by C. Cervi
Dirt and rocks continued to fall until Aaron thought for sure they would all be buried alive. When the deafening noise finally did stop, it was almost as sudden as it had begun. The candles had been blown out, and they found themselves surrounded by darkness.
Aaron immediately began calling for Keith, who answered that he was unharmed. Philip also called out, and the sounds of Emily’s sobbing let them know that she was also alive.
“Philip, check your brother,” Aaron called to him. “Grant . . . Grant !”
Aaron moved carefully in Grant’s direction, feeling around the rocks and boulders that had fallen to the ground. He could hear Philip talking softly to Tom, and the sounds of Keith scurrying around the cavern.
Emily was close to being hysterical, and Aaron called to her.
“Emily, I need you to see if you can find the water bucket. Can you do that?”
She didn’t answer, but her cries softened, and he could hear her beginning to move around. A moment later he ran into something soft, and got down on his hands and knees to feel. It was definitely Grant. Aaron moved his hands along the prone body, checking for injuries. He was able to feel the large man’s chest rising and falling, although quite a bit slower than he would have liked.
“Aaron!” Philip’s panicked voice suddenly filled the cavern.
When the boy started screaming his name, Aaron scrambled toward him as fast as he could manage.
“Philip, I’m coming.”
He banged his knee against a large rock, and cursed the darkness.
“Keith, I can’t see. I’ve got to light a candle,” he called to his brother above the young boys shrieks.
“Go ahead, I’m almost to him.”
Aaron stopped and quickly untied his belt. He cursed again when the contents fell to the ground, and he felt around carefully for the matches. His hand fell across a single match and he grabbed it, striking it against a rock. He found two candles stubs, lit them, then hurried over to Tom. Keith pulled Philip off his brother so that Aaron could get a closer look. The man’s still body was half buried under a pile of rocks, and it didn’t take Aaron long to determine that Tom’s sufferings had ended. He lifted his head slowly to the boy.
“I’m so sorry.”
“No!” Philip screamed and, ripping himself from Keith’s grasp, he clawed at the rocks surrounding his brother’s body.
“Don’t leave me . . . you can’t leave me . . . you promised!” He sobbed.
Aaron fought to keep control over his own emotions in the face of the boy’s grief. He reached out to pull him away, but it took him and Keith working together to force Philip to stop his digging. Still the boy continued to struggle and scream. Finally, Aaron took his shoulders.
“Philip, stop! He’s gone,” he said, giving the boy a firm shake.
Philip looked at him in shock for a moment and, as slow realization came over him, he crumpled to the ground. Aaron reached out to comfort the boy, but he pulled away, scooting himself as far into the wall as possible. Aaron looked to Keith, but he had turned away from the scene—his own body shaking in silent sympathy. Emily appeared quietly beside them—the water bucket in her hand having somehow survived the cave in unharmed. She fell to her knees in front of Philip, tears streaming from her eyes. She said nothing, but laid her small hand on his arm. He looked up for just a moment, and then with a mournful cry, fell into her arms. She held him, stroking his head gently, and Aaron was grateful for her presence as she spoke soft words of comfort to the weeping boy.
“It’s all right,” she said. “You’re not alone.”
A groan from the other side of the cavern drew Aaron’s attention away. He handed Keith one of the candle stubs and then, taking the water bucket, made his way slowly back to Grant. With the light from the candle, he was able to determine that Grant had a large bump just above his hairline but, thankfully, it didn’t seem to be bleeding. Grant shifted slightly and opened his eyes.
“The others?” he asked, bringing his hand up to his forehead.
“Tom didn’t make it,” Aaron answered. “The others are fine.”
Grant closed his eyes again, and was still for so long that Aaron wondered if he had lost consciousness again. He jerked when Grant’s fist slammed onto the ground beside him.
“How’s the boy?” he asked, and Aaron was surprised to hear something akin to compassion in his voice.
Aaron sighed. “He’s not too good.”
“Are we trapped in here?” Grant reached out a hand for Aaron to help him up.
“I haven’t gotten that far yet.” Aaron grunted, as he pulled the larger man into a sitting position. “Will you be all right for a minute if I have a look around?”
Grant nodded as he leaned his head against the wall. “Go on.”
Aaron worked his way back to where he had dropped his belt. The box of matches had broken open and, scanning the ground, he was only able find five of them. Stepping just outside of the light, he quickly re-attached the belt. He still didn’t know what to make of Grant. After seeing him talk to the delivery man the other night, it was obvious that there was more to him than just being one of the prisoners.
He heard the sliding of rocks, and turning, saw that Keith, along with Emily and Philip, were working to get Tom’s body out from underneath the rubble. Philip’s broken sobs pulled at Aaron’s heart and, without even consciously making the decision, he knew Philip was now his responsibility. He continued to weave his way around the maze of rocks until he arrived at the entrance to their cavern. Very carefully, he set the candle stub on a large rock, and noted that its flame flickered slightly. The entrance was almost completely buried, but there was a small opening at the top, letting in air. In the shape they were all in, it would take a while to dig themselves out.
