Cash and the others sprinted through the tunnels, the sounds of the pursuing mob echoing behind them. The mob was making an unholy din, screeching, whistling, and ululating. It was hard to tell, from the echoes and distortions, how far back or how many there were, but the clamor seemed to be getting closer.
The corridor made a gradual turn, and there, up ahead, their flashlights illuminated the steel door, still with a hole cut in it. They leapt through the gap and continued, Colcord taking the lead. They took each turn running as fast as they could, the clamor of their pursuers ever closer. Cash’s lungs felt like they were on fire.
They came out into the large open area and sprinted across it, but even before they’d reached the other side, the pursuers burst out of the tunnel they had just exited, with torches and flashlights, the big chamber magnifying their shrieks and yells.
“There they are!” one of them screamed.
The mob was only fifty yards behind. A spear came flying past them, going wide. Cash glanced back and was shocked to glimpse, among the mob, women and teenagers. They were dressed in regular clothing, no weird camouflage outfits, and they looked normal, except for their peculiar faces and the way they ran. Another spear came soaring past.
Colcord was slowing, gasping for air in the high altitude, and Cash felt she too was nearing collapse, the only thing driving her on was pure adrenaline. One turn, another, and another, and then—thank God—the bars of the entrance gate came in view. She was shocked to see a person was there, trapped in the mine, banging on the bars and shouting into the night.
It was the scientist—Karman. He spun around. “The gate’s padlocked!”
“Get out of the way!” Cash yelled, fumbling into her breast pocket and removing the key. The guards who had been outside were nowhere to be seen. She fell to her knees and reached through the bars. She grasped the padlock in one hand and slid the key into the hole with the other, giving it a twist. She struggled with the lock, thinking of the man she’d seen with the AR-15. He’d be in that mob somewhere, she felt sure.
The lock sprang open. She slipped it off the hasp and yanked open the door.
“Out!”
Karman crowded out the door first, with Romanski and Reno following.
The mob was practically on top of them, in a chorus of crazy yelps and whistles. Cash exited and held the door open for Colcord, then followed. She slammed the door, seized the padlock, and slipped it through the hasp, snapping it shut as the surging mob hit the bars. A moment later a spear came flashing out, just missing her neck, while arms and hands reached wildly through the bars, slashing at her with knives as she skipped back out of reach. She pivoted and ran as more spears came flying out.
“Go, go, go!” she cried to the others ahead of her, and they went scrambling down the scree slope below the mine entrance, loose rocks sliding and tumbling in the dark. Behind, she could hear their pursuers, now bottled up behind the locked door, yelling and banging.
“You can run,” a voice whistled out, “but you can’t hide!”
“We’ll hunt you down like dogs!”
The voices and noise became fainter as the group descended. They finally reached the meadow that also doubled as a landing zone. But now their flashlights illuminated a grim sight: the burnt hulk of the CBI’s A-Star helicopter, lying on its side, flames and smoke still licking up from it. And lying around it, half-hidden in the long grass, lay the dead bodies of three people. She recognized the two guards, Hadid and Watkins, the other body evidently being the pilot.
“Look down the valley,” said Colcord, pointing.
Cash lifted her eyes from the bloody scene. Way down in the valley, she could see the bright glow of a fire—actually two fires. Huge fires. The lodge and the movie town.
“They’re burning the place down,” Colcord said.
“Yeah,” Cash said. The sight had really taken away her breath. They had no radios, cell phones, or weapons—they were in trouble. “We’d better keep going. Those bars aren’t going to hold them forever. I saw one guy back in there with a rifle.”
Colcord jerked his chin toward Karman, the scientist, who was standing to one side, bent over, his white hair dangling, gasping for breath. “What’re we going to do with him?”
She said, “He might … be helpful.”
“So what now?” Reno asked. “We can’t go down. I’m sure they blew the Mammoth Gates along with everything else. We’re trapped like rats.”
There was a silence.
“Up,” said Cash. “We go up and over the pass.”