“Watch out!” Lewis warned as the spear sped downward, following the wall towards where the others were watching. Everyone ducked back inside in time to avoid being impaled. Lewis reeled the spear back in and inspected it for damage. Everything looked fine for another try.
“What happened?” Gonzalez asked from the tunnel.
Lewis looked up to the tree before answering. “I think the angle is too steep from here, the blade glanced off. I need to get higher.” The problem was he was already hanging about as high as he could go — Pierre required wild acrobatics to climb further, which wasn’t a realistic option for Lewis. He gripped the narrow tip of the crack with his fingertips, carefully pulling himself higher as he stretched to get his left foot into the cam’s loop of nylon webbing. Slowly extending his leg, Lewis fought his body’s tendency to topple over backwards as he stood up, directly facing the sheer wall. This was as high as he was going to get while maintaining a direct path to the tree.
Lewis had been sent to the corner many times in kindergarten, but that did little to prepare him for aiming a homemade spear at an unseen target while his nose was firmly pressed into the cold corner where the rock walls met. Still, he did his best, extending the hose as far over his head as he could before giving the valve a sharp twist, launching the spear towards the tree once again. The shot caused Lewis to lose his balance, sending him tumbling towards the bottom of the shaft. His mouth formed a wide smile as he fell, hearing the loud thud of his knife stabbing solidly into the tree above.
Craig and the others kept their tight hold on the rope, stopping Lewis’s fall just a few feet below the cam where he once stood. The violent halt ripped the tank from under Lewis’s arm, sending it crashing onto the rubble below. “Thanks,” Lewis offered as he hung upside down, peering up between his legs to the tree above. “I think we got a direct hit that time.”
Pierre tossed Lewis some of the slack at the end of the rope, allowing the group to winch him back into the cave like laundry on a high-rise clothesline. Everyone eyed the dental floss with excited eyes, the thin minty string representing their lifeline out of this whole ordeal.
Next came the most straightforward part of the plan: using the floss to pull the climbing rope up. The only tricky part was that the rope wasn’t long enough to make the whole loop and there wasn’t anyone up top to tie it off to the spear. Lewis’s idea was simple. He tied the floss to one end of the rope, and tied a large knot in the other end, hoping to pull the rope up and through until the knot got stuck at the keychain loop. The plan proved to be as successful as it was simple.
Lewis refused to let Pierre be the one to risk his life climbing to the speared tree. He could not bear watching someone die if his wild plan failed. Lewis clipped an ascender to his harness, but hoped to use the rope to support as little of his weight as possible, climbing as much as he could. At least the ascender would keep him attached to the rope, making it possible for the others to pull him to safety from their end if the makeshift harpoon pulled free.
Lewis could hear the knife blade creaking in the tree as he started out, relying heavily on the rope after Craig lifted him as high as he could. He clawed at any imperfections in the rock that he could find, struggling to support even a few pounds of his weight. He worked his way towards the corner to a possible route Pierre pointed out from below. He could never have climbed it alone but, with the assistance of the rope, Lewis was able to work his way up Pierre’s route to within a dozen or so feet of the top. There was nothing but smooth rock ahead.
Fear and fatigue combined to make his legs and arms tremble as he clung to the final holds. This last stretch would rely solely on his knife’s grip in the trunk of the tree. He released one hand, sliding the ascender as high as he could before letting go with the other hand. Having only the single ascender meant he had to use his arms to pull himself up then hang by one arm while he slid the precious device up to match. He inched along as calmly as possible, trying hard not to wiggle the spear more than necessary. Looking up, he could see the blade working its way out of the tree.
Lewis was less than three feet from the top when the Earth’s gravity finally won the battle, tugging the Leatherman’s blade from the tree. Everything seemed to move in slow motion for Lewis. He heard the gasps from below as if they were the steady drone of a worn-out ceiling fan. He watched his own arm reaching upward like a slow wave in a parade. Another rocket ride on a tank seemed like it may have been a better plan.
The seemingly slow straightening of his arm was actually a lightning fast grasp for the lip of the shaft. The first two fingers of Lewis’s right hand barely caught their target, providing just enough grip for him to swing his left hand up for a stabilizing hold. Lewis wasted no time pulling himself up, not wanting another fracture of the rock to cost the group their freedom. And that was it: Quinn Lewis was safely out of the cave at last.
“I’m up!” Lewis yelled back down as he stared at the rope that had made it to the surface, only because it was still threaded through his ascender. A mixture of cheers and sobs met him from below, the weight of the ordeal having taken its toll on everyone.
Still not wanting to risk another collapse or some freak accident, the team worked quickly to get everyone hoisted out of the shaft. Craig was the last one up, remaining in the cave until the end to help make sure the others were properly secured. Pierre stretched his arms to the sky, vowing never to go underground again then turned to remove a small gear bag attached to his harness. That is when Lewis saw it: Stonewood’s headlamp was in Pierre’s bag.
Pierre followed Lewis’s questioning gaze. Unable to come up with a quick excuse, the French climber instead thrust his hand into the bag and came out with a compact .38 revolver. Without hesitation, he aimed it at Craig and shot the bodyguard in the chest, sending the large man sprawling backwards where he plummeted to the bottom of the shaft.
Chapter 11 — OTHERS
Lewis was shocked by the sudden death of Craig at the hands of a man he, until moments ago, considered a friend. The realization that it was Pierre who had murdered both Stonewood and Miller lit a fire of rage within Lewis. He quickly mapped out the two steps it would take to cover the distance to the Frenchman, hoping to get there before Pierre got off another shot.
“Stay where you are!” Pierre shouted, yanking Gonzalez in front of him and putting the barrel of the revolver to her head.
Lewis froze. Pierre was smart to grab Gonzalez as a human shield. Lewis would willingly risk his own life for a chance to save everyone, but he could not bring himself to take the same gamble with Gonzalez’s life in the balance. “Take it easy, Pierre,” Lewis stated calmly. “We can work this out.”
Pierre stared at Lewis, trying to gauge the true intentions of the man he had gotten to know fairly well over the past few days. He released Gonzalez but kept the gun trained on her as he said, “Actually, Quinn, I could use your help. I need help contacting my people.” He paused as if pondering something before continuing. “If you help me, I’ll let all three of you go free.”
“What do you need?” Lewis asked. He knew there was no merit to Pierre’s proposed deal; after all, this was a man who had pretended to be their friend while slowly killing those that got in his way, one by one.