Alice texted back:Should be at your location in a few minutes.
Katie stood staring at the dark hole, straining to hear anything over the wind. Counting the minutes down on her watch, wondering if Josh could send a text inside that shaft.
Leaves crumpled behind her and instantly Alice appeared with Clint at her side. “Any luck?”
She shook her head. “They’ve been in there for almost ten minutes…” A low rumble echoed from somewhere inside the mine and Katie’s head snapped around. The ground beneath her feet vibrated, followed by a sickeningCRACK.
“Josh!”
No answer, followed by a roaring rumble. Plumes of dust and smoke billowed from the entrance.
“Oh my God!” She ran forward, but Raider blocked her path, his body a wall. “Josh!”
No answer. Rocks slid down the canyon wall, burying the entrance in a pile of rubble and timber.
This time Alice screamed, her voice tumbling over Clint’s and Katie’s. “Josh! Josh, answer me!”
The three ran toward the pile. Coughing, she and Clint clawed at the rocks with bare hands. Alice had the sheriff on the phone calling for more help. Luke may or may not be inside, but now they had Josh and Brady to rescue.
Alice’s next call was to her son Carson. “We’ve had an accident.”
“I heard. Sheriff already called. Hardware store is on their way with lumber. Keep everyone away until I can get there and shore the shaft up. If it’s the one I’m thinking, that sucker is probably held up by beams turned to dust.”
Katie didn’t care what she’d overheard, she was not stopping. She had to reach Josh. He had to be okay.
Within minutes, organized chaos ensued. Men brought two-by-fours from the trucks. Carson barked orders about load-bearing rocks. People were carefully pulling debris away, but every time they moved a stone, the earth groaned. And then…CRACK.Another plume of dust shot out.
“Get back! Everyone back!” Carson roared.
The rescuers scrambled away as more rock shifted. Katie stood frozen, her eyes fixed on the pile of rubble that had become a tomb. She felt a hand on her shoulder. Alice stood at her side, her face white as a sheet, but her grip solid.
“He’s okay,” Alice whispered, though her voice shook. “He has to be.”
Katie leaned into the older woman, watching the dust settle. A bitter thought clawed at her throat. Josh had survived multiple tours in the sandbox. He had survived IEDs and ambushes. She didn’t want to think how that’s the way it always happened. Good men survived multiple deployments to war zones only to trip on a bar of soap and crack their skulls open. She reached down blindly to scratch Raider’s ears, needing the comfort of the animal. Her hand met empty air. Katie looked down. The leash was trailing on the ground. “Raider?”
She spun around. “Where’s Raider?”
The frantic energy of the rescue site paused. One of the men working on the lumber supports stretched out his arm. “The gray dog? He bolted that way a minute ago. I thought he was chasing a rabbit.”
Without thinking, she grabbed a flashlight and ran in the direction the hand pointed. If she couldn’t dig out Josh and Brady, she was damned if she was going to lose Raider. Hurrying through the tall grass, pushing any fears of snakes out of her mind, she searched for any sign of the newly missing dog. Exhaustion and desperation taking over, she slowed, came to a stop, leaned over, her hands on her knees, her eyes closed as she gathered the strength to keep going. Fighting back tears, she sucked in a deep breath, straightened her back, and looked to the sky. “Oh, Josh.”
“You rang?”
Spinning around to where the deep voice came from, she found Josh covered in dust, cradling a small boy against his chest, with a dog seated at either side of him.
She didn’t dare move. If this was a dream, she didn’t want to break the spell.
Of all the times Josh had been caught in a less than positive situation where he had thought he was surely going to buy the farm and meet his buddies in heaven, being trapped in a collapsing mine had definitely moved to the top of his list. Never had he been so happy as to see Raider inching toward them from the opposite direction, or happy that he’d followed the smart dog.
Only when he heard Katie calling his name to the heavens as he reached the light of day, did it truly sink in that this time, he was not going to die.
Standing in front of him, mouth open, hands clasped in front of her, Katie wasn’t moving, wasn’t speaking.
Zipping around him, Raider bolted to where she stood and wiggling around like a dog much younger and healthier than him, he barked at Katie.
Down on her haunches, she blinked, pet the scruff of the dog’s neck, leveled her gaze with Josh and slowly opened her mouth. “You’re real.”
“Last time I checked, yeah.” Now, he stood in front of her. “I hope that’s okay.”
