Saul leapt over the ledge, launching himself into the mass of beings below. He held his gun in his right hand and swung a long, serrated knife in his left. They cut through the tendrils, sending twitching tips pattering to the roof, but every arm he severed seemed to be replaced by another two.

Maren pulled her partner up to the edge of the step and tried to push her over, but Suriya started pulling backwards.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!”

“C’mon,” Maren grunted, but the other woman was shaking her head so violently that Maren wouldn’t have been surprised if she gave herself whiplash.

“Keep running, Maren!” Saul yelled.

“Gahh!” Maren managed to get herself behind the other woman and physically pushed her over the edge. “Jump, idiot!”

Suriya shrieked as she fell towards the reaching arms. Maren leapt after her, firing her gun at the arms that were trying to engulf her leader. She landed poorly, jarring her legs again, and dragged Suriya up. The tendrils coiled around her like gigantic, ugly leeches. They were digging into the crevices and rubbing around her helmet’s seal, searching for an opening. Maren struggled to pull free, but a being from the ledge above landed on her, knocking her to the ground and winding her.

For a moment, she saw only black—writhing, twitching, coiling black covered her helmet. She was drowning in them. Then a spear of light broke through as Saul’s knife hacked the arms out of the way. She stretched her hand towards him and tightened her other fist on Suriya’s suit as Saul dragged them both free.

“You guys doing okay?” Gin called into her helmet. She sounded panicked, as though she were seconds from hyperventilating.

“Could be better, honestly,” Maren called back as Saul helped her haul Suriya towards the edge of the roof. The red sand stretched ahead of them; above it, the gorgeous sunset had washed almost completely into pastel pinks and yellows, and the glare coming from the sky made it hard to see.

“Three minutes!”

Saul grunted and fell as one of the beings latched onto his legs and dragged him back. The black body, round and with more than a dozen arms extending from its surface, seemed to tremble with excitement as it pulled its prey into itself.

“Don’t stop,” Saul barked when Maren hesitated. “Get inside. I’ll follow!”

Suriya had stopped fighting and hung like a limp doll at Maren’s side. Maren wrapped her arms around the other woman’s torso and pulled her towards the ledge. It was the highest drop-off, and her position was far from optimal for landing well, but there was no time to hesitate. She threw them both over and did her best to aim her legs at the ground so she could roll when she hit it.

Pain shot up her back as she misjudged the distance, and for a second, there was nothing but dizzying motion and tumbling limbs mixing with the red dirt and near-white sky. Then they rolled to a stop.