by Scarlet West
“Come on,” I said with a weak chuckle. “We’re going to be late for camp.”
“We already are,” Amelia said frankly we walked out the door. “But just wait till I tell Greer. She’ll just burst!”
I laughed as we hopped into my car and headed off for the summer camp she would spend the day at with her friends.
As soon as I was alone, I texted Drake. He had been on my mind all morning. I wanted to see him tonight. Maybe Amelia and I could go somewhere with him, so we could have time to catch up. I didn’t know how much longer work would keep him in Bridgeway and I wanted to make the most of what time we had left.
Are you going to work late? I thought maybe we could do dinner together. With Amelia.
I texted and drove quickly to work.
“Morning, Sloane,” I called out as I came in.
“Morning Trina. I hope you have your running shoes on because we are busy today,” Sloane called back.
“Great,” I nodded.
“You look different,” Sloane said, giving me a sidelong glance. She looked mistrustful of the change and I wanted to laugh.
“I’m happy,” I said.
She gave me a brief nod and headed off into the back room. “Well good. You deserve it.”.
I floated through the day, beaming at everyone, lost in a world of my own. I was with Drake and we were learning to love again, and Amelia had a real family.
“You look happy, Trina,” Mrs. Ohlman, one of our oldest customers, beamed at me as she left. “It’s nice to see.”
I beamed back. “Thanks,” I said. “I am happy.”
I worked until three, then there was a brief break. I checked my messages. Nothing from Drake. Not yet. I knew he had a busy day of filming, though, so I wasn’t too upset. He was obviously working hard.
At five, I ended work. I checked my phone again on the way to clean the salon. Drake still hadn’t responded and I started to feel a little worried when I noticed that none of the messages I’d sent him had been marked as read.
If he hadn’t received any of my messages by six, I decided, I would call. At least that way we could still meet up, and I would know he was okay.
“Nonsense, Trina,” I said aloud to myself as I took the trash cans around the back to empty them. “He’s a grown man.”
All the same, I was starting to get worried. I cleaned the salon thoroughly, my mind focusing on details as a way to cope with the uneasy feeling that was starting to grip me. Once I was done I headed home.
At six, I took out my phone. I was climbing the steps to my flat, my heart thumping. Drake, dammit, I thought, feeling the first twinges of panic fill me, surely you have checked your phone since eight-thirty?
But he hadn’t and something didn’t feel right, so I called.
No answer. The phone rang and rang, and then went to voicemail. I frowned. Something was going on. This was utterly unlike Drake. Unless, I thought, my heart nearly stopping. Unless he decided he didn’t want to be a father to Amelia after all, and he up and left. Like he had before.
No, I told myself. No, that wasn’t it. He’d been sincere that morning.
I went inside and Mrs. Harris was there, sitting with Amelia on the couch. They were watching the news, and Amelia looked up at me with big eyes.
“Hey, mom,” she said. “The town’s on the news. Come and see.”
“What?” I ran to the television set, my heart filled with ice. Mrs. Harris was watching raptly, her tea steaming on the side table by the couch. She looked up at me through thick glasses.
“The mines had a collapse,” she said. “The old one. Some damn fools got themselves trapped inside.”
I stared. “The mine?” I felt my heart thumping. Something Drake had said about his job flashed into my mind, the thought raw and ugly. Hadn’t he been filming in the old mine shaft?
“What fools?” I shouted. “Who’s trapped?”
“Calm down, Trina,” Mrs. Harris said tightly. “No need for fussing.”
My daughter looked at me. “Some camera crew,” she said. “They were making a movie or something. Why?”
“Oh my,” I felt my legs go out from under me and I leaned back against the wall. “Drake…” I trailed off.
“Daddy?” Amelia stared.
I nodded. The images were on the television now, a big red sign with the words, “North Ridge” on it. I ran to the door to get my keys.
“Mommy?” Amelia had shot to her feet and she was walking after me. “What’s happening? Is Daddy okay?”
