song_tra_bong | In-country with Julian: day two

She acknowledges his gesture with another nod and heads to the right, staying close to the wall. She weaves behind crates, using them for cover. Her pistol is at the ready and her knife arm ready to strike, but she finds nothing.

The cavern isn't that big; much further and she might run smack into Julian. She slows her pace, listening for something from his side of the room.

He's disappointed to find it empty. He walks to the centre and says quietly, 'No one here. I presume these crates contain ammunition, are you going to take any? I can carry some for you if you think the weight will slow you down.'

With her flashlight tucked away, she follows his voice to the middle of the room. "I went a little overboard on stocking up, last time I came home. Won't take much."

She runs a hand over a crate, feeling the lid shift under her touch. "Hm." She scoots the lid aside, then gropes blindly inside. They may have cleared the room but she's still reluctant to bring out a light.

"Pistol ammo," she remarks softly, lifting a few magazines out and tucking them into her bag. "And this..." She checks a neighboring crate with an open lid. "Rifle." She lays the magazine against her palm, feeling it out like a blind woman. "For a 47."

She shrugs, putting it back. "Not like I didn't bring enough. You find another tunnel on your side, or will we have to go back the way we came?"

'There's another.' He doesn't move though, just asks. 'Did you ever shoot one of those things before you came here?'

He doesn't much like guns because he thinks they're crass and common. But he appreciates that she seems to know what she's talking about with them.

A shake of the head. "No. But I had good teachers."

She stands there for a moment, trying to study his face in the dark. "Should we go, then?"

He shrugs and moves off into the new tunnel, keeping quiet as before. Her studying doesn't bother him, he knows his face gives nothing away. And he doesn't have far to go before the ground dips sharply, sharp enough so that it's almost a drop. He looks back and murmurs, 'Probably have to slide down, too steep to walk now'...and proceeds to do just that, sitting down and sliding easily down into pitch blackness below.

She puts away her pistol and knife, then ducks her head out of the rifle strap, the weapon dropping into her waiting hands.

Gun cradled near her chest, she sits and pushes off, hoping Julian can get out of the way before she crashes into him.

He does - having slid on the side of one leg while the other remained straight, it means he's practically standing as soon as the foot hits flat ground. He clears the bottom so Mary Anne has room, thinking to himself that he was lucky there were no spikes or anything waiting for him and he should have been more careful really. Then he walks on to get his bearings - and runs straight into a wall. Everything's solid above and to the sides, so he checks beneath his feet - and yes, there's a trapdoor.

He waits for Mary Anne. He needs to see whether she has the guts to go through when there could be anything waiting on the other side - including people, listening to them move right now. If that's the case, they'd be dead before they had the chance to fight their way out.

She doesn't quite have Julian's skill with landings--she went down more like a grade school kid on a slide--but when she hits bottom she gets upright quickly and with minimal awkwardness.

She takes a few tentative steps forward, then checks herself a hairsbreadth from hitting Julian. "What did you find?" she whispers.

'We can only go down. It's either a trap, or the door has been put there as a necessity when they were building.'

There's no way of knowing which it is. He says no more, wanting to get her initial reaction because it'll probably be the true one.

She's quiet for a moment. "They wouldn't rig any explosives this deep, and certainly not in something connected to ammo storage. If the door is a trap, it's covering stakes. If it's covering a room...We move the door and there's any light, doubtful they'd waste a lantern on a stake pit. Of course, it's doubtful they'd waste light on an empty room, too."

She sets her jaw. "If wee find light, we'll have to be fast. Grab my ankles--I'll go through from the waist up. I can sweep the room and you can get me out if the shit hits the fan."

Damn Viet Cong engineers and their need to put doors in the floor.

He nods, even if she can't see it in the dark. It's a sound plan - and she's showing no fear, which is far more important to him. He'd have been disappointed if she'd asked for them to go back the way they'd come.

He moves, crouches and grabs her ankles. 'Crouch, move the thing and go. It must be done quickly, to surprise them if they're there. If you shout, I'll pull you back fast - leave your rifle next to me and use your handgun. I'll be able to grab it and shoot through the hol once you're back up, if necessary.'

