Resurfacing

Chapter 7

September 2023 (Present)

Shivering with constant fear and exhaustion, she wasn't sure she could take another round of roulette with a gun. Time was not told here. She didn't know if it had been a week or three since Anthony had been killed, but she figured her time was near. Whenever she heard footsteps come to her cell, she begged any God to give her the relief she wanted so desperately. Just let there be a bullet in the chamber.

Sweat poured down her face as she tried breathing in the dark. She would rather take the waterboarding, the beatings, anything but having the gun back to her head, the little red recording light on. She had resigned herself to die in this place and that would be the end of it. Every second was spent counting the next second to when a gun would be at her head again.

There was a delayed reaction in her realizing that there was gunfire echoing through the area. Shuddering from explosions, dirt falling pieces of dirt and sand falling from the ceiling. It didn't matter where it was coming from, it meant the end. Hearing voices yelling, she didn't try to listen, but moved to lay on her back. Everything would be over soon.

Rattling shook the caves again, her eyes closing as she couldn't keep herself awake any longer. The gunfire sounded closer than it had, but it didn't matter, the end was here and she welcomed it.

A booming noise echoed within her cell, debris flying between the bars on onto her, as she heard several pairs of footsteps approach.

"Check in here." someone said in English.

"Dead in this cell."

"Dead in this cell too."

"Check the last one."

Her head rolled to the side, there was no energy to even try making a move. Feeling fingers at her neck checking for a pulse.

"She's alive, but barely." Feeling like a ton of weight, someone picked her up bridal style, her limbs limp, before she was moved so her stomach was over the man's shoulder.

"Are the other area's cleared?" voices were interchangeable at this point.

"Yes, we've placed the detonations as well."

"Let's go."

Her body ached as her body shifted with the movement of the man. Groaning she wished they would just put her down and shoot her. There was no use moving forward.

Fresh air in her lungs caused her to cough, unused to such clean air when all she had smelt for a long time was dirt, sweat, and death. Hearing the roar of a vehicle, she was handled with care as she was moved from over the shoulder onto something soft. Nausea hit as the vehicle moved, causing her to vomit stomach acid to the side of the bed.

"She needs medical attention asap." someone called through.

"We'll have a team on standby at the base." a pilot noted, as the helicopter moved away from the ground, and was a fair distance away when a large boom ruptured the earth.

"Target eliminated." someone said.

~~

Early 2023

"Who are you? Where are you from?" a man asked in broken English. Still spitting out water from the latest dunk.

"My name is Elizabeth, I'm a journalist from America."

"Liar!" her head was shoved roughly into water, her body thrashing but held down, she couldn't escape the water. Oxygen was running out, not that there had been much in the first place. Screaming into the water was all she could do.