chapter 37
TEAM 1 & 2, YEAR: 1200
Time Remaining: 50 Days
More than a month had passed since Riley, Owen and Finn joined Team One. Their arrival seemed to break the spell of productive days that had brought Team One intolerable boredom. The morning that followed the carefree day at the lake saw a multitude of challenges that would test even the most seasoned team. Within the first ten minutes of drilling, the power converter on Mole2 died. Like a well-oiled machine, Clint backed Mole2 out and handed it over to Ben, who waited at the entrance of the tunnel with Mole1, fully serviced and ready to run. By mid-afternoon, a kinked hydraulic line caused three of the four drive rods in the conveyor belt system to overheat and seize. All free hands from both teams spent nearly a week getting both Moles back into operating condition. Tyler, Lexi, Finn and Owen had Mole1 ready first, and Clint took it down the tunnel only for it to experience the exact failure. This time, all four rods seized. A closer inspection revealed that the hydraulic line Tyler had replaced had a weak wall—an undetected manufacturer’s defect that caused the line to split after only three hours. The sensor that should have detected the overheating mechanisms had also malfunctioned and was reading incorrectly. Nearly a week and a half had passed before Mole1 was operational; Lexi inspected every sensor on both drills to ensure they were flagging the proper tolerances.
The repairs made to the Moles were slow going and bodies were spread thin around the camp. The Moles were not the only machines plagued with problems—nothing was safe from whatever blight had struck the camp. The fridge in Darren’s kitchen stopped refrigerating. One of the perimeter sensors near the tunnel entrance was smashed by an errant Mole. With the WeatherShield not operational, a gust of wind grabbed the massive hovering drill as Clint tried to negotiate it out of the tunnel. The rear of the drill spun around and the bottom stair crushed one of the perimeter sensors against a large rock. Days later, an entire afternoon slowed to a near stop when the perimeter alarm alerted the team to a moose and her two young calves lunching on the grass in the centre of the camp. Lexi refused to allow anyone to move them, like they had the bears, for fear of broken limbs. No amount of scare tactics motivated the animals to leave. At Clint’s mention of moose steaks, Lexi stormed into the work shed.
The relentless problems plaguing the team nearly drove Jake to madness. Every time he heard someone’s voice cut into the communication system he cringed with dread, fearing the report of a new problem. He longed for the days of painful, inescapable boredom when the Moles ran on their own and required nothing but the occasional glance at a monitor and an ear to listen for any warning buzzers. Thankfully, Mole2 had now seen three days of action without a hint of a problem. The com-sys had been quiet except for the occasional report from Clint or one of Finn’s colourful jokes. He listened to the hum of the drill through the monitoring screens and watched the activity taking place in the centre camp. Today was the first day that Team One had the opportunity to work on their project since arriving.
“Finn, haven’t you got those guns set up yet? Are you giving them a pep talk or something?” asked Riley. She strode out of the work shed and into the middle of the clearing where she found Finn hunched over the testing tank, setting up the three guns side by side. Finn closed the lid on the testing tank and stepped back. He grinned at her.
“A pep talk never hurts, but no. I think we’re ready for our inaugural test in the year 1200.”
Owen joined Riley and Finn, pulling a hoodie on over his head. Riley looked down at the words on the front of the hooded sweater and groaned. “Geology Rocks.”
“What? It’s witty,” grinned Owen, used to this reaction. The air was chilly and without the WeatherShield, the wind channeled down the centre of the camp.
Maya joined them. As usual, she carried her clipboard. As she approached them, she made a quick note and tucked it under her arm again.
“Don’t you go anywhere without that thing?” asked Finn.
“Are you kidding me? This thing is my memory. I’d be lost without it. What are you guys up to?”
“Now that there are no more Mole emergencies,” he held up his crossed fingers for her to see, “we can finally test the guns to make sure they survived our trip back.” Finn took several steps backward, motioning for Maya to do the same. He used his VersaTool to increase the size of the testing tank and the guns to their full size. The tank grew to the size of a double-car garage.
“Whoa,” breathed Maya. “Is that how big those guns normally are?”
Finn nodded as he peered into the tank. “Get ready. In three, two, one.”
At one, Finn hit the red button on the remote control. Nothing happened. “Oh, God,” said Finn under his breath. “It’s not working. What the hell?” Finn looked up at the sky. “I mean, I know we’re outdoors but the rays should still have been visible. Owen, check the scanner.”
Owen held up the scanner to show no reading and Riley watched in silence as she fought the urge to be sick. They had not come all this way to have something happen during the time leap. There was so much about time travel that had yet to be learned. Wool disintegrated during a time leap. The peels of bananas—as Finn discovered after this latest journey—shrunk to a quarter of their size but the flesh of the fruit remained the same.
Finn looked at Owen, his eyes frantic. Owen, too, felt sick, and wondered what could have possibly happened if they had survived the first leap in time. Nothing registered on the scanner. Finn hammered on the remote control frantically with the heel of his hand.
“Omigod, omigod, omigod!” cried Finn. He paced back and forth, running through the steps he took to set the guns up.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t it work?” asked Maya.
Owen looked at her and shook his head.
“Oh.”
