The ground’s already moving."

Nate felt it too.

Weak vibrations travelled through the roots beneath them.

Varek looked at the recorder attached to Ellis.

"Cut the harness. Take the recorder."

Ellis heard him.

His hands tightened around the cable.

Nate turned.

"He’s alive."

"I can see that."

"We can get him out."

"We can get the objective out faster."

Nima looked at Varek.

"You want to explain that to him while you cut it?"

Varek didn’t react.

"I want everyone up here alive when the nest opens."

Cade crouched beside the anchor.

"Can we recover him without losing someone else?"

Nima hesitated.

"For now."

That was enough.

"We pull."

Varek shook his head but took position near the trees.

Cade pointed toward Dax.

"Rear. Varek, left side. Rook, right."

He looked at Nate.

"You help Nima."

Nate took the cable.

Nima released the brake slowly.

Ellis dropped a few centimetres before the line tightened again.

Pain twisted his face.

"Sorry," Nima called down. "I need the cable straight."

"I’m starting to dislike you."

"That means you’re still conscious."

They pulled.

Ellis rose slowly.

His injured leg reached the root.

The boot caught underneath it.

His scream carried through the clearing.

"Stop."

Everyone released the line.

Ellis hung there shaking.

Nate leaned over.

The root had trapped his ankle firmly.

"Can we pull him through it?"

Nima shook her head.

"We’ll destroy the knee."

Varek called from the trees.

"Better than losing the team."

A tremor passed beneath Nate’s hands.

This one was stronger.

Loose dirt fell from the sides of the slope.

Cade checked the tunnels.

"We have thirty seconds."

Nate pulled his knife.

The root was wider than his wrist.

"That won’t cut it."

Kellan removed a compact powered cutter from his belt and handed it over.

"This will."

Cade saw what Nate was thinking.

"No."

"It’s three metres."

"It’s three metres above a nest."

"If we leave now, Ellis stays there."

Cade looked at the moving soil around the tunnels.

Then at Ellis.

"Ten seconds."

Nate grabbed the cable.

"After ten, I pull you up whether he’s free or not."

"Understood."

Nate slid down.

His boots struck the slope beside Ellis.

The injured man looked at him.

"You’re academy."

"Was."

"What happened?"

Nate switched on the cutter.

"Long story."

The teeth bit into the root.

The wood was harder than he expected.

"Eight seconds," Cade called.

Nate pushed harder.

Sawdust scattered across Ellis’s jacket.

A scraping sound came from one of the holes below them.

Something pale moved inside.

"Six."

The cut had barely reached halfway.

Nate changed the angle.

Ellis looked down.

"There’s something in there."

"I know."

"Just checking."

"Four seconds."

The root began to split.

Nate kicked it.

It held.

"Calder."

"One more."

"Three."

Nate drove the cutter into the crack.

The root snapped halfway through.

"Time."

The cable tightened.

Cade had started pulling.

Nate grabbed Ellis’s boot with one hand.

"Wait!"

"I told you ten."

The line pulled Ellis upward.

His trapped leg straightened.

He screamed.

Nate planted one foot against the slope and kicked the damaged root.

It broke.

Ellis came free.

"Pull!"

The cable shot upward.

Nate grabbed it and climbed after him.

The nearest tunnel collapsed.

A burrower erupted beneath them.

Its jaws closed less than a metre below Nate’s boot.

Kellan fired from the ridge.

The creature recoiled.

Nate climbed faster.

Another mound formed beside the first.

Cade and Nima dragged Ellis over the edge.

Kellan reached down and caught Nate’s wrist.

Nate took it.

Kellan pulled him onto the flat ground.

"Move."

Nobody needed convincing.

Dax fired into the slope while Varek started his cutter.

The squad carried Ellis between them through the trees.

Nate held one side of the harness with Nima.

Ellis drifted in and out of consciousness.

"Stay awake," Nima said.

"I’m trying."

"You’re bad at it."

They reached the blood trail.

Nate could already see part of the road through the trees when Ellis caught his sleeve.

"The quarry."

Nate kept moving.

"What about it?"

"Four of ours went inside."

"You said that."

Ellis shook his head.

"You don’t understand."

Something roared in the distance.

The sound came from the direction of the quarry.

Everyone stopped.

The vibrations beneath Nate’s boots disappeared.

A moment earlier, burrowers had been moving around them from several directions.

Now the forest floor was still.

Kellan slowly turned toward the quarry.

The roar came again.

Closer.

Ellis’s fingers tightened around Nate’s sleeve.

"They weren’t running from the nest."

Nate looked toward the trees.

Ellis swallowed.

"They were running from what moved into it."

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