Radium Halos (4 page)

I pulled it out
of my pocket and flipped it open. The roaming dotted line
disappeared and “message sent” flashed on my screen over and over
again as the SOS I’d written earlier finally went out. "Yeah, the
storm must’ve screwed everything up. I hope it doesn’t come back.”
I dropped my shoulders and let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been
holding. “Can we please get out of here now?”
I just want to go
home.

Seth splashed
his way across the muddy floor towards the doors. He grunted as he
pushed, throwing his shoulder into it. “Door’s stuck.” He pulled
the handle really hard and the thing ripped right off the door. He
tossed it on the ground and tried pushing against the door and then
moved to the other door, but to no avail. Brent and Kieran hurried
over, trying to help. Panic filled my chest.

Punch the
steel, Brent groaned. “Looks like we’ll be waiting here ‘til
someone answers one of Zoe’s texts.” He crossed his arms and
shrugged.

“You’re
jokin’!” I shook my head. “We’re trapped,
again?
”

“Just slightly
detained,” Seth glared at the door and then threw his hands in the
air. “It’s no big deal. The storm’s over now.”

“We’re probably
in its eye.”
Let’s go, guys. Come on!

“You girls
wanna do some wrestling? We’ll watch.” Brent clapped his hands and
rubbed them together. He gave a good-natured leer. “Now that the
skies are clear, it looks like your standing in a mud ring with
white on the outside. Just need the ropes.”

I stifled a
groan. Music-man needed to shut his vocal chords. However, he was
right about the white-thing. Still standing in the middle of the
round room, I swung around and stared.
Freaky. Really
freaky.
“It does seem kinda bright in here.” Even without the
lightening or key flashlight.
What’s going on?

“Like someone’s
switched the lights on,” Seth said.

“But at a low
wattage. ’Pears like the walls are ablaze,” added Kieran.

“Ablaze?” Seth
laughed. “That a British term or something?”

Kieran smiled,
but his lips stayed tight together. I felt his frustration and
wished Seth stood within reach so I could swat the back of his
head.

Aside from the
large puddle of mud in the middle, everything seemed white in
color, like a coloring page that hadn’t been filled in yet. The
walls were stark and pale. Staring at them, I followed the pattern
the cracked lines between the bricks made. They seemed unusually
bright, almost like they, too, glowed in the dark. I checked the
cement slabs we’d been standing on. Even with mud splattered on
them, they were white instead of grey. Of fallen particles that had
showered down on us, the nuts, bolts and other metal bits were
white.

Heidi shivered.
“This room’s weird. Actually the whole place’s creepy. Zoe’s always
moaning about how she hates this place. Now I totally get it.” She
hugged herself. “Sorry to be the perpetual wimp, but I’d prefer to
get out of here than spend the night. Zoe, can you try your cell
again?” Like her hands, her voice trembled slightly.

“Sure.”
I
don’t plan on sleeping here either
. Flipping my cell phone
open, I saw there had been two replies to my SOS, and both thought
I’d been joking. “I’m not sure it’ll work, but I’ll try again.” I
dialled dad’s number.

“Hu-llo?” His
voice came across the line low and tired.

“Dad? It’s me.
We’re stranded in the mine. Help!”
Shoot! He’s so gonna
freak.
I lowered my voice to a normal level and checked my
watch.
Just after two am. “
Sorry. Were you sleeping?”

“What’s wrong?”
He sounded instantly awake. “Where are you? Did you say the
mine?”

His bed creaked
in the background and I knew he’d sat up, probably already shoving
his feet into the Crocs he kept by the bed. Having a doctor for a
father, worries tended to get blown out of proportion. One of the
reasons he and Mom split.

“I’m not hurt.
Relax.” I exhaled a slow breath and fought to control my voice.
“But we’re in a bit of a bind. The gang all went to the high school
kick-off tonight and a storm blew in. We went for cover in the old
uranium mine and we’re… kinda stuck.” He may be the calmest doctor
on the continent, but when it came to his only daughter, he turned
into the biggest worrywart. I was at mom’s this weekend so he would
assume I’d be home sleeping in my bed. He was probably having a
coronary right now.

“I’m on my way.
Have you called nine-one-one?” My pause had him talking again.
“Have you tried a
nyone
else?”

I knew what was
coming.

“Come on,
Zoezey.”

