PART 6
As Scott managed a firmer hold on the mine's entrance, he couldn't help welcoming the sight of the sky above him, even if it was seemingly as wet as the moist prison he was now about to leave.
The jerk of the rope under his arms, reminded him that he was not yet free, so Scott refocused on the earth beneath his fingers, and not the watery pool beneath him.
With nearly three quarters of his body now out of the mine, Scott was taken by surprise when the abrupt slackening of the rope unbalanced him. Without that stabilizing anchor, he was suddenly scrambling to regain a more solid purchase.
As luck would have it his left foot connected with a hard surface somewhere below and he was able to gather just enough equilibrium to heave himself the rest of the way out.
Left exhausted from his effort, Scott didn't even make it to his feet, before rolling on to his back to breathlessly savour his freedom.
It was some minutes, before his frozen brain managed to comprehend the silence that had met his return the ground above. Twisting his head from side to side, he craned his neck to see why he hadn't seen sight of his brother. "Johnny?"
When his croaky call was met with silence, any elation Scott had felt at his rescue quickly evaporated with the cold blanket of fear that now covered him.
Forgetting about the rain, the chill had settled to his bones and the exhaustion the wearied every fibre of his body, Scott was on his knees in instant. His tired eyes scoured the sparse rock formations, before finally making sense of the rope and followed its trail to its end. An arm protruding from behind a rock, was the only visible sign of his brother; a still and seemingly lifeless arm.
"Johnny?"
With his heart in his throat, Scott half scrambled, half ran,
closing the distance between them in seconds, only to come to
abrupt halt when he was faced with the full extent of his
brother's situation.
"Johnny?" Scott dropped to his brother's side, where the full
extents of Johnny's injuries were open to his gaze. Fear and
anger vied for dominance, as his brother's torn shirt and
bloodied wounds attested to a battle that had been kept from
him.
"Damn you, Johnny," Scott seethed as his trembling hands hovered uselessly of the unconscious man. "You had no right," he snapped. "You had no right."