Blink: Leviathan (Book 2)

18

Amber dragged herself out of the murky pool with a final gasp of exertion and slumped down against the stonework, her whole body on fire with pain. Before hitting the flood water at the bottom of the collapse her body had been smashed off jutting walls and spurs of flooring, and in the tumble the glass of the mono-rig had been shattered, raking her eyelid with needle-like shards.

She had half-fallen, half-tumbled down the collapsing cliff edge for what felt like an age, bouncing and ricochetting like a human pinball, with lumps of rock and debris accompanying her all the way. When she had finally struck the water it provided little respite, the sheer impact crushing the breath from her body. Still, it had been better than hitting solid rock.

She rolled onto her back with a sob and yanked the useless mono-rig off her head. Keeping her eye screwed shut, she gently brushed away the splinters of glass. When her hand came away it was covered in blood and panic welled in her chest at the thought of enduring the rest of the ordeal half-blind. When she opened her injured eye, however, she could still see, albeit through hazy, reddened vision. Tears swelled and spilled across her face but she wiped them away. She couldn't fall apart – not now – not if she wanted to see her companions again. She needed to take stock of her situation.

Miraculously, her carbine had survived the fall, but the gear in her backpack was a different story. On the way down it had protected her by bearing the brunt of several crushing impacts – that, coupled with the Blink body armour, was the only reason she was still alive. Shrugging the pack from her shoulders, she looked grimly at its battered structure. The prospects for the equipment within were not promising.

The mapper was a smashed, useless pile of circuits and she hurled it away in frustration. It split apart even more upon striking the nearest wall. She now had no way to determine distance or navigate within the baroque halls. Shaking those thoughts away she continued rummaging inside the backpack.

One of the climbing gauntlets had survived – the other was broken in half. One glow node remained intact out of a possible four. The others spilled their innards within the pack. The lenses of her night-sight goggles had been smashed too, so she tossed them aside. When she discovered that the breather mask had survived, though, she offered a silent prayer of thanks to whoever might be watching. Her canteen of water sported a sizeable dent but seemed mostly undamaged. She took a sip and poured a trickle down over her injured eye to wash away the blood and any remnants of glass.

Salvaging a spare bandoleer of lances for her carbine, the climbing tether, a Blink issue marker and whatever rations hadn't been pulverised by the fall, she repacked her bag and made to stand up.

A gasp escaped her lips as she put weight on her right leg and it nearly buckled. Pain lanced through her knee and she looked down to find a deep gouge in the armour where a sharp piece of rock must have bit into it. That the knee-plate was still in place paid testament to the skill of the engineers who'd designed the protective gear. Still, the impact had been passed through to her kneecap and it throbbed agonizingly with each step she took on it.

Her combat vest housed some very limited medical supplies and without Hekket she would just have to make do. Leaning against the wall, Amber swallowed two combat-grade painkillers and closed her eyes, waiting for relief. While she waited, a thought occurred to her. Her earpiece was still in place.

"Amber to all units," she croaked. "Can anyone read me?"

Nothing. With a curse she tugged the earpiece out and examined it in the dim twilit passage. It seemed to be intact from what she could tell, but the internal wiring might have been damaged. Shoving it back into place, she cleared her throat and tried again.