The Stillrock Silver Mine was among the oldest active mines in the country, having been in continuous operations since the town's founding in 1889. Over the decades there had been numerous cave-ins due to poor planning, consistently shifting management groups, and a lack of cohesive mapping. The caveins were often so disastrous they could even be tracked through Stillrock's birth rates which rose in stable years and dropped during years with particularly wet weather. As a consequence, tunnels had collapsed, been dug back out, and collapsed all over again for nearly a century until the country attempted to install oversight on the mining industry in the late eighties.
After hitting their first dead end, Ethan had quickly realized that the map he had sketched out from memory was not entirely aware of the mine's chaotic history, and in fact was more of a suggestion than a precise set of directions to follow. Not long after taking the service elevator down, Ethan had already dragged Rainey into tunnels he hadn't known existed in the three years he worked down in the mines, and the pair was finding new ones with seemingly every turn.
The air was stale and hot, clinging to the back of his throat. Instead of being able to properly follow the tunnels down to the breach point, Ethan was attempting to head in the general direction his map pointed them towards, which roughly equated to going southwest on a compass, but trying to do so while falling down a staircase in the dark.
Their journey had taken them to many new tunnels, but with every dead end they hit, Ethan could hear Rainey's sighs growing more curt. Ethan's desperation was quickly rising, becoming so palatable that Rainey could probably feel it, too. Her face was growing increasingly gaunt the longer they went on, sweat coating their faces and the back of his neck, and it wasn't lost on her that the farther they went, they became increasingly lost and put themselves farther from help.
But because every step into their descent put themselves farther from anyone who could stop them, that was a risk she was willing to take.
"Would you say we're…getting close?" Rainey asked. She used the back of her sleeve to wipe the sweat off her forehead, staining it dark grey. Ethan noticed, for the first time, that she was rubbing her thumb on her necklace, a dull grey stone hanging on the end of a plain golden chain.
Ethan tried to speak, but his parched throat reminded him that Raz was the one who always carried the bookbag with their water, and he desperately needed goggles to keep the silica dust from cutting his eyes. Considering all of his safety equipment was still in his car, Ethan had to settle for squinting against the dust in the air, the grit sanding down his throat. Instead of replying, all Ethan could offer was a pained expression, which was more than enough for Rainey to read into. She groaned, displeased.
"Personally, I thought you'd be better at this," Rainey said plainly. "Isn't this what you do all day?"
Ethan swallowed hard, trying to clear the silica from his throat. He gestured frustratedly to the tunnels around them. "Everywhere we go down here looks exactly the same, and my map isn't exactly pinpoint accurate."
"And how was I supposed to know that before you slammed the entrance shut and forced us down here?"
"You wanted to be down here just as badly as I did," Ethan's eyes narrowed while Rainey folded her arms. "Pointing fingers isn't going to get either of us powers."
Or keep us alive, he thought morbidly. After he watched Rainey run through a number of responses, most of them probably containing one or more obscenities, she relented, waving at him dismissively. He went to a knee and pulled the map back out, attempting to recall every tunnel they'd already gone down.
"We've been walking for over half an hour," he said, his finger tracing the tunnels, moving back and forth down the map, trying to invent a path in between where they were and where they needed to go. "We have to be getting close."
"We're wasting time. Titan has to be on our tail, too. I keep expecting her to burst through the rocks above us like she broke through the ice to save you."
Ethan rolled his eyes, then wondered if it was too dark for Rainey to see.
"Saw that," she said offhandedly.
"Good. I think I found a new path." He pushed himself off the rock he was using as a seat, and reached a hand out for Rainey, pulling her up. He turned and started off down a new direction, praying it was the right one.
"Maybe we could talk about something else to take our minds off of the fact that we're almost certainly going to die?" Ethan suggested.
Rainey shrugged, gesturing for him to get it over with.
"Well, if this works, and we don't instantly get disintegrated, what are you going to do if you get powers?"