“It’s alright,” said Riley, sounding more confident than she felt. “We just need to look at the whole thing from beginning to end and see what’s malfunctioning. No big deal. They worked after the first jump and not the second, so we’ve got a solid starting point. We’ve got more than enough spare parts and contingency plans, and, more than that, we’ve still got plenty of time to get to the bottom of this.”
Time Remaining: 49 Days
The team had come to accept Finn as the camp practical joker. As he started to prepare dinner one afternoon, Darren found a small perch swimming in one of his pots. Maya searched for her clipboard for three days. Riddles posted around her and Lexi’s trailer would have led her to it had she been able to solve Finn’s cryptic messages. Ben spent two hours looking for his wrench set; each of the eight wrenches were hidden around the work shed and suspended playfully in bricks of colourful Jell-O. Riley opened the door to her trailer to find her bed filling the entire trailer. Blocked and unable to get in, she found a note pinned to the blanket. “Some things just never get old.” All of Tyler’s socks were filled with rocks and Clint found sand in his bed. Lexi caught Finn sneaking into her trailer with a giant toad and threatened to tell the camp about his junk food stash if he took one step closer to her.
“Sweet payback,” laughed Tyler quietly as he looked out over the water at Finn and Owen’s trailer. No one was immune to Finn’s practical jokes, and now his victims stood united on the water’s edge. They watched the suspended trailer, hovering nearly a storey above the lake. After a few moments, signs of life inside the trailer were heard. The conspirators on the shore chuckled quietly in anticipation. Within a few minutes, the door opened and Finn emerged, shielding his eyes from the bright morning sun. He stepped dozily out of the trailer and down the first step. Stepping down to what he thought was the ground, he fell unceremoniously and belly flopped into the water. It took him a few seconds to piece together what had happened. He looked up at the trailer and then over at his teammates howling with laughter on the shore.
“Owen!” yelled Finn, never one to waste an opportunity. “Owen come out here quick! Hurry!” The sound of the bed creaking was follo
wed by hurried footsteps running the length of the trailer. Like Finn, Owen plunged into the water, flailing his arms as he fell.
Owen resurfaced and realized what had happened. He laughed and broke into an expert front crawl toward Finn. “Oh, you’re dead!”
Time Remaining: 28 Days
“Hey, Owen?”
Owen set his screwdriver down on the workbench. “Yeah?” He was still not accustomed to the communication device seated inside his ear canal.
“It’s Clint. I need you to come down here and take a look at this. I’m looking at the walls down here and I’m seeing there’s some funny looking stress marks. I think you should take a look. Jake, Riley, maybe you guys, too?”
“Sure. I’ll be right down.”
“Let me know if you need anything,” said Finn, who barely looked up from the cartridge clip he was disassembling.
“Just keep looking for whatever’s causing this bloody malfunction and that will be extremely helpful,” said Riley, as the door closed behind them.
As Riley and Owen jogged through the pouring rain past Mole Control, Jake joined them and the three sprinted down the well-worn path to the drill site. The wind whipped large rain drops into their faces like they were the targets of a child’s water pistol campaign. Since the WeatherShield had gone offline, the weather seemed inclement every second day.
After months of drilling, the tunnel had become very long. The small strips of lighting affixed to the rocky ceiling lit their way in the dark depths. The tunnel seemed eerily quiet as they entered—the absence of the Mole’s roaring engine or the heavy crushing sound of the drill head seemed ominous. At the bottom of the tunnel, Riley, Owen and Jake found Clint and Ben standing behind the Mole looking at the wall’s curvature.
Jake and Riley fell in behind Clint and Ben, but Owen cut across everyone. He ran his hands across the wall’s surface. While rough to the touch, the wall was uniform and not jagged. Owen’s eyes followed the lines up the circular wall to the ceiling and took several steps back to see a bigger picture.
“Hmm,” said Owen. His eyes moved from the ceiling to the opposite wall and then to the floor below them. After a moment, he walked back to the place to which Clint had first drawn his attention. Again, he ran his hands along the lines in the rock, as if they would deliver a message in stony braille. The tunnel fell silent, void of conversation while Owen analyzed the situation. The others watched expectantly, waiting for him to fill them in on what the rocks were telling him. After a few moments, he elaborated. “This looks pretty unstable. What are you using for reinforcements?”
Clint pointed to a little white disc on the floor near where the group stood, its diameter similar to that of a large coin. “Pressure shields. The Mole drills a hole and drops them in automatically. We’ve been using them for years and usually in bigger tunnels than this. They exert force against the walls of the tunnel. They keep the ceiling on the ceiling and the walls in the walls. We haven’t received any report indicating instability, but I didn’t trust these lines,” said Clint, motioning to the rocky walls. “Thought I should maybe get a second opinion.”
Owen stared down at the white, disc-shaped sensor, slightly recessed into the stone floor and barely visible through rock dust and small stones. “You’ve got good instincts, Clint. I think you’re right. I think we should double up the last ten just to be sure.”
Clint nodded. “Sounds good. I could back the Mole up and have it place them, but I think I’ll just use the manual drill instead.”
“I like that idea much better,” said Jake. “We’re still playing catch up, and I want to get that Mole running again, ASAP.”
