Radium Halos (3 page)

Oh how I wanted
to follow the guys. Instead, I patted Heidi’s arm and moved a few
steps away to try and find higher ground. Moving forward, I
grimaced when water sloshed up to my knees. My arms reached out in
the darkness to find the wall. Each step a hesitant move forward, I
concentrated on not slipping.

The cool, dry
dirt of the wall felt like heaven against my fingers. Sliding my
foot forward, I felt higher ground against my sneaker. Another
tentative step forward, using the wall for balance, I found a small
ledge. Wide enough to stand on. A tiny surge of hope pulsed through
my veins.

“Over here,” I
called. “There’s a raised part we can stand on till the guys get
back.”

“Here, take my
arm, Heidi” Brent said.

Heidi was
full-on crying now. Hiccups and everything.
Poor thing.

They clambered
onto the small rock shelf. We waited for what seemed like an
eternity, none of us talking. Heidi managed to calm herself down on
the higher ground. The howling wind and shattering thunder seemed
to be having a conversation of its own.

I shifted my
weight from foot to foot.
What time is it?
The little hands
on my watch glowed faintly. Half past eleven
-- already?

“Think they’re
alright?” Rylee asked.

I opened my
mouth to reply, when a whoop erupted from deeper inside the mine.
All four of us jumped.

“Son of a
bitch!” Brent swore as he slid and landed in the muddy water. “They
better have found something.”

Moments later,
laughter and male voices drifted through the darkness of the mine
towards us. The small, round light appeared. My tense posture
slumped. A new knot between my shoulder blades burned. I tried to
stretch my back out without slipping.

“We found a
closed off room. It’s nothing spectacular but heaven compared to
this. It’s dry so we can hang out there for the night. There’s like
a glass dome thing on top, and when the lightning flashes, it
brightens up the room.” Seth swung the flashlight around, finally
finding us lined against the wall. “What the? You guys in a police
line up?” He laughed. “Or are you prisoners, trying to dig your way
out?”

“Shut up.” I
smiled for the first time since the rain started.

“How far down?”
Heidi asked in a faint voice.

“Not far. Less
than a ‘ive minute walk.” Kieran took her hand, helping her down
and kept her close. “Let’s go. You’ll feel loads better when you
see it.”

Lucky
girl.
For a moment I wished I’d picked the end near the tunnels
instead of the one furthest away.
Dummy!
I scolded myself.
Now wasn’t the time to be jealous of Heidi getting help from
Kieran. We had more pressing issues. Like surviving the night!

We waded
through the muck in a single-file chain. Whenever I slipped, I
grabbed hold of Brent, who walked in front of me, for balance. How
we managed to walk the route in the darkness, without anyone
falling, was beyond me.

It took only
minutes, but felt like an hour as we inched our way finally
reaching two steel doors.

Seth grabbed
the large, heavy-looking handle and pulled hard. The old door
groaned when it finally gave way, as if it didn’t want to let us
in. I was right about going for the cars.
Could this be another
mistake?
I shivered at the crazy thought, but followed the
others inside.

Just as I
stepped through the doorway, a flash of lightning erupted,
illuminating the room, exposing its brilliant white, round shape.
Huge concrete pads with towering steel poles reached high into the
air. Maybe the poles were once measuring markers or something.
Hopefully not for uranium or radium. That stuff’s wicked
radioactive.
I’d have asked Heidi, our little photographic
memory gal, but I had no intention of trying to scare her
anymore.

The fifty-foot
poles stretched from floor to ceiling. The translucent dome arched
like a sun roof above us.

Another
zigzagged ember flashed, this one lasting longer. A crackle and
boom followed, making me jump inside the circular space. Heidi
cried out and buried her head between her knees. Kieran paced along
the outside of the room, his fingers running along the perimeter.
“The walls have some kind of dust covering them.”

The room
suddenly went black as tar. A moment later a loud clap sounded
above us.
Crack!
The poles shook against the angry thunder.
I closed my eyes, wishing I was anywhere in the world but here. In
one of the cars!

Bang!

“What was
that?” Heidi screamed.

I covered my
ears. If possible, I’d have jumped out of my skin.

