I.N.E.T 5

by Brenda Cothern

  “In here!” Burke screamed before Randy secured the last lock on the shelving door to the tunnel.

  Randy turned toward her. Lita held the lantern down by his side with one hand and Burke by the throat in his other. Lita had her pressed against the wall and even in the minimal light; Randy could see his partner held her high enough off the floor that she barely stood on her tiptoes. He stepped closer and dropped his pack to the ground. They didn’t have time for this shit, so he quickly dug through his pack. Randy held a roll of industrial-strength duct tape in his hand. The sound of him ripping a long piece from the roll was loud in the tight space.

  Lita shot a quick glance toward Randy while he choked the shit out of Burke. He squeezed his large hand around her petite neck and ignored her sputtering attempts to breathe. He knew just how much pressure he could apply before she passed out. It was more than tempting to strangle the bitch to that point, but he had no desire to carry her ass.

  He smiled wide when he saw that Randy had ripped a piece of duct tape that was way longer than what they needed to just cover her mouth. Lita could only approve of Randy’s intention to wrap the long piece of tape over her mouth and around her head because anyone who was anyone knew that duct tape covering their mouth could easily be loosened enough by using their tongue and spit to create a gap large enough to scream.

  So, Lita held her in place while Randy secured the end of the duct tape by Burke’s ear then across her mouth before wrapping the rest behind her head. Randy wasn’t gentle when he pressed the other end on her cheek where it overlapped.

  Randy could see Lita’s approving grin even though the only light in the tunnel came from the lantern by his partner’s side. The urge to kiss the man’s grin off his face was so strong that Randy barely resisted. Instead, he picked up his pack and nodded at the lantern Lita held.

  “I’ll take lead.”

  Lita didn’t immediately release his chokehold on Burke. She panted what little breath he allowed her through her nose. He pressed close to her so Randy could squeeze past him and raised the lantern for his partner to take. Once Randy took the only light that would guide them, Lita stepped away from Burke and finally released her neck.

  “Lead the way,” Lita said casually as if he found himself traversing prepper underground tunnels all the time.

  He waved a hand out toward the dark tunnel beyond Randy and grinned when his partner shook his head and only chuckled by way of reply.

  ##~~##

  Chapter Fifteen

  Being in the tunnels his father built was the last place Randy ever expected to find himself again. The tunnels weren’t anything like those constructed by miners. They were only wide enough to walk single file and the ceiling was low. Randy didn’t need to look back at Lita to know his partner had to stoop or else hit his head.

  There were diagonal braces holding up the roof roughly every fifty feet. They had to turn sideways to pass through or risk hitting their shoulders. Like everything else his father did, the braces were designed purposely. Anyone who blindly followed them quickly would be knocked on their ass when their shoulders connected with the braces. They had just passed the second brace and come to a fork in the tunnel when several more bursts of automatic fire echoed behind them.

  “We need to move.” Randy turned left and picked up his pace. He trusted Lita to keep up with him as he started to jog.

  Lita shoved Burke ahead of him to follow Randy before he glanced over his shoulder. The tunnel behind them was pitch black. He was grateful he wasn’t claustrophobic because if the low ceiling wouldn’t have brought on a panic attack, the darkness which was only broken up by the pale light from the lantern surely would have. He refocused on that minimal light bobbing ahead of them.

  Lita had no sense of direction, but trusted Randy to know where the hell they were going when they came to another intersection in the tunnel. They had just turned left again when angry Spanish voices echoed behind them. Lita turned, but didn’t see any light breaking up the darkness behind them. They were barely past the first braces in the new branch of the tunnel when Randy stopped and turned.

  “Stand here and don’t move,” Randy ordered and moved the light to the side enough to reveal a small alcove.

  Once Lita pushed Burke into the tiny space and blocked her in enough for Randy to pass, Randy handed his partner his pack.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  Randy adjusted the shutter on the lantern almost to the point no light came out at all. He didn’t want to risk light shining in the dark tunnel and giving away their location to Juanita’s men. Still, he hoped it would be enough to find what he sought back at the last intersection.