“Well, you guys have this under control. I’ve got what I came for,” said Ben, holding up a manual titled, MOLE 98XE: Electrical Schematic Map. He crossed through the group and started up the incline. Riley followed behind.
“Sounds good,” said Jake. He looked from Owen to Clint. “You two can handle this?”
Clint looked at Owen, who nodded. Clint liked the idea of working with Owen, the man seemed to really know his stuff and he seemed genuinely interested in Clint’s underground expertise. “Yeah, I think we’re good.”
As Clint spoke, an ear-splitting crack echoed throughout the tunnel and boulders fell from the ceiling. Tiny rock chips zinged through the air, ricocheting off the walls like bullets. Dust clouded the area where they stood. Several voices called out when another load of rocks tumbled down from the ceiling and wall where the group had stood just moments earlier.
Clint was the first to move. Hearing the cracking sound, he instinctively sprung back toward the shelter of the Mole but fell, landing hard on his shoulder and he hit his head on the bottom step of the Mole’s rear deck. As he sat up, the thundering of the falling rocks stopped. He reached behind his head and felt the back of the hard hat where it had collided with the diamond-plate step; a dent spanned the back of his aluminum helmet. He could barely see his hands in front of him through the dust; instinctively, he held his sleeve over his mouth to filter it out. He heard movement to his left and remembered Owen had been standing next to him. He crawled toward the stirring sounds and Owen’s form came into view. Owen sat upright, but his legs were covered by fallen rock. His white t-shirt, now torn, had taken on the greyish cast of the dust, except for several dark patches of blood growing on his shoulder and torso. The enormity of the situation sunk in and Clint was immediately seized with panic—seeing someone else’s blood had made it real. He reached for the pile of rocks pinning Owen’s leg down.
Owen grabbed Clint’s wrist. He tried to speak but nothing came out; the dust burned his lungs. He coughed and shook his head. “No. More shields first.”
Clint nodded then yelled into the com-sys for the others to come and help as he sprinted up the steps to the control room and emerged with a black tool box. He dropped the heavy box on the rear deck and it made a loud banging sound that echoed through the tunnel. Instinctively, he ducked as if the sound would set off another collapse. The mobility in his right hand was diminished due to his shoulder injury, causing him to fumble with his left hand to get the case open. He grabbed the specialized drill, stuffed handfuls of the white pressure shields into the pocket of his hoodie, jumped down the steps and drilled a shallow hole in the tunnel floor. As with the case, he fumbled with the tool with his left hand—his dominant hand could not hold the trigger down. He heaved his body weight onto the drill as best he could to speed the drilling process.
Owen brushed the dust off the bottom of his t-shirt and held it up to his mouth while he breathed. He looked around for Riley and the others, swearing under his breath as the dust began to settle. The fallen rock had come to rest exactly where the group had stood just moments before. He heard movement on the other side of the collapse but could see nothing over the pile of rocks and boulders between them. He called for Riley and got no reply. One of his legs was bent and pinned at an awkward angle. He leaned forward to remove the rocks that covered his legs but with every movement came an intense, stabbing pain in his knee that radiated up his thigh and made him nauseous. As he began to remove the rocks, he found several too large for him to move without his VersaTool, which he had left in the work shed. He called to Riley and his chest constricted instantly with dread when he got no response.
Riley heard her name being called, muffled and distant over the ringing in her ears. She moved her limbs gingerly before sitting up. She rolled her shoulder and winced in pain. She recognized the voice calling her name as Owen’s and reality came back to her with the force of a speeding train. She took in the surroundings, but it was impossible to assess anything through the dust. Jake lay beside her, unmoving. His forehead bled, but he showed no signs of significant physical damage. She swept her eyes to her right where Ben had been just moments ago. Her heart fell into her stomach when she saw his arm sticking out from beneath a pile of large rocks.
“Ben,” she breathed. She crawled to him and felt for a pulse, not expecting to find
one. Miraculously, she did. She heard Owen’s voice again, calling her name. She stood too fast and her brain became fuzzy. White stars obscured her vision and she stumbled forward, catching herself on a large boulder saving her from falling completely to the ground. Nausea grew in her stomach and she fought it back. Through the dust, she saw Owen on the far side of the rock pile. Relief washed over her, seeing him conscious and she acknowledged his call with an update on her and Ben’s status. She turned back to Ben and began pulling rocks off of him, terrified of what she may find beneath.
Clint finished installing the pressure shields and noticed they had not beeped at activation. He thought back to the other shields the Mole had installed. It occurred to him that he would never ordinarily hear the activation beep over the loud engine and wondered if the Mole was installing the shields but not activating them. He tossed the drill aside and raced back to the Mole, jumping over fallen rocks. He tapped the main screen several times, read the status and hung his head, sickened by what he saw. None of the pressure shields were activated. He activated the system, and as he stepped out of the control room, he heard beeps echoing up the tunnel as each disc came to life.
With the area stabilized, Clint freed Owen and helped him stand. Owen nearly fell back to the ground when he put weight on his knee. As if reading each other’s minds, Clint left Owen’s side and scrambled around the pile to help Riley uncover Ben. As Owen painfully step-hopped to the Mole’s stairs, he heard the others as they ran down the tunnel, the sounds of their voices and footsteps echoing as they approached.