“Sorry,” said
Seth. “The door’s heavy. It slipped from my hand.”

A piercing howl
whistled over our heads. This room was hell on earth.

“’Tis nothing,
everyone.” Kieran clapped his hands to get the dust off. “Just wind
catching through the dome.”

We stood back
to back in the middle of the room. Brent grabbed my and Heidi’s
hands, pulling us down to sit beside him. The others dropped as
well.
At least the floor’s dry.

I shoved my
hands deep into the pockets of my black vest. My left hand squeezed
around a familiar, rectangular object. “Guys! I forgot to hand my
phone in when we got to the field.” I pulled it out and flipped it
open. Its light illuminated the wall in front of me into a blue
hue.

“You had it the
whole time?” Rylee shook her head.

“It doesn’t
matter. I can’t get any reception here.” I held it above my head
aiming in several different directions. “I’ll try texting my dad
and a couple of people from class. Maybe a message’ll go through as
it roams.” With shaking fingers, I sent the SOS message out to
everyone on my BBM list.

“It looks like
we’re gonna be here for a while,” Seth said. “Anyone got anything
to say, or any deep dark secrets they want to tell?”

Rylee coughed.
“Yeah, I’m a serial rapist ’n been living undercover in Elliot
Lake, pretending to be a female high school student. I’m actually a
six-foot male who climbs into this body every day and acts as if
–”

“Shut up!”
Heidi and I shouted at the same time.

A gust howled
outside. The metal pillars creaked and groaned in protest. They
were probably holding the sun roof cover in place. I shifted closer
to Brent, who put his arm around my shoulders in a brotherly
fashion. It helped, a little. The wind’s howl switched to a
high-pitched shriek, and lightning flickered, building to constant
streaks above the dome.

“With how long
the bloody lightening lasts, it’s like someone’s playing with the
light switch.” On my right, Kieran hunched forward, hugging his
knees, his wet shoes and socks beside him on the concrete.

A massive loud
boom of thunder rumbled above us, shaking the room. An eerie
creaking noise made me glance up momentarily. Then I ducked my head
as fast as I could as dust and particles fell from the ceiling,
pinging on the ground around us.
Could the dome collapse on
us?
I grabbed my phone, but there was still no signal. My heart
pounded.
I don’t want to die here.
Not in this place. Would
anybody even find our bodies?

“Everyone all
right?” Seth crawled forward and picked something off the ground.
“Anyone get hit by a bolt?” Everyone mumbled an okay, and
unconsciously we edged our backs closer together. He chuckled. “I
think Mother Nature’s chasing us down tonight.”

No one
replied.

Hail joined the
humungous raindrops which pelted the sun roof. Another blast of air
whistled by. The sky was lit up like fireworks in Disneyland.

“Amaz—” Brent
started.

An awful
cracking sound split the air, cutting him off. Terrified I couldn’t
stop myself from looking up. The flippin’ sun roof shifted had
ripped away from the pillars!

Metal, plastic
and fragments of who knows what showered down. Something hard hit
my shoulder. It was probably a tiny screw but felt like a boulder.
I threw my hands over my head and prayed this was just a bad dream.
A nightmare more like.

“Holy
shit!”

I had no idea
who said it and didn’t care. I just didn’t want to die.

Only rain and
hail seemed to be falling and swirling into the tower room now.
Cautiously I glanced back up at the doom.

It wobbled and
then hung as if pausing.
Dramatically pausing.
Then it
teetered as it fell to rest against a single pillar.
We’re so
dead.

I barely
blinked when another monstrously strong blast of wind took the
entire dome-roof off. It disappeared into the dark night sky.

“Bollocks! Did
you just see that?” Kieran jumped to his feet and ran to a pillar,
wrapping his arms around it. We watched in shocked silence, letting
the hail and rain bombard us.

Lightning
illuminated the room again and the rain poured down in sheets.

Seth went to
the door. “I can’t get the door open.”

“Grab a
column.” Kieran’s accented voice carried above the storm. “They’re
not going anywhere.” He pointed to the other poles, one for each of
us. “It’ll keep you dry. The edge of the ceiling is hangin’ far
enough over to block the rain. Yer gettin’ soaked.”

