He shined his flashlight over to a darker corner of the mine. There was a dusty looking wooden crate sitting on the floor. Going to it he took the lid off the crate gingerly. I looked inside to see that it was half full of dynamite sticks that were sweating with age, which meant they were extremely unstable.
"Those sticks are leaking nitroglycerin. It's liable to blow up, as soon, as you shift that crate one inch." I said.
Trent nodded, "That's a chance I'll have to take."
"What's your plan?" I asked.
"We make it look like we're still here and let them come in close. I'm going to suspend this crate in the other room to make it higher than the expected gunfire into the dugout will be. When the gunfire ceases and they come to check on our dead bodies Deshavi will pull on a cord, which I'll attached to the crate. She'll be at the other end of the mine shaft on the hillside exit. The crate falling to the floor should be enough to set off this unstable dynamite. You and me, meanwhile, will circle around the hill to either side of the enemy and come up on their rear. Hopefully the blast will take some of them out and be a distraction to the rest of them. We'll take the survivors out or die trying. If we succeed we get a chopper, if we don't Deshavi still has a chance to run for it."
Deshavi looked about to object as she looked from one to the other of us, but I cut her off. "It's a good plan! Let's get started on it." I said, as I pulled Deshavi along. I pulled Trent's pack off and more or less dragged it and Deshavi down the dark central mine shaft toward the hillside exit on the other side of the hill.
Trent waited for us to be gone before he started the process of moving the crate. Stepping through the hillside exit I blinked against the harsh glare of the sunlight off the snow. We waited relaxing in every moment that we didn't hear the rumble of an explosion.
It was taking too long and as I started to edge toward the mine entrance, in order to investigate, Trent finally appeared looking a bit gray in the face. He handed the end of a cord of rope to Deshavi, who just looked overly relieved to see him again.
"They've got the dugout ringed in. I left some bullets to cook on the stovetop, when they go off they'll likely start firing on the dugout. When they stop, give it a good 100 count and then jerk the rope hard. Then head off into those trees and wait, if we don't come back beat it out of here honey!"