Elias pointed to the crudely drawn map on the floor. It indicated the mineshaft, their location and several exes. Elias explained these. “Some of the prisoners were kind enough to share what they knew. There is a large contingent of guards at the entrance. They are now undoubtedly armed with firearms, or we might have a chance. There is another group here halfway up the American Tunnel between the exit and where we are now.”
“Elias’s Vain,” Erica added.
“Yes,” Elias said with more than a little grit in his teeth. “Thank you for reminding us all. Even this small group, armed as they are, would mow us down.”
“There aren’t any other tunnels?” Erica asked.
“Hundreds of them,” Elias said. “People have been digging in the mountain for more than a century. But the prisoners have never found the one that leads out.”
“So there is another way out?” Erica said.
“There’s another way in,” one of the knights explained. “They’ve encountered animals down here. Every now and then a mountain lion wanders in. It could have come from some other path. But just because it could get in, doesn’t mean it could get out.”
“But there is another path to the surface,” Erica said.
“Okay,” said the knight. “But how do you plan on finding it? Do we just wait for another beast to wander in and ask it directions? We have to attack the guards.”
“No, we have to wait,” another began to argue and it set the debate in motion again. Every one of them had an opinion as to what should be done, and every one of them was convinced they were right.
“Well, boys,” said Erica as she backed away. “This is where I came in.” She walked back up the tunnel to where she had passed out. The prisoners watched her with lustful eyes but said nothing. The beating of her attacker must have been severe enough to turn the rest into gentlemen.
She sat against the wall and looked up at the ceiling. It was too low, too close, and she could feel herself begin to panic so she looked at the ground. It reminded her of the ceiling so she looked at her hands. When that didn’t work, she closed her eyes and focused on breathing. After a few deep breaths, a voice spoke to her.
“You’ll get used to it.”
She opened her eyes. It was one of the prisoners. He repeated himself. “The tightness. You’ll get used to it.”
A knight took a step toward the man. “What did we say about speaking to the lady?”
“Relax, Lancelot.” The prisoner picked at the dirt under his nails. It would be a lifetime to get them clean. “I was just trying to help.”
The knight raised the shovel. “Do I need to help you shut up?”
“No,” Erica said to the knight. “It’s okay. Let him talk.”
The prisoner smiled at the knight and continued. “You get used to it. You get used to walking hunched over and breathing this dust … you get to where the outside world scares you, you know. It’s just so big and open. Down here it’s …” he searched for the word for a long quiet moment before shrugging and saying, “… safe.”
“Safe?” Erica asked.
“Sure. You’ve got a mountain on every side of you watching your back. You’ll never freeze to death. You know where you stand down here. It’s safe.”
“What about the mountain lions?”
He smiled. “That doesn’t happen often.”
“Where do you think they come from?”
“Who knows? They probably built their den in an old tunnel thinking it was a cave. But then they got trapped and went looking for an escape. Who can blame them?”
“Must have been pretty scary.”
Again the prisoner shrugged. “It was exciting. Not a lot happens down here, you know. The first one that showed up, one of the guys got so excited he tried to make the cat his pet.”
“What happened?”
“He died horribly. He died from cat.” The prisoner smiled. “He was an idiot. But at least it only got him. The second one killed three of us.
“It came in the dark, you see? Lights out. We were sleeping. One of the boys feels the thing’s nose on him. He wakes up thinking it was one of the boys playing a prank. So he punches it. Right in the nose. You’ve probably never punched a lion in the nose before. It’s not a good idea.
“The thing went nuts, tearing into anything it could find in the dark. The screams were horrible. They bounced all over the walls; it was like a mad house before the day’s dosage kicks in. It was a nightmare. We had to fight it in the dark. We thought we had it, but, by the time the lights came on, it was gone.”
“So this happened some time ago?” Erica asked.
“Wednesday.”