Rainey mulled the question over, then pulled her book bag back over her shoulders. "You first."
Ethan pushed himself down the tunnel, careful to avoid hitting his head on any of the jagged rocks jutting down from the ceiling. The tunnel was narrowing as they went.
We're going down, he thought, which is a positive sign.
"Well, I didn't go to college," he said, shaking his head. "Stillrock doesn't exactly offer the clearest path out. That's…almost by design, really. If there was a community college, or higher paying jobs that didn't involve commuting two hours a day, then no one would stay here, and nobody would certainly be stupid enough to work in the mines."
"But you still chose to work down here, instead of moving to Ascension," Rainey countered. "Couldn't you just leave?"
"Not without money, which I thought working in the mine would've provided. Despite the obvious danger, the mine is the steadiest place for you to work if you don't want to drive a few hours to teach snowboarding during the winters at a resort you can't afford to visit or live anywhere near. But once you get down here, you start working twelve hours, and when you're done, you're too exhausted to do anything else, to find anything better. This place just sucks you in and never lets you leave and, before you know it, you blink and three years have gone by and you're exactly where you started."
Rainey nodded quietly, letting Ethan continue.
"And the worst part is that being so high up in the mountainside, we have a nearly unblocked view of Ascension. Raz and I," Ethan's voice caught in his throat, his last memory of Raz's hurt face staring up at him from the dirt, "back before I…probably ruined that friendship, we would climb up to the top of the water tower at night and stare out at the city, making plans for the future. Where we'd live, how much we'd drink at the Aces games, which bars we'd visit…mostly drinking-adjacent goals, but we were in high school then, and that was our top priority."
"Exactly what I would've expected out of you two."
Ethan laughed for the first time since starting their journey down, but it was short lived.
"Then…then the years started going by, and the dreams we had started to fade. By the third year of us working together we barely even talked about them anymore, we just settled into this routine where we had just enough to get by but not enough to get ahead, like we were keeping our noses just above water and if we opened our mouths to say anything about how miserable we were all the water would rush in and we'd drown. Then the Surge hit and people in Ascension got powers, a whole new world of opportunities opening up for them, and I felt like I missed it. I missed my shot to get out. The night after the Protectors made their first appearance, I watched Apex's announcement on my phone over and over again until we had to leave for work, and when we got there, to the mines…I got so angry."
"At?" Rainey asked, carefully navigating through a narrow portion of the tunnel.
"Myself," Ethan admitted, his nose just scraping a rock. "About my dreams. About feeling embarrassed any time I tried to bring them up, and wasting so much time that I could've spent living them."
"And then you lost control," Rainey said quietly. Ethan sighed, nodding.
"When we went into the tunnels for our night shift, I couldn't take it anymore. I started slamming my pickaxe wildly and caused a cave-in, nearly killing Raz. A massive, jagged rock fell from above us and partially crushed his leg. But…that same rock that crashed through the tunnel ripped a hole in the ground. I saw it under there: a multitude of bright, swirling lights, like nothing I've ever seen before."
Rainey raised an eyebrow. "The breach?"
Ethan nodded. "It's here. I'm sure of it. I knew there was a chance that I could still gain powers. Despite what they say, I don't think Apex has this entirely under control."
"They don't," Rainey spat. "They're lying. They have been for over a year. The Surge is dangerous and Apex can't control any of it."
"How do you know about that?" Ethan asked her.
"Research," she waved him off. "How did you and Raz get out of the tunnel?"
"I was barely able to outrun it before it swarmed us entirely, and I couldn't pull Raz out fast enough before one rock slammed onto his knee, shattering the bone. And after my outburst, all I felt was guilt. I thought that, if I got powers, I could become a Protector, work in Ascension and do something with my life instead of just feeling like all my future was going to be was…"
Ethan sighed as they walked around the bend only to come face to face with a wall of stone blocking their path.
"Nothing."
