The Reckoning of Wolf Mine

Alice kneeled on the frozen pond, skin burning with cold. She wanted to move, but couldn’t. A face rose from the water beneath the ice, and pressed against it, eyes wide. The face was hers with slight variations. Its lips moved but Alice heard nothing. Neither could she hear herself scream as she began to pound her fists against the ice.

The modified Toyota Landcruiser rocked as they made their way down the frozen dirt road. Alice looked about groggily, still halfway in her recurring dream. Kevin was driving, Bryant rode shotgun. Mattias was leaning against the other window pointedly staring at her. She stared back and he turned away. What should have been an hour drive had turned into three, slow and skittering over ice.

Mattias whistled. “We’re here. We’ll get to the aux shaft in ten minutes.”

Wolf Mine is a case study for the necessity of mining regulations. The first shaft was sunk in 1961; copper and gold poured out. When, in 1985, the ore was gone, Grey Eagle Mining left. With no requirement to do so, they left without any clean-up.

But Wolf Mine would not be forgotten. It seeped caustic sulfides that blighted the earth. The lakes and ponds nearby were a muddy red tea. The thick stands of boreal pines shuddered and admitted defeat—leaving bare dirt and sad scrub brush.

Among the skeletons of Grey Eagle Mining’s were derelict aluminum storage buildings and wind-swept staging areas. New activity had briefly emerged. ‘Wolf Mine Reclamation Project 2018’ was decaled on the sides of rectangular crew trailers. Digging equipment, dump trucks and other heavy machinery was staged in the camp. Enormous geomembranes, meant filter the sulfides from the water, sat like unopened condoms, unused in their storage containers. A steel barrel with a soiled pair of ‘Rescue’ coveralls sat, as if dropped moments before.

Mattias turned to Alice with a smile that told her that he was about to annoy her.

“Scared yet?

“I am not listening to another of your stories. If the fancy scientists on TV don’t know what happened, a meat-head like you doesn’t know shit.”

His grin only widened and Alice regretted engaging with him.

“This area is special for the Cree people around here.”

“Oh, an Indian burial ground, very cliché.”

“It’s Indigenous and way back in the day they would come looking here for a specific tool or some knowledge to help their people. If they were pure of heart they would return.”

Bryant, the lead geologist, turned in his seat.

“You’re as city as chai lattes and avocado toast. You don’t know about folks around here and their business.”

“I am Métis!”

“Don’t believe that bullshit, Ms. Alice. Those poor folks working down there hit a pocket of inert gas or carbon monoxide. They got disorientated and wandered way off then fell down a shaft. It’s tragic, but not magic.”

Alice turned to Mattias with a raised eyebrow. He held his shit-eating grin and picked up his radio.

“Twiggy come in.”

The fifth member of the team was a veteran driller named Sharon who somewhere down the line had become permanently ‘Twiggy’. The radio crackled back with feedback as all their radios looped on each other and Alice covered her mic and Bryant swore and switched to a different channel. The radio came back distorted as loud talk radio could be heard in the background from Twiggy’s end.

“Did you hear that? It sounded like fucking aliens.”

“Twiggy what do you think happened to the restoration project?”

“Oh….. definitely fucking aliens. Maybe a buried meteor or a stasis pod or something.”

Kevin pulled in and parked the truck by the auxiliary elevator. Alice saw him unbuckle his seatbelt and adjust the large buck knife he kept on his hip. He turned in his seat and looked over each of them. Then spat a wad of Coppenhagen into an empty can of coke.

“It doesn’t matter what happened. That two-faced fuck Trudeau sent those folks down there under false pretenses and that’s why whatever happened, happened. This so called ‘reclamation’ was just so he could use environmentalism as a smoke screen for laying a claim. You’ve seen the pictures. I’ve spoken to a man who’s seen firsthand, there’s gold down there. A huge fucking deposit that Grey Eagle missed. And it’s ours.

“Not the government’s? Or Grey Eagle’s or whoever?”

“We locate it. Wildcat drill from the surface at the opposite end. Claim it’s ours. Like in ‘There Will be Blood’.”

Alice had seen that movie and couldn’t see the bullnecked Kevin as Daniel Day Lewis. It didn’t matter though; her sister was down there. Still alive. She would find her and save her like she always did.

Once they arrived and unloaded, Kevin whistled, and they assembled in a semi-circle.

“Mattias you’ve been down there, so you’re up front with me. That leaves Bryant and Alice in the back with Twiggy running the elevator.”

Kevin nodded to Bryant who began to speak.

“Remember, people died down here. We find the deposit then we roll the fuck out of there.”

Twiggy exhaled a cloud of something and inclined her head.

“Why does city-girl get to go down there?”

“Because ‘city-girl’ has been an EMT in Vancouver for nine years and if shit goes down, I want her ready to save my ass. Besides she doesn’t know how to work the elevator.”

Mattias raised his hand and Bryant just looked incredulous.

“Seriously?”

“If this all goes well, wouldn’t we need like weeks to map it or something.”

“You let me worry about the Geology.”

Kevin cleared his throat and nodded.

“Last chance for questions or to piss your pants and chicken out.”

