Waking up with a roof over my head was a strange experience. One moment my dreams ruled, the next my eyes opened, saw the stone, and I jerked upright. It only took a second for everything to come back to me in the low light. Snores from John filled the room, and I saw Hawk glance my way.

“Breakfast starts soon,” he whispered.

John woke up at the sound, rubbing his eyes.

For the moment, we were safe, though I couldn’t tell what time it was in the windowless room. All of the people here in the mountain made do without windows. Yet, my first morning here, and already it felt wrong. I didn’t think it was the lack of windows. I felt trapped, like I had in the shuttle when the storm had raged. It didn’t take long for me to get my boots on and be ready to go, ready to get out of this enclosed space.

Hawk led the way back down the tunnels to the room we’d all met in the night before. The tunnel lights were brighter this morning, a deep red lighting up the tunnels. Last night they’d been softer.

Quiet voices echoed down the tunnel from the open door of the mess room. The large table inside was half-full with people quickly shoving food into their mouths. A group of four exited just before we arrived, their backs heading away from us down the tunnel.

Everyone had some sort of armor on, mostly leather, and to put it nicely it smelled. Stale sweat, along with the smell of some sort of fried meat, seemed to cover everything. Three other miners sat at the table. Jimmy finished his plate when he saw us enter and waved us over to that side of the large table. “It's good to see you guys,” mumbled Jimmy. His eyes traced over John and Hawk. “Sounds like there are plans for an evac.”

John went up to the counter, which had plates and platters of food. He motioned me to take a seat. Then John handed me a plate and I dove in. It smelled weird, and I wasn’t sure it was actually meat, but I ate it anyway. I thought it was maybe a mushroom of some type, diced up with a tuber. It tasted fine, and had salt on it, which was a rare treat, at least to me.

“It seems that way,” said John. “I’ll need to work on reorganizing the shuttle to fit as many people as possible.”

“No one wants to stay,” growled one of the miners. “We lost Vic last night to something in the dark.” He shook his head before taking a sip of his beverage. “Mars can’t keep us here.”

“Damn straight he can’t,” echoed another.

An older woman nodded as well, finishing her food. Her eyes traveled over me. “You guys turned up at the right time to save our asses.”

John smiled. “It’s been rough everywhere, but I’m glad we can help.”

She nodded again and stood up, tossing her plate into a bin on the counter. The two other miners got up as well. Both glared at her, but she just glared back. “We need to clear the path to the cavern. Sang wants to grab whatever’s possible before we get outta here.”

“Don’t want to go near that cavern. Poor Vic.”

She slapped the guy on the side of his head, making him flinch. “We got a job to do, the crystals will help us in the future.”

That shut him up and the three of them headed out of the room.

“What’d you find out?” asked Hawk, as soon as the sound of footsteps faded.

“It’s bad. Whatever is in the mountain is trying to get out.” Jimmy shivered. “Last night they caved in two tunnels to hold it back. The crystal room is in the middle.”

I scraped the rest of the breakfast mixture into my mouth and set the bowl down. “Well, hopefully the crystals are worth it.”

Jimmy shrugged. “From what they said, they are big and strong. Only reason they are willing to risk it.”

“What about Mars?” asked Hawk.

Jimmy shook his head. “He’s pushing to get them, wants a bargaining chip with Xander I bet.”

“There’s no bargaining with Xander,” muttered Hawk.

John shrugged. “Who knows? I mean, there are twelve of them left, and one’s a mender. It will help the colony.”

Hawk shook his head sharply but didn’t say anything else. Instead, he finished his breakfast. “Any word on Doc and Denver?”

Jimmy chuckled. “Doc’s been working with the mender, David. A few miners were hurt last night. Denver is up and eating, though Doc said he better not push it. He needs a few days to be back to normal.”

Hawk slowly nodded. “Alright. That’s good news, at least. John, I expect you’ll need to focus on prepping the shuttle.” He turned toward me. “You're headed deeper into the mines with Sang, and I’ll be joining you.”

“You will?” I asked. I wasn’t sure why he would volunteer to go watch us remove crystals.

“It sounds like some extra fighters will be helpful.”

“You aren’t wrong,” said Sang as she poked her head into the room. “Come on, there’s a debriefing in the last cavern before the mines. Mars is pulling everyone in to discuss the situation.” She made quotation marks around the word situation.

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Hawk and Jimmy shot to their feet while John and I were a little slower.

The walk in the tunnel was short and it led to a large cavern, much bigger than the one with the shuttle in it. I quickly counted the people and came up with seven, including Mars. He gave Hawk a nod as we entered. Sang moved to join him toward the front of the room. A large metal gate blocked a tunnel entrance next to them.

“As all of you are aware, we have decided to leave the mountain…” Mars paused with a frown. “We will head to the compound and negotiate from there with the settlement for either joining them, or what.”

Someone in the group grunted.

“As soon as dusk falls we want to be in the air. We have twelve hours to remove everything we want to keep and get the shuttle ready to go.”

“Remember, we only have so much room,” added John, looking a little worried. It wasn't like the shuttle was huge.

