Day 1

Mike's eyes flashed open. He blinked.

Darkness surrounded him; the only source of light came from the train's feeble emergency strips. From their lukewarm glow he could barely make out the silhouettes of the scattered suitcases and seats.

Grimacing, he struggled to his feet. His brain pounded against his skull, his tongue throbbed from where he had bit it in the collision. Oh, man… How long had he been asleep? He pulled out his cell. Aw, 5:30! His final exam had started a half hour ago.

A feeble groan gripped his attention. He made out a figure in the seat across from him, his head tucked in to his lap. Mike quickly took a survey of the train. It wasn't very crowded; there was a couple on the left, a mother and her daughter in the back, a young man slumped in front of them, and a few others. Those who had been in their seats all seemed all right. No one spoke, the shock left them thick.

There was another groan from behind him. Mike turned around, and flinched. The man who had been standing behind him had not been as lucky. His arm was twisted at an impossible angle, and his chest rattled with every breath. There was probably more, but Mike couldn't make it out in the dark… why was it dark? It was the afternoon, wasn't it?

Mike made his way down the aisle, faces turned to him as he passed, dazed. As he reached the far end, a figure found the strength to stand up with him.

"Looks we had a bit of an accident," the man coughed. He dressed in a pin-stripped suit; he looked only a little older then Mike, though some premature balding had struck. The man coughed again, gazing at the train around him in horror.

"H-hey, look, are you all right?" Mike stuttered. As ever, he was clueless as to how to interact with people; he felt awkward and disconnected. However, at this point, he had larger worries. "Have you hit your head? Do you have any disorientation, nausea? Any sharp pains?"

"Uh, no, I think I'm fine. My head's kinda pounding. "

Without asking, Mike felt the man's forehead, and discovered a cut, wide, but not that deep. "Don't worry, I can patch that up. I just need to get something to staunch the flow. You'll be ok, well, your head, that is."

Despite the situation, his new companion chuckled. "Wow, thanks. Are you doctor, or something?'

Mike turned to survey the rest of the train. Darn it, a question… he hated it when people asked him questions, his head always blanked. "Doctor, well, half. I mean, not, not a doctor. I'm a student. A medical student, that is. I'm about to graduate, or, I was…" he trailed off.

Carefully, he ripped offthe tip of his sleeve, and before the suited man could protest, completed a simple bandage. "There."

His companion didn't seem to notice his incoherency. "Come on, my key chain's got a flashlight. Let's check out outside."

After a few moments of prying, they managed to squeeze the metro's door open, and had tumbled out.

Mike stared around. Oh. That was why it was dark.

They were in a tunnel, rough rock encircled them. Mike scarcely remembered their metro ducking into one, in the minutes before the impact. His companion's key light played over the stone walls, before panning ahead of them. They flinched.

A pile of rubble lay ahead on the tracks. The pile of stone leered at them. Uncaring, it filled the entire tunnel. There was no way of knowing how deep it went, all that was visible was that it had entirely encased the train car ahead of theirs. They couldn't even see the next car, just the metal connector trailing into the rock slide.

Mike heard his companion gasp, and the key light began to shake.

This is bad, he thought. This cave-in is massive, and I have no clue just how much of the tunnel fell in. Once they find out what happened, I don't know how long it'll take for them to dig us out. All kinds of terrible things could…

Well, that didn't matter now. Right now, there was something he could do to help. Right now there were injured people on that train.

"Hey, what's your name?" Mike called uncertainly. It wasn't a question he was accustomed to.

The suited man turned toward him, face pale. He really wasn't much older than Mike. "it's J-Jack. Jack McPherson.

"And I'm Michael Carter. All right Mr. McPherson, I can really use your help. I need you to look through our train car. Look for any flashlights or first aid kits you can find, they should be at either end, or on the roof. If that fails, find some coat or curtain we can use for bandage fabric." He paused. "I mean, you can if you-"

Jack nodded, relieved, and dashed off.