I sighed. “No,
I haven’t called Mom. I’m sleeping at Rylee’s tonight.” I could
hear him getting dressed and imagined him holding the phone with
his chin against his shoulder, throwing on jeans and a sweatshirt.
He was probably leaning over to grab his doctor’s bag, dark hair
falling in his face. “My cell just started working.”

“I’ll call
Jim.” Seth’s dad, Jim, was a fireman with a huge, muscular body. He
could probably remove the fallen tree with his bare hands and then
tear down the mine doors with his pinkie finger.

“You’d better
call Brent’s dad and the rest of the gangs. I’m not sure my phone
will keep working. I don’t even know if the storm’s going to start
up again. It’s all…all…” I swallowed trying not to cry. My throat
tightened and burned.

“I’m coming,
sweetie,” he said, car keys jingling in the background. “I’ll call
nine one one and everyone I need to. Keep your cell close.”

“Please hurry.”
I shut the phone and waved it at my friends, not sure I could
speak. “Help’s on the way.”

“Hopefully
Seth’s dad’s driving the ladder truck over here to rescue us right
now,” Heidi said.

“I’m sure he’s
on his way.” Seth came and put his arm around Heidi.

“We’re all okay
and going to get outta here very soon.” Brent came and stood by
me.

The scepticism
of the past few hours eased. Exhaustion seeped into my core. I
dropped onto one of the concrete slabs. The others followed my
lead. There we sat, and waited. And waited. Bored we needed someone
to talk about something…
anything
to keep our minds off the
fact we were still trapped.
Small talk
. “Kieran, where’s
your new place?”

He ran a hand
through his thick, brown hair. “Me granddad owned the wooden cabin
thingy near the round about -- sorry, I mean the four way stop. He
left it to me dad in ’is will.”

Rylee, sitting
near him, rested a hand on his shoulder. “Sorry to hear you lost
your grandfather.”

“It was like
three years ago. Guess me dad ’n him were not thar close. Plus, he
was a miserable ol’ bugger.” Kieran laughed, and all three females
turned toward the husky sound. He didn’t seem to notice. “Me dad
decided to up ’n come here for the year. I wasn’t too keen, but he
tends to not give a toss to what I think.” He shrugged and shot a
glance in my direction.

I couldn’t read
his face. His accent was sexy, even when he sounded ticked off at
his dad. With his Sean Connery voice, I had to listen closely to
what he said. It might be fun having a new guy in the group. Senior
year just got a lot more interesting.

“What’d your
mom think about having to come to Canada?” Rylee asked.

“Me mum passed
away a few years back. It’s just me dad now.”

Rylee’s hands
flew to her face and her eyes grew big. She patted his arm. “Sorry.
I sometimes open my mouth when I shouldn’t.”

Seth smirked.
“Sometimes? I think you like puttin’ your foot in your mouth.”

“Shut up!”
Rylee laughed and gave Seth, who sat on her other side, a shove.
“At least my mother doesn’t bake cookies in the shape of NHL teams
for me.”

“Hey! I like
Seth’s mom’s cookies,” Heidi suddenly piped up. “I’m hoping she
sent some with you tonight and you left them in the truck.” Poor
Heidi, skinny as a toothpick and always hungry.

“Speaking of
food, I’m starving!” Seth grabbed his stomach.

I groaned,
trying to swallow against dryness in my mouth. “I’m kinda
thirsty.”

“Me too.” Heidi
said. “Hungry, thirsty, and soaking.”

“Hopefully
someone arrives soon,” Brent said. “I’m wiped.” Everyone must’ve
felt the same as we all grew quiet and waited.

Dad sent a text
to let us know the firefighters were working on removing the large
fallen tree at the entrance to the mine. We could hear muffled
noise from the dome. He sent another text fort minutes later asking
where we were.

It took almost
an hour for the search and rescue team to find us.

When voices on
the other side of the locked door greeted us, we hollered. The room
had grown darker as the moon shifted.

The saw cutters
and drills had me covering my ears from the screeching noise. The
loud banging from some heavy metal thing slamming against the door
seemed to last forever. It broke my heart when I heard one of the
firefights say they’d have to try the other door.

“Anyone ’ver
watch Fireman Sam?” Kieran asked loudly, trying to be heard about
the noise. “Tom Thomas could fly his little helicopter and lift us
out of here with a rope. Seems yer firefighters could use
ol’Sam.”

