Chapter 33
thirty-three
The Mouth Of The Beast
Jim
Iwas in the kitchen cleaning up after myself from morning breakfast, since I just left it there, and got back into bed after Charlie and David left with Mike. I’m always in some sort of way in the mornings after he leaves, but today was harder for some reason.
Right after I shut the door, I almost reopened it to join them on the walk, a feeling in my gut telling me I needed to stick close.
But I hated that Mike was so protective of Charlie to the point of smothering him, and I didn’t want to do that, so I held myself back.
Instead, I headed up the stairs until mid-day.
As I was cleaning up the sink, the loudest and most forceful rumble occurred. It rattled my house. I heard glass shattering from somewhere in the unit, or maybe it is someone else’s windows?
As the rumbling started to die, the siren started to blare. “FUCK!” I ran for the stairs. I needed to get changed, fast!
I was out the door in less than two minutes and bolting up Olympia Road toward the mine.
Clearly the worst thing that could possibly have happened had occurred at the site.
My lungs and back were burning from the excursion and strain I was putting them through to get there as fast as possible, not letting up.
Men from other shifts were also flying out of their homes, dressed and ready to go. The rule of thumb was to expect the unexpected and think the worst. That way the only way to be caught off guard was if the outcome wasn’t as bad, and we weren’t needed.
But it was looking bleak the closer we got. The homes and buildings looked more and more damaged, windows blown out completely, some shifted off their foundations.
When I got there, the one side of the Dry Room that faces the mine’s tunnel mouth had partially collapsed and all the windows were blown out of both that building and the office.
I looked toward the mine tunnel, and I was left speechless, frozen in shock, tears making their way to the surface and spilling over from the rush of fear that was flooding my system.
The tunnel was coughing out a mix of black smoke and coal dust, like it had taken too big a draw on a cigar. Except it’s never ending.
The whole mountain side where High Street used to be in the distance on the other side of the tunnel– was gone. Like it never existed. Right up to where the church steps used to meet the sidewalk and street. It was a miracle the church was still standing, with stairs now leading to nowhere.
Out of my peripheral vision I sensed someone approaching. I turned and it was Tom. I wiped the emotions off my face with my hand, not wanting to show them even though my eyes were probably already tinged pink from my salty tears. “Jim, you shouldn’t be here.”
“Like hell!” I gave him an astonishing expression like, where else would I be.
“You are still hurt. I can’t have you help. It’s already bad enough! Go home,” ending the demand in a tone that would normally leave no room for negotiation.
But not today.
I needed to know something, anything about the situation. My nerves couldn’t take being sent away knowing the love of my life, his father and my best friend were down there. “Do we even know what happened? Can you at least tell me that? Do we have communication with the emergency line?”
Tom groaned, “Jim–”
“Please, Tom. I can’t just sit by and wait when my– Charlie is down there. Without knowing something.”
“Fine. I’m talking quick, so catch it now. I don’t have time for questions. No, we don’t have communication. My office was broken into sometime in the night. Not only did they ransack the place and the Dry Room, but they also cut the phone line. We didn’t notice until after shift had started.
“The power is out, so I have a team in the tunnel trying to get the lift back up and running so we can get men topside. We don’t know what happened other than there was an explosion.
Probably from dynamite that was taken from my office, that had been secured away.
The lock was busted. We don’t know who the culprit is.
The police have been here all morning,” he swiped his hand to the tunnel and the site that was now forever changed.
I gulped my nervousness down. This was bad.
There was no way there were no casualties.
This was a rescue and a recovery mission.
“You can’t have me go down there, fine. I understand.
Keep me here to help above ground,” we stared each other down.
“You are going to need all the help you can get, Tom.” I was winning this round, God help me.
Tom’s nostrils flared with air. “Fine. Do not, and I mean under any circumstances go near that tunnel. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.” He pointed in the direction behind me, so I turned around and saw a flock of people coming our way. “Oh fuck.”
“Take care of that. Keep people out of here that shouldn’t be here.
