A Cinnabar Sky

by Billy Kring

  Hunter knew because she recognized the familiar topography from the last time, but she felt like a conversation might help them somehow. “What are you going to do with us?”

  “Put you somewhere so we can get things done without you interfering.”

  Adan asked, “Are you going to kill us?”

  “I am not.” Something hidden in his tone made Hunter wonder.

  Winston said, “It would be easier if we did, but I told you to handle this your way.”

  Adan noticed RL turn his pistol to the back of Winston’s seat. RL said, “So, we’re doing this Ellis’ way, right?”

  “That is what I said, you moron.”

  Hunter hoped he would shoot, but Ellis said, “Let’s all calm down here. Nobody’s getting hurt.”

  The vehicle hit a chug hole that jerked everyone around inside and fine dust drifted down from the headliner on them. Winston said, “This way is terrible. You need to find a better path, Ellis.”

  “It smooths out up ahead there.” Ellis pointed at the slight indication of a road a hundred yards in front of them. Everyone was silent as he motored across the rock-strewn path, and when he reached the primitive road, it smoothed out enough that they could talk.

  Winston said, “I won’t go on these little jaunts with you again. I’m a man of refinement. This is for lowlifes.”

  RL’s face flushed, but Ellis seemed unperturbed.

  Hunter watched them both, looking for any opening, and she noticed that Adan also watched them.

  Ellis followed the road as it angled uphill, and Hunter recognized they were on the trail to the abandoned mine. They passed through brush and cactus, transitioning to juniper and a few pinon pines further up the incline, until they arrived at the small shed marking the mine’s entrance.

  Ellis and RL exited and told their two prisoners to get out.

  Hunter said, “What are you going to do with us?”

  “Put you somewhere safe so we can leave you a while and go do our business. We’ve got a ton of dope coming in that we have to get across the river today, so we don’t have time to babysit you.”

  “And after?”

  “We’ll be living in Mexico, so we will turn you two loose.”

  Adan said, “But you killed Dario.”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. But this is here and now. I’m gonna hide you two and go do our thing, then come back and you can walk back to the border. Let’s go.”

  Hunter said, “Can’t you drop us off at the border? It’s like thirty miles from here.”

  “While you’re walking back, we are going to disappear. That’s what the time you’re walking will be used for. You’ll never see us again. Now, get out.”

  They got out and Hunter glanced at the dark sky that signaled thunderstorms, as she and Adan walked ahead of Ellis and RL into the shed. It was like she remembered, only a lot more dust covering everything. They walked into the mine entrance and RL used his battery-powered lantern to show them the way.

  Hunter caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and saw Ellis loosen his pistol in the holster. She turned her head a bit and watched RL do the same.

  Hunter moved closer to Adan as they walked toward the old, two-by-twelve pine board across the hole in the mine floor. She whispered, “run”, and saw he understood.

  Two steps from the hole, Hunter and Adan sprinted forward and tight-roped across the board to the far side. Hunter kicked the end of it and sent the makeshift bridge into the hole, where it fluttered down to crash in the bottom. “What the hell?” RL said.

  Ellis said, “Shoot them!” He raised his pistol, aimed and shot, knocking bits of rock off the wall beyond the two runners, but missing them.

  Adan sprinted ahead and Hunter followed close on his heels, using her body to shield him from the gunfire.

  RL shut off the light and they were in blackness. Ellis fired three more times into the dark, but failed to hit anyone.

  Hunter touched Adan, and they went forward several steps to where the tunnel made a sharp right turn. Once beyond it, they breathed easier, but only for a moment. Ellis yelled, “You can’t escape! This mine dead ends.”

  “We’ll stay here until you two leave.”

  Ellis thought a moment, then said, “Okay.” He and RL left the mine and Ellis walked to the blockhouse outside. He opened the lock and entered, returning with a handful of red dynamite sticks and a coil of timer fuse, along with the fuse igniters.

  RL said, “What are you gonna do?”

  “Seal it up. You got any objections?”

  “I guess we have to.”

