Their heartbeat was louder than their breath as the shadow above got closer and closer. Their eyes were fixed on the distant circle of light above them.
"You like it down there?" a deep voice came down the pit like an echo. They couldn't see the man's face as it was covered by the sunshine falling on his face. They moved back from where they were sitting to see his face, and the sun was slowly fading away from his face.
Josie thought of the word gentleman when she first saw him. His shiny brown eyes, high-bridged nose, and eyebrows were perfectly stationed in his sculptured face like an art of work.
"If you mind getting us out.", Liam broke the minutes' silence.
The stranger threw them a rope and moved out of their sight.
"He looks like a psychopath!!!" Liam was convinced.
"Let's go out first.", Josie was ready with her bags on her back.
"What if he kills us as soon as we get out?".
"Either you starve to death here or try your chances out there.", Josie started climbing up the rope.
Liam was whining still left behind, "If he is going to help us, why couldn't he throw in a ladder?".
Josie reached the top and looked down to check on Liam. She reached out her hand when he was near the top. But Liam's expression was not what she expected. She could see the I knew it face mingled with fear. Suddenly Josie felt a cold metal touching her on the back of her neck. She instantly knew it was a gun when she heard the loading sound, like a ringing in her ear.
Josie was holding Liam, trying to help him come up, and Liam could feel her hands shaking. Josie wasn't afraid to die, but she was not protecting Liam.
"Why did you let us out if you are going to do this?", Josie didn't understand the whole situation. "If you think we have something valuable, you can take it.".
She could hear him scuffing at her words, "I don't need a force to take away what you have.", his deep voice was exceptionally annoying with that sentence. "What brings you here?" he asked them.
"We just wanted to take refuge from the storm, we had no intention to harm anyone.", Josie was struggling not to lose Liam's hand.
"Look, we don't have the caliber to hurt or take what you have. Just let us go.", Josie was begging with a desperate shaky voice.
"Do they think I am doing this because they invaded my place?" the stranger thought. He lowered his gun and lifted Liam effortlessly, "Follow me.", He started walking towards a rusty car parked behind the house in ruins.
"Are you okay?" Josie checked with Liam.
"What's the deal with him? Should we run away while he has his back on?", Liam felt the chills when the stranger turned back and looked right through his eyes as soon as he finished his words.
"You want to walk? It takes a day in every direction.", it was as if he answered Liam's question.
"He could hear that??" Liam was astonished as he spoke from a distance.
"Let's go." Josie followed the stranger.
She couldn't continue walking with Liam's condition. At least now she was assured that he wouldn't kill them.
The stranger lifted a hatch that revealed stairs to a kind of underground house. It was 110% in sync with the ground; no one would even take notice. Josie and Liam followed him down the stairs, but it was more than just a basement, it was a bunker. It seemed like the perfect haven they could ever ask for.
He opened a steel door heavily secured like he was opening a bank's vault. The bunker had everything inside water, food, medicine, and even all other necessities found in a household.
"What is this place? I could see why he tried to kill us now.", Liam was in a moment of realization.
"Yeah, but why would he let us in after he threw that fit?" Josie couldn't understand the stranger's intention. If he tried to kill them to protect his things, why would he let them in? He could have just let them go. They wouldn't even know this place existed.
"What are you trying to do?" Josie asked him straightforwardly.
"Make yourself at home.", the stranger answered with a wicked grin as he sat in a chair.
Josie started circling the room they were in, and she knew this was her chance. She took her knife out and held it to his neck.