I looked at Murin's makeshift binding. It was buying us time but it wasn't fixing anything. "We need to get him out before that binding fails or the rock shifts. We can't just yank him free," I said.

  Priella was already examining the rocks. "The top one is wedged at an angle. If we can lift it maybe two inches and slide something under to prop it, we can pull his leg out sideways."

  "Lift it with what?" Akki asked. "Our positive thinking?"

  I looked around. Branches, mud, more rocks and my destroyed shoe lying in a puddle. The System flickered.

  "We need a lever," I said. "That thick branch over there. Priella, can you grab it?"

  She scrambled up the slope and came back with a branch about as thick as my arm. Solid and five feet long. "Put this flat stone under the branch as a fulcrum," I said, pointing to a rock near Zaid's leg. "We wedge the branch under the top boulder, push down on the other end, and the rock lifts."

  Murin looked at the setup. "The fulcrum needs to be closer to the rock or we won't have enough mechanical advantage."

  "Right. Move it closer."

  Akki positioned the flat stone about a foot from the boulder. Priella and I worked the branch underneath, using smaller rocks to help wedge it in. "Everyone on the end of the branch," I said. "When I say push, we all push down together. Murin, you watch his leg. The second there's clearance, you pull him out sideways."

  "What about the binding?" Murin asked.

  "Keep it on until he's clear. We'll deal with reperfusion after." The System provided a helpful diagram showing exactly where each person should stand for optimal force distribution.

  "Akki, you're the strongest. Front position. Priella, behind him. I'll take the back." We lined up along the branch like we were about to launch a catapult.

  "On three," I said. "One. Two. Three. PUSH!"

  We pushed down. The branch bent. The rock didn't move.

  "Harder!" Murin yelled.

  We pushed harder. My one good shoe was slipping in the mud. My socked foot found purchase on a smaller rock. All my weight went down on that branch. The boulder shifted slightly.

  "IT'S MOVING!" Priella shouted.

  "DON'T STOP!" I yelled back.

  We kept pushing. The branch was creaking now, threatening to snap. The rock lifted another inch. Then another.

  "THAT'S ENOUGH!" Murin grabbed Zaid under the arms. "AKKI, HELP ME!"

  Akki let go of the branch and lunged for Zaid. Together they pulled him sideways, dragging his leg free just as the branch finally gave way with a crack like a gunshot. The boulder dropped back into place with a wet thud.

  Zaid screamed. His leg was free but it was twisted wrong, swollen to twice its normal size, the skin stretched. "Lay him flat," I said, dropping to my knees next to him. "Murin, loosen the binding gradually. Not all at once."

  Murin started unwinding the shawl in careful increments, letting blood flow back into the leg slowly. The System was tracking vitals I couldn't actually measure.

  "We need to keep his leg elevated," I said. "And we need to get him down this mountain before the swelling cuts off circulation completely."

  "How?" Priella asked. "We can't carry him down that trail. It's too narrow."

  "We'll have to make a stretcher," Murin said. He was already looking around for materials.

  Akki pulled off his jacket. "Use this. And someone else's. We can tie them between two branches."

  "That's actually smart," I said.

  "Don't sound so surprised."

  We worked fast. Two more thick branches from the slope. Akki's jacket and Priella's tied between them with shoelaces and strips torn from my already destroyed shirt. It looked like something from a medieval field hospital but it was functional.

  "Zaid, we're going to lift you onto this," I said. "It's going to hurt."

  He nodded, his face gray. He'd stopped screaming but he was breathing in short gasps. We lifted him as gently as we could. He still screamed. Got him positioned on the makeshift stretcher with his injured leg elevated on a rolled-up shawl.

  "Now what?" Akki asked.

  Good question. The trail was too steep and narrow for four people to carry a stretcher.

  "We tie a rope to the front," Murin said. "Two people pull from the front, two people support from the back and sides. We take it slow."

  "We don't have rope."

  "We make rope." Murin started pulling at the decorative drawstrings on various backpacks. "Everyone, give me anything that's cord or strap."

  We pooled resources. Backpack straps. Shoelaces. Someone's belt. Murin braided them together into something that looked like it might hold. Tied it to the front of the stretcher. "I'll pull," I said. "Priella, you're with me."

  "I'll take the back left," Murin said.

  "Back right," Akki confirmed.

  We lifted. Zaid groaned but stayed quiet. Started moving.

  The trail down was worse than the trail up. Muddy and slippery. Steep enough that we were basically doing a controlled slide. My socked foot kept finding sharp rocks. I stopped noticing after the first few. Priella in front of me was breathing hard. "How much further?"

  "Maybe a kilometer?" I guessed. "Maybe more. I don't know."

  Behind us Akki was swearing steadily under his breath. We'd made it maybe three hundred meters when I heard voices above us. Multiple people moving fast down the trail.

  Dr. Cross appeared around a bend with two teaching assistants and a guy in a paramedic uniform. She took one look at us and her expression shifted from stern to something almost like approval. "What happened?" she demanded.

  "Crush injury," I said. "Leg trapped between rocks for approximately"—I checked my phone—"forty-seven minutes. We stabilized with a pressure binding and mechanical extraction."

  The paramedic was already kneeling next to Zaid, checking vitals. "Pedal pulse?"

  "Present but weak," Murin said. "We maintained sequential pressure to prevent acute toxin release."

  The paramedic looked up at Murin. "You did what now?"

  "He means we kept a tourniquet on while we got him out," I translated.

  "Smart," the paramedic said. He pulled out an actual medical kit with actual supplies and started an IV line in about ten seconds. "You kids did really good. Most people would've just yanked him free and killed him."

  Dr. Cross was looking at the makeshift stretcher. At my missing shoe. At the mud and blood covering all of us. She pulled out her clipboard and made a note. "Get yourselves cleaned up at base camp. You're done hiking for today."

  The paramedic and the TAs took over carrying Zaid. They had proper equipment and moved much faster than we had. We stood there in the rain watching them disappear down the trail.

  "So," Akki said eventually. "That happened."

  "That happened," Priella confirmed.

  I looked at Murin. "Your grandmother's binding thing. That was—"

  "Insane?" he offered.

  "I was going to say effective. But yeah, also insane."

  He smiled barely. "My hands are still shaking."

  "Mine too."

  "Mine three," Akki added. "Also I think I peed a little when that rock moved."

  "Did not need to know that," Priella said.

  We started walking down slowly. No one was pulling or carrying anything. The System flickered on.

  I ignored it. Didn't care about XP right now.

  Cared about the fact that Zaid was probably going to keep his leg. That we'd actually done something right for once. My socked foot hit another sharp rock. I didn't even feel it anymore.