by Ike Hamill
“What was it like?” the young woman asked. “Did you experience anything?”
Aaron nodded slowly and looked directly at the young woman. “Yup,” he said eventually.
One of the other people spoke up for the first time. “What do you mean that the numbers don’t mean anything?”
Aaron looked off towards the entrance of the mine. It was just a black hole in the side of the hill. The edges were too straight and the corners too square for it to be natural. It was a man-made artifact of California’s heritage.
“What’s in there is a collector too, but it doesn’t care anything about numbers,” Aaron said.
Dr. Grossman came up over the hill, followed closely by Roger.
“Okay,” she said, “let’s collect our gear and head in. Nobody sets foot in there without their emergency pack and their helmet. Remember your radio protocol and stay safe. Any more questions?”
Florida glanced around the group. Several people looked preoccupied by concerns, but nobody asked any questions. Aaron was staring up at the sky, like he was trying to memorize the color.
“Let’s go,” Dr. Deb said.
Chapter Six — Entrance
TRAVIS WAS STUFFED INTO the back of the Jeep. He and Miguel shared the space with the boxes of equipment.
“Park behind those rocks,” Justin said. “So nobody will see us.”
Joy killed the engine and turned around. “That’s not how this works,” she said. “We park here, so if we have trouble, someone will see us.”
“Oh,” Justin said.
They all began to open the doors. The women had the best seats in the vehicle. Joy drove and Kristin rode in the passenger’s seat. In the middle seats, Carlos, Justin, and Ryan were squished together. They spilled out to the sides as soon as the doors opened. It was harder for Travis and Miguel to exit. They had to wait for someone to open the rear hatch first.
“Who’s staying with the vehicle?” Joy asked.
It was dark out. The only light was from the stars. It was mercifully cooler out in the desert and the sky was so clear that Travis thought he could almost read by the starlight.
“Nobody,” Ryan said. “Why would we stay?”
“We only have six helmets,” Joy said. “And you’re drunk.”
“I am not,” Ryan said. He shook his head and dismissed the thought. “I’m high as fuck, but I am not drunk.”
“That’s true,” Miguel said. “I can vouch for that.”
“Regardless,” Joy said. “You’re not in any condition to go underground. You’ll stay here with the Jeep while we go in.”
Ryan folded his arms and widened his stance. For a second, he looked like he was gearing up to fight the injustice. Travis saw a smile play across Ryan’s face and Ryan didn’t end up objecting at all.
“The helmets are self-explanatory, but let me show you the headlamps. I’m going to do it in the dark, so you can all understand it’s really pretty easy. You should be able to do it by feel.”
She knelt. The process was simple. With pebbles of carbide in the chamber, the lamp would drip water on them to release acetylene gas. When the gas shot through the jet, the sparker would light it. Joy was rewarded with a bright yellow flame.
“We won’t be in there long enough, but after the rocks run out you have to scrape out the paste into a plastic bag and pack it out. We don’t leave anything in there. Everyone got it?” Joy asked.
The group answered back with a chorus of groaned yeses.
Quietly, someone said, “Yes, mom.”
Everyone picked through the box to find helmets and lamps. They broke up into sets and filled lamps and tested the fit of everything. Joy wore her helmet and her lamp blinded them as she moved around distributing flashlights and matches.
“Everyone gets three light sources. Three of us will have extra carbide and water, just in case. The others will have rope, just in case.”
“Let me get the keys,” Ryan said. “Just in case.”
“No,” Joy said. “I’m keeping the keys. Actually, I’ll give the spare to Kristin. Here you go.”
Travis couldn’t figure out how to get the cap on his torch. Some water spilled into the carbide chamber while he was messing with it. The rocks hissed at him as he worked. Joy took it from him and put it together easily.
When Travis got his helmet on, he saw that the others were already halfway down the slope. He turned his head and his light swept over to Ryan, who put up his hand to block the light.
“You’re going to stay here, right?” Travis asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Sure,” Ryan said.
“Come on, man, don’t fuck with us.”
“Who said I would?”
“I can see it on your face. Listen—you don’t have a light or a helmet or anything. Just stay here, okay?”
“You’re right,” Ryan said. He gave a sly smile and then pulled something from his pocket. He triggered a tiny flashlight and laughed.
“Stay here,” Travis said again. “Stay.”
He rushed to catch up with the others.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“Private Property. No Trespassing. Keep Out,” Miguel read. “What do you suppose they mean?”
Justin smacked the sign with the skull and crossbones and made a kissing sound.
“Hey, guys,” Kristin called. She was already down the opening tunnel. “Check these.”
She pointed her lights at chains that hung from the ceiling supports. Miguel ran at one and wrapped himself around the chain. He swung back and forth and the beam above emitted a loud CRACK! Dust settled down as Miguel dropped to his feet and looked up at the shaking chain.
“Don’t do that again,” Carlos said.
“You shook the whole place,” Justin said. He pointed deeper down the shaft. The next set of chains were swaying gently.
