140 Losing the Wooden Ancestral House

"George! George!" His comrades called him while he temporarily closed the iron cover of the hole.

" Derek! Bruno! how is it going out there!" George asked them.

"An infantry is coming! Like what you have said, we opened the granite entrance door and we threw clothing and some things outside, spread it like the residents inside escaped going out. Its scary, they're too many!" Derek exclaimed.

Boom! boom!

" They're almost at the gate, come on in! I'll burn this house once the two of you can move in, here! help me open it back and sink in then. Follow them but gather a few to close the buccaneer cave."

" What's..where's that Buccaneer cave, Sir?" Bruno asked while sweating.

" Just look for my wife, ask it from her or Baldur's wife. They knew it, quick! remove all things, stocks and supplies from Buccaneer, carry it all in the end of the tunnel, northeast. Do not leave any traces to that cave facing the sea and surely lock it. If you're inside the tunnel and leaving that cave, there are two horizontal steel locks. Help one another to lock it. I'll follow there to help you soon."

" Copy! careful here, Sir!" Bruno said with his snappy salute and was gone out of the hole going down.

When George was left, he removed his jacket and shirt and took some firewood from the furnace and started a fire at the receiving area. When the fire started, he remembered their wedding picture and brought it going inside the room and saw through his eyes if how the fire quickly traveled from corner to corner before he escaped below the tunnel.

Underneath, they could still hear the bursting sound and fatal explosion outside and George quickly followed Derek, Bruno and the rest of the Guerillas and few soldiers doing bayanihan in transporting some things out of the cave. When found tidy, George instructed everyone to lock it. The two horizontal steel were a bit heavy but they gathered their strength to finally lock it.

" Great heavens! its done!" Michael smiled with his face filled with sweat.

They then left and transported all things going to the cave in the end of the tunnel.

" What the...since when your family knew this tunnel, Sir?" Derek asked.

" Shh...just keep moving, we'll have a meeting later somewhere." The lieutenant said.

Due to tension and fear, the survivors have collated supplies of blankets and pillows from the sacks then laid their bodies so exhausted on the alleys of the tunnel. It was the time when George called the attention of the soldiers and guerrillas in the end of the tunnel. Mayumi was also religiously listening while embracing their wedding picture sketched by Albrecht.

" Shh...he'd be okay. He's maybe hiding right now. Remember, this is his place, don't forget that." It was a little comfort for Magee and she returned to her seat.

After a while, George continue to talk and oriented everyone about the four comfort rooms and two bathrooms inside the tunnel. George also opened the 20 small bedrooms that each looked like a niche but comfy.

" I never knew those small bedrooms he meant, it wasn't written in Amá Sibal's journal." Magee thought while listening from her husband.

" Sir, how about our food?" Bruno asked.

" We still have canned goods around, though, our water access are found in bathrooms but still those are running waters from the spring.

Meanwhile, in the middle of George's talk, Sr. Sibal arrived carrying his things.

" Amá!" Magee shouted.

" Hey!hey! " I'm still alive, haha." Sibal just calmly made Magee settled.

"Amá, where have you been." George curiously asked.

" I just locked the entrance gate."

" But...we made it open due to Lucia's fire at the mountaintop that summoned the Japs to come." George's pressed his head.

" Hmm...no. Dr. Lucia was ordered to spy at us, yes. But she left a message to the Japs that if she create a big fire facing sundown, it means she found no one but that fire means she may have seen guerrillas going east, since she created a fire facing west. That Doctor was a heroine. She told me everything that she'd been waiting for Amado for several months but he rescued too late. She was already part of the comfort women. Hah! so sad...their relationship didn't work well and ended this way but that Filipino-Spanish Doctor was really brave, peace be with her soul."

" How come she had ruined her life that way. It would be very painful for Amado to learn this loss.

After a brief discussion, Sr. Sibal seated next to Magee and felt so sleepy.

George then continued to orient a few soldiers and guerrillas about the place.

" Hey...you guys must not worry too much, aside from the secret rooms, bath rooms and comfort rooms, there are exit points going outside. To be precise, its around 900 meters walk in order to reach northeast opening is a steep cliff. From there, everyone must use a rope to go at 500 meters going down. When you reach the ground, it looks like that its a dead end but try to walk around 3 kms ten you'll see the triplet caimito trees