"Great," Rainey spat, sliding to the ground. "You're not going to have to deal with that guilt for long because we're definitely going to die down here. We haven't found the breach and I'm certain we have no idea about how to get back up to the surface."
Ethan took one more look at his map. He had hastily drawn new tunnels, connecting them to old ones. "No," he muttered. "This should be…"
Ethan worked his hand down the jagged rock wall, his fingers moving in between the creases. He held them there, feeling. Working down slowly, he ignored Rainey's stream of complaints, noticing something in the cracks between, something fresh. His face lit up, exhaling in relief.
"Ethan, we don't have much time left. Titan has to be coming after us soon. We need to get moving and I think you should sacrifice yourself and stay behind while I-"
"Actually" he said, turning, "Rainey, I think we're here." She gave him a curious look, noting the smile on his face. "You'd miss it if you didn't know what to look for, but there's a faint air flow between the rocks. Feel this."
Rainey cautiously put her hand where Ethan directed, nearly recoiling at the cool air gently lapping her palm. "The breach," she whispered, her hand recoiling to her necklace. "It's gotta be just behind these rocks." She wore a large smile, already swinging her bag over her shoulder, setting it roughly on the ground.
"This is it," Ethan said, letting out a slow breath to steady himself. "Either we get powers…"
"I'm getting powers," Rainey corrected him, setting up the drill. "I didn't come down here for nothing."
Ethan watched her for a moment, then paused.
"You didn't answer." Ethan told her. His eyes were focused on Rainey's hands, watching her deftly assemble the drill. She has a lot of experience with power tools. "Assuming we live that long, what would you do with your powers?"
"Oh," she said, casually, "bring Apex to its knees."
"A bit more ambitious than my goal," Ethan admitted quietly, clearing his throat after what he thought was a joke but had a sneaking suspicion might've been the truth. Part of him wanted to leave it alone, but, against his instincts, he decided to press further. "What did Apex do to you?"
Rainey snapped the drill to the battery pack, the noise echoing and making Ethan jump. "My sister and I…We were on a hike for her birthday. We had just reached the summit and, at that exact moment, the earth ripped open, throwing us both back. I walked away with a broken ankle, she had to relearn how to walk."
Ethan let out a shaky breath, and knelt next to Rainey. "I'm…so sorry that happened," he said, "but that wasn't your fault. Nobody could've predicted that."
Rainey's hands stopped. When she turned, her face had darkened, anger flashing behind her gray eyes. "Apex knew," she spat. "They knew it was coming."
"Ethan felt nausea rising in him and the tunnels felt like they were closing in on him from every direction. He was desperate for some fresh air. "Even if they knew the Surge was coming, that doesn't mean they could've stopped it."
"No," Rainey agreed, "but they could've told us. They hid the Surge then, just like they're hiding the breach points now. Apex can't appear like they don't have the situation under control, and since they won't tell anyone what's really going on, I'm going to use the breach point they refuse to fix to get powers and fix this danger myself."
Ethan was growing uneasy, watching as Rainey grew closer to completing the drill. His heart was beating too fast, and he was sweating harder now than before. He was terrified to ask, but knew he had to.
"How are you going to do that?"
She aimed the drill rock in front of the wall of stone, lining up her drill bit.
"You can't hurt a corporation. Litigation takes years, if you're lucky. Reporting falls by the wayside, nothing more than a raindrop in the sea of content. Apex is essentially invincible, but they do have one vulnerability. One thing I can take."
"What?" Ethan asked, too quickly. "What can you take?"
Ethan's eyes went wide right as Rainey plunged the drill into the rock, eating away at the stone bit by bit. A quick scan told him they had maybe thirty seconds before the drill breached the other side of the rock wall and the surge broke through, either bringing power or death.
"Apex thinks they're invincible. So does Titan. Since I need to prove that Apex isn't invincible…"
Rainey plunged the drill into the rock, white light spilling into the tunnel, nearly blinding him. When he was able to see again, he caught Rainey's near maniacal smile.
"I'm going to kill Titan."