Mike swallowed. Then, stepping back onto the train after Jack, he spoke up. 'All right, uh, everyone. There's been an accident, as you can see… Anyway, I'm going to check you all out for injuries. If you've hurt anything, just speak up. Don't worry guys; we're all going to be fine."

Two hours later by the clock on his cell, Mike slumped against a rock wall, sighing. They had been very lucky. Most of the train car's resident's had escaped with nothing more than scrapes and bruises, a few cuts and strains here. Mr. McPherson had found a first aid kit, and the tacky metro curtains had been put to good use. The little girl looked like she might have broken a finger, but he'd set it. She'd be fine once she got to a hospital.

It was the man who'd been standing behind him that he was worried about. His arm was definitely broken, and his right eye had suffered serious bruising. But what was really threatening was his torso. Several ribs had snapped. Though Mike hadn't said anything, he suspected the lung might have been punctured. He had sat the man up on a cushion, but he desperately needed attention.

Mr. McPherson strolled up to him. Once he had started assisting in the first aid, his terror had dulled, and Mike now noticed a form of hesitant friendliness in his manner.

"We checked our cells, no one's got reception. Big surprise. And me and a few guys tried digging at the rubble, but it's not working… The stones are too big. The bandages are holding up, though. You did a good job."

"Uh, thanks, Mr. McPherson."

"You kidding? Just call me Jack."

Mike stood up. 'Uh right. Hey, I'm going to go check out the other end of the tunnel," he called out. Heads turned to him expectantly. "I don't know how long it is, but hopefully I'll find someone. And don't worry, I promise you that I'll get help, I won't just run off!"

Moron! Why the heck did you say that?

Mike started to hurry away when two voices stopped him. "Hey, good luck!" the couple called after him. Several others echoed the sentiment softly.

Smiling to himself, he set off.

Mike came to a stop all too quickly. His pulse quickened.

His path was blocked by another cave in, just as thorough as its sister. There… there must have been some sort of disturbance in this mountain; he didn't know how much of the track had caved in.

For all he knew, their cave was the only pocket still intact. For now.

Stepping forward, he held out his cell phone, looking for reception. No dice. Maybe if he climbed up to the top-

The moment he stepped up, Mike felt something in him lurch. He tumbled back into the dirt, grunting in agony, teeth gritted. For a moment, he lay on the rock; it felt like his insides were burning him. What the hell was going on?

Finally, he gathered the courage to lift his shirt. He felt a sharp intake of breath.

His lower torso was one mass of throbbing purple. Internal bleeding. Something inside him was broken.

The train victims all perked up as they noticed the familiar figure emerging from the gloom.

"Mike!" Jack chimed, running up. "Did you find a way out?"

Not making eye contact with anyone, Mike shook his head. "No," he croaked. "It's blocked."

Jack shrunk. "Oh. Well, that's bad, isn't it." He looked around. Everyone else was gazing at the pair, with expressions ranging from ill-concealed terror, to borderline despair. "What… what do you think we should do?"

Mike straightened up. "We don't know how long it will take them to come dig us out. If there are two cave ins, then it means there are more. My hypothesis is that there was some seismic disturbance in this area. That means there might be many people who need help, not just us."

He saw his companions shrink at his words. Darn it, why am I so bad with people. "But, hold on! We're going to be all right. What we can do is, find all of the food, all the water, and stockpile it. Then we can ration it evenly. Then we'll be able to last. If we d-do this correctly-"

"Hold one f***ing minute," a voice snarled. One of the young men stepped forward, face shiny with perspiration. "Who the hell said you could just start telling us what to do? This is a disaster situation! And personally, I'm not going to let some stuttering idiot-"

"What are you talking about?" Jack interrupted heatedly. "Do you have any better ideas? Mike here actually knows something useful. He took care of us. I think that counts as evidence that he'll watch out for us."

After a tense moment, there were nods of agreement. The mother gathered her daughter in close to her. The couple briefly clasped hands.

Mike turned to his new friend. "Uh, thanks. Thanks for all the help."

Jack shrugged ruefully. "Oh, you know. I'm a lawyer, myself. It's what I do."