  “They’re too dangerous. The boy knows too much, and that Kincaid woman is a damn wildcat in a fight. We can’t risk it, and this way, we didn’t have to kill them, they did it themselves.”

  RL didn’t see how that was true since Ellis was going to seal them inside to die, but he didn’t argue. All this made his head hurt.

  Ellis said, “I know you were hot for the woman, but I’ll make it up to you when we get back to Ojinaga. There’s some new whores in Boy’s Town that they brought in from Delícias. Blonds and redheads, young and pretty.”

  RL nodded, then used his light to shine on the mine walls. “We gonna have to drill holes for the dynamite?”

  “Nah, this mine’s over a hundred years old, and because it’s on the hillside, there are deep cracks that’ll work fine.” He handed RL several sticks, then cut fuses and handed him the fuses and blasting caps. “You know how to rig them, we’ve done dynamiting before. Take the charges outside and put them above the entrance. Try to bring as much of the hillside down on here as you can.”

  “You want me to start the fuses when I do?”

  “No. I’ll come out and signal you. Then you do it and run like hell to me.”

  “All right.”

  “I’ll plant the ones inside and do them first, but I’ll leave long enough fuses to light them all at once. That gives time for you to do what you need to do. We clear?”

  “We’re clear.”

  “Get going.” RL left the mine and disappeared. Ellis heard his feet slipping on the slope above the entrance several times, but nothing else. He turned his attention to the walls and ceiling, finding several large, deep cracks that he felt would work. He pushed the sticks in them and left the fuses out for easy reach.

  Ellis used the striker fuses to light them and stepped back to make sure they all burned. When he was sure, Ellis walked to the entrance. He looked back once into the dark mine and wondered if Hunter and Adan had found the skeleton back in there, then he went outside and yelled to RL to light the fuses and come down.

  RL hurried too much and slipped on the steep slope to come down with his legs pumping and heels digging into the dirt like a bronco rider spurring his horse. His butt hit hard on the level ground beside the shed, and he grunted with the impact.

  Ellis said, “Get your ass up and come on.”

  “I’m comin’.”

  They moved behind the pickup and waited. It wasn’t long before the whump, whumpwhump, whump-whump-whump-whump sounds of the explosions sounded and a cloud of dust spewed from the shed door like someone exhaling cigar smoke.

  Ellis was satisfied. He patted the watch in his pocket and said, “Let’s go drink some of Winston’s whiskey and relax.”

  Chapter 15

  Hunter felt sure there was no pursuit, that Ellis and RL remained on the far side of the hole in the mine floor and hadn’t found something to use as a bridge. Her ankle throbbed from kicking the heavy board, allowing her and Adan to escape. Feeling they were safe enough to use a light, she pulled out Hart’s iPhone and turned on the flashlight app.

  “It’s bright,” Adan said.

  “Not bad, huh? Let’s see where this goes.” They walked deeper into the mine for several minutes before the low rumbles came and the mine’s roof dropped pieces the size of dinner plates to the floor.

  Hunter pushed Adan against the wall and covered him with her body. One
broken piece of roof hit her shoulder and almost buckled her legs, but she held fast against the wall.

  When the rumbles subsided, dust filled the mine and made it hard to breathe. Creaks and groans also sounded in the mine, more from the front entrance.

  “Let’s just sit a while and wait for it to subside.” She said.

  Adan pointed at her shoulder, “You’re bleeding.”

  She looked at it, then pulled her shirt from her neck and inspected the wound. A small, ragged cut on her deltoid wept blood. The wound was an inch long, with deep bruising already showing around it. She said, “It’ll be okay for now. I’ll patch it up when we get out of here.” She didn’t want him to worry.

  They walked, stepping carefully because of the fallen rocks and timbers, but made good time. An hour later, Adan spotted something ahead at the edge of the light on the floor. They walked towards it, and Hunter realized it was a human skeleton, still clothed, sitting on the floor with its back and head resting against the wall. Fifty yards beyond it was a small beam of sunlight running from the roof to the mine floor like a spotlight. She ignored it and focused on the skeleton on the floor.

