The B Girls - By Cari Cole Page 0,73

onto her back and wheezed. "This time I know I'm dead."

"Not funny," Mae said. "I thought we lost you."

"I thought so too," Lucy said and let out a shuddering sob.

The water in this wider section of the tunnel was only a few inches deep and didn't appear to be rising.

"Let's get out of this tunnel before this one starts filling up too," Mae said.

"Untruss me," Jane said. "My arm's numb from the cold I can walk the rest."

They shuffle-walked through the last stretch of tunnel and back into the room at the bottom of their first rappel and scrambled back around and over the boulder obstacles. Jane hit a couple of rough patches but kept saying she didn't feel a thing.

They reached the rope dangling from the opening in the ceiling and collapsed, giving themselves five minutes to cry and breathe, get oxygen back to all their vital parts and bleed off some of the horror at what they'd just been through.

"I've never been so scared in my entire life as when I saw that water start to run out of that crack," Mae said.

"You should've tried being in there with the water," Jane said. She looked awfully pale but seemed to be stable and alert. Mae helped her get a little more comfortable and put a pack behind her to prop her up. "Lucy saved my life."

Lucy shook her head. "Don't get all dramatic about it. Mae's the one who saved both our asses."

"We did it together. All three of us," Mae said.

"I had a premonition I was going to die in that crack," Lucy said. "Sometimes it feels great to be wrong." She looked around. "Where's the water going?"

They all looked around.

"It's running over into that other corner," Mae said, pointing across the crazy space. "There must be another outlet over there somewhere that we missed on the way in."

"As long as this room doesn't turn into a lake," Lucy said.

"It doesn't seem to be backing up," Mae said.

"Let's not do this again," Jane said.

"Let's finish this," Lucy said. "Where's your pack?"

"Here," Mae said. "Still attached to the rope"

Lucy pulled the pack to her and looked inside. "The jar's still here and in one piece. Now we need to get Belle back."

"And woe be unto the asshole who took her if he's hurt her," Mae said.

"Amen," Jane said. "It wouldn't pay to fuck with three recently tattooed women who just won a face-off with the grim reaper."

"If you're feeling up to it, I think you should go for the cavalry," Mae said to Lucy. "No doubt you'd like to get above ground."

"I would walk barefoot across a bed of broken glass to get the hell out of here."

"I'm not sure, but I think you were only drowned for a minute or so," Jane said. "I guess I win the breath holding contest."

"And I win the intact limb contest." Lucy opened her pack. "I'm leaving the jar and as much of the rest of this as I can. I don't think I'm going to need anything except water and light."

"You definitely need your whistle," Mae said.

"Fine, I'll take the damn whistle."

"Make sure to tell them to bring the good drugs," Jane said.

"Good drugs it is." Lucy rigged her ascenders to the rope and started back up to the daylight.

I'll Take That

Lucy took the final step up and draped her upper body over the edge of the hole. She'd made it! Daylight, albeit rainy daylight was just a minute away. If she had more energy she'd do the dance of joy as soon as she unclipped from the rope.

As it was she'd settle for having enough energy to make it back to the van.

"Just stay right there."

Lucy screamed in girly alarm at the male voice. "Who . . ." She tried to put a face to the voice. Was it the ranger?

"It doesn't matter. I want the Declaration. If you want to see daylight again, you'll stay right there until we figure out how I'm going to get it."

Definitely not the ranger. Perry Thiel? The voice didn't sound right.

"You have got to be kidding," she said. Honest to God she hadn't wondered what else could go wrong. She hadn't tempted fate that brazenly.

She shifted her weight to take the pressure off her diaphragm and tried to get a look at him.

He was a large silhouette near the tunnel entrance, backlit by cloudy sunlight. He had a very big, very bright flashlight pointed in her direction. She couldn't see past it