Chapter 4 #2
“No, it’s mostly building all the mining equipment,” Troy said as he gestured for Emily to walk beside him as they set off on the tour of the camp.
“We’re working on the rock crusher for the smelter, and the elevator keeps getting stuck, so Lizzy and I are working on that.
It’s the dratted pulley. It keeps chewing through the rope and getting itself stuck. I think there’s something wrong with?—”
“That’s fascinating,” Emily said, cutting him off and making him think it wasn’t fascinating for her at all. “Who lives in all these tents? Where did all these people come from? I seem to recall your numbers being fewer than this.”
“Right, didn’t I tell you about the new folks?
” Troy asked. “They joined our camp two months back after some trouble with bandits.” They were back at the central fire now.
“This is where we have all our meals. And that tent there is the kitchen. We take turns cooking. There’s a roster.
I’m sure that Andrew and Julie will add your name in a couple of days. ”
“Oh?” she asked. “We cook for everyone? I thought I would only be cooking for us.” She stepped closer to him.
That sounded far too familiar to his liking. They’d only exchanged a few letters!
“No, most things are communal at the moment,” Troy said, sidestepping around her.
Just then Kyle and Carl Jurgens came striding past them. Kyle had the boy by the arm and was scowling.
“Let me go!” the kid moaned.
“No,” Kyle said. “You’ve got a real big mouth, and I think your mother will want to wash it out for you.”
“Hey. Kyle, what’s going on?” Troy asked, thankful for someone else being around to talk to.
Spotting him, Kyle stopped. “Hey, don’t worry about it. Carl here just needs a refresher on his manners.”
“What are you doing with my son?” Meredith Jurgens demanded.
She was a thin woman. Her hands were always red, and the knuckles were starting to swell and go crooked with arthritis.
She spent her days in the fields of grain they had been able to plant or working in the laundry with a lot of the other women.
Today was laundry day, and there were large cauldrons balanced over a couple of fires near the edge of the camp.
“I’m bringing him to you,” Kyle said hotly. “He got into a fight with Timothy Lupo and?—”
“Well, that boy has been nothing but trouble since his folks died,” Meredith said, taking her boy by the arm and moving him away from Kyle. “Why don’t you speak to that sister of his? She’s the one who should be dealing with him. He’s got nothing to do with us.”
“But your son was saying some truly horrible things,” Kyle insisted.
“Sometimes the truth is hard to hear,” Meredith said nastily.
Troy’s anger rose. How dare this woman say such things about Lizzy and Tim? They were wonderful people, better than the Jurgens family, who were a stuck-up lot despite having nothing to be stuck up about.
Just then Lizzy and Tim walked up and stopped abruptly.
“Ah, Mrs. Jurgens,” Lizzy said. “I take it Kyle told you what happened. I think we should take a walk with the boys and have a talk. Don’t you?”
“Nothing to talk about,” Meredith snapped. “My boy calls it as he sees it. And frankly, considering how you’ve been behaving, I’m not surprised that your brother is turning into a ruffian.”
Lizzy’s eyes went wide, and she gaped at Meredith. “Excuse me!”
“You heard me,” Meredith said hotly. “Now, some of us have actual work to do.” She turned her back on Lizzy and began to walk away.
Tim looked at his sister as though to say, I told you so.
“Wait!”
Troy hadn’t realized he was speaking until the word was out of his mouth.
“Hold on now!” he said, striding forward.
“This is not resolved. I will call Andrew to come and mediate this if I have to, but you will talk this through. You have to. We’re a tiny community, and we can’t have animosity eating us up from the inside. ”
Meredith stopped at the mention of Andrew. Everyone respected him, and if he was going to get involved, then folks tended to listen.
“You folks are so …” She shook her head in disgust.
“So what? Why are you choosing to stay here if you don’t like anyone?” Kyle asked heatedly. He had a notoriously hot temper.
Opening her mouth, Meredith was about to say something when she pulled up short.
Something boomed, and for a terrible moment, the ground shook under their feet. Lizzy and Kyle turned to Troy at the same time he turned to them.
“I don’t think that was the smelter this time,” Lizzy said, wide-eyed.
“Weren’t the miners detonating some explosives today?” Kyle asked.
“Yes,” Troy answered.
“But that sounds too near the surface,” Lizzy said.
Another boom, and the ground shook before a crashing sound rent the air.
Lizzy’s eyes went large and round as she stared at Troy. His heart thudded in his chest. Something was wrong up at the mine.
Without worrying about anyone or anything else, Troy took off at a run for the mine entrance. It was up a little rise from the camp, and Troy’s lungs were burning as he raced through the camp and up to the mine shaft.
He could see from the moment he cleared the tents and huts that something had gone terribly wrong. There was smoke billowing out of several air shafts. It seemed that they, at least, were working.
As he approached the entrance, the ground shook again and he stumbled. Was the whole mine caving in? Could the men get out in time? Who was down there today? They worked shifts, and he wasn’t always sure who was digging and who was up on the surface, working around the camp.
Crack!
Troy stopped running.
Crack! Snap!
“Oh no,” he breathed and stuck out his arm, stopping Kyle and Lizzy in their tracks.
They were almost at the elevator, but something was wrong with it. The platform was swaying on the rope just a little from side to side.
“No-no-no-no!” Lizzy said, her face pale despite the run up the rise. Her large dark eyes were round, and her mouth was hanging open. Gosh, even in this moment she was lovely. Even filled with fear, just as he was, she was there with him, and he couldn’t help but find solace in her company.
“Maybe it won’t,” she said slowly, her eyes trained on the scaffolding. “Maybe it will hold.”
Troy was about to say something when Michael and Andrew came running up with Julie panting behind them.
“Troy!” Michael called. “What’s happening?”
Before he could say anything, there was a mighty, ear-thumping snap and the rope broke.
One of the supporting pillars snapped like a twig and, to Troy’s horror, the elevator tumbled into the shaft, shattering on the rocks below in a cacophony of splintering wood.
A large portion of the scaffolding followed behind it.