  When they reached it, Adan said, “I wonder who it is.”

  Hunter examined it by using the strong flashlight beam to inspect the body up close. The skeleton was partially mummified, but something had eaten portions of the skin on the hands. Half of the khaki shirt had torn away, leaving mummified skin showing from the chest to the belt.

  There was a dark spot on the cadaver’s pants thigh as well. A large, dried stain. Hunter pushed the cadaver to the side and looked at the back of the thigh. A bullet hole showed in the dried cloth. The area around where the man had sat was also dark where the blood soaked into the earth.

  “He bled to death, didn’t he?”

  “Yes, he did.” Hunter said. When she righted the skeleton again, she noticed something clutched in the left hand. She opened the stiff fingers and pulled out the portion of the torn shirt.

  When she turned it over, she saw where the man had written something, and done it with his own blood. She spread the cloth and saw the date, twelve years ago this month, and the words written with a sliver of wood that had been dipped in his blood. It was his will:

  My name is Vincent Hart, and a man named Ellis Carver has shot me and abandoned me in this mine. I am bleeding badly. If I die, I leave all my possessions to my wife, Alicia, and my son, Adan, who I have never seen. I was kidnapped and kept prisoner in Sinaloa for years by associates of Ellis. I escaped last week. Notify my father, Winston Hart, an… The message trailed off, unfinished.

  Hunter looked at Adan and saw a shocked look, and a tear spilling out of one eye. “This was my father.”

  “It seems so, Adan.”

  A sudden rumbling crack sounded and several tons of rock dropped from the roof near the back wall. Dust and gravel continued to fall.

  Hunter’s heart beat like a frightened rabbit as she looked for a way out of the mine, but only saw more trickles of dust and rock shards falling along the mine’s roof. Swallowing her fear, she said, “We have to keep looking, come on.”

  Adan faltered, not wanting to leave his father’s remains. Hunter said, “We have to go back, this whole thing’s collapsing.”

  Another loud rumble rolled through the bedrock and shook the floor and walls, sending showers of dust and gravel-like shards down on them. Hunter stepped to the skeleton and said, “give me the will.”

  Adan handed it to her and she put it on the skeleton’s chest, spreading it so it could be read, then she stepped back and took three fast photos with the iPhone. She gave the crude will to Adan, then thought a second before moving away. The last thing she did was pull on a desiccated finger, and it came off with a dry snap. She put it in her pocket and said to Adan, “For DNA.” He nodded.

  He fell in step with her as they searched for an exit as they walked toward the mine entrance. Two hundred yards later, they encountered another cave-in of car-sized slabs blocking their way.

  “We’re going to die in here,” Adan said. His quavering voice sounded the boy’s growing panic.

  Hunter pulled his arm, “Come on. I saw some daylight that way.” They hurried deeper into the mine, dodging melon-sized stones with quick steps, and detouring around the other, larger, partially collapsed areas.

  Another rumbling shudder made Hunter stumble, but she caught herself with a hand on the mine wall. She looked ahead through the increasing dust in the air and said, “There it is.”

  They walked through the dust and saw several boulders leaning against the wall under the light. Hunter recognized it as an airshaft, drilled into the mine to allow air to flow through to the tunnel mouth. She climbed up on the boulders and stood at the opening.

  It was small, so small she wasn’t sure she could fit in there. Using her light, Hunter looked into the shaft and noticed the light was dim. She felt sure there was some partial obstruction in it, but at this point they had little choice.

  Another cracking, splitting sound of breaking stone reached them just before the shaking cave-in and more portions of the roof fell, this time covering the skeleton and most of the floor.

  They were trapped in a space as wide and deep as a kitchen refrigerator, and no assurance that it wouldn’t also collapse.

  Adan’s teeth chattered, and Hunter’s hands shook. She climbed into the shaft and found she could only fit with her hands and arms straight over her head. Her shoulders scraped the rough stone enough to be painful, and her back and butt touched the top of the cold stone shaft, but she continued, calling to Adan to follow her and stay close.