Only fine dust hung in the air when the others appeared. Tyler, Lexi and Maya stopped dead at the scene. Clint dug madly away at a pile of rocks to which they paid no attention, hung up on the sight of Jake lying on the ground with Riley at his side checking his pulse. Jake’s foot twitched and he started to stir. He awoke and tried to sit up. Lexi fell to her knees at his side and helped Riley lay him back down. His t-shirt had torn away at the collar and the sizeable lump on his shoulder led Riley to suspect it was dislocated. She lifted his shirt to find a large rough gash on his side below his ribcage oozing blood. Riley tore off her t-shirt to reveal a white sports tank, turned her t-shirt dusty side in, folded it and pressed it to Jake’s bleeding side and left it for Lexi to hold.
Riley looked up at the stunned Maya and Tyler. “We need to dig Ben out.”
Maya, Tyler and Lexi looked at Clint with horror. Lexi screamed when she saw Ben’s limp hand protruding from the bottom of the pile. Tyler set aside the bodyboard, lunged for the pile of rocks and began to toss them aside.
With each rock they removed, Riley felt another fall into her gut. She had no idea what kind of shape Ben would be in or if he was even still alive. She had found a pulse moments ago, but she questioned how long that would last if he suffered internal injuries. Within minutes, Ben had been uncovered and Riley was amazed to see he looked relatively unscathed. There were rocks on his midsection, but whether or not they had caused damage she could not tell. A rock the size of a soccer ball rested on the side of his head but, like Clint, he was wearing a helmet. Two large boulders propped each other up over Ben’s chest like stones in an archway. On Riley’s command, they lifted the stones simultaneously.
With Ben uncovered, Maya moved in, checked his pulse and confirmed he was still breathing. Tyler grabbed the bodyboard, and on Maya’s command, Clint, Tyler and Riley delicately slid the board beneath Ben. Owen began hopping his way to Ben, and Riley ran to his side.
“Owen, take it easy.”
“It’s not that bad, I think it’s just a pulled ligament in the knee or something.” He put weight on his leg again to test it and he collapsed forward. A pain-induced pallor washed over his face. Riley grabbed him around the waist and eased him onto a nearby boulder.
Jake managed to get to his feet despite Lexi’s protestations and he limped toward Ben on the bodyboard. Lexi followed beside awkwardly, one arm around his waist and the other pressing Riley’s t-shirt to the cut on his side. Her small frame was dwarfed by his massive one. Maya stopped Jake as he approached.
“Everyone! Just stop! I know you’re worried,” Maya looked at Jake, “but crowding around Ben won’t help. We need to get him scanned. Lexi, take Ben up and set him down on one of the tables in the dining room. Tyler, take Jake up. I’m not entirely convinced he’s, well, I think he’s a little dazed still. Keep your eye on him. I’ll be right there.”
Tyler relieved Lexi from Jake’s side and she raced to Ben and activated the bodyboard stretcher. It rose off the ground and hovered at the height of her waist. She jogged up the incline and effortlessly pushed the board carrying Ben’s lifeless form. Jake and Tyler followed behind Lexi, their pace slower as Jake limped.
Maya turned to Riley; the control she exhibited moments ago had been replaced with panic. “We don’t have the RX-4000. What are we going to do? I think Ben’s seriously hurt.”
Riley took Maya by the shoulders. “It’s okay. You did an exceptional job just now. You obviously have medical training?”
Maya nodded, her eyes welling up with tears. She fought them back. “But not much. I mean, I volunteered in an emergency department for a couple of years, that’s it. Jake’s got Field First Aid, level two, but that’s it.”
Riley smiled encouragingly. “You probably know more than you think you do. Owen’s got some outdated first aid, and I’m a level five in Field First Aid. Don’t worry. We’ll get this sorted out.” But Riley was worried. Ben could have massive internal injuries, and without the RX-4000, there would be little they could do for him. Many of his wounds seemed superficial but without the proper equipment, they were flying blind. Jake seemed very dazed and Owen’s knee and leg looked worse than any knee injury she had ever seen in the field. The one mini MediScanner they had could only do so much. Anything more complicated than a fracture in a simple bone may be diagnosed, but certainly not healed. Riley’s poker face hid her concerns while she bolstered Maya’s confidence.
“Maya, you’re doing great. Focus on Ben, let’s get him under control first. Jake seems somewhat disorientated and that concerns me a bit. All of the superficial injuries can wait. Delegate to whoever is able to help. Lexi, Tyler and I can work on the superficial stuff, but whatever you need us to do, tell us.” She looked over at Clint and Owen. “Owen, I’ll send Tyler down with the bodyboard for you. There’s no way you’re walking back on that leg. Clint, can you stay with him?”
“I’ve got a better idea.” Clint pulled the active dump bucket to Owen’s side, where it hovered obediently. “Sit in this. It’ll carry you up the hill. When you get to the top, I’ll set it to manual and I can push you the rest of the way.”
