Chapter 28

I’ve been here before. I know how this works. But different from the boy who I suffocated, I don’t feel any remorse for killing Kay- the man in the mine. I won’t even dignify his memory by remembering his name. He’s gone now and I hope he’s forever forgotten. But I’ll sit through this farce and enjoy the show.

I’m lying on my back on the stone floor and it’s difficult to breathe. There’s a mining pick lodged in the left side of my body. I don’t know how bad the injury is but every breath I take fills my throat with blood and I need to swallow it all after every breath or I’ll drown in my own blood. How did this happen? I was the one in control. I was the one with the power. I was so close, so close to ending it all. Just a minute- no, just a few more seconds and I would’ve choked the life out of him. But now I have to beg for my life from this kid, a kid barely older than my daughter. A kid who hasn’t even grown hair downstairs yet. But I’ll make it through this. He won’t kill me, he can’t kill me. The moment that rubble gets cleared up, if it’s someone I know, I’ll get them to make sure he has an accident before he gets out of this mine. Accidents happen all the time and with such a chaotic incident this time, what’s another death going to change? This mine will be his coffin. He’s standing over me with a pickaxe in his hand, silent, thinking. What are you even thinking about? You know you can’t kill me. But I give him a smile nonetheless. I reassure him this is all a misunderstanding. I even try to get him back on my side by mentioning my wife and daughter and putting us in the same boat. It’s us against the company, this is all their fault, take your anger out on them. But somehow, something changes. It’s the look in his eyes I think. Maybe it’s him tightening his grip on that mining pick. Oh gods, no. Don’t do this.

I scream and cry but it doesn’t work. He doesn’t budge. Instead, I lose my temper and start cursing him and the godsforsaken cretins who brought him into this world he calls his parents. Nothing seems to phase him and he lifts the mining pick high above him. I lose any remaining anger in me and I plead for my life again. But I know it’s useless. I know it’s useless because when I looked up at his face right before he swung the pick down, I saw him smiling.

…

I’m woken up by someone’s shouting and then a few seconds later, I can feel someone shaking me back and forth, trying to wake me up. Opening my eyes and lifting up my head weakly, I can see Wraine right in front of me, his face covered in dirt and sweat, tears streaming down his face. He hands me a waterskin with the cork already off and when I take a drink, it’s not the milk and honey I dreamt of but just plain, warm water. But how amazing that water tasted. I ran out of water a little while ago and I really thought that was it, I was going to die in this dark little tunnel and I accepted it. But feeling the liquid wet my tongue and wash down my throat lets me know I’m alive. I’m alive. I’m really alive. I can’t stop my tears and they start to stream down my face too while Wraine wraps his arms around me.

After I’ve had some time to calm down, the rest of the miners come into the tunnel to check up on me. When they ask me about Kayman, I motion towards the other end of the tunnel with my head. Some time has passed since I killed Kayman and his body started to smell. Despite my lack of strength and my feeble arms, I dragged his body to the other side of the tunnel and left him there. When they come back after checking the body, they have solemn looks on their faces and give me odd looks but they don’t say anything. Wraine lifts me up by my arm and we leave the tunnel.

The remarkable blue glow that can only be found in The Hub is a welcoming sight. The impact however feels slightly off because I’ve already dreamt of this exact moment already and felt these exact same feelings. It induces a horrible feeling of paranoia in the pits of my stomach because I can’t help but wonder whether this is a dream as well. I fucking hate this feeling. I’m not dreaming, this is real, it has to be. I have to repeat this sentence in my head over and over again to keep myself from going insane. Wraine notices my distress and asks me if I need to sit down to rest but I shake my head. I want, no, I need to get out of this fucking mine. It seems my throat is still badly hurt from Kayman’s attack because every time I try to speak it sounds gravelly and hoarse. I really hope this will heal by itself. When we finally get out of the mine, it’s dark out and my disappointment is immense. I didn’t know I would miss sunlight this much but seeing the night sky has severely dampened my spirits. When we step into Oliver’s office, Oliver is quietly speaking with one of the miners I saw a few minutes ago who helped rescue me and when he hears us enter, he looks at us and he seems… afraid? Wait, not us. He seems to be afraid of me. Why?

