Alone in the Crowd (The Chronicles of Anna Foster Book 3) Page 10

  As the lead trooper moved through the doorway, Anna and the scientists looked at each other before falling in line. Minutes later, they entered a room one level down. Here, faded murals featuring the six-limbed creatures standing upright adorned the stone walls. The golden spearhead next to the doorway leading out remained unchanged from the time Anna had first laid eyes on it years before. “It’s still here.”

  Jason followed her in. “What?”

  “The spearhead.”

  All eyes locked on Anna as she hustled across the room to the artifact.

  “Wait! Don’t touch it!” Cary launched his hand toward her, hoping to grab her arm. But, he was too late and missed. “We don’t know…”

  “It’s okay,” Anna replied with confidence. “There’s nothing in this room to worry about.”

  The two scientists glanced at each other, then followed their guide to the doorway, leaving Jason and the soldiers in the center of the chamber. The sergeant rolled his eyes and stomped toward them.

  “What in the hell is so god-damn important over here?” Cooper demanded right before Cary and Tomomi took a step back away from the wall, each with a look of astonishment on their faces.

  Cary pointed at the wall. “That.”

  The rest of the military contingent moved toward the group and stared at the wall. It was a mural of a six-legged creature standing up holding a spear.

  Anderson swallowed and continued to stare. “Holy shit.”

  The sergeant said in hushed tones, “Well, dress me in pink and call me Rosie. Is that a fucking alien?”

  Silence was the only answer he received.

  “I just wish my camera was working right now.” Tomomi’s whisper barely registered.

  A few seconds later while Anna still focused on the spearhead, Cary asked, “What are you doing?”

  She glanced over her shoulder after a brief moment of silence. “Oh, me? I’m studying the engravings on this spearhead.”

  Curious, he asked, “What do they show?”

  Anna leaned back. “Well, the side facing us shows what looks like a doorway with three circles around it. I’m wondering if the stones need to be pushed into the wall at the same time in order to open the door, or if they have to follow a certain sequence.”

  “Wait a minute. What door?”

  The rest of the group turned their attention to Anna.

  “The next door we’re going to encounter.”

  The sergeant, a stern look on his face, placed his hands on his hips. “And, when were you going to tell us this?”

  “Just as soon as we reached the next floor down…sir,” Anna replied.

  “Then, we’d better haul ass! Anderson, move out!”

  “Sarge,” Anna interrupted. “I need a little more time to study the engravings to…”

  “You had enough time to look them over while we gawked at the drawings on the wall. Piece it together while we move. We’ve got people depending on us to get this done.”

  “And, we need to make sure we can get to our destination if we are to deliver!”

  The sergeant, clearly irritated, opened his mouth to answer when one of the soldiers interrupted, “Sergeant Cooper, we’re ready when you are.”

  “Very good, Hunter.

  He turned back to Anna. “Look, Jane, we’re moving on. You can stay here and study that gold nugget in the wall, or you can come with us and help.”

  While he stepped into formation, she shot daggers at him from her eyes. “My name is Anna.”

  “Tell it to Tarzan!”

  She grumbled under her breath and stepped next to Jason.

  “I have a feeling that this is going to turn out bad,” she whispered to him.

  Jason nodded. “Me, too.”

  They began to move into the next room but stopped after Anderson and the sergeant had passed through.

  “Eggheads!” Cooper’s voice sounded gravelly, prompting him to clear his throat. “Get your sorry asses up here!”

  After Cary and Tomomi glanced at each other with amusement, they pushed their way past Anna and Jason and through the door.

  As they entered, Cooper asked, “What can you make of that?”

  Jason leaned close to Anna’s ear. “What do they see?”

  Anna scrunched her face as she scanned her memories. “I don’t quite remember. It’s been a few years.”

  “Cary.” Tomomi’s voice echoed through the doorway. “It looks like there are two more of these poles by the far wall, too.”

