aisles, creating the effect of a consumerist discotheque.
Men filed past him, and each fire team went down an aisle past rows of antibiotics and various controlled substances that were illegal in the States. His squad was yelling all around him, and there was yelling in Spanish from inside the store.
This was going all wrong. The Navajas knew they were coming. Somehow, the bastards knew, and they were ready for them.
Before he could process the scene before him, his men were being cut down in the store by controlled gunfire. By being corralled into the aisles, the Navajas were able to take them out two at a time.
Peter ran down the aisle behind Apone, and in minutes, Navajas surrounded them on either side of the aisle with carbines. Apparently, they were putting the American weaponry they received to good use.
Peter had to make a snap decision. Fight or surrender?
“Throw your weapons down,” he ordered his men.
Apone looked back at his friend, multi-colored lights reflecting on his face. There was doubt in his expression. But Peter was in command. He placed his M-16 down to the floor slowly and put his hands on his head. The remaining three men followed suit.
One of the Navajas advanced and gestured with the barrel of his carbine for them to kneel. Peter nodded and they complied.
There was yelling in Spanish all around them. Before the situation got too out of hand, Peter figured he’d try to communicate.
“We are United States Army. I am Sergeant…”
The man with the carbine in his face told him to shut up. Peter’s Spanish was not the best, but he understood that much.
Apone looked at him nervously. Privates Wilson, Rodriguez, and Wilcox shifted nervously behind, but they remained silent, awaiting the lead of their sergeant.
The man with the carbine in Peter’s face was speaking rapidly in Spanish to another man, who then gestured for him to stand and come down the aisle.
“Rodriguez, you make anything of that?”
“They want you to go in the back while they watch us. They know we’re US Army.”
The man yelled for Rodriguez to be quiet, and then he gestured aggressively to Peter.
Peter stood slowly, his hands still on his head, sweat trickling down the side of his face, and began to follow the man. When he reached the end of the aisle, the man pointed for him to go into a back room.
Peter didn’t want to go. He was unarmed, and totally at the mercy of these Navajas. He knew what would happen if he went into the back room. Moreover, he knew what was going to happen to his men kneeling in the aisle.
Once again, he was at a decision point. He could try to fight back, but then he would probably lose and his men would surely be executed. Nevertheless, if he complied, they were surely dead…most likely, anyway.
It was a judgment call, and Peter had no time to make it.
Peter turned and began to walk towards the door to the back room. He heard the swish of the man’s clothing and Apone yell his name when he felt a blunt object hit the back of his neck.
He went down hard, his face smashing into the tile floor spilling blood and shards of teeth onto an advertisement for aspirin.
He tasted copper as blood ran over his broken teeth before he blacked out.
***
Peter felt like he was floating in darkness as his head swam. When water splashed into his mouth, he realized that he was literally floating.
He screwed his eyes to clear his vision, and he was apparently in some kind of cave. As he looked forward, he saw the ceiling drop towards the water until the two met in the distance.
Suddenly Peter heard several loud splashes behind him, as if cinder blocks were being dropped into the water. He did not know why, but something inside him very urgently told him to move deeper into the cave, away from the splashes.
He began to wade deeper into the cave, the splashes echoing off the ceiling, and as he did so, his feet left the ground and the ceiling was beginning to drop towards the water.
There was splashing behind him, but not the splashing of things dropping. Concentric ripples made their way towards him and splashed gently against his neck. Someone was in the water with him, and they were now wading towards him.
He swam farther and farther in. He could now see the guano on the ceiling and stalactites. The water was very cold from lack