I Choose the Skills Everyone Else Rejects

The third roar came from the quarry.

Cade turned toward the road.

"Move."

Nate and Nima took Ellis between them while Dax and Varek cleared the path ahead. Kellan stayed behind the group, checking the trees as they retreated.

The forest had changed.

Burrowers still moved beneath the soil, but none came toward them. Nate felt their paths through the ground: quick, uneven vibrations spreading away from the quarry.

"They’re leaving," he said.

Kellan glanced back.

"All of them?"

"Feels like it."

That did not make either of them move slower.

Ellis had stopped talking.

Nima shifted more of his weight onto her side.

"Ellis."

His eyes opened.

"I’m awake."

"Keep proving it."

They reached the road.

Their original transport rested at an angle with part of the rear compartment torn open. The recovery vehicle stood farther ahead, both front doors still open.

Cade pointed.

"Dax, engine."

Dax ran to it.

Varek stopped beside Cade.

"We have the recorder and a survivor. We know there’s a nest."

"We know there was one."

Varek looked toward the quarry.

Another roar rolled through the trees.

"Good enough for me."

Cade ignored him and checked the recorder attached to Ellis’s harness.

A route map opened.

The missing patrol had reached the quarry from the south, lost two people near the outer tree line, then split.

Four signals had entered the underground access.

None had returned.

Cade crouched beside Ellis.

"What happened after they went inside?"

Ellis swallowed.

"The burrowers started coming out."

"How many?"

"I stopped counting."

"Were they attacking?"

"At first I thought they were."

Ellis looked toward the forest.

"They ran past us."

Varek turned.

"Past you?"

"Adults. Young ones. Some were injured. They just kept going."

Nate looked down at the road.

A faint tremor passed beneath his boots and faded toward the east.

The burrowers were still running.

Cade asked, "What followed them?"

"I saw part of it."

"Describe it."

"Black hide. Four legs. Bigger than our transport."

Nima glanced at the damaged vehicle.

"How much bigger?"

Ellis took a breath.

"Enough that I stopped caring."

The engine coughed ahead.

Dax tried again.

Nothing.

"Thirty seconds," he called.

Something cracked inside the forest.

Then another sound followed farther to the right.

A tree leaned.

Nate watched its branches disappear behind the others.

The next tree moved before the first had finished falling.

Whatever was coming did not seem to care about the forest in its way.

Cade raised his rifle.

"Make it ten."

Dax swore and disappeared beneath the dashboard.

The shape came through the trees.

Nate first saw a broad black shoulder passing between two trunks.

Then the head.

The creature moved on four thick limbs, its body low enough that branches scraped across its back. Blunt ridges ran along its spine, but the hide itself looked almost smooth.

Its head was a heavy wedge without visible eyes.

The mouth opened underneath it.

Kellan fired.

The round struck the side of the head and vanished into the hide.

The creature barely reacted.

Varek lifted his cutter.

"Where do I hit that?"

"Preferably somewhere else," Kellan said.

The creature stopped.

Nate expected it to turn toward the gunshot.

Instead, its head remained still.

One foot pressed harder into the earth.

Nate felt the impact through the road.

A second later, the creature faced them.

"Wait," Nate said.

Cade looked at him.

"It didn’t hear the shot."

Another vibration passed beneath Nate’s feet as Dax worked inside the recovery vehicle.

Metal scraping.

Engine starter.

The creature stepped toward it.

Nate understood.

"It feels movement through the ground."

Cade turned immediately.

"Everyone off the road."

They backed toward the damaged transport.

Dax tried the engine again.

The creature accelerated.

"Dax!"

The engine started.

Its vibration travelled through the road far more strongly than anything else around them.

The creature charged.

Dax put the recovery vehicle into reverse.

Too late.

The beast hit the damaged Last Contact transport instead.

Metal folded around its shoulder.

The entire vehicle rolled onto its side.

Ellis jerked awake.

"What was that?"

"Our ride we’re not using," Nima said.

Cade pointed toward the recovery vehicle.

"Load him."

Nate and Nima carried Ellis toward the rear while Kellan and Cade fired to keep the creature’s attention away from Dax.

The rounds did almost nothing.

Varek attacked when it passed him.

His cutter struck one of the rear limbs.

The teeth bit through the hide for less than a second before the creature kicked.

Varek released the weapon and dropped flat.

The cutter disappeared beneath the wrecked transport.

"Leave it!" Cade shouted.

Varek stared after the weapon, then ran.

Nate reached the recovery vehicle.

He climbed in backward and pulled Ellis by the stretcher handles while Nima pushed from outside.

The injured leg caught the door frame.

Ellis shouted.

"Lift his left side."

Nima adjusted.

Together they got him inside.

The creature turned again.

Kellan fired toward its mouth as the head lifted.

The shot entered.

