What do you think?

[LaTanya Pattillo]

We had just reached the area in the mine where the last crew had been when we heard it-one loud BOOM. Resonating in the distance, it sounded like it was far away, but the vibrations radiated from within and created movement all around us.

“They did it!” Gaspar murmured.

“Did what Gaspar?” Beni asked, looking around and pointing the flashlight into the darkness behind me. Before Gaspar could muster his response, I felt a tug at my elbow. Beni’s expression changed from tired and curious to something unfamiliar. I have never seen it before. Whatever he saw in the distance worried him-there was fear in his eyes. “We gotta move now, Mo, NOW!” Beni yanked my arm as a low rumble gradually progressed into a heavy growl shaking the walls and the very floor that we were standing on.

We broke into an awkward sprint darting and dodging debris tat was beginning to fall, blocking our path. In what was seemingly one split moment the cool silent interior of the mine was becoming a crumbling mess.

“What’s going on?” I asked in between labored breaths. Even while we were moving, there was dust falling on my shoulders.

If they knew the answer, they couldn’t have heard me; the noise of the crumbling earth muffled my question.

I tried to keep my pace as Beni ran ahead of me guiding me closer and closer to the entrance. The rumbling of the earth in my ears made my head start to pound. Rocks and chunks of earth were falling around us, our air becoming thick with dust and soot. We maneuvered around huge boulders and stone the size of the moon barely missing our heads. Gaspar, who was in front of us, reached the opening first. I could see him hollering, but the ongoing thundering of the cavern behind us muted his voice.

Beni and I were silent but driven; evading rocks the size of fists falling from the top of the cavern. My heavy hiking boots no longer felt like lead shoes as I lifted them over the fallen debris in my path. Beni held onto me tightly, pulling me close as I lagged behind. The distance didn’t appear to be that long from the entrance to out space when w started in. But now, it was if we would never get to the light, obstacles flying and landing in our path as we ran.

Before I knew it, Bení was yanking me ahead of him, pushing me forward against the walls of the mine lifting me up by my behind. I had to plant my foot on a fat, jagged stone jutting out of the side of the wall to get my balance. Gaspar, sweating and terrified, reached down, his thin wiry arm grabbing mine and exhibiting a lot more strength then I would have imagined from such a thin extremity.

Between Gaspar grabbing me and Bení hoisting me, I was just barely through the mouth of the entrance.

“C’mon, I have you, Mocha. Hurry, Benito!” Gaspar yelled down behind me.

As I slid out, my arm scraped a ragged piece of rock jutting out of the entrance and my forearm snagged across a pointy piece of stone. The pain shot through me as blood gushed from the wide open wound. Gaspar grabbed me quickly, pressing his hand against the gash to stop the flow of blood. I snatched away from him to watch Beni whose hand I could see grabbing the black and silver granite rim of the mine. I reached my other arm down, and leaned in close to get a better hold on his massive forearm. I could see what had distressed him so when we were running. Behind him the walls of the cave were erupting, crumbling and diminishing at their sides.

For a brief moment I looked at him and our eyes met. And despite the urgency, despite the fact that the earth falling apart in front of us, he smiled at me. The most, handsome, loving and hopeful smile one could ever see. It is as if he was saying, “We’ll be okay” in an attempt to soothe me. I returned the gift, knowingly.

Suddenly, the earth outside where we were began to shift. Rocks and boulders were beginning to fall around us outside the cavern and Beni wasn’t completely out yet. He held onto my arm, but kept slipping back inside. Gaspar grabbed my waist and snatched me back, stepping up and extending his arm to Beni.

“Beni,” Gaspar yelled. “Hurry, hombre, you have to…”

Before he could finish, before my eyes, the entrance collapsed, throwing me backward, and knocking Gaspar a short distance beside me.

Beni never made it out.