Page 46 of Trapped

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Loosening this thing. It’s big, and not much is holding it in place.”

She moved to his side and started helping him.

“Get back.”

Ignoring him, she kept digging.

They worked frantically, as one of the guards inched toward them.

Finally, the boulder shifted. “Get back. Now! It’s going to go.”

This time she followed orders, making it to the other side of the unstable area as Cash pushed at the chunk of rock.

For long seconds nothing happened. Then it tumbled down the slope, loosening the whole pile of rocks again. For a horrible moment, the ground shifted under Cash’s feet, and he thought he was going over the edge. Sophia screamed and grabbed for his hand. Their fingers brushed, but he couldn’t grab on. She lunged closer, her hand closing over his, pulling him off the unstable surface. He teetered on solid ground, and she pulled him the rest of the way.

He swore. “You could have gotten killed.”

“I couldn’t leave you there.”

The exchange was interrupted by a scream as the man who had come after them lost his footing and was carried over the edge by the rock fall.

She watched him, feeling sick. Another death.

But Cash didn’t give her time to worry about the carnage.

“The whole mess is shifting again. Run,” he shouted, and she ran down the trail as rocks rumbled after them. This time the slide sounded bigger than before.

They kept moving down the tunnel at a fast pace, and she knew Cash’s leg must be aching with the strain.

“You need to stop.”

“We need to get out of here before they figure out some way to get across.

He was right. But she heard the pain in his voice as he answered her.

Finally, she could see light ahead of them and knew they were almost home free.

“Thank God.”

But her thanks were short-lived. When she had come this way a few days ago, she and Phil had forded an underground stream.

Now it was much deeper and moving faster.

“You have a boat stashed somewhere?” Cash asked.

“Last time we waded across.”

He looked at the swiftly flowing water which was about ten feet wide. Too far to jump across. “We can’t wade now.”

“But we have to get to the other side.”

“Yeah. Let’s see what’s in your pack.”

When she took it off, he rummaged inside and found some supplies. First, he pulled out a waterproof bag. It was small, so he sealed the gun and the magazines inside and tucked them into his waistband before pulling out a length of rope.

After scanning the other side, he cursed under his breath.

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