The Edge of Obsession by Diana Muñoz Stewart

Author:Diana Muñoz Stewart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Diana Munoz Stewart
Published: 2019-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Sweat and salt drenched Sion’s brow. Hard to remember ever feeling this beat down.

Thirty-one women. No Sophia or Rosa. Some bodies were simply too decayed to be them. The women who were here had been shot, tortured, brutalized. The signs were obvious even to someone like him, who’d never seen the like.

He dropped his light from the face of another woman who’d never had a chance. “We’re going to need to alert the police.”

Dee rolled her neck and stood from where she’d been squatting. “Agreed.”

A noise like thunder erupted. Dee spun, moved like fire, sprinting at him. “Down!”

A spasm of heat and pressure, dirt and grit slammed down the tunnel and lifted Dee. A millisecond later it hit Sion, tossing him to the ground. Something dropped across his back, knocking the air from his lungs. Face pressed into dirt, fighting for air, he shifted as creaks and groans settled around him.

Ears ringing, crap leg barking pain, he rolled dirt and debris from his back as he sat up. Air coated with dust rushed into his lungs. Fuck, lost his mask. He bent forward, gagged into his fist. Spit repeatedly.

With a tug of his shirt over his nose and mouth, he breathed again, trying to make out something—anything—in the dark. Couldn’t see. He’d lost his headlamp. “Dee? Dee, are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” came the reply amid a series of hacking coughs. A light flicked to his left. “You?”

What good would it do to tell her his leg felt like someone had taken a hatchet to it? None. “Aye. What happened?”

“An explosive booby trap.” She sounded groggy. “Not sure how I missed it or why it took so long to go off, but it did.”

Her light dropped from him and flashed down the tunnel, sparkling off floating particles of dust. “Let’s get out of here.”

Rolling to a crouch, he inched his way forward. Dee helped, shining her light across the area that separated them. The sight was more gruesome than ever, with sightless eyes and broken limbs.

“The dirt covering them should help with the escaping toxins,” she said, almost to herself, but he’d noticed she, too, no longer had her mask.

“Hold your light there,” he said, spotting his headlamp. He picked it up, cuffed off the dirt, tested it. Still worked. “I’ve got it.”

She lowered the light from him and flashed it down the tunnel. When he was next to her, she pointed the light back down at his leg. “You’re hurt.”

“One to talk,” he said. “Your forehead is bleeding.”

She put a hand up to her bleeding head. “And my backpack is buried, along with our water, and other supplies. I’m usually much luckier than this.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, you’re the luckiest woman down here.”

She snorted. Without another word they moved down the tunnel.

Sion was already bent double when the roof and sides forced him to get to his knees and crawl. Despite nerve-rattling shifts, pops, and squeals, along with their coughing and gagging, the area had a muffled quality.

“Good thing we weren’t in the front chamber,” he said as he was forced to worm-crawl.

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