Chapter 47 #2
I use one last bolt of adrenaline to shove upward, kicking my leg back, forcing us into another rolling tumble.
His grip on my neck loosens, and I use the opportunity to reach for my dog tags.
I flick my P-38 free from its folded position and use the tight space I have to drive the razor-sharp edge into his jugular vein, pushing it in and dragging it down.
The results are bloody and instant. He releases his grip on me, instead feeling for his neck and pressing against the gushing wound with little effect.
I shove him aside and stand, rushing to the edge where Jay is helping Aspen climb the ladder by holding the rope.
I can see the strain on his face, though, his strength fading as the loss of blood takes hold over his senses, and the surge of adrenaline in his system wanes.
I wrap my hands around the rope end and take the leverage into my own.
“I’ve got it!” I yell over the water, startling him as he looks up at me. He releases the rope and lets himself fall back against the wall.
“Fuck!” I hear Aspen curse below, and I see her there, sword in hand, dangling from the rope as her feet kick to meet the ladder again.
“Just drop it!” I call down.
“B-B-Bishop!” She looks up at me, giving me a glimpse of her wide green eyes, filled with relief at the sight of me, before her headlamp practically blinds me. I tuck my head into my shoulder for a moment and then yell back down to her.
“I got you, honey. Just keep coming. You can drop it.”
“N-n-no,” she chatters loudly as she responds. “C-c-can’t.”
“You piece of shit. What the fuck did you do to my sons? What the fuck did you do!” the governor wails, his lamentations echoing off the walls, and I glance back, half afraid the bats will return.
The governor has freed himself, and he’s hobbling his way toward me, closing the couple of feet between us fast despite his injury.
I’ll have to fight him off, but I look down and Aspen’s still dangling from the rope.
If I let go, she’ll fall down the shaft again into the murky water below. I can’t drop her.
“You killed them by bringing them down here!” I kick out, and the governor trips, falling to his knees and screaming out in agony as it aggravates the wound in his leg.
It buys Aspen more time, and she hooks an ankle around the side of the ladder, pulling her body close to it again and using her other foot to feel for the next rung.
She’s shaking, evident in the way her headlamp moves, and I’m as much worried about hypothermia as her injuries right now.
“You fucking Stocktons. None of you deserve to live. You’ve ruined everything.” He rants as he pulls himself back up onto his knees again, extracting something from his jacket that glints in the light.
A fucking grenade.
I reach out with my free hand, trying to knock it free from his grasp before he can pull the pin. But he jerks back just in time, and I fail.
“You use that, you’ll kill us all. These walls are too weak for that,” I warn him, but a grim, bloody smile stretches across his face.
He pulls the pin, and I close my eyes, bracing for death but never letting go of Aspen’s rope. If we die together, I can’t stop it. But I won’t be the one to drop her.
“Fuck you, Abbott!” Jay curses, back on his knees now and then his feet, launching himself at the governor with what’s left of his strength.
They tumble over the edge, and I hear a loud cry from the governor before there’s a splash of water.
Fuck.
If he pulls the grenade while she’s dangling.
“Aspen!” I call for her as I lean back over and see her climbing the ladder. I pull hard on the rope to help her ascend, but she still has a good fifteen feet to go.
My eyes catch on the light from the governor’s headlamp; it illuminates Jay, who’s still alive but barely.
“Grab the rope!” I yell; he’s inches from it. I could pull him up after Aspen is up here. I could save them both. Jay reaches out, trying and missing the end of the rope. He makes another attempt, but he’s too weak to grasp it.
“Just go!” Jay calls.
“You can do it!!” I’m yelling to encourage them both now; Aspen is closer than ever, and Jay could make it if he just tries. I know he can.
There’s another loud splash, and Jay’s eyes are torn away from mine. He looks back across the water, and there out of the murky depths of the shaft is the governor, rising like a phantom from the shadows.
The governor yells something inaudible over the roar of the water and charges forward.
The grenade is still in his hand. My eyes snap to Aspen. She’s only feet away, and she’s hurrying as fast as her soaking wet and frozen body will carry her. Only a few steps out of my reach and yet so far.
