Drilled

by Cole, Cassie

  It took longer than I expected to start, but eventually the drill rumbled to life like a bass speaker cranked all the way up. A bowel-loosening vibration from this close, familiar and terrifying all at once. We humans were ants compared to the power of a machine this size. As it always did, it reminded me of how important our safety regulations were. Why we did what we did.

  Slowly, the drill pulled out of the hole. I waved a hand at the cockpit for him to stop when 10 new feet was exposed, using the chalk line I’d drawn before as a guide mark.

  When the engine cut off, I said, “Toss me the safety key.”

  “Why?” the operator called down.

  “In case your hand slips. It’s protocol.”

  I couldn’t see his face because of the angle of the glass, but he seemed to be making a decision. Finally he bent down, then tossed the safety key out onto the ground. Only when I had picked it up and verified it was the key did I feel safe.

  We approached the drill and verified what we could already see: this 10 feet was properly insulated too. I straddled the hole carefully, keeping both feet on the metal and ignoring the chasm of open earth beneath me. Jason pulled out a tool like a screwdriver to check the insulation seam; it looked reasonably new, but not too new like they’d hastily put it on right before we got there. It was completely and utterly normal, the way it was supposed to be.

  I marked the drill with my chalk, leaning out over the chasm for a perilously long moment, then went to the cockpit door and tossed the operator the key. “Another 10 feet.”

  He scowled down at me. “We’re gunna check every foot of it?”

  “You bet we are.”

  He inserted the key, raised the drill again, then cut it off. I waited for him to toss me the key again before approaching the drill once more.

  As I went over this section of insulation, I couldn’t banish the feeling of unease growing in my gut.

  44

  Lexa

  Driving to the drill site, I was running solely on adrenaline. At least, for the first hour. My mind raced and my fingers trembled on the steering wheel as I went 15 over the speed limit, swerving in and out of the other cars going far too slow.

  When the adrenaline wore off, a deep exhaustion took its place. I didn’t get much sleep last night, and what I had gotten wasn’t very good sleep. Or the night before, for that matter—I’d been worried about Cas and the others leaving.

  That seemed like so long ago. What an unimportant concern now, compared with their physical safety at the drill site. I wished I could go back to worrying only about a silly thing like love.

  Love. Was that what this was? Of course not—I’d only just gotten to know these guys. I barely knew Cas and Tex, and I hardly knew Jason and Kai at all. I couldn’t call that love.

  But it’s getting there, a voice whispered in the back of my head.

  I shook it off and pretended like it was the sleep deprivation getting to me.

  Interstate 94 was endlessly straight for most of its trip through North Dakota. A straight line heading west with no interesting terrain to break up the monotony. My eyelids grew heavy, and soon my chin was bouncing off my chest.

  “Stop it!” I yelled at myself. “Wake the heck up!”

  I tried every trick in the book to stay awake. I cranked the radio up and sang at the top of my lungs. I slapped my cheeks until they were hot. I yelled at myself some more, calling myself names. Stupid girl. Naive girl. Idiot who had believed a man like Milton Bryson could be kind.

  I prayed, too. Prayed I wasn’t too late to stop whatever was going to happen—if anything at all. Because that was a growing worry in the pit of my stomach: that all of this was one big misunderstanding. That I would arrive at the site, and the boys would be going about their business and weren’t in any actual danger. That I would look like a paranoid fool following them out there.

  That made me laugh. Looking like a fool was far more preferable to them being in actual danger. If I showed up and looked like an idiot for a short period of time I would rejoice to the heavens.

  I’d neglected to fill my tank before the trip, so after two hours I was forced to stop at a gas station. I only filled the tank halfway to save a few minutes of standing at the pump, but then I ran inside and bought a cup of coffee. It tasted like sludge but did its job, especially on a girl who was used to tea. Within 15 minutes I felt more wired than a telephone pole.

  My attitude changed with my renewed energy. I could do this. I had the laptop, and the evidence the guys had requested. I wasn’t just a passive observer to everything happening.

  I was singing Africa by Toto at the top of my lungs when my phone vibrated.

  I almost swerved off the road in my haste to turn down the radio and grab my phone. I expected it to be Cas returning my call, so I quickly answered without looking. “Hello? Cas?”

  “Ms. Lewis?” came Bryson’s confused voice. “Where are you? I thought we were doing lunch…”

  “Oh, hi. I, uhh…” Should I tell him? If I did, he could call his guy at the drill site and warn him. That wouldn’t matter if they had already caused whatever accident they planned, but if not…

  “I’m so sorry,” I said in what I hoped sounded like a sincere tone. “I had to run out. Family emergency. Can we do lunch tomorrow? I’ll explain it all then.”

  “Cut the shit,” Bryson said in a completely different voice. Like he was a different person. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  His anger ignited my own. I wasn’t prone to rage, not normally. But all of the frustrations of the past two months came bubbling to the surface. Losing my job at the Bismarck Herald, struggling to pay the mortgage on my new condo. Failing to find a new job, then resorting to using a temp agency. Having a promotion dangled in front of my face, which turned out to be bait to get me to gather info on the men staying with me.

