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She lurched back to her feet and launched it at the cover.

This time, it actually reached the rotting mat… bouncing against it weakly before pinging down to the floor of the cave.

A few more bits of debris rained down around her.

“More rocks!” Adam called out from behind her as he knocked another bat aside.

Ellie scrambled for another stone.

“I found one!” she announced happily. She stood—and then let out a scream of alarm at the bat zooming toward her.

She threw herself to the ground as her hand flailed out for the torch. Grasping it, she swung the flame up.

The bat veered away with a screech of alarm and the smell of scorched fur.

Above her, Adam yelped out a curse, dodging back as another monster swooped at him with its thick, twisted talons extended.

Ellie grabbed the nearest rock and staggered to her feet. She looked down at it where it lay in her palm.

“Make the next one count, Princess!” Adam shouted behind her as he swung his machete again.

Ellie looked up at the dry, sagging timbers of the cover with its trailing tendrils of loose bark and rope.

Her gaze shifted to the torch she held in her other hand.

Ellie dropped the rock. She scrambled forward to grasp a long, thin stick that had fallen with the other debris from the hole.

Bracing the stick between her knees, Ellie jammed the end of the torch onto it. The result was something like a fiery javelin. She gave it a shake to test the construction and was satisfied.

“What are you doing?” Adam called out as he ducked another bat and flailed out with the copper blade.

“I am improvising,” Ellie snapped—and launched her makeshift spear into the air.

It arced up beautifully.

The broken stick jammed itself neatly into the tangled mat of the roof… and with a soft whoosh, the whole of it burst into flames.

Ellie let out a whoop of triumph.

Adam grabbed her around the waist and tackled her backwards as the cover collapsed.

The flaming mass rushed past them. It slammed onto the end of the ledge with a shower of sparks before tipping and plummeting to the ground below.

Bats screamed in protest. They wheeled from the flaming, falling debris, and then spilled through the hole into the gusting, storm-tossed night.

The entire colony fled, whirling into the darkness as thunder boomed hollowly through the cavern.

It began to rain.

The downpour was thick and instantaneous. Water gushed down through the opening and splattered against the guano-stained floor.

Ellie watched it all with wonder—and then a lurch of guilt.

“Did we just unleash a horde of hungry monsters on the camp?” she asked weakly.

Adam rubbed his face. “Maybe they’re not that hungry,” he offered.

He led her back down the ledge to where the remains of the cover smoldered under the perfect circle of the torrent. The embers that had scattered outside the range of the rain were the only source of light in the cave.