Chapter 13
Brody
We had no idea where we were going as we ran off into the pitch black. The tunnel behind the hidden door that our attackers had used to sneak up on us could lead anywhere.
But anywhere had to be better than where we’d just escaped.
That had been far too close. I knew something was suspicious when the tunnel collapsed and cut us off from Magnus and Trent. The supports had been stable and shouldn’t have caved in so suddenly. It was clear someone was trying to set a trap for us, yet I’d still allowed them to sneak up on us.
I hadn’t been retired from the military that long. Just less than a year. Yet, my skills were already getting rusty if a bunch of barely trained civilians could get the drop on me.
My fingers were going numb from the strength of Ellis’s grip on my hand as we ran blindly through the dark.
I should have been paying attention to where we were going.
The tunnel wasn’t completely black now. Some light managed to leak through cracks in the ceiling, meaning we weren’t too far underground.
However, all I could think about was my worry for Ellis.
The man hadn’t said anything, but I knew he had to be panicking.
He’d just shot a man. It had been a gut shot, not immediately fatal, but there was a very real possibility that he’d just taken a life.
I remembered my first kill. It had been in the middle of battle.
I was posted up on a high perspective to offer cover fire for the rest of the unit.
There had been more enemies than we predicted, and my commanding officer’s voice had come through the radio piece in my ear, ordering me to take the shot.
I’d acted automatically, just like I always had in practice, but the moment after I pulled the trigger and watched a man’s body collapse through the scope on my gun, I felt my whole world shift around me.
I’d crossed a line I could never come back from, and even though I’d known it was coming, I still wasn’t prepared.
Nothing could truly prepare you for taking a life.
I struggled with myself for a while afterward, trying to come to terms with my new identity as a murderer.
Sanctioned murder, but still murder.
Right now, Ellis was probably still in fight or flight mode, so he hadn’t processed the fact that he’d shot a man, but it was bound to catch up with him eventually.
I didn’t want that. Ellis deserved to live his life in innocence, without the weight of another man’s life on his conscience.
If only I could have been the one to pull the trigger instead. I’d chosen my path, and the weight of one more life would be nothing compared to the burdens I already carried.
“I think there’s something up ahead,” Ellis said as we ran, snapping me out of my thoughts.
Sure enough, the light leaking through the ceiling revealed that the tunnel dead-ended into a staircase that led to the surface.
The two of us paused at the bottom of the stairs.
They weren’t that tall. Maybe only about twenty feet.
It was close enough for us to see that the stairs lead to a large rectangular trapdoor in the ceiling.
Ellis looked at me for direction. “Do we go up? I mean, we have to, right? There’s nowhere else for us to go.”
He was right, of course. There was no other path for us, but before I could say as much, the decision was made for us. Voices sounded in the tunnel, approaching from behind. The cult members had followed us, and by the sound of it they were gaining quickly.
There was no time for second-guessing. Holding tight to Ellis’s hand, I pulled him up the stairs with me.
The trapdoor had a complicated latch. For a moment, I feared we were trapped, but the latch turned easily under my hand.
Sounds of grinding stone and moving gears echoed through the tunnel as the trap door opened.
It split down the middle and slid aside like a pair of elevator doors, blinding us with the sudden glow of daylight.
The trap door led into the bottom of a large stone box. Luckily, it was only a couple feet tall, so climbing out wasn’t a problem, but Ellis’s foot snagged on the edge of the stone as he stepped over and sent us both crashing to the ground.
I kept Ellis close, letting my body take the brunt of the fall. The force of the impact knocked the air from my lungs. When I shook off the blow enough to look up, I found a pair of sturdy black boots standing right in front of me.
“What the hell have you gotten yourself into?” someone demanded.
I knew that voice.
Looking up so quickly I nearly snapped my own neck, I called out in surprise.
“Creed!”
It had been months since I’d last seen the man through anything other than a screen, but he looked exactly the same. Same dark hair, same stern face, and the same intimidating build, as if he could block out the sun with the width of his shoulders alone.
And, at the moment, there was a very familiar scowl on his face.
“I leave you idiots alone for a few months and you’re getting chased around by murderous cults. I shouldn’t have even bothered coming. You and Magnus deserve to get shot.”
