3:00 p.m.
As the hours ticked by, more and more of the villagers had trickled up the mountain. Reina had ran back to Konohana, and a similar messenger had returned to Bluebell to relay the news:
Lillian is missing.
Lillian might be stuck in the tunnel.
Lillian's life may be in danger.
I had struggled to ward off shock for the last few hours. Each time new people from the towns came up to see the damage for themselves, the same shockwave passed through the air. On the other side of the gap, Eileen and some of the men were working fervently to construct a rope bridge to connect us, at least temporarily. Some small groups had broken off to scour the mountains and towns, trying to locate our friend. Each one came out empty-handed.
The people of Bluebell had been communicating with us by sending messages tied to the foot of Lillian's pet owl, Dory. The first note we had received was a long, hastily-scrawled message from Eileen.
Kono-
Lillian and I have been working for a few seasons on rebuilding the tunnel under the mountain. We've made quite a bit of progress. But it's not stable. The supports were weak.
Last week, she and I finally broke through to Konohana. I told her to stay out of it until I could get in and reinforce it. Even then, it was probably still dangerous. But you know how she is. It's much faster to pass through the mountain than to go over it. She would be in a hurry to water her crops.
No one over here has seen her since midnight.
We think she left for Konohana early this morning.
We found a lit lantern in the entrance of our side of the cave earlier today.
If she's not with you, and she's not with us, and she's not on the mountain, she has to be in there. I cannot think of another possible explanation.
I can probably get her out if she is.
But I'll need help.
And there's not a lot of time.
The tunnel doesn't have oxygen pumps.
Or water.
If she's in there…it's bad. It's very bad.
-Eileen
Ina was one of the first responders. We showed her the note, and her face tightened. "How dare they!" She sputtered. "This is not their mountain to carve up as they please! It belongs to both of us, and we should have been at least consulted! And it wasn't even safe? No one thought to close it off? What if one of the children had wandered inside? This is carelessness! And now Lillian is in danger! Typical Bluebell!"
"Now, now," Ayame, the doctor, soothed. "Ina, getting worked up about this is not going to help. Not right now. We need to stay calm and figure out what we're going to do."
Ina took a deep breath. "Yes. You're right." She exhaled slowly. "Ayame. In your opinion, how much time to we have to…figure this whole mess out?"
Ayame frowned. "I don't want to cause any panic. But we don't have much time. In the best case scenario, Lillian is trapped. She probably doesn't have access to water, or copious amounts of oxygen. There's little visibility down there. She won't be able to see to get herself out."
"And so?"
"At the best…we may have three days."
Nobody even mentioned the worst-case scenario. But I'm positive that I was not the only one who thought about it.
I felt sick.
Behind me, a group of dejected villagers sat in a circle. "How are we going to get her out?" That was Kana. "If we go in there after her, we're going to get stuck, too!"
"We can't just leave her!" Reina yelled. "She'll die in there!"
"I don't want to leave her there! I like her, too, just as much as anybody else here! But I'm trying to be realistic. We don't have the means to just go running into a collapsed tunnel! If we hit a bad beam or cause another crash, we might hurt more than help! She might already be seriously injured, Reina!"
"What else are we going to do?" Hiro had his head in his hands. "We have to do something…we have to. We need her. You know that."
Ying, the youngest child in the village, started crying.
Nori picked her up and held her close. "One thing is for sure," she scolded, "And that is that arguing will get us nowhere. It will do nothing to help Lillian."
I sat on the ground with the others. "We can't do it by ourselves. That's the plain and simple truth. We're going to have to work together. And not just as a town. We're going to have to get the others to help. The Bluebells."
Everyone exchanged glances.
Even if Konohana and Bluebell were not on rival terms anymore, it was not as if everyone was exactly friendly with each other. Most villagers never even left their own village. The thought of communication and cooperation with the Bluebells was hard to fathom.
"They're not that bad." I was the only one who communicated regularly with everybody. I kind of had to. I carried everybody's letters. "In fact, they're actually pretty handy. Especially Eileen. I don't think we can do this without her help."
"Eileen's the one that got us into this mess," someone muttered.
"Playing the blame game isn't going to help anybody," Ayame said from a distance. "Nori is right. Arguing will just make everybody angry. Anger can come later. Action needs to come now. Lillian needs us. She deserves our help! And our undivided attention!"
"She's right."
Everyone paused. I couldn't stop the still frames of the pretty farmer girl flashing in my head, like a slow-motion picture show, like a dream that had soured.
Lillian had moved to Bluebell three years prior. She had enthralled everyone. She had a magnetic personality, the kind that made you stop and smile when you saw her. She was a breath of fresh air, and everybody liked her, even those with a sworn grudge against those who lived in Bluebell.
Besides, Lillian spent a good amount of time in our town, as well. She tended to her animals over in Bluebell, and then ran over to Konohana every single day, rain or shine, to care for her crops. She was an excellent farmer. If she had been allowed to compete in our crop competitions, she would have undoubtedly won. That earned her plenty of respect.
Her pleasant disposition and her winning attitude made it easy to like her, and she also did many favors for the people of the town. It wasn't long before most of the villagers had accepted her as not only an important part of our small farming community, but as a friend, as well.