Travis looked back to the opening of the mine and wondered if there could be air blowing in to move the chains. He certainly didn’t believe that Miguel had shook the whole mountain, and nothing else but wind would account for the swaying of the chains. Unless… “Hey—we don’t get earthquakes here, do we?”
Miguel laughed at him.
Joy was moving away from the pack. “I think this room to our left was once a shelter of some kind. Yeah, there it is.” She pointed towards the corner.
“What?” Justin asked. He moved to her side.
She walked across the space. The ceiling got noticeably lower towards the other side of the room. Travis would have to jump near the entrance, but on the far side he could reach up and brush the rock above. He didn’t see what Joy was pointing at until he crossed all the way to the far corner, where she was. There was a passage that led behind the rocks. The way the walls blended together, it wasn’t obvious at all.
Travis led the way.
He wound left and then right. The passage squeezed down to the size of a narrow hall, but on the other side, it opened back up again. It looked like a larger doorway had been filled with piled rocks to block it off.
Justin rushed by him to where there were olive-green cans stacked at the far end.
“Biscuits and water,” Justin said.
Miguel caught up to him and picked up one of the cans. “I told you there was cool stuff in here.”
“It ain’t gold,” Justin said.
Travis found a key and began to open one of the biscuit cans.
“Don’t do that,” Kristin said. “It’s history.”
“This is science, woman,” Travis said. “I’m doing this in the name of science.” He peeled back the green metal. It got harder as he went and his reward was small. The biscuit had shrunk away from the sides of the can. What was left was a dense, dark brick.
“Ugh,” Travis said. He dropped the canned biscuit and the metal rang out against the rock floor. The sound echoed in the room.
“Hey,” Joy said. “Try to not trash the place.”
“Shhhh!” Kristin said. They all looked to her. Her face was lit up by five headlamps.
“You didn’t hear that?” Justin asked. He was standing closest to Kristin.
Travis shook his head.
“It sounded like heavy stone grinding on stone,” Kristin said.
Miguel squirmed in his shoes. He started to shove his hands in his pockets. His eyebrows shot up with an idea. “Oh, shit! We’re being sealed in.” He was the first to the passage. Travis got back to the main room in time to see Miguel sprinting for the exit. The rest of the group caught up behind him.
“Don’t run!” Joy said. “Everyone stay calm.”
“Stay calm? What do you think is going to happen?” Justin asked. “This place shouldn’t be any more dangerous than a parking lot, right?”
“There are tripping hazards,” Joy said.
“Please,” Justin said.
“Okay, fine,” Joy said. “You guys want to run around like jackasses and get hurt? Fine. I’m not going to try to protect you from yourselves.”
Miguel was standing near the skull and crossbones sign. “We’re not sealed in.”
“Really?” Travis asked. “You’re sure?”
They collected into a rough circle near the entrance of the mine.
“Are you ready to admit that this was a joke?” Justin asked. “Are you ready to head out?”
“No,” Miguel said. “We haven’t even started yet.” He shoved his hand down into his pocket. He pulled out a worn sheet of paper and unfolded it carefully. Once he had it out, he spun around until he oriented himself to the map. “We go this way for fifty paces. We should see a turn to the right and then we go another twenty. Then we start to look for a ladder.”
“There’s no ladder in there,” Joy said.
“We’ll see,” Miguel said. With his map held out, Miguel led the way.
-o-o-o-o-o-
“See?”
Miguel pointed at the rough mine wall.
The first few footholds were simple iron spikes protruding from the wall. It wasn’t until several feet above the ceiling of the shaft that there were actual rungs to the ladder. The metal was rusted and looked weak. Miguel put his map between his teeth, grabbed a spike at face level, and reached for the next one. His feet scrabbled against the wall until he found purchase. He climbed and accelerated when he got to the rungs.
Kristin went next. She was followed by Carlos. Justin waved for Joy to follow but she declined.
“I’ll go last,” she said.
Travis moved by both of them and made quick work of scaling the rungs. The walls closed in on him and he climbed through a fairly narrow shaft up to the next mine tunnel. When he got to the top, Miguel offered an arm and helped him reach the floor safely. He shone his light back down the shaft. It would be hairy getting down to that first rung.
This new shaft had a slope to it. Kristin and Carlos were already exploring the uphill side. Miguel left Justin to his own devices and turned his attention back to the map.
“It’s this way,” Travis said. He pointed downhill. The shaft took a bend. Travis’s sense of direction said that the bend led deeper into the mountain.
“You’re right. How did you know?”
Travis shrugged. “It makes sense. We’re trying to go deeper, right? Also, there’s this,” he said, pointing at the wall. There was a big red arrow spray-painted on the wall.
Miguel laughed.
“Hey, guys, we’re going this way,” Miguel shouted.
Travis went first.
The tunnel was pretty uniform. The width and height of it didn’t change much as they walked. The floor was smoother than the walls, which looked like they had been chipped away. Everything was a fairly uniform gray color, but now and then he saw streaks of white or red in the strata.
“What’s gypsum used for?” Travis asked.
“I don’t know,” Miguel said. “If you see a branch up ahead, take a left.”
