Russian Amerika: Chapter Forty Three

43 - In the Bowels of Chena Redoubt

    Even though his body ached and he wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep, Grisha forced himself to follow Wing. Ahead of them, Nathan's large-bore revolver prodded a bruised and stumbling Valari.

    The ice-sheathed stone walls glistened redly from two kerosene lanterns carried by the small band of survivors. Out of thirty-odd people who had been in the room above, nine now crept through the dim depths of the redoubt. Iron-barred cells, some containing frozen corpses, testified to the malignant nature of this level.

    "Do you think they have recaptured the redoubt?" Grisha asked.

    "I think they have leveled the redoubt," Wing said shortly, "thanks to that bitch's transmitter."

    "They didn't care if they killed her," Grisha said wonderingly.

    "You of all people should know how cheap life is in the Czar's Amerikan possession," Nathan said over his shoulder. "Weren't they going to use you as a Judas goat? Didn't they kill a cossack officer and blame you?"

    "Why does anyone work for them, then?"

    "Ask the major," Wing muttered.

    Nik, in the lead and carrying one of the lanterns, suddenly stopped.

    "There's no way out."

    "Yes, there is, but it was always heavily guarded." Nathan said with authority. "I've been down here before." he audibly swallowed, and there was a catch in his voice when he continued, ".when I watched them torture my twin brother to death."

    "They killed your brother in here and you escaped?" Grisha asked.

    "I, did. He died in this place, and, and I was with him when it happened."

    "My God," Nik said quietly.

    The group fell quiet, staring at Nathan whose face shone with reddish tears. Grisha's ears reached out in the sudden silence, searching for something he hadn't been aware of until just now. They were being followed.

    "Nik," he said quietly and crooked an index finger.

    The tall Russian handed his lantern to a soot-streaked figure whom Grisha finally recognized as Karin. Her eyes blazed defiantly as she grasped the bail.

    "Which way, Nathan?" she asked.

    "Over, there," he pointed, "I think." The band shuffled onward while Nik and Grisha hung back in the shadows.

    Nik stepped next to Grisha, his eyes large and hollow-looking.

    "What is it?" he whispered.

    "Someone's behind us."

    "One of ours, maybe?"

    "They haven't identified themselves," Grisha said flatly.

    Nik peered back into the gloomy distance, his jaw muscles tightening. "Good point," he murmured, easing off the safety on his weapon.

    They pulled apart in mutual understanding, taking up station across the dark cavernous space from each other. Grisha leaned against the icy wall and willed his breathing to relax. Only an occasional murmur from the group, now thirty meters away, broke the silence.

    Exhaustion tugged at him, seductively whispering how sweet it would be to let his eyes close for a few moments. Lassitude slowly washed over him and he felt as if he were floating above all the strife, carnage, and death he had witnessed in the past two - my God, only two - days.

    Out in the darkness boot leather scuffed against stone. Grisha's senses prickled to full awareness and he pointed his machine-pistol toward the spot from where the sound had emanated.

    He strained to hear where the next step would fall, wondering what would happen then.

    From across the space something bumped woodenly.

    Gunfire filled the chamber.