of three trucks heads back our direction, surrounded by a swirling mass of disturbed dust. Carlos and the boy in the lead vehicle, teeth exposed in an unfriendly expression, the binoculars in my hand, and now I’m suddenly hoping I’ve packed enough tea.
“They're back, come now!! Into the cave,” says Graham, Stan tosses him the spare gun from Emilio, fully loaded and checked of course, and Graham stuffs it into his waistband like it’s nothing unusual to handle a weapon. I shudder, because this can only mean one thing, back down there… Stan takes up the rear and shuts the kitchen door firmly behind us, the dim light fails to make connections with the mirrors to light the space “they don't know about this entrance I hope?” He asks.
“Where did they think we'd come from when we appeared just now, the garden?” I ask. Bloody hell, I’m glad evil is also stupid, in this case.
“They didn’t ask, I didn’t say,” James answers, “we used to play together as kids round here, me and Carlos's son Bobby.” He's wafting Pete along gently with a firm hand on her back, “trying to find the legendary mine, we never did of course.” Said James, herding Pete into the basement, she'd be happier having a bikini wax, but we can't always have what we want can we?
“Shush,” hisses Stan, “they're in the house already.” Bloody hell again.
Quietly but quickly we make our way down the steps, once more my legs are still recovering from the climb up and feel a little weak. Above us we can hear angry voices, furniture crashing about and a couple of shots fired. “They’re pissed off.” I whisper to Daniel. He nods at me looking strangely amused, what am I whispering for? They're making a racket up there.
“Just keep moving, they might be able to guess where we went.” Stan caches us up a little out of breath, and answering an unspoken question for all of us. He says “I was locking the metal bulkhead door.” Naturally. “There's a slider on our side, like it was built to keep intruders out, I was just making sure it would.” Stan gathers his momentum and we travel down together.
“Clank!!!” We all hear it, metal on metal loud bash from above, “they found the door and they're trying to get through it.” Says Barbara, “it's a sturdy door, salvaged from the submarine 'Enterprise', it should keep them occupied for a while.” She seems amused by the story, expect it’s her way of coping, also she spins her lose diamond rings around her fingers in agitation. Down, down we go, our torches still glowing strongly but were not sightseeing this time, we journey down with a purpose, to save ourselves. Gripping tightly to the stiff rope handrail where we can, it too is slippery from the damp and dripping water.
“Tharie?” Daniel grabs my arm and looks at me, “you OK?” His voice is tender and sincere.
“Too much to process to be scared Daniel, far too much noise.” I jab my head with my finger wincing, Daniel kisses me softly on the lips, we're holding up the entire line since we're in front, but he either doesn’t notice or he doesn’t care. I instantly feel better, refreshed even like I’ve been given quick release energy, because his lips pure unrefined sugar in that single moment.
I am quiet, and taking his hand gratefully I lead him down, “come on, not far now.” I say.
And patting the flask sitting on the top of my bag, I continue on.
Bloody hell, did I say that already?
Chapter thirty-six, Tuesday:5thnovember2013 the journey
Unnoticed the first time, a rivulet of dripping water runs close to the side of the cavern we stand in, and disappears through the rock where it's cracked in the far corner. It’s like a white noise and the theme tune to this section of our journey. It gets in my head, it has a tone and rhythm, my headache is building. I am gripping Daniels arm quite hard, I ask to stop for a drink, we rest a while and I sip noisily from my flask, trying to stem the source of the pain that’s building there.
“Headache babes?” Pete strokes my hair, it helps, I’m selfishly glad she’s here, of course I’d rather we were all at home sipping tea and safe from rampaging hoards of thugs, but you can't always have it your own way, can you? Above and behind us we hear faint and muffled noises,