“Thanks,” said Owen, grateful for the assistance. Sitting down in the bucket proved tricky. The rock bits, although small, were uncomfortable, and he winced as he bent his knee to steady himself atop the full bucket. Once settled, Clint activated the bucket and it ascended smoothly toward the light. “You really saved the day, Clint. We’d all have been in a lot of trouble if you weren’t here.”
Maya and Riley sprinted up the incline and back to the camp. As they approached the main tent, they saw the bodyboard leaning against the wall beside the door, covered with bloody handprints. As Riley reached for the door, the women shared a silent look, each in fear of what they would find inside.
Darren prepared the dining area for the incoming wounded and set out the medical supplies salvaged from the tree incident. Riley and Maya burst into the main tent to find Lexi, Tyler and Jake standing around Ben lying unconscious on a table. Riley’s now-bloodied t-shirt lay discarded on the floor and Tyler continued to apply pressure to Jake’s wound with clean gauze.
Darren met Maya and Riley at the door with the scanner and within seconds, Maya had initiated a scan of Ben’s entire body. Everyone backed away as Maya scanned, as to not confuse the scanner. The cut on Ben’s leg oozed blood, visible through the hole that Lexi had ripped in Ben’s pant leg to access the wound
better.
“How is he?” asked Riley.
Maya read and reread the results. “I think he’s alright. Well, I think he’s damn lucky. I don’t see any signs of internal bleeding. It looks like he’s got two fractured ribs, and a fractured tibia and radius,” she said pointing to his shin and then his forearm. “Plus, numerous gashes and wounds that will require a lot of stitches. But what concerns me most is that something’s up with his spleen, but the scanner’s not giving me too much info on it. It just says ‘Injured spleen. Cannot fully assess. Seek medical assistance.’”
Maya handed the scanner to Riley. Riley looked at the three-dimensional illustration of Ben’s form on the screen. It was covered by so many pulsing red dots that his form was barely visible. She touched the largest red dot on the illustration’s torso and the body was replaced by the message Maya had read. While Riley, Jake and Maya discussed Ben’s injuries, he awoke and began to writhe in pain.
Maya immediately sat beside him atop the table. She asked him if he remembered anything and he shook his head, shaking and unable to speak. She took his hand in hers and held it tightly as she explained what had happened and what his injuries were. His eyes were wide and his breath came in shallow bursts. Sweat on his forehead mixed with rock dust and blood; Lexi wiped it away with a dishtowel. When Maya finished her explanation, she dispensed the best painkillers the portable medical device could offer, as well as a sleeping pill. Within minutes, his shaking hands fell limp as Ben slipped back into unconsciousness.
The door to the main tent opened and Clint helped Owen hobble through. Unable to do anything for Ben, Jake helped Clint negotiate a hobbling Owen onto a table top, supporting his damaged leg. Maya and the handheld MediScanner worked what magic they could on Ben while Lexi and Tyler assisted her. Darren prepared lunch and Riley and Jake discussed the setback quietly in the meeting room. Jake declined Maya’s offer to look at his shoulder and ribs, insisting that she address the others’ injuries first.
Considering the damage Ben had received, Maya had him looking better quickly. The same, “Seek medical attention” message reported for the spleen injury appeared again for the large gash on his leg. The healing rays from the MediScanner had at least cleaned the wound and stemmed the flow of blood, leaving Lexi to patch it the rest of the way with LiquiStitch.
With Ben’s wounds under control, Maya turned her attention to Owen. Jake and Riley emerged from the meeting room to see Maya scanning Owen. Riley walked briskly to Owen’s side, hoping she showed no more concern for him than had he been any other team member.
Maya completed the scan and sat down on the bench at Owen’s side. Owen read the results over her shoulder, but he and everyone else looked up at the sound of the door being flung open. Finn sprinted up behind Riley and pulled her into a bone-crushing bear hug.
“Omigod, Riley! Clint just told me. I thought you were dead. I didn’t know any of this happened. I didn’t have my earpiece in. I had pulled it out for a bit because my ear was sore. I’m so sorry! Clint said that the tunnel collapsed on you. I thought he meant you were dead!” His massive arms gripped her like a python.
Riley looked up at Finn. His eyes were watery and several tears rolled down his cheek. She patted him on the side of his square jaw and smiled. “Finn, I’m alright.”
He pulled her tight again and kissed her on the forehead head three times as Clint came in.
Riley laughed, taken aback by Finn’s overwhelming show of concern. “Finn, what the hell’s wrong with you?”
“God, Riley. You’re like my big sister! If you’d died, I don’t know what I would have done.”
Riley was moved by Finn’s sentiment. “Thanks, Finn. Yes, yes, and you are very much like the pesky kid brother I never had.” He released her and she kissed him on the cheek. “Now make yourself useful and please find me three slings from the medical room.”
With Finn off to the medical room, Owen and Riley looked expectantly at Maya, waiting to hear the results of his full body scan.
“Alright. Cuts and bruises you’re aware of. You’re alright for the most part—nothing hidden. You’re lucky, no breaks. But you’ve got one completely torn ligament in your knee and another is hanging on by a thread.” She held up the scanner for Riley and Owen to see the now familiar message, “Seek medical attention.” Finn returned from the medical room with the slings and, at Maya’s request, an ice pack from the freezer. Maya wrapped it gently around Owen’s swollen and bruising knee with a tensor bandage.
