I grow stronger by making my wife happy.

Chapter 352: 352:Dancing signals.

Silver pulled out his phone. There was a connection, it was weak but a little bit stable.

He needed the observation center.

Silver searched the emergency Contractor interface connected to the regional Association network. The system recognized the active distress beacon and opened a short emergency-report channel automatically.

[Emergency Report Channel Available.]

[Connection Stability: Low.]

[Recommended: Text Transmission.]

He started typing while walking backward.

The first worm lunged. He shoved the phone into one hand, drew his handgun with the other and fired twice.

The creature collapsed.

He continued typing.

A Sky-Borer flew overhead. He ducked, turned and fired but the bullet missed.

Silver Short-Stepped.

[Short-Step Lv2 Activated.]

He appeared farther uphill, the phone remaining in his hand.

He finished the message.

SURVIVOR UNDERGROUND. PARASITIC WORMS HAVE DEVELOPED LARGE FLYING INSECT FORM. CONFIRMED SAME COLONY. POSSIBLE SURFACE INFESTATION AND EXTERNAL SPREAD RISK. RANK SIX QUEEN ACTIVE. PREPARE CONTAINMENT AND SUBJUGATION.

Silver looked at it, found it was enough and pressed send. The connection fluctuated.

[Signal Strength: 19%.]

The message remained pending. Silver’s jaw tightened.

”Don’t start this again.”

A worm entered from a side passage. He moved avoiding it.

Twenty-one percent.

The message transmitted.

[Emergency Report Sent.]

Silver released a breath.

Now they knew. If the Association had any sense, those words would get their attention. This wasn’t a missing-person case anymore.

If those creatures reached the surface and established another colony somewhere populated, Death Row Valley could become the beginning of something much worse.

He continued climbing.

The beacon remained active.

[Distress Transmission Ongoing.]

[Emergency Infrastructure Connection Intermittent.]

He considered shutting it down to preserve power, then decided against it. Let it scream his location to every Association receiver within range.

The worms already knew where he was. There was no longer any advantage to remaining quiet.

Silver opened Ravenna’s contact.

Her replies from earlier suddenly began arriving. The phone vibrated repeatedly.

He almost stopped running.

Where are you?

Are you hurt?

Silver answer me.

Then another message appeared.

I’m in Alpha Three. Antony and Mallory are safe. I found Shawn. We’re getting you out, so don’t you dare disappear again.

Silver stared at that one longer than he should have. A weight he had been carrying since the collapse finally disappeared.

”Good.” He smiled. ”Good girl.”

A violent buzz snapped him back to reality. He ducked as mandibles passed over his head.

He fired upward.

Pfft! Pfft!

The Sky-Borer crashed.

Silver immediately started typing. There was too much he wanted to say again but didn’t have time.

I’m almost out. The situation changed. Stay in Alpha Three and don’t come back to the valley. I’ll contact you when I’m outside.

He pressed send.

Pending.

He kept moving. It took a few minutes before the was transmitted.

Sent.

Silver smiled, then something struck him from the side. The impact came so quickly that Spatial Sense barely warned him.

A Sky-Borer had emerged from an opening above, its body slamming into his shoulder. He crashed against the wall, his phone flying from his hand.

Silver heard it hit stone.

”No!”

He turned but he could only watch the phone bounce once, slide, then disappeared through a narrow fissure.

He lunged for it as a worm attacked but he ended up throwing himself backward to avoid it mid lunge. The jaws snapped where his arm had been.

He looked toward the fissure. His phone was gone.

He activated Spatial Sense. The crack descended several meters before opening into another narrow space. The phone continued falling, then stopped far below.

He stared in disbelief.

The worms were approaching. He could retrieve it, maybe. It would require climbing down, losing height and possibly trapping himself.

Another Sky-Borer entered the tunnel. Silver looked once more toward the fissure, then turned away.

”You’re buying me another phone.”

He didn’t specify whether he meant Ravenna, the system or the universe.

He ran.

The distress beacon remained attached to his equipment. That was what mattered. His message had gone through and Ravenna knew he was nearly out. The observation center knew about the infestation.

Now he simply had to survive long enough for any of that information to matter.

---

At the Death Row Valley Observation Center, the first indication that something had changed was an emergency tone that hadn’t sounded since the subjugation operation began.

Several personnel looked up simultaneously. One of the monitoring officers turned toward the emergency-frequency terminal.

A red indicator flashed.

”Active Contractor distress beacon.”

The supervisor standing near the central monitoring table immediately approached.

”Location?”

”Death Row Valley.”

That didn’t initially surprise anyone. Teams operated around the valley. The officer entered the identification request.

The terminal processed it, then the name appeared. The officer stopped.

”Sir.”

The supervisor leaned closer.

REGISTERED CONTRACTOR: SILVER RUDDINGTON.

The room became noticeably quieter. Everyone working during the original incident knew the name because Ravenna had made sure of it.

The missing Contractor, the young man trapped when the worm tunnels collapsed and the one whose companions had returned without him. The one presumed likely dead after almost six days underground.

”Confirm identification.”

The officer did and still got same result.

”Beacon authentication is valid. Contractor registration matches.”

”Location?”

”Triangulation is incomplete. Signal is coming through too much stone, but he’s somewhere beneath the upper eastern section of the valley.”

The supervisor’s expression changed.

”He’s moving?”

The officer examined the signal.

”Yes. Elevation data is unstable, but the beacon is changing position.”

Almost six days underground with a Rank Six queen. Before anyone could properly process that, another alert appeared.

”Incoming emergency report.”

”Open it.”

The message appeared on the central display.

Everyone read.

SURVIVOR UNDERGROUND. PARASITIC WORMS HAVE DEVELOPED LARGE FLYING INSECT FORM. CONFIRMED SAME COLONY. POSSIBLE SURFACE INFESTATION AND EXTERNAL SPREAD RISK. RANK SIX QUEEN ACTIVE. PREPARE CONTAINMENT AND SUBJUGATION.

The supervisor read it twice, then looked toward the officer.

”Flying?”

”That’s what he reported.”

”Do we have any indication of that from our sensors?”

Another technician was already searching.

”Checking.”

The room came alive. Personnel began pulling vibration records; surface movement logs, thermal scans, and reports from the subjugation teams.

The supervisor turned toward communications.

”Contact regional Association command. Priority emergency.”

”Yes, sir.”

”Notify the military liaison as well.”

The communications officer hesitated. ”On an unverified report?”