Gold

Chapter 7: A Slight Miscalculation

I go to bed felling hopeful for the first time since I came conscious.
"We might actually get out of here," I whisper to myself as I follow the light from various candles dance across the walls. I can hear Michael snoring soundly beside me - I haven't spoken to him since we had our fight, but he seems to be pretty content with the silence. I can hear footsteps coming from down the tunnel so I get up carefully, following the sound until I reach the main chamber. I turn in a circle slowly, trying to determine where the sound went, and see the silhouette of a young woman kneeling down facing one of the walls, shaking softly. I go over and place my hand softly on the woman's shoulder, surprised when the woman turns out to be Rachel.
"Are... Are you ok?" I ask, unsure of what to say to comfort her, or whether she even wants to be comforted.
"I'm ok," she says, turning around and wiping her tears away, leaving dark marks under her eyes from the dirt on the walls. "I'm concerned for the well being of everyone here, and it seems that I'm the leader of them all - I'm the responsible one, and if they die I will have their deaths hanging over my head for the rest of my life."
She breaks down into sobs once more and I crouch carefully down beside her, patting her back awkwardly.
"It'll be ok Rachel," I say in my weak attempt to comfort her. "We'll get out of here, just like you said. You have nothing to worry about."
She laughs weakly. "You never were very good at comforting other people, Bruce. Don't worry about me, I'll be ok. I'm only trapped in a collapsed mine with the lives of a hundred other people in my hands. No pressure, right?"
I sigh and she gets up, giving me a smile which is meant to be reassuring.
"Get some rest, we have a big day tomorrow."
She pats my uninjured shoulder once and walks off, prompting me to return to my own sleeping quarters, where, after what seems like an eternity of tossing and turning, I finally fall into a restless sleep.

-

I'm roughly awoken what seems like minutes later by none other than Michael himself, who stands awkwardly over me with a frustrated expression on his face.
"Are you just going to lay there all day, fat ass?"
I roll off my bed and onto Michael's sore leg, a satisfied grin forming on my lips as he jumps back in pain.
"Sorry, did I hurt you?" I sneer.
"Hurry up, asshole, or I'll leave you behind."
I raise myself up and head slowly out to the main chamber, where hundreds of other miners are busking preparing to escape. I see Rachel surrounded by a group of men and I sidle over to her, hoping to talk to her privately.
"... go and organize the pickaxes, and you -"
"Rachel."
"-help the women with the medical supplies. What do you want, Bruce?"
I feel my face turning red as Rachel and several of the others turn my way impatiently - this was not what I had planned.
"I... I was just wondering if you were ok," I muttered, gesturing awkwardly. "Ya know, after what happened last night."
"I'm fine Bruce. You don't have to worry about me." Rachel sighs and commands people to begin moving towards a tunnel in the North, and soon I'm swept up in the throng as people push and shove each other out of the way in order to fit into the increasingly tighter spaces. We move along like this for some time, me in the middle of the throng and Rachel and Michael leading with the map, before she commands us to stop, her orders echoing down the shaft.
"Alright everyone, according to the map we have there should be another tunnel about 100 metres past this wall. I want everyone to split into groups - Michael with me - and start digging. We're not leaving this spot until someone's broken through!"
The crowd gives a cheer and starts to break up into groups, and I'm soon handed a pickaxe and thrust into a group with three other men and two women.
"C'mon Bruce, get digging!" One of the women, a middle-aged woman with cropped black hair and a tattoo, says to me. "Or have you forgotten how to use a pickaxe?"
I feel my cheeks redden and the woman rolls her eyes, coming over and taking my pickaxe off of me.
"Look, it's simple. All you have to do is pick your target," she swings the pickaxe up and over her head to connect with the wall, "and swing. Just try to aim straight with one hand, kay?"
I mutter my red-faced thanks and get to work, gradually readjusting to using a pickaxe with only one hand despite my lack of knowledge regarding the instrument.
The other workers and I set to our task, picking away at the wall with a repetitive shting, shting, shting. We pick away like this for what seems like an almost endless amount of time, and I look around to notice that many of the other miners are looking less than impressed with Rachel's idea, sweat glistening on their foreheads and their arms as they continue to pick slowly away at the wall.
"Hey Rachel," I call out indignantly, "this isn't working, I think we should all just give u-"
Thunk.
I stop in my tracks as my pick strikes something metallic.
"I've hit something!" I yell, my indignation replaced by elation and curiosity. "I think I'm through!"
I start picking at the wall with renewed vigour, looking around to Rachel and Michael, whose heads are pressed together over the map as other miners join me at the wall.
"Bruce..." Rachel calls to me in a warning tone. "Bruce, there's a water pipe there, you're going to break it! Bruce, sto-!"
Water bursts forth suddenly from the wall, and I hear an almighty explosion as the wall in front of us collapses and explodes outwards, dirt and chunks of wall raining down onto us as the water surges around and pummels us, dragging us under and further down the tunnels, into the blackness.
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An extra long chapter for you guys! I should get another chapter up before Christmas, but if I don't i wish you all a Merry Christmas ^_^
Love and exploding pipes,
~midgeandangie~