The Journey Prize Stories 28 by Kate Cayley

And I stood there, breathing in the fresh air from the surface. I was stuck at the raise but the air kept me alive.”
    â€œThat really works?” Roxane asks.
    â€œOf course it does. But the ventilation raises are also what they use to spread the stench around the mine. So when you’re squatting under there, praying to God that someone will find you, you’re breathing in each breath of the worst smell you’ve ever smelled in your life, and you’re thinking all the while that each breath is sweet because it could be your last.”
    â€œHow long were you there for?”
    â€œI don’t know. Time passed differently. If nobody had come for me by now, I thought, it probably meant that the fire was bad, and getting worse. Other people must be trapped. I was the only one on 4000. Knowing this didn’t make the time go any faster. I knew I needed to get to a refuge. Once you’re in there, you can clay up the door and wait—you can last for days. When I first found the vent I didn’t know where I was, but as I stood there things started to become clear. I was almost sure I knew which way to go. But picking the wrong way would kill me. I guess I was waiting for a sign.”
    â€œA sign?” Roxane asks.
    â€œSomething to let me know, beyond a doubt, that it would be better to try to find the refuge than to stay under the ventilation shaft. And I did see a sign.”
    â€œWhat did you see?”
    â€œA flash of light through the smoke. Just a flicker. It might not have been anything at all. I thought maybe it was somebody from Mine Rescue, looking for men on the drifts. I called out, but there was no answer.”
    â€œThen what?” Roxane asks.
    â€œI blacked out,” Wycliffe says. “Maybe I inhaled too much smoke. Or maybe I had some kind of panic attack. I woke up in the dark and I thought I was dead. My light was off. But it didn’t take too long to figure out I was in a refuge. And I could
feel
that I wasn’t alone in the dark. I heard the sound of a door opening—the refuge station door, I knew that sound. ‘Hello?’ I called, but my voice was torn up by the smoke. Nobody answered. I tried to turn on my headlamp, but the bulb was smashed. I remembered I had a flashlight in my pocket. I was so nervous when I pulled it out that I almost dropped it. ‘Wait!’ I called. ‘Wait!’ I wanted to see the face of the man who’d saved my life. I got my light out just in time. I saw him.”
    â€œWho did you see?” Roxane asks, even though she knows what Wycliffe’s answer will be.
    â€œHis face was long and thin and white. He had a big, round, black hole for a mouth. And his eyes…I’ll never forget his eyes. They were more like teeth than they were like eyes. Sharp and white. They ate me up. Then spat out the bones, and now the bones are all that’s left.” Wycliffe’s face is stretched in agony. “It was the
Beast,”
he whispers. “It was the Devil whosaved my life. And it’s been him following me around in the dark all these years.”
    Roxane swallows. “I thought…I thought you said you saw Jesus.”
    The smell hits both of them at the same time. It’s gut-wrenching, breathing in the first lungful, just like Wycliffe said. It’s so thick Roxane thinks it’ll crowd out all the oxygen in her lungs, fill up her blood.
    â€œWhat is that?” she asks, but she already knows.
    â€œStay here, and I’ll be all right,” Wycliffe mutters. “Stay right here. Clay the door, sit tight, and wait for someone to come get me. I’ll be all right if I wait…”
    He rises to his feet and heads for the refuge station door, kicking the tangle of coveralls away from him. He opens one of the lockers and pulls out the emergency supplies and lays them on the ground near the door.
    â€œYou make sure you use this,” he