Chapter 36: Collapse
The squad that pivoted from the outer face engaged the Greyback on the parapet at close range, closer than they were ever comfortable with. That constraint forced them to fire upward into the exposed chest where the plating ended.
"Too close- too fucking close-"
"Chest! Under the chest, aim up!"
The change worked. The creature dropped onto the parapet stones, nearly crushing two men underneath it. Another one wasn’t able to move away in time.
"Get him out! Get him out from under it!"
He did not stand again.
Godric’s second-in-command was already kneeling beside the fallen man, checking his vitals. Godric himself remained with the rest of the squad at the outer face, maintaining command where it still mattered.
A runner delivered the ammunition count. They would soon need pull reserves up from the citadel arsenal.
"That’s all we’ve got left?"
"Then make ’em count."
Beorn had the number in mind and checked it against the situation. He looked toward the northwestern approach. The second herd had reached the northeastern corner.
Coss’s men had split their fire to contain it. That decision thinned the firepower to the point they couldn’t contain it.
The cracked section introduced a new variable. There was pale dust raising from it at the base of the wall. It lifted in a thin drift with each external impact wave.
"That crack wasn’t there yesterday."
"It was. You just weren’t looking."
Beorn moved toward the evacuated section.
The twenty-foot stretch of parapet walk had been cleared when the creature jumped over. That left it exposed.
The militia and Coss’s men were both committed to the flanks where active fire demanded attention. The empty stretch had nothing but cracked masonry.
Aestrith reached his side before he turned to confirm her position. She was always by his side.
He stopped at the far end of the empty stretch. The bend in the parapet gave partial cover from the nearest firing positions. The ambient noise was high enough that he did not need to lower his voice much.
"I need you to bring this section down," he said. "The vanguard’s packed against it from outside."
She looked at him, surprised by the request.
"To crush all of them," he clarified.
She shifted her attention to the wall, then back to him.
"That’s..." she said. "Are you finally going crazy."
"No."
"But you want me to bring down your wall. In the middle of a monster stampede."
"Yes."
She stopped on that. The ground moved underfoot as another impact wave passed through the walls. She adjusted her stance automatically to compensate.
"And we just ignore the massive breach it will create?"
He kept the objective clear.
"I want the vanguard gone. The breach is a separate problem."
Her expression changed. She approached the problem the way she approached any system under constraint, isolating variables, testing implications.
He had given her enough information. He watched her complete the reasoning.
She locked his gaze a moment longer. That pause marked the transition from thinking to decision.
"A separate problem," she said. "One you already have a solution for."
He did not confirm. He did not need to.
The vibration from the wall pulsed twice more through the ground while she had the conclusion.
Then she said, "Everyone’s clear."
"Yes."
She turned outwards.
Beorn stepped back to give her space.
She moved to the parapet edge. Both hands rested at her sides. Then she went still, but not in a passive way.
He recognized the posture, but this was different. It was concentrated, everything drawn to a single point.
The space above the crack changed. He could not assign a precise term, but the effect was measurable. The air felt heavier than it should, as if pressure had increased locally.
Then the wall failed.
The crack did not widen gradually. The separation occurred faster than natural fracture propagation would allow.
The stone above drove downward into the creatures below with force exceeding standard collapse. The vanguard, packed tightly against the exterior, had no time to react. They were under the falling debris before the sound of the break fully propagated.
The Greybacks could not respond.
The mineralized plates along their backs, hardened over generations in the Badlands, failed under compression. The fracture resembled ice under sudden load, with cracks expanding outward from points of pressure, then the plates shattered inward.
The underlying bodies offered less resistance than the stone. A terrible sound of muscle and meat being crushed by weight alone rose to the parapet.
What emerged from beneath the debris was only the dark, thick fluid forced its way through gaps between blocks, spreading in ways that caught the morning light.
The impact had been sufficient to force mangled bodies and flesh through every available opening. Through cracked plating, through tissue, it pooled around the edge of the impact zone, forming a wide, dark radius.
The smell followed immediately. It rolled over the parapet in a wave, of iron, ruptured viscera, and something else, something fundamentally wrong.
"Oh gods."
"Don’t breathe through your nose."
"Too late."
These creatures were built to survive the Badlands, but even this was too much.
At the outer edge of the collapse, where the falling stone had caught only part of the formation, one Greyback remained active.
It pulled itself forward using its front legs. Its rear half did not respond.
The mineralized ridge along its left side had been sheared by a falling block. The exposed interior was pale and leaking blood.
"That one’s still moving."
"Leave it."
"It’s still moving!"
It produced a low sound as it dragged itself. It was almost a cry and a plea for mercy.
The dust from the impact surged over the parapet. A grey-white mass of mortar particulate and limestone powder filled the air.
"I can’t see anything-"
For several seconds, the walls was reduced to limited visibility. Somewhere on the eastern end of the walk, a man coughed repeatedly after inhaling the dust.
When the air cleared enough to see, the result was obvious.
A whole section down, twelve feet across. The rubble at the base still shifted as the mass settled into final position.
"There’s a hole in the wall."
"Told you it moved."
Through the opening, the remaining creatures were visible in the clearing dust. The pressure that had built since before dawn was gone. The survivors were in a state of sudden panic.
Some moved away from the impact zone, others stopped entirely, still dazed by the impact.
"They’re breaking off."
"Don’t celebrate. Not yet."
The group at the northwestern corner showed the same breakdown.
Aestrith stood one step back from the edge now.
Her face had flattened, extremely pale. Her breathing was chaotic, each exhale faltering before the next inhale began. She was managing the strain in the way she could.
She did not speak.
Beorn observed the breach. He looked at the hole, then at the dark spread around the fallen mass. His hand moved at his side out of habit. The ledger was not there. He had left it in the citadel before dawn.
His fingers closed on empty air.
"Keep the line. Keep the line."
From the eastern end, Godric’s voice washed along the parapet through the thinning dust.
"Secure the breach!"
That was enough.
The militia moved.