Save Me

Chapter 1 Lawson I couldn’t believe these assholes had moved my brother from the cave they had held him less than twenty-four hours ago. My team and I, along with Malcolm, had scoured the entire cave and found nothing, but I couldn’t help feeling like I was missing something. I could tell Malcolm was just as upset as I was about them being gone already. Taking another look around, I sniffed the air to see if I could pick up on a scent that maybe I missed earlier. I walked from room to room, following my brothers faint scent and another one that was strong and smelled like cinnamon. Finally, getting to the room where I was pretty sure was their conference area, I looked around one more time to see if I had missed a piece of paper or a hidden door, maybe some foot prints. I was still coming up empty. This is frustrating as hell. I knew they had to have a secret exit, because we had looked everywhere and found no foot prints or tire tracks leading in or out of this place. I pulled out my flashlight to help me see better in the dark. Being a shifter, I had good eye sight but sometimes I needed a little extra help. When I had gotten hurt a few months back, not only did I take shrapnel in my knee and leg, but also my right eye. I never told my family though, not wanting to worry my mother about it. Even though I had healed the first chance I got, it wasn’t soon enough. The result to not shifting quickly enough to help the healing process along, I had lost some of my eye sight, permanently. I had heard of it happening before, but it’s very rare among my kind. My left eye was perfect and sometimes I felt like it picked up some of the slack from my other eye. My right eye though, let’s just say it worked half the time. Coming across a slight bend in the cave wall, I peeked around. It blended in so well I would have never noticed if I hadn’t been touching the wall and walked right up to it. Stepping around a huge rock and then climbing a small boulder, I realized it was a hidden passage. I knew there was going to be one and I could see now that it was man made. The bastards were slick that’s for sure. It must have taken forever to carve these tunnels out. Jumping down the other side of the boulder and making my way down the long narrow passage way, I came across another bend that was also hidden well. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if I wouldn’t have looked down and saw a foot print pointing in that direction. Looking around, I started to notice there were a few different turns that branched off this main tunnel. Curious as to where they went, I took the first right I came across. I walked about fifteen feet before I made my way into a room of sorts. Probably, where the guards had slept. There were bunk beds in this makeshift room, with a makeshift toilet. Walking back towards the main hall I went a bit further and came to several other makeshift rooms, sleeping quarters as far as I could tell. One looked to be storage, there where shelves everywhere. They had a room that looked to be the kitchen area and one that branched off with tables and chairs. I searched every room coming up empty each time. Coming out of the last tunnel, I turned back towards the direction I came. I wanted to get more guys to come with me and explore the rooms, see if I had missed anything of importance. I didn’t get far before Malcolm suddenly appeared in front of me. “Dammit man, warn someone before you pop out of thin air. You almost gave me a heart attack.” “My apologies, Lawson. I thought you heard me call your name.” I shook my head and sighed, “Sorry, I must have been in my own world. I found these rooms off this main hall and was just heading back to get a few men to help me search.” Malcolm nodded, and looked around the space we were in. “These guys are clever to have built this hall and these rooms. They’ve made them, so they’re not easily seen. Unless you know what, you’re looking for or you stumble across them,” Malcolm commented. “Yeah, that was my first thought, but these rooms look like they have been cleared out fairly well,” I said. “What’s at the end of the main hall?” Malcolm asked. Shrugging, I said, “I’m not sure. I was going to come get you guys and have everyone help me search.” Malcolm nodded, as he looked around on the floor. “Did you notice that there are different footsteps here and one set of prints look more like they dragged something or someone through here.” I looked down where Malcolm had been looking and for the first time realized I had missed the prints in the dirt. We both turned and followed the foot prints and drag marks down the tunnel until we came to an abrupt stop at a wall at the end of this tunnel. We started to look around, touching all the walls and rocks as we did. There had to be something here that will open a wall or a hole in the ground we just had to find it. Looking up, I grabbed ahold of a rock sticking out a bit higher and realized it had more of a hand grip feel to it. Sticking my hand fully over it, I got a good grip. Then squeezing and pulling it down some, we heard what sounded like a gasping sound and the wall beside the rock started to open slightly. Malcolm clapped me on the shoulder, “Good job man.” He walked past me, pushing the door open and grabbing a rock he jammed up against the make shift door to keep it held in place, so it wouldn’t shut on us. The other guys on my team came into the room, one of them whistling low as he realized what we had found. “Alright guys, we’re going in. I want you to be ready for anything and make sure you pay attention to where you step. We don’t want any accidents on this mission.” They nodded as they followed suit behind Malcolm and me. This passage way had dim lights lining the walls, but you could see where you were going. As we walked along the long narrow hallway we noticed it was