“Daniels, Lance, Moore, Peterson your with Walker. Taylor and Chou your with Craig. Cooper your running as a go between, stay close to monitor the men.” Handing the medic one of the four extra maps along with Walker’s bag, she had made sure that both teams had one of the repellant soaked men as a carrier, with the majority of people around Walker, who was liberally dosed. Cooper had Walker’s bag that had held the repellant, which looked to have leaked after the fall, which would protect her going between the two groups, they would hopefully be alright. The smell combined with the blankets might trick the Lamia enough to get by her unmolested.
“The boys will walk between... Iseul” she motioned toward the injured teen, “will set the pace. Be alert, and remember slower is better.”
“Miss Waters, how did you get here?”
“Did you come in behind us? Through the front entrance?” The questions came from each side of her. Pausing in her description of the path they would take back through the caves, she looked up. Having forgotten to tell them about the survivors or their trip through the back caves.
“No...” she shared another look at Chase, then continued to copy the altered cave map onto a the other three sets of waterproof paper, making sure to define the trail markers and compass readings for better navigation.
“A guide and I made our way through a back entrance.” They seemed to both perk up and deflate as they realized that the path would lead them straight into the Lamia’s nesting ground. Expectant faces turned toward her, waiting to hear how she had made it to them. Jin smiled at her with pride, knowing her ‘guide’ was his little brother.
“We found survivors, the children and a few of the recent abductees. They were relatively unharmed, weak but able to travel. The guide lead them back through the tunnels where they should be...” She looked at her watch. “Almost back to the base camp by now.”
There was a bit of a commotions from Daniels and a few others who seemed to think the back entrance was both a way to freedom and an easy access route for the Lamia. Guilt raised its ugly head as she looked at the men, she had made her decision to blow the cave behind the group, and she would do it again. That still didn’t make it any easier telling these men that she had decided the children's lives were more important at the time. Cooper seemed to understand, while Daniels accused her of a number of unsavory things, but his was an audience of one, having lost the men when they realized the folly of yet another one of his plans.
Continuing to fill them in on how they had freed the two young men from the storage cave the Lamia had created, she realized that their numbers were down again. She asked about the two men that had escaped from the Lamia from the children's cave, who had run from her during their rescue. Chase had said his survey group had bumped into them which had prompted him to head out alone. Leaving them to return to the hideout cave in the care of Roberts and Moore, the two were not among the others. Roberts and Moore’s expression fell as they recounted the two men, wild with fright and the Lamia’s toxins had broken away from them to continue their run down through the tunnels. Both had quickly been lost, and they had spent a good forty-five minutes trying to find them. Whether they had encountered the Lamia or some other fate none of them could say.
Continuing her explanation of the plans, and their subsequent escape route. Persephonii nodded in understanding, the men might still be found, but might well have been casualties before they’d fled. She had seen up close the effects the Lamia’s magic and toxin’s had on people. Reaching into the larger of two pockets she pulled out the remaining amulets, holding them in the air and asked again if anyone wanted one. They all agreed and slipped the leather cords over their heads tucking it into their gear.
“We are not going back that way,” she paused, making sure to include them all as a group.
“We will skirt the main caverns, along with the Nesting area and make our way further into the frontal cave system. Heading towards the temple caves where the walls of the caves have been carved out.” She used the small map to point at the area of the temple caves.
“A small explosion will make an opening in the thinner rock, where we will travel back toward the main entrance, bypassing the cave-ins and out through the front entrance.” She looked sadly at the two men whose bodies had been moved further back into the cave.
“We will have to come back for the others,” she said in a quiet but firm voice. By this time Roberts had noticed that he had not been mentioned in any of the plans and spoke up. Daniels added in the fact that Argent and her were not mentioned either. Especially given the fact that she was copying down the maps and giving them directions.
At this Chase spoke up, “We will be the distractions.” He looked Specialist Roberts directly in the eyes.
“But we will need your expertise.” Roberts moved forward a wary look on his face. Persephonii pulled out a stick of dynamite from the pack and threw it at Roberts.
“How are you with old school explosives?” she asked. Unsure if he’d take the assignment or ask to go with the teams, Chase and Percy waited, not willing to force the decision. His smile was all the answer they needed.
Quickly the men prepped, moving Walker and securing him to the stretcher, Craig was now awake and relatively lucid after Persephonii had poured an emergency concoction down his throat. He’d need to be a look out, watching the backs of his two man transport team, along with the boys who would be the eyes and ears of the convoy.
While the teams prepared to move, Peterson, Daniels, Moore and Chou taking the majority of the injured’s weight, while Taylor and Lance supported, Percy and Chase talked with Roberts about their plan to lure then trap the Lamia in the Nesting Cave. Persephonii used her last sheet of paper to draw an outline of the cave, which she did a pretty good job of, if you asked her. Roberts had questions, especially about the explosive supplies and dragon fire cartridges she had brought with her.
The dragon fire cartridges worked like a cigarette lighter with the power of a flame thrower. You held down the button, threw back the cap and the compressed fire shot out of the opening. Usually it was used in controlled bursts, one cartridge was three or four bouts of between one to three minutes of flame at a time, as the area tended to get hot for the user as well. Or one good long stream of fire for about five to seven minutes. The cartridges could be used inside an assortment of weaponry, from guns to automatic cross bows, enhancing their assault capabilities. She had two cartridges which if left uncapped could ignite when placed close to the explosions. They would multiply the over-all power of the dynamite, turning anything in the area to ash.
Roberts seemed rather impressed but wary about coming so close to the creature that had devastated their mission. While Percy assured him that they knew quite a bit more about the behavior of the creature. The amulets would protect them from being ensnared and with the addition of Percy’s powder and taser they had a wider selection of weapons if forced into combat. Though they all agreed that caution was the better part of valor. Quite frankly at the moment the creature was for all intents a purposes contained, but so were they. Percy assured Roberts that the mission was a simple bait and trap, with a rather spectacular finish and wanted no heroics on any of their parts. She was looking rather intently at Chase when she said this, which just made him smile sweetly back.
Percy lead the three teams back toward the main entrance, showing them the cave markings and making sure they had a good lay of the land. Coming so close to the Nesting cave, she was sure they would draw the Lamia’s attention, so they quickly separated, with Craig, offering to buy her a drink in the village after they met up again. She laughingly agreed, hugging the boys who, for a moment held tightly to her. She gave Jin her smaller emergency glow-stone and the group headed deeper into the caves, their glow sticks fading in the distance.
Catch the rest of Persephonii and Chase's case in Tunnel Vision out late 2015.
Author Bio:
Melanie Brown was born in the Central Valley of California, w
here she learned about the horses, cows. It was also where she grew to love books and the written word.
She holds a bachelors degree in Art Studio, concentration in electronic art and a masters degree in Human Resource Management. Currently, she is working on the Persephonii Waters and Seven Sisters Series. Twin sister to Amelia M. Brown, an author in her own right, the two constantly share stories and ideas, helping each other through the writing process as much as life.
* * *
[1] United States Army Criminal Investigation)
[2] Search And Rescue
[3] Battlefield Trauma and Life-Saving
[4] name means Dew in Korean
[5] Light Detection and Ranging: An aerial imaging technique that bounced a laser to topographically map an areas geography
At First Sight (Persephonii Waters Book 1) Page 36