For what felt like the next several days – I’m not certain if it was actually that long or not – Red and I wandered in the endless silence of a labyrinthine abyss. We ate when we got hungry. We rested when we got tired. We rutted like wild animals when the endless tedium grew overwhelming. We slept when resting wasn’t enough to restore our vigor anymore. Even while trying to map our path as we explored, it felt as if we were helplessly lost in the depths of the earth.

As nothing happened inside the endless tunnels, Red eventually discarded her tunic into her pack and gave up the struggle with it. At first, staring at her helped me relieve the tedium of the never-changing mine shafts, but after a while, they too just became part of the scenery.

Never would I have imagined that there could be a job so bleak! I now understood why this was, “Widow’s Crypt”. The workers here succumbed to the monotony and must’ve committed suicide! Of course, you wouldn’t want to tell a grieving widow that, so it ended up being blamed on a “cave in”. At least, that was my theory on it.

On the fourth day inside the mine – or at least after the fourth time we ate “breakfast” – things suddenly changed in the blink of an eye. One moment, we were walking the same endlessly rough-hewn tunnels. The next, we rounded the corner, and the wall, floor, and ceiling was lined in paved bricks!

Even more startling, not long after that, the walls began to give off a fluorescent blue glow, which was bright enough we no longer even needed the lanterns. Examining them closely, they were covered in some form of slimy mildew, which shimmered naturally all the time.

“Stop a moment,” I ordered Red, as I blew out the flame in my lantern. “Grab the lantern from my back, and carefully dump the oil back into one of those empty flasks.”

“Why,” she asked, while doing it anyway.

“You’ll see in a moment,” I teased.

When she had finished drawing the oil from her lantern, I took it from her and removed both the globe and the wick from it. Storing the wick carefully in a side pocket of my backpack, I then put the globe back on the base of the lantern, and sat the whole thing down on the ground.

Pulling my hatchet, I scraped against the side of the wall, peeling a layer of slimy mildew until it covered the complete head of it. Placing it over the wickless lantern, I wrinkled my nose as I slid the slime off with my finger. “Feels like a cold, wet booger,” I complained.

“And leaves you with glowy blue booger fingers,” Red giggled, pointing to the stain on my hands.

“Maybe,” I muttered, “but once I fill the globe full, we’ll have an eternally glowing lantern.” Or at least one until the slime dried out and loses its fluorescent properties.

Half an hour later, we continued on our way again. This time, our path was illuminated by the dim glow over the walls and ceiling, and a strong glow from the lantern I was carrying, as well as the glow from the head of my hatchet, my hands, my nose, and both of Red’s breasts. She’d started laughing when I rubbed my nose without thinking, when it started itching, so I had to do something to even the odds…

Another ten minutes later, the scenery changed suddenly once again. There, at the end of the hallway, was a large rusted door. “I wonder if it’s safe,” I pondered, as we closed the distance on it.

“Does it really matter?” Red asked, while shrugging her shoulders. “After all this time, I don’t feel like turning around now just because it might be dangerous. The heart’s probably beyond it somewhere.”

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“I didn’t say we weren’t going to open it,” I snorted. “I just think it’d be a good idea for you to protect the twin girls, before we do it.”

“Gotcha.” Laughing gaily, Red leaned her spear against the wall, and started digging in her pack. “To be honest,” she admitted lightly, “I’d completely forgot about it.”

“Well, I couldn’t,” I muttered to myself while waiting.

“All ready!” Grabbing her spear, Red took a defensive stance in front of the door.

Nodding ready, I slowly reached forward and pushed on the door…. Nothing. The damn thing wouldn’t budge. Pushing harder and… More nothing. It still wouldn’t budge. Putting down the lantern, I leaned forward and put my weight into it, and… It maybe creaked a little. “I’ve got this.” Determined not to be showed up by a door, I backed up several steps, lowered my shoulders, changed then door, and…

“BAMMNN!”

The door suddenly burst open, sending me stumbling past it, where I promptly tripped and flopped end over end -- twice -- across the floor. I ended up ass-up, flat on my stomach, and face to face with some giant looking stone cockroach that was rushing right for me.

“SHIIIIIIIIITTT!!” I screamed like a frightened little girl and almost peed myself as Red’s spear slammed down and impaled the creature just inches from my eyes.

