Silent Gulch Chapter 14
Tucker groaned as the throbbing pain in his head woke him up. He wondered if he'd gotten a concussion from the fall. After all, it had looked like a really deep hole and he'd already hit his head once. He felt around, opening his eyes as he realized that he was lying on stone.
He sat up and felt the blood rush to his head. "Damn, what happened?" he asked, looking around.
"Tucker, you're awake," Caboose said happily. "Do you know where Church is?" The blue soldier moved over to his teammate.
"Caboose?" Tucker asked, looking over at the other soldier. "Why would I know where Church is? I don't even know where I am."
Sarge spoke up. "I'm telling you, your blue buddy's dead. We should be celebrating that there's one less Blue in the world.
"So we're going to have a party? Awesome, who wants to do shots off my stomach?" Sister pulled her shirt up a bit.
"Sister? Sarge? Who else is here?" Tucker asked.
"Well, my brother and his boyfriend are here and that really nice chick from the red team," Sister replied. "Tex and Church are the only ones missing."
"It's not pink, it's lightish red," Donut tried to defend, though no one was paying attention to him.
"The Reds are here? Aw, crap, we are so boned," Tucker complained. "Also, Church and Tex are already dead so who cares about them?"
"Quit complaining, dead man, we'll be fine." Sarge placed his ear against the wall. "We just have to find a way out."
"So what's the plan, sir?" Simmons asked. "I'm sure you already have a brilliant escape plan that will undoubtedly work and leave the Blues to die."
"Kiss-ass," Grif muttered, leaning against the wall beside Simmons.
"Yes, as soon as someone comes to get us we'll toss the Blues at them and run for it," Sarge explained. "Hopefully the Blues will be torn to pieces and it will take long enough for us to get away."
"I kind of like this plan. I don't die in it," Grif commented.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. We need you in case the tank shows up again. While it's killing you we'll make a run for it," Sarge continued.
"Wait, a tank? That means you saw Sheila! Where was she?" Caboose bounced a bit with excitement.
"Sorry to tell this to you, Blue, but your tank was working with the enemy. It tried to blow us up and then sent skinless dogs after us!" Sarge exclaimed.
"That doesn't sound like my Sheila," Caboose said. "Maybe it is a different tank. After all, there is more than just one tank."
Grif sighed and turned to Tucker. "Well that conversation is pointless. Do you have any plan to get out?"
"Hell, no, I just woke up," Tucker replied. "I don't even know what's going on. Last thing I remember I was falling down a hole."
"Well, the quick version is that we're being held prisoner," Simmons said. "We all just sort of woke up here. Grif and I were attacked by some weird things with legs as arms, Sarge and Donut were attacked by your tank, and Caboose and Sister said that they were attacked by Doc."
"Oh, great that's just what we need, Doc. He always makes the situation better," Tucker complained. "So, we're prisoners, we don't know how we got here, Doc is here, and two people are missing." Tucker summarized. Simmons nodded and Tucker let out a long sigh. "Well, fuck."
"Don't worry, Church will save us," Caboose said with more confidence then what seemed possible in the current situation.
"Caboose, if we don't know where we are how is Church going to find us?" Tucker asked. "Bow chika bow wow."
"What was that for?" Grif stared at Tucker, confused.
"I don't know," Tucker admitted. "That's the second time that I've just had the urge to say that and I don't know why."
"Well, maybe Church is around here and he's trying to find us," Donut proposed. "I bet he's even fighting some of those monster things. My guess would be that he said something that set you up for the line, but since you can't go to him and say it where he can hear it, you just said it here."
"That's pretty farfetched. I mean, Church actually doing something is really unlikely," Tucker pointed out.
"Yeah, that seems like it could never happen," Simmons agreed. "Can we get back to escaping?"
"Well, where's the door out?" Tucker asked, looking around and finding nothing but solid rock walls all around them.
"From what we can tell that's the only way out." Sarge pointed up. Above them was a metal grate that the light was coming through.
