Jenny nodded, “Yes, rebaudiana is stevia.”
“So, you could have had a couple cases of Vitamin D and some stevia brought down here and dosed these people with both, and they’d all be okay?” Jenny asked the doctor.
“I really have no idea if that course of action would have worked, but I doubt that Vitamin D supplements would have been effective. The Vitamin D in your systems seems to have been manufactured by your own bodies, formed after exposure to UV light. And you must also consume rebaudiana fairly regularly to have trace amounts still in your systems. You made me hazard a guess, and that’s what this is, a guess. There is no certainty that either of these things is the cause of your immunity, or that either would have proven useful in treating the others.”
“But you could have tried!” Jenny said angrily. Her raised voice bounced around the small cavern, echoing back and forth across the small space.
“Mr. Malnon would allow no lift access until Dr. Shean arrived. And, Dr. Shean is in charge now. Not me. Dr. Shean preferred to wait for more definitive test results,” the doctor told her. “And, for that, we needed more of your blood.”
Jenny shook her head, again feeling the urge to kick the man. It was ludicrous that they hadn’t tried this simple treatment. Ludicrous to let these people suffer and die in order to wait for more test results. And, to Jenny, it seemed like there must be only one logical explanation. There was more to this situation than the bacterial infection. It seemed to Jenny that someone was trying awfully hard to conceal what was really going on. Someoneon the surface knew something about the chemical spill and was trying to cover it up, to hide it away and kept locked in the darkness of the mines. And this was how they were going to do it. By letting everyone die. If there wasn’t a single survivor, there would be no one left to substantiate the events that had transpired. And, their deaths could easily be blamed upon a mechanical malfunction or a mining accident. They were 640 feet below underground after all.
“You’re an insult to your profession, Doctor,” Jenny said as she stalked back to where Stone waited for her at the entrance to the tunnel.
Behind her, the doctor said nothing.
“Has it been more than twenty minutes yet?” Jenny asked.
Stone checked the watch at his wrist, then shook his head, “Eighteen. We have just enough time to get back to Gilbert’s group before they leave.”
“It must have been the trip to Florida,” Jenny told him. “If the doctor is right, about the Vitamin D, then that’s the only explanation for why we have more Vitamin D in our bodies than everyone else does.”
“Yes,” Stone said. “But that doesn’t help these people.”
“Maybe it does? I saw a few UV miner’s lights near the trams. They’d work to increase Vitamin D levels naturally, although not as much as the sunshine, I’d guess.” Jenny said.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jenny was relieved to see that Gilbert, Debbie and the rest of the group were still there, waiting with the tram at the designated location, when she and Stone arrived back. It had been a quick, uneventful jog back to the tram’s location after they’d left the lift cavern, and they hadn’t encountered a single person in the tunnels along the way.
Jenny wasn’t happy to note that everyone in the small group was in bad shape. It seemed obvious that the toxins in their bodies were beginning to affect them more rapidly than it had before and that whatever effect the Albuterol had had on the bacteria was now quickly wearing off. Without exception, they all looked terrible. Sick. Exhausted. Near death, even.
Jenny’s heart clenched as she looked at their pale faces. She and Stone would have to do something quickly. If they didn’t, she wasn’t sure that Stone’s friends would all live long enough to find the other lift.
Stone immediately took charge. He was good at it, so Jenny just stood back and listened.
“We spoke to the doctor. He thinks that perhaps the body’s natural production of Vitamin D works to prohibit the spread of bacteria. Sunlight promotes Vitamin D production in the body. Since there’s obviously no sunlight down here, Jenny and I are going to go back and get a few of the UV lights near the other tram while you wait here. It should only take us a few minutes.”
Gilbert nodded lethargically. Debbie said nothing. Cheryl, Paul and Alice didn’t respond at all. They didn’t even seem to notice that Stone was speaking. All three of them were staring off into the tunnels, each with a vague, lost expression upon their face.
