Chapter Eight
He was alive. Or at least Jess thought he was. Being in an abyss where darkness was his only companion, he might have been dead, enclosed in his coffin, aware of his grave. But then he moved.
"Oh…" Jess groaned as his hand raked over his head. He was alive, all right. And hurt. "Dad-gum."
He couldn't see the blood, but he felt it, underneath his hand and the drip down his cheek too thick to be sweat. But there was another place that seeped, perhaps even worse. His leg. He had to shift from his back to his left side to reach for the excruciating throb. As his hand covered the warmth, the sharp pain that sent a lightning bolt up his thigh and back down to sizzle inside of his boot made his entire body jump.
Heading lolling toward his chest, Jess couldn't say he was flirting with oblivion, as its own variety of darkness was already around him. But if the whirring in his skull was any indication, Jess was making the spiral downward to that familiar place. Jess roughly shook his head to try to pull his frame the opposite direction. He didn't want to go back there, at least not yet. Not when he needed to figure out who threw him into this pit.
Shock did have a role in keeping him awake. His eyelashes springing wide, Jess stared into the nothingness. Why couldn't he remember what happened to him?
There was recollection. It wasn't as if a boulder had come crashing from the rocky ceiling and left him without a memory, without a past. Jess knew his name, knew everything he had done, even knew his location, but how he ended up enclosed in the earth was completely lost to him.
But what threatened to crack open his chest and drop his heart to the ground was an even stronger concern. Was Slim buried along with him?
Jess offered his tongue. "Slim?"
Slim? The echo slapped right back, and then repeated three more times.
Jess shuddered. He knew it was only his voice drifting back at him, but it was too hollow, too eerie, too alone. And he had a feeling that was exactly what he was. Alone. Maybe he should have allowed that thought to comfort him. If Slim was stuck on the outside he was safe from hell's deepest hole, but he couldn't find a soothing touch anywhere against his heart. Isolation like this, Jess was already a buried man. How long until he became what was usually inserted into the earth, a dead man?
He could tell by his intakes of breath that the air was scarce. Due to the pain they weren't anything past shallow, but even making the attempt to pull in his lung's fill, his body screamed to go easy on what precious supply might be left. His tongue touched his lips. Dry, but not to the point of cracking. Yet without another vital piece of his life, even if he had a hole big enough for his nose to fit through, he would still succumb.
Well, one thing was certain. Lying still wasn't going to stop his decline.
Reaching out a hand to clasp the dark air, Jess stretched further. There was finally some solidity beyond his fingertips and as he traced higher up on what he assumed was one of the mine's walls, he found an outward jut that would serve as a handle. Putting all of his upper strength into that knob, Jess pulled his frame upright, the pain so strong in his leg that he couldn't put his boot down.
"Dad-gum," Jess said in a whisper, yet hard enough that his jaw clenched. "What happened to me?"
His palm crawling back down his leg, he pulled a loose flap of his jeans away. No bullet could cut like that. It had to have been large, maybe even pointed, like a hurtling arrow from the sky. But he wasn't in the open, but deep inside a mine shaft. Jess' head went upward, still unable to see, yet knowing anyway. A beam, it had to have been, and its crash downward fortunately didn't impale his leg, but skidded right over the top of it.
Leaning over he felt for the chunk of wood, and there beyond his life's puddle was the ragged edge, along with a chunk of his pants. He knew one more piece of this blasted puzzle, but if only there was…
Suddenly Jess' hands clapped onto his ears. Blast. That was it. There had been an explosion, so massive that his body had shaken with the earth until it felt as his teeth and eyes had rolled out of his head. And in the midst of the rumbling, the crash above him wouldn't be heard, but it would take Jess out, it almost took him all the way out.
Jess' breath rushed outward before his eternal scold could remind him to preserve it.
Dynamite being the only source of such a tirade that could dislodge the earth, Jess' next guess wouldn't be that far from accuracy. The men of Ridgewood, and Hal Martin, had found him.
Well, I can't fault them for their form of weaponry. It worked. Jess' mind sounded out the words to keep the extra air from being used. Dad-gum, it worked.
Jess' sense of direction was completely gone, but wherever the front of the mine was located would be obliterated. More than likely half of the mountainside collapsed into it. If he was going to find a way out, it certainly wasn't going to be the same place that Jess had gone in. But how could he find an exit, if it even existed, in all of this darkness?
