Chapter 59 – Disaster in Rock Creek

After Faith left, Wynn finished his meal and then went to find Abigail. He wanted to talk to her about what had happened and make sure that she was okay. He also wanted to get her reasoning behind not reopening the mine. Wynn knew that the judge had ordered the mine closed, but he didn't say that it couldn't be reopened, just that it couldn't be reopened by Pacific Northwest Mining. The point was to make Pacific Northwest pay and part of that was them losing the income from the mine. The judge also gave the town of Hope Valley the land so that any decision to reopen the mine would come from the town. Wynn had made a point of reading the entire decision by the judge when it came to the mine trail. It was how he was able to enforce the payments and make sure that they were brought current. Wynn had even had his son-in-law look at the ruling and let him know about any potential problems so that he would be able to help Jack and Abigail.

Was there something that Abigail knew that Wynn didn't? He was also worried about the group that was headed to Rock Creek. He understood Dee's desire to go, as there was a part of him that wanted to go as well, but he knew that he was needed here in Hope Valley to deal with other things. Wynn wondered how many were injured and how many they would be bringing back to Hope Valley. Dee walked into the kitchen from the side door about the time that Wynn had come in from the dining room. Abigail motioned for them to both sit at the table. She brought a plate over to Dee and refilled Wynn's coffee cup.

"The four tents are up." Dee said. "I haven't moved anyone yet, I thought if all else fails we can put the injured from Rock Creek in them. I spaced all four out in the field, we can put additional ones between them if we want. I haven't heard anything yet, have you?"

Abigail looked at the clock before she spoke. "They should be there soon. If I know Bill and Charlotte, they will send a wire that they arrived. So for right now, no news is good news. I just hope that we are able to handle whatever comes our way."

"I am sure you will." Wynn said.

The group made it to Rock Creek in great time, even with the wagons. Rushman immediately checked in with the mayor to see if Benson Hills had arrived and he let them know that he hadn't seen them, but that didn't mean that they didn't go right to the mine and bypass the town. Rushman was not happy and ordered the group to head to the mine. Bill and Charlotte hung back to see if they could get a little more information.

"Hello." Charlotte said. "My name is Charlotte Thornton and I believe that my son was here for a few days in March. I was wondering if you can help us."

"Nice to meet you." The Mayor said. "My name is Oscar Logan and this is my town."

"Nice to meet you." Charlotte said. "This is Bill Avery and he is the sheriff of Hope Valley. We were wondering if you could give some more information about what happened?"

"Avery?" Mayor Logan said. "I met an Avery with the Mounties a number of years ago when I lived near Elliot Lake."

"Wow." Bill said. "I would have never recognized you. Now that you say it, I remember the name. What brought you out this way?"

"Lots of things brought me out this way." Oscar said. "We will have to catch up if you have time. As far as what happened. I don't know. We got a lot of water and then there was the spring runoff. I heard that the Silverton mine also had a landslide. I thought that we were safe. I honestly don't know. We don't have a lot to do with the mine since it is northwest of town and almost all of the men stay at the settlement with their families. I think that there were about thirty miners working at the mine, many were married and had families. I don't know if anyone at the settlement was injured, but I do know that it was one of the children that came into town and asked me to wire a Mountie Jack in Hope Valley. Is he not here with you?"

"That would be my son." Charlotte said. "He was injured while trying to rescue a child when a settlement near Hope Valley experienced a flash flood after the Silverton Mine landslide. He is on the road to recovery, but wasn't well enough to make the trip."

"Well, I send my best to him for a speedy recovery." Oscar said. "All I know is what the child told me. I wired Benson Hills as well, since they are the ones that we call if we need help. What the child told me was that help was needed, there was a landslide at the mine and many injured. The only reason I wired Hope Valley was that the child insisted that I contact Mountie Jack."

"Thank you." Bill said. "We will let you know if we need anything else."

"Can you send a wire to Hope Valley?" Charlotte asked. "I just want to let them know that we arrived safely and will send more information when able."

"I can do that." Oscar said. "I have kept you long enough. You need to get to what you are here for."

Bill and Charlotte mounted back up and headed to catch up with the group that was heading to the mine. At least they had a little more information. Bill made a mental note to check on the settlement as well. He figured that he would have Charlotte help him with that, since a woman can sometimes be easier to talk to. It didn't take the two long to catch up with the group.

"Where have you been?" Rushman sneered.

"I would watch your tone." Bill said. "We stopped to send a wire to Hope Valley to let them know that we had arrived and would send more information when we had it. I also talked to the mayor for a moment and learned that there were about thirty miners at the mine. He wasn't sure if the settlement had been damaged or not, since it was a child that had been sent to town to wire for help."

