Turtle Silver Mine
West of Groenplaats
I came awake with Vadoma over me, as white webs of healing draped over my body. “There she is. Morrow, sleepy head. We need to quit meeting like this, or I may think we had a thing.”
“We have a thing. What happened,” I asked groggily, while fighting my way out of my cloudy mind.
“It looks like the floor was not stable. When we added our weight to the floor, we came down the quick way. Before we go into that, I need you to grab my arm and pull. I need to set the bone,” Vadoma said in a pained voice.
I noticed her right forearm had an angle on it, which was not supposed to be there. I grabbed her wrist while quickly pulled her arm out straight, to her sharp intake of breath. “Broken?”
“Yes! Now hold it there!” Pain filled every crevice of her voice, as it echoed in the cavern we now found ourselves in.
Her left hand was over her right arm as white tendrils played over her right forearm, which went on for many heart beats. Finally, the white tendrils released her right forearm, before they retreated into her left hand.
She gently pulled her forearm from me, while she cradled her forearm to her chest, in a protective way, as she rolled onto her back. “The bone is set, but it will take a few days to fully heal,” Vadoma absently answered with a tired apology filling her voice.
“It is fine, wench. So, are you saying the cave collapsed,” I asked as I took in the cavern.
“In a way…yes. I think it was a floor collapse.” She pointed at the ground we were lying on.
“Or we were on top of the cave collapse, wench.”
“Pretty much what I had said,” a pout entered Vadoma’s voice.
I just shook my head as I stood up. I looked up above us to where we had fallen from, but it was higher than my wind vision could show me. Panic grabbed my heart.
We have to find a way out of here. It will take a few days after we are supposed to be back for them to send out a search party for us, but we had not given them a destination. They have no clue where to look.
Then, another thought popped into my head.
If they happen to find our camp, they would still not be able to find us, as there is a ridge between our camp and this mine. It could take months for them to find us, if they ever find us at all.
“I think that is far enough,” I voiced aloud.
Vadoma’s voice held a huge amount of confusion, “Far enough for what?”
“I think that is far enough into the mine. I think we should turn around and leave now.”
A laugh filled her voice, “Grand idea, you silly woman. You were a little late on that decision.”
“Yea,” I drew the word out. “Can you see up to where the mine’s mouth is?”
“Da.” Her head moved while she scanned the cave. “I think we may have ourselves a wee bit of a problem.”
“You think, wench?”
Playfulness captured her words to me, “Well, yes. I said it, so I must have thought it at some point for it to come out of my mouth.”
I used my new found knowledge of this vixen to win the argument. I let my will do as it pleased, as my lips captured her lips. It was a quick tentative kiss, though the aim was terrible, as I caught only most of her lips. “I win,” I murmured into her lips as I broke the kiss.
I turned from her to inspect the walls. It was a few moments into my inspection before she answered me with the most thoughtful answer she could ever think of. “What?”
I felt playful, though I knew our situation was far from being a playful one. “Just say, ‘Yes, dear,’ and you will be good.”
She answered quietly, as she sounded a bit bashful. “Yes, dear.”
“Well, I seriously doubt we will find any hand holds, or toe holds, to climb this. That is the real problem.”
My mind went into analysis mode, as it made a list of things which had to be done, while I listed out objectives we would need to complete. First, we would needed to find a water source. We were good on food for now, as we could go a few days without eating, so, that went to the bottom of the list. This just left the thought, Get out of here, sitting in the middle of this cluster fuck we found ourselves in. However, there was no need to rush to start this list. A little time used to inspect this problem from here may help solve the problem, before the need to find water would dictate the course of our actions.
While I had been thinking as I looked up, Vadoma had walked over, with her arm still cradled against her body, while she gazed up into the darkness with me. “What are you thinking there girl?”
“We are so screwed, wench.”
Her voice was serious, “Da, I kind of think that too.”
“It will be days before they even start looking for us.”
She replied with the same seriousness, “Da. They will not find us in here.”
“Yup.”
Her voice held a small smile, “Screwed.”
“I think that statement was already established when I said we are screwed.”
She relied, “Da. So screwed.”
“I figure we spend a bit of time here to see if we can get out of here this way. There is the possibility which we can find another way out, though this is probably the only exit. We will also need to look for water.”
She pointed to a few places as she spoke, “There are ledges there, there and there, from where the floor did not fall. But there is no way we can use them.”
“Too far apart?” I asked as I looked to the spots in the darkness, which she had pointed at, to see if I could see them, but they were past my wind vision.
Her voice held all the sarcasm she could muster for the attack, “Da. If we miss a jump and fell, we would probably get hurt again.”
“Last option to attempt…do you think, wench?”
Thoughtfully, she replied, “Da, if it is either stay here or try that, that would be the last choice.”
I sighed into the air. “You see anything else?”
Her sarcasm mustered another attack into the blackness, “Besides freedom is so close, but so far away.”
“That was implied.”
Going back to being serious, she replied, “Then, no. What do you see?”
