"What's the square root of 200?" Liam asked, using a semi-flat edge. We have covered most of our uniforms in dirt, which had accumulated over many days.
"It's 14.12, I believe," Sophie answered, finishing drawing the last bit of the tunnel.
"Is there anything else you guys need to finish?" Ace asked, shining down the tunnel.
"No, that was that last question," Liam responded. "Are we done for today?"
"Yes, we are," I uttered, peering back down the tunnel, unnatural sounds coming towards us. "It is best we stop here, anyway. Any further, and who knows what we'll find down there?"
"Shouldn't we investigate it?" Sophie wondered. "I mean, whatever it is might be dangerous."
"Maybe, but we'll have to return our school stuff and take another break," I responded. "Let's count our blessings. The mines had stayed together this long. Whatever or whoever makes that noise could bring it down."
"Or not," Oliver told me. "You are all still in high school." "I know you're graduating in a year, but this is not the time to follow strange noises."
"Understandable," I respond sarcastically. "Though what would happen if we didn't follow it? Curses? Good luck? Death"
Oliver looks concerned and tells me, "Well two of those are highly probable, and the majority of this mine is still unmapped. You do know that, right?"
I looked back and slowly said, "Yess. That gives more reason to do so."
"Absolutely not," Oliver responded, looking like he is about to start panicking. "It does not give any more reason to do so. Why would you even think that?"
"The need to finish our job," I told him. "This temporary job. Don't you remember orientation? The job could end within a couple years, a year or never. Which option sounds better?"
"They said if we did the job properly, the longest this job could take could be a few years, but they did the minimum was two years," he sighed. "Anyhow, they never mentioned we had to keep the job once we were done, so we may or may not have to find jobs once this is over."
"Well, that is true, though I am going to see what created that noise. If any of you want to join that's fine. Plus, we can get more mapping done," I started walking down the tunnel with the flashlight.
Three of six stayed while the other half left for the day. Oliver, Sophie and I made an agreement that we would go for another half hour to map a bit and hope to find whatever created that noise. All that is known is that it seemed like it wasn't anything known to man, but it might be known, and we just never seen it before.
"Why aren't we working as much?" Sophie asked, seemingly trying to understand. She knows why, but like me, she likes to get more information.
"Because we have other things to do other than work," I responded, continuing to point the flashlight down the tunnel, where I noticed something. "Hey guys! There is something down there and it seems to be alive."
"What!" they yelled in response, looking around to find what I saw. All eyes were in the direction of the flashlight and the shadow that dared to scare them. That shadow did not seem human nor belong to any creature that we know of. A yell echoed throughout the tunnel, and then the sound of running became alive. Oliver had walked a couple of steps toward the sound, before what felt like a gust of wind blew towards us.
"Who's there?" Oliver yelled, shining a second flashlight down the tunnel. We had all huddled together in fear of what was down there. No reply.
"Should we continue?" Sophie asks, looking at the time. "There are still twenty minutes left."
"That was a fast ten minutes," I respond, looking at the ever-moving timer.
"We came this far," Oliver spoke up, "let's finish the job. If it gets any worse, we will turn back."
"Ok," Sophie and I agreed. Sophie is doing the best she can to draw the part of the tunnel a bit too quickly.
"Slow down," I whispered. "You're shaking."
Sophie had started to tremble, we all were. The next thing we know, there is ringing. A phone, my phone.
"Who is calling?" Oliver is asking, coming back and looking over my shoulder, staring at it. Quickly he picked up the phone for me and answered, "Liam what do you need?" He had asked Liam rather sternly. Sophie and I looked at each other, hoping to hear the conversation happening. I am rather wishful that mind reading does in fact exist and Sophie and I wouldn't have whispered, but the wishful thinking was cut short when Sophie grabbed my shoulder rather quickly.
"Eliza, look over there," she pointed to something down the tunnel, I don't know where.
"Where are you pointing?" I squinting to the area she was pointing towards which was basically the left side of the tunnel, where there was a small opening, The place we just mapped.
"There," she pointed the flashlight at something in the opening. It shined unusually bright, which shouldn't be due to the circumstances. "What is it?" She moved forward getting closer to the object, half covered in dirt. Oliver had walked farther back down the tunnel, still on the phone.
"Sophie."
"Yea?"
"What's taking you so long to pick up an object?"
"I'm not sure if it's dangerous or not." She crouches, examining what we see of the object. She attempted to brush off some of the dirt, letting us try to identify the object. Soon enough the object was in her hand. It was attached to a chain. "The symbol on this is weird."
"Must be a necklace from that town," I suggested, taking a closer look at it. "Or it is a Rosary. It looks similar but the symbol could suggest otherwise."
"We should bring it to the church when we leave," Sophie covered the item in a cloth, hiding it in her pocket. "On another note, have you seen Oliver?"
"No, not in the past couple of minutes," I answered as soon as Sophie's phone started ringing.
"Hello?" she said, a concerned look on her face.
"Hey," Oliver answered. " You guys need to come out of the mine. The higher-ups ceased the job for a couple of weeks."
"What do you mean?" we blurted out in shock.
"Some sort of training is going to take place," he explained. " hey said it was going to take a couple weeks to complete. Better hurry."
"Gotcha," Sophie responded. "See you later."
"So," I spoke up, "you're ready to head out now,"
"Yep," she answered, "but first the church."