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Before he can recover, I sprint down the corridor with the lantern in my hand. Frisk will find himself in the pitch dark soon, once I turn the corner and start running faster.
A howl of pain echoes down the passageway behind me.
I donnae care what happened to Christian Frisk. All I want to know is who fired that shot and why. If those bastards have hurt Ashley or Munro, I'll empty this gun into them. No, I never wanted to kill anyone, but I will not stand by while the people I love are in danger.
When I turn the corner into the main passageway, I slow to a quick walk and sidle up to the wall. Then I shut off the lantern. Donnae want the villains to see me coming or know which way I might go when I reach the doorway. The sunlight from the entryway skylight leaks into this passage, so I'm not completely blind.
Someone moans and whimpers.
Ashley? No, it sounded like a man. But I can't picture Munro rolling about on the floor while whimpering, no matter what the cretins have done to him.
I slow down even more as I approach the slab. The man Frisk had left to guard this corridor is facing away from me. I whack him on the head with my lantern. As he crumples to the floor, I realize I have one chance to surprise the rest of Frisk's men. I raise the gun, take a breath, and leap over the slab, landing on my feet. "Freeze! I won't hesitate to shoot ye if ye make any moves."
Ashley and Munro stand in the center of the cavern. The four men who had held them hostage now lie on the floor with their wrists and ankles bound with zip ties.
I study the scene but can't make sense of it. "Ah, would anyone care to tell me what happened?"
"Ashley lured two of these blokes outside," Munro says. "She kneed one in the groin and hit the other with a rock, then she ran back in here. I had already subdued the other two blokes. When the pair she'd left outside stumbled back into this cavern, it was easy to tie them up. They weren't thinking too clearly. Concussion, most likely."
"Well, I…" Have no bloody idea how to respond to that. "Good job, you two."
Ashley rushes over to hug me. "Are you okay? What happened to Frisk?"
"I'm fine. He's probably lost in the caverns. I left him in the dark, literally." I hold up my lantern. "We should go check on him. Just to make sure he doesn't have another weapon."
She kisses me, and though she flicks her tongue as if to deepen the kiss, she pulls away instead. "I was so worried about you, but I shouldn't have been. You know how to handle yourself."
"And so do you." I whisper into her ear, "You have no idea how much I want to shag you right now."
She struggles not to smile.
I look at Munro. "Can you handle these five eejits while we find Frisk?"
"Aye. This lot aren't the sharpest tools in the shed."
I give Ashley the lantern and hold her hand while we make our way back to where I'd left Frisk. We haven't seen any sign of him between the main entrance and the mummy chamber, so he must be here someplace. We peeked into all the chambers along the way, but there was no evidence Frisk had hidden in those places. Where did thecacango?
A strange moaning noise reverberates below us, down in the mummy chamber. The way it echoes makes it hard to tell if that's a human sound or some type of bizarre draft. When the moaning starts up again, though, it sounds distinctly human.
I lean over the hinged slab and wave for Ashley to shine the lantern into the pitch-dark chamber below.
Frisk lies prone at the bottom of the steps.
"Have ye broken any bones?" I shout down to him.
"As if you care."
Oh, aye, now is the right time to be petulant. What a bloody stupidcacan. "Do ye want to be rescued? Or should we leave and lock the door behind us?"
"Yes, fine, help me."
"Say 'please' first."
He grumbles, "Please."
Ashley gives me a disapproving look, then shakes her head.
Maybe that was a wee bit childish, but he threatened to kill the people I love. Demanding he genuflect in some small way seems appropriate.