  I let the anger envelope me like a shroud.

  “I’m stopping you from doing something terrible,” I said. “Because that’s what you are: a terrible man disguised as a decent one.”

  “I don’t know what you think you’ve discovered…” Bryson began.

  “I have it all,” I said. “Your laptop. Copies of the cover letters. The code you’ve been using. You’re screwed. Just admit it! Admit what you’ve been doing!”

  I was screaming into the phone by the end with an intensity that surprised even me. On the other end, Bryson growled.

  “You fucking cunt. I don’t know what they offered you to make up such lies…”

  “The truth,” I said. “They offered me the truth.”

  I hung up before he could say anything more. My hands trembled on the steering wheel as new adrenaline kicked in. I made myself take slow, deep breaths.

  It felt like victory. I wasn’t going to let Bryson get away with any of this.

  I reached exit 255 and turned onto a side road heading north. Two miles later my phone chirped, “You have reached your destination.”

  I pulled to a stop and looked around. There was nothing here. There was just endless terrain in every direction! I got out of the car as if that would give me a better view. My heart throbbed in my ears as I gazed into the distance, looking for any sign of a construction site.

  That’s when I saw the service road up ahead, with fresh tire treads in the dirt.

  I bounced along the unpaved road, each bump sending a painful jolt up my spine. I hoped this led somewhere. Without Google Maps counting down, it felt like I was running late. This was all wasted time! I should have been there by now!

  “Come on,” I muttered as I drove faster. “Come on! Where are you?”

  I was close to giving up when I crested a small hill and saw it. The walls of a drill site in the distance. I stepped on the gas and went as fast as I dared on the makeshift road, recklessly flying over the uneven terrain. I was so close. It was right there, and growing larger.

  But was I too late?

  As I neared, I got a view of the cars p
arked outside the entrance. I didn’t see their Jeep. Crap! Was I wrong? Was the info on Bryson’s laptop incorrect, and they were at a different drill site?

  A more grim thought entered my mind: had the guys already been taken care of, and their Jeep removed?

  I drove right up to the entrance and skidded to a stop. I didn’t even turn the engine off as I flew out and approached the gate. It was eerily silent, like none of the equipment was on. The way it might sound after an accident.

  Then I heard shouting inside.

  I took off at a dead sprint through the open gate. I instantly recognized Kai to the left, his huge figure in overalls unmistakable as he walked toward the drill, pointing. Someone above shouted; they were standing at the top of some metal stairs leading to a trailer, yelling down at the people by the drill.

  “Cas!” I screamed at him, then ran faster.

  45

  Cas

  Something was off about Doug the shift manager.

  He seemed like he was half-awake, wandering from item to item as I asked him questions. A zombie going through the motions, or someone who had never been here before and was figuring it out as he went. I made a mental note to check his background. Drug use was common in this part of North Dakota, sadly.

  There was another worker standing in the corner watching us, a guy with a black ponytail and a nervous look in his eye. He didn’t seem very helpful.

  “How long have you worked at this site?” I asked.

  Doug’s permanent scowl deepened. “Does it matter?”

  “For my own curiosity.”

  “Two weeks,” he answered after a pause. “Since the site broke ground.”

  He was clearly lying, which set off even more red flags in my head. I made a note and said, “Show me the safety checklist next, please.”

  I stood motionless as he opened one cabinet after the next, searching without finding. Yeah, this guy had no idea where anything was. If he’d completed the safety check right before we arrived he should have had it ready.

  Even if the drill wasn’t properly insulated like our tip said, we were still going to nail this guy for some infractions. Better than nothing, I guess.

  After about a minute of searching he found it: a thick binder in the top drawer of the filing cabinet, exactly where I knew it would be. He handed it to me, and then his phone rang in his pocket.

  “Excuse me,” he said, ducking outside.

  I watched him through the doorway as he spoke in a low voice. I would have bet good money this was his first day visiting this drill site. Or any drill site, for that matter. The question was: why lie about it? Out of sheer nervousness of getting audited on his first day?

  I looked out the trailer window at the drill site. Kai was done with the personnel interviews, and was standing at the entrance with his arms crossed. Tex was over by the drill, which was mostly exposed by this point. Jason had put on a safety harness and was lowering himself into the hole to examine the drill bit itself.

  Aside from Doug here, everything looked totally normal. I didn’t understand it at all. This was supposed to be our smoking gun!

  I opened the binder on the table. Every page was identical, since the same checks were run three times per day. I turned to the page with today’s date and 12:00 as the start time. All the checks were there, marked in pen and with Doug’s signature at the bottom. I flipped back a few pages; the handwriting looked different on each one, and there were even different colored pens. Black for last night’s shift, then blue and green yesterday. It all looked legitimate.

  What the fuck was going on here?

  Suddenly I heard banging outside. I stuck my head out the door and saw Doug running down the stairs, boots banging loudly on the metal. He reached the bottom and sprinted across the drill site like his pants were on fire.

  “The fuck?” I said to myself. Kai looked up at me, and I shrugged back.