Jake’s scan revealed nothing unexpected; it showed the cuts and bruises he had sustained and confirmed Riley’s hunch of a dislocated shoulder. His wits had long since returned and the scan revealed no lingering effects from hitting his head on the stone floor.
Clint’s scan had been the cleanest of all. His shoulder was severely bruised and cut, requiring several stitches. He showed the team the damage his hard hat had sustained during his fall back onto the Mole’s rear deck and credited it for keeping his skull from looking like a smashed Christmas bauble.
As Maya had never reset a dislocated shoulder before and Riley had done two in the field, Maya let her do the honours. Lexi sat next to Jake and reached for his hand, but she retracted it when Riley silently and subtly shook her head. Instead, she sipped on the hot chocolate Darren had brought around earlier.
“Hey, Jake, what year did you say you joined NRD?” Riley asked, elevating his arm as she inspected the lump on his dislocated shoulder.
Jake thought this was a very unusual question for her to ask at this particular moment but nonetheless thought for a second. “Two thousand and—OH my sweet mother of all that is holy!” He yelled and jumped, his face red as a beet. The mug of hot chocolate he held in his good hand now lay broken on the floor. When the explosion of pain subsided, he opened up his hand to find the mug’s handle in five pieces. Lexi held the hand she had planned to offer Jake and rubbed it gently as she stared bug-eyed at the broken handle in Jake’s outstretched hand.
The trade-off for the MediScanner’s portable nature was its reduced healing capabilities. It could tell Ben’s spleen was injured, but it could no more heal it than it could surgically reattach the two torn ligaments in Owen’s knee. It could dispense painkillers in quantities adequate for smaller injuries, but for Ben and Owen, the drugs could only take the edge off. It worked wonders on all of Riley’s minor injuries—the cuts and scrapes, as well as her re-injured shoulder. After the healing rays had penetrated her shoulder, Riley rolled it and found that it felt better than it had before the attack on the riverbank several months back.
There were many cuts and bruises the scanner could not completely heal. Jake and Clint both sustained similar long gashes on their shoulders and back. Owen had a nasty cut where a rock chip grazed his side like a bullet. Lexi and Riley stitched what they could with LiquiStitch. A small rock chip embedded itself in Jake’s shoulder like a bullet. The damage it left, after being removed and cleaned, would require numbing and traditional stitches, something Maya had never done before but watched countless times while volunteering at the hospital.
The actual damage of the rock collapse paled in comparison to its potential. Other than Ben’s spleen and Owen’s knee, the group had escaped a deadly situation relatively unscathed. All injured parties declined any medical assistance from Owen—his training, though ten years out of date to him meant over 100 years out of date by everyone else’s standards. Clint joked that he would no sooner let Owen cut up his steak than administer to him any medical assistance.
The team ate hot chicken soup and sandwiches in shifts while the remaining injuries were cleaned and bandaged. Darren cleaned up the dining area, and before long, it again resembled a dining room instead of a trauma centre.
Tyler, Clint and Finn loaded Ben back onto the bodyboard and taxied him to the trailer he shared with Clint. Ben stirred only a little as they slid him into bed like a fried egg off a spatula, still asleep from the medication. Maya scanned him one more time, f
itted a leg brace on the leg with the fracture and left the sling on his night table.
Finn returned to the main tent with the bodyboard to find Riley helping Owen limp toward the door. He set the bodyboard beside Owen, hovering at waist height. Owen was grateful to see the board. When he sat down, he grabbed the edges of the board tightly and was surprised by how steady it was. As Finn and Riley pushed him to his trailer, he had the bizarre sensation of sitting on a surfboard, but with no water. Finn opened the trailer door and helped Riley manoeuvre the board inside. Once Owen was off the board and settled on the edge of the bed, Finn announced there was still some work he needed to do in the work shed. He smiled at Riley, hugged her and kissed her again on the forehead and took the bodyboard as he left the trailer.
Owen could tell something was bothering Riley. She had said nothing since Finn had left them. Her movements were abrupt and purposeful. Owen wondered if the stress of the day had finally caught up with her, now that everyone was fixed up and deemed fit to survive. For a person who brushed off an attack in the dark by eleven assailants as nothing more than an average day at the office, it seemed as though the events of the day would rattle her no more than a broken fingernail.
Her eyes fell on the long, jagged cut on his side. “I think that’s going to leave a scar.” She stared at the large wound stitched together with liberal quantities of LiquiStitch and the bruise blossoming around it.
“Don’t you know chicks dig scars? Or so Finn says,” said Owen. He tried to lighten her mood, but she appeared not to have heard him. “Rile, honey…Everyone’s fine. We’re all alright. It’s over.”
Owen reached up to touch her face but at that moment, she turned to throw his shirt in the garbage. She knelt in front of him and undid the laces of his shoes. Owen caressed her cheek gently to get her attention, but she would not be distracted. She placed his shoes neatly under the chair beside the bed.
