Fighting On Land, and below it
Brennan woke up and looked around where she was. She tried to open the car door "Come on, Open, OPEN!" she said. The door didn't budge so she rolled down the window, rocks and dirt fell into her lap and she rolled the window back up. She looked back "Hodgens," she said "Your legs," she said picking her hand of his legs, and noticing her hand was covered in blood
Hodgens opened his eyes "Where are we?" he asked
"Buried…alive," Brennan said
*******
Booth sat next to Cam with his paperwork. Alexis watched as the two talked and laughed. Booth looked up when Alexis' phone started ringing
Alexis looked away and looked to see a voicemail left, she listened to it and her eyes widened. She dropped her phone and stared towards Booth.
Booth got up worried and walked over to her "Alexis are you ok," he asked
"I told you," she said "I KNEW SOMETHING WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!" Alexis screamed
"What, what happened?" Booth asked
"Listen for yourself!" Alexis screamed shoving the phone to his chest and running off "Come on Rozalyn!" she screamed running towards the parking garage
Rozalyn followed Alexis as the two ran through the doors
Booth looked to the phone and replayed the message "Oh no," he said
"What?" Cam asked
Booth put the phone on speaker phone and replayed the message. A mechanic voice spoke "Temperance Brennan and Jack Hodgens have been buried alive. Wire transfer $8 million to the following Grand Cayman account or they will suffocate to death. Upon receipt of the wire transfer, I will provide you Brennan and Hodgens GPS Coordinates. This will be my last communication."
"Bones," Booth said sadly, running after Alexis
Cam followed
Alexis was kneeling beside a pool of blood
"Oh my god," Booth said
"It's not hers," Alexis said "It is Hodgens."
"How do you know?" Cam asked
"Part of Brennan's nail is right here, so her fingers raked her car when she was stunned. Hodgens ran out to tell her something, found her, and the grave digger ran him down," Alexis said
Rozalyn was sniffing around and barked
Alexis stood up and walked over; she picked up a piece of metal in her latex covered fingers. She held it up for Cam and Booth to see "It's cut off, maybe from our car?" she asked "The other part of it will most likely be somewhere around here, or on Hodgens. This is a bumper sticker, so I'm guessing on Hodgens," Alexis said
"How long do we have?" Booth asked
"Her car is 60 cubic feet of air, only 20% oxygen; they have been gone for about 2 hours. So if no one pays the ransom in 10 hours. They're dead," Alexis said
Booth turned to Cam "Call Zach and Angela, get them down here quick, we are solving this. I am not letting this son of a bitch kill Bones or Hodgens." He hissed
Cam nodded and ran off
Alexis stood up "Let's get to work," she said walking past him
Rozalyn ran after her and Booth followed
*******
"We have water, towels, my mini kit, ibuprofen, two cell phones with no batteries, a digital camera with a back up battery and a handful of pens," Brennan said sifting through the things in her car
"That one's a laser pointer," Hodgens said
Brennan picked up a book "And A copy of my novel."
"Hey, we can read to each other when we get bored," Hodgens pointed out
Brennan picks up a perfume bottle "Deep Rhapsody?" she asked
"Careful, that costs 3 grand a quarter ounce," Hodgens said as his face tightened up in pain
"I would be making that face too if I spent $3000 on perfume," Brennan said
"Ah my leg," Hodgens said
"Ok here," she said handing him ibuprofen pills and some water to drink "I'm worried you have compartment syndrome."
"Is that terminal? I mean within the next few hours," Hodgens asked
"No."
"But?"
"It's going to get painful," Brennan pointed out
"More painful then now?" Hodgens asked
"Yeah. Like slip into shock and die painful," Brennan said
"Well is there nothing we can do about that?" Hodgens asked
"Actually there is," Brennan said
"I'm not going to like this am I?" Hodgens asked
"Probably not," Brennan said
"Ok hold on," Hodgens said taking a page from Brennan's novel, writing something on it and slipping it into his pocket "Ok I'm ready."
"Is it a note to Angela?" Brennan asked
"Yeah, incase whatever you do to me sends me into shock and I die. The upside is that you get double the breathing time," Hodgens said
"I'm not interested in surviving that way. Now what I'm going to do is make an incision along the fascia to release the pressure," Brennan said
"How long is the incision? Actually never mind, don't tell me," Hodgens said
"It's best if I do this fast without empathy," Brennan said
Hodgens nods in reply
"Hang onto something and don't fight passing out. Ready?" she asked
Hodgens nodded again
Brennan was about to make the cut before pulling something from this leg "Look at this." She said
"What is that?"
