Sigun, Rigoth, Asen and Bomrek were standing just outside the guardroom's door. The violence of the collapsing roof had just enforced a silence upon them when Bomrek could hear Asen scream.

“NO! NOOO!”

then he could hear flint striking steel, then a light went on. Rigoth held a burning torch that immersed the carnage ahead of them in a dark orange light. A wall of snow was sloping out of the guardroom’s entrance. Rubble of the collapsed stone ceiling lay about between the white and some stirring could still be heard.

“GRAB THE SHOVELS, WE HAVE TO GET THEM OUT OF THERE!” Rigoth bellowed

With shovels, buckets and baskets, they set to work, excavating a way inside. Every time they had cleared a spot, new masses of snow fell down from above, giving them no easy way through. When they finally did see the black heavens above them, it was clear to them that over fifteen feet of snow were burying them. Sigun decided to start compacting snow above them and to their sides, hoping to erect a stable wall, but even with those efforts, their excavation seemed to drag on forever. They finally cleared a path to the centre of the room. There, they found Stikus, and beneath him, shielded by his body, Umel. Asen and Sigun threw themselves on the survivors full of joy.

The two were unharmed, only extremely cold. Stikus, the experienced miner, had recognized the sound of buckling wooden beams and cracking rock and thrown himself and Umel into the snowy pillar that had formed over the fireplace, directly underneath the hole in the ceiling, where there would be less rubble to crush them and snow above to shield them. A split-moment decision had saved both their lives.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

The now six survivors continued out in all four directions. Everyone chipped in, despite exhaustion and cold gnawing at their strength ever more. Very close to the fireside, they found Lushrir and not far from him, Endok. They had been hit hard by the rubble, but they were alive. Lushrir had already made a self-diagnosis, telling them he had a swollen foot and a broken rib, while Endok seemed to have more than one broken rib, as well as a twisted arm and a bruised back. They were taken to one of the empty rooms and cared for by Asen while the others kept looking for Urist.

They still remembered where Urist had sat, and it did not take them long to find a foot wearing her boots. She was buried under rubble, but they did not have to clear much of it to notice that her body was completely lifeless. Umel let herself fall backwards and Rigoth’s hands started to shake. Sigun remained stalwart and Bomrek had seen too much death in his lines of work to give up what had to be completed. Each piece of limestone seemed to pull heavy on his arms and shoulder, his back moaned with every lift, but the dead required their respect.

He found Urist's head bloodied and lacerated. Her blood-smeared hands and how they had spread her own red onto the white in her vicinity told him that she had not died instantly, probably had grasped, reached and twitched for agonizingly long moments before life had left her. Bomrek did not comment on it. Sigun checked for her breath just to be sure, then he and Bomrek picked her body up. Over and through snow they carried her to the southern wall of their tiny valley, where the previous colonists had buried their dead. Neither of them was in any shape to dig into the frozen soil, the snow would do for now. Out of sight, away from the others and with eyes closed, she would await them in peace. He barely found the strength to stumble back to the mine entrance. Consolations and sorrow abound, but exhaustion soon took all of their strength to cry. Bomrek barely made it into his sleeping bag before he slipped into a sleep colder than the snow and darker than the mountain’s eternal shadow.