“We need to get you into the shower. You’re covered in dust.” Riley stood abruptly, feeling pressure building in her chest and a painful lump growing in her throat. All of the feelings, thoughts and revelations she had repressed throughout the day came flooding through her like water escaping a breached dam. She could feel her temper surface as her emotions took control of her. She helped Owen to his feet and into the bathroom.
She looked down at Owen’s makeshift shorts. They had been pants before Maya had hacked the legs off to access his swollen knee.
“You’re going to have to lose those fancy new shorts,” she said, fighting to keep her voice steady.
Owen feigned a scandalized look. “But Miss Morgan! What will the others say?” He dropped his shorts and stood in nothing but boxer briefs and the tensor bandage wrapped around his knee. Just as she was about to tell him to lose the briefs as well, she thought better of it should someone come in to check on him.
Riley helped Owen into the shower and eased him onto a stool she had found in the closet. She joined him in the shower and knelt in front of him to remove the tensor bandage. She froze when she saw his knee. The battered joint shone in various shades of purple and had swollen to the size of a small watermelon. The cuts and pinches from the rocks shone violent indigo and near black. Her eyes darted from his knee to his eyes and when she saw him watching her, she looked away quickly and turned on the water. She tested the water and turned the shower head on him. Water sprayed his face and he leaned back on the stool to get out of the stream.
He laughed at her unpolished nursing efforts. “Sweetie, I can do this myself.” She seemed not to hear and he sat in silence as she soaped him up. When she reached his legs, she hesitated as if trying to determine the best way to clean the train wreck of a joint, then soaped her hands and gently caressed it. Though determined not to, Owen winced in pain and she sprung backward like she had been electrocuted. She scrambled back against the shower wall, nearly hitting her head on the hot and cold taps and slid to the floor, her face contorted in emotional agony. With his pain now passed, Owen held his arm out for her but she was beyond his reach while seated. “Rile?”
“I’m so sorry, Owen,” she said. She looked from his knee to the wall of the shower, unable to meet his eyes.
Owen reached out an arm to her and saw tears streaming down her face. Her eyes were wide and her expression looked frantic.
“Riley, you didn’t do this. This isn’t your fault. No one could have predicted what happened today. It was no one’s fault.”
She shook her head. Loose strands of wet hair hung limply around her face. She absently traced one of the grout lines between tiles with her finger, still avoiding his eyes. “No, you being here. You almost died today, and I brought you here.”
“Sweetie,” he said reaching out to her again. “Come here.”
Her eyes slowly met his. Owen took her shaking hand and pulled her gently toward him. She knelt on the shower floor between his knees and broke down in his arms, resting her head on his chest and clung to him as if he could be taken from her at any moment. He held her tightly as the warm water cascaded over them. He slid the wet strands of hair out of her face and tucked them behind her ear. Owen heard someone call his name and Finn appeared in the bathroom door, then stopped. Giving them privacy, he closed the door as he left. Owen heard him talking to Maya on the other side of the door.
“You can’t go in there,” Finn explained. “The man’s naked, if you must know. I’m going to have nightmares tonight because of it. Don’t worry, I’ll give him the crutches.”
Owen smiled when he saw Finn’s hand extend through a crack in the door with a thumbs up.
Riley felt like her head had been turned inside out both physically and emotionally. Something inside her felt broken. How close she and her teammates had come to being killed today rattled her in a way that left her feeling more exposed and vulnerable than she had on her very first op. Every day spent on a field operation put her in mortal danger but after years of living in danger, she had become desensitized. However, seeing Owen exposed to that danger, drove a stake of fear through her heart like nothing she had ever experienced. She had brought him into this op and exposed him to that danger. The conflicted feelings between her loyalty to her job and what she felt for him made her head ache and she felt nauseous.
Riley looked up at Owen. His hair was wet and swept back from his face. His dark brown eyes looked at her with caring and warmth. She wiped the tears from her reddened eyes. “I’m sorry. You must think I’m ridiculous.”
Owen smiled and kissed her cheek. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I don’t think you’re ridiculous, and the Riley Morgan that I know wouldn’t really care if I thought she was ridiculous or not.”
“Seeing what happened to you, to all of us, shook me up. It made me realize how desensitized I’ve become. I calculate the risks then focus on the job that needs to be done and I lead my team through it. I don’t think beyond that. I mean, you can’t in this line of work otherwise you lose your nerve. Obviously, I care about what happens to Finn and everyone else, but they all know the risks. But seeing the man I love nearly killed made me feel like…I don’t know. Like I’d come out of a haze or something and it reminded me how life can be lost in an instant. I guess I got a bit of a mortality check.” Riley paused; she had specifically intended to never mention the L-word. Even though she had felt it not long after their first night together, she worried it would make their inevitable end so much harder. Now that she had said it, it felt very right. “I love you so much, Owe.” Riley kissed him hard and squeezed him so tightly she worried she might hurt him.
“Riley, I’ve loved you since the moment you pulled me out from in front of that bus.” He ran his hands through her wet hair then caressed her cheek. His thumb left a trail of blood and he looked at his hand.
“Holy shit Rile, you’re bleeding.”
“I’m not feeling very good…” Riley’s voice shook then she passed out in his arms.
