Chapter 13
“What do you mean there’s been another disaster at the smelter?” Diane demanded of the luckless man who had been sent to her office. She had asked Ethan to leave it alone, not to go into the burned building, but he’d been adamant that it was necessary.
As the man’s words sank into her mind, Diane’s worst fears played in front of her eyes. She saw flashes of Ethan lying broken and ruined at the bottom of a deep hole, Ethan trapped under rubble, bleeding to death. Ethan in a hundred different scenarios that would all end with his death.
Her blood froze, and she had to use every ounce of willpower she had to control herself and not go running off like the frantic woman she was inside.
Although every nerve inside her demanded that she charge into the rubble after Ethan, the logical side of her mind told her how counterproductive that would be.
The last thing anyone needed was another person stuck in that mess.
Standing in the middle of the floor, the luckless messenger held his hat in his hands by the brim and turned it around and around and around as though it could turn back time and take him out of the office.
“Can you tell me exactly what happened?” Diane asked, keeping her voice level while her heart thumped madly in her chest.
The man nodded. “The inspection team … ah … They’ve suffered a … well …”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, spit it out!” Diane roared, finally losing her temper and all that carefully constructed control. Ethan was in trouble, and this fool was stammering like he was a child giving an oral presentation at school.
The man blanched and spoke quickly, trying to say it all in one breath. “The floor gave way … a cave-in … and there are injuries.”
Diane’s mind picked up the important information in all of the stammering.
“How bad are the injuries?” Diane asked with growing dread. “Is everyone accounted for? What exactly happened? You said a lot, but very little of any value.”
“I’m sorry. I’m not sure,” the man said, frowning at her. “I only know what I was told. Michael and Andrew are there now; maybe you should go and speak to them.”
Oh dear, now I’ve done it. I’ve pushed him too far, and he’s angry with me. Oh well, that’s how the bandage unravels, I’m afraid.
The messenger stormed out of her office, slamming the door behind him. Diane felt another pang of guilt. She was sorry for how she had behaved, but she was so worried.
Once Ethan was safe, she would happily apologize to the whole town for her behavior, but for now, she was on the clock. Who knew how much time Ethan and the others had? The idea of losing him was too much for her to bear.
The horrible possibilities of what he was facing kept flooding her mind, and she had to push them aside.
What if he’s trapped and his air is running out? What if there is some other danger I haven’t even thought of?
Grabbing her medical bag, Diane rushed to the dispensary next door, her mind full of things they would need.
Bandages, comfrey, salves … Is Ethan okay? Is he alive? Please, God, let him be alive!
“Sarah, Antoinette, there’s been a cave-in at the smelter. We’re going to need splints, bandages, and a lot of rubbing alcohol,” Diane said, pushing her concerns about Ethan’s well-being to the back of her mind as she elbowed a customer to the side to speak to the two women.
“Oh no!” Sarah said, her hand rising to her mouth. “I’ll get you what we have.” She hurried off between the shelves.
“I’ll tell Julie,” Antoinette said and rushed to the examination room, where Julie was no doubt seeing a patient.
Diane tried to stop them, to tell them to send the things to the smelter with someone, but the women had already bustled off.
She turned and finally saw the line of people at the counter. They were all staring at her with large, surprised eyes.
“Sorry for jumping the line,” she said.
“It’s fine,” a woman said. “What happened at the smelter?”
“Why were people in there? Isn’t it a ruin?” another person said.
And the chatter began, with everyone speaking all at once, some of them asking Diane questions she couldn’t hope to answer.
Raising her hands, she said, “Ladies and gentlemen, please! I only just got word that they need help at the smelter. I don’t know the extent of the problem or what’s happened.
If you think you have some skills that could help, then head up there, and I’m sure that Michael and Andrew will have something for you to do. ”
She turned back to the counter as the line behind her scattered, with folks leaving the apothecary to go and help.
“A cave-in?” Anders asked.
Diane hadn’t noticed him until then.
Anders stood at the front of the line with Mildred clutching his arm. He held a small brown paper bag in his hand. Hopefully it was a refill of his milk thistle and slippery elm medication.
“I hate to ask, but is Ethan involved in the disaster?” Mildred asked. Her usually ruddy cheeks were ghostly pale.
