Chapter 5
Explosions were the last thing he wanted to hear at a time like this. Maybe it was unrelated, or it could be his buddies. Either way, he had to find out.
"Stay. I just need to look." Link hopped up and headed to the door. He raced to the room with the window and slid the curtain over about a half inch, glancing out to the street and the market.
Chaos ruled. Women, hands clasped with children, dashed away. Men shut down stalls, trying to hide their wares before fleeing the rubble. A few people, both men and women, stood staring, dumbfounded looks on their faces.
It appeared the explosion was about two hundred meters away. Dust filled the air, and smoke wove its fingers around the market, searching for lungs to clog.
“Fucking hell.” This was the last thing this city needed. He knew their showing up hadn’t caused the bombs. This place was a hair trigger with a ticking time bomb to go with it. Those in power were emotional as teenagers looking for last-minute dates for prom.
“How bad is it?” Ansley asked.
She hadn’t stayed. He didn’t blame her. He would be curious as a crow if he’d been told to stay by someone he didn’t serve with on a regular basis. She didn’t know him.
“The market is chaos.”
“Shit. We need to get out of here.”
Link turned to assess her. She was standing, but not putting as much weight on her injured leg. They would be targets. His military gear would stand out, and so would her limp.
“We’d be sitting ducks if we went out there.”
She looked down at herself. “Do you think we’re safe staying here?”
“Maybe, maybe not. We could go back down into the underground and take another tunnel.”
“A tunnel would be good.”
“I worry they’ll follow us in the tunnels, or I was worried. They haven’t yet, but if they figure out we’re down there and start a fire, we’re dead.”
"True. But going out there will paint us with huge targets. Besides, no one followed us into those tunnels. We would have heard them, and they would have caught up. It's not like we're moving fast. Plus, I passed out. If they knew we went down there, they would be on us."
Link nodded slowly. “Okay. Let me go out into the market and grab some food. There’s a stall not far away. I’ll get vegetables and fruits, then we can head to the tunnels.”
Ansley chewed on her lower lip, looking like her mind was spinning. After a few seconds, she nodded. “Sounds good. I’ll head to the stairs and get ready to go.”
“Be careful.”
“I will be. Same to you.”
He headed out, moving fast to the stall. The man who'd been working the stall was gone, just like most of the other shopkeepers. He grabbed a bag and filled it with tomatoes, grapes, a few handfuls of nuts, dates, and four oranges.
The food would be enough to get them through a couple of days. If they were stuck here longer, he’d go out and get more.
Gunfire sounded nearby, and he knew his time here was up. He headed back into the building, but before he went in, he grabbed chalk from his pocket and smudged a mark about waist height on the building before he ran inside and found Ansley.
"We should go."
She slowly pulled the door open, checking for sounds. She gave a sharp nod, indicating the area was clear. “Sure, let’s go.”
They headed down the stairs and decided to go away from the compound where he’d rescued her. It might have been a mistake, but it seemed like all hell had broken loose up above, and they needed to get away from here. His buddies would find them, then they could get the heck out of here.
Ansley wouldn't give in to the pain. Her leg felt like it was on fire.
The last few days, she'd been in hell. When the rescue happened, she'd been given a boost to push her on her way.
But now, that surge had dissipated, and she was lagging.
If they didn't get rescued soon, she would be as helpful as a wet sock in snow.
No question, Link had slowed his pace to fit hers. She was dragging them down but was thankful for his consideration. She felt like a broken spoke, and if she caused something bad to happen to him, she would never forgive herself.
The pressure of not going fast got to her, and she had to say something. “I can move faster.”
"No, slow and steady wins the race. I won't push you because if I do, we could end up stalled later. We're safe now. Eventually, we might have to run. I don't want you to burn out too soon and end up in real trouble when we have to get away quickly."
"Thanks." She was silent for a moment, but then her guilt slipped out. "I feel terrible about slowing you down."
“Don’t. We are getting you out. Trust that my team is getting your other people out. They have a plan.”
“I do trust you.”
“Good. Now then, up here, right or left. What do you think?”
She studied the area, but they were in the tunnel underground. There were lights, but no signs on the walls. “Left.”
“Why?”
She wasn’t sure. Maybe she was wrong. “Maybe right.”
Link stopped, his face scrunched up, and his lips twisted to the side. He looked like he was deep in concentration.
“Which way do you think?” she asked.
“I’m thinking about the area above. We’ve gone about a hundred yards. Based on my study of the area before we landed, I think right might be better.”
“Okay, so we should go right.”
He turned right, checking his six to make sure no one was behind them. So far, they were safe, but this wasn’t the best time to be underground. But above ground was even worse.
“The tunnels are better than our intelligence gathered. I’d been warned that most of the tunnels in the city were unusable.”
“Maybe they are in other areas.”
"True. But in this area, the tunnels seem clear, almost clean, like someone is maintaining them.
They walked another few hundred yards before they came to another set of stairs. Ansley was still up and walking, but she wasn’t going to get far. He figured they had another mile at most before she had to stop again and rest.
“What do you think?” Ansley asked.