“Blackness. It is outside of my wind vision. But, looking at the walls, they are too smooth to climb up.”
With a chuckle, she teased, “Da, you already said that. Is there anything else sloshing through that pretty little mind of yours?”
“A fish who wants to have peace talks.” My imagination formed a fish, with a trident wrapped in a flipper, while it looked at me with his long whiskers.
In a dry serious voice, she said, “Does not sound like it is sloshing but more like swimming. Are you sure you are not mad as a hatter?”
“Yes, wench.”
Entry 12
4 Months Before
Turtle Silver Mine
West of Groenplaats
See Archive R.L 18.05.76.00157 Turtle Silver Mine for scientific notes and diagrams of this area.
We had explored the first level of the mine we had found ourselves in. One of the first things we noticed was a huge metal pipe, which came up from the depths of the earth, while it wound it’s way around to the different rooms, before meeting back upon itself, then running down the downward sloping main floor, which would take you to the next level.
The thing I found the most interesting was it was in my wind vision. The pipe was a dim white, along with the rocks by it, before fading into grays along the rock the further you got from the pipe. I had spent many moments inspecting the metal pipe and rocks, which it was attached to, though I could not make any scientific conclusions on this discovery at this time. It would be forgotten until InLara tinkered with the pipe and the junction boxes, which I had failed to notice.
Vadoma had found a sign, which she had read to me. It was outside of a room, which had been at the end of the floor, which had collapsed a little passed a pile of rubble with metal gates. “�
�Administration.’” The metal door was closed for the room.
It took us a few moments, plus a lot of pushing, to get the door to finally release itself from time, while it complained to us for being interrupted in it’s sleep to, yet again, work for a person.
I painted the canvas in my mind of the door, while interpreting the groaning of the metal, to give it words, Why do you wake me? I do not want to open for you. Why can you not leave me to sleep? The door complained in my mind until we could slip into the room, which stopped it’s complaints.
There were several desks scattered about, with boxes sitting on the desks. Papers, which must have been torn from journals, littered the desks and the floor. The metal pipe from the hall was in here, though smaller. It was about the size of my wrist, which ran the circumference of the room, about shoulder height. There were also a few round mirrors, which hung on the walls close to the ceiling. I know right? Why would you hang a mirror all the way up there.
The room, which was opposite this door in the hallway, had a sign, which Vadoma had read ‘Medical Triage.’ There was no actual door for the place which separated the room from the hallway. There were many cabinets on metal wheels and things which hung from the ceiling of the room. There were a few beds, which were on wheels, which were big enough for a person to lay on. Attached to the walls, there were several metal cabinets.
“This looks very similar to the medical triage rooms in the medical building,” Vadoma had absently informed me, in a tone of wonder, as she looked around in fascination. “These must be the candle lights which they used to light the area of work,” her hand touched one of the things hanging from the ceiling. “To think they worked with a candle this small. They must have been masters at healing people.”
I had left the room, as I found nothing of any fascination in the room, as the medical arts have never been one of the things which peak my interest. I had taken two steps into the hall way when the wind showed me a hawk swoop down, before landing on a pile in the rubble.
The sight was amazing. The hawk is a thing of beauty, which I could wish to get onto paper in it’s majesty. The wind flew through his feathers, which turned him into a bright white bird in flight, as the beat of his wings left trails in the air, which were a bright white in this gray place I found myself in.
The hawk looked at me while he screeched. I cocked my head at the hawk, who was sitting upon his perch, as his feathers puffed out from his erect posture.
“What is wrong, boy,” I asked the hawk as I took a step towards him. He extended his wings before he fluttered them in the air, as he screeched at me again. I cocked my head the other way at him, while I extended my left arm to him.
He dove off of his perch in the rubble, as he extended his wings, before falling almost to the floor. He beat his wings in two powerful beats before he rose into the air, as he climbed the distance he fell. He closed the distance to my forearm before extending his talons, while he grasped his new found perch, which was my arm.
He took a few hops up my arm to my shoulder. After a few more hops, with many tail feathers in my face, he decided his new perch was to his satisfaction while cocking his head at me. Vadoma had let out a laughing giggle as the hawk settled on my left shoulder.
After the spectacle was done, Vadoma asked, “Who is this beautiful boy who you have here?”
I glanced up to his cocked head, as his eyes looked into my face, as I thought. I had never given a name before to someone, especially a creature as beautiful as this boy here. I did the one thing I am good at, as I thought, while I went through my mind to seek anything which could help me make a decision. My mind found a memory. Locked into a memory of reading a tome, my mind latched onto a story of [The Gunslinger] and his hawk. “David,” I whispered into the hawk’s eyes.
The hawk bobbed his head before he broke his eye contact, to look around the cave in quick darting motions.
I looked to Vadoma. “His name is David,” I said with more surety.
She quipped back, “You are sure he is a boy, right?”