She and Stone had come back to the tram’s location immediately after leaving the lift cavern because she’d been concerned that Gilbert would leave without them. Looking at the group now, Jenny realized that there was no way that they could have. They were all far too sick to drive the tram.
Stone shared a look with her, and Jenny shook her head. Without him having to say it, she knew that he wanted her to wait here with his friends while he went back for the lights. But she wasn’t going to go for that idea. She felt strongly that they needed to stay together. She wasn’t leaving his side again until they were once again on the surface.
His friends would be no worse off whether she stayed with them or went with Stone. She had nothing that would help them now. Nothing – except her oxygen mask.
“I’m not staying here, Stone. We’ll both go back for the lights,” she said as she started to strip off the oxygen mask, hose and tank.
Stone looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn’t. He just removed his own mask and tank silently.
After he’d finished stripping them off, he moved close to Cheryl. The woman looked the worst out of all of them. Her skin had a gray tone, and her breathing was raspy and slow. Stone bent down to where she was half reclining in the tram’s seat and affixed the mask to her face, then placed the oxygen bottle near her feet.
He turned to Jenny, “You know that you really should keep yours. It has been helping your asthma.”
Jenny nodded. She did know it. The oxygenated air from the tank was helping her breathe easier. Without the mask, she’d be right back to struggling to with her asthma again. And she had no more Albuterol in her inhaler, so another attack might kill her. It was a risky move, taking off the mask, but she knew it was the right thing to do. It looked like Debbie needed the thing much more than she did at the moment. And Jenny couldn’t stand the thought of just letting the woman suffer so that she herself could breathe a little easier.
“I know,” she said as she placed the mask over Debbie’s face.
Stone looked like he wanted to argue again, but once more, he held back. Like her, he knew it was the right thing to do.
“Gilbert?” Stone moved closer to the man. “Gilbert? Can you hear what I’m saying?”
Gilbert mumbled a response, his eyes slowly focusing on Stone’s face.
“We will be back soon. Don’t try to leave,” Stone said, and Jenny heard the urgency in his tone as he tried to make sure his words penetrated his friend’s brain fog.
Gilbert nodded slightly. Weakly. But he understood.
Stone turned away, grabbing her hand in the semi-darkness, and they both sprinted back toward the museum, legs pumping quickly through the stagnant salty air.
“I think the doctor overestimated the time these people have left,” Stone said into the silence. “I don’t think they have three hours, Jenny. They probably don’t have more than two, tops.”
It was Jenny’s turn not to argue. She knew he was right. She just hustled along at his side, urgency filling her thoughts.
It took less than two minutes to reach the other tram. It was parked in a low, shallow cavern carved out of the side of the tunnel, right near the entrance to the series of caverns that held the museum’s exhibits.
Jenny quickly located the UV lights she’d seen earlier, glad to see that there were more there than she’d originally thought. Sixteen battery powered UV lights lay in neatly organized rows along the edge of the tram’s cavern.
In one of the museum exhibits, Jenny had rea
d that miners often used the lights to fluoresce the minerals in the tunnels as they excavated. The UV lights caused certain minerals to glow brilliant, otherworldly colors, putting on a display that was truly beautiful, but also helping to identify the presence of these minerals while mining was taking place. Whatever their purpose, Jenny was glad that there were so many of the UV lights stored near the trams.
“There are enough that we can set up some of them in the dining cavern, Stone,” she said, wheezing a little as her lungs struggled to draw oxygen from the thin air.
Stone nodded. “We’ll have to be quick about it. Even if the lights work to moderate the symptoms, they’re going to run out of oxygen soon.”
Jenny stooped to pick up three of the bulky lights, but Stone stopped her.
“Load them into the spare tram. We’ll drive it right into the dining cavern. Quicker that way,” he said.