One of the major aspects of the fuel that fed the rivalry's fire was our weekly cooking contest. Bluebell and Konohana were fiercely competitive and wanted to win each time. When Lillian started competing, though, something changed. It stopped being a conquest and started being fun. Lillian smiled even when she lost. She never left without congratulating the winning team. She laughed, and smiled, and oohed and ahhed at the pretty plates of food that were presented.
The mayors went from screaming at each other every week to calming down a bit, and then chuckling, and then even going so far as to encourage the other teams to do their best.
It was almost as easy as that.
Of all people, Lillian was trapped. The one person that absolutely everyone liked, that everyone loved.
"I hope she's okay." Hiro looked troubled.
"Lillian is strong and smart. She can take care of herself until help comes," Reina huffed.
"Unless-"
"Kana, shut up!"
We all glared at one another. Ayame groaned and rolled her eyes. "Kids," she grumbled.
Suddenly, Dory landed in the middle of our circle. The owl cooed a bit and cocked her head at me. I detached the message that was tied around her ankle.
Kono –
Rope bridge done. Should be stable enough. We're going to throw it over to you now.
Blue
"Throw it…? That gap is too big! It'll never make it!"
We looked up to see Eileen motioning wildly. She and Ash were holding up the bridge. We all did a double take- some of the wild birds were helping them hold it up! Eileen and Ash let go, and the birds began flapping their wings. Dory flew back, and helped the small, struggling sparrows. They crossed the gap, with the bridge slowly moving behind them.
"Don't just stand there! Grab it!" Someone yelled, and we all got to our feet and grabbed for the ends. "Quick, somebody find spokes!"
Sheng hammered the ends of the ropes into the ground and tethered them. "That should hold," he said gruffly.
The bridge looked perilously fragile. Slats of wood were bound by thick pieces of rope. There were lengths of rope at waist-level to hold onto while one crossed the crevice.
"This looks like fun," I sighed. "So…who's first?"
Needless to say, no one really jumped at the opportunity.
As it turns out, no one had to. The Bluebells started crossing over, Eileen, obviously confident in the quality of her handiwork, leading the way. Ash and Cam, the young men from Bluebell, followed. Ash's face was grim, Cam's was flat. Both had been crying. Slowly, more of the villagers came over to the Konohana side, and before long, everybody was united on our side of the crevice. This was the first time in centuries that every single villager from each town was together at one time. For what seemed like a long time, everyone just stared at each other.
Eileen broke the silence. "So, I kinda sorta have a plan," she said, clearing her throat. "But I'm going to need some help."
She laid out blueprints, meticulously drawn maps of the tunnel and its underground mine. She pointed to a section somewhere in the middle. "Judging by the collapse, and from what we can see from our side of the tunnel, she's probably right around here. I think the main collapse is blocking our side. From what I can see, it's going to be best to approach the collapse from Konohana. But I'd like to take a look to see if I'm right."
She looked over at Sheng. "We're going to have to just kind of take it a little bit at a time. Clear out rubble. You know."
Sheng nodded. "How can you be sure it won't fall further on us?"
"I"ll reinforce as I go. As stable as I can make it without wasting too much time. From here on out, it's a matter of life and death. We need to move fast to get her out."
Ayame piped in. "Three days. At most, Eileen. This is very serious."
Eileen looked slightly annoyed. "I'm aware. I'm going to need your help. All able-bodied people, all hands on deck. The more, the merrier. And all of those clichés. Any volunteers?"
Hands went up everywhere. Mine shot up before she even finished the sentence. Even the kids wanted to help.
Eileen nodded. "Okay. Great." She looked at Sheng. "I'll need your help, and your tools, too." He obliged.
5:00 p.m.
In the next few minutes, we were split into two groups. Eileen was leading Ash, Laney, Howard, Mako, Enrique, and me. Sheng was leading Grady, Cam, Raul, Diego, Ina, and Kana.
Ayame and Hiro were supervising; they were in charge of taking care of any wounds, preventing exhaustion or heat stroke, things like that.
Everyone else was doing what they could to help. Georgia and Cheryl, girls from Bluebell, were going to take care of the villagers' livestock while they worked. Jessica would watch out for the children over there, and would prepare food for the workers with Rutger and Rose's help. Over in Konohana, the kids, Rahi and Ying, would water the crops, and Yun, Gombe, and Nori would prepare food.
Reina would be going along with the teams as an advisor. As a scientist who regularly the rocks of the mountain, she would be able to identify abnormalities in the rock faces, and hopefully point out pockets of potentially noxious gases.
Teams would be working alongside each other during the day, and then in shifts at nighttime. Eileen was budgeting enough time to move throughout the cave and reinforce it at the same time, with enough time allotted to save Lillian. She had rigged a quick pulley system, attaching a bucket to a rope and feeding it into the mouth of the cave. The villagers outside could put food and water and supplies into the bucket and someone on the other side would pull it in.
Daylight was fading fast. Eileen handed out helmets with light fixtures attached to the digging teams. "Everybody ready?"
With an affirmative nod from everyone, we trekked into the cave.