The stone screamed.
Vreth was in Tunnel 4-East, Sub-Level 3, when it hit. The vibration did not build. It arrived. One instant the rock was carrying the low, patterned breathing he had been tracking for days. The next, the frequency spiked beyond anything his body had ever registered. The infrasound punched through his jaw, his teeth, his skull, and kept going. It bypassed sensation entirely and became pain.
He did what his grandmother's training had taught him. He dropped flat. Face against the floor. Palms pressed to the stone. Legs spread, body distributed across the maximum surface area. A Pallid in a compression event did not brace. Bracing created rigid points that the stone would snap. A Pallid flowed.
