The Red Quarry #4
“The circuit is below us.”
The adult rode upward without shifting its feet.
It had watched this happen before.
Mara looked around.
One exit, still locked.
A narrow steel bridge remained folded into the far wall, leading across the chamber toward another service door.
Bell held her injured hand against her chest.
“I can’t climb.”
“You won’t need to,” Jules said.
Bell laughed weakly.
“You keep promising things you don’t know.”
The platform reached halfway.
The dinosaur crouched.
Noah took a shield from the wall.
Mara said, “Leave it.”
“It’s made for this.”
“It will slow you down.”
“I’m already slow.”
He was right.
Mara hated how often that had happened since they arrived.
Rina tried Nadia’s badge against the bridge control.
The panel turned green.
The catwalk unfolded from the wall.
Metal sections locked into place above the handling chamber.
Rina stared at the badge.
“It still has handler clearance.”
The adult dinosaur lifted its head toward the opening bridge.
“Use it,” Mara said.
They crossed.
Mara went first. The grating vibrated beneath her feet.
Below, the other adults moved between the lanes. One followed directly under them, looking upward through the floor.
Jules supported Bell.
Rina stayed beside the wall controls.
Noah limped last, carrying the shield.
The rising platform reached operations.
The adult stepped into the room.
Mara heard its claws strike the floor.
“Faster.”
Bell stumbled.
Jules pulled her upright.
The animal entered the bridge.
Its weight bowed the structure.
Noah turned and raised the shield.
The dinosaur slowed.
It had seen shields before.
Its head moved from side to side, searching for an opening.
Mara reached the far service door.
Nadia’s badge opened it.
Rina sent Jules and Bell through.
Mara waited for Noah.
The adult came closer.
Noah backed toward them. His right boot slipped over the grating while his bandaged left foot failed to take his weight.
He dropped to one knee.
The dinosaur lunged.
Noah lifted the shield.
Jaws closed around its upper edge.
The impact threw him backward.
The dinosaur shook the shield, dragging Noah across the grating by its straps.
Mara ran onto the bridge.
She seized the release buckles behind his shoulders.
One stuck.
The dinosaur pulled again.
Noah’s body slid between its feet.
Its raised sickle claw hovered above his chest.
Mara cut the trapped strap with the edge of the fire axe.
Noah came free.
The dinosaur threw the shield over the railing.
It turned toward them.
Rina pressed Nadia’s badge to a yellow panel beside the door.
The catwalk shuddered.
A section beneath the dinosaur dropped several inches.
The animal reacted instantly, leaping forward.
Its forefeet landed on solid grating.
Its hind legs struck the descending section.
The catwalk folded beneath its weight.
The dinosaur fell through.
Its claws caught the edge.
For a moment it hung above the chamber, tail thrashing against the steel.
Mara saw the strain in its forelimbs.
Then one claw tore free.
The animal dropped into the lane below.
It landed hard but rolled upright.
It looked toward them and barked.
The other adults answered.
Rina closed the service door.
No animal was crushed. Nothing died.
That somehow frightened Mara more.
The room beyond the bridge was a narrow vestibule lined with padded suits, restraint poles, and scarred body shields.
A sign above the next door read:
HUMAN RESPONSE MAZEENTRY
Noah leaned against the wall.
“They made people go in there.”
Rina opened a locker.
A photograph had been taped inside.
Six employees stood in the vestibule wearing protective gear. One held up four fingers.
Behind them, written on the wall:
CYCLE 411:32
Jules found a clipboard in another locker.
She read the assessment categories aloud.
“Group cohesion. Defensive coordination. Injury response. Predator distraction.”
She stopped.
Mara took the form.
The final category was LOSS ACCEPTANCE.
Below the scores, someone had written:
Group delayed 3:18 attempting retrieval of incapacitated member. Corrective stimulus recommended.
Bell looked toward the door.
“What does that mean?”
Noah said, “It means they punished people for helping each other.”
A timer appeared above the maze entrance.
03:00
“Cycle four will resume,” the facility announced.
Rina struck the speaker.
“Cancel.”
The timer continued.
Mara opened the remaining lockers.
She found two electric prods, three shields, and boots in several sizes.
The largest pair was ten.
Noah forced his feet into them.
His toes pressed against the front.
“They fit?” Mara asked.
“No.”
She waited.
“They’ll stay on,” he added.
Mara tied them loosely enough to spare his injured ankle.
The timer reached 01:26.
Jules replaced Bell’s blood-soaked tourniquet with a clean strap and wrapped the hand.
Bell’s face had become pale and damp.
“You need to keep that elevated.”
“I need to leave.”
“We all do.”
Rina used Nadia Pierce’s badge to open the maze door before the timer expired.
“Whatever route it marks, assume it benefits the system.”
The corridor beyond was divided by movable walls and steel gates. Red floor lights formed a path through the center.