Jenny nodded and started to load the lights into the tram. The lights weren’t extremely heavy, but the large square face on each of them made them bulky. It was difficult to handle more than two or three at a time. And the enclosed battery pack that was affixed near the base of the light threw off their center of balance, making them bottom heavy and awkward to carry.
Jenny set five of the battery powered lights aside, saving them for Stone’s friends. Stone helped her load up the rest in the tram, putting them directly into the car behind the driver’s seat.
In moments, the last of the lights were loaded and Stone had unhooked all of the tram’s cars except for the first one. Drawing the Kimber from her waistband in preparation, Jenny climbed in next to him as he hopped into the driver’s seat.
So far, they’d seen no sign of the CDC’s other armed men. It was a fair bet that they were either in the dining cavern or in the makeshift lab that had been set up in the cavern adjacent to the museum’s bacteria display. Possibly, they had split their forces and were in both areas.
Jenny hoped that they hadn’t discovered the four bound men near the lift yet. If they had, she and Stone were in for more trouble than they’d counted on.
Stone drove the tram right into the dining cavern, using the vehicle’s top speed. The tram’s small knobby tires bounced over the tiny uneven dips and bulges in the saltcrete floor, jostling Jenny from side to side and making it difficult to retain her seat and aim the Kimber ahead of them at the same time.
As they cleared the entrance to the dining cavern, there was a shout from behind then, and Jenny turned to see three black-clad men heading their way, guns drawn.
She twisted around, bringing the Kimber to bear, and fired wildly at the men. She missed, but she’d been sure she would, since the tram was bouncing about beneath her like a child’s air-filled bouncy house, making it impossible to aim properly.
Stone’s hand suddenly snaked out at her side and gripped her upper arm tightly. A second later the tram came to an abrupt stop, the tires hissing as they locked and slid on the dusty floor.
Jenny pitched backwards and would have toppled out of the tram had Stone not had a hold on her arm.
Stone let go of her arm and jumped out of the tram, drawing his weapon in one smooth motion. He whipped around and fired a shot at the advancing men. His bullet hit home, striking one of the men in the upper shoulder. The man went down.
Jenny bailed out of the other side of the tram, noticing for the first time that Stone had stopped the tram so that the back car blocked most of the entrance, wedged inside the space between the tunnel walls where they narrowed at the entrance to the larger cavern beyond. His action should buy them a few minutes, making it difficult for the CDC muscle to get inside without first making themselves into easy targets.
Stone fired again, and Jenny saw the two men dodge to the side, flinging themselves to the saltcrete, then rolling out of view. Two more men came running out of the museum cavern. Both were clad in black like their companions. Both held well-maintained Sig Saur 1911’s in their fists. The guns were aimed right at Stone.
“Watch out,” Jenny yelled. But Stone had already seen the men. He fired off two shots in quick succession, but only one hit its mark. Another man dropped to the floor, yelling loudly and holding his shattered kneecap.
The other man kept coming.
“This is taking too much time,” Stone shouted over the echoing reverberation of the gun shots that bounced around the cavern.
He stepped away from the entrance, and Jenny hustled to follow him. She stuck her Kimber in her waistband again, and grabbed several of the lights.
“Set up as many as you can. I’ll keep them out for a few minutes longer,” Stone said.
Heart pounding, Jenny sprinted for the nearest series of cots, her arms full of lights. She skidded to a quick stop on the dusty floor, dropped to her knees, panting and wheezing, and carefully dumped her armful of lights onto the floor. She turned on the first one, straightened it, and faced it out, pointing it towards the people in the nearest cots.
In seconds, she had two more set up. She tried not to notice how few people remained in the cots around her, but it was no use. As her hands worked quickly to turn on the battery-powered lights, her eyes flitted around the cavern, taking in the sad state of those who remained. There were less than thirty people in the cavern now. The others had been removed, leaving only blood-spattered cots behind. Jenny assumed that the missing people were dead. Why else would they have been removed?
She dashed back to the tram, grabbing more lights, and then went to her knees beside John’s cot. The man was still breathing. But just barely.
