The car skidded dangerously close to the edge of the road, and the tires spit up gravel and squealed loudly, leaving behind them black skid marks. Relita didn't care. The wind whipped through her short blond hair, bringing with it the scent of ocean and, somewhere, barbeque. Her golden eyes held a fast determination, and her delicate jaw was clenched. Hardly the expression she usually wore when driving. But then, this was hardly the usual circumstances. Her foot pressed the brake pedal hard, bringing the car to a screeching halt and causing it to slide broadside of the road, where it rested, steam coming from under the hood. She didn't bother with the door, doors were for losers and besides, she didn't have time anyways. Instead she jumped over the side of the car, leaving the keys in the ignition. Sprinting down a small incline, she made her way to The small dock where a tiny dinghy was moored. Relita paused a moment and looked around, checking to see if anyone was around before tossing her bag into the dinghy and then setting a cautious foot on the boat. She untied the slimy roaps and pushed off. It wasn't terribly far to her destination, she only hoped that she wouldn't get lost. The small outboard motor started on the third try, and then with a loud puff of noxious black smoke that made her cough. But the boat made it seventeen miles due south, and then it hit upon a stone wall. Relita gave a small sigh of relief. She had made it. Thank God. She climbed out of the boat and scrambled over the wall, struggling to find something to tie the mooring ropes to and finally giving up, wedging the rope beneath a rock and praying it wouldn't come loose before she got back. She brushed her filthy hands off on her jeans and headed towards the compound headquarters.

The compound was made up of several squat, ugly concrete buildings arranged in a semicircle, the headquarters, being the slightly longer building with the American flag in the front, was on the end of the semicircle. The lights were out in all of the buildings, but that was good. Relita didn't want to get caught. Not very many people came to this Island willingly, and when they did it was always with a healthy respect for the occupants. Relita had been here once before, and not under the ideal circumstances. However, by keeping her mouth shut and her ears open, she had learned a lot. Like where they stored their ammunition. Relita headed towards one of the sheds behind the row of buildings and from her backpack pulled out her handy dandy lock picker. She stealthily inserted the picker into the keyhole, and heard a click. It hadn't come from the lock, however. Relita turned around and found herself staring a very big gun right in the face.

"Well young lady, what have you got to say for yourself?" The brutish looking man in the uniform asked her, leering.

"mmmmph!" Relita protested around the dirty gag that had been unceremoniously stuffed into her mouth. The guard snickered. He had the uniform of a US military sargeant, and the dark features of a Colombian. Relita knew exactly what he was. There was talk about smuggling rings in all of the best paranoid newspapers, little did they know that the US military was actually a contributing factor to the American drug problem. DARE indeed. The States were overrun with druglords. It was the government's fault. Relita would have spit on him, if her mouth hadn't already been full of rag. He recognized the glint in her eyes, and laughed.

"So you think you know what you are doing, eh, young lady? You knew where to go to get weapons. You have been here before?" Relita didn't answer, but her eyes flashed angrily. He took this for a yes. "Pretty little girls shouldn't be running around alone at night. Dont you know there are bad men who might take advantage of you?" He ran a dirty hand through her hair. "I think," he said, "That I will ungag you. it will make things so much easier. But if you scream girlie," And his caress became a slap, "then I shoot you. understand?" Relita glared at him, but nodded slightly. He untied the handkerchief from around her face and she took in a deep lungful of air. "Now, girlie, " He said with a lewd smirk, "I will show you what price those who come to visit our island pay." One filthy finger ran lightly over her face, over her lips. Relita looked up at him with guiless eyes and parted her lips slightly. The man smiled and licked his lips. Relita also smiled, and bit down on his finger, harder, harder, until she could taste his blood. Then she spat the finger out. The man glared at her, but he made no sound other than a low guttural growl, like that of a wild animal. "That was a bad move girlie. I was gonna kill you quickly. But now...It's the mines for you." He hauled her unceremoniously to her feet and then escorted her to a jeep, the muzzle of the gun poking uncomfortably in her back. Then he brought the barrel of the gun sharply against her skull, making a dull cracking noise and causing her to black out painfully.

Relita came to on an uncomfortably dusty floor. Not dusty, she realized, but dirt. The floor was packed dirt. She looked up, seeing the arch of rocks above her, and in the pale sunlight that shone through the opening of the mine shaft she noticed that one end of the tunnel was blocked with a rock fall. She tried to get to her feet, but stumbled, dizzy, and had to crawl towards the entrance instead. At least, that was her intent. She realized that her backpack was still on her back, and she took it off, setting it on the ground so she could move faster. A figure briefly blotted out the early morning sun, and she shouted hoarsley.

"HEY! You!"

No answer. She took off a shoe and threw it at the figure, hoping they could give her a little help. It fell short. She threw the other one and shouted again, but the figure did not return. She was searching for something else to throw when a deafening boom knocked her backwards and a shower of rock nearly crushed her. They had collapsed the tunnel. She was trapped.

On to Part IV

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