Return Route and Handover

The lights along the Old Embankment glowed in widening circles as the wind lifted the shelter canvas, then pressed it down again. The reinforcements took charge of the stretchers, and the medics split up across three patches of hard ground, laying out hot water and gauze. Morel wrung out a wet cloth, put it back in its bag, and raised a hand. "The worst wounds first." Two medics carried the most seriously injured patient into the shelter, placing every step on the white hard surface. Knov spread out his map folder and handed over each page in order of time and route. The supervisor nodded, stamped the pages, then numbered and bound them in sequence.

Knuckle took off his equipment bag and sat against a shelter post for a couple of breaths, then got up to help carry the second group. Shoot changed gloves, brushed the dried blood from the back of his hand, and helped the medics remove scorched, hardened protective gear. Linas drew her tool across a stone surface twice. Its spine had not warped, so she sheathed it and registered its return. Palm spread her papers across a wooden crate and used three colored pens to mark three rings: "sealed," "recheck," and "withdrawal." She left a space for the recheck date and wrote down the time at once. Ryan stood beside the shelter entrance, keeping a clear line of sight down the route they had taken. His right hand still rested on his sword hilt, while his slightly raised left arm guided the flow of people past.

The vehicles pulled into place outside the embankment, their tires leaving no tracks on the white hard surface. The reinforcements brought out a folding ladder and set it across the ditch. Before carrying a stretcher over, they tested their footing,