  “Ah, yes!” Anna said. “Now, I remember! Four metal poles drop into the room, floor to ceiling. They’re connected to…”

  “The obelisks on top of the pyramid!” Cary’s conclusion cut her off. “They have to be connected to the pillars on top. They appear to be made of the same metal and are positioned about right.”

  Cooper asked, “Do you think they are connected with the shield outside?”

  Tomomi nodded as Cary answered, “I think so.”

  “So, if we continue down, we may find the cause and shut it down. Right?”

  “Yes, that is a logical assumption.”

  “All right, then. Now, we’re making some progress! Carry on!”

  They passed through the far door into a hallway that wrapped around the room from which they emerged and led to another staircase leading down. This flight of stairs was narrower than the others, barely wide enough for one person to descend. It led to a landing where a single door blocked their progress.

  Leading the way, Sgt. Cooper and Anderson stepped down the staircase with caution to the door. Cary and Tomomi followed but stopped halfway. Jason stayed a few steps behind Tomomi, while Anna only took a couple of steps down. Hicks and Hunter remained in the hall, guarding the rear.

  As Anderson looked it over, Cooper looked up at Anna. “Is this the doorway you were talking about earlier?”

  Anna followed Anderson’s hand that held the light stick to see the details of the door. Square stones surrounded the doorway and extended about half a meter from the wall. Half a dozen stones lined each side of the doorway and along the top.

  “That’s the one.”

  Cooper frowned and turned his attention back to Anderson and the door.

  Anderson examined the stones to the left of the door. “It looks like these protrusions can be either pushed into the wall or pulled out. See these seams around the blocks?”

  Cooper leaned in and nodded.

  “Okay, Jane.” Cooper stood and turned his gaze toward Anna. “Get down here and open it up.”

  “I’m not sure how successful I will be if I try.” She stayed in her spot at the top of the stairs. “I couldn’t get through when I tried before.”

  Cooper’s face hardened. “You mean you haven’t been through this door?”

  “No,” she answered and crossed her arms. “I haven’t.”

  Cooper grabbed the bill of his hat and threw it on the floor. “Damn it, woman! We brought you in here to be our guide, and you can’t even get past a stupid door?!”

  Miffed by the squad leader’s retort, Anna taunted, “You think you can do better? You open the door!”

  He growled and turned on his heel to face the door. “Anderson! Give me the stick!”

  Anderson slapped the light stick into Cooper’s hand and stepped back to give him room. While the sergeant looked over the doorway, Cary and Tomomi glanced back to Anna with concerned looks on their faces. Anna shrugged and turned her gaze back to Cooper.

  A few minutes passed with nobody saying a word, as they all watched Cooper. Finally, he turned around, frustrated.

  “Alright! God damn it, Jane! How do you do this?”

  Anna sighed. “You pick a number of blocks and push them into the wall. The diagram on the gold spearhead upstairs may hold the key on how to get past it.”

  “Why didn’t you say so before?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I did!”

  “Sure you did, Jane.”

  “My name is Anna!”<
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  “Don’t you get uppity with me, woman. This old dog bites.”

  Anna cocked her head to the side, exasperated. “Do you want my help or not?”

  “Sure! Glad to have you aboard! Now, what do we do?”

  “You wait here, while I go back up and examine the engravings.”

  “You what?”

  She answered with a smug voice, “If you’d listened to me before and waited a few more minutes, we wouldn’t be in this predicament right now.”

  Anna stepped into the hallway. “Be right back!” Her statement dripped with enough sweetness to plunge anyone into a diabetic coma.

  As Cooper growled loud enough for her to hear, she stopped in front of one of the soldiers in the hall and glanced at his nametag. “Hunter, would you care to join me?”

  “Sir?” he called, turning his face toward the stairs.

  “Go ahead. Just don’t play patty-cake too long.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  Anna and Hunter were soon back in the room with the golden spearhead. As she sat on the floor and prepared to study the wall, he walked further into the room, looking at the rest of the engravings.

