Sarah’s heart was broken. “I’m so sorry, Jenny, but there’s nothing we can do about that now.”
“There’s nothing here for me anymore,” Jenny sobbed.
“We’re here for you. Gordy would want you to live.”
Through her sobs, Jenny seemed to understand and wiped her eyes.
With tears in her own eyes, Sarah turned to Mike. “Lead us down the tunnel. We’ll be right behind you.”
Mike had compartmentalized his loss of Gordon. He was on a mission. He pulled open the trap door and grabbed the flashlight. He climbed onto the wooden ladder that led down into the tunnel. “I would have to be in shorts and sandals.”
Mike started down the tunnel followed by Ray. Sarah hugged Jenny for a moment as they wept over losing Gordon. Then Sarah heard noises on the other side of the safe door. “We need to go.”
Sarah gently took Jenny’s arm and led her down the tunnel. Sarah closed the trap door and everything went black.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Thursday, 10:31 P.M. July 3, 2014
Mike turned on the flashlight and revealed a 3-foot-wide, by 4-foot-high, dirt tunnel. Mike led the way. Hunched over, they began walking in single file through the dimly lit narrow tunnel full of cobwebs and bugs. A damp, musty smell was prevalent.
“How far?” Ray asked.
“About two miles,” Mike answered.
Jenny sobbed as she walked, but suddenly she shrieked.
Mike stopped. “What’s wrong?”
“Something’s crawling on me!” Jenny said.
Sarah brushed Jenny’s chest to get the spider off. Jenny began to struggle. She pushed Sarah’s hands away.
“Get off me,” Jenny said.
“Just trying to help.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Okay.” Sarah understood that Jenny needed time.
They continued down the stuffy old tunnel for about 20 minutes until it was only three feet high. Mike went to his knees and started crawling.
“Seriously, now I’ve got to crawl? I’ll ruin my dress... Who cares? My life is ruined anyway,” Jenny moaned.
Ray crawled along and every now and then he’d bump his head on the dirt ceiling. Sections of dirt collapsed and entered his mouth when he breathed. “Is this tunnel safe?” Ray said, spitting out grit.
“Would you rather be back at the house?” Mike asked.
“Just saying,” Ray replied.
Mike kept moving down the long, dark, narrow tunnel. Ray crawled behind him.
“I have a question,” Ray said.
“What’s that?” Mike asked.
“Why couldn’t you stay in the swale by the fence at the Emmitsburg Road and just wait it out?”
“Couldn’t just lay there and watch all those men die,” Mike said somberly.
“So now I’m a cripple and Gordy’s dead.” Then misery set back in, and he was almost in tears.
Mike felt the pain in his voice. “Sorry, Ray.”
“Can we please keep moving? I really would like to get out of this stink hole,” Jenny said.
“Give us a minute,” Mike told her.
“I’m better now,” Ray said.
Mike felt bad for Ray, but knew they had to keep moving.
“What time is it?” Ray asked.
“Damn if I know,” Mike said.
It had already been a good 45 minutes and Mike knew the government men would figure out where they were soon.
***
Back at the house on Hillside Avenue, Victor and his ISS men were searching for the house’s occupants. Their search led them to the basement, where they found the safe-room. As Victor stood outside the safe room, a lieutenant came up to him.
“The rest of the rooms are clear, sir.”
“Who’s the bomb technician on duty today?”
“Chris.”
Victor pushed the button on his radio. “Send Chris in here. We need to blow the door to gain entrance.”
Ten minutes later the explosives engineer came down to the basement with his bag of tricks. Chris was also dressed in BDU, but written on his back in one inch white letters was the warning: You see me run—try to keep up.
“What do you need done, Vic?”
“I need that door gone,” Victor said.
Chris lined the perimeter of the door, including the hinges, with pliable detonating cord.
“Might want to step back,” Chris mentioned nonchalantly.
