The shuddering vibrated through his hands. It felt like an earthquake.
He’d experienced a number of them during his time in California, but there was something about this that just didn’t sit right with him.
One particular time he was half a mile underground, exploring a cave system when a quake struck. That was more violent than this one, but the roar of moving earth and air beneath made it seem like the hole was alive and devouring anything within its gullet.
He wondered then that if Luke were indeed down there, he’d likely have gone lower as the hole continued to sink.
“Charlie, what’s happening down there? Are you okay? Over.” Pippa said over the radio. He looked up to see her face poking over the edge.
Taking one hand away from the groove to depress the radio he replied, “I’m fine, the hole has sunk further I think. I’m going lower. And stand back. I don’t want you falling in. It’s hard to tell how safe the ground is around here. Over.”
“The camera showed the basin of the hole fall away,” Pippa added. “There’s a shelf of some kind not far below, I think Luke’s there. We can see a coat among the dirt. Over.”
“I’m heading down right away. Over.”
It took a few minutes of descending down into the darkness until he found the shelf. The material was solid rock, jutting incongruously out of the sides of the hole. The edges were smooth, rounded, almost as if something had shaped them that way for some unknown purpose.
Letting the ropes dangle a further twenty feet below the shelf, Charlie crouched down and looked over the side, shining his flashlight into the gloom and pointing the camera down.
Something shined beneath the light.
A piece of fabric.
It moved.
“Luke? Is that you? Can you hear me?” Charlie shouted. He cupped his ear, waited for a response, but could only hear a low subterranean rumble and his own pulse.
“I think I’ve found him. Over.”
“Is he alive? Over,” Pippa said.
“There was movement; I’m going closer. Hold on. Over.”
Charlie turned his back to the hole and repeated the abseiling procedure and back off the ledge, letting the rope rest with a notch on the edge of the ledge. He zipped down the rope and stalled his progress a foot above the mound of dirt and debris.
The rumble continued from below.
He tried to ignore the idea that it sounded like some great beast, its maw open just waiting to swallow him whole. Tentatively, Charlie placed his feet on patch of soil and tested his weight.
It seemed solid enough.
Luke’s blue windbreaker stuck out of the soil, his arm and hand held up, the fingers moving. Charlie reached down and grabbed his hand, traced his body until he found his head cocked to one side, half-buried in debris. Charlie cleared some of the soil and turf away from the kid’s face. His eyes were open and glinted with recognition beneath the flashlight.
“I’m here, buddy,” Charlie said. “We’re gonna get you out. Can you move? Is anything broken?”
“I… don’t know,” Luke said, his voice barely a whisper, the weight of the soil on his chest making his breath in shallow breaths. “I thought I was going to die…”
“It’s okay, buddy, don’t talk, conserve your strength. I’m going to help get you out and put this harness on. You’ll be lifted out of here. You’re going to make it. Just squeeze my hand if I hurt you, okay?”
Luke nodded gently and squeezed his hand.
Before Charlie started excavating him from the debris, Charlie informed the others. He could feel the relief over the radio.
“Okay, I’ll go slow,” Charlie said as he lowered himself until he straddled the boy. With his free hand he started to shift the clods of earth from around the boy’s arms and legs. He made quick progress. But Luke hadn’t moved a muscle.
Paralysis, Charlie thought. He could have broken his back.
For a brief moment he wondered if it was such a good idea getting the harness on him, but with the rumbles getting louder beneath him he didn’t think he’d have enough time to get an EMT down here to assess him properly.
Charlie made a judgment calclass="underline" he’d get the kid out and worry about the rest later. It was better he took him out alive and injured than leave him to die.
“I’m just going to let go of your hand for a moment, buddy. I need to get this harness on you. Just nod or make a noise if I’m hurting you.”
Luke did just that, nodding and making a breathy squeaking noise that sounded like, “Do it.”
Each moment felt like a lifetime as Charlie worked on freeing the boy. He could feel the vibrations of the rumble below travel up his legs.
Five minutes later, or what felt like five years, Charlie had managed to clear enough debris from him that he could slip the harness over Luke’s legs and waist. He attached the ropes and various safety gear and applied tension to test the connections. It was solid.
Luke didn’t budge or make a noise.
“Can you grip the rope,” Charlie said, handing it to him.
The boy’s grip was weak, but he’d only need it to stop himself from falling backwards as they hoisted him up.
“Good lad. This might hurt, but it’ll only be for a short while and you’ll be back on the surface. Try and keep hold of the rope as they lift you up, okay?”
“Okay,” Luke said. “Thank you.”
Charlie stood back and reached for the 2-way radio, readying to call up to the others. But the surface beneath him rocked and shook, making him drop the radio.
He lost his balance and fell backwards, cracking the back of his head against the rocky surface. He slumped forward as pain bloomed in his skull, making him see white flashes.
Before he knew it, the dirt below dropped away in a roar that made his ears pop. The pressure changed, and below him, watching in horror, the remaining debris fell away into a dark void.
The harness gripped around his legs and waist as he swung out, his weight making the rope twang with the sudden tension.
Luke yelped as he too tensioned against his rope. His grip failed him, and he fell backwards, his limbs flailing. The harness held him to the rope, but his eyes flashed wide with sudden terror.
“Oh shit,” Charlie said, “Hold on Luke, I’m coming.”
A twist of his body, and pushing off against the hole, Charlie sent himself swinging out to the center of the hole, reaching out for Luke. He grabbed him by the arm and helped lifted him upright.
“Grab the rope,” Charlie said as he helped direct the kid’s hands. “Are you hurt?”
“I can’t feel my back or my legs,” Luke said, his eyes closing tight.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of here.”
Charlie looked up to the hole and was about to shout up when he heard another roar from beneath him.
This time it was different. It wasn’t the sound of earth falling, but rather something mechanical. When he looked down he saw a belch of smoke bubble up. It made him choke and cough. The white smoke continued to fill the hole, tightening his throat so he couldn’t yell out.
And in the smoke, gaining on them, a large, metallic object the same diameter as the hole rose up.
An eerie yellow light came from the front of it as it kept on climbing.
Luke screamed when he saw it.
Charlie’s spine went cold when he saw electricity flicker on the shape’s surface. He tried to lift his legs as the machine within the smoke came closer, but he wasn’t quick enough and a bolt of electricity shot out, striking against his leg.
His vision closed to tiny specks, consciousness dancing on the edge, the darkness consuming him, taking him away until he could no longer feel anything. His last image was the light at the top of the sinkhole, the small silhouette of Pippa looking down at him.