The Cagon Mines
By the Chronicler
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Chapter 11
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"Come on, you pile of shit! Move!" Perfect Tommy yelled at the rescue worker. He yanked him about and shook him until the man turned his eyes to him. "Wake up! Cry later when people aren't dying for your help!"
The man's eyes grew wide, then hardened. He pulled away from the Cavalier and stumbled toward another trapped body to check for life signs.
"Perfect Tommy." Buckaroo called from where he was leaning against the wall.
P.T. quickly stepped to his side. "You are not supposed to be standing." he reprimanded, moving under Buckaroo's arm.
"And who exactly is the doctor here?" Buckaroo returned. "I have a few cracked ribs. I'll live. Have you found any of the others?"
Perfect Tommy eased him back to the ground despite his assurances. "Yea, while you were `living' unconscious, we shipped three BB up and out, along with 10 of our rescuers. Hotrod is on his feet and another six rescuers. There isn't much room for anyone else down here."
"We in contact with topside?"
"Digger is half way up, relaying messages. That last shaker knocked one of the elevators out, but the Core of Engineers has showed up and we've got a real rescue unit setting up there now." Perfect Tommy informed him.
Buckaroo took a deep breath and winced as his ribs objected.
Perfect Tommy didn't miss it. "And I don't care what you say. You can fire me for all I care. You are on the next stretcher out of here!" He waved to a pair who had just re-entered the tunnel with a stretcher.
Buckaroo grabbed his younger friend's arm and turned him about again. "Have you found Rawhide and Reno yet?"
Perfect Tommy stared at him for a moment, then, looking away, he sighed. "We can still hear a go-phone just under the rocks. It will be Rawhide. Reno..." He shrugged. "They took our go-phones when we were arrested. He still has the transmitter... I assume..."
"You assume?"
The Cavalier sighed. "We haven't gotten a signal from it since the last explosion."
Buckaroo's eyes closed.
"We'll find them, Buckaroo. I promise!" Perfect Tommy swore. He stepped back to allow the stretcher to be set in front of his employer.
Buckaroo waved the stretcher carriers away. "I'll stay."
"Boss, don't take this the wrong way, but you're in the way."
Buckaroo Banzai frowned and glared at P.T. "Tom, I am not leaving here without my people! If you want me out of the way, give me a damn shovel!"
Perfect Tommy sighed. He ran a dirty hand over his face. "Fine... you run things here. Tell them who's next to go up and keep the communication going with top side. You do that and I can go back and help Hotrod dig Rawhide out." Pretending to speak so as Buckaroo wouldn't hear, he added as he turned and stared away "Maybe the cowboy can drag you away from this stinkin' pit."
"Don't count on it." Buckaroo answered.
----------
He didn't think he was hurt... just not feeling. As if he was no longer there... there buried under how much gravel, rocks, wooden planks, and what-not?
By some miracle, his face wasn't buried. Or it was, but in a pocket of air. The dead black that surrounded him made it impossible to tell.
The only thing that he could say for certain was that that whistling from somewhere off in the distance was unmistakable. Every Hong Kong Cavalier knew that sound better than any other... and feared it more than any other. It was the emergency alert of a go-phone.
Reno Nevada squeezed his eyes closed. It was getting hard to breath. Why? Because of the weight on his chest? Or was he running out of air? What the hell was going on?!
A hand wrapped around his ankle and began to pull.
Reno tried to cry out as pain tore up his leg and spread out through his body. But he just couldn't gasp enough air to complete the effort.
Okay, maybe he was hurt after all.
A big hand brushed the gravel from his legs. "Damn, friend, you sure do get in deep, don't you?"
Reno chuckled, sending a whole new wave of pain through his body. "Moses." he croaked.
"Reno Nevada. You're alive." It was a calm, gee-whiz sort of statement. Moses was, as always, in control of the situation. He moved a few larger rocks out of the way, then, carefully, dusted his friend off. Crouching over him he leaned over so that his eyes locked with Reno's. "You're ankle is broken. Maybe your leg too. Your shoulder is dislocated, and your head is bleeding like a stuck pig. And you might have some broken ribs. What do you want to do?"
"Get the hell out of here." Reno gasped.
Moses smiled that famous grin, his white teeth a beacon in all the blackness. "It'll hurt like hell." he warned.
"I am not going to die down here!" Reno growled.