“This should help,” Jenny whispered as her fingers fumbled with the light’s power switch. She silently said a prayer that she was right as the light flared to life.
“Time is up!” Stone shouted. He’d moved away from the entrance, where a barrage of gun fire was spitting sparks off of the salt walls, and was now heading toward her at a fast pace.
Jenny tried to hit the power switch on one more light, but Stone was already at her side.
“Jenny, we’ve got to move. Now!”
“Just a few more…” Jenny said.
“They’re climbing over the tram,” Stone said.
Jenny hesitated. There were five more lights that needed to be positioned and turned on.
A bullet whizzed by her head, making her decision for her. She stood, reluctantly leaving the rest of the lights unlit.
Stone gently shoved her behind him, towards the largest tarp that hung at the side of the dining cavern, and Jenny took off a dead run.
Beside her, Stone fired his 1911 again, the boom of the shot almost deafening inside the cavern.
Jenny had one thought as she dashed behind the tarp and into the cloaking darkness Was there an exit on the other side, or were they running into a dead end?
Chapter Twenty-Three
The cavern behind the tarp was swathed in blackness. There was no track lighting installed there, and only a tiny sliver of light made its way around the edge of the thick, heavy tarp. Jenny skidded to a hard stop just beyond the tarp, her eyes wide, desperately trying to see into the blackness. She frantically wished that she’d not left her purse, with the kinetic flashlight inside it, back at the tram with the others.
Stone joined her a moment later, practically mowing her down as he barreled around the side of the tarp at a dead run. His large body knocked her to the side and her shoulder bounced off of the salt wall.
He caught her arm before she could fall.
“We can’t stay here,” he said.
“I can’t see anything,” Jenny answered.
Stone moved in front of her, keeping a firm hold upon her arm. He guided her off into the blackness.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and touched the face, then quickly tapped her flashlight icon.
Stone immediately reached over and tapped the icon to turn it off.
“Leave that off. This is good. They won’t be able to see us in the darkness,” Stone said.
She mash
ed her phone back into the pocket of her jeans. “But we don’t know where this cavern leads, or even if there’s an exit at all. It could be a dead end.”
“I don’t think so. Before, when the guard chased the visitors behind this tarp, they didn’t come back out again. There must be an exit.”
Stone was almost running in the darkness, and Jenny wondered how he could possibly see where he was going. Her vision still hadn’t adjusted yet. Everything around her had been reduced to layers of blackness.
She heard footsteps behind them. The rest of the men must have finally made their way around the tram car blocking the entrance and followed them behind the tarp. She hoped that they’d been in such a hurry to catch up to her and Stone that they would had left the UV lights on.
Time, now their enemy and not their ally, passed slowly. Each second stretching out into what felt like forever to Jenny. As they passed quickly through the darkness, she tried to keep from choking on the dusty, oxygen-depleted air. The sound of their footsteps pounding upon the saltcrete made enough noise, and she didn’t want to add to it by coughing. Any extra noise would only make it easier for the men to locate them in the cloaking darkness.
Stone guided her through a gentle turn and Jenny saw a faint glow appear ahead of them that had to be the track lighting from the museum. Stone picked up the pace, heading for the light. Jenny broke into a light jog, ignoring her protesting lungs.
Behind them came the distinct sound of three sets of footsteps clattering against the saltcrete floor.
The small tunnel they were in came to an end ten yards from the main tunnel that bisected the entrance to the museum caverns. They raced out of the darkness, heading quickly toward the small space that housed what was left of the second tram.
After the complete darkness, the lights dazzled her, and Jenny blinked hard, her eyes tearing up momentarily. Stone didn’t slow at all, guiding them directly to the UV lights that they’d left behind.
“We’ll have to double back, which will mean we’ll be in the line of fire again. Are you okay to run?”
Deep Down (Sam Stone Book 1) Page 13