Something Wilder(80)

“Is this it?” Bradley said, and it was impossible to miss the edge of exhilaration in his exhausted voice.

Leo looked down at the page again. “Should be.”

Kevin’s voice carried from behind. “It better be.”

Bradley moved to the front to stand next to Leo. “It’s mad narrow,” he murmured. “We have to crawl in.”

To Lily’s surprise, he didn’t send Leo in first. Instead, Bradley went, disappearing into the darkness. His echoing voice reached them. “Holy shit.”

Leo followed, then Kevin, and then Jay pointed the gun at Lily’s head, forcing her to crawl through before him.

The tunnel was narrow enough that Lily had to army-crawl for about five feet, her heart in her throat, choking on panic. And then cold air hit her face and she fell onto soft ground. Leo rushed over, helping her up as she looked around a space that was about twenty feet in diameter.

A secret room, worn away by the elements over hundreds of years, in the middle of solid rock. The ground at their feet was sandy washout; a thin strip of stars was visible overhead. The walls were smooth and dry, with a narrow shelf carved into the wall of stone opposite the entry tunnel.

“Code boy,” Jay said to Leo. “Go check that out.”

Haltingly, Leo approached. His headlamp swept across the front of the rock shelf, most of which was hidden in darkness. Lily was afraid to breathe as her brain unhelpfully supplied every booby trap scene in every movie she’d ever watched. Leo reluctantly reached forward to feel around.

“Oh my God.”

Everyone crowded closer. “What is it?” Bradley asked.

Jay stepped up right against Leo’s back, hovering. “Dude, is it big?”

“Give me some space.” Whatever Leo found seemed wedged in there, and it took a few tugs before he pulled a wooden box free.

Lily coughed from the dust. It was about the size of a shoebox, plain and framed in metal with a flimsy padlock holding it closed.

Bradley tilted his head back, yelling a triumphant “Fuck yes!” His voice was almost deafening as it echoed around them, tiny pebbles falling from the vibration. “Duke, you never let us down!”

Leo set it on the ground and backed away. Lily rushed to him.

Jay stepped forward and nudged it with the tip of his boot. “It’s not very big.”

“Might have a key inside,” Bradley mused, crouching in front of it.

Jay looked up, squinting into the beam of Kevin’s flashlight. “Open it, Brad.”

Bradley was trembling with excitement as his palms smoothed over the wood, but he paused in his exploration to speak through clenched teeth. “It’s Bradley.”

Just beyond the beam of the flashlight, Leo’s hand found her own, and they stepped backward into the shadows. Bradley used his Maglite to easily break the padlock and flipped the top open, staring down.

“What?” Kevin said, approaching. “Is it—?”

They fell silent, and Bradley slowly bent to pick up a thin scrap of paper. “What the fuck is this?”

Jay snatched it from him and growled. “It’s just a bunch of numbers? Is this a code?” He walked it over to Lily, shoving it in her face. “What is this?”

She stared at the long string of numbers, uninterrupted by spaces. Shaking her head, she admitted, “Duke never did codes like this with me. I don’t—I don’t know it.”

Kevin swiped the paper from Jay’s grip, marched over, and grabbed Leo by the shirt collar. He dragged him backward, slamming him against the rock wall. At the sound of Leo’s pained grunt, Lily started toward him, but Bradley clamped a strong hand around her arm, holding her back.

“You think this is a joke?” Kevin said, in Leo’s face now. He thrust the paper at his chest. “What the fuck does this mean?”

Leo glared at him. “I did what you asked. I got you here.” He nodded to Bradley. “He’s the archaeologist. You guys fucking figure it out.”

Jay smirked and ran a hand through his hair. “Kevin, do your thing.”

Bradley banded Lily’s arms behind her back as Kevin—twice Leo’s size—hurled his giant fist into Leo’s stomach. When Leo bent to protect himself, Kevin went for his face, the blow hard enough to knock him to his knees. Leo tried to fight back, but his punches barely seemed to land, and Lily screamed, her voice reverberating but not loud enough to block out the sound of Kevin’s fists landing on Leo’s face, his stomach; of his boot landing kicks to Leo’s ribs over and over.

Finally, Bradley shouted, “Enough!”

Lily tried to bolt forward again, but this time Bradley grabbed a fistful of her hair, violently forcing her head back. She could see Leo crumpled on the ground, hear every one of his pained breaths.

“Leo, say something,” she begged.

He spit a bloody mouthful and looked up at her through one swollen eye, trying to grin. “You’d probably choose a protein bar for every meal over this, right?”

“This isn’t going to work,” Bradley said. “He just needs the right motivation, that’s all.” He dragged her forward to where Leo could see and spoke to Leo as if to a small child. “Leo, they’re numbers. Numbers are your jam. You just have to figure out what they mean. Okay?”

Leo stared up at him, face bloody, smile gone and eyes full of rage.