The knocking on the door grew heavier. Thuds turned to slams. More bodies piling in from the stairwell, shoulders and skulls adding wet, relentless weight. The thick metal groaned deep in its frame, bolts rattling in their sockets.

"Ladies first," I said. "Sherry, slope the ladder when you reach the top."

Sherry was already moving. Fingers hooked into the first hold with a soft scrape of skin on metal. Boots wedged into the chipped sockets. She climbed fast and clean, body pressed close to the concrete, muscles flexing in smooth rhythm under her shirt. The only person I would’ve sent first without hesitation.

May went right behind her. Her skirt rode high as she pulled upward, fabric bunching against her thighs, but she made the ascent look effortless—precise grips, quick shifts of weight, black hair swaying against her neck.

Code remained up top, silhouetted against the stars. Arms spread wide, long hair whipping in the wind, eyes still closed. Whatever was happening below might as well have been on another planet.

Sinn moved to the door instead, rifle raised, stock tight to his shoulder, barrel steady on the trembling metal.

"They won’t break through yet," I called. "You need to move."

He didn’t. Boots planted, jaw locked.

Harmione launched next. Orange fire still licking faintly at her fingertips as she grabbed the holds, flames casting flickering shadows across the wall. May had already crested the top, one leg swinging over. Sherry had vanished down the far side onto the ladder.

I caught Mercury before she could overthink it. Took both her hands in mine. Her palms were cold and damp.

"Do you remember what I promised you?" I said, voice low and steady. "Out on the plain. I promised I’d get you back to the walls. That hasn’t changed."

She nodded, eyes wide.

"Now promise me you’re not dying tonight. Take your time. Hold your grip. Follow exactly where the others went. Don’t look down."

I pulled her close and pressed a quick, firm kiss to her forehead, feeling the faint tremor in her skin.

"I’ll meet you on the balcony."

Mercury turned to the wall. Her hands shook visibly as she reached for the first hold, fingers trembling before they locked on. But she pulled herself up anyway. One foot, then the other. Slow. Deliberate. Terrified, but committed.

Harmione cleared the top. May was already gone. Only Mercury and Sinn remained below with me.

"General," I called sharper. "Now. I go last."

Sinn stared at the shuddering door a final second. Then at the wall. The brutal choice played raw across his face. He chose the wall.

He climbed slowly. Boots scraping for purchase, hands gripping too tight, breath coming in controlled grunts. Mercury moved above him, both of them locked in the careful, painful rhythm of people who were afraid and still forcing their bodies upward anyway. The only kind of courage that mattered.

The door gave another violent shudder behind me. Something heavy slammed into it from the other side. A crack appeared in the frame near the top bolt.

I watched them rise, body angled between the door and the climbers, charge humming under my skin. When Mercury’s boots cleared the lip and Sinn followed, I finally moved.

I grabbed the first hold, fingers burning as they locked on. Then the second. I hauled myself off the ground and climbed hard, shoulders screaming, boots kicking for sockets. Dust rained down into my eyes. The wind above howled louder with every foot I gained.

I hauled myself over the top edge of the wall just as the door below began to bend inward with a long, tortured metallic scream. The frame bowed visibly, bolts shearing, concrete cracking in jagged lines around the hinges. Code still stood there, arms half-spread, hair lashing wildly in the wind.

"Hey," I called.

Code opened his eyes. Moonlight caught the pale gray of them, sharp and unblinking.

"You should go," I said, breath still ragged from the climb. "I’ll come last."

He glanced back at the buckling door, then forward over the drop, then at me again.

"I’ve noticed something about you," he said, almost conversational. The first real words I’d heard from him that weren’t soaked in blood or blades. "You’re a girl guy. Men like that don’t usually live long." He paused, wind ripping at his long hair. "Remember what happened to Speed."

I held his stare.

"You can worry about whoever you want," he continued. "Just don’t waste it on me."

Then he jumped.

Not toward the ladder. Sideways. Off the wall into open air. For one frozen heartbeat he simply hung there, coat flapping, body suspended against the stars like gravity had decided to wait. His fingers snapped out, catching the lip of the wall several meters along with a sharp scrape of skin on concrete. He swung his entire body outward in a wide arc, released, and dropped, catching the top of the narrow metal ladder on the way down with a heavy metallic clang.

"Whooo!" Mercury’s voice rose from below, the ladder shuddering violently under the sudden impact.

Sinn gripped the rungs tighter, boots planted, knuckles white as the metal vibrated beneath him. Code was already sliding past, descending the ladder like it was a staircase—fast, fluid, almost playful. He reached the balcony almost at the same moment as Mercury, boots landing light.

That’s exactly how he moved after killing Major, I thought, watching him.

The door behind me boomed again. The top hinge finally tore free with a deafening crack. The frame was done.

I swung over the edge, boots finding the first rung. The ladder felt ice-cold and thin under my palms. I descended fast but controlled, hands sliding, feet skipping rungs, the wind howling past my ears. Below, the entire team was clustered on the balcony, faces tilted up, watching me come. Sherry at the front, May beside her, Harmione’s hands still faintly glowing, Mercury breathing hard, Sinn steadying himself, Code already scanning the dark streets beyond.

One by one they had made it.

Sherry first. May. Harmione. Mercury. Code. Sinn. And now me.

I slid the last few meters, boots slamming onto the balcony floor with a solid thud that jarred up my legs. Above us, the door finally gave way completely. A explosive crash of metal and concrete echoed down, followed instantly by the deafening roar of the horde flooding the room we had just escaped, thousands of wet, hungry bodies pouring in like a breaking dam.