A Very Eventful Summer

 

 

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"Why would we want to take the tunnel? Is the door boobytrapped?" Maria asked.

"No," the voice said chuckling again, "it merely has men on the other side pointing a heavy machine gun at it and is narrow."

"Rhonda can you check that without opening the door?" Rick asked.

"Well maybe," she replied dubiously and walked through the rising water to the door. "I can feel emotions from the other side, more than one but I'm not sure how many. They do seem eager and bloodthirsty though."

"Then I guess we should go through the tunnel. Maria you should go first."

"Why me?" Maria asked.

Rick replied, "Because you are the only one with a long range weapon. Bobby should be last because he's the strongest. He can deal with anything coming up behind us."

"If you want continued helpful narration you should go boy, girl, boy, girl."

Rick sighed then, "I knew it." He looked up towards the speaker in the ceiling, "Why exactly should we do that?"

"Well the good doctor may be doing this for ideological reasons but not all of us are with him solely because of that. I make good money selling these videos." The speaker sounded amused.

"You sell them?" Rhonda asked in a horrified voice. She tried to cover herself with her hands and her shoulders hunched.

"Yes, the action scenes go to Vegas and some of the other scenes go to collectors with odd and various fetishes. It helps defray the costs of the operation after those of us involved take our cut. The guy who brought you in has likely sold your possessions online by now." He paused as they all gasped, "Oh yes, the good doctor wanted us to give all your possessions back but he won't check. He'll just accept our word for it when we report to him what the results of his 'grand experiment' were." He chuckled at their expressions, "You are all far too trusting but I guess it comes with youth." Rhonda crouched low and hugged her knees, face burning in shame at the thought of videos of her being sold. "This scene and the one of you in the tunnel will bring a nice chunk of change from an old pervert I know who's into that sort of thing."

Rhonda buried her face against her knees and Maria squeezed her shoulder, "It's okay honey. We understand about being scared. You just ignore him and put it out of your mind. What we need to do now is get out of here."

"Yes, and that brings us back to my offer. If you go the way I suggested I will give you occasional useful hints to make it more likely you'll survive. It will also make a better video for me."

Rick sighed and patted Rhonda's shoulder, "We need to decide soon. I'm in favor. It might be embarrassing but it can't hurt and it might help."

Maria nodded, "I'll agree." She hauls Rhonda to her feet. "Hey! You can feel my emotions so you know that I am mostly angry. I don't give a damn if the bad guys scared you into peeing on camera we need you! Later we can try to find whoever has the video and get it back and if you learn telepathy you can scrub the memory right out of his brain."

Rhonda looked up and met Maria's eyes hopefully, "You think we can find it? Before it hits video shelves and everyone's seen it?"

"Yes, I'll help you and so will the guys." Maria looks at them and they quickly agree. "See? But we have to get out of here first."

Rick sticks his hand out, "I think we should make a pact. None of us will be embarrassed by anything we have to do to get out of here alive and none of us speak of this to anyone at all without unanimous agreement beforehand. Until we leave this place behind we do whatever it takes to get us all free. No one left behind and no guilt. Agreed?"

Maria puts her hand on his and Bobby puts his on Maria's. They all look at Rhonda and she hesitates for perhaps half a minute. Then she takes a deep breath and lets it out, squares her shoulders, lifts her head and puts her hand on top. "Done!" she says solemnly and looks up to the unseen speaker, "I refuse to let you make me feel degraded or embarrassed. You are the one who is the disgusting pervert and if I ever see you in person..." she trails off but her eyes are hard and angry.

The voice chuckles, "That is why I never let myself be seen. And by the time you can lead anyone back here we'll have rented another lair in another state and there'll be no trace of us anywhere. I won't even hold it against you. Well if you are going to use the tunnel you'd better get going. Tick-tock tick-tock."

Maria crouches down and moves into the tunnel on hands and knees, followed by Rick, then Rhonda and Bobby came last. Once he was all the way a thick block of stone lowered from the ceiling of the tunnel making him pull his feet in to accommodate it. As the echoes of the boom echoed through the smooth stone tunnel they waited a bit hoping for internal lights to come on. Nothing of the sort happened, darkness reigned absolute.

"You may wish you weren't right behind me Rick. I had the chili for lunch," Maria said with half a grin to lift the silence that followed as she started forward again.

Rick laughed easily, "That's the least of my problems, don't worry about it." After a brief pause he said, "If I bump into you please don't get upset. It's just very dark in here."

It was her turn to laugh, "Like you said, that's the least of my problems. If it happens I'll probably be the one at fault. I'm trying to figure out how to make a light beam that's more like a flashlight than a laser and I keep stopping while I concentrate."

"Want us all to stop while you experiment?" Rick asked, it would let the water get higher but if the good get light it would be a lot easier to navigate and see any possible traps as well.

"No, not just for that," Maria said, continuing to crawl forward.

"I have a feeling that we shouldn't stop anywhere for long." Rhonda added.

"That's why light would be useful, there may be traps ahead or cross tunnels we'll never see." Rick added.

"Okay, I'll try. Stopping now." The sound of splashing stopped as they waited to see if she managed to do it. Suddenly a brief but intensely bright light flash went off and Rick was seeing afterimages of Maria's outline dancing in front of his eyes.

"Ow, that was bright. Let's wait a minute before you try that again." Rick said wincing in the darkness.

"Yeah, I have wong afterimages dancing before my eyes," Rhonda said then giggled, "I notice Rick isn't complaining about his afterimages though."

"Once more please Maria?" Rick said, glad no one could see him blush in the dark.

Maria tried again and this time she managed something other than a laser. She started glowing all over and became immediately visible but indistinct. A softly glowing outline with two dark patches. "Eeep!" Maria squeaked and the light went out.

"Okay try one more time then if it doesn't work we'll move on carefully." Rick had found her brief exposure sexy but he wanted to get out there before trying anything romantic.

The next time there was a noise as well as a bright flash as her laser fired off down the tunnel. It was followed by a distinctive odor. Rick heard a giggle from behind and an embarrassed "Sorry" from ahead.

"Heh, don't worry about it. You did warn me." Rick was nonchalant about her breaking wind, he didn't consider it a big deal and he didn't want Maria to feel bad.

"What was that?" Rhonda said and dissolved into giggles.

"Nothing. Okay, we shouldn't stay in one place too long so let's get moving but later I'll ask you to try again. Light would make a big difference here." Rick knew Rhonda's giggling and warped humor was probably just her way of dealing with stress but he felt sorry for her future boyfriend. She'd probably drive him right up a wall.