Slim said the mine wasn't large, but it boasted at least two shafts. The one Slim had used as a hotel room could be where his right boot was balanced, or lost in the ink somewhere to his right or to the left.
He hated fear, but Jess couldn't stop its fast approach. He could go in circles, take a path that was a long dead end, yet there was more to this blindness than getting deeper lost than he currently was. Everything around him could become a weapon. A crevice could turn an ankle or turn into a tomb. A jagged edge could scrape more hide off than had already seeped to the earthen floor. And considering the walls hadn't finished settling, another solid shake could drop the rest of the mountain right over his head.
Teeth settling into his lower lip, Jess' handkerchief came away from his neck to be tied over the uneven gouge. It did nothing to ease the pain, but stopping some of the blood from falling out of his body would aid his steps. That is, if Jess could walk at all.
Clinging to the wall for support, Jess put his injured leg forward, but the wobble was too strong, it wasn't going to support him. His hand gripped the rocks even tighter. As long as he didn't let go, it could prop him up enough to drag his leg. Making the attempt, Jess let out a haggard sigh. The pain might not let him get far, but Jess would rather die trying than by giving up.
Right foot going ahead of him, his boot clopped the ground. His left unable to imitate, the scrape of his boot completely on its edge pulled pebbles and unknown debris along with him. Jess couldn't know time, couldn't figure out distance, but for what seemed like an eternity, Jess knew only the sound of his moving.
Clop, shuffle, scrape. Over and over again it repeated until Jess wondered if that was the only sound that had ever been known to him. And then, while his head had been bowed close to his chest, it slowly rose. With the slightest breath going in and out of his mouth, he stilled his frame.
He heard something. Very delicate, but there.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Jess smiled. Water. If there was an opening large enough for liquid to seep, maybe that same place had a hole large enough to see out of.
Blessed with a vigor drawn directly out of hope's well, Jess went toward the little droplets. He still couldn't see, but it was somewhere close. Jess could hear its falling rhythm with more clarity, but there was more to the water than sound. He could smell the moisture, and as his parched tongue needed it so fiercely, he could even taste it. But he had to get to it before his body could absorb it.
A few more clops, a couple more scrapes and by the subtle temperature change, Jess knew he had found it. But light, there was none. His hand rapidly worked across the wall's cool surface, searching for an aid to his life. And then he touched wet. Already his fingers slid across his tongue, but this taste was merely a tease. He needed more. He craved more.
His lips pressed against the cold stone, with each intake he felt his body revive. Nature's kiss ended, he turned around and put his head against the drip.
As the thin stream dribbled over his lashes, Jess looked upward, desperately searching for its origin. He couldn't even find a speck that wasn't black. The water spilling in from the outside was beyond such a thick depth that it remained a part of the darkness, like the color that was quickly staining Jess' soul.
There was no way Jess could push away his defeat that pounded away at his gut like a group of barroom brawlers. It would be wasted time to try. Unless his imagination was working against him, the air was thinner here. It hurt to breathe. Jess knew he couldn't remain in this place. While the dribbles of moisture provided some form of life, it couldn't provide it all.
"I gotta find…" Jess' lips moved, but his voice was too quiet to hear. "I gotta find… a way out."
Hands supporting both sides, Jess tried to pull himself beyond a seated position, but it was as if a rope had entwined his waist and held fast all the way down to his boots. He failed to rise. Pain and fear mingling with the water's soft touch, Jess' bowed head began to bob even lower. His lashes were quick to follow, and even though Jess would have rather jerked his body into the position he wanted, he remained in the position that he needed. His current surroundings being shrouded by exhaustion, the water went silent, his pain dimmed, and Jess slept.
Head coming back up with a start, Jess shivered. Was it colder because it was night or because he was wet? The way he felt stirring out of his slumber, Jess could make an accurate guess that he had been out close to man's normal nighttime span. The way his breaths hurt even worse than before, he was surprised that he even woke at all.
He shifted to make all of his body come out of the water except for his palm. Filling the cup until Jess felt it begin to spill over, he brought it up to his lips. It didn't taste as clear, almost as if silt was staining the liquid brown. Jess continued to let the earthen flavor dribble down his throat because he was going to leave the little trickle behind him, for time, at least how it ticked internally, was fast running out.