  He lifted the lantern toward the wall on his side of the brace until he spotted the small metal hook. Randy hung the lantern and followed the small beam of light to the other side of the tunnel. Quickly, he ran his fingers along the wall. It only took him a moment to find the dugout pocket of earth and pull down a small metal box. Randy retrieved the lantern and placed it on the floor of the tunnel before he squatted down with the box.

  Never in a million years did Randy ever believe he would need to utilize one of his father’s booby-trap boxes. That didn’t mean he’d forgotten what his crazy father taught him, though. Randy struggled for a few seconds getting the rusty latches on the box open before he pulled out the contents.

  He fisted a handful of caltrops and threw them back down the tunnel. Randy didn’t put too much strength into his throw, but just enough for them to land five to ten feet away. Next, he ran a thin wire between the foot of the braces. The heavy test fishing line was practically invisible a few inches off the floor the tunnel. On each end, he secured two hand grenades.

  His father was paranoid, but it was that paranoia that almost made him a tactical genius when it came to protecting his family from threats. The minute the cartel fuckers stepped on the caltrops and tripped, they would either stumble forward or fall. Either outcome would effectively disturb the fishing line enough to pull the grenade pins.

  “Bye, bye, assholes,” Randy whispered as he stood with the lantern in hand. He felt no remorse for those chasing them or for collapsing one of his father’s tunnels.

  Lita stood in the pitch dark and kept a hand on Burke’s shoulder. There wasn’t a chance he’d know where she was otherwise. Once Randy disappeared with their sole source of light back the way they came, Lita was practically blind. He didn’t want to think about their chances of finding their way out of the tunnel if Randy didn’t return. He needn’t worry, though, because roughly ten minutes later the low light of the lantern was bouncing back in their direction.

  Lita traded Randy his bag for the lantern and handed the light back once his partner had re-shouldered his rucksack.

  “Do I even want to know?” Lita grinned and watched Randy shrug.

  “As much as I’d like to say it would solve our cartel issue, it likely won’t. If we are lucky, it will even the odds some, though.”

  Lita just raised a questioning brow. It looked like Randy was about to elaborate, but the sound of voices cursing in Spanish grew louder. Lita looked back down the tunnel and saw dim light shine on the wall of the intersection.

  “Time to go.” Randy passed by Lita and didn’t wait for him to pull Burke out of the alcove to follow him.

  They came to another intersection and Randy hadn’t even turned the corner before gunfire erupted behind them. Lita pushed Burke forward and felt the sting of a bullet tear through his thigh.

  “Motherfucker!” Lita cursed and shoved Burke again toward Randy so he could gain the cover of the new tunnel.

  “You hit?” Randy asked as he pulled Burke behind him.

  Lita was fucking hit. Again. The shot was another graze, but he was getting beyond tired of being shot because of the bitch they were protecting. He could feel blood soaking into his jeans and every step he took shot pain down his leg. That didn’t stop him from turning around and returning fire down the tunnel, though.<
br />
  “Just a graze,” Lita informed.

  “Just a graze,” Randy echoed and Lita had no problem detecting the snark in his partner’s tone.

  “Get her out of here,” Lita ordered and fired a few more shots toward the assholes who’d shot him.

  “Let’s go,” Randy said and before Lita could reply, informed him, “they won’t be able to follow.”

  Lita didn’t even have a chance to reply before an explosion lit up the tunnel for a millisecond. Dust and dirt falling from the ceiling surrounded them and Lita wasn’t even aware he’d crouched and covered his head until Randy spoke again.

  “See? Told you.”

  “Jesus Christ!” Lita stood and Randy’s chuckle filled the air around him.

  “That’ll give us some time.” Randy turned back around. “You good to go?”

  Lita heard the sudden tinge of concern in Randy’s question. “Yeah. Let’s get the hell outta here.”

