Entdeckt
Discovered
"I have spent month after month telling your worthless company what we needed." Steiger Steel stalked closer, the dust and dirt left across his normally-pristine suit leaving the older man almost unrecognizable. The hatred in his eyes left him as a monster as he approached Adam and Winter, towering over the two children.
"Month after month of being the perfect steiger, never so much as frowning when the blasted owner that your father appointed cut our budget again and again and filled this mine to the brim with worthless animals!" He swung his cane and with the flick of a switch, a sharp point sprung forth from its tip, and it extended outward into a whip. Steel's murderous glare focused on Adam.
The boy didn't care if Winter was the heiress or not: he grabbed Winter's shoulder and yanked her back just as he snapped his whip out at them both. Now, both were backing away.
"And the only thing I get is death in this mine! We're trapped! Trapped because your damn company doesn't care and because it was you animals who caused the chain reaction!" And as if clarity finally struck him, he paused. With a single, long breath, Steel calmed himself down and stood taller. "But that's fine. Because I'm going to make sure I'm not the first to die here." But the fury in his eyes never faded.
So this was it, Adam thought: death by a steiger in a dark, dusty tunnel. He could barely move his legs enough to get away from Steel, let alone run away. Could they outrun him? Maybe. He didn't want to test that. He didn't want to die. But what was it going to solve if he just let it happen? Yeah... yeah! His dad was just down that tunnel, and surely someone had to hear him. All he had to do was hold his ground, keep his chest out and head high.
Chest out, head high...
There was something about knowing about the possibility of facing a murderer and preparing for it that made this worse, Winter thought. She could recognize, in horror, that there was nowhere for her to run. She could recognize all the little strategies to escape or contact her guards and how none of them were of any use to her right now. She heard people approaching, but it was no solace: if her fellow humans were angry enough to try and go so far as kill her, what would the faunus do?
The faunus boy stepped in front of her and shakily held up his Dust crystal. She could hear how quickly he was breathing and see the tremble in his hand.
"You wanna blame the people who work here? Whatever! But this wasn't her fault, so back off!" It was a front.
A front Steel could see. Chuckling, he flicked a switch on his whip, and the spaces between the metal segments began to glow red with Dust.
"Cute." His humor vanished. "You're just like your father!" The next snap came faster than Adam could react, sending him to the ground shouting in pain and clutching at his cheek. His crystal went clattering to the floor, and the obscuring dust flooded the space between them and the mad steiger.
But all of that gave Winter the time to steady herself. She refused to keep standing by and allowing someone else get hurt in her place. Hearing the steiger coming closer, she dived for the crystal and raised it up just as she saw the red of his whip. Clumsily forcing as much of her aura into it as she could, she sent a torrent of wind rushing through the tunnel. Steiger was thrown onto his back, and the dust was blasted away. Beyond it lay a rushing crowd brought to a screeching halt.
In that second, where the only noise was Steel rushing back to his feet, she tried to memorize every face she could see. Every expression of shock or sympathy. They could run now, Winter remembered: if this mine was really going to try to murder her, Adam had shown her where the ventilation tunnels were. It'd take time, but she'd get free. And if her assailants ever did, it'd be their last day of freedom.
One of the people—dark skinned, darker freckles too large to be normal, faunus?—broke from the crowd. It was time. She prepared to push herself to her feet and run.
The man tackled Steel back to the ground.
Pandemonium ensued: a human had tried to drag the man off, only for a thrown rock from a faunus to knock him into the dirt beside the steiger. Then someone had thrown a punch at the rock-thrower. Two others tackled him. The shouting began, and now in the span of two seconds the entire tunnel was one massive brawl. Winter turned and ran, stopping only to grab Adam's hand and yank him up from the ground. Her weak aura was already flickering from the strain of such reckless Dust use: she couldn't afford to stay.
And considering how Adam was sporting an aggravated gash on his cheek, he was telling the truth about his aura not being active.
"STOP!" A loud, booming voice cut through the chaos, and as if his word were law, there was silence. Even Winter stumbled to a halt, looking back. Adam, however, pulled his hand away and sprinted back for the pack. She didn't even have the time to call for him before the one with such power revealed himself.
Parting the sea of people with both the vizesteiger and her own guards behind him, he could've been mistaken for the true foreman of the mine. But the clothes of a miner said otherwise. As did his horns, massive and curling back over his long, brown hair. She could see the resemblance to the boy, clear as day.
