Slip and Slide Page 16

  “We can get out here if ya want. This is where we found Joe Wilton and Roy Laurie,” Haney said.

  They climbed out of the battery-powered mantrip and Haney handed them all high-powered flashlights from under the bench seat where he’d been sitting. The additional illumination lit the whole place up. Thayne was surprised to note that the height of the roof was about twelve feet and appeared to have been carved out of the mountain with some sort of machine because of the irregular markings that looked like they’d literally been scraped with something. The roof had a geometric grid where something had been punched into it in places and then metal straps were connected between bolts. It was laid out like a checkerboard.

  “Are those the roof straps like the one the miner was going to cut with the acetylene torch when the explosion happened?” Thayne asked, pointing at one of the flat metal bars attached to the ceiling.

  Jarrett grunted. “Yeah, those are roof straps. There’s a special machine the miners use to fasten the straps to the roof.”

  “Wow. So just those are the only things holding up the mountain?” Thayne suddenly sensed his mouth go dry and he felt Jarrett’s hand at the small of his back. He leaned close to speak in Thayne’s ear.

  “You doin’ okay, darlin’? We can go back. Ain’t no shame in it,” Jarrett whispered.

  Thayne felt a lot like a pussy but just the thought that the entire mountain was being held up by some metal straps had him terrified when he stopped to think about it.

  “Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it,” he muttered to himself like a mantra as he tried to take slow deep breaths. He knew if he thought too hard, he was going to start hyper-ventilating and pass out so he concentrated on the weight of Jarrett’s strong hand on his back and the warmth of his breath as he leaned close. He closed his eyes, breathing in Jarrett’s scent as he tried to push down the sensation of being trapped. When he opened his eyes and stared into Jarrett’s concerned ice-blue eyes, he felt safe in a way he couldn’t explain.

  Jarrett smiled at him in the dark. “Come on. Faster we move, faster we’re outta here and ya don’t have to come back.” Jarrett encouraged him to continue on, distracting him by explaining how the roof is scraped out with a large machine that makes the tool marks they’d seen. As he shone his flashlight in front of the personnel carrier, he realized why.

  A massive machine, the likes of which Thayne had never laid eyes on, was positioned along a wall in front of them that seemed to be where the mineshaft terminated. It looked like a bulldozer or the battery-powered scoop but it was bright orange, covered with coal dust, and instead of the scoop, the front had four massive wheels with huge steel teeth on them. The wheels were positioned up toward the ceiling, and from the machine tool marks on the roof that he was observing, he could see it was the machine that had made them. It was apparently used to dig out the walls and ceiling of the mineshaft as it moved forward.

  “That’s a continuous mining machine,” Jarrett said. He turned to Haney. “Is this the machine where the conveyor chain needed replacing?” he asked.

  “Yep, they didn’t have the right size so Harlan Sizemore left the other two men down here before the explosion and started to walk back to the surface. When the explosion happened, he was almost free of the mine but became disoriented when smoke overwhelmed him. We found Joe and Roy here. Was a damn shame these boys died before we could get to them.”

  “So, Joe and Roy couldn’t get out after the explosion?”

  Haney shook his head. “They donned their protective gear but when we found ‘em we had to dig ‘em out.” He walked over to two piles of debris and timbers which had been used to shore up the collapsed wall. “This is where they was blocked off from the rest of the B Left section. Unfortunately, they ran out of air, dyin’ from carbon monoxide poisoning before we could get to them. These tanks don’t hold much oxygen and they may have panicked, using it up faster. By the time we figured out where they was and got to them, they was already passed on and couldn’t be revived.”

  “So you knew where they were supposed to be, right? I mean after the explosion, you didn’t have to start searching through the whole mine for them?” Thayne asked. He was ignorant of mine procedures.

  Haney nodded. “Yeah. A couple of boys was changin’ a tire on the mantrip parked outside and they knew where the others were goin’ before they headed down. The shift foreman always leaves a plan in the mining office before the start of the shift. The men outside called for rescue as soon as they heard the explosion. Smoke and debris belched out of the mine and they knew what it was—either a collapse or an explosion—or worse, both. Turns out, it were both.”

  Thayne exchanged another glance with Jarrett. Mining was a truly difficult and dangerous business and the more time he spent with the miners, the more compassion he had for them. His partner must have agreed because he looked pretty grim. Seeing him standing with Sales and Lafford listening to Haney made Thayne grateful for their expertise. If he was going to be trapped down in a mine—and he hoped that would never happen—he realized just how much he was going to have to rely on his companions. No wonder they called themselves a brotherhood.

  “We didn’t realize there had been a collapse until you told us. We just figured they got disoriented from the carbon monoxide,” Lafford said.

  “Well, you asked me what killed ‘em. I suppose technically it’s because they got trapped and couldn’t get out, but a doctor would say it was carbon monoxide then suffocation. Anyway, they were dead by the time we got to ‘em and what you call it don’t make it any less so.” Haney sounded frustrated as hell as he wiped his eyes which had begun to tear up.