“There’s two more,” Red shouted, hopping over to my left.

Rolling to my right, I struggled to pull my knife from its sheath, as one of the beasts bit into the leather of my left pant’s leg. “Get the fuck off me!” Screaming, I stabbed down into the head of the creature several times, until I was certain it was dead.

Remembering Red’s call that there were two of them, I frantically scrambled back onto my feet. Scanning the room in a panic, I was relieved to see the second insect impaled on the end of Red’s spear with the first. Checking my leg revealed a long gash in my pants, but no actual holes in my leg.

Letting out a long breath of relief, I tried to calm my heartbeat and took in my surroundings. A room. The only conclusion I could draw was that this was some sort of room. Two rotted chairs and a busted bench rested against one wall, while another dilapidated bench sat left of the door I’m busted through. A blue-lit hallway led off to our left and a door sat shut to our right.

“Have we finally found where the miners used to stay?” I was just guessing, but I figured they still had to live somewhere, and I certainly hadn’t found any evidence of people living anywhere else in, or near, this mine.

“I don’t know,” Red said, stomping a booted foot on top of the cockroaches and then pulling her spear out. “But,” she scrunched her nose up tight, “there’s something I just don’t like about this place, but I can’t say what.”

Somehow, I could relate with her feelings. Maybe it was just a reaction to being eaten by foot tall stoneroaches, but the hair on the back of my neck and arms wouldn’t settle down. It almost felt as if somebody was staring at me unblinkingly.

Drawing my hatchet and readying it in my right hand, I picked up the lantern from where I’d sat it outside the door earlier with my left. Not bothering to say anything, I started down the hallway on the left, confident that Red was always right beside me.

Walking down the hall to the left, it wasn’t far before we could make out several side passages breaking off in regular intervals to the left and the right. Motioning with my hatchet for Red to head towards the closest passage on the left, I then steadily moved slowly to the right.

Looking down the passage, I could make out that the hallway was at least thirty or forty paces long, and that it freely opened up into a room of some sort beyond. Glancing back over my shoulder to check on Red, the tunnel on her side seemed a mirror image to my own.

Indicating that I was moving ahead, Red nodded silently and backed up behind me, never taking her eyes off our rear. Moving slowly, I advanced about half the distance to the room, and then stopped. “Hear that,” I whispered?

Red stopped and stood motionless as we both strained our ears listening. At the edge of my hearing, I thought I could make out a sound like leaves being gently blown along a stone path. A gentle little scrap, a quiet whisper of a rustle. The soft chink, chink as the stem danced atop the stone.

Red just frowned, then shook her head left and right several times. I hope I’m not going “mad miner” or anything, from sense deprivation. I’m already crazy enough, thinking I’ve lived a previous life!

Sighing, I shrugged my shoulders in response. Nothing else to do but move onward.

As we closed another half dozen steps, I could make out… Snow? I swear, it looked as if the floor in the room in front of us was covered by a thin layer of snow! Just as I was really starting to doubt my sanity, the “snow” suddenly moved and several snowballs started to scurry across the floor towards us; the sound I was hearing growing plainer as they swarmed.

“Shit!” Rushing forward to meet them, I punted one snowball like a football, shocked by the feeling of solid resistance as it went flying and snow fluffed all around us. Breathing the powdery snow instantly burnt my eyes and nose, causing me to hack and cough violently.

Red rushed in to cover me by stabbing another snowball, and the powder in the air grew heavier. Barely able to breath, with my eyes burning to the point I could hardly see for the tears in them, I spewed vomit everywhere as I tried to stomp another snowball. I think I know now how a soldier must feel when fighting unmasked in the midst of teargas.

Burning fire filling my lungs. Eyes swollen nearly shut. Stomach spasming erratically and violently. Snowy dust thick in the air. It was time for a strategic retreat.

Hell, it was time to run away!

Staggering as I turned, I grabbed Red’s arm and dragged her as I stumbled as fast as possible back the way we’d came. Every breath was a burning hell in my lungs, and I eyes were so afflicted, I could barely make out blurred shapes to guide us by as we stumbled past the entrance of the first room. Scraping frantically to try and claw the door shut behind us, I gave in to the agony and collapsed. Laying on my side, I curled into a fetal position. Voiding both my bowels and the remnants of my stomach at the same time, I felt as if I was dying.