Travis looked, but he didn’t see anything except their straight tunnel. He didn’t like looking in the distance. Their headlamps combined and split to produce a weird pulsing effect at the edge of his vision. It was like the tunnel was growing from the darkness—it didn’t exist until they probed deeper. The illusion was unsettling.
When he looked again, he did see something. They were approaching a black section where his light didn’t penetrate. Travis slowed down and stopped. The black shape took up the entire width and height of their tunnel. He could see no detail, just a flat black wall.
Miguel ran into his back.
“Hey!” Miguel said. “Watch where you’re going.”
“You hit me.”
“There’s our turn,” Miguel said. He pointed. Travis looked—the darkness was gone. Their lights showed a branch and a tunnel running off to the left. Carlos and Kristin passed them. Justin smacked the map out of Miguel’s hand as he passed.
“Let’s stop up ahead and take a break,” Joy said. She took her pack from her shoulders as everyone drew to a stop. “Thirsty?” she asked. She pulled a bottle of wine from her pack.
“Hey,” Justin said. “I’m finally starting to approve of your planning skills.”
Joy gave him the finger.
Carlos pulled out a pocketknife and unfolded the corkscrew from the side. “I’ve never had a chance to use this before.”
“Well you can put it away,” Joy said. She unscrewed the top from the wine and took a sip. Carlos laughed and folded his tool away.
They sat in a rough circle and passed the wine. Travis put his back to the wall and kept an eye on the right branch of the tunnel. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the darkness there was a little too dark. Maybe the wall he had seen had only been chased a few paces away.
“We’re about halfway,” Miguel said.
“You guys aren’t serious about the idea that there’s gold, are you?”
“Of course,” Miguel said.
“He’s crazy,” Justin said. “Don’t listen to him. I’ve never met anyone more willing to suspend logic for a good fairy tale.”
“You’ll see,” Miguel said. “It won’t take long, either.” He stood up and peered down the tunnel. “There are rails up ahead. Like the kind you would run a cart on, you know? After that we only have a couple of turns and then you’ll have to take back everything you said.”
“Okay. I’m ready to prove you wrong,” Justin said. He handed the wine back to Joy.
Travis reached for his bag. He was one of the carriers of the extra carbide and water. Carlos put his hand on the bag too.
“What are you doing?” Carlos asked.
“I thought we were ready to go,” Travis said.
“Yeah, but that’s the bag I’m carrying.”
“No, man, I put it right here,” Travis said as he looked around. He realized his mistake. He had put his bag down against the wall. Carlos was right. “Where’s my bag?”
“It can’t have gone far,” Joy said. “Everyone come over this way. Let’s get all the lights over here.”
She waved them all back to the junction and had everyone set their bags in the center of the group. They counted several times, and each time they came up one short. They had started with three fuel carriers and three people carrying ropes and other gear. Now, they had only five bags between them no matter how many times they counted.
“Impossible,” Joy said. “You must have left it back at the ladder or something. Did you take it off?”
“Never,” Travis said.
“I saw him put it down,” Kristin said.
“It didn’t just walk off,” Joy said.
“I’m sorry, Kristin, but you’re probably mistaken. Travis, you must have dropped it along the way. We’ll find it on our way out,” Justin said.
“I’m pretty sure I had it,” Travis said.
“He’s right,” Joy said. “We’ll get it on the way out. The supplies are redundant anyway. I’m fine if we keep moving.”
“I bet I know what happened,” Travis said. He pointed his light back
the way they had come.
“What?” Carlos asked.
“I’ll tell you soon. Just everyone keep a close eye from here on out, okay?” Travis asked.
They all nodded.
Chapter Seven — Procedure
“I DON’T UNDERSTAND,” ROGER said to Florida. “There has to be a more scientific way.”
“Just pick,” she said.
Until then, they had followed a more sensible process, in his opinion. When they got to a junction, they would take a tunnel that didn’t have a flag. This junction had no flag. Florida said that it was up to them to choose.
“But wouldn’t it make more sense to…”
She cut him off. “Just pick. Fine. I’ll pick,” she said.
She put her flag down in the center of the left passage and she stomped off into the dark. Roger stopped and considered the device. It had a weighted base so it would stay upright. Their color was bright green. With their trail of breadcrumbs, they were like Hansel and Gretel.
“If you see a gingerbread house down there, don’t go in,” Roger called.
“What?” she asked, turning around.
Roger caught up and they walked side by side. “Did you ever wonder about that Hansel and Gretel story?”
“What about it?”
“They wanted to get rid of the kids because there was a famine. But then the kids left a trail of breadcrumbs. Where did they get bread if there was a famine? And if you were starving, wouldn’t you eat the bread instead of leaving it on the ground?”
“I thought they left a trail of pebbles,” Florida said.
“No, it was bread because the birds ate it.”
“I hate ginger,” Florida said.
“Finally something we can agree on.”
She put out a hand and stopped him.
“What? Did you hear something?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “It’s time to take a reading and leave a drop-stamp.”
“Oh.”
He pulled off his backpack. While Florida prepared the instrument, Roger got his cards ready.
“I’m seeing a seven point three, and a four,” she said.