“This sucks,” I
muttered, jumping up and dashing to the pillar beside Kieran’s. I
stepped onto the concrete slab, hugged the pole, and shifted
towards the wall.
The Scotsman’s right
. The small overhang
of the remains of the ceiling sheltered me from the pounding rain.
I had to hold tight to stop from falling off the thinner side of
the slab, but it beat getting soaking wet.

Heidi, Brent,
Seth and Rylee scrambled to the other four pillars. The storm
continued to beat down, like it never planned on stopping.

I watched in
horror as a bolt discharged through the clouds and shot directly
down through the gap. The zigzag light charged down and danced in
the place we’d been sitting moments before.

Electric veins
reached out to lick the walls and skip around. I closed my eyes,
unable to move, too terrified to even think. What a choice – we
couldn’t let go of the pillars or keep holding on. I could feel the
energy and heat in the room, positive we were all going to fry.
Mom, Dad, I love you. I hope you know...

The hair on my
neck and arms stood on end. Actually, every hair follicle felt
raised on my skin. A weird smell filled the air. I couldn’t place
it or co-relate it to anything. I thought I could taste the chalky
dust. I swallowed to cleanse my tongue and then snorted to try to
clear my nose.

The static
noise lasted forever. I kept my eyes squeezed tight, too scared to
look or breathe. I waited for death, or something close to it.

“Holy shit! Did
you see what just happened?”

I tentatively
opened one eye, wondering why death sounded so feminine.

The sparks had
disappeared, but I swore I could still hear the noise the lightning
strike had made so close to us. And the static. It muted when the
thunder pounded, and I shook as the noise resonated inside my chest
and head.

Death spoke
again, sounding a helluva lot like Rylee shouting. Startled, I
looked around to find her.

She stood,
still hugging her pillar, but her head was thrown back and she was,
of all things, laughing. “No one’s going to believe this! I can’t
believe it.” Her voice carried over the storm, making it easy to
decipher her words. She began laughing hysterically. “You guys look
like Smurfs. You’re all blue.”

Chapter
3

We glowed. In
the weak light our skin had a tinge of blue. I wiped the back of my
hand on my thighs, wondering if the blue would come off. My jeans
had the same glowing color so I wasn’t surprised it didn’t help.
“We’d better not be covered in flippin’ uranium. We’ll be dust, or
dead, by morning.” I started slapping my legs to get the powder
off.

“It’s not
uranium. The mine’s been closed for over twenty years,” Rylee
said.

“Radioactive
particles stay this way for decades,” Heidi said.

“Ahhh…Everyone’s turning back to normal, no more blue.” Rylee
clearly disappointed, and almost slipping off her pillar. “We’re
fading.”

I couldn’t
believe she actually was bummed.

“It’s
incredible none of us got hit,” Seth said. “My ears are still
ringing from the crackling noise.” He sniffed and rubbed his nose.
“It stinks in here.”

“Do you think
the lightening might come in here again?” Heidi shouted, furthest
away from me. “Maybe we should try to head back to the tunnel.”

“Wait. Listen,”
Kieran said.

I cocked an
ear, willing the sizzling sound echoing in my head to disappear.
Everyone stood so still, I could hear everything.
What’s Kieran
trying to show us?

“The storm’s
moving on.” He pointed towards the sky. “The lightning and thunder
are ‘bout six seconds apart now. The storm’s moving west. I betchya
the rain’s gonna start letting up as well.” His accent made his
words sound like a story.

Nobody moved or
spoke. It felt like ages, but my watch showed about two minutes
later the rain did lessen. Drops became smaller, turning into a
light drizzle and then stopping completely. The wind gave a couple
of half-hearted howls but then quieted as well. The dark clouds
covering the night sky followed the storm, and before long, stars
and half the moon peaked its way through the shattered dome.

“It’s kinda
beautiful.”
I can’t believe we’re alive.
I stepped off the
concrete slab and with hesitant steps, made my way to the middle of
the room. Staring up at the sky, I could hear muffled thuds as the
others followed my lead and jumped off their slabs.

“Freaky. The
sky looks as though nothing ever happened.” Brent snapped his
fingers. “Hey, is your phone working now, Zoe?”