Andrew and the Quest of Orion's Belt (Rise of the Fallen), Page 5

  Chapter Four

  Cave In

  Days of endless monotony and work followed the poor boys in the coalmines of Nookpot, until they could no longer distinguish one day from the next. Andrew had thought that he would soon be summoned away from the mines and taken to The Fallen One, as the Sontars had predicted. However it seemed that the Sontars had forgotten all about him. Perhaps, Talic and Freddie were right, perhaps he was just like everyone else. The longer he worked in the mines of Nookpot, the more he could not tell himself apart from anyone else there. His skin became dirty and dark, so much so that the soot obliterated the markings on Andrew’s neck, as well as the diamond marks on his hands, making him look like every other boy there. He felt very dark, miserable, dirty, and hopeless.

  On a gray dismal morning, Andrew awoke to a loud sound outside his tent. The earth rumbled, and then remained deadly still. Andrew looked around the tent, noting that Freddie and Talic were gone. A frightening thought hit him. They were still inside the mine working their shift. A sudden knowing fear ran through Andrew's mind.

  Andrew peered outside, a terrible gut-churning realization dawning upon him as a film of black coal dust settled over the camp, expelled from a collapsed mine.

  Freddie and Talic were in that mine. Everywhere was in chaos. Sontars were cracking whips, and crying out angrily, as slaves scattered. The Sontars herded the slaves that were trying to rescue the victims away from the collapsed pit, threatening to kill anyone who dared help them those still trapped beneath the earth.

  Andrew clenched his fists, feeling anger and heat rise to his cheeks. The poor slaves trapped in the pit would all die if not helped soon. Freddie, and Talic would die. Someone had to do something. Andrew quickly stole way from his tent, unnoticed in the chaos, and ducked into the narrow opening of the collapsed pit, in hopes of finding some survivors.

  Coal dust hovered around him, clouding his view. He coughed, holding his soiled shirt over his face. Then he pushed his way through broken boards and over mounds of fallen dirt. The pit stunk like wet coal and sulfur. Water dripped down from above, boards creaked, the earth groaned, as if threatening him of burial if he dared go any further.

  Andrew ignored all of it. Every day he had been trapped inside these mines. Every day he wondered if he'd get out. If he died, it didn't matter. If he lived it didn't matter. All he cared was to find some lost soul in the debris.

  "Talic? Freddie?

  No one answered.

  He made his way under fallen planks and over rocks until his way became completely obstructed by fallen earth and stones. There was no way he could dig through the mass of stones and earth by himself. All those poor slaves would die.

  Undaunted, he flung away stones and dirt, until his tired muscles ached and his skin was black. Still he pushed on, digging, and digging, willing himself on, until he collapsed on the heap of rubble, exhausted. He wanted to die, wanted the horrible world around him to disappear. Freddie and Talic were gone.

  There was nothing he could do. He was powerless against every obstacle. Didn't anybody care about all those poor slaves? Perhaps, he thought, the slaves trapped behind the rubble were better off, anyhow.

  Anger, frustration, and a creeping sense of despair, seeped in around him, saturating his soul with the desire to give up. He cried out for himself, and for all the poor buried souls beneath the soil that he could not save. Digging his fingernails into the earth, he wrapped his hands around a tree root, and pulled. The dangling tree root suddenly gave way at his touch. Andrew fell back, pulling the trees root with him, taking with it a cloud of broken earth and loose stones.

  He covered his head with his hands as earth and rocks crashed around him. When all became silent, he sat up, groaned, and brushed the dirt away, coughing as the coal dust settled. The tree's long roots that he'd held onto had mysteriously disappeared, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the cave walls.

  He stood slowly, and reached through the hole. “Hello?” His voice echoed eerily. The coal dust hung in the air like dark vaporous ghosts, frightening and ominous. After a long silence, something grasped his hand.

  "Andrew!" Freddie's voice called from behind the mound of earth.

  "Freddie?" Excitement surged through Andrew. He dug away at the hole, furiously until the small hole had grown in size enough for a person to fit through. Then, Andrew stood back, and watched in amazement as the Freddie and Talic stepped through, followed by a hundred other slaves who'd been trapped in the cave, fleeing from their death trap, like black bats from a crack in the wall.

  Andrew followed the slaves out into the light, feeling happy and joyful. The slaves had been saved. And he was not as powerless as he had first supposed.