The wall where we were wasn’t there anymore, or at least, how it was. It was a pile of rubble, completely collapsed into a mound. In the opposite direction, the tunnel entry way had caved in, the supports having given away from the quake of the blast. We were blocked in, trapped, as the room was filling with smoke. Or was it just the smell from the blast?
I checked the rest of our surroundings of the passage we were in. The only way out that I could see was the direction David had been running, and it was still open mostly. The ends of the pillars we were between partially fell, so we needed to climb over the rubble, which looked doable.
As long as David woke up.
I traversed toward where the blast occurred. “Dad!” After a moment, I yelled again, “Dad! Can you hear me!” Sobs escaped my throat. I started to wail, falling to my knees. I placed my tied hands on the rubble pile for support and to try to get as close to my dad as possible. “I’m here, Dad. I’m here. You aren’t alone.” I continued to sob, my tears turned the dust and dirt on my face into mud. “I love you…”
I was there for what felt like days, not being able to stop the onslaught of tears and emotions. Then I heard a shifting behind me. I swung around in fear that more debris was about to fall, but it’s David. He groaned as he was coming to. I rushed over and got down near his head, my emotions making my words come in sections. “David… can you… hear me?”
“What– ouch, fuck!” He placed a hand over his head, where it came away with blood. His one hand was cut up pretty bad, probably from landing and trying to catch us. “What happened?”
I started to sob again, my chest having a hard time taking in air, let alone to talk. “They… they lit dyn… amite. They… were try…ing to…kill me.” I covered my face with my hands, and cried for my father. “My dad!”
“Fuck!” David shifted himself into a sitting position and wrapped his arms around me. “Shhhh. Shhhhh. I’m sorry.”
“Do you think… they could have made it? They could just be trapped?” I looked at David with the hopeful question, trying to grab on tight to make it true.
“I’m so sorry, Charlie,” he actually had tears rolling down his face. “They were so close…”
David untied my hand as I started to cry hard again. “I have no one now! No family!” He pulled me in, holding me, my head on his shoulder as he started to rock from side to side, and I wailed. For a long while, until my body and my eyes exhausted themselves out. Like there was no more to give.
David pushed me back, holding on to me at half an arm’s length. I coughed out dirty air that we were both breathing in. He looked blacker than we normally were on a normal workday, the whites of his eyes more prominent.
“Are you okay to try to move,” David asked as he took my hands and started to untie the rope holding me hostage. “We should see about trying to get out of here before another unstable event happens. Jim would never forgive me if something were to happen to you and you were left smothered down here.”
Oh God, Jimmy.
He was probably losing his mind, fighting everyone to get down to me. I nod, now fully motivated, but coughed when I sucked in too much air. David got up and took my hand in his as a leash to stay together and headed in the direction where we think is the way out.
We didn't get very far as our tunnel to get into room four was sealed. “No!” David exclaims. “Arrgggrrggg!” His yell echoed in the man-made cavern.
“Well, this is what hell is,” I whispered, and sniffled. “Being stuck down here, with the dead.”
I felt numb.
Something could hit me at this point and I wouldn’t feel it.
After David did some huffing and puffing, leading him to go on a coughing fit, he started to reach up and move some rocks, coal, and debris out of the way. I joined him, following his lead. “I’m hoping it’s just the opening that fell in and not the whole damn tunnel,” he stated through the force of working to dig us out.
After what felt like hours, I heard something. “Shhhh. David. Listen.” We both stood there not moving. The silence and stagnant air around us was our only company. Then I heard it again. Scratching. It was the sound of rock or coal rubbing against each other, just faintly since it was happening on the other side of the tunnel. “HELLOOO!!! Can you HEAR ME!!!!”
I heard a voice but couldn’t make out what was being said through the rubble, but the scratching sped up. David and I did as well. Hopefully, the depth of this wall wasn’t that thick.
We need help to try to dig out my dad once we get through.
I wasn’t leaving without him.
thirty-three
The Mouth Of The Beast
Jim
Iwas in the kitchen cleaning up after myself from morning breakfast, since I just left it there, and got back into bed after Charlie and David left with Mike. I’m always in some sort of way in the mornings after he leaves, but today was harder for some reason.
Right after I shut the door, I almost reopened it to join them on the walk, a feeling in my gut telling me I needed to stick close. But I hated that Mike was so protective of Charlie to the point of smothering him, and I didn’t want to do that, so I held myself back. Instead, I headed up the stairs until mid-day.
As I was cleaning up the sink, the loudest and most forceful rumble occurred. It rattled my house. I heard glass shattering from somewhere in the unit, or maybe it is someone else’s windows?