Victor and his team cleared the room as the explosive engineer plugged the cord with a blasting cap and joined them in the other room. He pushed the red button.
BOOM! The door came off its hinges and fell to the floor. The team went back in and walked over the door and into the safe-room.
They searched the tiny room for clues as to where the fugitives had gone. Victor was checking out the shelf in the corner when he heard one of his men say, “Here.”
“What did you find?” Victor asked.
“A trap door.”
“Where does it lead?”
“Don’t know, sir.”
“Team One - in the tunnel, find them.”
“You want us to go down there?” the lieutenant asked reluctantly.
Victor grabbed the man by the throat. “That was an order. Not a request.”
“Ye-yes, sir.” The man choked out the words. Victor let go of him and the team started down the ladder.
“Let me know where the tunnel terminates, and we’ll meet you at the other end.”
“Yes, sir.”
“The rest of you—out,” Victor ordered.
The rest of the men exited the house to the front lawn. They walked over to the Command Post, followed by Victor. He pulled out his map and examined it. He ran his finger across the page, looking for the tunnel. It wasn’t on the map, but he did note that the city of Atlanta was only about two miles to the south.
“Burn the place to the ground,” he ordered.
“Our men are in there,” one of his lieutenant said.
“If I’m right, they won’t be harmed by the fire. Burn it.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
Victor gave him an uncompromising harsh look. “I said, burn it.”
“Burn it!” The lieutenant nervously yelled to the men.
The men dressed in black ops torched the house and watched it burn in the night sky from the safety of the Alfa side Command Post. Then, Victor merely pushed the button on his radio.
“Supervisor One, requesting the fire department for a fire at 1500 Hillside Avenue.” Victor released the button and a wistful smile went across his face as he watched the house burn. His eyes glazed over with the reflection of red flames reaching high into the dark sky.
CHAPTER NINE
Thursday, 11:15 P.M. July 3, 2014
Crawling along the tunnel’s dirt floor with only a flashlight, Mike heard noises at the house end of the tunnel. They were the muffled voices and the crackling static of radios coming from the government men behind them.
“We need to hurry!” Mike said, as he began to crawl quicker.
“No kidding,” Jenny said.
Finally Mike came to a “Y” in the tunnel and hesitated. “Right or left, Sarah?”
Sarah stopped to think, tried to meditate, but couldn’t. A moment later she said, “Right.”
“Yes, now I remember.”
“Where does the left go?” Ray asked.
“One dead ends about a half-mile... Damn, Ray, you just gave me an idea. Everybody into the right tunnel.”
Once everyone was in the right tunnel, Mike turned to Ray. “Hit that part of the ceiling.”
“Hell, no, the ceiling will cave in.”
“That’s the plan,” Mike said.
“What if we’re in the dead end side?”
“We’re not. I remember now,” Mike said.
“Oh, I feel much better now,” Ray said sarcastically.
Reluctantly, Ray began to hit the ceiling. “I hope you�
��re right.” The ceiling wasn’t falling like he thought. “Need a little help here?”
“Sarah, you and Jenny keep moving,” Mike said. “We’ll catch up.” He joined Ray in the effort to collapse the ceiling. Mike’s fist wasn’t getting the job done, so he used the flashlight. The voices were getting closer when the ceiling finally fell. The flashlight went out and the tunnel went black.
“How much farther?” Ray asked with a tone of aggravation. “My leg is beginning to cramp.”
“I need to get out of here right now!” Jenny yelled.
“We’ll be out soon,” Mike promised.
“My leg is killing me,” Ray said.
“Just keep moving!”
They came to a section that was four feet in height. This allowed them to crouch rather than crawl through the tunnel.
Jenny was struggling. She went from crying to screaming every time something touched her. Sarah was trying her best to keep her calm.
“I’m done. Just leave me here to die,” Jenny said.
“Snap out of it. You’re not going to die,” Sarah scolded.