"Good to hear. Carol, drag Phillip up here beside him." he ordered over his shoulder. "Keep them warm and awake."
"Moses." Reno called to him as he began to crawl pass, digging at the wall behind Reno's head. "That whistle... It's an emergency alert for a go-phone."
"One of your buddies?"
The Cavalier nodded once.
Moses gently patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry your dusty little head about it. I'll find him. I'll get everyone out."
----------
"Hat!" Hotrod called, holding up his prize: a battered and dusty Stetson.
Perfect Tommy snatched it for a closer inspection, though it needed none. Who else would ware cowboy style head ware in a prison mine? "Rawhide."
Hotrod nodded his agreement. "He must be close."
Perfect Tommy dropped the hat on his friend's head. "Unless it was blasted away in the explosion." he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else.
Hotrod pushed the Stetson back and looked up at the younger man. "We'll find him, P.T. Safe and sound."
Tommy glanced at him sharply. "'Course we will. Hell, death couldn't kill him. Think a few flimsy tons of rock could?" Not waiting for a response, he turned away and waved to a few weary rescuers, snapping off a few do-or-die words of encouragement. Then snatched up a shovel himself, and began to scoop up debris and toss it into a cart.
----------
Moses dusted off the boot. He followed it up to a leg... two legs. Continued to dig until he found the hips. But there he was stopped.
A heavy cross beam split in two, laid across the man's hips. If not for the delegate and precious a-fram way it had braced over the trapped man, he would of been cut in two, dead instantly.
Of course, he could be dead already. Moses had yet to see if the head was still intact.
"Reno, my friend, how are you feeling?" Moses called over his shoulder to where Reno leaned against Carol, another freed miner. Phillip laid beside them, awake and physically able, yet, due to a head wound, not fully aware of what was happening around him.
"Feel like hell." Reno answered. "Need help?" Holding his wounded arm to his side, he used his good arm to grab the wall and push himself to his knees. He bit back a cry as his broken ankle protested. Pushing aside the pain, he crawled up to where Moses crouched.
"Anyone you know?" Moses asked.
"Rawhide." Reno took a shaky breath. "Is he... alive?"
Moses frowned. Carefully leaning over the legs, he laid a hand against the exposed abdomen. His fingers crawled their way through the loose dirt, until his hand could lay flat against the trapped man's stomach.
Silence... Cold, still, silence...
Moses sighed. He started to pull his hand back, but stopped.
The man's stomach moved. He had taken a breath. It was a shallow breath, but, damn it, he was still alive.
Moses offered Reno a reassuring smile.
Reno dropped his chin to his chest, exhaling his held breath. After a moment, he looked up again. "He had been standing just out side the wall. The other side of the blast site."
Moses nodded, understanding what he was saying. "He would of been thrown away from us. We're passed the blast site." Moses ran his big hands over the cross beam. "When I have this critter up, you'll have to get the others free." He grabbed either side of the brake in the beam.
Reno grabbed his wrist. "Moses... You're only human."
The big man grinned. "Perhaps.... but I am an extraordinary human." He looked over his shoulder. "Carol, girl, you do what our friend Reno tells you now, you hear? trust in him. He'll take care of you."
"Don't sound like you're saying good-by." Reno reprimanded.
Again, Moses just grinned. "Move fast and true, and don't look back. I'll be right behind you all the way." he assured. He shook off Reno's had, then, once again grabbed the beam. His eyes closed lightly and he breathed to himself "Dear god, give me strength."
His shoulders rolled, his muscles tensed, and, with a roar, he lifted the beam up and over his head.
----------
Perfect Tommy yanked Hotrod out of the way just in time to avoid a new shower of rubble. "Get back! Everyone.... Back!" Perfect Tommy yelled, expecting what was left of the tunnel to come down on their heads.
But, once the dust and rubble had fallen aside, the tunnel had not collapsed, but opened up.
There before them stood a hulking huge man, holding over his head in a show of colossal strength the very ceiling of the shattered mine. Between his legs was the dusty, bloody, half-buried Rawhide. And behind him, Reno and two other miners.
"Reno!" Perfect Tommy cried, instantly rushing to his friends' side.
"Get Rawhide out!" Reno snapped, brushing the debris off of the cowboy.
"Stretchers!" Hotrod yelled over his shoulder. He grabbed Rawhide under the arms and began to drag him out.
"Get some braces in here!" Perfect Tommy ordered the rescuers.