Rushman didn't say anything else, but just glared at Bill for a moment. When the group arrived at the mine, they found two Mounties from Benson Hills there, as well as a number of farmers from the surrounding area. The foreman for the mine saw the Mounties and greeted them. He recognized McGinty and headed to him first.

"McGinty!" The foreman cried. "It is so good to see you."

"Let's get down to business, Mr Annesley." McGinty said. "I need to know numbers."

"Twenty miners working inside at the time." Mr Annesley said. "We have been able to recover four that were killed, but we hear tapping, so we know that there are others that are trapped."

"Okay, give me a minute and we will talk more." McGinty said.

McGinty rode over to Rushman and relayed the information. Rushman immediately put the men to work to help get the entrance cleared. McGinty went back over to talk to Mr Annesley. Charlotte and Bill went to talk to one of the miners that they saw there. They found out that no one had been out to check on the settlement, one of the boys had come to bring his father lunch and that was why he had been there and was sent to town to get help. Bill asked the way to the settlement and was directed to a trail and told that he couldn't miss it if he took the trail through the woods to the large clearing. Bill and Charlotte immediately headed to the settlement to check, both had a bad feeling about things. McGinty returned to help Rushman and the others. He had seen Bill and Charlotte ride off, but didn't say anything. He didn't like the way that Rushman treated Bill and he knew that Charlotte would want to check on the settlement.

Bill and Charlotte rode in silence. They were hoping that the settlement was fine, but they didn't know. Bill had a little knowledge of the area, and he knew that the settlement was near a bend in the river and it could be dangerous if there was a log jam or something like what had happened back in Hope Valley. They didn't know how far the settlement was, but continued to move forward. When they got to the clearing, they saw what was left of the settlement. It looked like several feet of water had ripped through the area. There were several spots where ground was missing and there was water standing. There were a few tent poles standing and debris on one of the edges, but that was about it. The field was covered in debris as well and you could see where the water cut through the field. Bill and Charlotte looked at each other and shook their heads. They knew that they had to look for anyone that might have survived, but they weren't hopeful. They rode across into clearing and then at one point, they thought that they heard a child crying. They stopped and tried to figure out what they heard. Charlotte was sure it was a child crying, but it was hard to figure out where it was coming from.

"Anyone there?" Charlotte called out. "We are here to help, but we can't see you."

It took a few moments and about five children emerged from the edge of the trees. Charlotte looked at Bill horrified. Both were thinking the same thing – what the hell happened here. The youngest was just an infant and the oldest couldn't have been more than seven or eight. Charlotte immediately jumped down off her horse and went to the children.

"Are you hurt?" Charlotte asked.

"No." The boy said. "We are hungry and the baby needs to be changed."

Charlotte knelt down to look at the children.

"Is there anyone else?" Charlotte asked.

"I don't know." The boy said, starting to cry.

"What is your name?" Charlotte asked

"My name is Adrik." The boy said. "Those two are Anna and Elena, they are twins. That is Ivan and this is Stefan (holding up the baby). It was my turn to watch them."

"Do you know what happened?" Bill asked as he joined Charlotte near the children.

"A few of us younger ones were playing in the trees." Adrik said. "I heard lots of shouting and then noise like sticks breaking. Then it was quiet. I didn't want to leave the others so I didn't come until you called us. Where is my mommy?"

"I don't know right now." Charlotte said. "How about we take you to get you something to eat and see if we can't find your mommy."

Charlotte pulled some jerky from her saddlebag and gave a piece to each of the older children. She then looked at Bill and didn't have to say a word. It sounded like a flash flood had swept through the settlement. As the children were eating, Charlotte pulled Bill closer.

"I will take the children back to the mine and will send a few men back." Charlotte said. "Start looking to see if anyone survived."

Bill just nodded, mounted his horse and started into the woods. Charlotte got a couple of the children on her horse and walked with the others heading back to the settlement. At one point she stopped and switched which kids were riding and which were walking. They got back to the mine and she went to McGinty and explained what happened. He just looked at her like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. McGinty went, grabbed Green and they headed toward where the settlement had been.

"Hey." Rushman yelled. "Where are you going?"

"Shut up and I will explain." Charlotte said. "Like I told Joe, Bill and I had rode out toward the settlement to see if everyone was okay and when we got there it looked like there had been a flash flood and then we found five small children alone. They had been playing up in the trees. Apparently, there was a small platform for them to play. One of the older boys was watching four younger ones. They were cold and hungry, so I brought them back here. I don't know if there are more people injured, so I sent McGinty and he took Green with him to help Bill look. Also don't start with me about your in charge. If you aren't willing to help innocent children then I have bigger problems with you then I do right now."

Charlotte turned and didn't give Rushman a chance to respond. She went over to deal with the children. She wanted to make sure that they were getting food and were warm. She took a shirt from her saddlebag and made a diaper for the baby. Once she got the children settled, she started asking the farmers if they had seen any of the people from the settlement. No one could remember when they had last seen them. Charlotte left the older boy in charge of the children and let them know that she would be back shortly. As she was getting ready to leave, another boy who was slightly older wandered over.

