AllFreeNovel
Share Us
B.J. moaned and then yelled up to the men above.
“Hurry the hell up, you guys, before I bleed out down here!”
Aaron went pale. “Shit. Somebody call that ambulance, give me a first aid kit, and get me down there. Now!”
Within minutes, Cameron had a nylon rope looped around the nearest tree he was using as an anchor and a six-foot lanyard attached to Aaron’s harness to absorb the shock of a sudden drop. Then they buckled him in and sent him down.
Aaron was holding on to a first aid kit and his lantern.
“Coming down,” he shouted.
B.J. was lying on his back now, in too much pain to stand up. Seeing his brother descending into this hole was like seeing an angel coming to take him out of hell. The moment Aaron’s feet hit dirt, he shouted up. “I’m down! Give me some slack.”
Moments later, he was out of the harness and rushing to where B.J. was lying. He swept a light beam all around the area, saw the box and the shroud B.J. had placed over the remains. The sight of B.J.’s belt buckle put a lump in his throat. When he aimed the lantern at B.J. and saw all the blood, he had to hide his panic. “Hey, little brother. I need you to sit up so I can get to this wound. Can you do that for me?”
“With a little help,” B.J. said.
Aaron lifted B.J. into a sitting position, then pulled B.J.’s arm out of his T-shirt and pushed it aside, revealing three deep gashes and a host of splinters visible both in the wound and under his skin.
“Aw, man, this is so gonna hurt,” Aaron muttered as he opened the first aid kit. “I can’t do much but disinfect the obvious and patch it up enough to slow the bleeding.”
“I can take it. Once you look at Meg, you’ll realize that hurts way more than what you’re about to do to me. Have at it.”
Aaron poured the antiseptic, flushing out as much debris as he could, then tore into a half dozen gauze pads and placed them over the cuts.
“B.J., can you hold them in place for a sec while I tear off some tape?”
“Yeah,” B.J. said, wincing slightly as he applied pressure to keep them from slipping until Aaron had them all taped down.
“Okay, shirt back on, kid. After that, you’re gonna have to stand up so I can buckle you into this harness. You can lean on me, okay?”
“Do what you gotta do,” B.J. said.
Aaron helped B.J. up, hearing his gasps and moans as he buckled him into the harness. At that point, Aaron leaned forward until their foreheads were touching.
“Love you, Brendan.”
B.J. grasped his brother’s forearm as a wave of pain nearly sent him to his knees. “Love you, too, man. See you up top.”
Aaron handed him his backpack, then stepped back and yelled.
“Cameron! He’s ready! Pull him up!”
Moments later, B.J.’s feet left the ground. He moaned as the harness began pressing on the wounds, then gave Meg one last glance and lifted his face to the light.
As B.J. went up, Aaron began gathering the refusehe’d discarded from administering first aid, then pulled out his phone. He began taking pictures of everything in sight, from the web of roots coming down through the old flooring above, the tree roots tunneling down the side of the walls, and then the box covered in dirt and debris, and all the while, the tiny mound of bones beneath the plastic was in his peripheral vision. He’d seen bodies before. He’d seen skeletal remains before, but he’d never had a personal connection to them, and what he was about to do felt like an intrusion. Still, they’d come looking, and he needed to see what they’d found, so he removed B.J.’s buckle and lifted away the shroud.
There was a moment of shock and then a wave of despair as the realization of how her life ended washed through him. He took the necessary photos, and as he was covering her back up, had a vision of Dani cowering in the dark, in a closet, afraid for her life, and gritted his teeth to keep from crying. He put the buckle back where B.J. left it, then stepped back.
“I’m so sorry, little Meg,” he said softly, then picked up his lantern and carried it to the iron box.
The lock was huge and rusted, and when Aaron gave it a twist, it came off in his hands. His heart was pounding as he began brushing away the roots and debris, but when he reached to open the lid, it stuck. He wiped his hands on his jeans and tried again and then again, until suddenly it broke free. At that moment, he thought how likely it would be that the hinges were as fragile as thelock had been, and eased the lid up just enough to shine in a light.
At first, he couldn’t figure out what he was seeing, and then when he did, forgot to breathe. He just stood there, staring in disbelief until reality took hold. He snapped a couple of pictures before easing the lid back down and turned away, shaking his head.
The silence within this space was haunting, like being buried alive.
Like Meg.