Jake sat at the boardroom table in Mole Control running thro
ugh calculations and drawing hypothetical situations on the drilling map. With little more than three weeks left and more than a month’s worth of drilling ahead of them, Jake worried how much further behind they would be as a result of the rock collapse. Ben’s injuries would likely take him out of the game for the rest of the op, leaving them even more shorthanded than they already were. By a stroke of luck, the active Mole sustained no notable damage in the collapse, other than a few more dents.
“Jake, I need you to hold still.” Lexi stood at Jake’s side with the bottle of LiquiStitch open on the boardroom table in front of her. The MediScanner had jump-started the healing process of several cuts on his back and arm, but they needed a coat of LiquiStitch to be closed fully.
“Lex, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I’m fine. I need to get this work done.”
Lexi placed her hand on Jake’s arm. Though she was standing and he was sitting, they were nearly eye to eye. “Jake, don’t make me get Maya. The only reason she let you go back to work was because you promised her you would let me stitch this up.”
Jake knew she was right. No one could afford to take any chances with their health this late in the game. He tossed his pencil on the table and spun in his chair to face her. He had to admit it did feel nice to have someone taking care of him. He looked up at her, wanting to convey his gratitude, unsure of the words. “Thank you, Lex.”
Her touch was gentle and caring and the sensation felt foreign yet familiar, like someone singing Happy Birthday in a different language.
“How’ve you been feeling lately? Have you been able to stop thinking about that idiot of an ex-fiancé?”
Lexi looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded. “Oh yeah. I mean, the meanness of the whole thing still stings, but it’s been over five months now. I’m really feeling better. Let’s hope I can find a guy who cares a little bit more and appreciates me.”
Jake watched her concentrate on his shoulder. She had a beautiful face with delicate features. “I don’t think you’ll have any problems. You’re pretty, smart and very capable.” He smiled at her warmly when she looked at him.
Lexi noticed a hint of a dimple in Jake’s smile she had never noticed before. “Thanks, Jake. I hope so.”
Owen scooped up Riley’s unconscious form onto his lap. He held her tightly in front of him and inched as far forward on the stool to turn off the taps. He turned carefully and reached outside the glass shower door for the towel. He wrapped her in the towel, stood on his good leg and carried her as he hobbled awkwardly out of the bathroom. Each step sent searing pain up and down his leg until he thought he would collapse and be sick. He laid Riley on the bed and looked through the window for anyone he could flag down. Finn was leaving Clint’s trailer. Owen hopped to the door and yelled for him to find Maya.
Within minutes, Maya arrived in Owen and Finn’s trailer, with Finn close on her heels.
“What happened?” Maya asked, looking at Riley on the bed. She had the MediScanner ready.
“She was helping me in the shower and she said she wasn’t feeling well and passed out. She’s got a pretty big cut on the back of her head.” Owen held the folded towel to the back of her head.
“Dammit,” said Maya. Her fingers shook and she fumbled with the touch screen as she tried to reset the scanner. “Riley was the only person who was down there that I didn’t do a full body scan on. She was so busy helping me. I patched her up but never thought to scan her.”
Maya scanned the length of Riley’s body and then sat on the edge of the bed while the device processed. She watched the two men sitting restlessly at her side, both with distinctly different looks of worry—one like that of a brother worrying about a sister and the other, a man worried about his lover. Owen held her hand and stroked her forehead. The device beeped, and Maya read the results.
“What is it?” Owen asked after a short moment.
“She’s got a mild concussion. She needs to rest, but not sleep. That cut on her head can’t wait. It needs to get stitched up, pronto.” Maya took the bottle of LiquiStitch out of her pocket and handed it to Owen. His eyes were wide, pleading silently for Riley to be alright. Maya put her hand on Owen’s shoulder and gave it a sympathetic squeeze as Riley stirred. “She’s going to be okay. She needs to rest. Finn, please bring her more chicken soup. Owen, make sure she eats it. Why do I get the feeling she makes a bad patient?”
Owen laughed and nodded. “Yes, she does.”
Finn pulled the chair beside the bed closer and took Riley’s hand in his. Riley opened her eyes and was startled to find herself in bed with Owen and Finn sitting at her side, staring at her. Her brain ached like she had been cleaved in the head.
“What’s wrong with you guys?” she asked, looking around. She propped herself up on her elbows.
“How do you feel?” Owen asked.
“Confused,” she said slowly. Two pairs of wide eyes stared at her expectantly. “What is wrong with you two? Why are you looking at me like I’m dying?”
Owen caressed her cheek. “You passed out in the shower, do you remember?”
Riley thought for a moment. Her memory of the shower became fuzzy and then nothing. “Well, I’m alright now.” She tried to get out of bed, but Owen and Finn stopped her.
Finn looked at Owen. “I’ll get some soup.”
Owen sat with Riley for the rest of the day. Riley was resentful about being confined to bed rest with only a headache, knowing that rocks needed to be removed in the tunnel. Throughout the afternoon and into the evening, different team members came and visited her and Ben. The best news of the day came from her final visitor, Jake, telling her that the delay would not be as catastrophic as they had originally figured. If they pushed the active Mole longer each day, they would be ahead of the game again in no time.