Contained Within.

The walls of the dank cave shattered into boulders with a CRACK! as rocks and debris collapsed around Kirstin. The dust of the ruined mine billowed around her head. Or whatever it was. It must be killing her. She was overcome by a fit of coughing, creating a spasm in her chest that brought her to her knees. "Tim!" She hollered hoarsely, but couldn't see her fiance anywhere. Her eyes filled with tears from worry and choking. Surely this rockslide indicated a collapse deeper in the tunnel.

This was supposed to be something fun, Tim had said, something that just the two of them could do. So much for that. It might have just gotten him buried under rubble for eternity. She looked around frantically, but it did no good. Nothing was visible. She squinted, trying to try to see light through the ongoing haze and as the dust settled, she looked for markings from their previous search. What was she told as precautions? She hadn't thought there would be an actual emergency! Coughing echoed nearby. She wasn’t alone after all! She scrambled toward the sound and bent over a hand that stuck out of the rubble. Kirstin grabbed the hand and pulled, which initiated a string of curses. This woman attached to the arm could only be their fearless leader. Kate had taken on the adventure of the mine as a last hoorah before leaving for college at twenty-seven, something she had put off for nearly ten years. And here she was, buried underground, never to see the light of day again. Kirstin ducked from flying rocks, dislodged by Kate’s angry tirade.

"They told us this was safe!” Kirstin whined. “They said they had gotten it checked out!" She sniffed in disgust, and wiped her nose, creating a giant smudge on her cheek from her dirty sleeve. Kate's silence was contempt enough and she turned to march through the cave, with Kirstin trailing reluctantly behind. Not the coddling type. Kirstin worked up the courage to ask, "Did all the rest..." She hesitated, knowing what the answer could mean for her fiance.

Kate didn't make eye contact in the faltering phone lights, but nudged her foot over a particularly difficult area of terrain. Her phone light flickered again, reminding Kirstin of a campfire. "Something like this is never certain, but most likely they were still caught on the other side of that bridge. Your fiance..."

"Tim."

She nodded. "Your fiance ran back to help that little kid--"

"Ramon."

"Right. So he was nowhere near the worst of it. We have a protocol for this, which is what?"

“Get out of the cave. Which means going up. And if we can't?" She knew her voice sounded like a broken record, but she couldn’t help herself.

Kate shook her head. "Girl, there’s no thinking like that. We will."

“How?” The desperation turned to irritation. This woman was so obtuse!

"Kirstin, it's a matter of using our head. Survival. Don't get impatient now. Our goal is to get out. That collapse was too grandiose to even allow us to think that we could dig through to the other side. We have to find an escape. We were on the inner portion of that landslide, so we'll have to be creative in finding a way back out. Breathe." Kirstin swallows, but her mouth just feels like a wad of dust has settled there permanently.

"Look around for anything we can find around here that will be useful to pry away at the rocks or that will lead to our escape."

"What? Here in this cloud of dirt? This is not fairy dust, you know." Just then, she spotted a reflection, and it wasn’t a rock. “Wait just a minute.” What she thought was a sharp object was just a piece of trash. A few steps farther in, Kate found a couple objects. She picked up random tools and rubble from time to time. "What got you into this job?" Kirstin attempted to change the subject, maybe get on her good side.

"My dad was killed." No other explanation followed.

"Oh, I'm sorry! In a mine collapse?" Another lame statement. But surprisingly, Kate answered.

"No. He was a bungee jump instructor. One day he was hiking up to their jump area and he slipped, fell too far, and died within minutes. It was terrible." Kirstin waited for the rest of the explanation. "Look, something like this." She held up the broken tip of a shovel, with the spade and part of a broken handle. "Much more useful than a spoon. Make yourself useful." She waved her off to the corner of the tunnel.

Kirstin laughed a little at her lame Shawshank Redemption joke and kept her eyes peeled for other tools they could use. "Shouldn't we stick together?" she attempted as they drifted farther apart.

"That’s what this is for.” She waved the shovel handle again. ”Doesn't matter. Whenever emergencies happen, we follow emergency procedures, yes, but our ultimate goal is to get everyone out alive. How it's accomplished is less relevant." Her next words struck Kirstin, causing her heart to nearly jump out of her chest. "It's your boyfriend who's in charge of his little group, whether he knows it or not. That mother with them is only concerned about her son, so Tod--"

"Tim."

"Tim has to be the one focused on getting them all out. I hope he has the brains for it."

"More than me."

Kate only utters one word, encompassing all Kirstin’s hope for ever seeing him again. "Good." Then another sound, like a cry and snarl wrapped up in a single, unearthly scream echoed hauntingly in the darkness.

Kirstin stumbled over to where she last heard Kate's voice. "Kate! Are you okay? Where are you?"

"Don't step closer." The voice came directly from below, relayed in an icy calm, stopping Kirstin in her tracks. She no longer saw the glow of her leader's phone light, so she waved hers in front of her face. Nothing. All was blackness. Just in front of her was a depression, a few feet wide. Somehow Kate wedged half her body in the rubble. She was bent over at an angle that betrayed exhaustion. But another sound, unmistakable and misplaced in this giant, subterranean trap bubbled up toward her. Laughter. Kate was laughing. She continued for several minutes before heaving a sigh and putting her forehead on her palm. It must have been a shock, Kirstin thought. Surely she was losing it.

Kate whispered in a voice that was unmistakable. "Get me out of here."

“Here. My hand is right above you.” She had to put her phone down to grab the woman, so the weak light didn’t help much. “That was my butt.” This started a second round of giggles before Kirstin was able to propel her weight to budge Kate. A scream startled Kirstin, and she assumed that a knee or ankle had been badly injured. “What is it?”

“My ankle. Think of something else!” Kate pushed at her. She scrambled back blindly through the weak beam from her phone, passing over the human to the rocks surrounding her. After a couple sweeps for any tool other than a rock, she barked, "Your backpack. Where is it?"

"Knapsack."

"Where IS it?" Everything in her wanted to scream at this stubborn woman. Here she was, stuck in a hole, and she was only concerned with giving orders. She pointed, and Kirstin marched over to the area. With some effort, she yanked the wedged knapsack from between the rocks and pulled out the broken shovel handle. Perfect. She dug around Kate's leg, careful to stay far enough away so as not to break any skin.

"That is going to take forever."

"Now who is impatient?" she retorted. "I don't have a spoon."

Just over an hour later, the women tumbled through the darkness, eyes peeled for any movement. They had to be getting closer. A vague flicker of green shot towards them and Kirstin yelled, “There! There!” punching Kate in the shoulder, who punched her back. They turned down the tunnel. A familiar voice yelled at her, and with a couple backhoes and many hands, the women emerged into the dry, night air. The little kid, Ramon, waved a keychain with a blinking, green light high above his head. Tim grabbed Kirstin with one hand and gave knuckles to the boy with the other.

“Good job, kid.”

He shrugged. “Green means ‘go’, right?”