"NO!" Moses roared. "No time! Won't hold! GET OUT!"
Reno shoved the younger Cavalier back to where Carol was trying to convince Phillip that they had to move. "Get them out. Hurry!" He turned his attention to Moses. "Hang in there, Moses." he encouraged.
"With god's mercy..." Moses gasped. "Hurry!"
Perfect Tommy bent low to get under the slowly sinking ceiling. "Come on." he grabbed Phillip, hauled him to his feet and shoved him at the opening, then did the same for the woman.
Hotrod grabbed them both and lead them back to the waiting arms of rescuers.
"Oh, god, don't let me fail..." Moses cried, the great weight forcing him down to one knee.
"Perfect Tommy!" Hotrod yelled as he turned back and grabbed Reno.
Reno cried out, nearly passing out, as he was grabbed by his dislocated shoulder and dragged free.
With a dive, Perfect Tommy slid across the rock floor, under Moses, and passed, rolling into Reno and Hotrod.
"Moses! Get out of there!" Reno called, blinking away tears of pain.
"Too late, my friend." Moses answered, his voice strangely calm. He went down on both knees, the weight slowly crushing him. A snap and a gasp escaped the big man's lips as his back was broken. "My children...." His big, brown eyes opened and focused on something only he could see. "My children, Reno, my friend... my beautiful children..."
"No!" Despite his own screaming pain, the Cavalier tried to scramble over Perfect Tommy to reach his friend, but Hotrod wrapped his arms around his shoulders and hauled him back. "Moses! Get out of there!" Reno continued to scream, fighting his rescuers.
Perfect Tommy tackled Reno around the middle, sending all three of them back down the tunnel. Over the top of Hotrod, he pinned Reno down and yelled directly in his face "It's too late! He's dead! Reno, he's dead!"
Reno stared at him for a breath, then turned his head until he could see Moses.
The huge form knelt ridged for a second longer, a brace holding up the world. But then his eyes slowly closed and, with a rumble, the human brace failed. Moses disappeared under the rubble, gone to them.
"Get out! it's all coming down!" Hotrod snapped, allowing Perfect Tommy just enough time to drag Reno back and off of him, before scrambling to his feet. "Run!"
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By the Chronicler
----------
Chapter 11
----------
"Come on, you pile of shit! Move!" Perfect Tommy yelled at the rescue worker. He yanked him about and shook him until the man turned his eyes to him. "Wake up! Cry later when people aren't dying for your help!"
The man's eyes grew wide, then hardened. He pulled away from the Cavalier and stumbled toward another trapped body to check for life signs.
"Perfect Tommy." Buckaroo called from where he was leaning against the wall.
P.T. quickly stepped to his side. "You are not supposed to be standing." he reprimanded, moving under Buckaroo's arm.
"And who exactly is the doctor here?" Buckaroo returned. "I have a few cracked ribs. I'll live. Have you found any of the others?"
Perfect Tommy eased him back to the ground despite his assurances. "Yea, while you were `living' unconscious, we shipped three BB up and out, along with 10 of our rescuers. Hotrod is on his feet and another six rescuers. There isn't much room for anyone else down here."
"We in contact with topside?"
"Digger is half way up, relaying messages. That last shaker knocked one of the elevators out, but the Core of Engineers has showed up and we've got a real rescue unit setting up there now." Perfect Tommy informed him.
Buckaroo took a deep breath and winced as his ribs objected.
Perfect Tommy didn't miss it. "And I don't care what you say. You can fire me for all I care. You are on the next stretcher out of here!" He waved to a pair who had just re-entered the tunnel with a stretcher.
Buckaroo grabbed his younger friend's arm and turned him about again. "Have you found Rawhide and Reno yet?"
Perfect Tommy stared at him for a moment, then, looking away, he sighed. "We can still hear a go-phone just under the rocks. It will be Rawhide. Reno..." He shrugged. "They took our go-phones when we were arrested. He still has the transmitter... I assume..."
"You assume?"
The Cavalier sighed. "We haven't gotten a signal from it since the last explosion."
Buckaroo's eyes closed.
"We'll find them, Buckaroo. I promise!" Perfect Tommy swore. He stepped back to allow the stretcher to be set in front of his employer.
Buckaroo waved the stretcher carriers away. "I'll stay."
"Boss, don't take this the wrong way, but you're in the way."