“My leg,” Ray yelped in pain. “I need to stop.”
Reluctantly, Mike said, “Okay, we’ll rest for a moment.”
They huddled together in the dark on the cold damp dirt floor.
“It smells worse than it did when we started,” Jenny said.
“The end isn’t too much farther,” Mike told her.
Jenny started crying. “I want to go home.”
“I know you do. So do I,” Sarah said in a soothing tone.
The rhythm of Jenny’s crying was broken by the sounds of shovels clanging together. It was the agents digging through the wall of dirt that Mike and Ray managed to collapse.
“We need to go.” Mike was anxious, hearing the wall start to crumble. “You ready, Ray?”
“Ready,” Ray said.
Mike was on the move. The rest followed him, crouched over in the tunnel. Mike’s back hurt with every step. The ceiling got lower and lower. Soon the cramped space forced them to get on their stomachs and crawl once more. Then there was another shout from Jenny.
“What!” Mike said in anger, his patience at an end.
“She’s okay, just a tree root,” Sarah explained.
“I tore my dress,” Jenny tried to explain.
Mike glared in the dark, then crawled on his belly for about 20 minutes. Finally, he saw light up ahead. I feel like a bug – headed for the light.
In their hurry to get out, they got jammed up. Jenny crawled into Sarah who pushed Ray forward over Mike.
“Take it easy,” Mike said.
Everyone’s mood seemed to get a little brighter as they got closer to the light source. Mike turned and looked behind them and saw that there was light behind them also. The government agents were on the move and coming fast.
Aggravated by this seemingly endless pursuit, Mike snarled, “Damn them. We need to hurry.”
They hurried along, eyes probing in the low light for obstacles. Jenny let out a yelp each time she saw a shadow dance along the dirt wall in the low light. Mike finally came to a large opening. Mike controlled his fall of about three feet to the floor. Stiff and sore, he tried to turn and help the others, but Ray and Jenny, who had past Sarah, fell out of the tunnel on top of him. Sarah came out last and eased her way down. Mike helped Jenny up and she pushed him away and started brushing herself off, Ray got up and looked around at the strange surroundings. “Where are we?”
CHAPTER TEN
Thursday, 11:53 P.M. July 3, 2014
“Ray, you just entered the underground of old Atlanta,” Mike explained. “It was closed down in 1930 due to the Depression. It became a ghost town of sorts.”
Jenny started to stretch her legs on the curb of a cobblestone road. Sarah joined her and stretched her legs as well. They both let out a sigh of relief.
“Damn, does that feel much better,” Ray said, feeling the relief in his bad leg as he stretched it out. Ray was standing in the middle of the street. “This is so cool. It’s like a lost world down here.”
“Let’s keep moving,” Mike said.
They heard voices coming from the tunnel.
Mike grabbed Ray by the arm. “Help me cave in the entrance.”
They ran to the tunnel entrance and started kicking the boards that held it up.
Gunfire erupted from inside the tunnel. Bullets were hitting the boards. Ray moved to one side while Mike moved to the other. With a few kicks from Mike, to the wooden structure, the walls and ceiling caved in, temporally sealing off the government men.
“That ought to hold them for a while. Let’s go,” Mike said.
They went down the brick sidewalk where the street sign read: “Peachtree Street.”
As they hurried along Mike explained. “In the 1920s, with the advent of motor vehicles, concrete viaducts were built to elevate the streets to permit a better flow of traffic. All the merchants moved their operations to the second floor. The first floor then became the basement and storage area. The city built a new ground level over the old one, leaving the old street level and first floor storefronts intact, thus giving us the underground of old Atlanta.”
Ray was astonished. “Really?”
They passed storefronts that had been abandoned for years. The old gas lamps had been converted to electricity and were lit, casting a glow along the street and storefronts. They passed a bank, a saloon, and a law office.
“Who keeps the lamps working?” Ray asked.
