The next morning after a silent breakfast Travis, Andrew, and Tessa broke camp. “Once we start for the day, things will get back to normal," Andrew muttered to Travis as they took down their tent.
Andrew was working on getting his pack ready to go Tessa said, "I need to go to the bathroom before we start for the day."
"Ok, but make it quick," Andrew said only halfway paying attention, "and stay away from the mine."
Behind Andrew's back, Tessa made an ugly face and a rude hand gesture at him. Travis chuckled at the gesture as Tessa said, "I wasn’t planning on it. All I'm gonna do is find a private place to go pee if that’s ok with the two of you." Tessa turned on her heel and stomped out of camp.
Andrew and Travis chatted as they finished situating their packs. "You ready Tess?" Andrew asked, looking around. "Tessa?" he said again a little louder, still no response. "Tessa," Andrew called out even louder, with only the songs of birds answering his shout.
"If that little brat went back to the mine, I'm gonna kill her," Andrew growled to Travis.
Following Tessa's description from the night before, it was easy to find the mine. As they approached it Andrew’s blood began to boil. There leaning against a termite ridden beam was Tessa's pack, but his sister was nowhere to be found.
"Tessa," Andrew yelled off into the darkness, hearing his voice echo the name back to him.
“Here I come," her voice came echoing back.
Suddenly there was a loud crash from inside the dark tunnel that made the pair's hearts sink. The crash was soon followed by a cloud of stale dusty air rushing out of the opening seconds later. “TESSA!," both screamed at the same time.
Andrew rushed forward, but Travis grabbed him by the arm, “wait, what if you go in there and it collapses some more?"
Andrew pulled his arm out of Travis’s grasp, and shouted through the dust, “TESSA, CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
To his relief and horror, Tessa's pleading cries came echoing back to him, "ANDREW HELP, MY FOOT IS STUCK."
Andrew cursed out loud, "this is exactly why I didn't want her to go in there." Andrew pulled the cell phone out of his pocket. He had it turned off to save the battery in case of an emergency, and by all definitions, this was one. He clicked it on, and after a few seconds, it flared to life. Unfortunately, being so far out in the middle of nowhere meant that there was no service. He waved the phone around in the air like a madman trying to find even a single bar of service but to no avail. "One of us needs to go for help," he said with panic in his voice looking to Travis for confirmation.
“What if one of us leaves and gets lost? We need to try and stick together for now. Also, she said her foot is stuck, what if this turns out to be something simple? We’ll cause a panic for no reason, and neither of our Moms will ever let us do anything like this again," Travis debated.
“I don’t care if our mom’s get mad, that’s my sister in there trapped." Andrew snapped back, “we have no other options.”
"ANDREW, TRAVIS WHAT’S TAKING SO LONG? IT HURTS," Tessa's pleading came again from deep within the mine's craggy recesses.
Travis looked at Andrew as he shouted, “WE’RE COMING." He turned to Andrew, one of us should go in and assess the situation, if it is too bad then we can make the decision to go for help.”
“Fine," Andrew said, dropping his pack. He dropped everything he could to make his pack as light as possible before swinging it back onto his back. He didn't want to bring the pack with him, but there were a first aid kit and other supplies, just in case. Andrew slung the much lighter pack back on his shoulders and clicked his flashlight on. “Wait here," he said to Travis, “I’m going to go see how bad it is.”
“Be careful, and call out if you need help," Travis responded as Andrew stepped into the unknown.
Andrew made his way through the dark tunnel, his flashlight illuminating his path. He made his way step by step past the decaying wooden supports bracing the stone ceiling. After a couple of agonizing minutes, through the dust, he saw the beam of light from Tessa's flashlight. "ANDREW," Tessa called out, "I'M HERE." She waved her flashlight desperately back and forth signaling her location.
"I SEE YOU," Andrew called back rushing forward to her side. He found her lying on the ground with her foot pinned beneath a collapsed wooden beam and a layer of stone.
"I'm sorry," Tessa said through choked back tears. "I know I messed up, I was on my way back out when I tripped and tried to catch myself on this wooden beam. It gave way and this fell onto me. It's wedged tight, and I can't get my foot out."
Andrew studied the situation for a second and began clearing as much rubble as he could. Once he had cleared most of the fragments from the area. He grabbed the timber pinning Tessa at the far end and lifted with all his might but it wouldn’t budge. “TRAVIS," Andrew shouted over his shoulder, “SHE’S OK, BUT I NEED SOME HELP LIFTING THIS BEAM."
“I’M ON MY WAY," came the echoing response, and after another minute, Travis’s light came into view.
Finally, through their combined strength the wooden beam began to lift. With a loud groaning sound and lifted enough for Tessa to be able to pull her foot out from underneath. They let the beam go and the ground around them released an ominous shudder. Andrew scooped Tessa up into his arms and the three of them started back towards the entrance. They'd gone only a few steps when the ground beneath them shuddered and a wooden beam nearby gave out.
"RUN!," Andrew yelled. But, before they could move a large fissure opened up beneath them and they fell into the earth.
The next thing Tessa knew, she was lying on her back coughing in the dust. Her ankle was bruised and swollen but otherwise, as far as she could tell, she was not uninjured. She rubbed the dust out of her eyes and looked around bewildered by the dark scene around her. The only light was the beam from her flashlight on the ground nearby piercing the settling dust. Tessa retrieved her light and shone it revealing the scene around her.