"Do you want me to stay with them?" Alec said. "My name is Alec and the girls are my cousins. I also know the boys."

"That would be great." Charlotte said. "I will be back shortly. Don't let them go anywhere."

"I won't." Alec said.

She mounted her horse and headed to the town. She sent a wire to Hope Valley to let Wynn know about the children, the settlement and that there had been twenty men in the mine with four confirmed dead and three rescued at that point. She was also able to get a few diapers and some milk to give to the baby. Charlotte also relayed to the mayor what they had found and to be on the lookout for anyone that came wandering into town. She explained that she was going back to the mine, but would send someone later to send more information to Hope Valley when they knew more.

At 4:45pm, people were starting to head to the little cemetery when Ned walked up and handed Wynn a message. He looked at it and saw that it was from Charlotte. They had arrived in Rock Creek and were headed to the mine. Wynn let Abigail know what he had learned. Ned had decided to stay back in town in case there was news from Rock Creek, but Abigail asked him to be there for the families. Some of the lumberjacks also stayed back. It wasn't that they didn't care, but they didn't know the men and they had work to do. The two widows didn't fault them.

At 5pm on the dot, Pastor Frank stepped up in front of the two caskets and addressed the crowd that had gathered. He spoke to the families and all that were gathered. He hadn't known the men, but that didn't matter. They deserved a proper funeral and that was what he was going to give them. Wynn and Dee were in the back with Abigail and a few of the other townspeople. Wynn was glad that the town of Hope Valley was able to do this for the families. He knew how much it meant to be able to say a proper goodbye. Wynn also wished that he had better news to give everyone, but he knew that he didn't. He had a bad feeling about Rock Creek. He just wondered how bad it was going to be. He also wished that he had more information about what the mine was going to do, but he knew that was coming.

The service was short and Pastor Frank ended it by leading the people in 'Amazing Grace'. When they were done, the men lowered the caskets. As the families and others headed back to town, Dee supervised to make sure that their graves were covered. He had assigned it to a couple of the men from town that had stayed back. They weren't happy about being tasked with the job, since they didn't know the men. Dee just reminded them that it was their Christian duty to help their fellow man. He told them that others would have done the same if it had been them that had lost their lives. Once the graves were filled back in. Dee and the four men headed back to town. Everyone was tired and knew that the next day was also going to be a long day.

By the time that Charlotte got back to the mine she saw Bill. She looked around and saw that McGinty and Green were still gone. She went to Bill to see what was going on, that was when she saw an injured woman that Bill was tending to. Charlotte went to see if she could help Bill. They were able to stitch up the woman and get her wounds cared for, but she had passed out. Bill was concerned, but Charlotte was going to give the woman a little more time. Charlotte left the woman to go care for the baby when she heard him crying again. She was able to get the baby to drink some milk and she rocked him back to sleep. The other children were curled up sleeping as well. They were probably exhausted. She felt bad for them.

Within the hour, McGinty and Green returned, but didn't find anyone else. It was about forty minutes later that the last man was pulled from the mine. There were a total of fifteen miners rescued. That meant that five had died. By that time, it was getting dark, Rushman wanted to move the men, but he was overruled by Bill, Charlotte, McGinty and Lee. Bill and Lee basically told Rushman that he could ride back to Hope Valley if he wanted, but they were not moving injured men at night. Rushman ended up taking off, Bill wasn't sure that he was heading back to Hope Valley or not, but he knew that he would be talking to Wynn about what happened. As they got settled for the night, Bill had McGinty get the list of men from Mr Annesley to confirm that all the men had been found and that the dead had been identified. Bill was also hoping to get the names of some of the people from the settlement. He didn't know how many families there were or who belonged to who. Charlotte was caring for the children. Green had been sent into town to send a wire to Hope Valley to let them know that they would be heading that way at first light with sixteen injured.

Bill and Lee looked around.

"I will never get used to this." Lee said. "I have seen logging accidents, but this is worse somehow."

"Was Silverton this bad?" Bill asked.

"Not really." Lee said. "More mud to move, but less destruction if that makes sense. Everyone was actually pulled out alive and only three were unconscious. One died on site and another later. And you know that no one at that settlement was injured."

"I still can't get the look of those children out of mind." Bill said. "I don't know what I would have done if Charlotte had not been here."

"I know what you mean." Lee said. "I guess according to Rosie, it was a complete surprise that she showed up. Jack wasn't expecting her and then when she learned what we were facing, she stayed."

"I, for one, am glad." Bill said. "She is one strong woman."

Lee nodded, he then patted Bill on the back and went to grab a bite to eat.