Alice stared down the elevator shaft as the cables turned and slowly descended them into darkness. She had no questions. She refused to leave room for them.

As the elevator finally came to a shaky stop, the headlights revealed the main tunnel of Wolf Mine. She’d tuned in and out of Kevin and Bryant discussing it. As a mine dug in the 60s it was narrower from a time when haulers and trucks were smaller. But it was still huge, gaping and empty except for them.

“Everyone look behind you, see that green light? That means that the elevator is there and good to go. If that light is red then you will drive into an empty shaft and fall into nothingness. If there is no light, we are fucked but that won’t happen. Twiggy brought plenty of fuel for the generator.”

Their high beams pierced the darkness of the tunnel ahead. Alice’s neck craned back and forth, waiting for a glimpse of Olivia’s auburn hair as the lights swept the tunnel.

The only sound filling the long stretch of tunnel was the low thrumming of their engine. The only light was the truck and the green lamps bolted sparsely along the tunnel. Green meant: main tunnel, blue was a refuge station, yellow was a side shaft and red was an incomplete tunnel.

“Red is dead” said Bryant, his voice huge now in the echo. Who knows why Grey Eagle hadn’t finished a particular branch-- gas pocket, unstable walls or a drilled shaft that would cave at the base suddenly, falling into thousands of feet of nothingness. Mattias said they’d searched maybe half the yellow tunnels and none of the red before they’d been forced to pull out for the winter.

Mattias pointed and Kevin grunted and pulled over. They parked by a blue light and switched on their headlamps.

“I left a cache of gear here.”

The refuge station was essentially a large cave with a hinged blast door that could seal it off from the rest of the mine. A green-yellow glow came from inside the dark room before the lights flicked on. Holes had been bored into the walls for an oxygen system. Racks of Culligan water containers lay against one wall. A large green cabinet with ‘Supplies’ stenciled on it was placed beside it. Against the East wall Bauer hockey bags filled with Mattias’s underground gear lay in a pile. Someone had spray painted in red on the wall ‘refuge station #1 clear’ with a large check mark.

Teams of highly trained and supplied rescue crews hadn’t found Alice’s sister. They’d left these bags in a dejected pile of failure. How was she supposed to search this vastness where they had failed? She saw Olivia clearly in her mind’s eye, crying out wordlessly, trapped under ice as Alice was inches away yet helpless to save her. She realized she’d been squeezing her hands into fists so tightly that her nails had cut into her palms. She took a deep breath. She heard Olivia’s laugh, an airy bell ringing far down the tunnel. Alice stared at the crew, but they were busy sorting through bags. She whirled around--sprinting into the tunnel.

It was dark. It was truly dark. Without the lights from the refuge station behind her she couldn’t not see even her hand in front of her eyes. She flicked on her head lamp and thought, swore that she saw something move. A flicker of something just at the edge of her beam. Then she heard a cry go out behind her. Suddenly her lamp was the only light there was. She was forced to turn around and head back into the station. Something moved at the edge of her vision. It was fast, like someone had slipped by her then just dodged to the edge of her light. She looked about till two more headlamps flicked on.

“What the fuck? Did the power fail?”

“Shit, the elevator.”

“Everyone calm down, it’s probably just Twiggy being late with a refill. I’ll try her on the radio.”

Without, thinking Alice stepped over to the hardline and lifted the receiver. There was a dial tone.

“The phone is working so we still have power.”

There was a collective sigh of relief. Alice dialed the surface anyway. It was one thing to know that the only way out of this place was a burnt out ex-hippy staying sober enough to top up the generator. It was another thing to feel that. After a five agonizing rings she heard the other end answer.

“Twiggy we’ve lost lights down here.”

“Lights? There’s lights all over here! They’re flying over me and they’re in the trees!”

“What are you talking about?”

“They’re out there in the trees, fuckers have come to abduct me and take me to their mothership. Don’t worry. I’ve got my 12-gauge and no fucking grey from Alpha-Centari is going to probe my ass!”

The phone clicked off, ending the connection. Alice turned to share the news that Twiggy had fucking lost it and they were trapped down here till she sobered up. But the others were gathered around the East wall. She joined them to see what they were looking at.

“Hey, Alice turn off your headlamp.”

She did and a green-yellow light glowed in the darkness. It had been crudely sprayed onto the walls. The phosphorescent spray paint looked fresh and splotchy as if a shaky hand had written it out.

“Don’t Listen. Don’t follow. They lie.”

Wordlessly Alice, Kevin and Bryant switched their lamps back on and looked at each other.

“What the fuck is this? Is this some kind of prank?” Bryant’s dark face stormed with anger and alarm. Kevin just shook his head and spat chew onto the ground.

“Let’s find this deposit and get the fuck out of here.”

“Guys, Twiggy is bugging out. She’s yelling about shooting aliens.”

“Fuck.”

“Where the fuck is Mattias?”

They cast about but the room was empty. The green-yellow paint and it’s warning were still there. Then the lights came back on. A lone mining helmet lay on the floor, headlamp cracked. Now the silence of the mine was deafening.

To Be Continued…