“Let’s hope this is the only tunnel that suffered damage.” Aaron startled when Grant spoke beside him. He hadn’t even heard him approach.
“Should you be up?” he asked.
“Luckily for you, I got hit in the head,” Grant answered. “I’m a little dizzy, but I’ve still got my strength.”
He stood back as the man demonstrated by rolling aside a heavy stone. Aaron worked beside him for a while but, to his utter frustration, his aching body forced him to move slowly.
“Need some help?” Aaron looked up to see Keith and Emily standing beside him—he lifted his gaze across the cavern, in the direction of Tom. Philip sat near the body—his head resting on his bony knees he had pulled to his chest.
“He doesn’t want to leave him,” Emily explained softly.
Aaron nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Why don’t you sit with him?” he asked her. “Between the three of us, we should be all right.”
Emily gave him the closest thing to a smile she could manage before she walked away.
“Not doing such a good job, am I?” Grant asked softly, as he watched Emily re-join Philip.
“What do you mean by that?” Aaron asked, turning to face him.
Grant sighed and gingerly rubbed his sore head.
“Nothing . . . forget it . . . come on, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Aaron watched as Grant turned and continued his digging. He had so much going through his mind at the moment that he couldn’t get it to settle on any one thing. Question after question whirled around his brain. What had caused the explosion? Would they make it out alive? Just who was Grant? He brought his hands to his head, as if he were trying to keep it from falling apart.
“One thing at a time, son.” His father’s voice cut through chaos in his mind.
“One thing,” he repeated under his breath, and working to place his weariness aside, he turned to the greatest obstacle in their path.
“First, we have to get out.”
C
hapter 13
The work was hard and, due to their injuries, painstakingly slow. Aaron managed to keep on by, literally, taking one step at a time. Pick up a rock, move it, g
o back, do it again. The pattern seemed to continue endlessly, and he’d lost all track of time.
Occasionally, one of them thought they might have heard voices coming from the other side, but after listening carefully awhile, they would eventually just shrug it off as wishful thinking. The already warm room was becoming almost unbearable with the entrance blocked, but the only time the three men would allow themselves to stop would be to take a small sip of water. Aaron wished they hadn’t been so liberal with it earlier, now there was no telling how long it would be until they could get more, and it had to be rationed carefully.
Despite Aaron’s attempts to spare Emily, she eventually joined their efforts.
“I want to get out of here,” she told him. “It’s not safe at night.”
It’s not very safe during the day either.
“Why don’t you see if you can find any tools? We had a pick and two shovels—they sure would come in handy.”
As Emily complied, Aaron made his way over to Philip. The boy had barely moved, and he quietly sat down beside him. For a while, he didn’t say anything, and sitting beside the grieving boy brought him back to his own childhood when his mother had been killed—to the night when he’d sat like this with his father next to him, waiting silently, patiently.
Finally, Philip looked up at him.
“He was dying you know?”
Aaron drew his brows together in puzzlement as he waited for an explanation.
“He hated this place,” the boy continued, turning back to his brother’s body. “Every day we stayed here killed part of him. When they took him that last time, and they. . . When he came back. I could see it in his face, and hear it in his voice . . . he’d given up.”
Philip turned again to Aaron—his face twisted in pain and confusion.
“Why would he do that?”
Aaron sighed deeply, sending out a prayer for the right words to comfort this boy. Slowly, he placed his arm over Philip’s shoulders, and was relieved when he didn’t pull away.
“Philip, what happened here was an accident. Your brother didn’t crawl into a hole and die because he was feeling sorry for himself; he was killed because of a cave-in. Your brother was beaten down and tired, but I think you and I both know that, given time, he would have come around again.”
Aaron could feel the boy’s shoulders quivering beneath his arm.
“I miss him. I don’t know what to do without him.”
“You keep on living.” Aaron found himself repeating the words his father had spoken to him all those years ago.
“But it hurts so much,” the boy whispered.
“You can use that pain, Philip.” Aaron turned to meet his eyes. “Learning to carry on in spite of it will make you a stronger person in the end.”
Philip sniffed and Aaron gave his arm one last squeeze before getting up to rejoin Grant and his brother.
“We could use your help . . . whenever you feel up to it,” Aaron said turning to go.
He breathed a sigh of relief when a moment later, he heard Philip’s soft footsteps beside him.
Emily managed to find one shovel that had survived with only a broken handle, and between the five of them they were beginning to make good progress. Aaron guessed that in another couple of hours they would break through.
“I think we should stop for now,” Grant said, and Aaron turned to him in surprise.
“What do you mean?” asked Keith. “We’re just starting to make some headway.”
“I know,” Grant answered. “That’s exactly why we should stop. If my guess is correct, its way past the normal quitting time, and I don’t have to tell you what these tunnels are like at night. We’ll be safer to just wait in here until morning.”
Aaron was about to protest when suddenly, a low growl rumbled through the rock barrier. The sound was unmistakable, and Aaron had to shake off the idea that the animal had been listening to their conversation.
“What is that?” Emily whimpered, grabbing hold of Aaron’s arm.
“It’s a puma,” Grant answered.