“We’re going to the mine,” I said. “We have to. I can’t rest until I know what’s going on.”
I grabbed my coat and, cutting straight through Mrs. Harris’ angry protests about it being stupid and dangerous, I shouted my goodbyes and we left.
20
Drake
Dust and grit, falling from the ceiling and blowing down the shaft, filled my vision. It got into my eyes and ears and settled into my lungs and made me cough. I covered my face with my arm, but it didn’t help much. The grit got into my mouth and I spit it out, my mouth drying up.
“Louis?” I yelled. “Dario? Chris?”
No answers. I started to panic. The roof had fallen in five hours ago, just before we broke for midday. I had heard another fall, perhaps ten minutes ago, and the dust was still blowing in. What if the others were hurt? Unconscious? Buried by the fall?
I wasn’t even going to think about the real question that spoke into the silence of my mind. What if they’d died?
“Louis?” I yelled. He’d been closest to me when the collapse happened. I hadn’t felt that panicked, then. We had all sat in the dark together, trying to contact Camry, or one of the other guys on the outside. I hadn’t managed to get through to anyone, but one of the camera guys had more luck with a radio.
Now, I wasn’t even sure where he was.
“Luke?” I yelled. I thought it was Luke who’d had the radio idea, though I hadn’t seen him clearly through the dust. It had still been falling then, and everything had been confused. “Luke?”
My voice was a whisper, the way a flame flickers, needing air.
Air. A horrible thought struck me. If the corridor out of there was blocked, could air reach us? How long would it take before the air in the vaulted space finally ran out?
I coughed and spat out dust. I was starting to feel tired.
“Boss?”
I turned from where I sat on the floor, staring at the wall. My eyes widened.
“Luke!” I felt my heart soar, even as I flinched with horror. My cameraman was covered in dust, his lips a moist crack in the sandy-pale expanse of skin. His eyes were outlined with darker clay, too, and he looked exhausted and scared. Like I felt.
“Hey, Drake,” he said, cracking a pallid smile. “Looks like we’re still stuck, huh? Sorry I must’ve passed out. I hit my head pretty good.”
We’d been stuck for ,I guessed, about five hours. “You hear any rescue effort?”
“Sadly, no,” he said. “Camry radioed someone. I dunno what happened after that. With the second collapse, I lost touch.”
“You lost touch?”
“And I lost the radio,” he said, making a tight-lipped grin. His eyes were worried, though, and I could see despair. I felt desperate, too. The radio had been our best chance of escape.
“The ceiling fell on me,” he said with a sigh. It could have been a laugh. I chuckled too, and heard how close to madness that laugh sounded. I might go mad, I conceded, stuck in there. If we didn’t see sky or air, or hear another human, I’d be mad in a few more hours.
The man I was playing had spent three days like this. I was finding five hours more than unbearable. I felt renewed respect for the man, and the thought gave me renewed strength.
“Can we yell through the blockage?” I asked. “Let someone know we’re here? Camry must be out there, still?”
“I guess.” His voice was a whisper. “He should be. Where’s Louis?”
“Here,” a voice whispered it from beside my shoulder. I turned around, heart soaring, happier than I could have imagined to see the broad, roguish face of my lead actor so close by.
“Louis?” I reached for his hand. “You’re okay! I thought, with the second collapse…” I trailed off. I didn’t want to say what I’d thought.
He grinned. “I’m okay I think,” he said. “But my leg hurts pretty bad. Damn knee.” He laughed, weakly. I frowned, feeling my panic increase steadily.
“Your knee?” I asked.
“I fell on my knee,” he said, and I could see the lines of pain on his face now. “I thought it would stop hurting, but it hasn’t. It hurts like hell.”
“Oh, dammit, Louis,” I reached for his hand again, tried to find his knee. He shook his head.
“Leave it, Drake,” he said. “I think I broke something.”