“Did it die?” Erica asked. “Will it come back? ”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that.” His smiled turned wicked. “You’ll be dead long before a cat can get you.”
The knight stepped in between Erica and the prisoner. “That’s enough out of you!”
“Enjoy your moment, Lancelot. You’ve got the shovel now, but just wait until lights out and we’ll see how big you are.”
The knight took two quick steps forward and struck the prisoner in the mouth with a fist. The prisoner didn’t make a sound until he spit his front tooth out onto the mine floor. The knight smiled. “I’ll listen for the whistle,” he promised.
Lights out? They were going to turn the lights out? She knew she’d go mad. The dark, the deep, the heat and knowing there was an angry mountain lion somewhere in the mines … how could she handle lights out?
Hours passed. Or maybe it was minutes. The knights argued. The prisoners stared and Erica focused on breathing. By doing this she had started to feel better with the space. She focused on steady breaths. Not too deep. Not too fast. Shallow and slow enough to get more air than dust. She had fallen into a comfortable rhythm when the lights went out.
Confused calls came from the knights as they tried to answer what happened, but it was soon clear that even knowing wouldn’t help.
The prisoner that had been so chatty had the laugh of a boogeyman. “I’m coming for you, Lancelot.”
She had never known a darkness like it. There was nothing. She held her hand in front of her face. The dial of her watch glowed faintly from what little sunlight the luminous dial still held. She tore it from her wrist and threw it away.
“I saw that, girl.” It was the man that had come for her before. “I know right where you are.”
The tunnel erupted in sounds as the prisoners sprung their attack. Even a vast amount of experience in the dark meant very little. Dark was dark. It didn’t matter how used to it you were. But the enemies had certainly found one another. Grunts and screams filled the tunnel as they clashed.
Erica backed against the wall and pulled her knees to her chest, praying that the lights would come back on and that the knights still had control.
A hand seized her ankle and pulled her into the middle of the tunnel. She felt a hand on her chest. It was calloused and rough. The other hand wrapped around her neck and squeezed. She felt someone near. Hot panting breaths hit her face. The prisoner’s voice was a rasp against nails. “Wasn’t it nice of them to turn the lights off for us?”
Erica screamed, but it did no good. They couldn’t find her in the dark. She was at the mercy of the monster. She began to wonder how far away the prison guards were. Where was the stupid x in the dirt? Would they even care enough to come?
She heard the pounding of feet from farther up Elias’s Vain. At first she thought they were the guards. But they were soft and padded steps galloping through the dirt and dust of the fallen rock. It growled.
The sounds of the struggle slowed. The prisoners heard it, too, and called to one another. “It’s back.” “Get together.” “Over here. Come find me.” “You find me.”
The man on top of her relaxed his grip and pushed himself up. She could hear the fear in his breathing.
The beast drew closer with tremendous speed and began to growl.
She heard the weight of the beast launch on her attacker and the man began to scream. He screamed as the beast tore into him.
It lasted for less than a minute. His screams grew weaker with each second until they ceased all together.
There wasn’t a sound in the tunnel.
The beast stopped growling.
Erica heard it turn towards her in the darkness. She put her hands up in front of her face. She knew what was coming next.
The animal’s hot breath covered her face. She felt the nose on her cheek as it sniffed. She took its head in her hands and began to cry. “I missed you, too, girl.”
Chewy barked and Erica moved. She found the dog’s collar with her hand and held tight as the mastiff led her up the branch to the American Tunnel.
A light danced in the dark and a timid voice called, “Hannibal? Hannah? Where’d you go?”
“Brae?” Erica whispered back and the beam from the flashlight found her face in the dark.
“I swear that dog can find you anywhere!”
Erica gave Brae a quick hug and took the flashlight the girl offered her.
“Follow me,” she pointed the light farther into the American Tunnel. “Hannah found a way in.”
