Crossover by Jack Heath

walked right
over and started sorting through until she found something that
felt like a headlamp.
    She clicked the
switch. The bulb worked. She tightened the straps around her head,
tilted the lamp so the light fell upon the ground roughly five
metres in front of her, and ran back towards the jack
hammer.
    She had a
collapsible trowel in her pocket, but now that she'd seen the kind
of equipment the miners were using, she thought she could do
better. She didn't know how to use the jack hammer, but there was a
pile of shovels, mattocks, and other digging tools nearby. Ash
selected a pickaxe, swivelled it in her hands, and then swung it
into the ground between her feet.
    The rock
crumbled easily – it was clearly a different substance to the stone
the miners had been drilling through a few metres to Ash's right.
Which made sense, she realised, since the box had only been buried
here a couple of years. Not enough time for the mud to solidify
into tough stone.
    She swung again.
The light jittered on the floor. She couldn't hear the rocks
shattering over the screaming of the alarm, but she could feel the
impacts through the padded grip of the pickaxe.
    Six metres
below, Benjamin had said. But that was when she was up in the
entrance tunnel, which was at least four metres above the cave
floor. She should only need to dig two metres down. But the hole
had to be fairly wide, or else there was a risk that she would
completely miss the –
    Clack. Ash paused. That last strike
had felt different. Either she'd hit a tougher kind of rock, or
she'd found what she was looking for.
    She swept the
broken stones aside with the blade of the pickaxe, and shone the
headlight down into the hole she'd made.
    Wood. She'd
struck something made of hard wood.
    She reached down
and grabbed the box. It was less than 15 centimetres to a side,
scarcely bigger than an engagement ring box, with dirty brass
hinges and a scalloped handle. There was a scar on the top where
the pickaxe had scraped it.
    She placed the
box reverently beside the hole. Lifted the lid.
    Urgh, she
thought. Success. She could have taken the object out and reburied
the box, but she didn't want to touch it with her bare
hands.
    Shuddering, she
closed the box up again. 'I have the prize,' she told Benjamin. She
tried to keep her voice from shaking. 'Time to go.'
    Ash could hear
him saying something, but not what. Probably asking her out on a
date, yet again. It was his way of congratulating her.
     
    ~
     
    Ash started
jogging back up towards the north tunnel. Now came the tough part:
sneaking back out. The miners had all evacuated, so they would be
watching from a distance as she emerged from the tunnel. Even if
she put her overalls back on and wiped the grime off her face,
they'd be curious, wondering why she'd taken so much longer than
they had. So she'd have to find a way to get past them without
being spotted.
    Or a place to
hide, she thought, while I wait for them to come back in and resume
work. But who knows how long that'll take? I have to be home by the
time school finishes, or Dad will freak.
    She kept moving.
She couldn't strategise without seeing how far back the miners had
evacuated. Maybe they'd be so far away that she could just walk out
the mouth of the tunnel and head straight to the
rendezvous.
    A vague glow
stained the tunnel wall up ahead – she was getting closer to
daylight. She reached up and switched the headlamp off. There was
no way of telling how long it would be before a hazard team got
suited up and came down to search for the gas leak. If they rounded
the corner further up the tunnel, Ash didn't want them glimpsing
her torch.
    She didn't think
it was likely to happen soon, though. It seemed quiet and still up
ahead.
    Now that she was
further away from the cavern, she could hear a little better over
the alarms. 'Benjamin,' she said. 'I'm coming out with the
box.'
    There was no
response.
    'Benjamin?'
    Nothing. Ash
strained her ears to listen – and heard the