Chapter song: Something In The Way - Nirvana
He knew that smell.
He'd smelled it on battlefields where blood had soaked too long into soil that it couldn't be absorbed fast enough.
"Stay sharp," he murmured.
No one asked any questions or objected to the order.
A cadet behind him brushed the wall and hissed under their breath.
"What is it?" someone whispered.
"Nothing," they said too quickly.
Kenneth didn't turn around, but he catalogued the tremor in their voice.
The tunnel constricted further, forcing them to angle their shoulders to pass.
Moisture clung to the stone, or whatever passed for stone, and the ground beneath their boots shifted from mud to something tackier.
Their steps no longer splashed. They stuck. Then, the dripping stopped completely.
Kenneth froze mid-step.
The silence that followed wasn't natural.
Behind him, someone swallowed.
Another draft moved past them, but this one was warmer.
And it carried that metallic scent even more strongly now.