“Well, let me just ask him.” I turned my head back to David, while asking in the best imitation of Vadoma’s voice, though I did lack the Romani accent, “Are you a boy hawk, or are you a girl hawk?” I let the silence hold for a moment, before I turned back to her. “See, he does not care. So, David is his name.”
“Da, oh wise smart-ass. It makes total sense now.” Vadoma said playfully, as she disappeared back into the medical room, which she was oh so interested in.
“Yes, wench. Where else would I store my brain but in my ass.” I quipped back as I took in the hallway again.
I glanced to David while I started talking to him. “Well, boy, we are stuck down here. So, we are kind of exploring to see if we can get out of here. Want to come explore with us?”
Vadoma quipped from the other room, “Of course he does! What bird would want to go into a mine to explore it, you daft girl!”
I responded with a dignified rebuttal, which I yelled to Vadoma, “I am not talking to you, wench.”
“I am not cleaning it up.” She yelled back to me.
“I did not ask you to!”
“I am just informing you,” she quipped back at me.
I stood out in the hallway until she was done with her explorations. She had came out with a tome held together with metal rings. I took the tome to examined it. The little tome had glass like pages with nothing I could read on it. I handed it back to her unimpressed.
She looked at me with excitement. “And?” I looked at her perplexed. “Do you not think we could use this map to help us?”
The tome was a map? I answered her truthfully. “I see nothing in the tome; they are just blank pages, just like the signs you have read. I do not see the words.”
She looked at me a few moments in thought. “So you can only see with your wind vision?”
“Duh. I open my eye and all I see is blackness. What are you seeing?”
She seemed to be in thought for a moment, as she weighed what she wanted to say. Her head bobbed slightly at whatever argument she was having in her head ended with a yes.
She said pensively to me, as she asked herself at the same time aloud, “What do I see?” She took a few moments forming her thoughts into words. “Well, it is like seeing by the moons’ light. Things have a pop of color to them. I mean, like, I do not know. It is seeing.” She laughed at herself humorously. “You know how bad I am at describing things. Mostly in here, there are shades of blue and white, but it is like looking at it in the moons’ light. Do you understand?”
I sat thinking, while I tried to paint a canvas of what she said to me, in my mind. Then, a random thought ran through my head.
It is like how I try to explain my wind vision. It just is. Words are not enough to convey the sight.
I nodded my head, while I let the subject go. I knew how difficult it is to explain something when simple words could never describe it. I could never describe a buteo jamaicensis in mid flight, to a person who could not see, and give the red-tailed hawk the words they deserve, as they fly through the air.
“Okay. Since you can read it, wench, do you see anything which can help?”
She looked at the cover of the tome and read. “‘Idaho Project E.L.E shelter, site 4a. University Of Idaho-Idaho Falls. Administration, Mapping and Planning Office. 2020.’ There is a canvas here.” She turned the page. “‘Level 1. Check point, administration, medical triage, security and military barracks…’” I listened to her name off each level, while painting a map in my head.
Level two was focused on biology, which had a few terms I did not understand, like seed bank, animal re-population program and a few others. Level three was focused on natural sciences. This I marked in my head for exploration, if we got to it. Level four was for medical sciences. Level five was the storage level. “Wait. What kind of storage?”
After a few moments of looking at the page, she responded with, “It does not say.”
&
nbsp; “That may have some things we could use to get out of here. How many other levels are there, wench,” I asked her as curiosity painted my voice.
Vadoma flipped through the tome, while looking intently about two-thirds through the tome. “The last page, which has something written on it, is labeled ‘Level 67’, but there are more map pages with nothing listed on them. I think there are more than seven and sixty levels. They just do not have them detailed like the previous pages.”
I thought about that. Seven and sixty floors! The number was mind boggling to me. How deep into the Earth was this mine?
“Well,” I said, as I thought aloud, “I think we should check the storage area to see what we can find there. It sounds the most promising. We can check the other levels as we go through them.”
Entry 13
4 Months Before
Turtle Silver Mines
West of Groenplaats
See Archive R.L 18.05.76.00161 Turtle Silver Mine for scientific notes and diagrams of this area.
We had worked our way down to the fifth level of the mine. Getting past the area of the collapse, at level two, was difficult on the spiraling tunnel, which led us deeper into the mining caves.
We had also discovered other doors, which when we tried to open, they refused to open for us. David spent most of the time on my shoulder, except when he found a perch in which he had to investigate.
We had saved level three and level four for later, as we wanted to get to level five, for anything to help us get out the cluster fuck we found ourselves in.
The landing for level five was different, as it opened into an area where thirteen more conveyances were resting, before the tunnel continued to spiral downwards. The other entries had doors, which were closed, but opened with a little muscle power when tested.
After inspection of the complicated conveyances, I decided they were of no use to us, since we could not get them past the collapse site in the tunnel, nor could I figure out how they would work.
There were several doors which led off of this main room. The first room, ‘Barracks’, was just that. A sleeping place nestled into this giant mining system, with beds, desks and storage boxes.
Relonor's Journal Page 12