Mars grimly nodded. “Our priority will be mushroom spores for the caves in the settlement, along with ore, and whatever crystals we can get.”

The miners nodded, glancing at one another.

“We're going to break the group up into two. One for the crystal cavern, and the other to move the metals and growing supplies. That group will also help David with whatever he needs, and help John prep the shuttle. The sooner that ship is ready to leave, the better.”

“What about the monster?” asked one of the younger miners.

“We’re only going to open up the one side of the tunnel to the crystal cavern. Everyone else will be monitoring the other, along with the small cracks that the spiders come through. Matt, you’ll be dealing with the cart, pulling crystals from Sang and Alex to here, where the other team will get them to the ship.”

“But what if it comes back?”

“Then we will deal with it.” Mars’ voice was stern and clipped. The miners went quiet.

Sang called out a few names of those headed to the crystal cavern. They headed toward the metal door hammered into the wall.

Mars approached the four of us. “I heard you’re going to join the miners,” he said to Hawk.

“Yep, gotta keep Alex here out of trouble.”

I resisted snorting at that comment, given my stats.

Mars turned toward Jimmy. “What about you?”

He pointed toward John. “Gonna help him prep the shuttle. Your miners can get a little unruly.”

“Fair point.”

My attention stayed on the miners. The older woman from the mess hall approached the door and a rush of energy filled the area. Metal hooks dug deep into the stone popped free, like magic.

My eyes grew wide at the sight. She could manipulate metal. Two of the miners moved the heavy metal door off to one side, revealing a caved-in tunnel full of rock. This time, the man she’d slapped entered and the stone slowly lifted back into the ceiling.

“That’s magic,” I whispered. I hadn’t known those types of abilities were even possible. Most classes that folks got were things that made sense to me, like a hunter. Things that would have worked back on Earth. This wasn't that.

John leaned closer to me. “They have some hidden talents here in the mines. The one working the cavern’s a stonecaller. Good man.”

I nodded, feeling a little better about going into that tunnel. Then I heard something skittering.

“What’s that?” I asked.

One of the miners entered the mouth of the tunnel and tossed something that sparked red as it flew through the air. It landed deeper in, showing movement.

Hawk stepped forward, along with the miners. I hung back, my hand moving to my spear. Shapes moved in the light, and it took a few moments for me to realize they were giant freaking spiders.

The miners moved forward, pulling out short swords and shovels. I paused to watch as the skittering arachnids didn’t even phase them. The sound of fighting quickly drowned the skittering.

“Spiders…” I mumbled.

“Yep, the tunnels are full of them,” said Mars, who still stood nearby. “I’ll make sure Alex gets where he’s going. You two better get to work.”

John gave me a nod then headed off with Jimmy.

“The spiders are low level and tend to flee once they realize we can easily kill them. The slimes or rock bugs are worse.”

I turned to look at Mars, but his focus stayed on the tunnel entrance. Two miners stayed near the metal door. One of them was the woman, and she gave a thumbs up to Mars.

“Alright, time to get to work.” Mars moved forward and I followed. Round stones, like the one from the sleeping area, ran along one edge of the floor. Each one provided a deep red light as we traveled down the tunnel. The tunnel itself was only wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

Off to one side I noticed claw marks, and something that looked sticky.

“Did the spiders do that?”

“No, that was a rock bear. I gained three levels from that one.” He sounded so proud of himself.

The tunnel stretched on and twisted to the left. Another tunnel entrance went to the right, but it was blocked with another metal door. This one had been pushed in from the other side. Mars paused to look at it, then shook his head before continuing. Another gate loomed ahead, though this one looked to be made of thick black stone. It almost sparkled in the red light. Beyond the gate, more red lights glowed and crystals sparkled.

“Alex, you coming?” Sang’s voice called out.

It took a moment for me to find her near the left side of the cavern. Most of the miners had gone in the other direction. She stood, staring up at a wall with giant chunks of crystal sticking out. She waved me closer.

This cavern wasn’t created by someone shaping stone. Nothing was smooth. Jagged edges covered all of the walls, and rocks hung down from the ceiling. Water dripped from above and the air smelled weird. Mars headed in the other direction and I caught up to Sang.

“So these are raw crystals…” I muttered.

She chuckled with a small smile. “Yes, though most of this is worthless for what we want. We want crystals that can hold energy, and listen to our commands.” She took a step forward. “Watch this…”

Sang hummed. The sound filled the space, then certain rocks glowed. The bright light took over and I had to blink to be able to see. The light even pierced through solid rock, like a light bulb covered with a blanket.

Instead of the whole wall, there were only a few crystals in front of us that kept that look. As soon as she stopped humming, the light faded.

“So, that’s our job.”

“We hum, and then dig out the crystals?” I asked, to make sure I understood.

“Pretty much, though once we have one almost free I’ll show you some tricks that make the last bit easier.” Sang moved to one area that glowed brightly near the floor of the cavern. “This little one will probably make some good weapons, or maybe even a few inventory crystals.” She patted a rock that had glowed moments before, which wasn't what I considered little. “We just need to remove it without cracking it.”