“What?” Keith challenged him. “I’ve hunted cougars dozens of times back home, and I’ve never seen one like that.”
“I’ll agree with you there,” Grant answered. “But it’s a cougar all right. Black as night and the biggest cat I’ve ever seen.”
The group listened in silent fascination as he continued.
“I told you I was trapped in these tunnels once. I got about as close to it as any man can get, and still live to tell about it. That’s how I lost these.” Grant held up his hand with the gaping hole where his fingers should have been.
“Is . . . is it what keeps us here?” Emily asked. “Is it a spirit?”
Just then, the animal gave a high-pitched scream, and Emily covered her ears, trembling. Even Philip took a step nearer Aaron.
“Don’t worry,” Grant said. “It can’t get us in here.”
From the look on Grant’s face, Aaron wondered if even he believed what he’d just said. The group moved as far away from the entrance as possible, and in an effort to save what little light they had left, they blew out the candles. The animal seemed to be enraged by the fact that it couldn’t get to its prey, and continued to screech and growl, sending cold chills down their spines. Emily and Grant had just about crushed themselves into Aaron’s side, and he worked to come up with a way to take their minds off the enemy behind the rocks.
“Emily, where are you from?” he asked.
“I . . .” she paused as the animal let out a vicious roar.
“Go on,” he encouraged.
“Well, my father and I . . . we were heading to Sacramento. He was a doctor, and there was a man there that had asked him to be his partner. My mother died a few years ago, and my father wanted to leave Chicago. He said it reminded him too much of her.”
Emily started to shift uncomfortably, so Aaron turned to Philip.
“How about you?” he asked. “Where were you and Tom headed?”
Aaron wasn’t sure if mentioning Tom would be too much for the boy, and was relieved when, after a moment, he answered.
“We’re from Oregon. It’s just me, Ma, and . . . just me and Ma.”
Philip grew quiet, so Aaron decided to take a turn.
“Well, Keith and I are from Utah territory, up in the mountains. We have a ranch there where we raise cattle and horses. There’s a particular spot I like to go to, high above our home. The view from there is . . . well, it just takes your breath away. There are tall pine trees as far as the eye can see, sweeping up from sort of a canyon, and at the end, on either side are two separate foothills that come together. Right in between them you can see one of the most glorious lakes on the face of this earth. Its waters are clear as glass, and if you go out on a boat—from just about anywhere, you can see all the way to the bottom. I would spend hours up in that spot, just looking, waiting for the sun to set. Sometimes, if the lighting was just right, it almost seemed as if the sun would touch the water and you could watch it turn to gold.”
“It sounds wonderful,” Emily sighed.
“It is, and -”
Aaron startled when Grant suddenly grabbed his arm.
“Do you hear that?” he whispered sharply.
Aaron froze—listening.
“It’s digging.”
Grant jumped to his feet, grabbing the shovel. Emily began to whimper and Keith quickly pushed the girl behind him while Aaron scrambled to light a candle. As soon as he had one lit, he scanned the ground, looking for a weapon.
“Hurry,” Grant urged him. “We have to get to it before it breaks through.”
Aaron picked up a jagged rock, and he and Grant moved quickly toward the entrance.
“Wait,” Keith called, getting up to follow.
“No,” Aaron shouted. “You stay with them. Be ready, just in case this thing gets past us.”
As they approached the entrance, Aaron took one side, while Grant took the other. The frenzied digging c
ontinued, and Aaron figured it would only be a few more minutes before the animal could get through. He knew their best chance would be to kill the beast on its way inside, and he stood poised—ready to strike. His stomach dropped as rocks and dirt tumbled around his feet, then a large stone fell, and he felt a rush of air enter the stuffy chamber.
Don’t miss.
There was a scrambling noise and then he saw a flash of black hair. With a guttural cry, he brought the rock down hard, only to be stopped by Grant’s strong grip.
“Just a minute,” the man shouted.
Aaron looked down wide-eyed, his heart beating furiously, and was shocked when the black hair turned slowly, to reveal a face.
“Meri?” he gasped.
“That was a close one,” the man replied, eyeing the sharp rock Aaron still held up in defense.
“What are you doing here?” Aaron asked as he and Grant hauled the young man inside.
“We’re getting you out,” Meri answered.
“We?” Grant questioned.
“Me and Annie,” he continued. “This whole place just about collapsed after the explosion. Some of the prisoners were killed. We accounted for everyone but you, so . . .”
“We came back for you,” Annie finished for him, crawling through the hole.
“What about the cougar?” Aaron asked. “How did you get past it?”
“What are you talking about? There’s nothing out there,” Annie answered, looking puzzled. “But we’d better hurry before there is. This place isn’t safe . . .”
“At night,” Aaron interrupted. “Yeah, I know.”
Something about the whole situation just didn’t sit right with him, and he eyed the brother and sister skeptically. He did agree that they needed to move quickly, however, and called to Keith.
“Keith, why don’t you go through first with the light, and then we’ll follow?” Aaron said when he was near.
“We’ve got a torch on the other side,” Meri said, and Aaron felt the warning voice in the back of his mind growing louder.