  Hunter’s claustrophobia climbed into her throat as the way narrowed even farther in the hole, but she pushed on even as tears came to her eyes and her panicked breathing hissed between clenched teeth.

  Adan kept his hand on one of her ankles, scared to break contact. His breath shuddered and occasional faint whimpers issued from his mouth.

  Moving like worms on their stomachs, pushing forward with their toes and occasionally pulling with their fingers, the two prisoners made slow progress, inches at a time.

  Hunter craned her neck to look up the shaft and saw the sunlight dim from storm clouds, and something else. She thought it resembled large patches of hairy moss clinging to the walls, but wasn’t sure if that was what the dark masses were.

  Another, stronger shift in the rock suddenly lowered the ceiling of the shaft by an inch and Adan yelled. Hunter had to stop to push down her fear so she could talk. “You all right?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “Good. Keep coming, and make sure you touch me. I don’t want to lose you.” She felt Adan grasp her ankle again, and they crawled forward and upward at a thirty-degree incline.

  A quick flash of light showed in the shaft opening as lightning shot across the sky. A faint rumble came down the hole several seconds later. They crawled on for what seemed like an hour, but when Hunter checked her phone, it showed fifteen minutes had passed.

  “How much further?” Adan asked.

  “We’re more than halfway, but still have a way to go.”

  His small, tired voice said, “Okay.”

  Hunter’s shoulders ached from not being able to lower her arms, and she knew her knees were raw and bloody from using them to help propel her forward. She checked her phone again, this time noticing there was only ten percent power left on it. She pushed the “low power” mode to save what she could.

  Three minutes later, she thought she saw the hairy moss moving on the wall. She stopped and stared. It was coming toward her. She froze and, with horror, saw several clumps join into one mass, almost filling the shaft.

  A small running trickle of water hit her chest as it ran down the shaft. Rainwater, coming down the hole.

  Adan said, “Hey! There’s water coming in!”

  “It’s not much. Let’s keep going.”

  “Okay.” He hesitated a moment before saying, “We’re not going to drown, ar
e we?” Adan’s voice was almost pleading.

  “No, Adan, we’re not. We’ll get out of here before that can happen. Be strong, okay?” She prayed it wasn’t a lie.

  “Okay.”

  They crawled further and Hunter’s shoulders ached so much that she felt cramps forming in her upper back. Her knees were like hamburger and her jeans felt sticky and wet from the blood. She tried to use her toes more, but that meant almost doing a plank in the tight space, which made her buttocks and lower back cramp, too.

  The shaft grew darker, and Hunter used the phone flashlight. The large clump of hairy moss was a foot away, and breath caught in her throat. The moss was a moving, striding mass of spiders, filling the shaft from top to bottom and side to side. The first portion reached her outstretched hands and she felt the tiny, prickling legs of thousands of daddy long-leg spiders crawling over her hands, then arms, coming for her face.

  She barely had enough composure to say, “Some spiders, Adan. They’re not poisonous, but they’re going to crawl over us.”

  He didn’t answer as he gripped her ankle.

  The spiders crawled on her hair, and on her face, with their needle-thin legs going into her ears, her nose, her eyes, and on her closed lips. They were in her hair by the hundreds, burrowing in, the tiny feet touching her scalp and the stilt-like legs moving her hair so it gave her goose bumps.

  She couldn’t breathe because so many skittered around and probed inside her nostrils, so she opened her lips just enough to let in air. Spider legs slipped in the cracks, and Hunter pressed down with her lips. The spiders pulled them out, but immediately others pushed their own legs in her mouth.

  She tried to squirm, but the rock all around her kept Hunter in place, almost as tight as a straightjacket. She heard herself make small noises, and behind her, Adan struggled in full blown panic. He tried to blow them out of his mouth, but then gagged as more entered.

  “Keep your lips together, open them only a hair.”

  He stopped gagging, but his breathing sounded ragged and full of phlegm. She said, “We’re almost there.” She spat out the spiders that swarmed in her mouth when she spoke.