TWENTY-TWO
Those that survived the end of the world awoke to a great opportunity. A lot of people had died and that was sad, but a lot of the people that died were the people that had stopped many dreams from coming true. Security guards, loan managers, traffic cops, the Federal Aviation Administration—people and organizations that were there to say, “don’t touch that,” “you can’t go there,” “you can’t afford that,” “you need a license to fly,” and various other party-poopers had lost their power when everything blew up.
Despite the bombs, dreams were coming true everywhere. Financial woes were no longer an excuse not to drive a Lamborghini. And, since there was no one left to suspend a license, there was no good reason not to drive it at two hundred miles per hour. If you wanted to fly, you only had to get in a plane and try. If you felt Washington’s portrait needed finishing or that he might cross the Delaware faster with an Evenrude, all it took was a tube of paint and a little time.
But, even though the world had become every survivor’s oyster, there was one dream that still eluded many.
There wasn’t a little boy on earth, before or after it blew up, that didn’t want to drive a train. Through the eyes of a child, it was the perfect job. You got to go fast. You got to push buttons and pull levers. You got to yell at everyone and tell them what to do. And you had to yell. An “all aboard” spoken with an inside voice was useless. You had to yell. But more than anything, you got to pull the whistle.
Jerry’s inner little boy pulled hard on the cord that diverted steam from the boiler to the train’s whistle. White steam burst from the pipe and the train screamed. Jerry grinned and imagined what Erica would think when he told her he’d stolen a train to save her. She’d probably scold him for bragging, he decided. He pulled the whistle again and leaned out the door to smile at two of the mountain men that were standing outside.
They looked disappointed and he couldn’t figure out why. They had the train. They had an army. They had a chance. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing,” Kyle said.
“Yeah,” JJ added. “It’s nothing.”
“What the hell is wrong?” Jerry asked again. “We just stole us a train and it looks like someone kicked your dog.”
They said nothing.
“C’mon, the plan worked perfectly.”
“Yeah, well, so what?” JJ said. “It’s easy to steal a train when it’s standing still.”
“Right,” Kyle said. “Try stealing it when it’s moving. Then you have something to toot your horn about.”
“Why would you try and steal it while it’s moving?” Jerry asked before he realized what they were getting at. “Oh. Look, you guys shouldn’t feel bad. You’ve got your own train now!”
JJ and Kyle looked away.
“C’mon, Kyle,” Jerry said.
Kyle spit on the ground and kicked at it with his boot.
“JJ?” Jerry said. The man wouldn’t turn. “JJ?”
The big guy finally acknowledged his name. “What?”
“You want to blow the whistle?”
“What? No, I’m okay.”
“Come on. Come up here and blow the whistle.”
JJ gave up the pout and smiled. “Okay!” He fell rushing up the steps of the train.
“Watch your step, now,” Jerry said and gave him a hand into the engine. He let the large man past and pointed at Kyle. “You’re next.”
Kyle smiled.
JJ grabbed the cord, took a deep breath and was about to blow the whistle.
“JJ, wait!” Jerry yelled.
The large man let go of the cord like it was a hot stove. “What?”
“You can’t blow the whistle without yelling, all aboard!”
JJ leaned out the door and yelled. “All aboard.” Kyle began to hop with excitement. JJ laughed, ducked back in the engine and pulled the cord. The whistle screamed. JJ screamed along with it. Kyle screamed, too.
JJ gave the whistle three long blasts before he was willing to let go. But the screaming didn’t stop. It came from everywhere.
Jerry stepped to the engine’s door and watched as the entire mountain man community emerged from the woods. They screamed like a train whistle and rushed towards the engine. They waved what guns he could supply. The rest waved crude weapons and tools, but it was an army unlike any the kingdom had ever seen. They were so excited to see the train that Jerry could barely hear Kyle yelling at him from the ground.
“Hey!” He started to wave and the motion caught Jerry’s eye. The man looked concerned.
“What is it, Kyle?”
“I still get my turn, right?”
