“Then get out of there,” he replied.
She immediately imagined the scared looks on the women and children that had been taken by these drug lords and Alexis knew that there was no turning back for her, she’d see this through to the end.
“I couldn’t. We couldn’t. There was literally no place to go. Check the tracking against the layout. How much farther do we have?”
They had been lucky that their intel was able to provide a layout of the underground bunker, and the man knew the consequences if he tried to pull one over on their team.
“Five yards ahead, you’ll find an entrance on the left.”
“Charlie,” Alexis whispered, “run an infrared scan.”
The group paused and Charlie stepped around Alexis, leaning the infrared camera into the opening, scanning the space for any heat. As he gave the all-clear, Alexis motioned for the team to follow her inside the room.
The darkness swelled around them, threatening to suffocate them in the abandoned room. Alexis’ heart pounded in her chest, sounding like she was running a marathon. Her fear spiked and the earlier notion of something being wrong bubbled to the surface.
This room should have had men gathered or standing watch. The team knew how this cartel worked and they always covered their backs.
Alexis paused, the group halting behind her, and she glanced around the room with her night-vision goggles. Nothing seemed out of place, just a room with a few chairs and a table. A dark stain marred the corner and Alexis shivered at the thought of what may have occurred there.
“Let’s move forward,” Charlie barked, stepping around Alexis and waving his hand toward the group.
Ted immediately moved to follow his friend farther into the room, but the rest of the men stood stoically behind Alexis. She knew that they’re waiting for her decision to proceed.
But something nagged at her – something wasn’t right.
Just as Alexis began to call out for the team to fall back, Charlie and Ted stepped farther into the room toward another exit. She held in a deep inhale as they opened the door and moved into another hallway.
The rest of the group followed the two men down the hallway, leaving Alexis at the rear. She kept her eyes peeled, twisting and turning her head, continually taking in their surroundings.
She remembered the layout from the map and knew the hall led to six more rooms with the possibility of no outlet, at least not one that their intel could recollect.
They traveled farther down the narrow path, passing two doors that Charlie claimed to show no heat signature. Her feet faltered when the thud of a door shutting sounded behind her.
“Stop,” she called out in a breathy shout, but the men didn’t hear.
Alexis turned behind her and aimed her gun as she scanned the space. Though they’ve traveled quite a distance, she could see the door that led to this second hallway was now closed.
Her heart falters at the notion that they’re not alone.
“Fallback, team. Fallback!” Alexis shouted to the group only to have Charlie overrule her. “Continue forward!”
His yell was muffled by the first round of shots. Alexis looked around in horror as two of her men fell onto the concrete floor, both taking shots to the head and neck.
“Shots fired!” Alexis screeched.
“Get the fuck out of there, Alexis!” Heath roars in her ear.
“Couldn’t trapped. Find me a way out.” Reaching out, Alexis held her hand against the neck of one of the downed men, trying to stop the blood flow and hating that his pulse was weakening.
She knew that if anyone could save her and the members of her team, it was Heath.
Closing her eyes, Alexis leaned away from the dying man and pressed her back against the wall tucking herself into a ball toward the ground. She wasn’t cowering – far from it. In the group home as a teenager, Alexis learned how to intensify her hearing. She could close her eyes and listen for every ping and crackle to know when someone was approaching, which was always helpful when one of the older boys would try to enter the girl’s rooms.
Her previous teams and friends liked to call her a ninja. She was quick, stealthy, and despite her small stature, she was powerful.
Alexis closed off from the world around her and listened. She could hear her own heartbeat, hear her shallow breaths with each inhale, hear the screams of her men as they tried to outrun the bullets in the blackened hallway.
Whoosh, whoosh.