“Yes, he is. He was part of the inspection team that went in. I don’t know … The messenger had no news,” Diane faltered. She couldn’t say what she was thinking. It was all so sudden that she didn’t know how to work through it.
Mildred threw her arms around Diane and hugged her. “Oh, my poor friend. If you need anything, anything at all …”
“Yes, of course, we will help in any way we can,” Anders pronounced loudly.
Their support was so welcome. It warmed Diane’s heart and made the boiling panic that was just beneath the surface of her skin subside a little.
“Thank you,” Diane said.
“We still have the buckboard we rented,” Anders said. “Would it help if I got it ready to bring all the things you’ve asked for? Then you can go ahead now and not have to wait here?”
Diane could have kissed him. It was such a good idea. Doing something other than waiting would release a lot of her nervous energy. “Anders, you are a godsend. That would be wonderful.”
Antoinette came back at that moment, and Diane told her the plan.
Then Diane left, knowing Anders and Mildred would bring all the things she had asked for and, knowing them, probably more.
She hurried through the streets, noticing that many other people were also heading the same way.
News was getting around, and soon there would be plenty of people waiting to help.
That was the magic of Unity. Everyone wanted to help when there was a crisis.
When Diane reached the burned-out skeleton of a building, she shuddered involuntarily. It looked even worse than it had before. The roof had come down completely now, and so had two of the remaining walls.
Swallowing hard, she made her way through the gathering crowd. Ben stood a little way from the smelter, his huge arms out, barring the way.
“No one goes in,” Ben said.
“Hi, Ben. Where are the injured men?” Diane asked. “Who’s in charge here?”
“Hi, Diane,” Ben said tersely. “Andrew and Michael had them taken to the offices over there.” He jerked his head to the side.
“What’s the plan?” Diane asked as she stared at the collapsed building, looking for signs of some sort of rescue effort being underway. There was nothing. “Did everyone get out?”
“Not everyone. They’re working on it in the office,” Ben explained. “Apparently the ground is unstable, and no one is allowed close until they can find a safe way—” He cut off as he reached out and grabbed Timothy by the collar. “I told you, Tim; you and Critter can’t go in there.”
“Aw, come on!” Timothy moaned. He glared at Ben. “Who else is gonna fit in there to find those missing men?”
“Who’s missing? Do you know?” Diane asked him.
“Thomas, Darren, and Ethan,” Timothy said sadly. “They’re all still in there.” He gave a little jerk of his chin in the direction of the pile of debris. “They need help, and we’re all just standing here jawing!”
“I’m going to go and have a little word with the men in charge,” Diane said, her panic very close to the surface. How could they be talking and not doing anything?
The crowd whooped, and so did Timothy. “They’ll have to listen to you. You’re scary!”
Not sure if Timothy meant that as a compliment, Diane set off for the mining offices.
She remembered all too well her previous visit to this building.
The thought made her throat ache again. She was lucky there had been no real damage, just a little bruising.
Still, the memory continued to haunt her around three in the morning.
That was when she missed the night shift at the hospital, when a person was so busy they could find a way to forget everything.
Squaring her shoulders, she pulled the door open and was met by a bustle of people.
Something was going on. There were several tables set up in a large office to her right.
Through the open doorway, she spotted Michael and Andrew standing at a table, studying something on it.
Another man, whom she recognized as Lizzy’s husband, Troy, stood with them.
He was pointing to something as she entered.
“It won’t hold,” Troy was saying. “Anything I construct near this place is just going to fall into that hole. You’re the geologist; you should know this.”
As though on cue, there was a rumble and the ground shook. It only lasted a second or two, but it was enough to make Diane worry as the windows shook in their frames.
“See,” Troy said, gesturing to the window. “And that’s without a hoist adding extra load.”
“I suppose the blasts made everything unstable,” Andrew said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he studied the papers on the table. They looked like strange maps of a crazy town. “Look, according to these maps, we’ve tunneled almost right to the smelter. If we knew how far down they’d fallen …”
“How are we going to find that out without sending someone in there?” Michael asked, gesturing to the smelter’s ruins. “We have no way of knowing. They could be sitting right above a mining tunnel or yards from one.”
“If it’s yards, we won’t be able to blast our way through the rock,” Troy said.