"Evidence of what happened to you. But we can worry about that later," she said
"Put it in the pages of your book, we will look at it later," Hodgens suggested
Brennan nodded "It's better if you wouldn't talk right now." She said
"I'm nuts about Angela. Over the moon. Stupid in love with her. That's why I bought her that crazy expensive perfume. Men give you a bottle of perfume like that, it says, it says I love you. There. I said it out loud," Hodgens said
Brennan made the incision cutting along Hodgens' leg, while Hodgens screamed
*******
"So you couldn't get a hold of Russ?" Alexis asked
"No I Couldn't he is on a fishing trip in some secluded place," Angela said
"Ok, well he won't have anything to worry about, we will find them," Alexis said
"You think so?" Angela asked
Alexis looked over her shoulder and nodded "Yes, we have no choice."
Angela nodded "We have no choice," she repeated
Alexis nodded and gave Angela a hug "We will find him, don't worry." She said
"Thanks Sweetie," Angela said before walking off
*******
"Ahhhh," Hodgens said waking up
"Hah, thank god, I didn't kill you," Brennan replied
"How long was I unconscious?" Hodgens asked
"For a while. How is your leg?"
"Better. Lots better," He replied "What are you doing?"
"Hotwiring the phone to the horn, so we can send a message."
"From underground?" Hodgens asked skeptically
"We get radio reception," Brennan pointed out
"Direct current 12 Volt will burn out the circuits in a 4.2 Volt cell phone in a microsecond. Better jury-rig a resistor," Hodgens said
"Smart."
"Might work long enough to send a single burst transmission," Hodgens said
"Very short text message. Booth can trace it to a cell phone relay tower," Brennan said, wincing at Booths' name. She missed him terribly and was terrified that she might never see him again.
"And what message should we send? Goodbye? Nice to know you?" Hodgens asked sarcastically
"What are we surrounded by?"
"Pain, despair- and a subsoil accumulation of agglutinate aridosols."
"Dirt," Brennan said
"I don't like the term dirt," Hodgens pointed out
"Alright," Brennan said handing a handful of dirt to Hodgens "Tell me something I don't know."
Hodgens looked to the pile of dirt in his hand "Ash, hints of nitrogen and sulfur," he said
"So where are we?" Brennan asked
"We're in Bituminous Coal country. Basically Virginia," Hodgens finished
"We need more than that," Brennan said slightly frustrate
"The laser," Hodgens said, as he reached out and grabbed the laser pen "We need benzophenone," he said
"Benzophenone," Brennan repeated, and thought about some things that have benzophenone in it "Some soaps and plastic packaging, sunscreen-we don't have any sunscreen. Angela's perfume," she said
"Three grand that cost," Hodgens whined
"Hodgens, I'll split the cost when we get out of here," she said
"There's something you don't know about me. I'm rich," Hodgens stated
"Me too."
"No. No, you're well off. My family owns The Cantelliever Group. And there's not many of us left alive. One to be exact, me," Hodgens said
"Okay, I won't split it with you," Brennan said before pouring the perfume on the dirt in Hodgens hand "Smells nice."
"I need the camera," He said reaching and grabbing the camera. "Okay," He said looking through the camera into his palm. He looked up to Brennan "I know where we are," he said
"Alright, we have 4 to 6 seconds to send out a text message before the phone short circuits," Brennan said moving to the front seat
"I figured out a text message using 8 key strikes," Hodgens said
"How fast is your texting?" Brennan asked
"Thumbs like lighting, I can do it," he said
"Ok," she said giving him the phone "Ready?"
"Yeah," Hodgens said
Brennan pushed on the horn and Hodgens texted a message and sent it as fast as he could. The phone sparked and died in 7 seconds
"Did it send?" Brennan asked
"I think it sent," Hodgens said
"I do too," Brennan said
*******
Booth looked to his phone and opened a text message from Brennan.
*******
"Does it mean anything?" Booth asked looking at a screen with '6 7 16 M1.4' displayed on it
"It's not coordinates or a phone number," Zach pointed out
Alexis stared at the screen the numbers running through her head
"Who is it directed too?" Cam asked
"That doesn't matter," Alexis said
"Alexis, didn't you say you can see anomalies like a second sight?" Angela asked
"Yes," Alexis said
"So do the opposite, show me what is right," Angela said
"Show her what is right?" Booth asked
"Just trust me," Angela said
Alexis narrowed her eyes and walked to the white board in front of them. She copied the numbers and examined them. She drew lines between 6, 7, 16, and M1.4. She circled the three numbers and bubbled out M1.4
"Patterns," Zach said
"Now what does that mean?" Booth asked
"I don't know," Alexis hissed
"Well think fast, because, we are out of time," Zach said looking at the clock countdown
*******
Brennan and Hodgens pushed their heads against the hole in the seat "There are four extra tires, but I can't reach them." She said
"If the ransom was paid we'd be up by now. Why prolong the inevitable?" Hodgens asked
"Booth will find us," Brennan said
"You have a lot of faith in Booth," Hodgens pointed out
"No, faith is an irrational belief in something that's logically impossible. Overtime, I've seen what Booth can do. It's not faith."
