Part 10 (1/2)
I look up at the peak of the fairly simple yet amazing piece of hardware, ”Is that just a normal pulley system rigged to the top?” I was expecting something a little more modern and ingenious to be honest.
The pulley system is the same one you would find anywhere in the world except, this one is built to handle our gauge of cable, which is really thick. The overall design is basically the same though.
”Yep,” Kane says. ”Why mess with what works? Mankind has been using these for thousands of years and they almost never fail.”
”Almost?” I say. He had to say almost.
”Well, nothing's perfect,” he says with a shrug.
”Thanks for the rea.s.surance, bud.”
”Look, you dying here and now doing what you love is better than slowly rotting away in a hospital somewhere waiting for Thanatos to come calling!” Kane snaps.
I give him a shrug of my own, accepting his simple yet deep philosophy. Then I playfully ask, ”Who's Thanatos?”
”The Greek G.o.d of death. The Reaper,” Kane answers.
I'm about to ask how he knows who the Greek G.o.d of death is, but I guess it really doesn't matter.
My silence puts him on the defensive, ”I'm not just the muscle, you know! I read and research stuff too.”
Now I'm laughing, ”No one said otherwise, man.”
”What's so funny?” Nicole asks. She must have arrived while I was mid-giggle.
”Nothing,” Kane says sharply. ”We almost ready?”
She pats her thighs, and not in a s.e.xual way either. She has two guns strapped to her legs, each in a customized holster, perfect for a quick draw.
Kane's eyes light up at the sight of the weapons, ”You any good with those-”
Twin pistols snap up towards his face and load with a click, held firmly in each of Nicole's steady hands.
”s.h.i.+t!” Kane yells tripping backwards and falling on his b.u.t.t. Normally a man with his background wouldn't even flinch because of something like that, but I don't think he was expecting her to be able to handle them as expertly as she just did. Even I twitched and they aren't even pointed at me.
”Nicole, please,” Dad says coming up from her left and Omar from her right.
Kane relaxes, but is visibly embarra.s.sed. He leans onto one elbow and looks up at me.
I'm doing my best not to crack up and burst out laughing at the man.
”Ruger SR22, lightweight and dependable. These bad-boys hold ten rounds each and come with something a little extra...” Twin beams appear on Kane's chest as he lay p.r.o.ne on the ground, ”A little modification to help with the aiming. Not that I need it.” She holsters the boys and helps Kane up.
Kane dusts himself off, ”d.a.m.n woman, who are you, Lara Croft?”
I can tell by the blank look on her face that she doesn't get the Tomb Raider reference. Apparently Kane sees it too.
”Aw, never mind,” he says a little frustrated. ”So, is that a yes? We're ready to get a move on?”
”As ready as we'll ever be,” Omar says obviously a little disheartened.
”I believe we can begin our journey to the center of the Earth,” Dad chimes, in quoting the t.i.tle of his favorite cla.s.sic novel. There even seems to be a little more pep in his step than normal.
”You feeling alright, Dad?” His mood change catching me off guard.
He smiles at me, ”With everything that has happened I completely forgot why I got into Archaeology in the first place.”
”The chicks?” Kane jokingly says getting a laugh out of me and Nicole.
”Why yes, Kane. Harrison's mother was a beauty like none I've seen since. A real treasure. But, that's a conversation for another day.”
It's the first time I've heard Dad call Mom by the nickname he gave her. They met in grad-school on a sponsored dig. He said he found ”his treasure” that day and it stuck.
”Alrighty, Mr. Kane lead the way,” I say.
”Yes, Sir!” He mockingly answers with a salute and grabs hold of the cable extending into nothingness. He sighs and looks back at the rest of our party, ”Down the rabbit hole?”
He gets a nod of encouragement from everyone and grabs his carabiner climbing clip. He clips it onto the cable and quickly re-explains the proper repelling technique he went over earlier.
”Don't forget your gloves either. You'll have zilch for skin after this if you forget them.” Then under his breath he says, ”Let's do this,” and leaps into the realm of the unknown.
22.
The ear piercing scream made me flinch and almost fall when I touched down. Kane led the way with Dad, Omar, Nicole and finally myself bringing up the rear.
The plan was for everyone to land and disconnect from the cable, each of us would then fan out and draw our weapons, covering the next person. Only we didn't plan on landing on a pile of mangled corpses...I didn't see that coming.
When Nicole landed and moved to cover my approach, she tripped and stumbled on what appeared to be someone's crushed sternum.
Now, she's kicking and thras.h.i.+ng, eyes wide in fright...not that I can blame her.
”Nicole, you're fine. Breathe,” I say trying to get her under control.
What's left of the rib cage is stuck around her ankle and won't come off, even with all the dancing she's doing. It ain't budgin'.
”Gahhh. Okay. I'm fine, I'm fine,” She finally says calming her nerves. She re-aims her Ruger, obviously embarra.s.sed and not in the mood to hear about it. What's even more impressive is that she's almost back to her cool, calm, and collected self...even with part of a dead body still attached to her foot.
”Okay. Lights,” I whisper and draw my gun.
Everyone cracks open their own glow sticks and throws them ten feet in front of themselves. A circle of orange illumination appears around us, a veritable light show in the dark s.p.a.ce. What we see is both horrifying and confusing.
Bodies. Maybe a half-dozen or so of them-could be more-but the parts are everywhere. It would be almost impossible to tell exactly how many there are even if we did try to piece them back together and count. It looks like a tornado hit them and tore them apart or like what would happen if you fell from...
I look up, ”No way.”
”What?” Omar asks, visibly twitching in fright.