  “Doug!” I yelled. “The hell are you doing?” I turned and looked at the black ponytailed guy. “What’s he doing?”

  “I dunno.”

  Had we discovered something incriminating? He could run all he wanted and it didn’t matter if we had the evidence.

  But Doug wasn’t running toward the exit. He was heading straight for the drill.

  The phone call…

  Oh fuck.

  Oh fuck.

  “Tex!” I screamed. “Stop him!”

  Tex left the drill hole, where Jason was fully submerged except for the safety line connected to the ground. He put himself between the drill cockpit and Doug, who was sprinting straight at him line a running back going for a touchdown. Tex lowered himself, then threw his shoulder into Doug… But the man twisted sideways and took only a glancing blow, which sent Tex sprawling across the mud.

  Hardly slowing, Doug leaped inside the cockpit with the other operator and slammed the door closed.

  There wasn’t anything he could do inside; I’d seen the operator toss down the safety key to Tex. For a long moment nothing happened.

  Then came the sickening sound of the drill engine rumbling to life, a vibration that shook the entire drill site.

  “GET JASON OUT OF THERE!” I screamed.

  Kai took off from his spot by the site entrance, throwing aside any fear that had been shackling him.

  I darted back into the trailer. There was a panel of machinery override switches on the wall that controlled the electricity to the entire site. There were individual switches for each piece of equipment, but also a huge master switch that required two hands to move.

  I gripped the master cut-off with both hands, then pulled it down with all my strength.

  Nothing happened. The lights remained on in the trailer, and the rumble of the drill remained.

  “Fuck! What’s wrong with it?”

  The useless worker looked wide-eyed afraid. “Dude, I don’t know…”

  I tried the individual switch for the drill equipment itself, but that didn’t turn it off either. It was broken.

  Or sabotaged.

  I ran back outside. “I can’t turn it off!” I shouted.

  Kai was halfway across the site, slowing down as he got closer to the drill. Tex was bent at the drill helping Jason get out of the hole as the drill pile began to move.

  Before I could lurch into action to help them, I heard the last thing I would have expected.

  “Cas!” Lexa shouted.

  46

  Lexa

  Without thought, I sprinted into the site.

  Cas ran down the stairs from the trailer, waving his arms and yelling at me to leave. But I couldn’t do that: I had to warn them, to tell them they were in danger.

  They didn’t understand.

  Kai turned around and intercepted me, wrapping me in his arms. “What are you doing here!”

  “You’re in danger,” I gasped over the sound of the enormous drill that loomed over us. “Bryson sent you here. The anonymous tip was from him!”

  Cas arrived in time to hear that. “Shit. Should’ve known. Kai, get her back—”

  He cut off at the sound of cries from the drill. Tex pulled Jason out of the hole just in time for the drill to strike rock, based on the deeper sound vibrating in my legs and the dust shooting out of the hole. Soon debris was flying out of the hole, and the drill pile was tilted at a strange angle. Jason tried to run away but reached the end of his safety line, knocking him to the ground. Tex bent down to unhook it.

  “Get her out of here!” Cas instructed.

  Kai threw me over his shoulder as if I weighed nothing. All I could see was the ground and the backs of his legs as we bounced back toward the site entrance. More yelling drifted from all directions.

  “You don’t have to carry me!”

  “Be quiet,” Kai said.

  “Oh come on…”

  We reached the gate and Kai finally put me down. “Who closed it…” He approached the control box and hit some buttons, then cursed loudly.

  “It won’t open!�
��

  The workers shouted from the other side of the gate, demanding to be let in. Their chorus of confused yelling frightened me more than anything else I’d seen.

  “Need to open it from the trailer,” Kai mumbled.

  I looked up at the top of the metal stairs. Someone moved behind the windows. “There’s someone—”

  Screams back at the drill pulled our attention. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Tex was still helping Jason unhook his safety harness from the ground, with Cas kneeling to assist. Behind them, the drill had been completely retracted from the hole, with the drill bit spinning like a giant silver top. It swung sideways away from Jason and the others, which gave me a moment of relief, until I saw the drill striking the outside of one of the enormous metal tanks. There was a sickening rending of metal, and liquid gushed from the tank and poured across the ground.

  Cas, Jason, and Tex began sprinting away from the liquid—not toward us, but to the right. Tex glanced back at the drill, slowing enough to point.

  As the drill bit continued chewing into the tank, sparks began flying. The liquid ignited, a faint blue color which swept across the surface in all directions before finally growing in a whoosh of yellow flame.

  The explosion from the tank itself was hot on my cheeks even from 100 feet away, a flash of bright light followed by a deafening crash. Kai threw me to the ground and shielded me with his body, a blanket of protection blocking out most—but not all—of the heat. Pieces of metal shrapnel flew across the site and hit the concrete walls, tumbling to a stop like dice thrown by a giant.

  When Kai finally raised off me, a huge cloud of smoke was rising into the sky. The vertical drill pile was mostly gone, and the cockpit had been knocked backwards at a diagonal angle, smoke gushing from its interior. A wall of fire now split the drill site in half, a hellscape of flame and carnage.