Chapter 2
"Duke?"
As consciousness returned, various parts of his body checked-in to report their status: pain. The rank of musty water and hard rock floor joined the agony. His tongue was dry and stale. A faint, flickering light brought the world into focus. Frigid air surrounded him and stung his eyes.
"We're deeper underground," Bonnie said, her voice soft and guarded. "Thought you were dead for a few moments there."
He tried to sit upright and found intense pain in his arm, which was in a sling.
"Ain't you a doctor?" he asked, wondering why she couldn't patch him up any better.
She looked at him with that same look everyone else gave him - like they were smarter and more important. "I'm not a medical doctor, Sergeant. My degree is in-"
Waving her off, he said, "Bored already. Kay, yer not a real doctor. Got it."
She huffed and tended to their meager alien punch-card fire.
"Where the hell are we?"
"As I said, we are deeper underground. Nothing but cold and dark down here."
Duke frowned. "Not sure I recall a cave system from the briefing." His brain felt like it was swooshing in his skull. The fall in the shaft must have been violent. And long.
Bonnie's face lit up. "Isn't it exciting!" she said. "If the Martians know about Atlantis-"
"Hold on a sec, Blondie."
"Don't call me that, Sergeant."
"Right," he said, gathering his non-existent patience and shivering from the penetrating cold. "Our first order of business is to git the hell outta here. And to do that, we need to know where here is."
"I think I heard water from that direction," Bonnie said, pointing into the darkness.
"A'ight," he said, joints groaning and cuts screaming as he stood. "I'm good to go."
She inspected him and passed the rifle to his waiting hand. "You sure?"
Nodding, he said, "Beats waiting here for greenies or hypothermia."
She packed their remaining gear and slung her sack over her shoulder. Flicking her flashlight on, Duke caught her arm.
"Ya did good, Doc," he said. "Thanks for stayin' with me. And for knowing not to waste the batteries on that light."
"My dad was a cave diver," she said with a hint of sorrow in her voice. "Taught me a few tricks to survive the environment."
As they walked along the uneven cave floor, Duke realized that perhaps there was more to this stuffy scholar than he first assumed. She had grit, and he reckoned they'd need some of it to survive the mission - which had gone sideways.
Hell, they always go sideways, he thought.
Bonnie ran her hand along the wall and inspected the rock with her flashlight.
"The cave speakin' to ya?"
After a pause, she said, "I think we're going up."
"Good."
Duke limped forward and ignored the most recent protest from his aching knees. They found the source of water as their tunnel opened into a larger, flooded one. Water formed a river along the new tunnel below them.
"Don't wanna go down," Duke said. "Wrong direction. Colder."
Bonnie shone her flashlight on the dark surface of the water. "It has a current," she said. "A weak one, but it's there."
He turned to her, expecting more of an explanation.
"Well, the water's gotta go somewhere!" she said.
They climbed the short slope to the water's edge and the flashlight told them that the water was only about five feet deep.
Bonnie wrapped her hair in a bun and said, "We follow the current and keep moving once we start. This island is only so large and this has to empty somewhere."
Watching her, Duke asked, "And you've done this many times with yer daddy, right?"
"No, not really," she said. "We had a boat the one time I did this. Water's too cold down in subterranean caves."
"Yer not givin' me the warm 'n fuzzies, Blon... Doctor."
Duke pulled his pistol from his belt holster and wrapped it in plastic before stuffing it in his backpack. He wished he had more plastic for his cigars and rations.
Grinning, she said, "Archaeology is a bitch, sometimes. Get in the water, soldier-boy."
As he waded into the freezing water, he said, "If I can't call you Blondie, you can't-"
"I get it," she said through chattering teeth. Duke wanted to catch a glimpse of her wet chest but focused on not dying instead.
They pumped their legs through the icy river with pitch blackness surrounding them. The complete absence of light from around the corner or nearby sources was jarring. Duke hadn't been in such an environment and was ready to be rid of it. His feet were already growing numb and wasn't sure this was such a good idea. A Soviet he met at headquarters told him of how a person could freeze to death in mere seconds in the frosty lakes of Siberia.
"You sure we won't just die?" he asked, hoping for some scholarly reassurance from the doctor.
"Keep moving."
Not very reassuring.
The stalactites watched them round a bend and the current suddenly quickened. Bonnie squealed and was pulled under. Her flashlight splashed into the water and sent prisms dancing around the cave walls.
"Damn!" Duke said.
Realizing his rifle was doomed, he lifted his feet and broke into a freestyle swim towards his partner. The current banged him against some unforgiving rocks but he swam onwards in darkness until the cave slowly emerged from the total blackness.
Somewhere ahead, there was light.
Without the flashlight, however, he had no way of knowing if he had passed Bonnie or not. Now, everything was numb. Fear threatened to seize him, but he walled it away as he had done many times on the battlefield. Enemy soldiers had captured him. He had survived torture. Martians were here on Earth.
Surely he could survive a little cold water.
Then, just as his nerves steeled, his knee crashed against a rock and he was sent tumbling under the violent current and gasping for breath.