Yuri jumped out of bed, eager to start the next day of mining. In the hopes to find diamonds, Yuri swung his pick over his slender shoulder, tied his lunch bag to his belt, and ran down the roads of the small town and up the trail to the edge of the mountain where the mines were. As he expected no one was at the mining camp yet. Yuri waited, hiding behind the boss’s shack and saw the miners come one by one. Dike, Solak, and Remi soon joined Yuri behind the meager shack.


“Hey Solak,” Dike whispered in a hush, “where’s the big truck, the corporation’s supposed to be sending?”


“Yesterday the boss told me that the truck should be coming around 9:00 A.M,” Solak stated looking up at Dike.


Remi, studying the map, looked over at the brass watch watch on his wrist, “Well it’s 9:16 right now,” Remi blurted out, eyes fixed on the old map.


“I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve being sitting around here for two hours and I’m ready to get a move on,” Yuri said sternly over the other three.


“Yep, let’s go,” remarked the rest of the group. With that, the group stated to walk toward the mine elevators. Each one of the men took a separate elevator to insure the other miners wouldn’t be able to catch up with them. Hundreds of feet the men went, down into the earth.


“Woah,” Remi said stopping his elevator, “everybody stop this is the level we need to be at.” The four miners filed out of their elevators into the dark ibis that was the mine. With their lanterns in hand, they started down the tunnel of the old mine.


“I think that we should light the lanterns on the wall as we walk,” Solak stated staring at the old glass and iron mechanisms hanging from the gray rock wall. The other men agreed with his idea and they started lighting the lamps. On the went through the maze of tunnels of the old mine.


“Hey,” Yuri called pointing up ahead, “look there’s a cavern up there, is that the one Remi?”


“No, I don’t think so, according to the map we’re coming up on a cavern, but it’s only marked with a black blob with eight sicks coming out of it,” Remi pointed out studying the map.


“Hmm,” Dike bellowed pointing at the map, “that kind of looks like spider.” A large dark 20 pound spider jumped down on Dike’s back. Dike shook the spider off his back. With that the men knew what to do. They took out their pickaxes and began aggressively swinging them at the spider. The spider jumped from side to side dodging the swing of the pickaxes towards the ground. The four miners swung their pickaxes on all four sides of spider and the spider jumped up onto the ceiling. Yuri threw his lantern up at the ceiling, it cracked an the contraption burst into flames. In this action the spider caught fire and scampered down the tunnel. The light of the flaming spider when on into the darkness of what seemed oblivion.


“That was pretty tough,” expressed Yuri, a light sweat forming at his chin, “Now which way Remi.”


“Unngh,” Remi blurted out, “I think I got bit by the spider.”


“Ah shoot,” Solak ranted, yelling up at the ceiling, “what the heck do yah think you’re doin’
getn’ bit by a spider Remi.”


“Hey it’s not his fault,” Dike spat at Solak, pushing him to the ground.


“Whoa guys, there’s no need to fight, in the position we’re in now gives us no reason to go back, we gotta keep going, we just need to find a way to get Remi off his feet,” Yuri commanded, equalizing the temper of the group.


“On the map it says there’s some sort of mine cart track near here,” Remi scampered out. The men agreed that the mine cart track route was by far the best route to the diamonds they could take. Dike carried Remi to the mine cart track. Once they finally got to the mine cart tunnel, Dike stuck Remi in the one old mine cart waiting for them. Dike pushed Remi along in the cart, Yuri took the map in his hand, standing at the front pointing out the way, and behind the other three, Solak went about lighting the lantern line. The glow of the warm lantern light filled the tunnels with a feeling of home.



The old supports of the tunnels were over their heads and on either sides of the, the rotting bits of wood were about to their last use. As the men continued down the mine cart trail, they cam upon a collapse in the tunnel. Boulders, pebbles, and dirt covered the entrance to the next league of their path.


“Well,” Dike called, “I say it’s time to eat lunch.”


“Good idea Dike,” Yuri agreed, “it’ll give us time to think of what to do.”



“This is no time to eat,” Solak cried out over the rest, “we’re so close, what are you guys miners or dukes, we’ve been braving these tunnels for hours and you just want to eat lunch and think things through....”


“Solak it’s best to think before you act, to avoid causing in major problems for the rest of us,” Yuri interrupted Solak.


“Well,” Solak aggressively said pulling out a grenade, “I was in the army and I’m not going to take your crap, I’ll tell you what. Solak pulled the pin of the grenade. Time seemed to slow down as the grenade hit the pile of rocks. Solak ran down the tunnel, getting away from the blast to come. In there effort Yuri and Dike heaved Remi out the mine cart and pushed the cart itself over the grenade. The grenade burst, sending chunks of metal and rock all around them. Luckily Dike and Yuri were ducking over Remi. When they got up and looked around they noticed something odd. There was a single light coming down on them. The three miners looked up and saw thousands of stalactites hanging from the ceiling of cavern.


On second look, they noticed the hundreds of glinting diamonds on each stalactites. In there eye they could see the hundreds of thousands of bits of diamonds hanging from the ceiling.


“This is it,” Yuri exclaimed, “we finally found it.”


“More like I found it,” Solak called out on the top of a mound of dirt, gun in his hand, “I’ve found the diamonds and all this is for me.”


“Not if I have something to say about,” Dike yelled, rushing toward Solak with his pick. Solak shot Dike in the shoulder.


“What would you do that for?” Dike screamed up at Solak.


“Well, you see when I was in the army I stole away as much war equipment as possible. With all that stuff I had been planning away to get back on the miners who were arrogant enough to lead me into an unknown place to the others,” Solak explained to Dike.


Yuri scanned the room for someway to stop Solak. He spotted Solak’s bag by where the explosion went off. He reached in and found another grenade, Yuri pulled the pin and heaved it at Solak.


“Nice try,” with that Solak heaved the grenade the toward the ceiling of the cavern. The grenade blew up in mid-air, taking out the stalactites. A shower of dark dust flood over Solak. Solak was swallowed by the dust, drowning in the ocean of it. His vision darkened as became one with the ocean of dark dust.


“Well that’s that then,” Yuri expressed wiping off his hands.


“Let’s get out of here Yuri,” Remi said holding his stomach.


“Yeah let’s go home,” Dike agreed clinging onto his shoulder. The three miners climbed up the mound of dust and dirt, collecting some surfaced diamonds on their way up. At the top the looked up at the huge hole with orange sunlight glistening through. Yuri climbed up on the side of the hole to go and get help. When he returned, he brought the boss with him.


“Well boys,” the boss expressed after the miners were out of the hole, “you finally found your way out of a dead end job. For yourselves and the rest of the miners who live here. After we dig out these diamonds, we’re set for life.”


“Sounds good boss,” Dike coughed out, “I can’t wait to get to the bar and tell all my drinking buds about what happened today.” Set for life sounded good to the men. And it truly was for them, their families, and their lives.