Forsaken

Anya heard a wet gasp and felt something grab at her leg. She caught Jade by the sleeve and went under with her. Pulled and kicked toward the surface again. There’d been no time to take a breath, and what little air she had in her chest was already growing stale. She didn’t have enough strength left for both of them, but there was no way she was letting go.

Evans’s hand brushed against her arm. Wrapped around Jade’s back and against Anya’s thigh. With his help, they struggled back to the surface, both of them coughing until Jade vomited the aspirated fluid.

If the men hunting them hadn’t known where they were, they sure as hell did now.

“We have to risk it,” Evans said, and clicked on his light.

Jade was a shade of pale just this side of the grave. Her hair hung in clumps and even her brilliant green eyes had taken on a grayish cast.

“They just want what is at the end of the maze,” Villarreal said. “If we give them what they want, they will let us go.”

“You didn’t see what they did to the people outside the trailer,” Anya said.

“We have to move fast before they see our light,” Evans whispered.

He wrapped Jade’s arms around his neck and transferred her weight to his back. His face went under and the light on his helmet diffused into the greenish-brown water. If he said anything more, Anya couldn’t hear it.

He kicked and propelled himself forward, leaving Jade to keep her mouth above the surface. They turned right, then right again. Anya had to stroke to keep up. A quick left revealed a dead end in the distance. They turned around and swam toward another wall. Veered left and rounded the bend into a straightaway that terminated in a T-intersection. There was no difference in the intonation of the sloshing waves, at least not that she could hear over their splashing and heavy breathing.

Evans ducked right and accelerated toward a dead end in the distance. There was a single opening to the right, which, if she hadn’t completely lost her bearings, should take them toward the center of the maze. He turned and pulled up suddenly.

Jade went under, but quickly raised her head. Evans appeared to be struggling with her added weight. Anya could barely see the silhouette of his body through the murky water. It looked like he was only kicking with one leg. She felt warmth on her bare arm and realized exactly what had happened.

“Oh, my God,” she gasped and swam to Evans’s side.

She grabbed him by the upper arm and pulled him higher. The aura of his headlamp took on a faint pinkish hue.

“Help me!” she whispered to Villarreal, who took Evans by the other arm. Jade rolled from his back and did her best to tread on her own.

“Where are you injured?” Anya asked.

Evans spoke through bared teeth.

“Right leg.”

Anya dove and swam toward where his right leg appeared to be stuck—

And nearly impaled herself on a foot-long spike. Dozens of them protruded from a planed tree trunk, which leaned diagonally across the passage. A trail of blood drifted from his calf, where a spike had entered through his shin and exited through the meat of his muscle.

She swam back to the surface. Looked Villarreal dead in the eyes.

“Get a good grip on him.”

“What happened?” Villarreal asked.

Anya ignored him and took Evans by either side of his diving mask.

“This is going to hurt.” His lips tightened over his teeth. He mustered a nod. “I mean a lot.”

“Get it over with.”

She took a breath and dove again. Grabbed his leg. One hand on his knee, the other on his ankle. Pulled straight back.

His left foot kicked wildly next to her.

At first, she didn’t think his leg was going to come off the spike, like maybe there was a barb hooked in his flesh, but then it slid backward and released a cloud of blood into the water. She pulled off her shirt from over her bikini top and tied it around the wound. Pulled it tight. Barely caught his other leg before he impaled it, too. Swam for the surface and gasped for air.

“We need to get him out of here,” she said.

“Could you tell if it nicked an artery?” Jade asked.

“No. I mean, I don’t think so.”

“They’re still coming,” Evans said. “We have to keep moving.”

“We cannot go on like this,” Villarreal said.

“We don’t have a choice,” Anya said. She carefully swam around the spiked log, grabbed Evans by his harness, pulled him away from the booby trap, and swam deeper into the maze.

There was no way they could outrun their pursuit. Not now. Their only option was to find a place to hide and pray they weren’t found.

Evans grew heavier by the second, although to his credit, he gave it everything he had. Another left, then a right. Right again. She didn’t like having her course dictated to her. She needed to make a decision or they were merely prolonging the inevitable. And they needed to get out of the water. Jade was trying her best, but she wouldn’t make it much farther and there was no way Anya was going to be able to drag Evans indefinitely, not with as quickly as his strength was fading. If they didn’t get out of there soon, someone was going to—

Anya’s heart stopped. She’d led them into a dead end.

She closed her eyes and felt her own strength wane. If they turned around now, they’d be swimming right into the teeth of their pursuit, but they couldn’t stay here and tread water for any length of time, either. She opened her eyes and looked for anything they could hold onto. A crack in the wall. The edges of a brick. Anything at all.