She drops into a crouch, laying the rifle within Julian's reach and drawing her pistol. She flips the saftey off and, gun still in hand, lifts the trapdoor the slightest bit open.

A telltale sliver of light shines out.

She takes a deep breath. "Back in a minute, dear." Then, almost in one motion, she flips the door wide open and dives through the entrance.

There. Two soldiers at a table--with cards? a map?--two head shots before they can draw their weapons. She twists, trying not to wrench herself out of Julian's grip but trying to see, and there--one almost behind her, diving for an AKfucking47 and she pulls the trigger twice before he stops moving. She looks around a moment longer; there don't seem to be any exits from here, so no chance of someone running for help.

"Pull me up," she says, voice calm. "Room's clear."

He pulls easily and she's back up. He stands and takes a step backwards so they're not too close, then says, 'Nice shooting. Do you want to go and see what they were looking at or just go back straight away?'

"Thanks." She holsters the pistol and grabs her rifle before standing.

A shrug. "Wasn't anything overly interesting in there, and no other ways out, so we'll have to go back the way we came. Speaking of which, God only knows how long we've been down here. And we need to be back at the ambush point before dark."

'Fine then. We can go back the way we came until we find light, it should be easy enough to see what time of day it is. Then - explore further, or go back, I don't mind.'

He walks back to the base of the incline and looks up its almost-vertical face. 'Wait here. I'll...' he stops and curses because he'd been about to suggest he climb up and pull her up but they don't have a rope with him that he can see. He sighs. 'It's earth, but there are no footholds and it'll take ages to dig some out.'

Yes, of course he could just twist for a rope out of some shadow.

'I'll help you up. It'll be quicker and we should be out of here before dark in case they change guards or come back here to sleep or anything.'

She slings her rifle over her back, then heads over to the mouth of the tunnel. She sticks her head inside, bracing her hands on the incline and staring up the slope.

"Help me up how exactly? I start crawling and you just push?"

Because if so, his whole 'respecting her personal space' thing is going to have to go right out the window.

For the sake of speed, he'll get over it.

'Give me your knife. Then hold onto my back, I'll carry you up.'

He says it like its no big deal. Inside, he's cringing, just a touch.

"Here." She draws her knife and hands it to him, hilt first; part of her realizes the strangeness of the action--this is the knife she threatened him with, after all.

Once he takes it, she moves to stand behind him. He's taller than she is, and she's not about to just throw her arms around his neck and jump on him. Instead, she just rests her hands on his shoulders. "What now?"

He twists his bow and quiver back to Arden for the time being, then crouches slightly. 'Hold tight, grip with your legs too. I only need my arms.'

And his mind is resolutely not thinking about having anyone this close, for the first time in a long long while.

She nods, though he can't see it. Her grip on his shoulders tightens and she hooks one leg around his waist. With a slightly ungainly hop, she throws the other leg around.

She ducks her head, cheek resting between his shoulders. "I'm ready when you are."

She's no burden to him. Two Amberites together can lift a large car if they choose to, so one human female is no bother. He just straightens, then drives his knife into the earth with force, then the other, arms length above his head. He uses them to lift them until his arms are straight, then braces his legs on the side, pulls the knives out and repeats the motion.

It only takes about five minutes for him to lift them both to the top this way. And strong though he is, he's breathing heavily by the time they get to the top. When they're there, he just stands until she drops off him, then hands her knife back, twists Shadows until his bow is back and starts walking up the tunnel again. All in silence.

She knows about his strength, figures he probably doesn't even register she's there. She just keeps her head down on the way up and lets go when it seems like that's what he wants.

She sheathes the knife and unshoulders her rifle before following.

She can be quiet too, when she chooses.

He tries not to think about it. Maybe he will later, or when he's back in Amber - but not now.

Because he could have just twisted a rope into his hands and hauled her up. But he didn't. And he's not sure why. he stays silent until he reaches the place where the tunnels had forked.

'You still want to go straight back outside?' Just to check.

She eyes the two unexplored tunnels. "Should at least look," she admits, her gaze shifting to the way they first came in.

"It's not far...You give me a boost and I'll go see what daylight's like. I'll come back and let you know if we can afford to go on."

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