  Lita didn’t know why, but he couldn’t believe Randy had blown up the damn tunnel behind them. If he hadn’t thought preppers were bat shit crazy before, he sure as hell did now. Who the hell built escape tunnels with booby-traps? The Vietcong and apparently Randy’s father. That’s who.

  Randy led them further down the tunnel and tried not to think about Lita getting shot again. The last time the man claimed a shot was just a graze he’d been missing a chunk out of his arm. Randy couldn’t help but wonder whether his partner was now missing more flesh or if Lita really understood the definition of a graze. He could only hope the stubborn man would say something if his ‘graze’ turned into something worse.

  Randy stopped at another intersection and Lita expected him to take them down another tunnel. Instead, after Randy turned left, he stopped before there was enough room for him and Burke to follow. Lita could see over Burke’s head without a problem, so he could easily see the wooden ladder illuminated in the low light from the lantern. He looked skeptically at the wooden rungs secured into the earth with heavy duty bolts. They looked old and Lita couldn’t help but suspect they were more than likely dry rotted than not.

  “We are going up here,” Randy informed them.

  It wasn’t until Randy angled the lantern up that Lita could see the earth of the tunnel surrounding them turned to stone closer to the surface. He wouldn’t have seen that much had Randy not opened the shutter of the lantern. Lita couldn’t see more than the stone from his current angle, but didn’t hesitate to voice his thought.

  “There is over two feet of snow up there.”

  “Oh, ye of little faith,” Randy replied. He had to make this whole clusterfuck of needing his father’s preparations for the end of the world humorous or he might lose his fucking mind. “Hold this.”

  Randy passed the lantern back over Burke’s head for Lita to take. His partner angled the light and there was enough for him to see in order to climb the ladder. This particular escape hatch let out fifteen feet above them into a hunting shack. Randy hadn’t visited any of the exit locations of his father’s tunnels since he was a child. He could only hope the shack still stood. They wouldn’t be trapped if it didn’t, but Randy really wanted to leave these tunnels behind them. They wouldn’t have cell service at the shack, but they would be closer to getting service than if they had to take the other tunnel and exit somewhere else.

  Randy took his time and tested his weight on each wooden rung before fully trusting it to hold him. All of them held. He ran his fingers around the space above his head until he felt a seam. Randy traced the seam until he came to the metal latch. He slid the bolt and pushed. The damn trapdoor didn’t bulge.

  Randy refused to believe the shack had collapsed due to lack of maintenance since his father’s death. So, he bent his knees, ducked his head, and shoved up with his shoulders. The hatch moved. Randy repeated the motion. On the third hit, the hatch burst open. Mentally, he breathed a sigh of relief before he hauled himself up. The hunting shack was small. It was barely 12 x 12 and Randy only spared a cursory glance around the space before he leaned back over the trapdoor.

  “C’mon.”

  Lita couldn’t clearly see Randy at the top of ladder, but he did hear the solid thumps of the man’s body connecting with something. That something finally gave because dim light replaced the patch of blackness where Randy had once stood. There wasn’t enough light to shine down the ladder, but compared to the pitch black only illuminated by the lantern it was as if the sun shone down upon them.

  Burke was still cuffed, but Lita had restrained her hands in front of her before they left the alcove so he wasn’t worried about her climbing the wooden rungs. That didn’t stop him from crowding her close to the ladder and bending low enough to growl in her ear.

  “You even think about kicking me, I’ll break your fucking leg and carry your ass to D.C.”

  Burke didn’t reply. She didn’t try anything, either, when she started to climb and Lita pushed her up. He knew the moment Randy grabbed her since any resistance caused by gravity suddenly disappeared. He crawled through the tight as hell space that was the trapdoor. There wasn’t much room in the run-down wooden building he now found them in. Burke was pushed into a corner. Randy’s bag was in an opposite corner and had Lita not pushed his through ahead of him he never would have been able to exit the tunnel system.