just a straight path that seemed to go on forever. I felt in my gut we were going the right way and prayed my gut wasn’t going to let me down. I needed to find my brother, not just for my family’s peace of mind, but also Lakoda’s. She wouldn’t be able to handle losing Tobias and we couldn’t let her go through something like that, not after all the s**t she has been through. The further we got down the hall the more we noticed a breeze. It was a slight breeze and you couldn’t see any extra light from anywhere, but you could smell fresh air. We had to be coming to the end. Keeping my fingers crossed that we wouldn’t hit a dead end, I ready himself just in case we walked in on these guys still trying to load and go. Finally, hitting what we thought was the end of the tunnel, I raised my hands for the guys to stop and wait. We listened for a minute, not hearing anything. I gave my guys the signal to be prepared and to watch their backs. I needed then to stay alive. They have all become an extended part of my family and I would take their injuries or deaths personally. Slowly, we made our way around a bend in the man-made tunnel, I could see a faint hint of light. Getting closer I could hear what I thought sounded like vehicles running and I could have sworn I heard someone talking. I motioned to my guys to hang tight while I got a look. I could see where men were still loading vehicles and packing more crates. There were about four big military trucks running and waiting to be loaded, but I couldn’t see anything else. Turning and going back to my men and Malcolm, I signaled to them what I saw and for them to take position. I motioned to Malcolm to come with me and stay behind me as we silently made our way into the cavern. I hadn’t realized how big this tavern was until we had creeped all the way in and taken position. I doubled check our surroundings by taking another look around to make sure there wasn’t more men. I didn’t see anybody but the four guys. I motioned to my men to get ready to let our presence be known. I counted one more time how many men I could see from my new angle and then gave the signal to the men to make their move towards the guys loading the trucks. Two men saw us coming right away and started yelling out to the other guys that they had to move and now. We saw two other men run around the other side of the truck and each one hopped into a vehicle together, starting it as they did. I raised my gun taking aim when I heard a loud crunching sound. Both men suddenly hit the ground with an audible bone snapping sound that echoed off the walls. Their screams weren’t much better. Quickly looking over to two guys running to separate trucks, I took aim, shooting one in the leg and my team mate shooting the other in both knee caps. Damn, I thought, rubbing my own knees, that s**t had to hurt. I was watching another man that I hadn’t seen earlier try to creep his way around the truck on the far side of the cavern to escape. Then suddenly the man was air born, soaring through the air towards my teammate. Malcolm was a blur when he threw the guy into the air and wasn’t even visible when he followed and slammed him down to the ground. s**t, that vampire speed was something else. I was impressed, that’s for sure, I thought. When the man hit the ground, his head hit first. The man’s brains splattered all over the ground and a few of my teammates had to raise their arms to cover their faces from the blood and brain matter flying out the back of his busted skull. Just as Malcolm was standing to look for any other threats, a big man came out of a door from the other side. He was holding the biggest damn automatic rifle I had ever seen. He had it pointed at the back of Malcolm’s head, from about twenty feet away. I knew it wouldn’t kill Malcolm, but it would hurt like hell and then the guy would be out of commission and I would be stuck toting his heavy ass around. I quickly raised my gun and fired three times. POP! POP! POP! All three bullets hitting my mark. Looking around, we didn’t see anybody else coming out of the wood works. Malcolm and I made our way towards the trucks, checking around and under them just to ensure there wasn’t anyone left. My teammates came up behind me as they had finished their rounds on the other vehicles. We went to the back of the first truck together, raising our guns and pointing towards the back of the truck, ready for anything that popped up. Keeping my fingers crossed that my brother would be in one of these trucks, I slowly opened the door. Nothing but furniture was in this damn truck. Signaling for one of my men to get in and search, I made my way to the next truck, repeating the process. “Dammit!” I yelled, as we opened the last truck and didn’t find anything except more furniture. “How the hell am I suppose too find him now?” Frustrated, and ready to get the hell out of there, I made my way down from the truck and started looking around for Malcolm. Not finding him, I headed over to the entrance of the cavern and stepped outside. Pulling out the satellite phone I still had I called my dad to give him an update. Malcolm stepped out of the cavern behind me and waited for me to finish my call. We had a good view from where we were standing, able to see miles from our spot. Malcolm notice a cloud of dust way off in the distance. He c****d his head to the side and flapped his hand in my face to get my attention. He pointed out towards the cloud billowing out from what we knew to be trucks hauling ass down the road. “Lawson, do you think that’s what we’re looking for?” I turned quickly, looking in the direction Malcolm was pointing in. Squinting my eyes, I slowly nodded my head. I think that’s them, hurry up and go inside and get a vehicle so we can track their asses. Malcolm turned to go inside, shouting at the other men to load up in a truck now.