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Chapter 11

Booth and Max got out of the car they'd borrowed, circling the plant from a safe distance as the sun set. They separated, going on opposite directions around the perimeter.

They met up twenty minutes later, both gasping for air. "It's a big place," Booth offered. "No obvious security, which goes along with Hodgins' findings that the place officially shut down in '93."

Max nodded, grabbing his knees. "Why is there white smoke coming out of one of those chimneys then?"

"Keyword being officially," Booth explained. "What do you make of security?"

"Nothing outside, would probably make it too hard to keep so many people quiet about this place. My guess is just a few men inside, probably at the main entrance and wherever they're keeping her."

Booth nodded. "Do you see a back entrance?"

Max sighed. "Maybe. Follow me," he asked and Booth did.

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They walked for fifteen minutes, the sound of water increasing in volume and intensity as they walked. As they reached a riverbank, Max pointed towards what looked like a cave – except black sludge was coming out of it. "It's a former chemical plant, I knew there had to be some pipe polluting the local water. And if it's a way out…"

"… then it must be a way in, as well." Booth finished the sentence. "So your plan is to get inside via their garbage shoot? If we end up in a room with moving walls, I'm gonna kill you."

Max smiled as he jumped down and started moving in the sludge. Booth followed, praying the sludge wasn't deadly or anything that caused infertility, cancer or boils. Definitely no boils.

It took twice as long for them to trek the same distance back, because the sludge was getting thicker as they moved, slowing them down considerably. It was up to their knees as they came up to an apparent dead end. The sludge was dripping from a pipe above their heads, with two hallways in each direction that seemed endless and barren.

Booth was about to give up, to tell Max they should head back and find another way in, when he heard the terrified scream; every fiber in his being recognized its origin. "Bones!" he reacted, moving in the darkness towards the sound.

"Slow down, Booth," Max hissed behind him. "If we can hear her, they could hear us."

"We need to find her," Booth argued, this time at a lower volume.

"I know that! But we need to stay alive long enough to do it."

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