"So, I fell down a hole into a hole filled with people I hate," Tucker said. "I think I died from that fall and went to hell."
"Join the club," Grif muttered. They all looked up as a large creature quickly crossed the grate, cutting off the light for a moment.
"What was that thing?" Tucker asked, looking at the Reds.
"We don't' know what they are. They keep walking around, but they don't really say anything," Simmons said. "They don't seem to really notice us."
Tucker sat staring up at the grate. "Have you tried lifting the grate?"
"No, that's exactly what they're expecting us to do!" Sarge replied. "I was planning on digging out if no one came."
"Or we could try lifting the grate," Tucker suggested. "If those things don't really care about us it shouldn't be too hard."
Sarge sighed and gave in. "Fine, we'll try your idea."
"All right; Caboose, give me a boost," Tucker ordered his teammate.
"I wouldn't bother asking him. I've gone there and it was a dead end." Sarge said. "Grif, give him a boost up."
"Well, that would involve work, so I'll pass," Grif replied. "But thanks for asking."
"Grif, I gave you an order," Sarge snapped. "Now, get to it, dirt bag."
"You don't have a weapon to threaten me with. Why should I listen to you?" Grif asked.
"Because I'm your superior officer, and when I do get my gun back, I'm going to pack you full of lead!" Sarge answered.
"You threaten me like that all the time and I still don't do what you tell me to," Grif pointed out. "And being my commanding officer doesn't really mean a lot."
"Hey, guys, we got the grate open," Tucker announced. The Reds looked up to see Tucker pushing the grate open while he stood on Caboose's shoulders.
"Are there any of those creatures up there?" Donut asked.
Tucker looked around and shook his head. "None that I can see. I think something caused them all to leave." He pushed the grate to the side. He pulled himself out and then pulled up the others. Once everyone was out they replaced the grate over the hole to keep Caboose from falling in.
"Well, where the hell are we?" Tucker asked, looking around.
The hole had been in the center of a large circular room. There were no windows, only torches to provide light. Large statues of animals lined the walls all the way around. Tucker walked up to the demonic looking statue of what seemed to be a horse. It looked old, weather-worn, and as though bits had been chipped away.
"What is this place?" Donut asked, looking up at the monstrous form of a rooster.
Simmons shrugged. "I don't know. I wonder what these animals mean to them." He examined a boar statue. "They look like a nightmare version of the Chinese zodiac."
"The what what?" Sarge asked, turning from the ram statue he had been trying to stare down.
"The Chinese zodiac. The Chinese had a series of twelve animals. They used them to mark their years," Simmons explained. He slowly started to move around the room naming off the animals as he passed statues of them. "The rat, snake, boar, horse, rooster, ram, ox, monkey, dog, rabbit, tiger, and dragon."
"So then why are they here?" Grif asked. "Are we like in China, 'cause I don't know where that is."
"How the hell should I know? These don't look like anything I've ever seen," Simmons replied. "They are usually not portrayed all evil like this."
"So we're in a place that hates China?" Tucker asked.
"Once more, I don't fucking know," Simmons replied. "Maybe these are good symbols in this culture," he suggested.
"Why would this culture like creatures like this?" Grif stared at the snake statue. The four eyes seemed to glare down at him and it made him nervous. "These things give me the creeps. This must be one fucked-up culture. How do we get out of here?"
"I don't know. I don't see any door around here," Donut said.
"Then how are we going to get out of here?" Sister asked.
"We have to be missing something." Simmons ran a hand over the stone wall. "There has to be a way out. How else could we have gotten in, or those monsters gotten out?"
"Hey, Caboose, try ramming into the wall," Tucker suggested.
The brain-dead soldier charged straight at the wall without even questioning the reasoning. He hit the stone hard, falling to the ground. "Did I get through?"
"No, Caboose, you didn't," Tucker said. "Man the one time we need a ghost and Church isn't around," he complained.
"How would Church being here help us? He'd probably just leave us here," Grif pointed out.
"You're probably right, that lazy bastard," Tucker agreed. "Well, we are totally boned."