Page 101 of Rupture

She scrabbled up to the gap, heart threatening to escape her chest. “Luca?”

Hot air billowed from a dark tunnel.

“Rose, I have him!”

Finn.

She didn’t hesitate, worry for him overriding all fear of darkness and confined spaces. She squeezed into the gap, rock scraping her shoulders as suffocating dust clogged her nose and mouth. Her fingers probed forward blindly, seeking escape, her body inching forward.

A firm hand seized her wrist, pulled hard. She popped free of the wriggle hole, colliding with Luca in a tangle of limbs.

Jesus.

Her breath sawed in and out, her limbs tremulous..

“You okay, Doc?”

She moved her arms. Wriggled her toes. “I think so.”

A single beam of yellow light cut through the darkness, catching crystalline drops of water that glinted on the cave ceiling. The hollow plink of falling drops echoed.

The jeep was several feet away, a broken metal carcass on its side, one headlight beam flickering yellow upward like a dead eye.

Luca grinned, his teeth gleaming white against his dirt-smeared face. “Come on.” He jerked his head. “Over there. He’s behind an outcropping that’s protected him. The blast must have thrown him clear.”

She stumbled with him through the darkness, half-crouched, half-running, guided only by the dancing beam of his flashlight. She clung to Luca as small rocks skittered away from her feet, threatening to topple her.

“Here.” Luca slowed.

She dropped to her knees at Finn’s side. His eyes wereclosed, his face pale and dirty in the harsh light. She pressed two fingers to his neck, held her breath. A pulse. Her head dropped.Thank God.

“His legs are trapped. We need to get him free. Take this.” Luca thrust a small penlight into her hand.

She wedged it between her teeth, so her hands were free to dig, trying to ignore the creak of stressed rock above them. And there, at the edge of her hearing, a subtle whine.

She froze mid-dig, the penlight beam trembling as she took it from her mouth and swept it across the cave.

“Rose?” Luca was panting.

“Do you hear that?”

“Rock fall in a destabilized cave system. Shit, yes.” Luca smeared rock dust across his face as he wiped his eyes.

His flashlight beam cut deeper into the cave. Dust motes danced, casting phantom shadows on the walls. But here and there, metallic particles, tricksy in the artificial light. Tiny clusters lurching in the air.

“Luca. There are nanobots here. Some survived.”

“Fuck.” Luca dropped his flashlight, hands clawing desperately under Finn. “Hurry.”

“We have to stop them.” Her eyes streamed as she pushed to her feet, stumbling toward the wrecked jeep. Each step kicked up more dust, more metallic glints in the darkness.

“Rose.” Luca’s urgent whisper echoed off the cave walls. “Get back here.”

“I have a plan. Keep digging.” She felt her way along the jeep’s twisted frame, heart pounding against her ribs.

“A plan?”

“Yes.” Her penlight carved a weak path through the darkness. The neodymium magnets glinted dully. Some were scattered across the jeep bed, others strewn across thecave floor. She gathered them frantically, using her shirt as a makeshift basket, their heavy shapes bruising her ribs.

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