Jerry let Kyle have the honor of yelling the official all aboard and announcing their departure. He did it with enthusiasm and the army of woodsmen loaded into the rail cars.
Jerry pushed the throttle forward. The wheels spun several times before finding purchase on the rails, and the engine lurched forward. There was a loud bang as it pushed into the car ahead of it and the sound was echoed many times as those behind caught up.
He gave one more blast on the horn and they were on their way. He looked out the window and wished he had an engineer’s cap.
TWENTY-THREE
They stumbled through the dark as fast as the beams from the flashlights would allow. Erica fell several times over the rail ties and broken rock. Every time she hit the ground, Chewy rushed to her side and tried to help her up by placing her large head under her arms.
Brae tried to move them faster. “Hurry. They’re sure to get the lights back on soon.”
“That was you?” Erica said. So far, running was all she knew of the escape plan.
Brae’s answer was interrupted by shots from the guards. The girls turned to look back down the tunnel and saw several beams of light scattering along the walls.
“C’mon,” Brae grabbed her hand and pulled her faster down the tunnel. “It’s just ahead.”
They ran along the tracks for another minute before veering to the right into a side tunnel. It was smaller than the American in height and width. Brae ducked under a barricade that had been erected to protect tourists and moved into the dark.
Erica hesitated to follow.
She still couldn’t see the guards but they were closing in. Once the lights came on, they would be caught.
Brae’s hand extended from the darkness. “C’mon, Jen. It’s okay.”
Chewy nudged her forward and Erica ducked under the barricade. The dog followed.
The tunnel lowered quickly. Erica found herself crawling over fallen rock. Brae was kicking up so much dust that the beam from her flashlight was almost useless.
The dust choked her breathing. The walls were too close. She couldn’t see Brae. The guards were getting closer. She could he
ar their footsteps now. She didn’t have much time. She had to get out. She had to get back to the main tunnel. She thought she could hide and escape later.
“I can’t do this,” she said and turned back toward the tunnel. The earth shifted beneath her as she crawled. She could see the guards’ flashlight beams dancing on the wall outside the side tunnel. She had to hurry.
The lights came back on. The guards were there. There were several of them. She was staring right at them and they at her. Erica froze. Chewy stood between her and the armed men.
“Come out of there,” one guard said. He raised a pistol at her to make his point. “Now.”
The gun went off as one of Elias’s knights collided with the guard and knocked him from view. The bullet ricocheted off the wall not far from Erica’s head and careened into the dark corners of the mineshaft. The knights jumped the guards from behind and got the upper hand, but gunshots filled the tunnel with chaos. Elias appeared at the end of the tunnel and saw Erica.
“Go,” he said and waved her on. “We’ll hold them here.”
Erica turned and crawled towards Brae’s shouts. It wasn’t long before she saw the flashlight beams trying to cut through the dust.
“Jen? Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” she yelled into the dark.
A hand reached out and grabbed her own. Brae pulled her deeper in to the tunnel. There the dust had settled and Erica could see again. Brae hugged her and smiled. “I thought we’d lost you.”
Erica didn’t know what to say so she just shook her head.
“It’s this way. Stay close. It can get confusing.”
The sounds of the struggle faded quickly as Brae led her down a series of tunnels that broke off from the main passage. They worked their way through the dark for five minutes before Erica noticed it didn’t feel so dark. It was coming from somewhere besides the flashlights. She could see Brae without shining the light on her.
“Is this it?”
Brae moved to the side of the tunnel and leaned against the wall looking up. “This is it.”
Erica rushed to her side and looked. A few feet off the ground was the entrance to another tunnel. Dug not by hand but by a trickle of water from above, the tunnel ran at an angle towards the surface. Somewhere in the distance above, she could see sunlight. Her world got bigger, and for the first time since entering the mine she wasn’t focused on her breathing.
Knights of the Apocalypse (A Duck & Cover Adventure Post-Apocalyptic Series Book 2) Page 18