Travis was across the chamber on her left, and Andrew was half-buried in the rubble next to her on her right. From where she was, she could see Travis's chest rising and falling with each breath. So she focused her efforts on helping Andrew. Tessa cleared the rocks, dirt, and pieces of timber off of his lifeless body. She could see his right arm was broken, but she couldn't tell if he was breathing. After a few more moments of fear, she saw Andrew's chest rise and fall in a few shallow breaths. Tessa grabbed him by the shoulders and gently shook her, “Andrew, please wake up." After a few seconds, Andrew stirred before waking up with a cough and a pain-filled groan.
"Wha-what happened?" he stammered, shocked at the darkness around them.
"The floor caved in," Tessa responded, pointing her flashlight up at the sheer cliff above them. "It looks like we fell a long way, and I’m pretty sure you broke your arm.
Andrew looked down and groaned as he saw his mangled arm. “There's no way we'll be able to climb back up that cliff with my arm like this. Are you hurt at all? And where’s Travis?”
“I’ve twisted my ankle, but I’m ok otherwise," Tessa replied, “and Travis is over there. I can see him breathing, but he hasn't woken up." She limped over to Travis's side and shook him gently, "Travis, wake up," but he didn't stir.
Andrew groped in his pocket for his cell phone, they needed help, and that was the only thing he could think of. After a couple of seconds, he fished it out and saw the screen completely cracked and blank.
“Great," Andrew said, “this is just great.”
“Oh, you brought your phone," she said surprised, "I thought you said no electronics."
“This was just for emergencies, and not for having my nose shoved in it the whole trip." Andrew retorted annoyed, “but it’s broken now, so it isn’t going to do us any good either way.”
“We wouldn't even be in this situation if it weren't for you!," his voice began to echo back as his temper rose. “All you had to do was just listen and stay out of here as I told you, but no, you couldn't even do something as simple as that. Sometimes you act like such a spoiled little brat." He threw the phone across the stone chamber in anger and it bounced off of the far wall.
Tears welled up in Tessa's eyes, "I'm sorry," she whimpered out and began crying. "We're stuck down here and now we're all going to die because of me."
Andrew mustered a comforting tone saying, "we're not going to die, we'll figure this out somehow."
"What is there to figure out?" Tessa choked out through her tears, "we're in the middle of nowhere, deep underground, and the phone is broken. On top of that, Travis is unconscious and we haven't seen any other hikers since we started. How is anyone going to find or help us?"
"I don't know," Andrew replied, "but I'm not ready or willing to just lay down and die here. So we better figure something out," his forced confidence seemed to comfort Tessa.
"Will you help me find my flashlight?" Andrew asked, groping around him with one hand. Tessa dug through the nearby rubble until she found his light cracked beneath a large rock.
“Son of a," he started to curse, annoyed but held himself trying to remain calm. He stuck his uninjured hand out, “give me your flashlight then," Tessa handed it across to him.
"We need to try to save the batteries," looking around he saw bits of dried wood strewn about around them. "These timbers that were bracing the mine are super dry," he observed as a plan began to materialize. "They should burn well. Help me get my pack off so I can get to the lighter."
With a painful groan from both, Tessa helped Andrew sit up far enough for them to pull the pack off his back. "Check in the side pocket, that's where I put it last night after we lit our fire." She found the lighter right where Andrew said it would be, and clicked it causing a small flame to spring to life.
"Don't waste the fuel," Andrew snapped at her, his temper on edge. "Now gather up some of those timbers and splinters into a pile." Tessa was able to build a small fire that was crackling friendly in the center of the room. The steady source of light revealed a tunnel on the far edge of the chamber stretching away from them.
"Good job," Andrew forced a smile and clicked off the flashlight, "now we can save the batteries until we run out of wood."
Then using the limited first aid supplies they had, Tessa helped Andrew splint his arm as best she could. She also checked on Travis again, but she still wasn’t able to wake him up. Afterward, they two sat around the fire, trying to think of a way out of their current predicament. "That tunnel must connect in with the main shaft of the mine up above." Andrew finally observed with no other ideas.
"I don't see any way it could," Tessa said, "I walked to the very back and there weren't any branches or offshoots. It was a single tunnel from start to finish, and wasn't near as interesting as I thought it would be."
"Then where does that go?" Andrew muttered under his breath, motioning towards the dark opening. Andrew handed the flashlight to his sister and said, "shine the light down there and see if you can tell where it goes."
Tessa scrambled to her feet with another twinge of pain as she put weight on her sore foot. She limped to the opening and shined the flashlight off into the unknown, "it goes for as far as I can see with the light." She clicked off the light and limped back over to the fire and sat down with a groan.
The two of them sat on opposite sides of their fire feeding it bits of timber to keep up the comforting glow. They continued to check on Travis, but he just wasn't waking up. Tessa was wallowing in the hopelessness of the situation as she quietly cried to herself.
Suddenly, down the tunnel to nowhere, they heard something echoing out of the darkness. They almost missed it because of how faint it was, but then it came again. The second time they could make out many distinct voices, mixed with an odd scuffling sound.
"Someone is down there," Tessa said as a smile broke across her tear-streaked face.
"HELP!," They both yelled together, hearing their voices echoing down the dark tunnel.
The voices and scuffling sound stopped. "HELP!," they called again in unison. A moment later, they heard a rough voice echoing back down the tunnel in return. "WE'RE OVER HERE," they shouted in reply to the unknown strangers.
There was a moment of silence that seemed like an eternity, then another shout, and a chorus of other voices. Over the next couple of minutes, the voices grew louder as the strangers made their way to them. Soon a light began emanating from the mouth of the tunnel growing brighter and brighter. Then there was silence as a group of the smallest men that Andrew and Tessa had ever seen stepped out of the opening.
