[AN - I want to extend a general thanks to anyone who is still reading at this point and toss many extra thanks at wellsbells and GreedyReader for being outwardly enthusiastic about the last addition and keeping me motivated. You guys are awesome!]
Chapter Seven
The cave was set deep into the mountain, dark and chilling. Armed with their flashlights, Teslas, gloves, and a neutralizer bag, the agents carefully made their way into the cave. It opened up to an anteroom with a pathway leading from the back wall. This path lead downward into a large cavern full of stalactites and stalagmites.
Myka ran her hand along the walls that appeared to be glittering. "Wow, this must be what the man was mining," she said in awe. "It's beautiful."
"Positively captivating," Helena agreed, "but it seems that our artifact is over there." Capturing Myka's attention, Helena placed her hand at her partner's elbow and pointed farther down the cavern.
Myka's eyes followed the path that sloped downward at an uncomfortable angle. "This should be fun," she sighed, "happen to have that grappler with you?"
"It's in the car, of course," Helena stated matter of factly, "but it's not going to help us here. I don't see a place to shoot it where I can trust that it will support the weight of even just one of us."
"Right. Let's get moving, then. We'll just have to use the stalagmites for support and hope we don't slip and get impaled on one," she cautioned after her first few steps on the icy incline. "At least they aren't as pointy as the stalactites."
They made their way along without incident until they were a few meters from the mining pick. Myka misstepped and Helena instantly reached out to stabilize her, but it backfired and they both fell to the ground. Helena landed on top of Myka with her knee slamming onto the icy stone..
"Oh dear, are you quite alright, Myka?" she fretted immediately.
"Ow, yeah, aside from a bruised butt, I think I'll be fine," Myka groaned. "How about you?"
"My knee took the brunt of my fall so that you did not have to," Helena hissed as she tried moving her leg to roll off Myka. "I think I'm going to need a moment more."
"Please, take your time, that had to hurt pretty badly," Myka sympathized. She shifted herself to better hold Helena's weight and heard a crunching sound from under her butt. "Uh oh. Um, HG, would you be able to reach around and grab my phone from my back pocket?"
"Darling, I'd have to be out of my mind to miss an opportunity to reach for your bum," Helena smirked. Since her right arm was supporting her body, she used her left hand to reach around. It brought her face close to Myka's chest, causing her heart to race.
The combination of Helena's weight pressing along her body and her hand exploring the back of her pants for the phone was almost enough for Myka to lose control. She lifted herself briefly enough for HG to free the phone, and gasped sharply when it provided contact between the artificer's hip and an intimate part of Myka's anatomy.
Helena whispered a quick "oops" before rolling herself to the side of Myka. She inspected the phone and offered her condolences. The screen was shattered and there was no hope for it to function. Myka just sighed.
"Do you think you'll be able to get up now?" Myka asked her partner.
"Yes, I do believe the pain has subsided enough," she replied, moving into a sitting position and standing carefully.
Myka dug through her pack for her neutralizer gloves and bag. She slowly stood and approached the mining pick. Lifting it from the stone it sat upon, Myka turned her head and dropped it into the neutralizer bag where it popped and zapped for a moment before settling down.
"Okay, aside from the environmental factors and our own clumsiness, that really wasn't so difficult," Myka observed while stowing the artifact in her pack.
"Excuse me, but I do recall that it was your clumsiness that brought us both to the ground," Helena retorted cheekily.
Myka shot Helena a playful glare and brushed past her to make it out of the cave. They made it to the mouth of the cave without any slips or slides, but were equally surprised and worried to see that the SUV was covered in another seven inches of fresh snow.
"Bollocks," Helena cursed, "how long were we even in there?"
"It was about three hours. We better get going," Myka insisted, "this is going to be a very difficult trek back to the cabin."
Myka climbed back into the driver's seat and Helena tossed their equipment into the backseat.
As expected, the road was even worse than when they climbed their way up the mountain. Myka could feel the tires slipping if she tried to go over 20 miles per hour. She held tightly onto the steering wheel, knuckles white and eyes focused hard on the road.
Helena kept quiet in the passenger seat, also keeping her eyes on the road ahead. The snow was falling faster and visibility was limited. Seeing that they were approaching a sharp left curve, Myka eased up on the gas so she could navigate it slowly.
"Myka!" Helena shouted. "Tree!"
By the time Myka could react, it was too late. As soon as she slammed on the brakes, she knew it was exactly the wrong thing to do. If they hit the tree, it would have been at a fairly low speed. Instead, the sudden application of the brakes caused the SUV to fishtail as the tires lost traction.
"Hang on," Myka said as she tried steering into the skid. The car made its way off the road and bounced over the rocks beyond its edge until it came to a stop.
Catching their breath from the scare, the agents looked at each other to be sure neither was hurt. The jostling didn't feel great for Helena's previously injured knee or Myka's bruised behind, but they were both glad to be in one piece.
"I was most certain the car would flip over," Helena thought out loud, feeling relief.
"All of the things I've encountered as a Warehouse agent, and that was still more scary than I would have liked," Myka added.
The women sat in silence for a moment, just regaining their composure from the experience. "Ready to get going?" Myka asked her partner, who just nodded.
Myka worked to get the car back on the road, but it was settled on rocks and snow and took a few tries to get the car moving in the right direction. She steered to go around the fallen tree when she noticed a blinking red icon on the dashboard. The engine temperature warning was flashing and Myka quickly turned the key in the ignition. She read enough books to know that this wasn't good. "Great, we won't be able to drive this thing far if it's overheating."
"Let's hop out and take a look," Helena suggested. "Perhaps it is something I can fix with my tinkering."
"I hope so," she said while pulling the lever to pop the hood and unbuckling her seatbelt once again.
Carefully stepping out of the vehicle, Myka sunk into the snow. The falling flakes swirled as the icy wind swept them through the air and Myka pulled the collar of her coat closer to her neck. Helena shuffled her feet through the snow as she made her way toward the front of the vehicle, her silky raven hair whipping around her face.
"Righty ho then, let's see what we've got under here first," Helena pushed the snow away with foot before peeking under the car. "It appears that those rocks have harmed the underside of our automobile."
There was a wet spot and the snow around it was tinged neon green.
"Oh dear," Helena worried as she looked at the car above the spot, "a hose has disconnected. I presume that the substance below the vehicle is coolant. I can reconnect the hose, but it is likely that all of the coolant is lost to us. If the car was not stocked with an extra bottle of coolant, the engine will continue to overheat."
"I don't recall seeing more coolant in the back, but I'll check again. See what you can do about reconnecting the hose and we'll go from there."
Helena didn't have much trouble getting the hose back into place, but as Myka worried, they didn't have any coolant.
"Okay, so now what do we do?" Myka wondered out loud. "We can try to keep driving it, despite knowing that it's basically going to destroy the car, or we can call for a tow truck and wait here until it shows up...whenever that may be."
"Well, I would prefer if we did not have to wait here in the cold for some man named Bob in a trucker cap to rescue us," Helena decided stubbornly. "I think we should drive the car to the filling station that we passed on the way up here. I'm most certain that we can find coolant there, then we'll be back on our way."
Myka wasn't entirely sure this was the best idea, but she went along because Helena, at least, seemed very sure of it. She just figured they could resort to the other option if this didn't pan out well.
