before he joined the others. He spun around and walked in reverse, pointing the barrel of the rifle at the moving shadows cast by the lantern.
He slid his trembling finger onto the trigger.
***
Gabriel watched Kelsey’s body fade behind them until the darkness advanced from beyond the lantern’s reach and claimed it. He could barely breathe. The terror had conspired with the heat and humidity to compress his chest. Were it not for the prospect of someone with a wickedly sharp knife lying in wait in the darkness, he would have gladly succumbed to the panic and run screaming out of the cave. As it was, he was slowly losing the battle with his nerves. Every shift in the shadows nearly summoned a fusillade of bullets. With his hands shaking as badly as they were, he wondered if his aim would be remotely accurate if he had to put it to the test.
He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t notice Jess had stopped until he backed into her.
“Sorry—”
“Shh!” Cavenaugh whispered.
Gabriel listened, but couldn’t hear anything over his ragged breathing and the thrum of his pulse. After seeing nothing ahead, he risked a glance back over his shoulder. About twenty feet past Cavenaugh, illuminated by just the faintest glow, were twin mounds of rock to either side of the tunnel where another section of the earthen roof had collapsed. The passage narrowed to a bottleneck. They would have to pass through single file, becoming sitting ducks as they emerged on the other side one at a time.
“They’ll be ready to ambush us at the end of that passage,” Cavenaugh whispered.
“There’s no other way through,” Jess whispered. “We should turn back now. I don’t want to die in here.”
“You think any of our sisters did?”
“Don’t you dare use my sister against me. You have no idea—”
A shadow darted across the tunnel at the peripheral extent of the flame’s light and Gabriel jerked the trigger. The bullet flew high and wide, struck the wall with a spark and a ping, and careened off into the darkness.
“What did you see?” Cavenaugh asked.
“Something. Someone. I didn’t get a good look.”
“We need to keep moving.”
“We’re being herded,” Jess whispered.
“Do you have a better idea?” Cavenaugh asked. “If you want to wait here for them to come for you, I’m not about to stop you.”
“What are our options?” Gabriel asked.
Cavenaugh was silent for a moment. The corners of his lips curled upward into an uneasy smile.
“We’re going straight through that bottleneck.”
“But we all know it’s the perfect spot for an ambush,” Gabriel said. “You already said someone will be waiting for us at the end of the passage.”
Gabriel looked down the tunnel and then back at him. Cavenaugh’s face was a miasma of churning shadow and light. The smile had turned into a maniacal grin. Without a doubt, Cavenaugh had snapped.
“I hope so,” Cavenaugh said.
***
“How accurately can you shoot with that flare gun?” Cavenaugh asked.
“I don’t know,” Gabriel said. He couldn’t see where Cavenaugh was going with that line of thought, but the ever-present smile was unsettling.
They should never have gone through that spring, not without the police. And Kelsey had paid for their folly with his life.
None of them would ever see the light of day again. They were all going to die in there.
“We only have one shot at this, so you’d better not miss,” Cavenaugh said. He leaned closer and explained his plan in a whisper while constantly peering through the darkness for the first sign of movement like a prairie dog emerging from its burrow. “So do you think you can do it?”
“Are you sure this will work?” Jess asked.
“No,” Cavenaugh said. He took Gabriel by the shoulders and drew him closer until their faces were only inches apart and enunciated each word carefully. “Can you do this?”
Gabriel hesitated. Could he? He wasn’t sure. Thus far he’d only been firing the flares in a general direction without taking aim.
“This is our only chance,” Cavenaugh said. “If this doesn’t work, then we’re all dead. So I need to know. Right now. Can you do this?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
“Yes. Yes, I can do this.”
Cavenaugh clapped him on the shoulder. “Give Jess the rifle.”
Gabriel held out the weapon for Jess, who set the canister of kerosene and the lantern on the ground, and took it from him. She turned and faced the length of tunnel they had already traversed. The barrel visibly shook in her grasp.
Cavenaugh transferred his rifle to his left hand and hoisted the red container in his right.
“Everyone know what they’re supposed to do?” Cavenaugh asked. Gabriel and Jess whispered that they did. “Then on my mark… Now.”
Jess fired indiscriminately down the tunnel, sweeping the semi-automatic from side to side. Bullets ricocheted from the ground, walls, and ceiling with a showcase of golden sparks.
Under the deafening ruckus of suppressive fire, Cavenaugh hurled the canister through the mouth of the bottleneck into the eager shadows, readied the rifle, and began to shoot.
Gabriel heard the faint metal chorus of bullets striking the container, steadied the flare gun, and pulled the trigger.
The shriek of the streaking fireball was barely audible over the echoing gunfire as the thin corridor between the fallen rocks turned orange.
There was a flash of light, and then flames everywhere. A black cloud of smoke billowed into the passage.
Cavenaugh charged forward into the smoke, the discharge from his rifle like a strobe in fog.
Gabriel tugged Jess by the hood of her jacket, and she started to walk in reverse, following him into the corridor. Once inside, she stopped firing as she had been instructed, saving what few bullets remained until she could see their assailant coming.
There was a scream from ahead through the smoke.
Gabriel coughed. His lungs hurt and his eyes felt as though they were on fire. The tears made it so even the little he could see ahead was refracted through the saline. Cavenaugh was a vague blur, his form silhouetted by fire. A puddle of burning kerosene advanced along the ground from the shredded tank, which now looked more like a sea urchin.
The shrill screaming grew louder with each step.
Gabriel stepped out of the passage into a confusion of smoke and fire. Liquid flames poured down the cavern walls and dripped from the ceiling. The smoke swirled with nowhere to go.
The tortured cries pierced his right ear and Gabriel turned to see Cavenaugh charging toward a creature of fire. A mane of flames rose from the figure’s head and all of its clothes burned amber. Fingers of fire crawled over its blackened face. Its wide eyes and teeth were a sharp contrast of white, the cries a contortion of pain and rage.
Cavenaugh strode directly toward it, shoved it back against the stone wall, and pressed the barrel of the rifle to its forehead.
The figure seemed not to even notice as it slapped its hands across its face and chest in an effort to smother the flames.