Jay lunges for the governor and misses. The governor reaches the rope and tugs hard, his body weight dragging Aspen backward and separating her from the ladder. Her feet dangle free, and she swings out as he tugs her again.
“Over my dead fucking body. You’re not getting out of here with that. It belongs to me. It’s my fucking legacy, not yours!” He yanks again with his free hand, still gripping the grenade in the other.
“Then take it!” she screams and hurls the sword down at him.
Her aim is true and perfect.
It slices into his shoulder, and he stumbles backward, losing his grip on the grenade.
My heart skips a full beat in my chest, and I use all the strength I have left to haul the rope up in one quick motion.
I stumble backward and fall, but it does its job, dragging Aspen up and over the edge just as the grenade explodes.
The explosion rocks the shaft, sending debris, dust, and water flying upward in its immediate wake.
Aspen crawls toward me, and I roll up onto my feet, hurrying back to help her.
She stumbles forward a moment later, her frozen limbs too far gone to hold her up any longer.
She chatters and reaches around her body, trying to cling to any warmth she has left as she looks up at me with bright-green eyes. Terror and relief mixed behind them.
But as the dust seems like it’s about to settle, the shaft starts to shake again, the rotting wood giving in to the effects of time.
There’s a crack. A snap, and then it all fucking goes to hell.
The whole support system of the shaft starts to collapse, buckling in on itself and creating a massive rockfall.
I snatch Aspen up from the floor and into my arms, and I take off running for the vent shaft as I see the supports in the tunnel start to give way over our heads. She clings to me, her head pressed against my chest as I run.
I feel like I’m flying, gliding through the tunnel with feet that don’t touch the ground.
My entire life is flashing before my eyes as I carry her as fast as my feet will take me.
We’re speeding and standing still at the same time, a million moments between us unfold in front of me as I continue to run out of instinct, stumbling and tripping more than once before I round the corner to the vent shaft tunnel.
The support beam that holds it open collapses behind me just as we make it, and the force of the collapse sends me tumbling forward.
She lands on the snow mound created by the vent, her fall cushioned by it before she slides down the ice.
I slam into the ground in front of it. A numbness taking over where there should be pain, my body trying to help preserve whatever reservoirs of energy I have left to save us.
I manage to make it to my feet again. I wrap my arm around her chest and drag her alongside me. I’m coughing hard, and she can barely catch her breath. The collapse steals all the oxygen and drives a plume of thick dust and mold into the air.
“Hold on to me,” I instruct her in between coughing fits as I grab the rope with both hands, and she follows my directions.
I haul us up, one handful of rope at a time.
This part of the tunnel might hold, but it’s doubtful.
I hear another sound of cracking wood, and I take it as my sign to race to the finish.
A few moments later, we’re on solid ground again, rolling out onto the snow-packed ground on the side of the mountain where the shrubs and tallest grass have started to peek through.
I hear Aspen’s tears of elation and look up to see her eyes wide with disbelief that we made it out.
I reach out for her, desperate to have her wrapped in my arms again.
But before I can, there’s another rumble under our feet, and now in the bright light of day, I see how much blood she’s covered in, in addition to how soaked she is in cold water.
Her lips are blue, and her body is shaking with the effort of keeping her warm.
The mountain quakes, and I feel my stomach drop. Her smile fades immediately.
“Let’s go.” I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder, not bothering to wait for her to answer me, and I start racing down the mountain.
It’s one step at a time, one foot in front of the other, grabbing trees and branches to brace myself as the snow turns to a slushy, icy mess underneath my feet and each step feels heavier than the last. The snow finally gives way to mud, and I see the path ahead, dodging around a boulder that I nearly fall over to get to it.
I stay focused on a point in front of me, my arms wrapped tightly around Aspen’s thighs, pinning her to my chest as we follow the slope of the path to the bottom of the hill.
I swear I hear a helicopter in the distance.
The methodical, heartwarming beat of its blades calling me home.
The exfil point must be close. I’m nearly there.
If I can just get Jones and me back to the helicopter, they can get us out of here.
The explosions will stop. The medic can treat our wounds. We’re so damn close I can taste it.
But there’s a cracking sound.
Searing pain.
My knees buckle.
And the whole world goes black as I hold on to the only woman I’ve ever loved.