“Not yet. We’re still too close to the hot zone. Let’s keep moving.”
“Sure.”
He noticed the skin around her mouth was pinched, and her face looked ghostly pale. She needed more antibiotics and a painkiller.
“Tell me why you joined the Marines?”
Ansley glanced at him, then shrugged. "I guess it's the usual story. No money, few prospects. My parents told me I had to be gone within a few days of graduating high school. They wanted the room for themselves. I left and slept on a friend's couch for a few weeks until I was shipped off to basic."
He nodded. “I’ve heard that story all too often. It’s sad.”
“Yeah, but it got me out of a pit and I’m good now. Becoming a Marine saved me.”
“I get that. Joining the Army gave me purpose. I almost went Navy, but I wasn’t sure I could pass the test for being a SEAL.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Why did you doubt yourself?”
"I was a freaking scrawny kid. I didn't hit my height until I was almost twenty, and the weight didn't add on until I was close to twenty-three. I had strength, but it wasn't enough. And I didn't want to be stuck on a ship."
Ansley chuckled. "As a Marine, I didn't realize how much time I would spend on a ship. I mean, they told us, but I really didn't get it. My first month at sea was hard. I was sick every day. It took a lot to get my sea legs."
“Will you miss it?”
She shook her head. “Hell no. I’m glad I joined, but I’m glad I’ll be out.”
“Where will you live?”
“No clue. I won’t go home. I plan on taking some time and traveling.”
“If you pass through North Carolina, I’m based there. You should visit.”
She nodded, and for a moment, he thought she would ignore the suggestion. Then she nodded. "I'm in California now, but I don't want to stay there."
“Really? You don’t like California?”
"I do in a way, but it's too expensive and there is too much military there. I want to blend into the background and just live. I don't want to constantly be reminded of my time in the Marines."
“I get that. When I retire, I doubt I’ll stick close to a base. I may just move into the condo and live there full-time.”
Ansley glanced at him, wondering if he was just being nice or asking her to really visit him. She wouldn’t mind spending time with Link. He was nice. Maybe outside of work he would be different.
She hadn’t ever had much luck with guys, and she was sure this was Link being nice, not hitting on her.
He was only talking to her because they were stuck together right now.
Did he wish he’d let his buddy grab her, so he wasn’t here with her?
She was being a pain in the ass with her injuries. She needed to buck up and just move.
“Tell me about the condo.”
She listened to him describe how he bought a condo that needed some renovations, and how he'd worked on it for months. He said he rented it out for a few years, but that wasn’t great.
“I got tired of renting. Some people who stayed at the place were pigs and left huge messes. It cost me more in cleaning than I received in rental fees some weeks. Then I was having to charge three or four hundred dollars in cleaning fees just to break even.”
“Oh, that sucks.”
“Yeah. Now I let my friends, people I know well, stay there. They pay a reduced rate and clean up the place before they go. I have to have someone go in and vacuum and make sure all the trash cans are empty, but it’s not the same as when I rented to the general public.
My buddies treat the place like they own it, clean up, take out the trash, that kind of thing. ”
“That’s good that your friends are that considerate.”
“So if you came for a visit, would you be willing to spend a week at the beach?”
A thrill shot through Ansley. There was no way he was being anything other than nice. She wouldn’t be an idiot about this. He’d asked her to stay at the beach with him just because they were stuck in this situation, nothing more.
“I could spend a week at the beach. It would be nice to relax.”
“You’ll probably have to stay out of the water for a while until that thing on your leg heals.”
She grunted. "How bad do you think it looks? I can kind of see it, but it hurts to bend that way to look."
Link shrugged. “It’s not great.”
“I’m angry that we were targeted. I hate that this all happened. I’m sure some of my friends are dead.”
“It sucks. Losing friends is the worst part of the military. Some of us joke about what the worst thing is. Some may say the food, or loss of autonomy, but losing friends sucks more.”
His words twisted through her. There were a lot of terrible things that happened in the military, but then there were the great parts. There were things it would have taken her decades to learn, but the military instilled those virtues in her fast.
“I’ve had a few people die here and there, but based on what I saw on this mission, we lost way too many good people.”
Link slowed, and she slowed, too. He was giving her time to adjust, to make sure she could keep moving.
She hated to admit it, but her leg hurt too much, and she wouldn't be able to continue on without taking a longer break.
She was about to say something when he put his hand on her shoulder and pointed to a small room to the left.
"We should take a break. In there, we'd be protected. You could get some sleep and let your leg rest."
She nodded. “I hate slowing us down, but I need a break.”
"We're going as fast as we need to go. I've left a few marks along the way, telling my buddies where they can find us. If it's safe up there, we'll be rescued."
Ansley nodded, but she’d been so out of it she hadn’t seen him leave the marks.
She would just have to accept that his team would find them.
She settled on the floor, sighing as she closed her eyes and rested her head against the wall.
When those jerks had taken her from the room, they’d been intent on destroying her.
But now, she was with Link and safe. This was going better than she’d expected.
Hopefully, they would be reunited with his buddies soon.