Chapter 67
Chapter 67
I let myself down, slid to my butt, and let Gunner lick my face. He was whining both his apology for not doing what I told him and his stern rebuke of me for leaving him. I let him get it all out, then pulled him to me, hugging him. “Of course I’m glad you came. I really wanted you to come, but I was worried about you making it. I know... he was your partner too. And yes, I’m sorry I left you. No, I won’t do it again. Yes, I’m still grilling you a steak. Of course I’ll cut it up.”
Not only had he swum all that way and found me, but he’d brought his vest. I had no idea how he’d managed to swim with it clenched in his teeth, but he had. When I strapped it on him, I realized how glad I was to see him and how I was dreading climbing up this well without him.
I clipped the straps on my vest to his vest, then slung him over my shoulder like a backpack. “Hey, pal.”
Gunner whined as I climbed, and I noticed he’d beefed up a little. Evidently running up and down to the Eagle’s Nest and back had put some muscle on him. “I gotta put you on a diet. You’re pushing ninety pounds.”
He did that Scooby-Doo thing and wagged his tail, which slapped me in the face and shoulder. I climbed and knew I’d reached a hundred feet when the rope tethered to me tightened to the pack I’d left on the rock shelf below. Bones had added a PS to his map, which I spoke out loud in my best imitation. Poking fun at him just a little. “If you slip, don’t worry—the water’s deep beneath you. But it’s also flowing with a force like you’ve never known, so hold your breath because it’s about to take you on an underwater ride that not even Disney could imagine, and it will either drown you or save you.”
I could feel Gunner’s heart pounding through his vest. Despite the fact that I’d recovered and regained my strength and, thanks to Summer, then some, my legs were shaking. Holding on to the rock face, breathing, trying to maintain purchase, I felt Gunner looking at me as if asking, “What’s the holdup?”
I spoke out loud and began climbing again. “I don’t like this any more than you do.”
Then he passed gas to let me know what he really thought. “Thank you. That’s just perfect. I’m stuck in a hollow stone tube with no airflow.”
He looked the opposite direction and did it again.
One advantage of climbing in a dark world was that I couldn’t see below me—which was good. I climbed three more steps and heard an echo, telling me we were about to exit into the larger chamber. I reached to my left, feeling for the worn iron rod I knew had been sunk into the stone. When my fingers found it, I latched on and lifted us out of the well. I unbuckled Gunner, lifted the pack, then secured the rope to the iron rod and allowed the rest to fall free back into the well. Rappelling down would be much easier and certainly more fun.
At this point on our first trip, I’d turned to Gunner and said, “Bones. Find Bones.” This time, I rubbed his face and said, “Hey, thanks for coming with me.”
He leaned into my shin and scratched his back on my leg. I looked around, took an inventory, which convinced me nothing had changed, then climbed back up to the crypt where I’d found Bones. I can’t say why. I just wanted to remember. I found the underground chapel dark, dusty, and unmoving. Just as I’d left it, other than some dried blood where Bones had lain the few days he holed up in here. Below me, Gunner walked in and out of the cell into the larger open cavern. Following his nose through this underground church turned prison of hell.
I sat dangling my legs over the edge of the upper crypt and studied the underground cave, which was easily the size of a European cathedral. It was massive. Smoke markings showed where constant cook fires once burned as well as rock collections demarcating one space from another. Judging from the ruins, along with the size, it was feasible that several thousand people once lived down here. And given the fresh supply of water, along with the channels carved in the rock that looked like they served as drains, conditions down here could maintain some measure of cleanliness if the people were of a mind to do so. At the far end, a wide section of stone steps led up into the world of sunlight above. Bones’s letter had told me he was certain Frank would hold him down here. A punishment meant to jog Bones’s memory. Bones wrote that while that had been the case early in his life, this hole in the ground had become more briar patch than prison. He felt quite at home.
Staring into the crypt, I was reminded of the moment my headlamp bathed him.
His eyes had cracked open. They were little more than slits, and he had feigned a smile, managing, “Hey, Murph.”
I remember thinking how his sense of humor was gone, no doubt beaten out of him. Bruises covered his face, leaving his eyes mostly swollen shut. His breathing was shallow and painful, suggesting broken ribs. I had pushed the lid farther to the side and reached in. Sliding my hand beneath his. My friend and brother.
Bones. I had found him. Then and now I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs.
At the time I had leaned in. He had smiled. “Thanks for coming.”
“Can you move?”
“Not much.”
His mouth was dry and cracked and covered in blood, meaning internal injuries. I gave him a sip of water. “How’d you get up here?”
“Same as you.”
“And Frank?”
Bones sipped and shook his head. “Has no idea about this place. Always been afraid of the dark. I figured either you’d find me or I’d die”—he attempted a smile—“already buried.”
I tried to sit him up. “Can I move you?”
“You can try.”
I did, lowering him down, and that was when I knew how bad it was. Somebody had gotten ahold of him. Worked him over more than once. The gurgle and the cough told me he was bleeding inside. The less he moved the better, but I had to get him out.
When I got him down, Gunner licked the blood and salt off his face, then lay down next to him like a sphynx. Posting guard. Bones had lain very still, focused on his breathing. “You found... my map.”
A question posed as a statement. I knelt. “Sorry I didn’t get here sooner. Frank... kept me busy.”
He grabbed my hand. “He’s like that.” His grip was weak, and only then did I realize there was no way Bones could exit the way I entered. The swimming would kill him. Not to mention the current, which he could not fight. Bones had to go out the front. I remembered telling him I had to get him out and it was gonna hurt. He only nodded. He knew.
Then I said the thing I needed to say. “Bones.” I had spread my hand across his heart, both checking his pulse and letting him know I was here. “I’m sorry it took so—”
He tried to smile and shook his head once, and then he said the words that only Bones could say. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
Even though I knew he would not speak out of the darkness, I said the words again. “I’m so sorry it took so...”
Below me, the only noise was the sound of the tide coming in.
I knew the clock was ticking. Bones had needed medical attention three days ago. I lifted him to a seated position. “You ready?”
He wasn’t, but he nodded anyway.
I stood him up and said, “Drape your arms over my shoulders.”
Bones did as directed, and I lifted him, grabbing a leg in each hand. Some would call it piggyback. I’d call it rescue. Bones would call it ugly. I lifted him to a deep moan of pain and began walking, carrying his two hundred pounds plus my gear. I made it through the bars and back down the corridor inside the massive cavern. We made it to the stairs and I willed myself to think of the Eagle’s Nest. You’ve done this a hundred times. Just put one foot in front of the other... and dig deep. So I had.
The next few moments were foggy in my memory. We had climbed the stairs, exchanged fire with Frank’s goons, and then I wanted to go up the stairs, make a stand, and then make an exit. Bones said no, and then he said the two words my heart needed to hear. “Follow me.” So I had.
He had stepped behind a column, pushed on it, and then said, “Help.” When I did, it gave way, exposing a hidden tunnel and stairwell. A spiral staircase. Smooth stone walls.
Now, Gunner and I retraced our steps. Following smeared blood that still stained the once-exquisite walls. It wasn’t hard to follow. Before, when we reached a T-intersection, Bones had tapped my right shoulder and pointed. In his absence, I followed the tap again.