D. Thomas - Backlash

Gonzalez took the .38 and crept over to the log pile, carefully peeking through a small crack near the top. Screaming as her eye got close to the gap, she jerked her head back while whipping the pistol up, quickly firing a single shot through the crack at close range. A loud scream sounded from the other side, indicating she had hit the assailant who made the mistake of peeking in at the same time Gonzalez was peeking out.

A new barrage of bullets struck the wall as the gunmen dove for cover and wildly returned fire, not knowing their prey was actually down to their final bullet. It was surprising they didn’t kill each other in the crossfire.

The gunmen’s confused battle with the logs bought Lewis enough time to finish removing the box’s lid. He lifted hard with his legs, tipping the lid to the side as parts tore away from years of rot. Everyone stood shocked at what lay inside. It wasn’t a box at all, but rather the hatch to a mine shaft.

Lewis blinked a few times, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the low light below. There was a rotting ladder leading down into the darkness, next to which hung a familiar outline that was slowly coming into focus. Reaching his arm down, he removed an old oil lamp from where it hung on a large, rusty nail. He held it up for the girls to see. “This oil will probably still burn,” he began with a twinge of hope in his voice. “Either of you have a match?”

Getting nothing but shaking heads and worried looks in response, Lewis turned his attention to a new sound coming from just outside the door: the pouring of some sort of liquid. The girls’ faces were twisted in curious looks of confusion until the pouring sound was replaced by the loud rush of expanding air and a bright flash of light. The gunmen had doused the cabin in gasoline and set it on fire.

The rickety ladder now represented their only path of escape. “Down!” Lewis urged, pointing into the shaft.

Gonzalez hesitated as she peered into the darkness below, unable to tell if the shaft really even went anywhere. “I don’t think this ladder will hold our weight,” she stated quite calmly, despite the chaos that was unfolding around her. Smoke was filling the cabin, making it even harder to see.

“Just go!” Lewis yelled as gunfire began pelting the cabin once again. Apparently the gunmen wanted to ensure their prey stayed inside for the roast. Gonzalez scurried down the ladder with Samantha right behind. Lewis turned towards the burning doorway, intent on buying some more time.

Lewis had three goals in mind as he fought through the smoke. First, he wedged the soup cans in amongst the logs, having learned the explosive results of putting a sealed can in a fire as a Boy Scout. Next, he broke off a short strip of wood that was burning on one end. He used the small flame as a match to light the antique lantern, which began to glow immediately as if it were brand new. Lewis’s final goal required that he brave the worst of the acrid smoke, pushing his way right up to the small gap in the stack of logs. Thick smoke was billowing in through the hole, but the light outside was enough for Lewis to spot one of the gunmen, firing wildly at the roof. Lewis took aim through the small hole and used his final bullet to shoot the man in the head.

A resurgence in the amount of gunfire directed at the doorway chased Lewis back to the ladder. Sliding to a stop next to the hole, he crouched and lowered the lantern in. Samantha and Gonzalez were standing knee deep in water, about 20 feet below. Lewis spun around, swinging his legs onto the rungs of the ladder and starting down. Hoping to keep most of the smoke out, he slid the hatch cover back in place before continuing downward, the lantern dangling from his hand to light the way.

The old wooden ladder supported him until he was almost halfway down. The actual problem started at the bottom, where the ladder was propped up on a couple of large rocks to keep it out of the water. Lewis’s hurried bouncing motion caused the ladder’s feet to slide off the rocks into the water. He waved his free arm wildly, trying to keep his balance, but his weight, combined with the sudden jarring when the ladder hit the bottom, was too much for the rotted rung he was perched on. The rung gave way, sending Lewis falling towards the water below. The next few rungs shattered as he crashed through them, each one slowing his feet while allowing his upper body to continue unimpeded.

Lewis hit the water flat on his back with his right arm stretched towards the ceiling, reaching to prevent their only source of light from being extinguished. His left arm shot into the water in an attempt to push off the bottom before he sank too deep. Reaching out, Gonzalez was able to snag the lantern before the waves from Lewis’s back-flop doused the small flame.

“Nice catch,” Lewis said, after spitting the water from his mouth.

“Nice quarter-gainer,” Gonzalez shot back. “You may want to lay off the doughnuts before trying any more ladders.”

Lewis grinned and got to his feet. “I could definitely go for a doughnut about now,” he stated as he looked around the mine shaft. They were now at the bottom of a narrow crack that extended away in both directions, one way leading towards the river while the other headed towards the canyon wall. “Have you two checked the passage in either direction?”

Gonzalez didn’t miss a beat. “We were just gossiping and doing our nails down here in the dark, waiting for you to drop in,” she retorted.

“Women…” Lewis mumbled as he held up the lantern, slowly switching it from one side to the other, allowing everyone to get a look in both directions.

“That way,” Samantha said, pointing in the direction towards the river. She immediately turned to lead the way, wading through the water.

They walked as quickly as possible, knowing they had only a limited amount of time before the cabin burned to the ground and the gunmen began searching for them. The path angled slowly downward, the water deepening as they proceeded, soon requiring everyone to swim. Breathing heavily due to the effort, Lewis kicked hard to swim with the lantern extended over his head. They rounded a gentle bend and were done. The tunnel just ended. Gonzalez held her breath, diving under to search the bottom but came up empty, unable to find an escape route.

“I meant, that way,” Samantha said, smiling sheepishly while pointing back the way they had come. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Lewis said with a shake of his head. “I always think it is better to quickly eliminate an incorrect route than it is to spend a lot of time proceeding forward, not knowing if the other way might have been better.”

Samantha again led the way, this time going even faster to make up for lost time. It took only a couple minutes to get back to where they started, stopping briefly to listen to the raging fire above before pushing on into the unknown.

The water began to recede as they started up the new passage, rounding the first turn. Continuing upward, the path became completely dry after the first hundred yards. Not having to wade allowed the team to make much faster progress. Unfortunately, the faster progress only got them to another dead end faster. They were in a quarter-mile long crack that was sealed at both ends. The only way out was back through the gunman-guarded inferno above.

Samantha almost crumbled at the sight of the solid rock face in front of them. It seemed like so much of her daily existence had revolved around being trapped by rock.

Lewis, on the other hand, was not the least bit interested in the wall ahead. His focus was instead drawn to a small pile of mining equipment sitting off to one side. Most of the items were simple tools that he recognized like shovels, a couple of pickaxes, a sledgehammer, and a long metal rod that Lewis knew was used to pound holes into the rock for sticks of dynamite. And this led to the key ingredient to Lewis’s quickly forming plan: next to the metal rod was a wooden crate that still housed eight sticks of dynamite.