Buckaroo Banzai frowned and glared at P.T. "Tom, I am not leaving here without my people! If you want me out of the way, give me a damn shovel!"
Perfect Tommy sighed. He ran a dirty hand over his face. "Fine... you run things here. Tell them who's next to go up and keep the communication going with top side. You do that and I can go back and help Hotrod dig Rawhide out." Pretending to speak so as Buckaroo wouldn't hear, he added as he turned and stared away "Maybe the cowboy can drag you away from this stinkin' pit."
"Don't count on it." Buckaroo answered.
----------
He didn't think he was hurt... just not feeling. As if he was no longer there... there buried under how much gravel, rocks, wooden planks, and what-not?
By some miracle, his face wasn't buried. Or it was, but in a pocket of air. The dead black that surrounded him made it impossible to tell.
The only thing that he could say for certain was that that whistling from somewhere off in the distance was unmistakable. Every Hong Kong Cavalier knew that sound better than any other... and feared it more than any other. It was the emergency alert of a go-phone.
Reno Nevada squeezed his eyes closed. It was getting hard to breath. Why? Because of the weight on his chest? Or was he running out of air? What the hell was going on?!
A hand wrapped around his ankle and began to pull.
Reno tried to cry out as pain tore up his leg and spread out through his body. But he just couldn't gasp enough air to complete the effort.
Okay, maybe he was hurt after all.
A big hand brushed the gravel from his legs. "Damn, friend, you sure do get in deep, don't you?"
Reno chuckled, sending a whole new wave of pain through his body. "Moses." he croaked.
"Reno Nevada. You're alive." It was a calm, gee-whiz sort of statement. Moses was, as always, in control of the situation. He moved a few larger rocks out of the way, then, carefully, dusted his friend off. Crouching over him he leaned over so that his eyes locked with Reno's. "You're ankle is broken. Maybe your leg too. Your shoulder is dislocated, and your head is bleeding like a stuck pig. And you might have some broken ribs. What do you want to do?"
"Get the hell out of here." Reno gasped.
Moses smiled that famous grin, his white teeth a beacon in all the blackness. "It'll hurt like hell." he warned.
"I am not going to die down here!" Reno growled.
"Good to hear. Carol, drag Phillip up here beside him." he ordered over his shoulder. "Keep them warm and awake."
"Moses." Reno called to him as he began to crawl pass, digging at the wall behind Reno's head. "That whistle... It's an emergency alert for a go-phone."
"One of your buddies?"
The Cavalier nodded once.
Moses gently patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry your dusty little head about it. I'll find him. I'll get everyone out."
----------
"Hat!" Hotrod called, holding up his prize: a battered and dusty Stetson.
Perfect Tommy snatched it for a closer inspection, though it needed none. Who else would ware cowboy style head ware in a prison mine? "Rawhide."
Hotrod nodded his agreement. "He must be close."
Perfect Tommy dropped the hat on his friend's head. "Unless it was blasted away in the explosion." he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else.
Hotrod pushed the Stetson back and looked up at the younger man. "We'll find him, P.T. Safe and sound."
Tommy glanced at him sharply. "'Course we will. Hell, death couldn't kill him. Think a few flimsy tons of rock could?" Not waiting for a response, he turned away and waved to a few weary rescuers, snapping off a few do-or-die words of encouragement. Then snatched up a shovel himself, and began to scoop up debris and toss it into a cart.
----------
Moses dusted off the boot. He followed it up to a leg... two legs. Continued to dig until he found the hips. But there he was stopped.
A heavy cross beam split in two, laid across the man's hips. If not for the delegate and precious a-fram way it had braced over the trapped man, he would of been cut in two, dead instantly.
Of course, he could be dead already. Moses had yet to see if the head was still intact.
"Reno, my friend, how are you feeling?" Moses called over his shoulder to where Reno leaned against Carol, another freed miner. Phillip laid beside them, awake and physically able, yet, due to a head wound, not fully aware of what was happening around him.
"Feel like hell." Reno answered. "Need help?" Holding his wounded arm to his side, he used his good arm to grab the wall and push himself to his knees. He bit back a cry as his broken ankle protested. Pushing aside the pain, he crawled up to where Moses crouched.
"Anyone you know?" Moses asked.
"Rawhide." Reno took a shaky breath. "Is he... alive?"
Moses frowned. Carefully leaning over the legs, he laid a hand against the exposed abdomen. His fingers crawled their way through the loose dirt, until his hand could lay flat against the trapped man's stomach.
