The Mine Specter

The wooden frame that precariously secured the entrance to the old mine was beginning to rot and crack under the weight of the mountain it was meant to support. There was a sign outside the mine that read KEEP OUT: COLLAPSE IMMINENT.

“Don't worry about what the sign says,” James looked at the other five twenty-something people who were with him, “that's just to keep the tourists away.”

Liza, a 6' tall athletic girl with bronzed skin, some muscle tone and long black hair looked at James in disbelief. She said nothing, but her silence spoke volumes.

“I've been in here a dozen times and nothing's fallen down on me yet!”

“There's always a first time!” Liza mumbled out.

“Oh,” the one everyone nicknamed Munchkin, because she was only 3½ foot tall, and a little on the thin side even for a girl of her sleight height said, “don't jinx it for us!”

“What's the story of the mine anyway?” Jahzare, a huge hulking black man that measured out at 6'10” had to ask as he sucked on a cigarette.

“In 1851 it was an active gold mine, and select few operated it, but the mine was raided by a lone bandit bent on claiming the mine as his own; there was an explosion deep inside the mine that took out the one wing and trapped about a dozen men inside. They say that the bandit is still alive and endlessly wanders around the mine.”

“After 175 years, I don't think so!” Jahzare responded.

“It's just a story,” Munchkin put her hand on Munchkin's arm and smiled up at him.

“Or is it?” Liza spoke ominously.

“Will you stop that nonsense?” Jahzare barked out, trying not to show his fear. “You're scaring the Munchkin!”

“Am not!” Munchkin smirked as she looked up, way up at Jahzare, “I love this kind of stuff!”

“You're the one that looks a little scared,” Liza looked up at Jahzare.

“Are we going into the mine or not?” James asked impatiently.

“I'm game,” Liza responded, knowing that there were a few whose decisions hinged on how she responded, especially the twin girls.

“I'm with you guys,” Munchkin joined James & Liza, as did the twin girls, leaving Jahzare standing alone finishing his cigarette.

“Aw,” Liza gave a mocking cry of sympathy, “is the big huge hulk scared?”

“Fine,” Jahzare didn't like being mocked, so he moved behind James, “let's just get this done and over with.”

“We'll be fine!” James wasn't sure who he was trying to convince; Jahzare or himself.

The six moved into the cave as one body, and Jahzare looked up at the dirt ceiling as bits of dirt began to fall on him. “Oh, Hell no!”

Liza looked back to see the old wooden frame snap like a matchstick. “Everyone away from the entrance NOW!”

Jahzare grabbed Munchkin and dove towards a clearing, and Liza pushed James in the same direction. As for the twins, only one of them made it, as the section of ceiling fell on the other burying her under a ton of rock and dirt.

“Melissa!” Mary cried out as she tried to pull Melissa out of the rubble, but only her head stuck out. “We'll get you out!”

“We can't!” Liza looked at the ceiling, another layer was about to come down. “You'll die in the process of trying to save her!”

“But--.” Mary felt Liza pull her back as another chunk of ceiling came down burying Melissa alive. “MELISSA!”

“I knew we shouldn't have come in here,” Jahzare yelled out, “we need to find a way out.”

“Thank you Captain Obvious!” Liza blurted out. “But where are we supposed to be able to go to?”

Jahzare held out his cellphone, as if it were the obvious choice. “We can call for help!”

“Cellphone service here is nominal to begin with,” James responded, “let alone the fact that we're inside a mountain which contain elements that naturally block out any cellphone signal!”

“Well I utilize the most reliable phone service in the world,” Jahzare waved his state of the art phone with a 6g calling signal, “not even out on the market yet, but I'm one of the lucky early testers.”

“Then by all means call for help!” Liza's words came out in a mocking manner.

Jahzare punched in a series of numbers, then began slamming at the phone. “What the hell do you mean no signal?”

“There's a more secure place deeper inside,” James suggested as he found himself being rained on by more dirt.

“Come on,” Munchkin, who was trying to console Mary, nudged at her, “we're moving out of here.”

