Bone Pit: A Chilling Medical Suspense Thriller (The Gina Mazzio Series Book 3)

by Bette Golden Lamb

  This was it.

  He focused on the one person he desperately wanted to see one more time.

  Gina, I can feel the oxygen in this space dwindling. Sooner or later there’ll be no more air to breath. I would give my last breath to have one more moment where the two of us could hold hands and know for sure that nothing else has ever really mattered except being together.

  We found each other. I’ll always be grateful for that.

  You are the love of my life… forever.

  It was time for him to close his eyes and let go. If he could do that without panicking, just surrender to his final moments, he would die in peace.

  He turned off the Maglite and laid his head down on his arm and stared at a yellow outline in the distance.

  Light?

  It hadn’t been there before.

  Can’t be real.

  But there was an outline of light framing the edges of a square about ten feet in front of him.

  He tried to wiggle ahead, force his way. But he just couldn’t get through the dirt. He backed up and grabbed hold of the Maglite again. He twisted off the bottom, let the batteries fall into his hand, and tossed them behind him.

  Using the open end of the flashlight as a chisel, he started slamming into the earth. Each blow cut deeper and deeper into the soil blocking his way. He hit, hit, hit at it, again and again; grabbed fistfuls of it and shoved it behind him until the lower half of his body was almost buried.

  Would his chipping away at the dirt cause enough vibrations to bring the ceiling down and bury him? Sudden fear paralyzed him. His heart raced, he gasped for air.

  “Stop it!” The words exploded in his brain, but the sound was muffled, buried in the dirt.

  This was his chance to survive. His only chance.

  The soil began to drop away in large clumps. The opening grew larger; it began to open up enough for him to squeeze his way through.

  He moved ahead, his elbows propelling him forward until he came face-to-face with a square panel of wood. Light seeped around the cracks, coming from what was probably a room on the other side.

  Harry listened for a long moment. There was no sound.

  He squeezed his knees up to his chest and inched forward. Over and over, he punched hard at the wood until it finally sprang open.

  The crash of light blinded him as he pushed through.

  When he could finally see, he was staring into the muzzle of a gun.

  * * * *

  “Well, aren’t you the clever one,” Ethan said, waving the gun in Harry’s face.

  Ethan held the weapon in one hand and a computer carrying case in the other. The administrator’s shirt was mapped with perspiration, his blanched face coated with sweat.

  Harry leaped for the gun, but his cramped leg muscles failed him. Ethan easily side- stepped before Harry could snatch the barrel. He fell to the floor.

  “You and your girlfriend have caused me enough problems. Get up on that table! Now!”

  For the first time Harry looked at the room with its shelved walls holding container after container of floating brains, just as Gina had described it. And in the center of the room was an autopsy table. His heart clawed at his chest. That’s where Ethan wanted him to go—onto an autopsy table.

  Harry stayed down on the floor, eyed the carrying case. “I don’t care what you do, or where you go. Just tell me. Where’s Gina?”

  “Oh, I’m afraid you’re too late to help your girlfriend. She’s dead. Now get up on that table!”

  “Noooooo!”

  Harry grabbed onto the table, pulled himself up, kicked out with one leg, and knocked the gun out of Ethan’s hand. It slid across the floor and through the opening into the tunnel he’d just crawled out of.

  The two of them stood facing each other.

  “Where the fuck is Gina?”

  Ethan swung the carrying case into Harry’s head.

  As he fell, Ethan hit Harry hard again in the ribs.

  Everything was shutting down. The last thing he heard was Ethan laughing—the last thing he saw was a smiling Ethan hovering over him.

  Chapter 45

  Gina swallowed hard. Revulsion turned her stomach as she watched the feral cats feed off of the dead bodies. She held tightly onto Tuva’s shaking hand; tears rushed down her cheeks.

  All these people came to Comstock for help. Instead, they were murdered, dumped like garbage.

  “Is that what those cats are going to do to us?” Tuva could barely get the words out between her chattering teeth.

  “Tuva, please don’t say that.”

  A cat rubbed against Gina’s arm, then shrieked and leaped away when Gina tried to reach out for it. She directed the light to the top of the pit again. It was so high up she could barely make out the edge.

  Nothing’s changed. We’re still not getting out that way.

  “Maybe the cats jumped into the pit,” Tuva said. She was quieter now, but continued to shiver.

  Tuva wasn’t the only one on the edge of hysteria. Gina knew it wouldn’t be long before they both flipped out.

  “Cats are way too smart to jump down that far,” Gina said.

  “But then how did they get in here?” Tuva insisted.

  Gina shifted, couldn’t stop herself from yelping when a corpse pushed against her shoulder, bringing with it the rank stink of decay. She pushed hard at the body, but it was stuck and the slightest movement made it lean back against her.

  She directed the flashlight at one of the cats moving from one corpse to another without stopping to eat.

  “Tuva! Did you see that?”

  “What? What is it?” Alarm made Tuva’s voice climb to a shriek.

  “One of the cats just disappeared. One minute it was there, the next it was gone.” Gina gave the flashlight to Tuva and directed it. “Hold onto this and keep lighting up that area. And for God’s sake, don’t drop it!”

