The other woman spun the wheel frantically.
“Helen! Log it aloud, recount later to figure out where we are, and take the next downhill,” Florence demanded.
“Understood.” Helen began muttering to herself, a method Florence knew the girl used to help commit things to memory.
Florence’s hands shook as her brain replayed chemical after powder, reaction after reaction. She shuffled the deck of everything she’d been taught from Ari, from her Revo tutors, from books. She threw out every ounce of conventional wisdom on explosives and bombs; she needed the most unstable reactions. The world was upside down, and the only way it was getting righted was with an explosion that would shake the foundation of the earth itself.
She cradled the canister in her hand, trying to counter the sudden movements of the cart so nothing would be set off prematurely. Helen was finally able to fulfill her request and the cart tipped forward. Will frantically twisted and pulled, trying to temper their fall.
“Let it go, Will!” Florence demanded. “Let it all go.”
“But if we gather that much sp—”
“Just do it!” Her order didn’t vibrate with the same resonance as Ari’s would have, but it carried equal weight.
He flipped a few levers, and the cart became a bullet barreling down the darkness. The sound of the Wretches grew distant and Florence exchanged the pistol for the canister in Cvareh’s hands. The faint glow of the glovis eyes they’d harvested rattled around the bottom of the cart, illuminating his confusion.
“I’m going to shoot three times. On the second, you throw that and wait for the third shot before you push every ounce of magic you have into that gold pin.” She manually placed his thumb over the pin at the end of the canister, the spot where the golden hammer of a gun would strike.
“You got it.”
“Flor…” Helen had stopped muttering.
“Ready?” Florence raised the revolver.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Will shouted.
Florence spared him a brief glance before curling her finger around the trigger. “What Revos do best.”
She fired. The first shot exploded against the ceiling. On the second shot Cvareh threw, and rock began to collapse in place. On the third shot he did exactly as she had instructed, and the three, their cart, and everything in it were sent flying forward by the shock wave.
The earth groaned and Florence groaned with it. She instantly panicked, thinking she’d gone blind somehow, only to remember that she was working with nearly no light. The tunnels rumbled with shock waves. Large chunks of rock began to fall and Florence heard the first satisfying hiss of a Wretch crushed beneath one.
Another set of spider web fractures cracked across the ceiling above them. Florence pushed herself to her feet, running on pure adrenaline as the world spun. “We have to move.”
She wrapped her arms around Will, hoisting him to his feet with all the strength she possessed. Her left arm couldn’t get a good grip on him, and just as she nearly lost her ability to support his weight, he found his balance.
“Helen?” Florence called further up the tunnel, scattered glovis eyes gave them barely enough light to see by.
“I have her,” Cvareh called. Helen was cradled in his arms; Florence suppressed her panic at the sight. If their navigator died, they would be stuck forever. “Hurry!”
They sprinted forward through the dark tunnels. Florence and Will led with a glovis eye each. It wasn’t until the last echo of the cave-in that they all collapsed at once, chests heaving, exhaustion crushing their shoulders.
Florence and Will crumpled to the floor. Cvareh gingerly laid a moaning Helen next to them. He squinted into the blackness beyond their tiny fragments of light.
“Hold your breaths, for just a moment.” He motioned, and they obliged. “I don’t hear anything…”
“We either scared them all off, cut them all off, or told them exactly where we were with that.” Will rubbed his ears. “Next time you feel like going explosive crazy, warn us?”
“I did. You just—” she interrupted herself with a hiss of pain as she shifted.
Florence looked down at her arm. Will’s clumsy stitches had been ripped wide open. Blood poured from the wound, merging with blood from a secondary location where the bone in her forearm protruded from her body. She felt faint almost instantly.
“Flor, Florence.” Cvareh was at her side, propping her up, supporting her as Ari would. “Hang in there.”
Hang in there for what? she thought grimly. They had no food, were down to two canisters and one pistol, their medical supplies were depleted, and they’d lost their transportation. No one was coming for them. Even if Arianna tried—and Florence found herself hoping her teacher wouldn’t do something so foolish—she’d never find them. Even if she somehow knew the right path, she’d never make it to them now with the cave-in.