And even if she couldn't piece it together, the shock and heartbreak in his eyes upon seeing the child running for him, trapped in Altebrucke alongside him, would've made it impossible to miss.
His son was trapped with him.
His son might die here.
Bloom would be alone. Oh, his wife; what would she think of him? What was she thinking now, Minier thought. The rumbling could no doubt be felt even on the surface, and he doubted even the SDC would keep their people working in an unstable mine. Word would spread, and their absence in the crowd would be quick to notice.
Ill thoughts ran through his head, but he couldn't afford to let them conquer him. Even as he looked upon his son running closer, bearing a bleeding wound across his cheek. Those thoughts were left to fester at the sight of the perpetrator, but were cast aside. A clear mind was needed.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and focused a stern gaze on the child in front of him.
"Adam. Did you bring anyone else with you?" If there were more curious kids stuck in the walls, he'd rather deal with that problem now.
Adam was brought to an abrupt stop before him, eyes wide. "No. No! I came here alone."
Minier sighed in relief. One less thing to worry about. He put a hand on Adam's shoulder, but a narrowing of the eyes and firm squeeze said enough on how there would be much to speak of later. As Adam stepped beside him, Minier noticed the Schnee heiress striding forward. She didn't even spare the steiger, pinned to the ground by his workers, a glance as she came to stand before him.
She looked a mess. Frankly, so did Adam, but she still managed to keep her head high even with her hair darkened by dust and ruffled out of place. Were it not for her attire having clearly been meant for a burgeoning heiress, she'd have looked no different from the rest of them in their own rough outfits. Admirable. Respectable, even.
He nodded to her: a silent acceptance. Enough for the protection she likely came to him for. Two less things to worry about. But that was one of many.
Two-hundred and growing, to be exact. A small village, all trapped in the depths of Altebrucke. The quiet, having only lasted a few seconds, was already growing thin: people were getting restless. Steiger Steel was beginning to struggle. Minier rolled his shoulders. Time to work.
"Everyone! Fighting will get us nowhere. This place isn't going to be anyone's grave, and I'm not going to have anyone trying to prove me wrong. How many of you were near the collapse when it happened?" He looked over the crowd standing in silence. Then, someone raised their hand.
Adam learned much in the next fifteen minutes. No one actually had seen the sparking event that caused the collapse, but it happening near one of the only fire Dust veins didn't leave many other possibilities. 248 people currently remained in Altebrucke. Estimates from where the mine was now sealed meant that they were trapped in the lower two miles of the mine, and that no side tunnels could likely bring them up to the surface. Perhaps the only good news was that there were some faunus who lived down here: those more fit for underground life. They'd established plenty of supplies in case of emergency, but nothing for this many.
And through it all, his father kept a pleasant smile and a knowing look in his eye. He didn't know whether or not it was genuine, but it did keep people talking freely.
"We have no choice then: it'll be a tight fit, but we can get through the ventilation shafts: the primary ones have ladders that can get us to the surface." Murmurs ran through the crowd, and the mood began to rise: there was hope.
But Adam didn't say a word. He couldn't help but notice that some of the humans were immune from the cheer, too. But they weren't saying anything, even though they must've known. But he could.
"There are no ladders," Adam forced out, his gaze on the ground. When he was met with silence, he forced himself to look up. After seeing so many eyes on him, he wished he hadn't said anything at all. Gulping, he straightened his back. Chest out, head high. Chest out, head high...
"It looked like there might've been plans for them, but it's just a bunch of pits in the wall. That's as good as it gets: I've had to get through them before, and after maybe the third level it's just a vertical climb." They were on the sixth.
"Just deep enough for inspectors to stop caring, Steel? Disgusting." Almond growled, glaring down at the man still held and restrained. The animosity began to rise once again, human foremen trying to look aloof in the face of it.
Minier sighed, but refused to let it get him down. "Then it looks like we might be in here for the long haul! Gather up in Shaft 4F: there's no way the surface didn't hear any of that, and I'm not having them find a bunch of angry corpses! We'll sort ourselves out there!" He called out to the group and, as they dispersed, laid a hand on Almond's shoulder and muttered something to him.
Almond nodded, but didn't look pleased. "Schnee. You're with me." And he walked away into the dusty mine, barely giving Winter the time to follow. They shared a last glance before she was gone into the darkness. Adam could see his father glaring down at Steel as he was shoved past, eyes boring holes into him until he couldn't be seen any longer, perhaps more than that.
Then that gaze was turned on him. They were alone, now.
