Chapter Thirteen

Alex revived from his black out to a throbbing pain in his temple. There was a sharp ringing in his ears as he struggled to open his eyes. At least, tried opening his eyes but could not tell the difference. The space around him was even darker than the closure of his eyelids. He was dazed and disoriented from the cave in.

Alex’s eyes flew open and he hurried to his feet. As he tried to stand up, he bashed his head off of a low hanging beam. The incident had caused most of the mine’s structure to cripple, but he could not see a thing in the intense darkness. Alex cried out and put a hand to his head as he fell back against the wall. He was breathing heavily and beginning to panic. He brought himself down on all fours and felt around the tunnel. His hand suddenly came upon a familiar object. Alex gasped as he found the flashlight Hetrick had given him. He scrambled to find the button to turn it on and a dim beam of light shot from the tool.

The light barely illuminated anything in the darkness of the decimated mine tunnel, but pointing it around, Alex was able to distinguish the direction of the way in which they had originally entered. He knew which way it was because it was completely blocked off by dirt and broken supports. Alex quickly tried digging away at the fallen barrier that now cut him off from escaping, but the debris was too tightly packed by the weight. Becoming increasingly anxious, he put himself against the wall and began shouting for his friends to hear him.

“Hetrick!” he called out as loud as he could. There was no response. “Danny! Seth!” Nothing. It was deathly silent in the darkness. “NICKOLE!” He knew that they would not have just left with him trapped in here, but the cave in was so thick that there was not a chance they could hear him. He had to get a hold of them somehow. Alex quickly dug into his pocket for his cellphone. Feeling around, he froze suddenly, and a cold chill shot up his spine as he realized that his phone was not in his pocket. He remembered leaving it in Hetrick’s truck just before they hiked up toward the mine. That was it then. He had no way of reaching his friends.

What was he going to do? Surely they would try to fetch help to get him out, but the panic and impending sense of claustrophobia were starting to make him unwilling to wait. He could not dig his way out, so Alex turned and shined his flashlight deeper down the tunnel. As before, he could see no end to it, but it had to lead somewhere, he thought. He had to make a decision and go for it before his light died out. Alex shook his head, inhaled a deep breath, and crept his way down the dark tunnel.

“Alex!” Nickole continued to scream outside. She rushed toward the great pile of disaster, which now trapped her brother. “Alex!”

“Nickole!” Hetrick cried out to seize her attention. She was absolutely frantic and shaking from the sudden shock of it all. “You need to calm down, now!”

Nickole could not stand still for a second. “I can’t!” she cried. “We have to help him! We can’t just leave him in there!”

Hetrick grabbed Nickole by the shoulders. “NICKOLE!” he shouted. Nickole suddenly went silent and cold, her eyes wide open as she stared back up at Hetrick. “Re. Lax. Alex is going to be fine, but right now he needs you to remain calm, okay?” Nickole was still trembling, but she managed a slight nod. “Good.” Hetrick released her.

“What happened in there?” Seth finally got a word in.

Hetrick took a deep breath. “The mine was unstable. One touch and the entire roof came down on top of us.”

Seth’s jaw dropped. “If the whole ceiling collapsed then how do we know Alex wasn’t-” Hetrick quickly put a hand up to silence him, for fear of Nickole having another panic attack.

“He wasn’t,” Danny interjected and everyone looked to him. “He dove out of the way, I saw it. He’s probably on the other side trying to dig his way out right now.”

Hetrick glanced around the group before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his cell phone.

“Who are you going to call?” Nickole asked anxiously.

Hetrick bit his lip as he thought deeply. “I don’t know yet.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Seth questioned. “Call one of your friends to get a truck up here or something!”

“And do what?” Hetrick fired back. “None of my friends have the means to move a whole pile of earth this far up the hill!” There was silence among them for a moment. Now that they thought about it, their predicament was a serious one with very few options of a solution. He flipped open his phone and let out a sigh of disbelief. “It wouldn’t matter anyway.” he muttered.

Everyone else looked up at him. “Why not?” Danny asked.

Hetrick faced his phone toward his brother. “I have no service here.”

Nickole moaned to herself. She was walking around on the edge of panic and worry. Danny walked over to take a look at the phone. “We’re going to have to get off the mountain to get a better signal.”

Nickole halted and her eyes widened. “You mean leave Alex here!?” she cried. “We can’t do that!”

Hetrick put a hand up to calm her again. “We’re not going to,” he responded. He dropped his phone back into his pocket. “Danny, you and Seth stay here at the mine entrance. Under no circumstances should you go anywhere else. Got it?”

The two exchanged glances of curiosity. “Okay,” Danny nodded sheepishly.

“I’m gonna run out and get help as fast as I can and then I’ll be back.” He looked to Nickole and gestured for her to follow him. “Nickole, come with me.”

“No!” Nickole shouted in refusal. “I wanna stay here and help Alex!”

“No you’re not,” Hetrick replied. “You’re coming with me to get help, and then I’m taking you to your friend’s house. When Alex gets out, we’re all gonna catch deep shit for this, and you’re not gonna be a part of that. Now come on.”

Nickole was hesitant to move. She looked back and forth from Hetrick to the others. Her own decision was to stay by her brother’s side when he needed help, but she recalled the lie she had told her mother just to travel out into the mountains with Alex and his friends. What was more important to her now; her brother, or the lie?

“Nickole, please,” Hetrick urged her. The pressure was just too much for her. Reluctantly, she lowered her head and followed Hetrick down the hill and back to his truck.