The temperature underground had been rising steadily all afternoon. Now, I guessed it to be around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I was also starting to feel overheated and I wanted water.
“What can we do?” Luke asked.
“We can find where everyone is,” I said. “And then we’re going to try to find the entrance.”
Luke nodded, looking thoughtful. “Good thinking, boss.”
I grinned, though I didn’t feel amused, not really. “Sometimes I have good ideas,” I said.
We held hands. Together, yelling and crawling steadily forward, we found more of our people. Len was okay, though bruised. Dario was unconscious. I felt for his pulse, feeling really afraid.
“Who else was in here?” I asked, as we pulled him toward the front of the cave-like space. We could still see a crack of daylight down the tunnel, so we knew which way the exit was. That was a relief, at least.
I didn’t want to stay in there during the night.
I turned to Luke. Of all of us, he’d been further down the tunnel when the second collapse happened.
“How much is blocked?” I asked.
“Pretty much all of it,” he said. His eyes were expressionless, pools of nothing. I swallowed hard.
“Okay,” I said. “We’re going to see if we can hear anything. If we can, it means they can hear us. And we’re going to shout.”
Louis nodded. “Sounds like a plan, boss.”
As we crawled out toward the light, I found myself wondering what Trina would think of me. She’d probably wonder what the hell I was doing, covered in dirt, crawling on hands and knees through a cave, I thought, chuckling to myself.
Inside, I hoped she’d be proud of me for trying to survive.
Together, we found where the second collapse had landed, filling up the only way out.
“Damn,” I said.
“And if we’re all in here, there’s no one out there looking for us, is there?” Luke asked.
“I’m sure by now, someone’s come along,” I tried to reassure him. “People have been poking around ever since we started shooting. Someone’s bound to notice something.” Together, through the dirt which still floated like a mist in the filtered light, we contemplated the wall.
“Hear anything?”
Luke shrugged. “Sounds like water maybe. Who knows?”
I strained to hear it. The noise he’d heard could have been water running over rocks. Interpreted another way, it could, just have been an engine of a truck, idling slowly.
“Maybe help is here,” I said
Drawing a breath, praying that my voice-trained lungs were still strong enough, I coughed, spluttered and then yelled.
“Hey!” I shouted. “We’re in here. We’re alive. Can you hear us?”
“Hey!” Louis added his voice, loudly. “We’re down here. Get us out of here!”
I felt my heart lift a little as, one by one, everyone who was conscious started to shout for anyone who might be close enough to hear.
After half a minute, Len coughed, and leaned back against the pile, spent.
“Damn it, Drake. I’m having a hard time breathing.” Through the haze of falling dirt, I could see his face. He looked old, and tired, and desperate. I nodded.
“Okay, then,” I said. “We’ll rest.”
We developed a system. One of us would yell while the others rested. He would keep it up for a minute, then he’d give a pause. We’d all rest, and get our strength back. Then the next person would take over, for a minute. Not the most reliable system in the world, maybe, but it gave us something constructive to do.
It was coming to my turn again. I was sitting with my back to the pile, resting. Luke pulled my sleeve.
“Drake?” he whispered.
“Mm?” I frowned.
“It’s getting dark.”
I looked up to where the sun had peeked in until a few moments ago. He was right. Only a pale trace of it, fast darkening, remained. I felt for the first time that we might not be getting out of there, after all and I started to feel the first edge of real panic.
I drew in a deep breath.
“Hey!” I shouted, as loudly as I could. “We’re down here! Let us out.”
21
Trina
The mine was a flurry of activity when we arrived. Several ambulances, the fire department, and the police were all on the scene. Along with several camera crews. Seeing the news truck parked on the edge of the stony plain, I felt my heart tighten with something like rage.
“Vultures,” I hissed. “All they are doing is getting in the way.”
“Is Daddy going to be okay?” Amelia asked for the hundredth time that evening.