Adam quailed and prepared for the worst. His father... hugged him. Confused, Adam's breath came quick, arms locked at his sides only because he didn't know what to do.
"I am so sorry this has happened to you, my child... but what could have possibly convinced you to come here! You had the day to yourself: you should have been resting, not sneaking into the mines!" Minier pulled away, but kept his hands tight on Adam's shoulder. He wasn't out of the fire.
"I was just curious," he mumbled in shame.
"Curious?" Minier asked in shock. "You couldn't have just waited until I got back home!"
"No! Well, I-I... I was, but I saw someone!" Adam looked back up at his father. "There were people using the lift next to the house!"
Minier narrowed his eyes. "Lift 3? That lift? Child, that's been broken since before you were born."
"But people took it down here, I swear! I came to find out who'd managed to fix it!" he pleaded. Minier, however, only kept his stern gaze firmly locked onto Adam's, unmoved and unbelieving.
Slowly, he took a deep breath and stood tall. "We'll speak of this when I get home."
Adam furrowed his brow, not understanding. "What about me?"
"What about you? You managed to sneak down here without using the main shaft. That means you will be able to escape. Once I organize the men, you'll be taking the heiress and leaving. Immediately." His father strode off, leaving no room for argument. It hadn't mattered: Adam's protests had already died on his tongue.
"How long will you be here?" he managed to ask.
His father paused, but couldn't answer. And for the first time, the crushing gravity of the situation began to hit him.
"Being the most dangerous type of mining, even we faunus are afforded plenty of emergency supplies as Dust miners," a dark-skinned, freckled faunus whose name escaped Adam announced to the crowd, standing atop a upturned mine cart. He carried the steiger's cane-whip, now. Adam guessed that made him important. "We've looked around, and we confirmed that the shelters are stocked. With one per level of this place, we have two: one on our level, one on the one beneath it. We also have supplies left by the faunus who live here." He cleared his throat and looked over the trapped masses before continuing.
"Considering our numbers, we'll have food and water for two days."
The crowd cried out as one, almost ready to break into chaos again. Adam watched from ahead of it all, beside his father and the Schnee, who was taking this all in stride. He'd taken to nervously wringing his hands: the more he understood, the more anxious he was becoming.
As Minier and the cane-wielding leader stepped forward to calm the crowd, Winter must have noticed him shifting in place.
"They are worried about the wrong thing," she said, watching the crowd. "The key is communication: Mantle can get supplies down here." Winter smiled over to him. "We will be fine. Trust me."
Feeling his cheeks heat up, Adam crossed his arms and looked away. "I-I'm not worried!"
He heard Winter chuckling quietly beside him, and his cheeks only burned brighter.
"What's so funny!" he demanded.
"You simply remind me of someone, that is all." Her sweet smile he caught out of the corner of his eye had him holding his arms tighter. But it wasn't pouting! It was brooding. Completely different.
"What about the other comm links!" he heard someone shout and, thankful for any escape from that, Adam paid attention to that.
"The shelters we have unfortunately look like they have theirs cut," his father tried to explain to the restless crowd. "And we don't know about those further up. The best we have are our walkie-talkies, and those only work on our own level."
Adam furrowed his brow. Other shelters in the levels... if he could get there, perhaps...
"Digging our way out might be our best option," Almond chipped in, his growling voice standing out over all others as he stepped into view. "At least to the shelters. We have the equipment." Almond himself had taken to carrying around his mining chainsaw.
"Not while the mine is this unstable," Minier said. "This is one of the most prolific mines in Mantle: we should expect rescue efforts soon. By spreading our rations out, we should be able to last five days with food."
"The largest shelter's on Level E: just above our level, Minier!"
"The level where the collapse happened, Almond, I know. That's too risky: it is by far the most unstable place in Altebrucke right now."
"Then I can go!" Adam called out, and the attention of the mine was drawn to him. With a crowd's worth of eyes on him yet again, he barely avoided wilting on the spot. "I can get through some of the smaller side tunnels, load up as much as I can and then bring the supplies back down here!"
"Absolutely not, Adam!" Minier shouted without hesitation. "Any tremor could bring those down!"
Adam balled his fists. He'd already seen one tunnel partially collapsed: his dad had raised a good point, but he saw a chance to be useful. "The ventilation shafts are just big enough for me to climb through, and you wanted me to leave through them." He pretended he wasn't trembling.
Winter placed a hand on his shoulder. "I can assist, as well," she said just as much to him as to the crowd. "I can fit within the tunnels just as easily and can reinforce them with any Dust you have available. I doubt my company has any use for it right now."