This time the beast recoiled.

Dark blood ran across the lower jaw.

Nate saw the opening immediately.

His Circuit remained closed, but Rovan’s lesson was already there.

The creature planted one front limb.

Its weight shifted.

The beginning of a commitment.

If Nate opened his Circuit now, he could probably reach it.

His shoulder warned him before he tried.

The pathway was already damaged from the two earlier uses.

Nate looked at Cade and Kellan.

Both were retreating toward the transport.

Nobody needed him to attack.

He grabbed Ellis’s stretcher and pulled it farther inside.

The opportunity disappeared.

Nima climbed in behind him.

Cade reached the rear door.

"Rook."

Kellan fired once more and ran.

Varek got in first.

Kellan followed.

Cade came last.

"Drive."

Dax accelerated.

The rear doors were still open.

Nate and Kellan grabbed one each and pulled them inward.

The creature chased.

Its heavy steps travelled through the road faster than the engine’s vibration beneath Nate’s boots.

"It’s gaining," he said.

Dax pushed the vehicle harder.

One door shut.

The other had been damaged around the lower hinge.

Kellan pulled.

"It’s stuck."

Nate joined him.

The creature hit the rear corner.

The transport jumped sideways.

Ellis slid across the floor.

Nima caught the stretcher before his injured leg struck the wall.

Varek slammed into a bench.

The bent door flew open again.

Dax corrected the vehicle.

"Anyone wants to tell me what that was?"

"Still behind us," Cade said.

Nima looked through the open doorway.

The creature was already recovering.

"It’s following the engine."

Nate felt the same thing.

Each time the transport accelerated, the creature adjusted.

The burrowers did not matter anymore. Several crossed the road ahead, burst through the opposite ditch and kept running without looking at the vehicle.

The larger creature ignored them.

Nima raised her dart launcher.

Cade saw it.

"What are you doing?"

"The mouth made it turn."

"We’re leaving."

"If it hits the rear again, we lose the door."

She braced one knee against the floor.

The creature gained.

Nate watched the way Nima timed the launcher.

She waited until the head lifted.

Then fired.

The dart entered near the mouth.

The beast jerked left.

Its shoulder missed the transport by less than a metre.

Dax gained distance.

Nima lowered the launcher.

"That bought us something."

"Do it from farther inside," Cade said.

She moved back.

The creature found them again.

Its feet hammered the road.

Nate felt the rhythm getting closer.

Nima fired from inside the compartment.

The dart struck the hide.

Nothing.

"Missed the mouth," she said.

The creature lunged.

Cade saw it coming.

"Brace!"

The impact hit below the open door.

The floor jumped.

The damaged hinge tore free.

A section of the rear frame twisted outward.

Nima lost her footing.

Nate grabbed her forearm.

Her weight pulled him toward the opening.

For a second, he had her.

Nima’s other hand found the door frame.

Then the frame bent.

Her grip disappeared.

Nate’s shoulder flared when he tried to pull.

His arm weakened.

Kellan caught the back of Nate’s vest before both of them went out.

Nima fell.

She hit the road hard and rolled.

"Nima!"

Dax’s hand moved toward the brake.

Cade was already looking through the doorway.

The creature turned.

Nima pushed herself onto one elbow.

For an instant, she was still moving.

Cade looked toward the injured Ellis, then at the five people remaining inside the transport.

His jaw tightened.

"Keep driving."

Dax did.

Nobody argued.

Nate watched through the broken rear until the creature reached Nima.

Then the road curved.

The trees took her from view.

His field terminal vibrated.

He did not need to look.

A few seconds later, he did anyway.

ACTIVE SHARES: 5

Nate lowered his arm.

Across the compartment, Varek stared at the floor.

Kellan said nothing.

Cade remained beside the broken doorway until the quarry disappeared behind them.

Ellis opened his eyes.

"Where’s Nima?"

Nobody answered immediately.

Nate did.

"She didn’t make it back into the transport."

Ellis closed his eyes again.

The rest of the drive passed with the broken rear door rattling against its remaining hinge.

An hour later, Cade uploaded the route recorder.

The mission report began processing.

Nate’s terminal displayed the results.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE RECOVERED

SURVIVOR RECOVERED

THREAT DATA ACCEPTED

Merit entered his account.

A second update followed after the casualty report completed.

Nate watched the total increase.

Hobb had died on the road.

Nima had died getting them away from it.

Both deaths had made the surviving shares worth more.

A new notification appeared beneath his balance.

FIELD RESOURCE CLAIM AVAILABLE

Nate opened it.

The list was short.

Medical supplies.

Basic conductive materials.

Pathway treatments.

Then he found a name he already knew.

ANCHOR RESIN

Nate checked the cost.

Before Greyhook, it had been out of reach.

Now it wasn’t.

The purchase screen remained open on his terminal.

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