My joy at seeing my old friend was momentarily pushed to the back of my mind as I remembered our current situation. Looking around, I realized we were back in the Milford sisters’ hidden mausoleum, and Ellis and I had just crawled out of Poppy Milford’s tomb.
“What are you doing here?” I asked Creed, not sure if I was demanding to know how he’d found the hidden mausoleum, or what he was doing stateside at all.
Last I’d heard, he’d been captured by the enemy somewhere overseas and had possibly been rescued. Now, suddenly, here he was right in front of me, on the other side of the globe from where he was supposed to be.
Before Creed could answer, voices floated up from the opening to the staircase inside Poppy Milford’s grave. The cult members were still following us.
Creed held out a hand, palm facing toward me.
“Wait here. I’ll take care of it.”
Just before he disappeared into the darkness of the underground tunnel, I saw him pull out a gun from his belt and knew how he planned to “take care” of things.
Ellis latched onto my arm, plastering himself to my side. “Brody, who... What’s going on?”
He was shaking from head to toe, and for the first time since we started running, I realized he still held the gun he’d used to save me.
“Hey, Ellis. It’s okay. I can take that now.”
The metal of the gun practically rattled in his hand, and it was a miracle he hadn’t accidentally pulled the trigger by now. I had to help him pry his fingers off of the handle, and then shoved it into the empty holster on my own belt for safekeeping.
Down inside the tunnel, people started shouting, and a gunshot rang through the air.
“Come on,” I said as I led Ellis away from the open tomb. “Let’s get out of here.”
Outside the tunnel, we were immediately greeted by Deputy Hillard, who came running up to us with several officers in tow.
“That man, Creed Landry, where’d he go?”
Still shocked from the sudden turn of events, I just pointed back inside the mausoleum.
Deputy Hillard sighed and hurried his people into the mausoleum. “I told him to wait for us. This is a police matter. We need to be the ones to handle it.”
I could have told Deputy Hillard that his orders were pointless.
Creed would never stay behind while people he cared about were in danger.
Even our commanding officers had trouble keeping control of him, and he probably would have been dishonorably discharged long ago if he wasn’t so good at his job.
However, Deputy Hillard and the other law enforcement officers were already charging into the mausoleum before I could say a word, and didn’t bother shouting after him. He could learn for himself how impossible Creed could be.
A blanket fell over my shoulders. I whirled around, newly acquired gun halfway out of its holster before I realized who stood beside me.
“Damn it, Mag,” I shouted, shoving the gun back into its holster. “Don’t sneak up on me. I nearly shot you.”
Beside me, Magnus eyed my hand, which was still on my gun, but he didn’t look worried.
“You? The expert sniper? Nah. You’ve got too much control for that.”
“Not right now, I don’t.”
Off to the side, I noticed Trent holding out another blanket for Ellis. It seemed like everyone was suddenly showing up out of the woodwork. The once secret mausoleum was turning into a regular hangout spot.
Still, with the arrival of other people I trusted, I was finally able to let my guard down. I practically collapsed onto a nearby log and hung my head in my hands, letting out a long groan as the tension in my shoulders released.
“This last day has been hell, Mag.”
Ellis sat quietly beside me, barely moving the log. If it wasn’t for the way he pressed up against my side, I may not have even realized he was there.
Magnus, in contrast, was impossible to ignore as he roughly slapped my shoulder.
“Tell me about it. When you two disappeared behind that cave-in, I thought for sure you were dead. I ran into town to get help, and Creed just suddenly showed up.” Sighing heavily, he ran a hand through his already disheveled hair, pulling free what little remained in his blond braid.
“I thought I was dreaming when he just appeared out of nowhere. What is he even doing here?”
“I was hoping you’d tell me,” I said, shaking my own head. More gunfire could be heard coming from inside the mausoleum, faint but unmistakable. “We’ll have to ask him about it later, but for now, I’m just glad he’s here.”
“Yeah,” Magnus agreed as he took a seat on a nearby stump. “Oh, by the way. here. I figured you’d probably need this.”
He and Trent handed over a few water bottles, granola bars, and some jerky. It wasn’t much, but after not eating anything for over a day while hiking miles underground and then fighting for our lives, Ellis and I were both starving. Even such basic food tasted like a five-star buffet.