[Red Line Transit Hub, Sublevel 4 — Year 3 Post-Collapse, 02:14 AM]
The clicking started soft.
Like someone tapping a coin against a desk somewhere in the dark.
Then it multiplied. Echoed. Became something else entirely, a full grinding roar of bone on bone bouncing off the vaulted concrete ceiling of the transit hub, drowning out everything.
Dozens of kinetic ripples disturbed the black, mirror-like surface of the flooded tracks.
Ren stood ankle-deep in freezing water, the massive Trench-Gator carcass bleeding out at his feet. His Echolocation was doing all the work his eyes couldn't, painting the subterranean dark with sonic feedback.
What it showed him was not great. 1
Elongated, serpentine shapes were peeling themselves off the submerged walls and ruined maintenance tunnels, converging on the platform. The scout was dead. They smelled it.
"Ren," Chloe whispered.