“My guess, city maintenance,” Mike said. “One of these days they’ll open it to tourist.”
“Where are we going?” Jenny asked.
“There’s an old church up ahead. That’s where the slaves would prepare for their journey to the north.”
“The Underground Railroad?” Ray said.
“That’s correct, Ray. Look at you, a historian.”
Mike led the way down the dimly lit street past Jacob’s Pharmacy & Soda Fountain. He stopped at the front entrance to the church.
“I can’t get over it. This is really cool,” Ray said.
Mike forced opened the door and went inside. It appeared to be a storage area for a general store.
“I thought you said this was a church?” Ray said.
“When the city built the new street level above us, the church was converted to a general store. The first level church facade stayed intact, but inside became the basement and storage area for the store.”
“So above us is the general store?” Ray asked.
“Right again, my friend,” Mike said.
Mike walked past empty shelves to the back of the basement. There, a wooden ladder went to the ceiling.
“Gee, another trap door,” Ray said.
Mike opened the door and climbed into the dark.
“This ought to be interesting,” Ray mumbled.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Thursday, 12:07 A.M. July 3, 2014
Coming up from the basement, Mike entered a large dark room, followed by Ray, Sarah, and Jenny. He felt around and flipped a switch, and the ceiling lights came on. They were standing in a 20 X 24 foot area that was the general store. Some of the merchandise were still on the shelves.
“What now?” Ray asked.
Mike turned. “Any ideas, Sarah?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so.” Sarah walked over to the glass counter by the front entrance where the soda fountain still existed. That was where the checkout was, and the cash register. She pushed the cash key, and the register’s drawer popped open. Then she picked up the cash tray and placed it on the counter. She reached in and pulled out an old book.
It was her mother’s little red book, the Long Lost Friend, that she had placed there shortly after she and Mike acquired the property. Sarah put the tray back in the register and closed the drawer. She sat the book on the counter.
On the cover, in large script, were the words Pow-Wows. Within the pages was a collection of mysterious arts an
d remedies for men as well as animals. Beside the small book was an hourglass.
“I had hoped I would never need to use this again.”
“Use what again?” Jenny asked.
“What was done by witchcraft must be undone by witchcraft,” Sarah uttered.
“Well, that’s refreshing. I don’t know what your medical problem is, but I’ll bet it’s really hard to pronounce,” Jenny said.
“Why do you have to be like that?” Mike said.
“You’re the ones that got us into this. Thanks to you, our own government thinks we’re all conspiracy nuts trying to overthrow the government.”
“We weren’t going to overthrow anything. We just want to know what happened, is all,” Ray said.
“Your quest got Gordy killed,” Jenny said, tearing up. Then she started to cry again.
“If I can reset the timetable,” Sarah said thoughtfully.
Hearing that absurdity, Jenny recovered from her thoughts of Gordon and asked, “I’m intrigued by this unique analysis. And how do you suppose you do that?”
“We’ll go back in time.”
“Perfect,” Jenny said. “I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you. Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental. Okay, I’m going to walk away now.” Jenny pointed to the other side of the room, turned and put distance between them.
Ray became dismayed. “We don’t all have to go back—just you, right?”
“You’re right. It’s my job to fix this,” Sarah said.
“Whoa, wait, what’s wrong with you, Ray? We all go back together,” Mike said.
“Why?” Ray said.
“We all had a part in this, not just Sarah.”
Ray blurted, “But—“
Sarah interrupted. “Ray’s right. In my passion to stop Jake and Earl from destroying our future, I used you. And in my selfishness, I allowed this to happen. I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.”
“By selfishness, you mean loving me? I’m good with that,” Mike said.
“Yes, I don’t ever want to lose you,” Sarah said, her eyes misting.
Mike held her close. “Don’t worry, you won’t.”
Seeing Sarah’s pain, Ray became more considerate. “But you really don’t need me to go. I can stay here and protect Jenny.”
Death Machine Page 4