Read Learning to Stand for Free Online Page B

new?’
    “ Two ways in and two ways
out?”
    She looked at him.
    “ You're right," he responded
to her look. "The second exits were determined to be security risks
in the 1980s. They were cemented in. But remember who made these
rooms?”
    Alex smiled.
    “ I found a tunnel, but I
can’t figure out how it connects to the room.” Noting the smile on
Alex’s face, he said, “I figured you’d know how to find the
door.”
    She stretched her neck side to side to
indicate her lack of certainty.
    “ Well, Zack is confident you
will get out. He’s been ordered to return to base, but he hasn’t
gone. The winds are picking up so he’ll have to leave
soon.”
    Alex nodded. She glanced at Jessie.
    “ You’re welcome,” he said.
“Better get going lazy butt.”
    Taking a drink of water, Alex walked from
wall to wall. Each wall was supposed to be marked – eeny, meeny,
miny, moe.
    Dropping her head
back, she noticed a diamond with four boxes drawn into the cement
near the ceiling. Walking from wall to wall, the diamonds were
repeated. Every diamond shape had the same four letters within the
square – E, M, m, M. The letters rotated around the diamond. The
south wall had an ‘E’ in the square at the upper point of the
diamond. A capital ‘M’ held that position on the east wall. North
wall’s diamond had a small ‘m’ at its point where as the west wall
had another capital ‘M.’
    Eeny, Meeny, miny, Moe.
    The exit was in the north wall.
    “ Ok,” Alex said. “Let’s pack
up and get out of here. The Jakker isn’t going to be in the air
much longer. We need to get going.”
    Every face gawked at her. She smiled.
    “ To answer your question,
Captain Mc Clenaghan,” Alex said. “These rooms were built in the
early 1930s. As you can imagine, there was a tremendous political
unrest during the Depression. The rooms were designed to hold
portions of the government for an extended period of time. There’s
one in almost every state. The rooms are connected via telephone
and wire. The government could run in hiding.
    “ Although the Army Corps of
engineers designed the rooms, they were built by individual
contractors. In most cases, they were built by people who had
experience covering their tracks.”
    Alex looked from face to face. She saw only
skepticism. Raz’s face pinched as if she had lost her mind.
    “ The rooms were built by
bootleggers!” Alex smiled. “They knew the rooms would never be
used. The bootleggers built then used the rooms to store alcohol.
Remember, Prohibition was the law during the Depression. They found
forgotten cases of bourbon when they remodeled in the
1980s.”
    “ Troy, I need you to
distribute the field protective masks; the ones with the
mini-oxygen tanks. Vince? Can you make sure everyone is hydrated?
Matthew? Will you tell Cheyenne we are getting out? Guards? Secure
your prisoner for transport. Remember, the forest is on
fire!”
    Raz was about to intervene when she said,
“Get moving! That’s an order.”
    F

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    “ Why is the resolution of
every B horror movie so anti-climatic?” Raz asked.
    He stood between Matthew and Troy watching
Alex work. Standing on a chair, Alex played eeny, meeny, miny, moe
with the square at the top of the north wall.
    “ Because it’s a resolution?”
Troy replied. “Alex, have you found a...”
    Alex hit the last square and there was a
soft click. A door sized one-inch depression appeared in the wall.
Alex cursed.
    “ Our exit is covered...” She
started.
    Troy punctured the depression with the knife
from his mini-tool. The small blade stuck in the dry wall. Pulling
a nine inch bowie knife from its sleeve on his leg, Matthew held
the larger knife up to Troy.
    “ Now, this is a knife.”
Matthew gave his best Crocodile Dundee.
    “ Don’t start dissing my
mini-tool or...”
    “ OLIVAS. MAC CLENAGHAN.”
Alex jumped down from her chair. “Knock it off.”
    Mumbling, ‘He started it,’ the men cut the
dry wall around