Teddy stuck his foot in the door just before it closed and grabbed Joshua by the lab coat with his other hand. "Caleb's in there!"
"What?" Joshua couldn't believe his ears.
Teddy disappeared through the door without another word. Joshua tried to follow, but the door was locked. He scrambled to get the badge and key to open the door. He spotted his father through the tiny window a few cells down the corridor, hugging his brother through the bars.
"I knew you guys would come! How did you find us?" Bones voice rose with excitement. He looked down the corridor at Joshua coming through the door and tears filled his eyes. Looking back and forth from the boy to his father, it dawned on Bones that Joshua was wearing a lab coat and Teddy was in a black wetsuit. "Tell me you guys tracked us down here and the cops or the US consulate are with you?"
"Sorry. It's just us!" Teddy almost enjoyed disagreeing with Bones. "Get them out of here, Josh, we've got to keep moving!" Joshua moved forward and used the card, fumbling to find the right key.
"What's the plan? How did you guys get in here?" Bones was confused but understood the urgency. He didn't want to spend another minute waiting in a cell for his injections.
"The short version is an underwater earthquake, trapped in a megalithic stone room, near drowning, long walk down a tunnel, opening an ancient stone door and finding you guys locked in a creepy underground lab. What have you guys been doing?" Joshua found the key and opened the door.
"We spent most of the time with a black bag over our heads or hanging out in this cell waiting for you guys… after Caleb took out four attack boats with the 30mm cannon!" Bones chucked the boy on the shoulder, pride oozing from his eyes.
Joshua gave him a high five, eyes wide. "You got to shoot the cannon?"
"Hate to break up the party. Which way do we go?" Teddy queried Bones.
"The important people all go that way." Bones pointed to the door they had originally been heading through.
As they all piled into the bright white corridor, Teddy noted that it was much wider with several doors branching off right and left. He motioned to the first door on the right. Joshua didn't need the keys here, he just waved the badge and they all heard a slight click as the lock disengaged. Teddy moved up and cracked the door just a bit. Peering in, he saw that it was some kind of storeroom. Opening the door wide, he grabbed the security card from Joshua and motioned the others inside. "Take anything that's useful, especially lab coats, if you find them. I am going to check out the next room."
Joshua held the door open as Caleb and Bones started rooting around inside. Caleb held up spools of wire and Joshua shook his head. Bones opened some boxes containing cleaning chemicals. Turning he knocked over a big stack of boxes and one split open as it hit the floor—white mush poured from a broken plastic bag.
"What's that?" Whispered Joshua.
"Food!" Bones and Caleb gave each other a knowing look as Joshua gagged.
"This is interesting…" Bones opened the first of a series of metal lockers bolted to the wall just as ultra-bright white security strobes began flashing in the room and down the corridor. A pleasant female voice began repeating: Instalaciones lockdown. Permanecer en su lugar. Bones cocked his head. "She sounds nice!"
***
Teddy left Bones and the boys to see if they could find more lab coats. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us all back together! Please get us home safely! He wanted to spy out the various rooms quickly so they could continue moving toward the surface. The second room opened without a hitch. It was an empty office. After a quick glance, Teddy moved on. There were only a few more doors left in the corridor.
Grabbing the doorknob to the next room, Teddy waved the card and heard the slight click. Extra carefully, he didn't know why, he pulled the door open a half inch and peered inside. Immediately across the room from him he saw a scientist sitting with his back to Teddy. The man was extremely thin, his lab coat hanging on his spare frame. He was hunched over a microscope deeply engrossed in his work. Teddy's view was obscured and he couldn't see the rest of the room off to the right.
Teddy inched the door slowly closed, hoping the man wouldn't hear him. At the last minute, he pulled the door open again half an inch and stared at the back of the man's head—not only did the scientist have the credentials to move around this place, he also knew the way out.
Teddy decided it was now or never—he pulled the door quietly open and slipped inside. The scientist gave no indication that he had noticed. Teddy stared at the back of the man's head like a laser looking for any indication that he had been detected.
With infinite patience, Teddy let the door touch the latch and left it there without closing it. Teddy had his eyes glued to the scientist and he didn't detect anything amiss. Crouching down, he retrieved his dive knife from his ankle and crept forward maintaining his crouch. Step by step he approached from behind, his entire focus on putting his knife to the man's throat before he could be discovered.
"Welcome to my lab. You can put your knife away. You won't be needing it." The man didn't seem to move when he talked. He didn't shift position or turn and look around, he didn't move at all. His voice was pleasant. Teddy was taken off guard by the pleasant voice that seemed to emanate from nowhere and everywhere at once.
