Logs:The Walls Come Tumbling Down
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| RL Date: 26 February, 2010 |
| Who: Taikrin, Xeoshen, Zahriel |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Convicts get trapped. |
| Where: Rough Cavern in the Bowl, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 23, Month 1, Turn 22 (Interval 10) |
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| Rough Cavern in the Bowl The signs of fresh excavation liberally mark this rough-hewn cavern, which extends only a short-way back, though lopsidedly, as though instability has resulted in uneven work. Broad beams do much to hold up the ceiling, as does cement-work, but the ceiling is not high, and the cavern not really wide enough to make it anything but oppressively claustrophobic. Tools and supplies are littered about the floor, and glow-lamps provide light at uneven intervals, leaving enough darkness that it's important to carry around additional light-sources. The weather on the 23rd day of the first month is not quite so awful as it was the previous day, when there was a thunderstorm as well as snow, but the snow is still falling pretty thickly - and that means it's probably no wonder that any convict in their right mind would want to be inside rather than out, no matter how dark and depressing the cavern is. Work is going on towards the far end of the cavern, primarily focused on making sure that it's all going to stay up: no more slides, please. Deruan has long been known for his bad-temper and propensity towards fighting; that he's in a foul mood this afternoon is probably as likely as the sun coming up each morning. His work spot is down the furthest reaches of the cavern, and honestly, if he could work any slower, he might actually be dead. That's probably why he has one of the overseers on his tail, and why a yelling match is clearly brewing. "I'm workin', I'm workin'!" Deruan blusters, scowling at the guard in question. Taikrin has also worked her way pretty far into the cavern this afternoon, where she's doing her now-usual cementing work on a rather crumbly bit of wall. An irritated scowl cuts a slash across her pale face, and her gaze regularly flicks towards Deruan and his supervisor. "Oh, fer Faranth's sake..." Still grumbling under her breath, she turns to shoot a look at her working companion for the day. "How long y'think he's gonna keep it up, a'fore they haul 'im out of here?" If Xeoshen could of been anywhere in this weather, it certainly wouldn't of been out here, but rather back in the nice warm barracks. But he's out here, working, helping Taikrin with the cement. The shouting match catches his attention, and he peers toward Deruan, and the guard, before it flicks back to Taikrin. "Dunno, probably not much longer." He says in annoyance. "He's workin' too slow too." He grumbles. The overseer eyes Deruan balefully; he's not so thrilled to be out here, either. That makes yet another of them, doesn't it? Does anyone /want/ to be here, really? Deruan makes some token effort to increase his pace, but it's pretty obvious for what it is, and so it's no wonder the man calls him on it, smacking the man on the back of the head with his glow-lamp. "You work, or you don't eat," he reminds the convict, sharply, and that's enough to get Deruan doing a little more again. /His/ glance in the direction of the two candidates is a scowling one: he probably hasn't heard what they've said, but /they/ have a nice warm barracks to go home to at the end of the day. A soft crack echoes down the cavern, a sound that could easily be two pebbles clinking together beneath an unwary boot. Two of the overseers, standing near the entrance of the table, look completely unconcerned as they watch the goings on further down the shaft, murmuring softly to each other. "Gonna get us all in trouble, he don't watch it. Dimglow." Taikrin slathers another round of cement against the wall with perhaps too much vigor: half stays on, but a chunk of it seems to just flake right off. "Augh!" The remaining bit is spread around with her paddle, though it doesn't seem terribly useful. "This thing's drivin' me--" She breaks off abruptly at the crack of lamp on head. A quick glance in Deruan's direction -- just quick enough to catch his glare -- and Taikrin's scowl deepens. "Bloody..." Mutterings continue under her breath as she turns back to her work. Xeoshen snorts. "No surprise there, he's been like fer as long as I've known him." Xeoshen rolls his eyes, and works on applying his own concrete mix. The cracking of light against skull though, has him looking back to the argument. "Eh, glad we got searched, so we don't 'ave ta be around him all the time." He says, and scowls as he notes the glare. "He'll get wha's comin' to him." He comments to Tai. Up near the front of the cavern, one of the overseer trips spectacularly, landing flat on his face. Was that intentional? There's certainly a convict working /right/ there, and now looking distinctly determinedly busy. But then - such things are not /uncommon/ amongst some of the convicts, and that particular overseer? Known for his heavy hand. Regardless, his yell goes out: loud and angry. "Come on now, folks, talking is energy you could be working with," Riuder calls out, not to anyone specifically, though it's convenient that he stands so near the candidate grouping. Wouldn't want anyone to get big heads. But the various noises along the tunnel turn his head and he tromps off to investigate this fallen comrade -- at least to offer him a hand up, and perhaps also stare down the nearest convicts incase one shows a sign of guilt under pressure. Under scrutiny, and probably in at least a little bit of pain, Deruan goes quiet, and maybe even diligent, for the moment. That doesn't mean he doesn't aim the occasional scowling look in other directions, though: some towards the candidates, some towards the overseer who has taken a couple of steps back, now, but is still watching carefully, and some, now, at the commotion further down the tunnel. /He/ certainly doesn't hear that cracking sound: /he/ is not really paying attention. Taikrin glances over her shoulder once more at Riuder, following his movement towards the overseer. "Think his head's made of rocks, all the noise he's made when it hit th'ground?" is murmured towards Xeoshen, a hint of a not-too-kindly smirk coloring her expression. One hand