Murmurs went through the tunnel, and his father looked back to them before turning a stern gaze back to Adam. "It's far too dangerous," he insisted.
Almond crossed his arms. "It sounds like something you would've done in his shoes. Admit it, Adam Senior: the name isn't the only thing you two have in common." A couple chuckles went through the crowd.
Minier brushed a hand through his hair and snorted in agitation. "Well, if we're going to going to open this up to discussion, surely you must have a lot to say, Iris." He turned to the one who held the steiger's cane. "You're a parent, too: surely you wouldn't let little Ilia put herself in danger like that."
'Iris' shrugged and tapped his new cane on his shoulder. "I'd never make her do it, but if the kid wants to prove himself, I say let him!" A cheer went up from those assembled, though Adam hazarded that it was probably because they wouldn't turn down an extra couple days of food.
"I won't let you down, dad," Adam insisted.
And finally, with a slow, long sigh, Minier relented and held up his hands. "I know you won't, Adam. But forgive me for worrying." He managed a smile.
"You're proud of him," Iris commented with a grin.
Minier chose to not answer, instead turning to the trapped miners and managers. His growing smile said enough. "Alright, everyone! While the dust is still settling, let's get to the fun stuff! Yes: rationing, sleeping quarters and my favorite, bolstering tunnel stability!" He laughed as more than a few groaned.
As his father went on about things he didn't know of and couldn't affect, Adam, free of the gaze of the crowd, plopped down onto the ground with an explosive sigh of relief. He looked up to the Schnee beside him.
"Thanks for that, Winter."
She waved it off, as collected as ever. He envied that. "It is not worth thanks: leaving alone was never an option while this many people struggle." She held the faintest smile. "Besides, I arrived to begin taking a more hands-on approach to the Schnee Dust Company. I suppose it is time to start liking it."
Winter stumbled back and leaned against the rocky wall of Level E, Altebrucke's fifth level, gasping for breath. "I despise this with every fiber of my being." Uneasy sleep disturbed constantly by the sounds of work or the mine rumbling, barely enough water to get the dirt off let alone feel clean, and when she had decided to help get the rations, she hadn't expected it to be this much work.
"It isn't that bad!" Adam called from inside the large shelter. Well, if 'a small apartment' could be considered large, Winter thought. The path to get up one level was winding, but it was short. Unfortunately, 'just above our level' meant that the shelter was actually a twenty minute walk from their way up here with how much they needed to get around partially-collapsed walls. A twenty minute walk became an hour of hell when she was helping shove hundreds of pounds worth of supplies.
And what did she get at the end? The ever so marvelous experience of now trying to stop the blasted cart from running Adam over as they dragged it back down a tight tunnel these carts were only ever meant to go up.
Two days of this. She had helped the trapped miners get two more full days' worth of rations and helped get herself an intense hatred of this place. Winter groaned. The rations were horrid, too.
"Rather bold words, Adam. How will they stand up after another level?" This shelter was almost empty. Worse, the communications were inactive. It didn't make sense to her, but it might've been something breaking on the surface.
"As good as ever!" he declared as he came out with a wagon holding the last of the food. One by one, he tossed the various cans and packs into the cart. "After all, I didn't grow up in some stuffy mansion."
Winter rolled her eyes and, after needing a second to convince herself to move, started helping. "It is nowhere near as glamorous as you may think."
Adam chuckled. "Sure, if you say so." The cart soon filled up once more, he crossed his arms and looked both it and Winter over. Winter didn't even bother hiding her slumped shoulders and mournful gaze at knowing the work was only getting worse from here.
"I did some searching in the upper level, by the way. They've still got my favorite part of this place intact, if you want to take a break," Adam offered.
Sufficiently enticed by even a minute's break, Winter wordlessly stared at him with wide eyes until he continued.
"When your guys built this place, they misjudged where to dig, so there's this pretty steep drop and hill halfway through. When nobody's there, me and the other kids—"
"The other kids and I," Winter corrected on instinct.
Adam huffed. "Whatever! The other kids and I would sneak over, loosen the cart a little off the rail and ride it all the way down!" He grinned and crossed his arms. "Come on, it's fun!"
Winter furrowed her brow and grimaced. "That sounds childish, needlessly reckless and certainly dangerous."
She looked over at the heavy cart, then back to Adam, whose grin hadn't been dulled in the least.
"... Show me."
