The Five Dollar Mail (Book 1: The Green & Book 2: Lynch's Boys)

149: Claustrophobia

Cover painting by Angela Taratuta. Chapter artwork of Bender by Diego Candia. All graphics by me.

Staring down at the gaping black void in the ground before him, Bender could feel his heart starting to race. Walking into the front of the mine had been bad enough. At least he knew he could just turn around and walk back out if he wanted to. There was no walking here, though. The vertical shaft went straight down. It was rappelling or nothing. 

I'm going to have to climb down that hole on a bloody rope. 

He took a deep breath, collecting his nerve, and let it out in a shaking sigh. Oh, bugger me with a broomstick. 

He didn't dare attach the rope to Swagman's saddle.He would have to leave him alone, and anything could happen while he was gone. The last thing he wanted was for his horse to run off with his lifeline, leaving him stranded underground. So he'd had to haul a sizable log over to the hole and wedge it into place over the opening as an anchor. His hands were shaking as he gave the triple-knotted rope another tug. 

Bari did this. 

Bari also had three people topside spotting him. Bari's also used to being underground. 

Bari doesn't break out into a cold sweat when he can't see the sky. 

He realized with an unpleasant jolt that he was drenched in icy sweat just thinking about it. 

"Bugger it, I can do this", he whispered, giving the rope one last check before sitting down on the edge of the shaft. He realized he was breathing the way someone does before they take a long dive and forced himself to stop. It's a big hole, mate, he reasoned. Look how wide it is. There's light, and there's air. Should be a piece of piss. He flexed his stiff arm, the bruise he'd gotten from the saloon fight aching. No helping it, mate. Let's go.

He looped the rope around the ball of his foot and eased himself over the edge, holding the rope with all his might. The idea that he'd done this very thing before in his life, and over the edge of a rock face so high the terrain was blue and hazy below him, filled him with a bitter irony. I was so high then that if I'd fallen, I'd have had plenty of time to think about my own stupidity before I hit the ground, and it didn't even bother me. I guess it's not the idea of falling that bothers me. It's the idea of being trapped. 

It's the idea of being buried. 

He ignored the ache in his bruised arm and thought about Lily. He thought about Bari and Jesse, too, and knew there was no way he could shoulder the burden of their loss without doing everything he could to find them. He gritted his teeth and fumbled the rope out, feeling like a spider descending on a web. 

Cooled air feathered across his face, and crumbles of loose earth bounced off his boots and shoulders and disappeared into the deepening darkness below him. The air grew damp, the smell of earth and stone curling into his nostrils. The musical spattering of water striking stone echoed up the shaft. He focused on it, breathing deep, feeling his head clear. 

The shadows grew deeper and the air cooler as a light, misting rain materialized out of nowhere, dampening his skin and beading on his oilcloth coat. Bari's voice echoed in his memory of the last time they'd visited this place. You get rain inside vertical shafts if the cave's cold and the day's warm. He smiled in spite of himself. Struth, that's weird. And really interesting.

He was discovering that the walls of the shaft fell away from him, angling towards the floor in a bell shape instead of going straight down. Dangling in the dark, wet air, Bender never felt so vulnerable in his life. Without the wall to brace himself, he swung clumsily over the drop. He could see the rubble beneath him. Last thing I wanna do is land badly on that and break a leg. Getting back topside is gonna be a bugger, fair dinkum oil.

His fear of being trapped threatened to grab that thought and run with it. He steadied himself, breathing deep, tasting acid in his throat. I'll get myself out of this. I always do. 

He was nearly at the bottom, his boots close to scraping the muddy rockpile below him, a jagged island in a clear, shallow pool of water. He flexed his legs, giving the rope a hard swing. It carried him past the unstable terrain and he forced himself to let go, letting his trajectory carry him past the pile and onto what he hoped was a safer landing. 

His boots splashed into the water, slipping on the smooth stone beneath it. He stumbled, fighting to avoid falling flat. Balls. An irregularity in the rock floor caught his foot, giving him enough traction to right himself. Water lapped against the seams of his boots, wetting the hems of his pants at his heels. Well, it isn't deep, at least there's that.

He looked around, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the dimness. He was surprised that the shaft of sunlight finding its way down the open shaft gave him enough light to see clearly inside the cavern. He walked briskly, stepping out of the puddle before his boots became waterlogged. The cavern had a relatively flat floor, most of the rubble piled under the shaft he'd just come through. It was fairly wide, the walls smooth and undulating, and lacking the jagged, blasted look of the walls of the mine. A pair of tunnels disappeared off into the darkness, and he heard the hiss of running water somewhere far beyond his sight. 

He wasn't sure how far the light from the shaft would penetrate the tunnels. They hadn't dared go back to town to find some lanterns. And even if they had, there was no way he'd have managed to get one down the shaft without breaking it. I'm woefully unequipped for this. We all were.

He took in a deep breath and headed for one of the tunnels, unholstering his pistol. No way around this. We caved their buggering mine in, they know we're here. He cupped his free hand over his mouth. "It's Bender! Call out if you can hear me!"

NOTE: Through past feedback on the book series, I have learned that readers frequently divide themselves into Team Bender or Team Saint. Some of them flip flop, some are hard core fans of one or the other. Which team are you? You may write in a ballot if you so desire. I love to find out what readers think about my characters!   -gina

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