Hell of Earth

Chapter SEVEN

Ermine was the only thing holding her up right now. Gray sobbed into her friend's shirt. She'd been so close! Just a few more seconds and Opal would have made it out! Why hadn't she gone for help sooner? This was her fault.

"Can someone please shut her up?" One of the boys yelled.

"You shut up! You monster!" Ermine yelled back, tightening her grip on her friend.

"Are you going to help or just keep making girls cry?" Yue stood on the top of the trench looking down at the area above the tunnel. If the tunnel had fallen all the way in, she was done for, but if it was only a partial collapse she might still have enough air to breath for a few minutes as long as she wasn't crushed. "The ground up here is still even so not all of it fell. Can you see anything?"

Proga glanced up. His face was completely covered in dust. "Waiting for it to settle some. She's pretty far back. Opal- can you hear us?" He turned his head to listen.

Yue slid down to stand next to the girls. "She told you she was going to dig under the barrier and go outside the glass?"

"Yes." Gray sniffed and took a steading breath. She glared at him. "She said that you guys told her you'd been able to survive out there. What kind of sick people say that to someone with brain damage?"

Yue frowned. "What else did she say?"

"All kinds of horrible stuff." Ermine shook her head. "I don't want to repeat it and it doesn't matter now. Are you guys going to be able to dig her out?"

"Dig her out?"

"Yeah- like you did before."

Yue shook his head. "I didn't dig her out. She wasn't inside the tunnel- it was a rock outside that slid down. For this... digging is the wrong thing to do."

"Then go in after her!" Gray screamed. "Its your fault she's in there!"

Proga dropped his shoulders. "I would. I swear I would but its not big enough. Yue and I won't fit. If we try we'd probably make it worse."

"What about this guy?" Ermine pointed.

"Me? What about you guys? You're just sitting there getting snot all over yourselves instead of helping your friend."

Yue gave him a once over and glanced back at the tunnel, lowering his voice. "She's the only one without upgraded iron, Spark. I don't think we can afford to lose her."

The color drained from Spark's face. "No. Screw all of you. I'm not going in. I'm not going underground."

"Then why are you even here?" Gray snapped.

Yue raised an eyebrow. "If you're going to run away with your tail between your legs again, might as well do it."

"Eat shit."

"We can ask Kait." Yue mused. "She's smaller... might be safer. Proga, could you run back and get her?"

"Yeah, she's in the bunks right?"

Spark turned and shoved Proga.

To Gray and Ermine's shock he managed to push him back a few paces.

"You just trying to kill her too?"

Proga held onto his arm. It wasn't gentle. "That's quite ridiculous coming from you."

"Stop acting like morons. Kait'd be furious if she found out we were standing here debating this." Yue reprimanded. "Proga. Go get her."

"No. I'll do it." Spark was shaking all over. Gray thought perhaps he was just that angry until she saw his face. His eyes were rimmed in white. "If it falls in you better at least try and get me out."