“Hello?” Finally came back, almost an echo of my own voice. I swallowed and took a few more steps. The darkness in front of me was so thick the lantern didn’t light up more than a few feet in front of me. It was just more of the same tunnel, nothing to see.
“Is someone there?” I asked.
“I’m stuck,” the man’s voice came. He sounded drained, beyond tired. “I was climbing… please,” he begged. “Are you real?” He finally asked. His voice sounded faint, still far off. It echoed through the tunnel, bouncing off rock.
“I’m real.”
“Please, I need help. I’m stuck.” He repeated his earlier words almost in eerily perfection of the earlier tone. “Please, can you help me?”
“Yes, “ I responded, imagining a man wedged between rocks, the space too tight for him to get out. He must be in the dark, all alone. He could have been here for days. “We’ll help you. It’s okay now,” I said, hoping to bring him some comfort.
“We?” He asked, his voice almost too curious as if he were less tired than he originally sounded.
“Yes, I’m here with others. We can help you. Just hold on.” I started to shuffle back towards the cave.
“What’s your name?” He asked. I stopped and looked back into the blackness.
“Ava.”
“Ava,” he sighed in relief. I started to shuffle back towards the cave again.
“Please,” I heard called out. I stopped and looked towards the voice. I swallowed, chills on my arms. The dark tunnel stretched blindly in front of me. “Please, I’m stuck. I was climbing…” he repeated his earlier words perfectly. I shuffled backwards slowly, not taking my eyes off the darkness in front of me.
“Please.”
The sound of someone running made my heart lurk in my chest.Stomp, stomp, stomp. I was so concerned about the voice in front of me that I didn’t realize the noise was coming from behind.
Stomping was right behind me and then a body crashed into mine. I went down to the ground roughly, all the air knocked from my chest. The lantern fell from my fingers. My cheek bit into rough gravel and my escaping breath unsettled the dirt. Immediately, I dug my fingers into the ground and pulled, trying to drag myself away from the body half on top of mine.
A threatening groan, more animalistic than human, rasped out behind me. I kicked and pulled, stretching and turning. Hands wrapped around my calves and I was flipped on my back, my shoulder blades sharply nestled into the mine cart tracks.
Loren looked up at me, so much blood dripping down into his face it was slipping into his mouth. His teeth were bared and bloody. His ball cap had fallen off when he crashed into me. I tried to scream but only a rasp came out. No one was coming, at least not fast enough.
The lantern’s flame flickered dramatically as he began to crawl up my body. His eyes were wild and bulging. His gun was nowhere to be seen. He tried to fiddle with the knife holder but his fingers kept slipping off the pouch, unable to unbutton it. He grunted roughly in frustration.
I kicked at the ground, pushing my body upwards. He didn’t let me get far, sitting down on my legs and weighing me down. He huffed, his eyes closing. His body swayed and he had to prop himself with one arm as he tried to gain more strength.
His eyes tipped up to me and he snarled, wet blood staining his gums and between his teeth. Unless he fell over dead, I was going to die. Tears streamed down my face, my arms scratched at the dirt floor. My fingers bumped into something, the barest edge of something hard.
I sucked in a breath and tried to strain to grab it. My fingers wrapped around a wooden handle. Loren finally managed to pop the button on his knife holder. He smiled, dragging his tongue over his teeth, then spat blood. He had to swipe at his forehead and eyes to try and clear his vision of the smear of sweat and blood that ran in rivulets down his face.
He settled his fingers around the knife and everything inside me screamed. He lifted off my legs slightly as he pulled the knife above his head, ready to surge downwards towards me. I stretched to grab the wooden handle with both hands and then gave a raspy cry as I swung it like a club with all the strength I had.
My eyes widened as I saw I was holding a pickaxe and that it just sunk into the side of his head. He didn’t make any noise at all, just froze up. I slipped backwards, quickly dragging myself from under him.
Finally, he began to make some noise, a hiccuping stilted cough. He staggered to his feet and swayed to the side. The lantern light shone on the pickaxe sticking from the side of his head, where the open wound had been. His back smacked the wall of the tunnel. I looked at him with my mouth agape in horror.
I started to shift back towards the cave on the opposite side of the tunnel. Loren didn’t seem to notice. His vacant eyes were aimed forward and his mouth was strained open as he continued to make that horrible hiccuping croak. His hands finally moved upwards and he touched the handle of the pickaxe.
The breath rushed out of me as I saw him grab it two handed and begin tugging.
“Don’t,” I begged, my voice a wharbled mess. He either couldn’t hear me or didn’t care. He pulled the pickaxe from his head in a sickening slurp. It came out almost too easy, confirming it had slipped right into the open wound and buried in as deep as it could go. The pickaxe dropped to the ground and his eyes flipped up to me. His face furrowed in confusion and he stepped towards me, reaching out.
I writhed against the wall, grabbing at the rocky surface as I quickly stepped away. One step, two step--he walked like Frankenstein, barely in control of himself. The croaking noise wouldn’t stop either. He’d taken a moment to inhale but then the noise had come right back. I hated the sound. It grated at my nerves. I pressed my hands to my ears but it still wormed in my head.
He took one more step and collapsed. The sound finally stopped. The only noise now was my breath.
“I…” killed him. I swallowed thickly.