"No offense. And I'm not saying this because you filleted me with a knife, we are out of air. We don't know if our message got out, much less if anyone understood it. And we're buried underground. What you have is faith baby" Brennan smiles at his words "Sorry, the baby thing is a reflex."
"We shouldn't talk right now. To conserve air," She insisted
"I need the camera batteries and the preservative powder from your kit," Hodgens said
"Soda, ash and lithium?" Brennan asked a little confused "You're going to make a carbon dioxide scrubber?"
"If you can perform surgery out of thin air, I can pull a little thin air out of thin air." Hodgens said, getting a laugh out of both of them
Hodgens mixed together the ingredients and oxygen bubbled into the car
"How much time does that give us?" Hodgens asked
"Enough time for us to do something that might just kill us," Brennan pointed out
"And what is that?"
"My next place I need to get to is the air bags," Brennan said
"You know they aren't really bags of air," Hodgens pointed out
"I'm not looking to extend our survival, I'm looking to blow ourselves out of here," Brennan said
"You're going to use the explosives from the airbags," Hodgens pointed out
Brennan nodded
"Yes that will possibly kill us," Hodgens said
"So we do nothing?" Brennan asked
Hodgens tears a piece of paper from her novel "Anyone you want to say good bye too?" he asked
Brennan took the paper and wrote a quick note, shoving it in her pocket.
*******
Alexis ignored the pressures and stared at the board
"Come on Alexis, tell me what we don't know," Alexis heard Brennan say in her head
Alexis stared harder and her eyes widened "I got it," she said
Booth looked up from his hand "What is it,"
"6, 7, 16," she said sitting at the computer and pulling up the periodic table of elements "Carbon, Nitrogen, and Sulfur, on the periodic table of elements," she said "They are buried in coal rich soil."
"We are going to need a little more than that," Booth said
"Keep going Alexis," Angela said
Zach understood and jumped in "The mineral components in coal are all the same, it's the organic components that provide a unique fingerprint. They're called macerals. They fluoresce at different levels. A reflectance of 1.4 is quite rare suggesting a high concentration of inertimite," he said
"What does that mean?" Booth said confused
"It means we know where they are," Alexis said "Let's go," she said jumping up and running towards the door
Everyone followed and piled into Booths SUV. Booth called for backup and Alexis sped down the street with the sirens blaring. Rozalyn sat on Angela's lap and barked, in a reassurance to everyone else.
*******
Brennan describes the process to Hodgens, saying that if they are less than 4 feet under the ground it will blow them to freedom, and if more than that their brains would turn to Jelly. The two exchanged good byes and brought the wires closer to each other.
*******
Booth and others watched down from the edge of the quarry. They scanned around the vast ground and waited for a sign.
Below a small explosion occurred and Booth was careening the side of the sand walls.
Alexis followed closely with Rozalyn at her heels.
Booth ran and slid on his knees to where the explosion was, he dug through the earth with his hands until he reached Brennan's hand. He grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the ground. Rozalyn ran and started digging fiercely with Alexis helping.
Booth wrapped his arms around Brennan's waist and pulled her out of the dirt.
Brennan wrapped her arms around Booth's neck and whimpered "Get Hodgens."
"They are getting him," Booth said keeping a hold of Brennan and not letting her go
Everyone else ran over to help and Alexis pulled Hodgens out of the ground with help from others
Angela smiled and leaned over to kiss Hodgens, happy that he was OK
Alexis looked over to see Booth holding Brennan tightly
Brennan rested back on her heels and held on tightly to the man holding tightly onto her
Booth felt tears burning against his eyes and found that his hands were shaking
Brennan pulled back slightly "Booth what's wrong?" she asked
"I'm just glad that you are safe," Booth said pulling Brennan into another hug
Alexis smiled and sat back. Rozalyn ran to her outstretched hand and rubbed against it.
Brennan felt Booth crushing her against his chest, but didn't mind it
"I'm so glad that you are safe," he whispered one last time into her ear