“She's alive under there,” Mary began scraping at the dirt that had become her sister's grave, “we can't just leave her!”

“This place ain't safe,” Munchkin looked at the grave. Not only was there dirt, but rock and at least one of the large beams lay over it. “Even if it were, there's no guarantee that she's still alive under all of that!”

“We need to go,” Liza said.

“OK,” Mary said, “you guys go on ahead. I'll catch up with you in a minute.”

“If that's what you want,” Liza gave in, “just don't linger here for too long.”

“I won't.”

Liza and Munchkin followed after James and Jahzare. They all went a few feet, when there was a loud explosion and the entire section of mine shook. Clouds of dust and smoke arose from the section where Mary was, and their way back to her was forever sealed.

“Did you hear that?” Jahzare stopped cold in his tracks.

“Of course the mine entrance just collapses.”

“That's not what I meant; there was another sound just before that.”

“Like what?” Liza asked.

“An explosion.”

“It's like this place is alive,” Munchkin observed, “and picking us off one by one!”

“Either that,” James responded, “or that lone survivor from the original incident 175 years ago. It is alleged that he is responsible for the original incident here.”

“Oh, come on with that crap,” Jahzare snarled, “both theories are utter nonsense. There is a logical reason for what is going on!”

“Then what is it?”

“I don't know,” Jahzare said with a whine, “but it's certainly NOT because this mine is alive or is haunted by someone who should have died 175 years ago!”

“Then how do you explain the death of those twin girls?” Liza asked.

“The mine is old and dilapidated; it was bound to collapse!”

“And the explosion?”

“They used dynamite and nitroglycerin; the natural erosion of the mine could be setting them off.”

“Then tell me why it didn't happen sooner?” Liza asked. “It all stayed intact until the exact moment we entered, but why happen just then?”

Jahzare had found some old crates that he leaned against while he pulled out another cigarette. “Sometimes, things just... happen!”

“Yeah,” Liza looked at the crate of dynamite that Jahzare was leaning against while holding a lighter in his hand, “something's going to happen if you use that lighter?”

“Like what?” Jahzare smirked as he made himself comfortable against the crate of dynamite.

“Look at what you're leaning against!” Munchkin pointed at the crate marked DYNAMITE.

“Oh, shit!” Jahzare quickly put the cigarette back into the pack.

“There must be a safer place for him to smoke,” Munchkin inquired.

“Anywhere but here,” James noted.

“Must you smoke now?” Liza asked. “We need to find a way out.”

Jahzare let out a smirk, “it's going to take me less time to smoke this, than we're spending arguing about it.”

“Besides,” Munchkin added, “I don't think smoking one more cigarette is going to kill him.”

“Fine, go smoke your precious cigarette,” Liza groaned as Jahzare found a safe place to smoke, “which you need like you need a hole in the head!”

“I heard that!” Jahzare leaned back against the wall as he pulled a cigarette out of the pack. He flicked at his lighter, and the light illuminated the room and everything in it. He could see a face staring out at him from the darkest part of the room, at first he thought it was some skeletal remains of one of the victims, but the face suddenly smiled at him and the specter behind the face held a pistol out in his direction; the hammer was pulled back with a loud clicking sound. “OH, HELL NO--!”

There was a loud BANG! the sound of which echoed around the mine.

“Anybody hear that?” Munchkin looked towards where the sound came from.

“How could we not?” Liza ran towards the sound.

“That's right,” Munchkin gave a mocking cheer, “charge towards the danger and not away from it!”

“I'm not charging,” Liza stuck to the shadows, as her dark clothing allowed her to blend in with the darkness.

“Well, whatever it is you're doing, don't leave me here alone,”

“Alone?” Liza responded, “James is still with us... right? Right?”

“Uh, come to think of it,” Munchkin whined, “I haven't seen him in a minute!”

“Great, just what we need!” Liza hissed.

“Wait, you don't think that he's behind all of this!”

