The first wave was over, and the floor did not take the bodies back.
James heard the lock before anyone spoke.
Heavy iron, sliding back inside the wall to his left. He turned. A second lock answered from across the avenue, then three more from different buildings, each a half-beat apart, and the sound spread outward until it covered the whole ruined city and was still spreading.
His sword came up before the first door finished opening.
"Hold formation," Marcus said.
The twenty held. Around James the frontliners stayed angled toward the cathedral road — the direction the first wave had come from, not the only direction that mattered anymore. He caught one support near the back starting to turn toward the sound on the left and stop herself, but a half-step too late, her shoulder already turned the wrong way.
The floor had spent the whole first wave learning where everyone faced.
Now it was opening from everywhere else.
