Chapter 93

With his Ak ready to fire any moment Sean peaked out from the corner of the dim lit underground passage and saw a few militants with their faces not covered in shemagh and carrying their Aks' whispering with each other. 

Further down were loads of carts, trunks filled with unknown materials and from the looks of it they were in the process of being moved. 

Whether it was an enemy attack or not once such attacks crossed the threshold limit would garner unnecessary attention and these Taliban heads were always prepared to abandon such camps without moment's notice. 

Having damn nearly burned the entire base camp by setting up multiple RDX bombs at different places and the effect of tremor which was felt by everyone within the camp was an alarm enough for talibans to make the decision of abandoning the camp as American soldiers who had set up an entire base in Afghanistan were sure to pick up heat signatures from the RDX blast and were sure to raid this camp by tomorrow. 

With such a threat looming above their heads the militants worked around the clock carrying the crates and trunks and other ammunition back through the underground tunnel where they had fixed their escape route. 

Having no luxury for a slow paced attack and being severely outnumbered, Sean covered his face with his shemagh and rushed out in a bid to have a chat and possibly find out the place where the prisoners were kept. 

"Hey! It's worse up there. The buildings have been leveled. The Americans had found our camp and had somehow infiltrated inside. Our brothers are engaging in combat and are retreating slowly. Be prepared to move our ammunition as fast as possible so that we can move out of the base" Sean said while also adding that he was asked to pass on the message to retreat ASAP. 

"Go on inside, You both stay here. We will help you in lifting the crates" said a rather dark skinned guy. 

Off the four two stayed put while me and the other two proceeded to lift the crates. In the process Sean observed the surrounding and looked for rooms or possible cells where his team members were kept in. 

They carried the crates further down the underground passage with bare visibility from orange bulbs hanging at each corner. Sean made sure to keep his face hidden and while talking made sure to mimic like the natives and fabricated some info on the matters happening outside. As they passed some turns they saw militants coming back towards us and with a little explanation they quickly handed the crate to them and proceeded to return back to the where they came from. 

Knowing that this was his chance Sean took it and asked about the prisoners brought in the other day while making sure not to sound suspicious. 

As if he was making small talk Sean redirected the conversation towards the American soldiers who were brought back to the camp as prisoners and got quite a few clues. As per the dark skinned guy apart from one who didn't know much the rest were kept in the underground prison cells and were having quite the time of their lives. 

With these Sean drew an inference that 'the guy who didn't know much' was himself and was further intrigued from where they got such intelligence. 

Amongst his team members he was the youngest to the point of being younger than the Lieutenant who came into the Marines as a graduate. So it wasn't false when the man next to him said that he didn't know much as this was his first tour to Afghanistan. The only problem being he certainly knew more than the lieutenant. 

"Looks like us being ambushed was certainly not a coincidence" thought Sean. 

At first he had perceived that the routes taken by American soldiers had been compromised but with this current clue he picked up a single point from these random bunch of clues. His team had been targeted? 

'But why? As per his knowledge every member of the team seemed normal for them to be targeted '.

Lifting yet another crate the group of 3 went down the same path. Sean churned his brain to think of a way to escape this bunch without creating much trouble to rescue his mates. Just like before they met yet another group and passed the crate to them. Just as they began walking back, Sean, after making sure that the militants who were behind them were nowhere to be seen, made his move by pulling his knife and cutting the vocal cord of the strongest between the two militants, making him grab his neck with confusion.

Not allowing the other to recover, he grabbed the guy's hand and forcibly opened his defence and stabbed right through his heart twice before ending it with a slash on his neck.

The one whom he stabbed on the vocal cord was still alive as he grabbed his bleeding neck and walked forward grabbing the side of the wall, desperate to get to his comrades for help. His mouth gurgled blood and his trachea was rapidly getting blocked by blood stopping the free flow of breath from his windpipe. 

Before he could think of anything he felt a sharp pain at the back of his head resulting in his vision getting darkened. 

Quickly getting rid of the two obstacles Sean walked further down the underground tunnel to the point where he had previously met the other militants. Right now the place was empty letting him walk further down the tunnel. Quickly making a few turns Sean saw two different routes, one on the left and the other straight. The one on the left lacked any guards making him think that this could be the prison cells. 

As this was an emergency period the militants had much more important job to do and that was to quickly transport their goods. Walking down the dark tunnel Sean came across steel doors leading to rooms. In order to not get attacked from the back he made a full trip down the tunnel as quickly as possible before the bodies of the two militants were found. 

He had previously calculated the time taken to make a round trip and found it to be around 5-6 minutes. In other words he had just about four minutes to make use of. Finding the corridor to the dark tunnel empty Sean started from a nearby steel door and peeked through the gap present at the top of the door. 

In the middle of the room was a steel table with bars at both sides and at the left corner of the room was a bed attached to the wall. Currently both were empty with suspicious dark red and brown stains both on the table as well as on the bed. While scanning the room Sean's body froze as his eye widened a bit before taking a step back and moving onto the next room. 

Inside the room was a man with cuffs quite resembling the one's placed on prisoners who are most dangerous and isolated in maximum security and currently the man was on his knees near the washbasin and had his neck slit by using the sharp end of the steel basin. Blood had coagulated and the blood on the floor had dried and judging by the scene he had been dead for quite a while. 

What shocked Sean the most was the number of scars on the man's body. He looked like a stitched mummy. Sean didn't try to open the unnecessary rooms and only had one thought, that was to find his mates and escape together with them.

First few rooms were filled with unknown prisoners before finally finding one of his mates with his hand cuffed on the table. He had his head on the table and looked as if he was asleep.

"Psht!! Hey Spo' it's me. Are you there. Hey!!" Sean whispered to get the guy's attention while trying to open the door to the cell to find it locked. 

Knowing that he didn't have much time, Sean pulled out his handgun and shot at the keyhole creating a huge sound in this rather silent tunnel before kicking the door in.