One Bite

Chapter 4-6

When I imagined the West's silver mines, I pictured images of underground caves like the one where Cole showed me the geodes, with single-track rail cars and damp, enclosed conditions where workers hammered away with pick axes and hardhats with lights attached to them.

In other words, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs-style

The reality of the Western mines blew away any of my preconceived notions. The mines were giant, open areas of exposed, stripped away concentric circles, carved out by large machines. They roared, processing through the receded mountainside with the ease of a scoop pushed through softened ice cream.

Our first and mandatory stop was within a small yellow trailer on the edge of the pit-like dig site. Inside, an older man sat behind a dusty makeshift office area. His dark brown eyes directed to us and he scratched at the hint of salt dusting his black hair underneath his orange construction hard hat.

"Vincent," he coughed out in a rough, groggy voice. His eyes ran over my appearance, a twinkle of amusement flashing at my knee-high leather boots.

After he pushed his chair and stood up, I walked closer and shook his hand. "Thanks for having us." I flashed Vincent what I hoped was an appreciative smile, then introduced us. "I'm Zara, this is Raina and Idris."

Still bruised-up, Raina and Idris joined me and the never-cheerful Meredith, while Rose, Elena, and Cole were at the hospital. Rose shadowed Dr. Edwards for as long as he'd have her. Cole informed me that, after Elena was discharged, he and Tobias would meet up with us this afternoon at the artillery range.

In good news, Dr. Edwards was pleased with Elena's response to the anti-nausea medications and permitted her recovery to be moved into the packhouse.

"Other than the QR review suits, we don't get many visitors." Vincent offered a broken grin. "I've told the guys to stay on good behavior, but no promises because the QR staff don't have pretty faces."

"I'm sure they'll be fine," I assured him as my cheeks warmed at his indirect compliment. At this point, I expected stares and whispers since I'd gotten them from the hospital.

His only response was a smirk. After Vincent fitted us with hard hats, he handed us bright orange safety vests. Plumes of dried dirt fell from mine as I put it on, swirling brown puffs in the air, and I coughed. Giggles erupted from my mouth when I saw how out of place we all looked. Stepping outside, like walking orange parking cones, Vincent escorted us to the edge of the mine.

The Western territory had a fleet of mining equipment, which included typical construction vehicles like gigantic front loader trucks, diggers, and scoopers. Vincent explained each one's extraction role and was most proud of what he called a dragline. The room-sized machine lifted several hundred tons of rock in a single scoop with a bucket the size of a two-car garage.

For all the advanced equipment, the working conditions looked harsh, grimy, and unforgiving. Many of the worker's faces were creased from long working hours, short breaks, and relentless work from sun up until sun down.

As expected, all eyes turned to me curiously, but other than a few catcalls and whistles that warmed my cheeks, the miners weren't that bad.

Unlike Meredith looking bored and expressionless during the entire tour, I was fascinated by the process. Raina and Idris exerted passive attention to Vincent's tour information but stayed silent.

The miners carved out an entire mountain layer by layer until a manmade amphitheater-like structure remained, which future plans to do the same for three nearby sites. The sheer volume of earth they displaced was impressive.

"We process twelve thousand cubic tons of dirt and rock every day, to extract roughly thirty kilograms of silver," Vincent yelled over the roar of machines below us.