The timer reached zero.
Every other light went dark.
A gate opened behind the vestibule.
Claws entered the passage.
“Group movement period begins now,” the system said.
A second timer appeared.
12:00
Mara took the unlit left route.
A barrier lowered behind them.
The red path remained illuminated in the center.
The left passage ended at a locked door.
Nadia’s badge failed.
Behind them, an adult dinosaur entered the intersection.
Russet feathers covered its shoulders. Darren’s blood darkened its chest.
It lowered its head and sniffed.
Mara looked at the blood across her own clothes.
“Back.”
They returned toward the marked route.
The dinosaur saw them.
They ran.
A gate lowered across the center passage.
Rina and Jules ducked under.
Bell crawled after them.
Noah’s new boot caught between the floor grates.
He fell.
Mara dropped beside him.
The dinosaur charged.
She tore at the laces.
“Leave it.”
“I’m trying.”
“No. Leave the boot.”
He pulled his foot free.
Mara shoved him beneath the descending gate and rolled after him.
The dinosaur’s jaws snapped behind her heel.
The gate sealed.
Noah lay on the floor wearing one undersized boot and one blood-soaked sock.
He looked at Mara.
“Are we done with footwear?”
“For the rest of our lives.”
The next chamber contained a concrete pen with a gate at either end.
The rear gate shook under the russet dinosaur’s impact.
The front gate remained closed.
A tray entered through the wall.
Five padded vests lay inside.
Four gray.
One red.
Three electric prods rested beside them.
A message illuminated above the tray:
SELECT DESIGNATED DISTRACTION SUBJECT
Bell stared at the red vest.
“No.”
Five circles appeared on the wall, each corresponding to a living badge.
A second message followed:
DISTRACTION SUBJECT WILL DRAW PREDATOR THROUGH ROUTE brEMAINING GROUP WILL PROCEED THROUGH ROUTE A
Noah looked at the assessment form in Mara’s hand.
“Loss acceptance.”
Mara struck the designation screen with a prod.
The plastic cracked.
The gate remained shut.
Rina removed the damaged panel.
Wires filled the space behind it.
The rear gate bent inward.
A claw entered.
Bell began backing toward the tray.
“I’m injured.”
Jules looked at her.
“I know.”
“I can’t run.”
“We know.”
Bell’s eyes moved from face to face.
Nobody had chosen her.
The fact did not reassure her.
“You’re all thinking it.”
“No,” Mara said.
“You should be.”
Bell reached for the red vest.
Jules stopped her.
“You’re in shock.”
“The system won’t open the gate.”
“That does not make you bait.”
Bell looked at Mara.
“I asked about the maintenance team.”
Mara went still.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“You said you didn’t know their names.”
“I knew there had been two people.”
“What happened to them?”
Bell swallowed.
“The system report said they completed service and left the property.”
“The building told you that?”
“Yes.”
“And you accepted it.”
“I had no reason not to.”
The russet dinosaur hit the rear gate again.
One hinge tore halfway from the wall.
Bell looked at the red vest.
“I had a reason.”
Mara understood then.
Bell was not volunteering because she had found courage. She was trying to turn negligence into a punishment she could understand.
Mara caught her uninjured arm.
“Dying does not correct what you did.”
Bell stared at her.
“You don’t get to make me innocent.”
“I’m not.”
Rina crossed two wires behind the panel.
“Everyone get down.”
She discharged both prods into the circuit.
The designation screen exploded.
Lights went out.
Both gates released.
The front gate rose first.
A lean adult with one cloudy eye forced its head beneath it.
Rina shouted, “Side wall.”
A narrow emergency passage opened beside the equipment tray.
Mara pushed Bell toward it.
Jules followed.
The russet dinosaur broke through the rear gate.
Both animals entered the pen.
Noah grabbed the red vest.
Mara caught his wrist.
“Leave it.”
“It has a cable.”
A steel tether extended from the back of the vest into the wall.
Noah wrapped it once around the tray support.
The cloudy-eyed dinosaur lunged.
Its head passed through the loop formed by the tether.
Noah threw the vest over the animal’s neck.
The dinosaur twisted.
The cable tightened.
For one second it held.
Then the support tore from the wall.
Noah ran.
The red vest remained caught around the dinosaur’s head, blinding it.
It crashed into the russet animal.
The two predators collided.
Mara and Noah entered the side passage.
The wall closed behind them.
The floor moved beneath Mara’s feet.
They had stepped onto a conveyor.
It carried them toward two routes.
One remained level.
The other sloped down beneath heavy rubber curtains.
A red sign flashed over the lower passage:
SLAUGHTER TRANSFER
Rina ran along the moving belt toward the upper door.
It began closing.
She jammed the handle of a prod into the track.
The door stopped with a three-foot gap.
“Through.”
Noah crawled first.
Jules pushed Bell after him.
The conveyor accelerated.