  “Why? What are you going to do?

  Gina tried to push herself up, but she kept falling back. Tuva reached out to help her.

  “No!” Gina said, “You concentrate on keeping the light on that spot, no matter what happens. I’m going to see what happened to that cat.”

  “Don’t go! What if you fall between … them … and can’t get out … I’ll be all alone again … Please don’t go!”

  “Tuva! Try not to think about that. Just concentrate on our getting out of here. Now hold on tight to that flashlight, okay?”

  “How do you know?” Tuva said.

  The woman’s desperation fired Gina’s panic, and it was getting harder and harder to control. “Know what?” she said impatiently.

  “That we’re going to get out?”

  She held Tuva’s shoulders, talked to her like a child; at the same time she tried to calm herself. “We have to do this together. Just hold onto the flashlight. That’s all you have to think about … that’s all you have to do. Okay?”

  Tuva nodded, her head bobbing up and down, up and down.

  This time, instead of trying to stand upright, Gina got onto all fours and tried to imitate the cats. She swayed with the shift of the corpses, let the different body parts fold in under her as she balanced and rebalanced herself while moving from spot to spot. She forced herself to think only about following the beam of light.

  “Are you all right, Gina?”

  “I’m good.” But her hands kept digging into soft, decaying flesh. No matter how hard she tried to ignore the disgusting stink, it was so overwhelming it grabbed her by the throat. But as she got closer to the spot where the cat disappeared, there were fewer corpses. Here, all signs of flesh had disappeared; what were left were picked-clean bones.

  Soon she was able to stand and walk, her feet pressing down on packed bones.

  “Keep the light there, Tuva!” She stopped about three feet from where the beam was directed.

  “Gina?”

  “It’s all right. We both have to be quiet now. Twist the middle, that will turn off the fla
shlight.”

  Gina waited for her eyes to adjust; soon she could see this was where the ambient light was coming from.

  The cats probably started eating the bodies here and kept working their way farther into the pit as they consumed the food source. Standing still, Gina watched the shadowy cats move through the spaces between and on top of the bones. She didn’t even want to imagine how many cats there were.

  “Tuva! Turn on the flashlight, hold it with your teeth so you can see, and crawl over here.”

  “But … but I’ll have to go through … the bodies.”

  “Tuva, I may have found a way out for us.”

  There was a long pause before Tuva finally said, “I’ll try.”

  “No, Tuva! You can do better than that. Get on all fours the way I did and do it. Do it now!”

  Please don’t fall in one of the spaces. Please. Please. Please.

  After several attempts, Tuva was able to crouch down and move toward Gina. She stopped time and time again to yank the flashlight from her mouth. Every time she did, it squeezed Gina’s heart with fear.

  When she was almost there, Gina took her hand and helped her over. “That was really something. You were great!”

  Tuva gave her a weak smile.

  “See the light down below?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s our way out. I’m sure of it.” A cat suddenly materialized in front of them, screeched, and jumped back down toward the light.

  “Okay, we need to move these stacks of bones over and out of the way,” Gina said. “Remember, everything is crushed together, so we’ll have to start from the top and move the pieces very carefully.”

  Like a giant game of Pick-Up-Sticks, they studied each and every bone that was wedged against another, throwing away each free one. They only needed to create a small space between the bones for them to get to where the cats had been entering the pit.

  It was slow, tedious work, but as the bones were tossed away, the light became brighter; they finally saw a small opening leading out of the pit.

  “Look, Gina!”

  Gina reached out and hugged Tuva. “We’re almost there.”

  They’d cleared out a small space, creating a narrow passageway through the maze of bones. They had to move very carefully; if they nudged a bone in the wrong way, they could be impaled by splintered shards. Even a sudden shift could wedge them in, leaving them with no hope of escape.

  “There’s not much room for both of us and the opening will need some digging, Gina said. “You stay here, let me go ahead, and I’ll take care of it.”

  “No! I’m going with you.”

  Gina saw Tuva fully for the first time—filthy face and probably dark hair, but so matted with gore and dirt, it was hard to really tell. Her eyes were filled with resolve and Gina knew she wasn’t going anywhere without her.

  “We’ll hold hands and step down onto the layer below. No quick movements. Okay?”

  Tuva nodded.

  Gina took her hand and they stepped on stack after stack of bones. Gina placed her feet on the long, thicker bones and Tuva followed in her footsteps. Finally, they stood in front of the tiny opening where the cats had been slipping in and out of the pit.

  “There’s hardly any space for us to get through,” Tuva said.

  Gina searched the piles of bones all around them and grabbed a thigh bone. She used it to carefully poke at the opening—the dirt began to fall away in clumps. Soon there was a hole large enough for them to squiggle through.

  “Wait a moment!” Gina said.

  Is it safe for us to go out there?

  “What’s the matter?”

  Gina could feel Tuva’s eyes boring into her.

  Does it really matter? We sure as hell aren’t going back into that damn pit.

  Gina reached for Tuva’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They walked out of the pit and into the bright light.

  Chapter 46

  Ethan watched Harry fall. He stood over the nurse, adrenalin pulsating, heart pounding.