Trying to get his right leg back underneath him, Jess pushed his upper half away from the wall, but all that was accomplished was the slap of his rear hitting the ground. His hand latching onto the sticky throb, Jess held back his retort. He had been down too long. Pulling his palm away from his leg, Jess planted both against the cool surface. All he could do now was crawl.
The familiar sound that had been his movements before Jess slept could no longer chant inside of his ears. The replacement was slap, scoot, and his own breath, hitting hard in his chest with the pain as Jess' lower half skimmed the mine's surface. But it wouldn't get the chance to rotate inside of his mind for long.
He was getting too weak to hit his hands against the surface, too weak to pull his leg along, too weak to even speak.
Jess parted his lips, but he couldn't even whisper. Slim. Where are you, Pard? I'm gonna die if I don't get outta here. I need you, Pard.
Jess cocked his head to the side. Was that an answer?
Slim?
Something was whistling in the dark. It was high, but not straight like a teakettle gone mad, it was a whoosh, a rush, and yet at the same time comforting. Wind. It could only be wind. Wherever it was, Jess had to get there. Wind was air, and air was life.
But there was one thing wrong. Jess couldn't fathom its position, for everything in his sight was limitless. He sniffed, but he couldn't smell it. He lifted his head, but he couldn't feel it. All Jess could do was hear the sound, the song, maybe it was closer to a moan, his moan, but Jess wasn't going to be able to find it. Not from this side, not from anywhere. His body succumbing to everything around him, Jess collapsed to the hard ground, his head going level with its surface.
Slim.
.:.
Chest heaving as he crawled across the obliterated mine opening, Slim searched for a part of the mountainside that would give even the tiniest inch underneath him. There was none. The rocks had piled so high that from every viewpoint the entire place was unrecognizable. He had walked it with Lex, again with Jess, and the only reason he knew he was in the right place was because Slim witnessed its explosive tumble.
The one underneath him completely impassable, Slim had to find another doorway. He had been in a shaft that Lex had told him there was no way out, but Slim knew not to believe the word of an outlaw. Even if Lex could have stated that line with his hand on the Bible without getting struck by lightning, there was still the possibility that one of the other tunnels had some type of breathing hole.
He tried to not think about how difficult such a place could be to find, yet the persistent nag stayed close to his ear as he trudged over the uneven ground. There was a larger mosquito buzzing beside his head that Slim had already clapped between his palms. Yet the menacing whine was making a return. What if he would never find Jess, because he was buried in the rocks behind him?
"He's not," Slim said, his stubborn tone strong.
Already one night had passed, this new day was young, but how far into it before Slim couldn't take the prongs poking into his flesh anymore? The switchover of his voice would then be grief.
Slim looked down at his feet. It wasn't just his front and back enduring such a rough course. With the ground jagged and fierce, Slim's boots would go forward and then slide, even twist, with making only minimal distance. It was about to get worse, for Slim saw a slicker stretch ahead, where snow runoff from the highest peak meandered downhill.
He gingerly stepped into its thin stream and shuffled the liquid with his boot until it turned brown with silt. Part of it must be able to seep into the mine, for where the trickle was shimmering in the sunlight, in one dip of the rocks, it disappeared. Feeling a rush of hope, Slim tapped the indent with the tip of a discarded shovel he had found the night before, but there would be nothing giving way. Even though a vital element could find its way inside of the mine in this place, Slim would have to find another.
Discouragement keeping his head low, Slim stepped out of the water. Except for the steepest point upward, Slim could choose any number of directions to go. And all of them could be wrong. Letting his eyes roam, he searched for anything that might stir his core. The landing of blue against a previous slide pierced his core. If there was another opening on this side of the mine, it too had been wiped out.
But Slim couldn't leave this place without a closer look.
Slim's ear pressed against the wall. It was cold, but for some reason, Slim didn't think the coolness was what made him shiver. Holding his breath, he searched for its source. There it was. A musical note? Eyes attaching to the nearest tree, Slim sought the movement of a warbler. The branches were empty.
Then what…? It definitely sounded like a song, an empty call, a mournful cry. Likely it was just the wind, but because his ears were searching for something that had the kind of life that was built on flesh and blood, heart and soul, he had to make the attempt.
He parted his lips. "Jess?"
Nothing.
Again. Louder. "Jess, can you hear me?"
Along with the high-pitched lilt, there was a muffled shout. "Slim?"
"Jess!" His heart thumped nearly as hard as when the mine first buried his partner. Thank God. "I'll get you out, Jess."
"How?"
