Descent into Darkness (Major Spoilers for House of Ashes)

Chapter Two

Before she knew it, Gabrielle found herself back on solid ground, although the impact from the fall had hurt a little. She inspected her surroundings as she got up, the structure looked like it had been some kind of temple once, but was now in ruins, some broken staircases leading down to the lower part of the room.

She had also been alone, having no idea where the rest of her squadmates were. "Jason! Nick!" She called out, seeing if they were nearby first, only resorting to her comms when she got no response. "Mailman Five to all call signs, does anyone copy? Over." She tried again, this time over her radio, but still got no response.

"Stupid fucking thing..." She muttered to herself as she stood up, deciding that the next best course of action was to move on, see if she could find any of her teammates. However, the moment she heard someone talking in Arabic echoing around the large room, she ducked into cover behind some debris by the entrance.

She occasionally peaked, to try and see who it was. As she suspected, it was an Iraqi soilder coming from the other set of steps that led into the room from the cave network, the same one that had his gun trained on Jason before they all fell. Even if she couldn't understand what the man was saying, she could tell from his tone that he'd been asking around for something.

After some mental debating, she decided to leave cover and reveal her presence. Her sudden appearance seemed to almost startle the man, but he soon composed himself. "I'm sorry, I don't understand Arabic." She explained calmly, especially since there had been no need to escalate the situation.

Much to her surprise, he'd started talking in English in response to her statement. "You're one of the Americans? Is there anyone else with you?" He asked immediately. She still stayed wary of the situation, otherwise she'd never hear the end of it later, but made sure she wasn't coming across as hostile.

"Yes I am, and it's just me right now. I got separated from my team when we fell." She answered honestly. She was just glad that they'd both stayed calm rather than shooting at each other on sight. "Well then, I guess we're in the same boat for now." He admitted. "Since we're stuck together in the meantime, my name's Salim." He introduced himself after a moment.

She cautiously shook his hand. "Gabrielle, nice to meet you Salim." She responded with a polite smile, before turning back to the matter at hand. "Do you have any ideas where we are? Because I certainly don't." She questioned him, having another look at their surroundings.

Salim shook his head. "No, your guesses are as good as mine." He replied. Once he caught sight of the bloodied corpse, he went over to inspect it. Gabrielle followed suit, the pair kneeling in front of the body as Salim turned it over. Much to her shock, she recognised the corpse as one of the marines that had been with her squad. "Shit... this is one of the guys my squad arrived with..." She informed Salim, sounding a little more panicked this time, although she had no idea what had killed the marine or if she'd find her friends alive.

"What hell visited you, my friend?" Salim muttered to himself as he continued inspecting the corpse. Her gaze followed the trail of blood going all the way down the stairs and into the next corridor. Even though her gut had been telling her this was a bad idea, she and Salim still decided to actually follow the blood trail anyway.

As they reached the broken edge of the stairs, the groundquakes happened again, causing the pair of them to start loosing their balance, Salim's rifle dropping into the deep chasm below. He was able to regain his balance in time make the jump over. Gabrielle had barely missed the jump, the panic building up in her chest quickly turning into relief when Salim was able to turn around and grab onto her hand in time to stop her from falling down there as well.