F or a few moments, Tyler couldn’t figure out what had happened. His ears were assaulted by a roar that seemed to come from everywhere.
When he could remember his name, he pushed himself up. Two of the lanterns were still working. He looked around and saw Stacy lying facedown. She wasn’t moving.
She had saved him. If he’d been standing when the explosive detonated, he would have been pulverized against the far wall.
He gently turned her over. Blood spilled from her side. A shrapnel wound. He lifted her shirt and saw a gash three inches long. He ripped his shirt tail off and pressed it against the wound. He couldn’t tell how deep it was.
Her eyes fluttered open.
“My side hurts,” she said, her voice more annoyed than anything else.
“I know. But you’ll be all right.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because you’re a tough woman. Now be quiet and hold this down. I’m going to see if Grant is okay.”
He got one of the lanterns and went to the edge. He shined it down and saw Grant laid out behind the pedestal on the side away from the explosion.
“Grant! Get up!”
He heard a moan in response. “Can’t a guy rest for a minute?”
Tyler’s hearing was coming back. He thought the rushing sound in his ears was the residual effects of the explosion, but it was getting louder. He looked down and saw a crack in the wall, and water gushing through it. The pool started to overflow, and the boiling water streamed across the floor, right at Grant.
“Grant!” Tyler yelled. “Get your ass onto the pedestal right now!”
The crack blew open, and water poured into the pit.
Grant had gotten to his feet and saw the water rushing toward him. He scrambled up onto the pedestal and didn’t stop until he was sitting atop the statue. The water splashed against the side, but he was far enough above it to escape injury. However, it would be only a matter of time before he was swamped, and he would suffer the same agonizing death as Sal.
For that matter, they all would.
A shout from across the chamber got his attention. “Tyler! I thought you’d be dead.”
It was Orr. He had returned, and he’d been able to remove the shoelaces binding his wrists. Tyler didn’t know whether he’d come back to make sure they’d all been killed or to gloat.
“This isn’t over, Orr,” Tyler said.
“Looks like it is to me. Then again, you could try to swim across, but that might be a little painful.” The water was already three feet deep and rising fast.
“Before I leave you to your doom and lock you in here for another two thousand years,” Orr continued, “I thought you might like to know that your father’s dead. So is Carol Benedict.”
“You son of a bitch!”
“Yeah, they’ve been dead since I first saw you this evening, and now you get to think about that for the rest of your short, miserable life while I’m off to enjoy my spoils.” He pointed at his eye. “And this? It’s nothing that a little plastic surgery won’t fix. Ciao!”
He smiled a shit-eating grin, waved a salute, and was gone, sure that Tyler would soon be a distant memory.