It was when he tried to sneak off to bring Winter back to the carts—per her demand—that his father stopped him. At first, Adam expected a lecture on the dangers of going to where she was staying in the first place: try as his dad might, he couldn't stop the humans and faunus from splitting and forming their own groups. Winter had told him that they still listened to Steiger Steel, no less, but her guards were keeping her safe from any bold moves.
Instead, he was taken aside, and his father knelled down on one knee to be at eye-level with him, gaze stern.
"Who did you see when you came down here?" he asked.
Adam blinked in surprise. He'd thought his father hadn't even believed him. "I... I don't really know. I saw them from the window and it was all frosted. All I knew was that they were wearing all white."
"All white..." Minier mumbled to himself and brought a hand through his hair. Then he pulled the boy into a tight hug. "I'm sorry for doubting you, Adam."
Faintly embarrassed even with no one else around, Adam tried and failed to wriggle away. "What do you mean?"
He laughed. "Someone found the lift controls, Adam! Lift 3 was lowered down to this level before the collapse and it's still operational!" Grinning like he'd found all the wealth in the world, Minier leaned back and clapped his hands on Adam's shoulders. "And there isn't that much debris in the way of it."
Adam squinted his eyes. "... I don't get it."
"Easy!" His father stood tall and brushed himself off. "There are only three lifts that reach this deep. Lift 2 was right next to the source of the blast: it's completely unsalvageable. Lift 1 was carrying up a large shipment of Dust, and the collapse brought it plummeting back down." He clapped his hands together. "The entire way up is buried. If Lift 3 was still broken and on the surface, the hollow shaft might've filled in. But if it's down here and operational..."
With wide eyes, Adam finished the train of thought: "We could take the lift all the way back up!"
"Now you're getting it, kid! I need you to check if there's any debris on the upper level blocking it. If we can dig our way to the lift, we just might have a shot at an escape."
With a wide grin, Adam gave a little salute and jogged back to the entrance. First, he had to just tell Winter there was a change in plans...
Once more, Adam found himself standing at the entrance of Lift 3, cold wind whipping past his coat from the shaft leading to the surface. He hadn't brought his hat, and that was a mistake: his horns hurt from how bitter the arctic cold was. It wasn't as great as he thought it was going to be: the floor had collapsed and wall of the lift buckled, leaving dirt and rock to flood in over the lift itself. The only good news was that the wire hadn't been cut.
Winter carefully stepped over fallen rubble to get closer. She hadn't exactly accepted just sitting in boredom while he explored. Finally creeping close enough to see up the lift, she shined a flashlight upwards. Either the door to the surface was closed, or it was late at night. She pursed her lips.
"Well, even if we could be rid of this rubble, I do not believe this lift will move any time soon." Steel wedges folded out halfway at each corner, meant to hold a lift laden with tons of material in place. "You told me one of the other lifts fell and exploded, correct? They would have locked these in place to prevent more problems like that."
"Wouldn't the guys up top unlock it for a rescue?" Adam crept closer to Winter, internally jealous of how aura apparently meant she could walk around in a skirt and still be warm.
Winter, however, was silent.
Adam furrowed his brow. "Uh, Winter? Hello—"
She held an arm out, then raised a finger up. Quiet. Annoyed, but not so petty as to refuse, he remained silent. Then he could hear it, quiet as a mouse: the grinding of dirt beneath something. Shoes? No, it was too consistent. Another tremor? No, it was too quiet.. Soon, Adam could pinpoint it: above them.
Gulping down any fear that the ground would suddenly give way under his feet, Adam crawled over the debris and, with his own flashlight, scanned around.
It was just as Winter got next to him that his light caught something in the doorframe of the next level: a bulky camera on treads, red light blinking.
It was recording.
The drone shined a light back down onto them. Winter and Adam looked to one another in surprise, both silently willing the other to say something first while they scrambled for something to say. The first words of those trapped in Altebrucke.
Adam cracked first, straightening himself out the best he could. Chest out, head high. He'd never been more thankful for the grime of the mine to not be so visible on his dark clothing. Right! This was probably important! He needed to say something, right? Something cool! Yeah! They'd probably end up in a paper, or something!
He really wished he could think of something. As it stood, he had to force his jaw to move.
"Um... hey!" His voice cracked. Great. Just great! "We're holding up just fine!"
It wouldn't even be five minutes before light came pouring in from the door to the surface, so high up. It wasn't an escape just yet, but contact to the surface was as important as it got.
A faunus boy and the Schnee heiress. Not exactly the first pair of people those outside were expecting to speak on behalf of Altebrucke's trapped souls.
