Tick. Tick. Tick

Carter awoke with a start. What was that noise he was hearing? As his vision focused, he realized he was in the laboratory.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The explosives! He must have accidentally turned on one of the timing devices. Carter jumped up quickly, knocking the chair backwards. He had to get the bomb out of here! Grabbing up the ticking explosive, Carter ran as fast as he could through the tunnels. If only he could get to that exit in time.

BOOM

Carter and the explosive both fell to the ground and clouds of dirt filled the air. Shouts sounded off in the distance. Carter struggled to roll onto his side, and coughed, struggling to breathe. The ceiling above began to give way and he somehow managed to move in time. He'dscraped his arm when he fell and it felt like he might have sprained his ankle. He covered his head with his arms as tons of dirt came raining down all around him. When the dust settled, Carter raised his head and looked. Horror filled him as he stared at the caved in tunnel in front of him.

Hogan's voice sounded, "Carter! Answer me!"

"Here, Colonel."

Carter struggled to his feet and stumbled painfully towards the sound of Hogan's voice. Newkirk appeared from around the corner and ran over to him.

"Carter! Are you all right?"

"I-I think I sprained my ankle ." Carter said, grimacing.

The Englishman slipped Carter's arm around his shoulders and helped him over to where Hogan and the others were. They all gathered around him, talking over each other. Hogan gave him a good looking over, and was relieved to find Carter wasn't too seriously injured.

"We heard the explosion from upstairs. What happened?"

Carter coughed, "I-I accidentally set off one of the bombs. Couldn't get it outside in time."

"You did what?" Hogan nearly shouted.

"I must have turned on the timing device accidentally."

Newkirk helped him to sit down and asked, "What about the tunnels? Any of them collapse?"

"Yeah, exit tunnel. Completely caved in."

Hogan was furious, "How could you have done something so careless? You could have endangered our entire operation here! Not only that, we needed that exit tunnel for tonight's mission!"

Carter felt shame wash over him, "I-I'm sorry, sir. I'll start working on digging it out. Maybe-" he started but was cut off.

"No." Hogan said. "There's no time for that. We'll have to use a different route."

He turned towards the ladder leading to the barracks above, "I'd better go do damage control. Klink will want to know what that explosion was."

Carter tried to say something but Hogan was gone before he got the words out.

"Well, I'd better go survey the damages. Maybe we can still use the tunnels tonight." Newkirk said, shaking his head.

Carter struggled to his feet and Lebeau helped him up. "Come on, Carter. You need to get cleaned up."

"I'm so sorry. I never meant for this to happen."

Carter's voice was shaky as he looked from Newkirk to Lebeau. The disappointment in their eyes showed. The Englishman's voice was grave.

"Afraid it's too late to apologize now, Carter. The damage has been done."

A long awkward silence filled the tunnel and Newkirk finally turned away.

Carter fought back his emotions rising within him and followed Lebeau up the ladder.