  Randy closed the trapdoor once Lita cleared the opening. They were a few miles from the dam, but would have cell service before they reached there. He could only hope they could hold out against the cartel long enough for backup to reach them. Right now, though, they needed to get within cell range. They weren’t far enough from the house for Randy to feel comfortable, but there wasn’t shit he could do about that. Regardless of what tunnel he took them through to get away from the house, they all exited to the surface within a half-mile of the house.

  “We’re not far from the house, but we should have cell service within a mile, mile and half at most from here.” Lita nodded, but Randy was too busy looking his partner over for injury to notice.

  “Let’s get to it then,” Lita replied and accepted his pack back from Randy. There was no way to hide his wince of pain when he turned.

  “Jesus Christ!” Randy cursed when his eyes finally landed on where his partner had been shot in the leg. There was way more blood surrounding the material the bullet tore through to warrant the wound being labeled as a graze.

  “I’m good,” Lita assured. “Let’s go.”

  Randy cursed under his breath again when he didn’t see any sign of an exit wound in the material of his partner’s leg when Lita moved toward the rickety door of the hunting shack. He was going to have a serious conversation with the man about their differing opinions on the definition of a ‘graze’ because the shot Lita took to the leg sure as hell wasn’t a graze. The one on his arm really hadn’t been, either.

  “Don’t,” Lita said when it was clear Randy was going to comment on his bullet wound. “Let’s go make that call.”

  Lita open the shack door a crack and looked outside. Everything was covered in deep snow, but he wasn’t surprised. It’d stopped snowing, though, and he wasn’t sure that was a good thing. Snowfall provided them some cover. Not much, but some. Not that whether it was snowing at the moment really meant a damn thing or not. He scanned the area he could see. They were surrounded by trees and the snow didn’t look nearly as deep as what was surrounding the open area around the house.

  At least we have something going for us, Lita thought.

  “Mumm mhm.” Burke attempted to talk behind the duct tape that covered her mouth. “Mhurm mumm mru.”

  “Whatever,” Lita replied to her and drew his weapon from the pocket of his jacket where he had stowed it so he could climb up the ladder. “Lead the way and let’s go.”

  Randy took the lead and led them out of the hunting shack. The snow was about a foot deep. A pain in the ass to move through, but not nearly as impossible as what surrounded the SUV earlier. It took him longer than he would’ve
liked to orient himself in order to determine which direction they needed to go. Once he did, he didn’t waste any time. They traveled in the direction of the dam for almost twenty minutes before the silence surrounding them was broken with the low mummer of snowmobile engines.

  “Fuck,” Randy cursed quietly when he heard the snowmobiles.

  Burke must have taken the sound as some sort of salvation because she attempted to run. As if she could get very far while she was being marched between them. Randy heard her move a second before he felt her clenched fists land against his rucksack. She shoved and may have actually been able to do some sort of damage by landing a blow between his shoulder blades had he not been wearing the pack. Instead, she barely made him stumble and by the time he turned to look at her, Lita had his thick muscular arm around her neck. Randy watched her elbow his partner in his leg where he’d been shot.

  Lita grimaced in pain, but didn’t loosen his hold when Burke slammed her elbow into his thigh. He felt a spurt of warmth flow from his wound, but didn’t let her go. No. Instead, he tightened his chokehold around her neck and resisted the urge to snap it. This bitch wasn’t nearly worth the trouble she was causing them, especially since it was clear she had been turned. Lita met Randy’s gaze and was sure the concerned look his partner leveled on him was more for his well-being than Burke’s.

  The sounds of the snowmobile engines becoming louder was just one more incentive for Lita to choke the ever living fuck out of Burke. Randy’s steady hazel eyes boring into him were the only reason he didn’t snap his arm behind the one wrapped around her neck. Just a tad more pressure…

  Randy read Lita’s desire to be over this shit by snapping Burke’s neck. He really couldn’t blame his INET partner. The man had been shot twice, after all, but even if Randy believed Lita had no qualms about killing Burke, he was still sure the man wouldn’t actually do it. Well, he wanted to be sure. So, distracting his partner from doing just that was probably Randy’s best option if he wanted to ensure they got Burke to D.C.