  Pete was supposed to finish off this bastard.

  He spoke to Harry’s inert body. “Who the hell do you think you are, standing in the way of real genius, someone who’s on the verge of finding the answers to the Alzheimer’s puzzle?” He toed Harry’s shoulder. “What have you done for humanity lately?”

  Ethan looked around the lab at his huge collection of specimens. They represented all of his research and he was proud of his work. He’d spent hours, days on these brains—cutting, slicing, prepping, staining them. And now it was all going to end.

  The loss tore through him. He wanted to cry out his disappointment.

  There were still empty shelves, ready and waiting for his future brain specimens … specimens that would never come.

  These people are heroes. They gave their lives, gave them to me, so I could find the answers, so others could live … wouldn’t suffer.

  He kicked Harry’s shoulder. “You just wanted to make money. You hear me?” Then he kicked him harder. “Money!”

  Harry moaned, but was still out.

  Ethan thought about going after the gun; it couldn’t have landed too far inside the tunnel. It would be much safer to shoot Harry, get rid of him now.

  Look at him. Just a pile of disorganized laundry, his head leaking into a messy puddle of blood on the floor.

  Ethan didn’t like loose ends any more than David Zelint. As long as Harry was alive, he could get to his hidden copies of evidence. It wouldn’t matter where Ethan ran, that loose thread would be out there, waiting to bring him down.

  Ethan put down the computer case and moved to the medicine cabinet, pulled out a bottle of injectable morphine sulphate, and filled a large syringe.

  “Let’s end this right now,” he said to the inert nurse. He picked up Harry’s arm, looked at it, then let it drop.

  I haven’t got the goddam time to mess with, or dig for your vein.

  He wrapped a hand around Harry’s deltoid, jammed the needle in, and pushed the plunger.

  It may be a lot slower than a vein; but it’s just as sure. We won’t be hearing from you anymore. By the time anyone finds you, you’ll be just as dead as that little snoop Gina Mazzio. And I’ll be high in the sky, free as a bird.

  He glanced at his watch. He had to leave this instant, drive down the grade to the Reno airport, and grab his connecting flights to San Francisco and Argentina.

  Move! No time to pack. Grab my passport and run!

  He picked up the computer carrying case and the box holding all his slides, and then headed for the open lab door and the elevator.

  On the first floor, he walked as fast as he could toward his office. Delores was standing in the doorway.

  “Not now, Delores. We’ll talk later.”

  “But I need to know who's coming to relieve me. Gina and Harry never showed up this morning and there's no answer at their apartment. Have you called for a temp to relieve me?”

  “Get back up there on the unit and take care of things. Let me worry about the rest of it.”

  Delores was usually meek and compliant around him, but he could see a definite look of suspicion. More than that, a glint of defiance.

  He walked past her into his office, reached into his pocket for the key chain with both his keys and the original flash drive. From the bottom drawer, he swooped up his passport, shoved it into his pocket.

  She stood there, still not moving.

  “Well, what are you waiting for?”

  “I need to know who’s going to relieve me.”

  And I need to get the hell out of here!

  The look on her face was driving him crazy. “There’ll be a huge bonus for you, Delores. But I really need you to get back to the unit. I’ll talk to you later.”

  She was silent for a moment. “Okay,” she said, and left his office.

  Ethan headed for the front door, but he was breathing so rapidly, he could barely catch his breath.

&n
bsp; Slow down.

  He eased his pace as he walked out the door. When he got to the van door, he saw a sports car pull into a visitor’s parking space. He stopped.

  Who the hell is that?

  He hesitated for only a moment.

  Not my problem. I have a plane to catch.

  He got behind the wheel and started the engine.

  * * * *

  Gina and Tuva looked back at the small opening they had just crawled through. It was almost closed off now with fallen dirt. They jumped up and down, hugged each other.

  “We did it! We did it!” Gina shouted.

  “Look at that gorgeous sky,” Tuva cried out.

  The sky was beautiful. “Look at that blue, Tuva. Did you ever see anything so incredible?” Gina couldn’t stop. “And those boulders. I’ve hated them from the moment I set eyes on them. But now, they’re wonderful.”

  Tuva laughed and threw her hands up in the air.

  Gina saw a cat off to the side, sitting on its haunches, waiting for an opportunity to enter the pit. She screamed at it, “Thank you, you beautiful creature.”

  “Really?” Tuva said softly.

  “You can’t hate the cats for being survivors. Besides, without them we would have never found a way out of there.” Gina looked around; saw the Comstock building off in the distance. Elation was replaced with a sudden feeling of exhaustion … and dread. It settled deep onto her shoulders, then into the pit of her stomach.

  Harry, where are you? Are you still alive?

  She took Tuva’s hand. “Let’s get back now.”

  “I don’t want to go in there again.”

  “That's up to you, Tuva. But I need to find my fiancé. You can get into your car and leave if you want to, but please, first go to the hospital in Carson City … they’ll take care of that cut on your neck. Tell the nurses what happened. Tell them to send the police. I have to stay here and find Harry.”

  “My mother’s in that building, Gina.”

  “I know … but it’s still up to you. You have to make up your own mind.”