The wall against which the corridor terminated was unlike the others. It was made of a single block of chiseled granite, which didn’t fit perfectly against the walls. It was smaller and, now that she really looked at it, seemed completely out of place. She followed its smooth face up toward the roof—

“Up there.” There was a slim gap above the stone block. And a dark recess in the ceiling into which it had once fit. It was a booby trap meant to fall on someone’s head, or maybe just block the passage. Perhaps even the same one Evans had tripped earlier. “Hurry!”

She boosted Evans as high as she could, driving herself underwater in the process.

He grabbed the upper lip and pulled. She pushed against his rear end until he was able to slide through the opening and drag his injured leg up onto the stone block.

Villarreal pushed past Jade and climbed up beside Evans, who reached down to help Jade up. With the last of her energy, Anya reached as high as she could, secured a grip on the ledge, and pulled. The others grabbed her by the arms and helped her squeeze through the narrow gap and into the tight recess.

Evans killed his light and the darkness swallowed them.

“We cannot stay here,” Villarreal whispered.

“Shh!” Jade whispered.

“Cade is injured and the rest of us are exhausted.”

Anya found Villarreal’s hand and squeezed it. She hoped he got the message.

A faint glow spread across the water below them. Anya could see the outlines of their feet and ankles. If their pursuers shined their light directly at them and looked up, they would be impossible to miss.

Water shushed against the block. The light brightened by degree.

Anya held her breath.

The light grew brighter and brighter until she could see the makeshift bandage on Evans’s calf. Blood overflowed from the saturated cloth and dribbled to the stone, where it pooled before trickling over the edge and down the front of the massive block. It was going to give them away, but there was nothing they could do about it now.

The sloshing sounds became louder. The light brightened to such an extent that she could see the fear on the faces of the others, mere inches from her own.

“Dead end,” a voice said from maybe ten feet away.

Anya bit her lip to keep from crying out. If the men looked up, it was all over.

The light dimmed.

The men were turning around.

“I cannot do this anymore,” Villarreal said.

Anya squeezed his hand again, but he jerked it away.

The light was nearly out of range again. She could barely see the faint red stain of Evans’s blood beside the outline of her feet.

“Come back!” Villarreal shouted. “We are up here!”

“What are you doing?” Anya whispered.

Evans grabbed him and Jade covered his mouth, but he fought free.

“Up here!”

“Juan Carlos . . .” Anya whispered.

Splashing sounds rapidly approached. The light brightened by the second until it was directly beneath them.

“Slide through to the other side,” Evans said. “I’ll hold them off.”

Jade dropped to her knees and reached through the gap on the other side. Before she could get her head through the opening, there were hands on her ankles and she was jerked backward into the water.

Anya knelt and grabbed her hand, but couldn’t slow her momentum. One of the men grabbed Anya by the upper arm and wrenched her through the hole. She barely caught her breath before she went headfirst into the water. The man jerked her back to the surface.

“Come out, Dr. Evans,” the man gripping Anya’s arm said. He wore a black tactical mask molded to look like a skull, with a series of breathing holes where the teeth should have been. A fine mesh partially concealed his eyes. She thrashed in an effort to break his grasp. “We have no desire to kill any of you. However, make no mistake, we have no qualms about doing so, either. Just do exactly as we say.”

“You promised no one would get hurt,” Villarreal said.

His words hit Anya hard enough to knock the wind out of her.

He lowered himself to his hands and knees and stuck his head through the gap.

“We will help you find it. I swear.”

His eyes met Anya’s. She couldn’t bear to look at him. Never in her life had she felt so betrayed. She’d practically thrown herself at him and he, in turn, had served her up to these men on a silver platter.

The man holding Jade had a similar tactical mask, only his had an iridescent silver cast and looked like an alien. He pressed the barrel of a semiautomatic pistol to the side of her head.

“My colleague is holding a gun to the head of Dr. Liang,” the first man said. “If you do not come out of there by the time I count—”

“I’m coming,” Evans said. He fell to his knees, reached his arm through the gap, and tumbled out behind it.

The man shoved Anya aside and grabbed Evans by the harness. He ripped off the diving mask and nuzzled the barrel of his weapon against the base of Evans’s skull.

“You are not going to give us any trouble if we let you swim on your own, are you, Dr. Fleming?”

Anya shook her head, but couldn’t seem to find the voice to respond. There was no reason for these men to keep all four of them alive. They’d be outnumbered in an environment where anything could happen, despite being armed. Her only option was to do what they asked and pray she survived.

“Very good. Now, if you please, I would like you to take the lead.”

Suddenly, Anya understood exactly why they’d let her live. They needed someone to swim ahead of them and set off whatever traps lay in their way.