  Thayne realized his gruffness and attitude truly was grief for the loss of his miners, miners he’d been charged with keeping safe, and probably miners he thought of as friends and brothers. His heart went out to Haney.

  “The explosion must have been strong if it collapsed this portion of the mine,” Jarrett said.

  “The worked out portion of the mine ain’t too far outby,” Haney said. “This part of the mine would have had a hell of a shake ‘cause the explosion was a big one. Y’all will see when we get there.”

  “If that’s all you need to see here, let’s go check that out,” Sales said, looking at the two of them. In the dim light, the agent was looking pretty green and Thayne felt a little better for being so freaked out about being down there.

  Thayne nodded. “Yes, thank you. We really just wanted to get a feel for where it all happened.”

  They climbed back into the battery-powered mantrip and backed straight out of the shaft. The carrier was too wide to turn them so the miner who was driving simply put it in reverse and backed them out into the central mineshaft before turning and driving deeper into the mine. Thayne noticed that they were descending at a steeper angle than they had been before. The stink of burned coal was becoming stronger the deeper they went into the mine; the walls seemed to be getting darker. He realized that the smoke from the fire after the explosion had actually stained the gray walls to a dark charcoal and they were becoming even blacker the farther they drove. It was utterly eerie. He leaned close to Jarrett.

  “This is downright creepy.”

  Jarrett’s eyes appeared even lighter in the dim artificial light of the mine. He nodded, his face serious and the set of his jaw, grim.

  “Yeah, it’s pretty freaky if ya ain’t used to it. I been in a few mines but never in one where there was a fatality until now. It’s fuckin’ depressing.”

  The mantrip suddenly slowed down and came to a halt. There was nothing but mine shaft in front or in back of them and Thayne swallowed hard as a little niggle of fear shot through him. He looked at Haney.

  “Why did we stop?” Lafford asked. His voice wasn’t panicked but it shook with concern they were probably all feeling.

  “The ground is littered
with debris from here on out so we’ll have to take the rest of the trip on foot. It’s only about thirty-five feet more,” the manager replied.

  They got out of the mantrip and followed Haney. Thayne was only slightly surprised when he felt Jarrett tug on his sleeve, pausing them from following Sales and Lafford. He looked at him. “Everything okay?” he asked.

  “Just stay close to me,” Jarrett said. His voice was pitched low so the other men couldn’t hear and the fact that he spoke to him so intimately among these strangers felt right.

  He nodded his head. “Okay, Jarrett. You got it.” As Jarrett turned to walk away, Thayne stopped him with a hand on his forearm. Jarrett turned to look and Thayne leaned close. “Thank you, baby,” he whispered, offering a tiny smile.

  Jarrett returned the smile and gave him a quick nod before they continued on their way.

  ****

  They used their flashlights and the cap lights on their hats to make their way to the site of the explosion, stepping over and around fallen debris. They finally came to one area where they had to scoot through a space that had obviously been dug out by the miners after the explosion happened. It was only wide enough for one man to go through at a time and it freaked Jarrett out a little bit. He began to chant a silent prayer in his head. Somehow when he joined the ATF, he didn’t think he’d ever be going down into a mine again. It really never occurred to him that a mine explosion would be within his purview when he’d accepted the ATF badge. It wasn’t like there were any coal mines in southern California, though there were some gold mines out in the desert, and he’d sat through a lecture on explosives used in mines during his ATF training in Georgia, most of which he was already familiar with.

  Thayne was doing better down here than Jarrett thought he would, having never been in a mine before. Thayne had told him that he’d never been in one and after the experience here in rural West Virginia, he might never have to go down in one again. He had to hand it to his partner; Thayne was being remarkably brave even though every time Jarrett studied his body language and the look in his eyes, he could tell his partner was freaking out just a little bit. To his credit, Thayne kept it all inside but they would be talking about it when Jarrett got him alone. All of the new experiences they’d been exposed to since coming down here must have been doing a hell of a number in his head if it was also affecting Jarrett the way it was.

  Jarrett had to stop to think about that for a minute. For many years, Jarrett had learned how to compartmentalize so much shit because of what he did, he wasn’t used to examining his feelings. Since meeting Thayne, from the first time they started talking about personal things, like what had happened to him when he was undercover with Mills Lang, Jarrett had realized that maybe there’d be a way to open himself up without fear of judgement. His partner offered him that safe place. He’d already told him things he shouldn’t have, like the fact that he’d worked some highly classified missions for Uncle Sam and even the fact that he’d done some off the books work he wasn’t proud of; opening up his heart was the one thing Jarrett never thought he’d do but Thayne made it easy.

  With Thayne, all of Jarrett’s carefully constructed walls had begun to crack and he’d let a little bit of himself come through. He didn’t want to let it all out in a rush and he was pretty certain that would never happen. If it did, and Thayne found himself downstream when that dam broke, his lover was going to find himself washed away on a sea of decay because what Jarrett had stored behind those walls was toxic. Jarrett was an assassin and a murderer. The things he’d done in the line of duty had been unimaginable and he had felt himself rotting from the inside out for so long, some days he couldn’t remember anything else but the bad shit. He shook away thoughts of the past because if he didn’t, he wasn’t going to be any use to Thayne or the other men with him. Jarrett did as he’d always done in the past. He stuffed down those feelings and shored up those walls with everything he could.

