Taiyang took the curve very fast, the Jeep sliding on the mud. Sitting beside him, Goodwitch clenched her fists. They were racing along the cliff road, high above the river, now hidden below them in darkness . Taiyang accelerated forward. His face was tense.

"How much further?" Goodwitch said.

"Two, maybe three miles."

Goodwitch had offered to accompany Taiyang. The car swerved. "It's been an hour," Taiyang said. "An hour, no word from the other cars."

"But they have radios," Goodwitch said.

"We haven't been able to raise them," Taiyang said.

Goodwitch frowned. "If I was sitting in a car for an hour in the rain, I'd surely try to use to the radio to call for somebody."

"So would I," Taiyang said.

Goodwitch shook her head. "You really think something could have happened to them?"

"Chances are," Taiyang said, "that they're perfectly fine, but I'll be happier when I see them. Should be any minute now."

The road curved, and then ran up a hill. At the base of the hill Goodwitch saw something white, lying among the ferns by the side of the road. "Hold it," Goodwitch said, and Taiyang braked. Goodwitch jumped out and ran forward in the headlights of the Jeep to see what it was. It looked like a piece of clothing, but there was—

Goodwitch stopped.

Even from six feet away, she could see clearly what it was. She walked forward more slowly.

Taiyang leaned out of the car and said, "What is it?"

"It's a leg," Goodwitch said.

The flesh of the leg was pale blue-white, terminating in a ragged bloody stump where the knee had been. Covering the entire leg was a sliver and gold boot. It was the kind of boot Cardin Winchester had been wearing.

By then Taiyang was out of the car, running past him to crouch over the leg. "Jesus." He lifted the leg out of the foliage, raising it into the light of the headlamps, and blood from the stump gushed down over his hand. Goodwitch was still three feet away. She quickly bent over, put her hands on her knees, and breathed deeply, trying not to be sick.

"Goodwitch." Taiyang's voice was sharp.

"What?"

"Move. You're blocking the light."

Goodwitch took a breath and moved. When she opened her eyes she saw Taiyang peering critically at the stump. "Torn at the joint line," Taiyang said. "Didn't but it—twisted and ripped it. Just ripped his leg off." Taiyang stood up, holding the severed leg upside down so the remaining blood dripped onto the ferns. His bloody hand smudged the white sock as he gripped the ankle. Goodwitch felt sick again.

"No question what happened," Taiyang was saying. "The T-Rex got him." Taiyang looked up the hill, then back at Goodwitch. "You all right? You think you can go on?"

"Yes," Goodwitch said. "I can go on."

Taiyang was walking back toward the Jeep, carrying the leg. "I guess we better bring this along," he said. "Doesn't seem right to leave it here. Christ, it's going to make a mess of the car. See if there's anything in the back, will you? A tarp or a newspaper . . ."

Goodwitch opened the back door and rummaged around in the space behind the rear seat she felt grateful to think about something else for a moment. The problem of how to wrap the severed leg expanded to fill her mind, crowding out all other thoughts. She found a canvas bag with a tool kit, a wheel rim, a cardboard box, and—

"Two tarps," she said. They were neatly folded plastic.

"Give me one," Taiyang said, still standing outside the car. Taiyang wrapped the leg and passed the now shapeless bundle to Goodwitch. Holding it in her hand, Goodwitch was surprised at how heavy it felt. "Just put it in the back." Taiyang said. "If there's a way to wedge it, you know, so it doesn't roll around . . ."

"Okay." Goodwitch put the bundle in the back, and Taiyang for behind the wheel. He accelerated, the wheels spinning in the mid, then digging in. The Jeep rushed up the hill, and for a moment at the top the headlights still pointed upward into the foliage, and the. They swung down, and Goodwitch could see the road before them.

"Jesus," Taiyang said.

Goodwitch saw a single Land Cruiser, lying on its side in the center of the road. She couldn't see the second Land Cruiser at all. "Where's the other car?"

Taiyang looked around briefly, pointed to the left. "There," the second Land Cruiser was twenty feet away, crumpled at the foot of a tree.

"What's it doing there?"

"The T-Rex threw it."

"Threw it?" Goodwitch said.

Taiyang's face was grim. "Let's get this over with," he said, climbing out of the Jeep. They hurried to the second Land Cruiser. Their flashlights swing back and forth in the night.

As they came closer, Goodwitch saw how battered the car was. She was careful to let Taiyang look inside first.

Taiyang tried to put the scene together. The front windshield of the Land Cruiser was shattered, but there wasn't much glass nearby. He had noticed shards of glass back on the road. So the windshield must have broken back there, before the tyrannosaur picked up the car and threw it here. But the car had taken a tremendous beating.

"See these tracks?" Taiyang said, "it's Yang's boots along with two pairs of high-heels. One of the heels was thicker than the other. This is Ruby's team, but no Ruby."

Proceeding onto the road, Taiyang saw his youngest daughter's boot prints. "Ruby was being chased from here to—" Ruby's prints stopped, but the tyrannosaur's continued.

"To where?" Goodwitch asked.

"She didn't survive the attack."

Goodwitch pulled out her scroll and called Ozpin to confirm the deaths of five students.

-JNPR-

JNPR sat around, waiting for RWBY to return from the tour, it had been hours, and still, nothing. Their scrolls all screeched, signaling the they had received an Amber alert. They had only ever received an Amber alert once before, and that was on the day of the Breach. Jaune checked it, it read: FIVE STUDENTS HAVE DIED; CARDIN WINCHESTER, RUSSEL THRUSH, DOVE BRONZEWING, SKY LARK, AND RUBY ROSE. THE ISLAND IS NO LONGER SAFE.

"Oh my God," Jaune mumbled. "She's dead?"