Silence... Cold, still, silence...
Moses sighed. He started to pull his hand back, but stopped.
The man's stomach moved. He had taken a breath. It was a shallow breath, but, damn it, he was still alive.
Moses offered Reno a reassuring smile.
Reno dropped his chin to his chest, exhaling his held breath. After a moment, he looked up again. "He had been standing just out side the wall. The other side of the blast site."
Moses nodded, understanding what he was saying. "He would of been thrown away from us. We're passed the blast site." Moses ran his big hands over the cross beam. "When I have this critter up, you'll have to get the others free." He grabbed either side of the brake in the beam.
Reno grabbed his wrist. "Moses... You're only human."
The big man grinned. "Perhaps.... but I am an extraordinary human." He looked over his shoulder. "Carol, girl, you do what our friend Reno tells you now, you hear? trust in him. He'll take care of you."
"Don't sound like you're saying good-by." Reno reprimanded.
Again, Moses just grinned. "Move fast and true, and don't look back. I'll be right behind you all the way." he assured. He shook off Reno's had, then, once again grabbed the beam. His eyes closed lightly and he breathed to himself "Dear god, give me strength."
His shoulders rolled, his muscles tensed, and, with a roar, he lifted the beam up and over his head.
----------
Perfect Tommy yanked Hotrod out of the way just in time to avoid a new shower of rubble. "Get back! Everyone.... Back!" Perfect Tommy yelled, expecting what was left of the tunnel to come down on their heads.
But, once the dust and rubble had fallen aside, the tunnel had not collapsed, but opened up.
There before them stood a hulking huge man, holding over his head in a show of colossal strength the very ceiling of the shattered mine. Between his legs was the dusty, bloody, half-buried Rawhide. And behind him, Reno and two other miners.
"Reno!" Perfect Tommy cried, instantly rushing to his friends' side.
"Get Rawhide out!" Reno snapped, brushing the debris off of the cowboy.
"Stretchers!" Hotrod yelled over his shoulder. He grabbed Rawhide under the arms and began to drag him out.
"Get some braces in here!" Perfect Tommy ordered the rescuers.
"NO!" Moses roared. "No time! Won't hold! GET OUT!"
Reno shoved the younger Cavalier back to where Carol was trying to convince Phillip that they had to move. "Get them out. Hurry!" He turned his attention to Moses. "Hang in there, Moses." he encouraged.
"With god's mercy..." Moses gasped. "Hurry!"
Perfect Tommy bent low to get under the slowly sinking ceiling. "Come on." he grabbed Phillip, hauled him to his feet and shoved him at the opening, then did the same for the woman.
Hotrod grabbed them both and lead them back to the waiting arms of rescuers.
"Oh, god, don't let me fail..." Moses cried, the great weight forcing him down to one knee.
"Perfect Tommy!" Hotrod yelled as he turned back and grabbed Reno.
Reno cried out, nearly passing out, as he was grabbed by his dislocated shoulder and dragged free.
With a dive, Perfect Tommy slid across the rock floor, under Moses, and passed, rolling into Reno and Hotrod.
"Moses! Get out of there!" Reno called, blinking away tears of pain.
"Too late, my friend." Moses answered, his voice strangely calm. He went down on both knees, the weight slowly crushing him. A snap and a gasp escaped the big man's lips as his back was broken. "My children...." His big, brown eyes opened and focused on something only he could see. "My children, Reno, my friend... my beautiful children..."
"No!" Despite his own screaming pain, the Cavalier tried to scramble over Perfect Tommy to reach his friend, but Hotrod wrapped his arms around his shoulders and hauled him back. "Moses! Get out of there!" Reno continued to scream, fighting his rescuers.
Perfect Tommy tackled Reno around the middle, sending all three of them back down the tunnel. Over the top of Hotrod, he pinned Reno down and yelled directly in his face "It's too late! He's dead! Reno, he's dead!"
Reno stared at him for a breath, then turned his head until he could see Moses.
The huge form knelt ridged for a second longer, a brace holding up the world. But then his eyes slowly closed and, with a rumble, the human brace failed. Moses disappeared under the rubble, gone to them.
"Get out! it's all coming down!" Hotrod snapped, allowing Perfect Tommy just enough time to drag Reno back and off of him, before scrambling to his feet. "Run!"
----------