Liza was trying to be as quiet as possible as she tried to sneak towards where the shot came from, but her being made to call back and forth to Munchkin while in this echo chamber wasn't allowing her to do that.

“Just tell me if James is a part of--.” Munchkin cried out as a hand reach around her from behind and press against her mouth and pull her into the corner of the room where any cry she gave was muffled.

---

Liza moved on, she saw Jahzare sprawled out on the ground dead, with a bullet hole in his head. She also noted that Munchkin's voice was cut off. “OK. Someone's picking us off, but why?”

Seeing a movement in the darkness, Liza pulled out her handgun, she always carried one around with her, no matter what the situation was. The clip was full, and the safety off; all she needed was something to shoot at.

The specter made his appearance. Liza shot, effectively shooting holes in the wall behind him.

“You're not going to get him that way!” James called out from behind Liza.

“There you are,” Liza glanced back to James, “where did you disappear to?”

“I was looking for the back door, as it were.”

“You find one?” Liza fired out a few random shots at the specter.

“Kinda-sorta.”

Liza decided to save her ammo and began to follow after James. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“It's just a ventilation shaft.”

“But if someone can get through to the other side; they could make a call.”

“Even if we make it outside, we're in the middle of the desert, where cell-phone towers are few and far between.”

“What if they had a 6g signal?”

“They're testing them, but they're not out on the market.”

“And our friend Jahzare was one of the testers,” Liza pointed out, “but neither of us are small enough to make it through the air-shaft.”

“Munchkin is.”

“She's alive?”

“Of course she is,” James replied, “she'll meet us at the air-shaft.”

“I need to go get the phone.”

“I'll go,” James said, “you meet up with Munchkin.”

“OK,” Liza moved on as James moved back.

James peered around the corner. The specter hadn't figured out which shaft they had gone down, to his benefit. The specter was in the room with the crates of nitroglycerin and dynamite, and Jahzare's body was just a bit past it. He grabbed the cellphone and noticed the pack of cigarettes and lighter laying on the ground. He picked up the lighter and ran towards the room with the crates.

“Hey old timer,” James called out, as he set up a long fuse, “you still here?”

The specter let out a growl as he stare out of the darkness at him.

“Good.” James touched a flame to a long fuse and made tracks towards the airshaft. “Everybody down, I'm not sure how this will work out!”

“What did you do?” Liza watched as James came at her, she could see the fuse burning and sparking as it reached the end. But he tripped over his two left feet, and fell to the ground.

“Catch!” James knew that he wasn't going to make it, so he threw the phone in Liza's direction.

Liza caught the phone as the crates of dynamite exploded, burying James under the rubble. “That's not good.”

“That leaves me and you, and hopefully that specter thing is dead,” Munchkin commented.

“That's the thing about specters; they're already dead and can pass through solid matter like its not even there. But they are also very territorial.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning,” Liza sighed, “that once we move away from this mine he shouldn't be able to follow us beyond a certain point once we get up this shaft.”

“That thing's barely big enough for me to fit through,” Munchkin squealed, “let alone you.”

“You get up there with the phone, hopefully you'll get a reception once you're outside. You call 911 and the rest will work itself out.”

“But what about you?”

Liza noticed an old mine cart. “I'll hide in there until the rescue team arrives.”

“What if the specter sees you?”

“He can pass through things, not see through them.” Liza could hear the specter coming so she ran towards the mine cart. “Now go!”

Munchkin picked up the phone and began to crawl up the air shaft, every move she made a sound, but she couldn't help it.

The specter noticed the sound and knew that something bigger than a rat was moving around in there. His hand solidified as he punched a hole in the air shaft and pulled Munchkin out with a thrust, then threw her to the ground like a ragdoll.

“Oh God!” Liza barely whispered, but the whisper echoed down the corridor.

The specter turned and saw the mine cart wobble as Liza moved inside it. He flipped the cart over spilling Liza out.

Liza looked up as the specter reached out and grabbed her. It was in that moment she realized that her life was not going to come to a happy ending.