Read Online Eleven, Twelve ... Dig and delve (Rebekka Franck Book 6) by Willow Rose - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Willow Rose
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next to Afrim and his mother. There were no more body parts sticking out of the dirt. We had done what we could. We had saved a whole bunch of people. Now we were seventeen, I counted, including Brian and Thomas who had left, but would most definitely be back as soon as they realized the tunnel led to nowhere.
Among the rescued was the school’s librarian, a guy named Lars who also lived on the street at number thirteen, but had been pulled into the ground just after arriving at work at the school. There was a Mr. Bjerrehus, Afrim’s neighbor, he told us. There was a girl who was badly bruised. She told us her name was Malene, but other than that didn’t have strength enough to speak and tell us where she was from, since no one in here seemed to recognize her. We had also saved a guy named Michael West, who told us he was simply walking down the street when the ground caved underneath him. He didn’t know any of the others in the cave either, he said. I wondered what he was doing in the neighborhood at eight o’clock in the morning if he didn’t know anyone. But I didn’t ask. I was too exhausted. Besides Michael West, there was Benjamin, a young teenager and his mother Irene, a Kurt Hansen and his wife Annette and, finally, some guy who told us he was an engineer and that he had tried to tell the authorities for years about the possibility that the neighborhood could sink into the ground due to the erosion of the limestone underneath it. But no one would listen. He had been in the neighborhood this morning to drill samples up from the ground to determine the extent of the erosion when the collapse happened. His name was Kenneth Borges. He was a nice guy with chubby cheeks.
David sat next to me and leaned his head backwards. We stared at the dirt wall in front of us, from where we had pulled out so many bodies. I wondered how many more were still buried further in there.
Big parts of the wall had collapsed and the dirt took up a lot of space in the small cave. I stared into the deep hole that we had dug and wondered how long the big lump hanging free above it would stay in its place. If it came down on us, it would most likely bury most of us. I suddenly wondered if it had all been all in vain…digging out all these people just to get them crushed. Most of them were too weak to be able to move or dig themselves out again.
I closed my eyes and tried to picture myself with my family again. How badly I missed them now. How badly I regretted having gone away for the weekend. What if I never saw them again?
“So, what do we do now?” David asked. He was getting weary too. We had used all of our strength digging these people out, and now we were running out of air. I looked into the tunnel and wondered where Brian and Thomas had disappeared to. David and I had come in that way, and I knew it was a dead-end. Why hadn’t they come back? Could they have found another way? A way leading out, maybe? They were, after all, mine tunnels. They were connected to something, right? Maybe we had missed something on our way? No, it was impossible. Were they just hiding in the other cave? The one David and I had been in? Just to stay away from us?
“I don’t know,” I sighed.
There was a lot of coughing and moaning among the rescued people. I had no idea how they were supposed to survive, how I should keep them alive. Or even how I was supposed to stay alive down here.
“I guess we wait and pray that they’ll start digging for us soon,” I said with a deep exhale. I felt an urging craving thirst sucking me dry from inside. At this point, I would have done anything for a sip of water.
David leaned back his head and closed his eyes. He went silent. I knew why. We didn’t have to speak to know what the other was thinking.
There was no way they would make it in time.
23
T HEY HAD BROUGHT in all the heavy machinery, but hadn’t started using any of it yet. Instead, engineers were discussing how to approach it.
Among the rescued was the school’s librarian, a guy named Lars who also lived on the street at number thirteen, but had been pulled into the ground just after arriving at work at the school. There was a Mr. Bjerrehus, Afrim’s neighbor, he told us. There was a girl who was badly bruised. She told us her name was Malene, but other than that didn’t have strength enough to speak and tell us where she was from, since no one in here seemed to recognize her. We had also saved a guy named Michael West, who told us he was simply walking down the street when the ground caved underneath him. He didn’t know any of the others in the cave either, he said. I wondered what he was doing in the neighborhood at eight o’clock in the morning if he didn’t know anyone. But I didn’t ask. I was too exhausted. Besides Michael West, there was Benjamin, a young teenager and his mother Irene, a Kurt Hansen and his wife Annette and, finally, some guy who told us he was an engineer and that he had tried to tell the authorities for years about the possibility that the neighborhood could sink into the ground due to the erosion of the limestone underneath it. But no one would listen. He had been in the neighborhood this morning to drill samples up from the ground to determine the extent of the erosion when the collapse happened. His name was Kenneth Borges. He was a nice guy with chubby cheeks.
David sat next to me and leaned his head backwards. We stared at the dirt wall in front of us, from where we had pulled out so many bodies. I wondered how many more were still buried further in there.
Big parts of the wall had collapsed and the dirt took up a lot of space in the small cave. I stared into the deep hole that we had dug and wondered how long the big lump hanging free above it would stay in its place. If it came down on us, it would most likely bury most of us. I suddenly wondered if it had all been all in vain…digging out all these people just to get them crushed. Most of them were too weak to be able to move or dig themselves out again.
I closed my eyes and tried to picture myself with my family again. How badly I missed them now. How badly I regretted having gone away for the weekend. What if I never saw them again?
“So, what do we do now?” David asked. He was getting weary too. We had used all of our strength digging these people out, and now we were running out of air. I looked into the tunnel and wondered where Brian and Thomas had disappeared to. David and I had come in that way, and I knew it was a dead-end. Why hadn’t they come back? Could they have found another way? A way leading out, maybe? They were, after all, mine tunnels. They were connected to something, right? Maybe we had missed something on our way? No, it was impossible. Were they just hiding in the other cave? The one David and I had been in? Just to stay away from us?
“I don’t know,” I sighed.
There was a lot of coughing and moaning among the rescued people. I had no idea how they were supposed to survive, how I should keep them alive. Or even how I was supposed to stay alive down here.
“I guess we wait and pray that they’ll start digging for us soon,” I said with a deep exhale. I felt an urging craving thirst sucking me dry from inside. At this point, I would have done anything for a sip of water.
David leaned back his head and closed his eyes. He went silent. I knew why. We didn’t have to speak to know what the other was thinking.
There was no way they would make it in time.
23
T HEY HAD BROUGHT in all the heavy machinery, but hadn’t started using any of it yet. Instead, engineers were discussing how to approach it.
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