  “Hunter…”

  “Ma’am, you can call me Todd.”

  “Okay, Todd. But, you have to call me Anna. Please don’t call me ma’am.”

  “Yes, ma’am…uh, I mean Anna.”

  She smiled at his response. “Since my flashlight doesn’t work, I need the light over here.”

  “Oh, sorry!” He moved to stand next to her and positioned the light stick to provide as much light for her as possible.

  As she started to pore over the engravings on the shaft of the spear, he asked, “Anna, what’s your opinion of Sergeant Cooper?”

  “He’s an arrogant asshole that should learn to listen as well as talk, especially when there may be something worthwhile to tell him. He’s overbearing, pompous, and really annoying.”

  Todd nodded. “I see.”

  “What about you?” She turned away from the wall to look at him. “What do you think of him?”

  “I don’t think I’m in a position to answer that.”

  Anna glanced around the room. “We’re the only ones here right now. Why not?”

  “He’s my superior. If word of this got back to him, it could make my life really bad.”

  “If word got back to him. Honestly, I don’t want to talk to him any more than I have to. Your secret’s safe with me.”

  She turned back to the engravings. A second later, Todd kneeled next to her and whispered, “I think he’s an asshole, too.”

  “See? That wasn’t so hard. Do the rest of you guys think so, too?”

  “You mean Hicks and Anderson?”

  She nodded.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t asked them.”

  “Well,” she said, turning her attention back to the wall. “How do they act around him?”

  “They follow orders, like I do.”

  “Do they seem happy to be around him?”

  Todd cocked his head to the side and thought hard for a few seconds. “Not really.”

  “Then…”

  “Then, they probably feel the same way.”

  Anna smiled in spite of herself and focused on the engravings again.

  Hunter watched her for a few seconds. “You know, he’s probably that way because he was taught to be that way in order to be an effective leader.”

  “There are more ways to be an effective leader than just yelling at people and screaming orders.”

  “Maybe so,” responded Todd. “But, that’s his style.”

  “Maybe that works for the military, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. Besides, I’m not wearing a uniform.”

  He snickered. “Yeah.”

  Anna paused and regarded him with a cocked eyebrow. “What?”

  “Your clothes. They make you look like you’ve been living in the jungle.”

  “It’s because I have.” Her face and voice showed no sign of humor.

  “What happened to your other clothes? Surely you’ve had something else beside the leather. Right?”

  She turned back to the engravings. “I did. But, I’ve been on this moon for somewhere around ten years. The clothing I had was needed for other things, so I had to resort to this.”

  Todd watched her for a second. “Did you receive any clothes from us?”

  “Yes, but I found them a little restricting.”

  Anna stopped her examination again to gaze at him. “Does my outfit offend you?”

  “Oh, no!” He backpedaled quickly. “In fact, I like it! I was just curious. That’s all.”

  “Okay.” She eyed him and returned to her task.

  A short while later, she was done. “I think I have it now. Let’s go tell Grumpy what I’ve found.”

  Chapter 13

  Anna and Todd reached the stairs where the rest of the group waited. “I think I have your answer!”

  “Well, let’s hear it!” Cooper crossed his arms, a sour look on his face.

  She descended the staircase and pointed to three different blocks around the door frame. “You need to push in this one, this one, and this one.”

  “And, what if you’re wrong?”

  “Then, we should probably secure the person in front of the door to make sure. Because if it is wrong, the floor opens, and he falls through to an underground cavern.”

  “Gotcha. Hunter! Toss me your rope!”

  Todd, standing at the top of the staircase, pulled a coil of a thin, coated rope from his backpack and tossed it into Cooper’s waiting hand. Cooper handed one end of the rope to Anderson. “Anderson, secure yourself to this and follow Jane’s instructions when I give the signal.”