  They squeezed through the tunnel the rescuers had made to get their brothers out and then popped out into a space which surprised even Jarrett. The sealed portion of the mine was no longer sealed and there were no working artificial lights in the area, probably destroyed when the explosion happened. But when Jarrett and the others shone their lights at the seals to see the damage, the worked out portion of the mine was clearly visible beyond. The stink of methane was very strong in this area and the debris field was tremendous. The size of the explosion must have been massive because a hole the size of a truck was literally blown out of the area where the seals had been built out of a material Jarrett was familiar with, Omega 384 blocks. The blocks resembled concrete blocks. They were used in mining because they met MSHA standards for underground mine seals, impermeable to air, and wouldn’t support combustion. The area around the seals was littered with broken and blackened blocks. He glanced at Haney who was looking down at the methane meter.

  “Readings high?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Don’t have more’n three or four minutes before we gotta get out of here,” the safety officer drawled. He didn’t sound nervous, simply cautious.

  “This must have been where the men died,” Thayne said. He’d walked over to the far wall which was about twenty feet from where the seals had been and was shining his light on the wall of the mine.

  Jarrett and the others joined him as they all shone their lights around. There was blood smeared along the wall in a large swath of about two feet, in a vertical pattern. The man who made it must have literally been blown back against the wall with crushing force to leave that much blood. There were puddles of it on the ground and dried droplets which would have fallen when the miners were carried out. The scorch marks all over the wall told a horrific tale of fire and Jarrett prayed the miners had died immediately. Thayne had predicted the scene correctly. It was a horrible way to die and the whole place stunk of death, a scent Jarrett was intimately familiar with.

  “We found Darby Odum against this wall,” Haney said, “and Kevin Arlington about ten feet further.” He pointed at the area where they’d found Kevin. “He was the shift foreman.”

  There was an acetylene torch lying on the ground where the man would have fallen. The ground was covered in footprint tracks from the rescue party. The entire area was littered with debris, fallen and blown apart rocks, metal roof straps bent into wild angles, and coal dust and dirt everywhere. Haney took out a kit and bent to pick up pieces of some of the rock right at the seals, putting them into plastic Ziploc bags and stuffing them into the kit when Thayne walked up.

  “Do you think they checked the methane meter before they started the torch?” Thayne asked.

  Haney looked pensive. “I sure as hell hope they would ‘a been smart enough to do that but when we found them, Kevin’s meter was goin’ off but it was still in his pocket. The MSHA inspector don’t think he checked the levels before firin’ up the torch and they both paid for it with their lives.”

  “You think we can take a scraping from the wall?” Thayne asked.

  Haney’s face screwed into an angry mask. “Scrapings? With what? I’m guessin’ a pocket knife or some shit. I suppose you think setting off a spark down here is a great idea, right?”

  Jarrett bit his lip as he watched Thayne flush bright red with embarrassment. He felt only a little sorry for him. He’d walked right into to that one.

  “We used battery-powered vehicles down here for a reason, city boy. No spark plugs,” Haney said, shaking his head.

  Haney’s methane meter began to sound a shrill beeping and Jarrett turned to look at him. “Time to go?”

  “Let’s get the hell out of here,” Haney said. He reached into the kit he carried with him and pulled out the blackened rock he’d just bagged and put in there. “I just collected this to test but if you want, I’ll give it to you so you can have it tested. Residue from that’ll tell ya anythin’ a scraping would, includin’
the concentration of methane present in the atmosphere at the time of the explosion.”

  Thayne shook his head. “Thank you. You keep it. I’d love to see the results from your tests once they’re done.” He refused to glance at Jarrett, probably feeling foolish.

  Haney replaced the rock and simply looked grim but he was determined to be a leader and he herded them toward the opening tunnel where they’d come through just a few minutes before, bringing up the rear. His methane detector continued to make a high-pitched whine the entire time. As soon as they’d all gotten to the other side, Jarrett breathed a literal sigh of relief. The smell of methane was greatly reduced in this area.

  “I think we’re done in here today,” Lafford said. The meter was still beeping.

  “I think you’re right,” Thayne said, looking at Jarrett miserably. “I’m more than ready to get the fuck out of here.”

  Lafford and Sales seemed to feel the same because the walk back to the mantrip was quick, or so it seemed. The driver was waiting and as soon as they were inside, he started the battery-powered personnel carrier and headed up to the surface as Haney’s methane detector finally stopped beeping.

  Thayne sat quietly beside him. They were all subdued in fact, ready to find some fresh air. Jarrett couldn’t wait. He honestly couldn’t believe that he’d survived working down in the mines as long as he had. He’d gone to work there in his last year of high school. The Wallaby 2 mine had been a larger operation than the Red Hills Mine and there were more miners and machines but it was still a coal mine no matter how you sliced it. Large or small, they were dangerous, dirty, and downright nasty places. He never wanted to go down into one again.