“Huh?” Seth
chuckled. “That was my favourite show when I was a kid. My dad had
an uncle from England send DVD’s over.” He laughed harder. Kieran
joined in.

“You guys are
messed up!” I tried frowning but couldn’t stop the smile.
Could
this night get any crazier?

The
firefighters finally broke down the other door. Their flashlights
were so bright, they had all of us holding our hands out to
covering our eyes.

Rylee stood
closest to the door and yelped when the light hit her eyes. “Turn
that thing off, please!” She staggered like she’d been hit. Seth
grabbed her arm to steady her.

One fireman
swept his torch over the walls. I nudged Kieran and pointed.
“They’re black.” I kept my voice low.

“Wha’?” he
said.

“The walls,
they’re black now. Weren’t they sorta glowing in the dark before?”
I continued to whisper.

He blinked, and
scratched his left temple. “Yeah, ‘tis weird. Maybe it was the
moon.”

Four more
firefighters filed through the door, one of them Seth’s dad. Jim’s
boisterous voice shouted commands and had us walking out single
file, holding onto a rope with a fireman between each of us. We
laughed at the bright yellow rope but Jim insisted we use the buddy
system so no one would be left behind.

Ten minutes
later we stood on the wet grass, among flashing cop cars, fire
trucks, and the local TV crew.
Only in a small town, the
freakin’ media’s got nothing more exciting to cover?
I found my
dad a split second before he noticed me. He stood, hands in his
back pockets of his jeans, doctor bag hanging over his shoulder and
his right foot tapping.

He ran over and
squeezed me tight. “Everyone okay?” He motioned to Jim and walked
to get his medical bag where he’d dropped it when he’d dashed over.
“Let’s get all of you to the ambulance. Check and see if you’re all
okay.”

A policeman
stepped forward. “Your folks have been notified,” he paused when he
reached Kieran, “except yours, young man. We didn’t realize there
were six of you.” He handed Kieran the cell from his chest pocket.
“Here. Call your folks”

Kieran pushed
the phone back at the officer. “Thanks, but I’ll let me Dad know in
the morning. No sense in waking ’im if everything’s alright.”

Poor guy.
He’s embarrassed by the officer’s concern.
I inhaled a deep
breath, about to say something. The air smelled of wet earth. It
felt like mud clogged in my throat. I gagged and began
coughing.

Dad rushed back
to my side and pounded my back. “You okay?”

Holy smokes.
You don’t need to shout, Dad.
I bent forward and raised a hand.
“I’m… okay…” I tried to clear my air passage. “A bug must’ve been…
trying to… suffocate me.” I swallowed and took shallow breaths.
“Honest, I’m fine.”
Please don’t embarrass me.

“I’ll get you
home soon, kiddo.” Dad put his arm around my shoulder when I
straightened. “Let me just check the others and we’ll go. My car’s
parked beside the first ambulance.”

I rested my
head on his chest, suddenly exhausted. “The Bug’s parked somewhere
in the field.”

“We’ll get it
in the morning.”

Seth spoke from
behind. “I’ll take it back to my place. Kieran can drive my
truck.”

“Thanks.” I
lifted my head. It felt so heavy.

Rylee’s folks
had come and, to my surprise, Heidi’s mom was here on her own. It
made me wish Mom were here, but the feeling quickly evaporated.

I tried to
focus on my friends, but my eyes rolled from sudden exhaustion. I
tried blinking several times to refocus but gave up. Tapping Dad’s
shoulder, I asked, “Is it okay if I wait in your car?”

He bent down to
grab something out of his medical bag. “Let me check you once more
–”

“Dad! I’m
fine.” I winced at the harshness in my tone, and lowered my voice.
“Nothing happened in the mine. We just got stuck in that stupid
room.” I didn’t want to be here another minute. The ambulances’
flashing red lights bounced off the front of the mine. The entrance
looked like a face laughing at us with horrible beady red eyes. I
shuddered and mumbled, “So…tired…Just gonna lie down…in the car.” I
walked to his Beamer, grabbing a blanket and bottle of water from
the back of the ambulance as I passed. I crawled into the back seat
and took a swig from the bottle. The refreshing liquid never tasted
so delicious. My body collapsed across the seats, my arms pulling
the blanket over my head. Everything sounded so loud outside.