Let in the workers, police and the number of ambulances that I am sure will be showing up soon.
” I looked back at him and nodded. As I started to walk to the end of the lane to head everyone off, Tom called and made me look back, “Jim. I’ll let you know if I hear anything. ”
I exhaled and nodded my thanks soundlessly. It’s taking me everything I had not to run into the tunnel and to hold my emotions together.
Throughout the task of holding everyone back, being yelled at, pushed and questioned, my own worry just kept building. More and more townspeople arrived, some that didn’t even have family members that worked here, like Betty.
She appeared out of thin air saying she was at the library when it happened, thankfully safe behind the desk.
She told me shelves fell all over the place, books scattered every direction imaginable, and every window inside and out shattered, which made sense with the library being on the edge of the mountain, like the church, and close in proximity.
Betty went to my place first, but I didn’t answer and the door wasn’t shut all the way, so she went inside.
Finding I wasn’t there, she came back here.
Using her god gifted talent, Betty helped me with the crowd after I filled her in on what I know from Tom.
Her voice carried farther and more harshly than mine, not caring to hold her tongue like she normally would at the library.
The local mountain doctors showed up with their medical bags, ready to help.
Either it was God’s sign he sent angels to help or sent them to welcome those to his kingdom in Heaven.
More police did show, along with three ambulances, but I had this bad feeling we were going to need more than that to transport people, when an idea struck. “HEY! EVERYONE! LISTEN!”
“Do you have an update?”
“Are our husbands and sons safe?”
“When will they be rescued?”
“QUIET!!!!” One thing’s for sure, Betty didn't need a bullhorn.
“I need your help to prepare! Can everyone hear me?” There was a murmur of responses.
“I don’t know how many more ambulances will arrive or how many we will need.
We don’t know the conditions of anything right now.
But if you or someone you know have a car or any motor vehicle that can be driven into the city, go and get it…
Now! Line up along E Sycamore Street facing toward where we are now,” I pointed to the right, in the direction I want them to regroup.
“If we need to transport people ourselves, we can be ready to pull up one at a time to load and go.”
After a moment of murmurs, the crowd started dispersing, people that have vehicles leaving to go get them. Others stayed but it wasn’t nearly as many as there were before.
“That was a great idea. I can hold here if you want to go see if you can get an update and tell Tom what the plan is,” Betty nodded. After pausing, my mind needing to sift through all the muck that was layering in my brain, she shooed me away.
As I came around the corner of the Dry Room and passed by the tunnel, I heard a really loud growling ramble coming from the mouth of the beast that wasn’t a normal noise on any given day.
I found Tom with Will just passed the far side of the office out of the way.
Will was completely covered in pitch black from head to toe.
He looked like he had jumped in tar. They were with some other gentlemen and police officers, just as black.
When Tom saw me coming, the rage was instant, “What did I say!”
“Knock it off, Tom. I know you are fucking stressed. We all are. Don’t pile on it, because that’s not what I am here to do and no one needs it.
” Will’s bright white eyes blew out over me telling our boss off in the midst of an emergency.
“Now, if you would listen. Only three ambulances showed, so I sent townspeople with vehicles to go get them to help with transport if we are in need of it.” I relayed the plan completely.
“Thank you, Jim.” It was hard to read Will in this state since he was an unnatural solid black, his features covered. He was in the same boat as me, except he’s been with his man for a hell of a lot longer, so I couldn’t even imagine what he was feeling right now. But he sounded exhausted.
One of the police officers stepped away to radio the plan and to let people line up.
Just as I am about to ask if there was any update, ten people come out of the tunnel, grabbing their chits off the board.
They were banged up, and in different stages of being covered in the same black as the men next to me.
Some of them were clearly nowhere near the main event but still needed assistance.
“Oh my God, you got the lift going?” I released some of my tension that I had been holding.
“It wasn’t easy,” Will stated. He was slumping over. “We lugged a Kohler Lunger plant engine generator down to the lift control panel and rigged it up.”