  Anna gave an exasperated sigh. “That’s…”

  Cooper jabbed a finger at her face. “Enough of your lip, woman! We’ve got a job to do! Get up those stairs!”

  She shook her head and pushed her way back up the stairs and past Jason. Cooper waited for Anderson to secure himself. That done, he connected a clip and passed the rope to Cary and Tomomi.

  “Connect yourselves to the line! The more of us connected, the more secure we’ll be.”

  Cary and Tomomi secured themselves to the line without complaint and passed it to Jason, who also fastened himself to it before handing the slack to Anna.

  “Sergeant Carter?” she asked as she looked at the coil of rope in her hand.

  Cooper snorted as he turned to look at her. “That’s Cooper, missy!”

  “Whatever.” Anna shrugged while trying to hide a smirk. “Are you sure that we shouldn’t tack down the other end?”

  “Five of us acting as a counterweight should be enough to hold up one adult. I have SOME smarts in my head, Jane!”

  “Okay!” She sighed and shook her head as she received a clip and harness from Todd. “Just making sure.”

  “Hicks! Hunter! Watch our six!”

  As the two soldiers acknowledged the order, Cooper turned back toward the door. “Anderson, open the door.”

  Anderson, following Anna’s instructions, began to push the stones into the wall and grunted as he did. Anna noted that he moved the stones more easily than she had when she had tried a decade earlier. While he worked the third one, the squad leader grabbed the rope and leaned back. “Get ready.”

  Anderson pushed the third stone all the way in and quickly grabbed the stone below. But, nothing happened. He opened his eyes, stood to his full height, and released his hold on the stone.

  He smiled sheepishly as the rest of the group relaxed, too.

  “I guess I got it right, sir.”

  Just then, something clicked. The floor beneath him dropped away, and the stairs withdrew into the floor to form a slide.

  Cooper grabbed the rope, but Anderson’s fall dragged the rest of the group into the hole. Anna twisted and scrambled to grab something to stop her fall, including Todd’s outstretched hand as he reached for her. She found no handhold, and
the rope pulled her in with the rest of them.

  Anna crashed into the pile of groaning bodies at the bottom of the chute. The impact knocked the wind out of her. She rolled off the others into the dirt and tried to catch her breath. Her body ached from the collision, but she did not appear to be seriously injured. She remembered hurting her ankle the last time she had fallen through the trap door. She could not believe it had happened again.

  “Is everyone alright?” she asked.

  Amidst the moans, she heard Jason and the scientists answer positively.

  “Just a little bruised,” muttered Jason.

  “My ribs don’t feel very good.” That was Cary.

  “I think I broke my arm,” Tomomi reported, speaking through her teeth.

  “Okay, everyone. Hold still. Let me see if I can get some light.” Anna said.

  “Where’s the light stick that…Anderson! Sarge! Are you two okay?”

  A groan from near the ground penetrated the darkness, followed by the sounds of movement in the dirt. Tomomi squealed in anguish, and the sounds stopped.

  “Who’s on top of me?” The sergeant’s gruff voice was muffled.

  Tomomi answered, “Me, sir.”

  “And me,” added Cary.

  Jason said, “Me, too.”

  “Then, get off me!”

  “Wait!” Anna warned. “She has a broken…”

  “Anna, you bitch!” the sergeant interrupted. “I’m going to kill you!”

  “We don’t have time for this. We need to get…”

  “If I wasn’t in so much pain, I’d tear you apart with my bare hands!”

  “Wait a second! Where do you hurt?” Anna asked.

  “Where I hurt should not be your concern right now. You need to worry about where I’m going to hurt you!”

  “Sergeant, shut up!”

  “No! You shut up! If it hadn’t been for your incompetence, we would still be up in the pyramid and possibly through that damn door!”

  “No! Listen!”

  As both of them stopped, they heard a faint voice from above calling. “Sarge?”

  “Hicks?” Cooper yelled back.

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Are you still in the pyramid?”