“Isaac, I’m glad to see you alive, I really am. I don’t know if anyone’s told you yet but you’ve been in that tunnel for 14 days and many of us, including me admittedly, lost hope in finding any more survivors after the 10th day. Not your friend Wraine though, he still believed in you and worked with the rescue teams day and night to make it to you. Seeing you standing here today is nothing short of a miracle, thank Itia. Go ahead and take a seat, we have much to talk about.” Turning to take a look at Wraine, I can see dark bags under his eyes and he’s already straining to keep himself awake while just standing there. He must be exhausted. Giving his shoulder a squeeze, we sat down on a wooden bench touching the office’s back wall. Not the leather seat I was expecting but I never saw a leather seat before any other time I went into Oliver’s office before the earthquake, I wonder why I dreamt there was one here. Probably the same reason I dreamt of drinking milk and honey, I just wanted it badly.

Oliver goes through what happened two weeks ago and he also mentions the casualties. That’s right, casualties. Maybe it was my optimistic side that was influenced by my dream or perhaps it was my naivety, but I came here expecting to hear no one else died aside from Kayman. But nearly half of the day shift miners are dead. 50 people gone, just like that. It’s a sobering number and it makes me realize how lucky I was. Oliver tells me most of the deceased miners died the first day during the earthquake from falling debris or being crushed by a tunnel collapse. It took them nearly a week to stabilize the mine and transport all the injured to a clinic in the city. When all the injured were taken care of, Oliver organized the remaining day shift miners and all the night shift miners into rescue teams to start digging out collapsed tunnels. But this wasn’t as simple as it sounded because many connecting tunnels used for traveling to actual mining tunnels collapsed as well and those needed to be dug out first to even reach the farther mining tunnels. This sadly included my tunnel which was the farthest one and also the last tunnel to be dug out.

Even with all these miners working day and night to dig out collapsed tunnels, there weren’t many survivors and when you include me, only four people survived inside those collapsed tunnels. Most of the deaths had to do with injuries sustained during the earthquake not being treated in time and the remaining ones died from thirst, hunger, or suffocation. There were even three cases in which the miners inside their collapsed tunnel began fighting with each other resulting in eight additional deaths. When he starts talking about this, everyone in the office, except for Wraine who fell asleep beside me, looks at me, waiting for me to say something. Fine. “Kayman lost his mind and tried to strangle me while I was sleeping. I fought back and he ended up dying. That’s all.” I wince at my own voice because of how unnatural it sounds. This definitely doesn’t help my claim of innocence when I sound like a monster growling. Or maybe it does. It at least shows something happened to my throat.

“We believe you Isaac, we really do. Your voice tells us the whole story.” Hey, would you look at that. “The thing is, we just need to know what happened to Kayman’s hand.”

His hand? Confused, I asked, “What about his hand?”

Oliver glances at the miner who I saw before and he nods once, “You see, when the other miners went into your tunnel and took a look at Kayman’s body, he was missing his right hand.” What? How’s that even possible?

“I don’t know what happened to it. After I dragged his body back to the other side of the tunnel, I stayed on my side, next to the entrance. I didn’t go back to see it again.”

“Listen Isaac, we know how terrible this entire situation is and we know what sort of hell you’ve gone through these past two weeks. We’ve all done things we’re not proud of and no one’s here blaming you for what happened to Kayman. But we need to know what happened to his hand.”

“Like I told you before, I have no idea what happened to his hand. I didn’t even know it was gone until you told me just now. Why would I know anything about his missing hand?”

Oliver looks right into my eyes for a few seconds without saying anything as if he’s trying to see whether I’m lying or not but I really don’t know anything about Kayman’s hand. Why would I? It seems like Oliver’s made a decision or something and heaves a sigh before he takes out a brown bottle from a drawer on his desk. He uncorks the bottle and pours the brown liquid inside into an empty wooden mug on his desk before taking a nice, long drink. “Alright, Isaac. Like I mentioned before very briefly, Mr. Wellock is a very compassionate person which is not only rare but unbelievable considering the sort of city we’re living in. With such a horrendous incident occurring in his company’s mine, he’s decided to compensate all the victims and their families. The injured ones will have their treatments fully paid for while every family with a deceased miner will be paid 15 silver. However, your situation is clearly a little different than the others and we’ll pay you a little differently as well. Taking into account what happened in that tunnel, you’ll be receiving 20 silver.”

“20? Could I ask you why I’m being paid more than if I died?”

“The additional 5 coins is compensation for us firing you today and asking that you never speak of what happened in that tunnel again.”