AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Want me to keep an eye on this Gus person?” Jesse questioned.
“I’d rather have you be the one down there with them. I know you can assess better than the others who needs to get up faster. Craig, I need you to run point up here, transferring them out to the medics.”
“Will do boss,” they answered, and she laughed.
“I’m not your boss…but thanks. Let’s get them home.”
Nearly an hour later they were lowering Jesse down the shaft holding their breaths until he reached the trapped miners and for the word that they were all going to make it. The moment the first person appeared the cheers began and for the next hour, they continued as man after man was brought up. Tears of joy were evident on the faces of the family members and worry on the ones of the men who hadn’t been brought up yet.
She saw Ed appear at the top of the shaft and her worry eased. She stepped into his hug before the medics could look at his leg and she waited for the next to appear. Sam exited the capsule and hugged her before rushing over to see Kendra who was weeping again and all she could think was thank god she wasn’t as much of a mess as she was. There were two men left other than Jesse, Joel and her father and she knew Joel would insist on her father being next and when the capsule appeared she could see the white of his beard, tinged gray with dust, and she found herself once again enveloped in a hug.
“I’m glad to see you home baby girl,” he said kissing her head.
“I’m glad to see you period, Dad.” She sighed allowing him to keep his arm around her as they waited for the last two trips to be made.
When the capsule reappeared she was shocked to see that it was Jesse and not Joel but she knew Joel would be right after him and so she shook her head with a grin asking, “Wouldn’t let you be the last one out would he?”
“Nope…he’s not what I expected Paige…but he’s a good guy and he should be…what?” Jesse said as Paige moved closer towards the chute.
“I don’t know…I can’t tell,” she stated. She was trying to figure out what she’d just felt or heard but with the commotion going on she wasn’t sure if it was something or not. Most of the men and their families were headed towards them to ensure that the big man was safe but before they could reach them, all hell broke loose.
The cable connected to the capsule snapped as the ground began to shake and her old team quickly moved everyone to safety fearing the ground was going to cave-in. She saw Joel’s mother, Elaine, and grandmother, Rebecca, heading straight for her and she couldn’t begin to think of how to explain this as the rest of the north passage disappeared from sight and the ground settled once more.
All around her, she heard voices but their words didn’t make sense as she stepped out of the protective circle her father and Jesse had made around her and headed straight for the shaft nearly collapsing when she saw it was full of debris.
“What the hell was that?” Rabbit called from the cab of the drill.
“The shaft caved in when the rest of the passage went,” Sam said as the dust began to settle on the horizon. “Paige what were you thinking drilling here?”
“This isn’t her fault,” Jesse said stepping in to defend her.
“There’s no way she could have known this could happen,” Craig added.
“It’s still her plan and now who knows where Joel is,” Sam stated.
“It’s also the plan that saved your ass, as well as your father’s and if I calculated correctly ten others,” Moose replied.
“Paige…Joel?” his mother inquired as she reached her. She couldn’t bring herself to admit what she feared and she hurried back into the tent and grabbed the walkie, if he hadn’t been holding his when the cave-in happened, she’d gladly give away all of her money and her beach house.
“Joel,” she called as a hush fell over the crowd as they waited for a reply. “Joel, it’s Paige…answer me…”
She waited a few moments and called again, “Joel, can you hear me? Joel…”
As the silence stretched, a few sniffles could be heard and she refused to allow this to happen. She promised that she’d get them out and she wasn’t going to stop until Joel was home.
“Joel, it’s Paige, can you hear me?” she tried again. “Joel…base to Joel…come in Joel…”
“Paige honey,” her father said trying to pry the walkie out of her grasp. “I know…we all know you did your best. We’re all here because of you.”
“No,” she told him shaking her head as she moved out of the tent and went back to survey the area. “This shouldn’t have happened.”
“Accidents happen, we all know that, Paige,” Harry stated.
“You don’t understand,this,” she said motioning to the caved-in shaft, “should not have happened because of the north passage caving the rest of the way. I chose this spot because itwouldn’thappen…” she added before calling into the walkie again. “Joel, god damn it, if you can hear me you better answer you idiot. I did not get out of bed at three a.m. fly all the way out here to stay up over forty-eight hours for you to take the coward’s way out and not face me…so you better well talk to me…”
“Jesus Paige give a guy a break,” he replied and she nearly wept with relief. “I almost had my head taken off by a beam down here.”
“What? Those beams should not have been affected,” Paige stated.
