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
âThat really works?â Roxane asks.
âOf course it does. But the ventilation raises are also what they use to spread the stench around the mine. So when youâre squatting under there, praying to God that someone will find you, youâre breathing in each breath of the worst smell youâve ever smelled in your life, and youâre thinking all the while that each breath is sweet because it could be your last.â
âHow long were you there for?â
âI donât 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 didnât make the time go any faster. I knew I needed to get to a refuge. Once youâre in there, you can clay up the door and waitâyou can last for days. When I first found the vent I didnât 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
âA sign?â Roxane asks.
âSomething 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
âWhat did you see?â
âA 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
âThen what?â Roxane asks.
âI blacked out,â Wycliffe says. âMaybe 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 didnât take too long to figure out I was in a refuge. And I could
feel
that I wasnât alone in the dark. I heard the sound of a door openingâthe refuge station door, I knew that sound. âHello?â 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. âWait!â I called. âWait!â I wanted to see the face of the man whoâd saved my life. I got my light out just in time. I saw him.â
âWho did you see?â Roxane asks, even though she knows what Wycliffeâs answer will be.
âHis face was long and thin and white. He had a big, round, black hole for a mouth. And his eyesâ¦Iâll 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 thatâs left.â Wycliffeâs face is stretched in agony. âIt was the
Beast,â
he whispers. âIt was the Devil whosaved my life. And itâs been him following me around in the dark all these years.â
Roxane swallows. âI thoughtâ¦I thought you said you saw Jesus.â
The smell hits both of them at the same time. Itâs gut-wrenching, breathing in the first lungful, just like Wycliffe said. Itâs so thick Roxane thinks itâll crowd out all the oxygen in her lungs, fill up her blood.
âWhat is that?â she asks, but she already knows.
âStay here, and Iâll be all right,â Wycliffe mutters. âStay right here. Clay the door, sit tight, and wait for someone to come get me. Iâll be all right if I waitâ¦â
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.
âYou make sure you use this,â he
C. J. Cherryh
Learning to Kill: Stories
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Brenda Sinclair
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