A Change (of heart)

Another One Bites The Dust

The hole we had clambered into lead to a not very tall but open space with other holes on the walls. Grey was looking at me in a strange way, it is hard to describe, sorta guilty but pleased with herself at the same time.
A couple of seconds later, after she had finished starting at me with that look, she opened her mouth, which I now realise that she hadn't done since we left. A old-fashioned lantern came out.
"Where the heck did you get that?" I said, with an edge of curiosity.
I proceeded to open the lantern and inside or I found a packet of matches, a candle, and some form of electronic jammer. And then it hit me. It was the device that was connected to the main control box that had my name on it, it was the jammer/tracker controls of the watch they gave me. All I had to do was to rewire it and as far as the company was concerned, I didn't exist. They'd have to start their search for me all over again, if they were still operating, after I, you know.
I'd have to rewire it quick though, if we wanted to escape, otherwise they'd find us.
I managed to rewire the device just in time so that my watch wasn't sending them any information about me at all. And what I mean by just in time is that as soon as I was finished, the little cave we were in started shaking, and I could hear the sound of heavy footed people who had just been running stop and regroup.
"Why are we stopped?"
"I've lost signal"
I didn't recognise any of the voices
"Damn! How are we supposed to find them now?"
"We'll have to split up. Okay! Everyone, listen to me! Separate into the seven separate divisions you've been assigned, keep contact via radio, inform us if anything, and I repeat, anything seems not right. We have to locate them, if we don't, well, we'll all be fired, maybe even worse. Now head out. Go! Go! Go!"
This was not good. Was my thinking as I heard all of them cock their rifles (that's what I believed they were anyway,  hey, I was underground okay?) and headed off into their seperate directions.
I was about to start looking around the cave like area, to know where the best emergency escape route might be when I saw something on Grey's leg. You wouldn't have been able to tell if you didn't see it, she's the toughest animal I think I've ever seen, she had been shot. That one stray shot when I was wrestling with Wever for the gun, it must have gotten her. I soon got her on her side, and looked at it properly. It was too far in for me to try and get out, and her leg was broken, she did well enough to make it this far. I did a small bandage to stop any more bleeding, but I was afraid that without direct service she wouldn't be able to get out of the cave by herself. And as if the situation couldn't get any worse, I overheard someone who was at a seperate hole from where we had entered call out to their leader.
"Hey Boss! What you want me to do with these holes?"
"Just blow 'em up. If he's in there, he won't be afterwards, and if he ain't, well he ain't"
And then another chimed in "Boss, shouldn't we be using our radios, so he doesn't know what we're planning?"
"Don't worry, if he's out here, it won't make a difference to him, if he's down there, he can't here us"
I really wished I could have thought in my head 'oh how wrong you are!' but I was to busy with the main issue of Grey. I had to get her out, I wasn't letting her get blown up. The problem was, I couldn't carry her like a human, or with my mouth, because the roof was so low. I couldn't push her forward because then I wouldn't be able to see where I was going. The only way I could see this working was with her holding onto my leg as I walked out, but she was just not having it. I tried to bring her up but then she began to lose her patience and got all snappy at me. I'd already used up a minute, and I don't think it would take more than two for one of the 'troops' to set up the explosives. With a final effort, I tried to get her to leave. But she knew I wouldn't get out in time if I took her, she made a valiant final effort to shoo me away. She started swiping, claws out, and as she started crawling towards me jaws snapping, we stared at each other, our way of saying goodbye, her telling me that it will be okay. With a heavy and guilty heart I left her there, as I made my escape.
It was a close call too. I had only just made it out of the hole and into the open air when a surge of hot air rushed upon my back and then disappeared as quick as it had arrived. There's no way Grey survived that.
The rest of that night is nothing more than a dream to me, well, more of a nightmare, but a faded memory nonetheless. I think I might have killed some of them, definitely gave some permanent blindness, but I made it out alive. And I got Google Maps working on my watch. Which means I'm the only outsider that knows the location of the 'secret base', and I was on my way home. But the one, main lesson I took from that, is that for now, I was well, and truly, alone.