When Teddy took another step forward, the man turned and Teddy stopped cold. The man looked exactly like a stork—large googely eyes over a thin protruding beak of a nose, he swiveled on his stool and smiled in a leering sort of way.
"I need you to show me the way out." Teddy didn't see any reason why he couldn't overpower this man and make him take them to the surface.
"You will not leave this lab, at least not as the man who arrived. I promise to make you more than you are today. You will evolve. And you will thank me." The Stork leered at Teddy as he finished. Bright white LED emergency lights began to blink on the walls. The Stork must have pushed a security button somewhere.
"You will take me to the surface now!" Teddy was losing his patience and he was unnerved by the man's seeming calm.
"I think he may have something to say about that." The Stork pointed behind Teddy at a mountain of a man who had appeared out of nowhere. Too late, Teddy saw the gurney that had been obscured from his direct line of sight by the door. He had been concentrating so hard on the scientist, he hadn't scanned the room when he entered. Somehow this massive monster of a beast had maneuvered behind him and was now blocking the door.
Teddy took two steps backward and spun slamming his fist into the side of the Stork's head—he wasn't about to fight two men at the same time, especially if one of them was the size of three or four men put together. The Stork dropped like a sack of flour. Teddy could only hope the others had seen the security lights and were on their way back down the tunnel.
Teddy reversed his grip on the dive knife holding it down against his forearm. El Oso grunted as he recognized his opponent knew at least a little bit about fighting. Good! I need a little recreation. El Oso moved cautiously forward. There wasn't a lot of room to maneuver, he'd disarm the little man and have him in a bear hug in no time. Then he would slowly squeeze the life out of him.
Teddy searched the shelves and tables looking for anything heavy—anything he could use against this brute—without ever taking his eyes off the man. His peripheral vision caught site of the pan of gold dust. Feinting forward he slashed with the knife and moved left. El Oso grunted and matched his move to the left, blocking access to the door. Feinting right, he slashed left and continued to move right, but El Oso was having none of it. He stayed out of reach of the knife and continued to block the door.
Suddenly, El Oso lurched forward with a hard lumberjack right and Teddy saw his opening. Like many big men, the beast had put all his power into a haymaker and Teddy would have a clean shot at his ribcage as he ducked under the thundering punch. Teddy watched the mountain's muscled arm coming and waited as long as he could before ducking under ready to plunge the knife deep, but the beast shifted with surprising agility for his size and slapped Teddy across the face with his left hand sending him flying into the lab table.
The knife flew from Teddy's hand. His teeth rattled, his neck felt stretched and his head was throbbing. He was dizzy and his eyes were unfocused. The power in that slap was overwhelming. The beast had only slapped him! Teddy felt fear and his knees were weak. El Oso approached with supreme confidence. Teddy had to delay the animal here as long as possible, if only to give the boys as much time as possible to escape.
El Oso waded in with a triumphant smile to take hold around the little man's chest. Teddy recalled a verse from the book of Joshua—Be strong and courageous—pulled himself together as best he could and with unfocused eyes, snatched up the pan of gold flecks and flung the whole thing into the big bear's open eyes.
El Oso roared as the gold nanoparticles found his corneas, inhaling more of the floating particles deep into his lungs. His face was plastered with the fine dust and a small cloud surrounded the big man's oversized head. El Oso scratched and clawed at his face trying to wipe the irritant out of his eyes, nose and mouth. He lurched from side to side and roared in pain.
Teddy grabbed up a lab towel and covered his own nose and mouth. He tried to slip past The Bear but the man was lashing out—indiscriminately swiping for Teddy in the air. Teddy didn't think he could take another hit from the massive paws. He dodged right and left, picking up anything he could find and throwing it at the enraged beast—microscope, scissors, the chair—nothing had any affect.
The mountain kept coming.
Teddy reached into a cabinet behind him and grabbed a container that was heavy. He didn't even know what was in it—it was just heavy. Teddy wound up for a head shot... The creature dropped in cold blood—a gaping wound gushing blood all over the back of his head and dripping onto the floor. Standing behind him, Bones held up the largest pipe wrench Teddy had ever seen.
"Quit playing with the little animals! We need to get out of here!" Bones was smiling his winningest smile.
"Where have you guys been? I thought you'd be down the tunnel by now!" Teddy tried to get around the mountain, gave up and walked over the man's back. Caleb was opening drawer after drawer looking for something as Joshua gave his father a shoulder to lean on.
"Why didn't you help then? You were only two doors down the hall?!" Teddy was starting to shake it off as they gathered outside in the main corridor.
"You looked like you had him there for a bit. I could not let ol' Nelly steal your thunder!" Bones raised the chipped red pipe wrench in victory.