Slim didn't miss how the defeat could be felt through the rock wall. Jess was close to giving up. If only he had a more solid solution, but all he had were his hands and a dilapidated shovel that might not make it past the first punch into the rocks. "Don't worry how, I'll just do it!"
"Slim?"
He paused long enough to hear the fading voice. "Yeah?"
"I can barely breathe."
"I'm coming Jess. You can't be that deep if I hear you. Don't give up. Listen, I'm moving the rocks. All I need to do is pull…" Slim's voice turned into a groan. This last rock wasn't going to budge, and as it was the only support of those around it, none of the other rocks were going to move either. But it would. He would make it move!
Slamming the shovel's tip into the top of the rock, Slim pulled back, but his force was too strong. The shovel's handle snapped in his grasp, leaving the blade inserted. He slammed his hand onto the rock, a rare curse forming on his lips. But at the slap, a wondrous thing happened. The rock moved. Just slightly, but anything was a measure of hope. Putting all of his weight onto the rock, as his deep grunt faded into silence Slim heard the earth tremble underneath and a crack became visible.
Slim leaned over the gap. "Jess?"
The hole was just wide enough to see the dust-lined lashes and as they fluttered open, there was a definite wince to the light before the blue could grow beyond a sliver.
"You all right?"
He nodded, pulling his nose over the thin line. "Just lemme breathe. Gotta… gotta breathe."
"What's it like on your side?"
"Dunno," Jess said, gulping in the air. "Haven't been able to see until now."
"Well I'll keep pulling rocks out. If I got this much open, I'll get the rest."
"Slim."
"Yeah?"
"Is it true that faith can move a mountain?"
Slim shifted his gaze to look at the expanse that was around them. "That's what they say."
"I reckon stubbornness can do the same."
Slim smiled, the first genuine lift his mouth could make in a long time. "Then between the two of us, we ought to be able to push this pile of rocks into the sea."
"Well, I reckon where the labor part fits into that, I ain't gonna be able to help out. I'm kinda hurt."
Slim's hands grew still, his heart, almost the same. "How hurt?"
"My leg's kinda chewed up from where a beam musta hit it. Can't walk."
"Well, then I'll do all the work for us both. Make it feel like home, right?"
"Sure," Jess said, wanting to smirk, but the feeling wasn't there.
"Say, Jess. There's a sharp rock here that I think can be used like a pickax. I'm going to see if I can break apart the one that's directly to the right of this crack. Keep your face down until I'm done."
"All right, Slim," Jess answered, crawling away from the sliver of light.
Slim had given up wishing that he was wearing a pair of gloves. Palms scraped and bleeding from everything he had done until now, they were likely to get worse before he was through. Feeling like he had turned into a full-fledged miner, Slim pounded against the hard surface. When pebbles started to shoot past his boots, he knew there was progress, and his strength increased. His hands switching to pull at a large rock that started to slide, its tumble suddenly made everything give way. There, beyond a cloud of dust, sat Jess.
Jess' blue looked beyond Slim's similar shade to what lay above him, the sky. "Dad-gum."
Hands going underneath his arms, Slim pulled Jess into the daylight. "Let me see that leg."
"It ain't that bad, Slim."
"Let me be the judge of that." Slim pulled the bandana loose, his own teeth clenching with Jess' gasp. "Well, it's not a puncture."
"Kinda figured it was a scrape."
"But it took a lot of skin and blood with it. You care if I tear your jeans all the way up to your hip?"
"Go ahead."
Jess tightened his jaw to match the pain as Slim ripped, but not so far that sound couldn't wheeze out. "Where's the mob?"
"Scattered. With as much dynamite they used, likely they figure you've got your final piece of earth, all right."
Jess' eyes returned to the mine. They were almost right. "Well, at least we ain't gotta worry that they'll be snooping around."
"No, but somebody else might."
"You thinking about Lex?"
"Haven't been able to forget him."
Jess' hand sat on the rear of his gun. "I won't let him kill you, Slim. I made a vow to get him. Sure, he didn't do what I thought he did, but the vow's gotta go all the way regardless. I'm gonna kill him, Slim."
"I know you will, Jess. I know you will."
"Well, isn't this interesting." The voice from behind turned into the picture of the man, two men actually, and a rifle and six-shooter were pointed right at them. "A man making threats toward me when I've already got him covered usually doesn't last very long."
Slim's throat went dry. "Lex."