After a moment of murmurs, the crowd started dispersing, people that have vehicles leaving to go get them. Others stayed but it wasn’t nearly as many as there were before.
“That was a great idea. I can hold here if you want to go see if you can get an update and tell Tom what the plan is,” Betty nodded. After pausing, my mind needing to sift through all the muck that was layering in my brain, she shooed me away.
As I came around the corner of the Dry Room and passed by the tunnel, I heard a really loud growling ramble coming from the mouth of the beast that wasn’t a normal noise on any given day. I found Tom with Will just passed the far side of the office out of the way. Will was completely covered in pitch black from head to toe. He looked like he had jumped in tar. They were with some other gentlemen and police officers, just as black. When Tom saw me coming, the rage was instant, “What did I say!”
“Knock it off, Tom. I know you are fucking stressed. We all are. Don’t pile on it, because that’s not what I am here to do and no one needs it.” Will’s bright white eyes blew out over me telling our boss off in the midst of an emergency. “Now, if you would listen. Only three ambulances showed, so I sent townspeople with vehicles to go get them to help with transport if we are in need of it.” I relayed the plan completely.
“Thank you, Jim.” It was hard to read Will in this state since he was an unnatural solid black, his features covered. He was in the same boat as me, except he’s been with his man for a hell of a lot longer, so I couldn’t even imagine what he was feeling right now. But he sounded exhausted.
One of the police officers stepped away to radio the plan and to let people line up. Just as I am about to ask if there was any update, ten people come out of the tunnel, grabbing their chits off the board. They were banged up, and in different stages of being covered in the same black as the men next to me. Some of them were clearly nowhere near the main event butstill needed assistance. “Oh my God, you got the lift going?” I released some of my tension that I had been holding.
“It wasn’t easy,” Will stated. He was slumping over. “We lugged a Kohler Lunger plant engine generator down to the lift control panel and rigged it up.”
“That’s what that noise is, then.” I was scoping out the people that came up, but as horrible as it was to think, they weren’t any of the ones I really needed to appear. “How do you want to do this, Tom?” He looked around the area, getting a grasp.
He told us the plan, which was simple. I would start organizing based on injuries to those who needed to be carted off. The ambulance workers needed to evaluate those who seemed worse off without wasting time on minor wounds, so those that needed to assess and prioritize the worst. Have the cars pull up to the area between the office and Dry Room, which would be a straight shot from the tunnel to load men up easily, but leave a space for the ambulances to leave. Anyone able to walk out of here can do so on the normal route after they were seen and cleared by the town doctors or any other medical worker.
I headed off to make myself busy. I diverted to Betty and whispered to her that people were coming up and that I needed her to guide the traffic to the area Tom said, while still holding people back.
I ran off to do what I needed to do, while keeping an eye out for Charlie, David and Mike, as well as John.
My family.
It ended up being a long wait.
The original three ambulances left long ago, which were eventually replaced with more but not before the police chief finally got on the radio.
That wasn’t pretty to witness.
One of the injured taken by ambulance was a man that was near The Hole, which caved in, breaking his legs. Come to find out from one of the drivers and medical workers that came from the city and with a good view of the mountain side, the tipple structure fell onto the railroad tracks before being buried by a landslide which reached the river, covering Carson Street in the process.
That information sent Will officially over the edge since John was supposed to be in the Tipple with Charlie. Tom had to drag him away, out of earshot before anything was revealed about them and their long-standing love.
It only got my nerves and emotions up more, my eyes dropping the occasional tear. This new information might have locked me up momentarily, but I refused to break until I heard for certain. Plus, I had to pull myself together fast, because every ten minutes another wave of men came up that needed assistance. Their injuries ranged from deep smoke inhalation with minor cuts and bruises, which could be treated at home, to broken bones, deep gashes and impalements. Those individuals were sent off by car or ambulance, whichever was around first.
During all this, we kept hearing more new information, which started to complete the puzzle. The explosion came from room four, and the tunnel had caved in right at the opening but three feet in depth. Room five’s wall closest to room four also collapsed, sealing in the opening. It explained the landslide that occurred, taking the road at the edge with it.
They got into room five first and got those miners out since no one was supposed to be in room four today anyway. One of them was very serious and wasn’t looking good. It wasn’t until I had been on site for seven hours before we got word that they finally breached room four. It was delayed because of how unstable it all was, as they had to get supports to continue. But we had gotten word that there had been noise coming from in there, so someone was in that room that shouldn’t have been.
It was another three hours after that before figures appeared within the smoke. By then I felt emotionally drained from the adrenaline overdose. One figure was being carried in a cradle by another, while two others carried a body.
My blood ran cold.
A wind gust blew the smoke and a path of fresh air cut through revealing Charlie to me, crying his eyes out in David’s arms. John and Steve were the ones carrying someone between them. All of them covered in black, David clearly had blood on him.
I ran.
“John!”
Will bolted out of nowhere next to me and crashed into John seconds after he put down who they were carrying, both crying in relief.
I could see David saying something to Charlie. He turned his head in my direction, his eyes met mine and yelled, “Jimmy!!!”
David put him down, and he started to run in my direction but tripped and fell to his knees. I dropped to mine, and engulfed him into me, audience be damned.
Charlie was heavily sobbing into my chest, his arms squeezing me from behind. I kissed the top of his head, not caring about how dirty he was. I lookedup at David, who looked like he had cried too at some point, with track marks running down his cheeks. He turned around to look at the person they carried out.
It was Mike.