“I’m sure he is baby,” I tried to soothe her. “I bet he’s trying his hardest to get back out to us.” I scanned the scene. The sign and the terrain were just like portrayed on the news; a harsh, merciless landscape. Just seeing it brought a lump to my throat. Drake was somewhere under the ground, trapped and restless. Maybe he was wounded, maybe he couldn’t breathe, maybe he was already dead.
No. I couldn’t let myself think that way or I’d fall apart completely. I needed to stay strong for Amelia. I closed my eyes and said a prayer that the father she’d just found wouldn’t be ripped away from her so cruelly already.
“Please,” I said, striding up to an ambulance. “I’m looking for Drake Stone. The actor? Do you have news of him?”
“Sorry, ma’am,” the paramedic shook his head, slowly. “We haven’t found anyone yet. The rocks are too thick. We need a digging team to get through.” I saw him glance at Amelia, and saw his face soften. She smiled at him, hesitant.
“Where is the team?” I barked. “What are you all doing? Why is nobody digging them out?” I was feeling terrified, and terror made me rash.
“They’ve just gone in,” the man said slowly, trying to placate me. “We’re doing all we can. Now, you really shouldn’t be here, ma’am,” he said reasonably. “We’re trying to keep this area clear for emergency personnel.”
“Listen,” I said, trying to hold my anger and panic at bay. “The man I love is in that mine. You have to help him. You have to get him out.”
“They’re trying ma’am, but it’s a very slow process. They have to make sure to shore up the remaining rock before they dig so that they don’t cause another catastrophic collapse,” he told me.
“Mommy?” Amelia said from beside me, her voice sounding small.
“Come on baby,” I said, taking her hand and walking away from the paramedic. “Hey, mister?” I marched over to a guy in white who I presumed to be the head of the digging detail. “What’s being done to get those men above ground?”
He looked over me appraisingly and I could see him about to shrug me off. Millie came and took my hand and I turned to her.
“Where’s my daddy?” she said.
“We might as well not ask these people,” I said, casting the man a flinty gaze. “They seem like they can’t help us.”
“We’re doing the best we can,” the man said. His expression, too, softened. “We’ve just started clearing the rock. There were two collapses,
it seems. The one further back, and then this one, which blocked the entrance. I reckon we can clear it in maybe another hour as long as the tunnel stays stable.”
“An hour?” I felt frightened. “How long have they been down there? Has anyone heard anything from in there?”
Were they still alive in there? Or had the first fall crushed them? I didn’t even want to think about it. I felt myself starting to cry. I covered my face with my hands. Beside me, Millie gripped my elbow.
“It’s okay,” I whispered to her. It wasn’t okay, though. It wouldn’t be, until he was out again.
“What can we do?” Millie whispered up to me.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“You should go, ma’am,” the digger said, gently. “It’s dangerous here. If there was another cave-in, the debris would reach us here. You and your daughter had best go back –.”
I closed my eyes and tried to tune out the noise of the talking men, the scrape of diggers, the reporter making interviews.
“Please, ma’am,” the digger was pleading. “You should go.”
Something caught my ear, even as Millie took my wrist, trying to lead me backward. A noise, like a cry, distant, faint but present.
“Wait,” I said.
“Ma’am, I have to insist that…”
“Wait!” I shouted and held up my hand in a calming gesture. “Please.”
“We’re here!” I heard the noise again. This time, it was clear what was said. Faint, distorted and cracked, I would have known it anywhere. Drake’s voice.
“Drake!” I screamed. “I hear you!”
My heart was singing, my soul soaring. I looked down at my daughter, who’d grabbed my wrist.
“Mommy? Did you hear him?”
“Yes!” I yelled, elated. “Drake! Wait!” I shouted back. “I hear you! Wait for us! We’re coming.”
I heard an answering yell, wordless and relieved. This time, the diggers heard it too. I heard a yell from one of them.
“Boss! Boss! You hear that?”