continues spreading the cement, but blindly; she's oblivious to a few more bits flaking off. "Rather be outside crackin' then in here. We're gettin' nowhere." Though the supervisor might have moved off a few paces Taikrin's voice is very carefully quiet, scarcely above a whisper. Xeoshen winces. "Yeah yeah, less yapping, and more working, got." He grunts, and applies another layer, working to make sure it stays in place. For now he's ignoring Deruan, and his various looks, though the sound further up in the cavern distracts him enough to look that way. "Damn, can any of them stay out of trouble." He grunts, obviously any of thems not including him or Taikrin. He remark gets a quiet laugh out of him, and he nods to her. "Aye, probably is." He remarks back, quietly, even if an overseers not right by them. "You wanna be out there?" He scowls a bit. "I'd take in here over the cold out there." The fallen overseer accepts the offered hand, looking murderously angry, and more than a little embarrassed. "I was /tripped/," he begins to insist, turning his attention around to eye those convicts in the vicinity, as though staring will deliver the culprit immediately. "Bringing this lot here was the worst thing we ever did." A convict's pick strikes the rock, but the crack that echos outwards is greater than anything that could have been made by that single stroke. Exclaiming softly, he lifts his pick away from the wall and studies it carefully, trying to find the source of that sound. If Riuder's helping hand also happens to lift the overturned overseer in a direction that puts him farther away from the supposed culprit, well, a happy coincidence? "By a rock?" He asks evenly, "Cause they're all over. And shells am I sick of lookin' at 'em. And we got this lot here now, so we might as well..." His examination of the nearby workers turns over shoulder instead to run down by where that crack has come from, though it's difficult to tell in the tunneling. His mouth thins out. Lot of noises this evening. "Ain't nothin' gonna fall on yer head, crackin' rock, 'cept maybe someone's ax," Taikrin retorts. "Ain't lookin' t'get another one of these." The pink line of scar across her forehead is marked with the paddle, leaving a streak of dirt across her face as she does so. She freezes at the crack, wide-eyed gaze darting back over her shoulder towards the supervisors. "What're they flamin' doin' over there? C'you see, Xeo?" Xeoshen snorts. "Nothin' but snow, stuffs high enough to nearly bury us." He remarks, and keeps working, ocassionally glancing to where the arguments, or incidents had occured. He hears the crack too, and looks up, and around. "I aint seein' nothin', did somebody hit the wall too hard or somethin'?" He asks, and notes the con with the ax looking around. "I think he did it." He says to Tai, and points the guy out. "By one of /them/," insists the overseer, sharply, eyeing Riuder as though he expects the man is working against him, or worse, supporting the convicts. His gaze flicks after the other man's, though from the looks of it, he didn't hear what the other man did. "Reckon it's time for a holiday. Couplea women, some booze-- /anything/ that doesn't have rocks, or these damn convicts." He kicks at a rock, as if for emphasis. "Look, if you've got one to make a complaint about, say it now. I ain't gonna stop the whole lot of 'em on suspect, not when it's hard enough gettin' them working," responds Riuder, a fiercely strict but low-toned mutter in response to that sharp look he doesn't appreciate. There's a loosening of stance for that next part, though, and he chortles companionably. "I hear ya..." The exchange seems to have pulled him away from what he thought he heard, with no other immediate noises following it up. Taikrin finally returns the full weight of her attention to her work as the excitement dies down. Dip, slap, smooth; dip, slap, smooth. The paddle moves in regular intervals that speak of long practice, though her expression is one of long boredom. More bits of rock flake from her work site. "We're gonna be at this fer months an' months." A pause. "Well, yer gonna be, Xeo." Xeoshen snort. "I hope I won't be at this that long." nHe remarks, and works, similar rhythm as Tairin takes on, the various sounds accompanying heard as he works. "Some of us are tryin' ta work here ya know." He comments toward the cons causing trouble. Work work, work, but then he's moving to get some more of the mortar they were using. There's no more warning. One of the support beams splits down the middle, falling away from the ceiling to clatter upon the ground. There's no time to notice how neat the break in the wood is before the roof of the cavern comes pouring after, entombing one of the older convicts beneath a solid wall of rock, and forming a barrier between the entrance and all but the foremost convict, the two overseers, and the guard, Riuder. As the dust settles, only boulders remain. The overseer's obvious intention to continue the fantasy he's been discussing with Riuder gets abandoned pretty quickly: as the ceiling comes down, he drops to his knees and attempts to protect his head with it, though little more than pebbles rain down on /his/ side of the new and unwanted wall. His language is foul, as the dust begins to settle. "What? Oh fu--" Taikrin has literally no time to do anything but snap her attention up towards the entrance to the cavern before she's caught up in the fall. A particularly close set of bouncing rocks knocks her backwards -- thankfully out from under the bulk of the fall, but it doesn't exactly look pleasant, either. Once down, she's remarkably still-- stunned, for the moment, with a moderate dusting of debris. The roar of the roof coming down works pretty fast to wipe the growing smile directly off Riuder's face. The string of oaths as he takes a similar position to protect his head is only slightly less foul and slightly shorter than his companion. Mostly because, as soon as it seems like death isn't imminent, he bounces away from his spot to scan through the cloud of resulting dust for anyone in the immediate vicinity that needs attention -- or anything that looks about to break in response to the first cave-in. Deruan's yell of pain might send more boulders flying-- but no, in the end, just some more dust and trickling pebbles. His leg is trapped under one of the boulders, though, and it's pretty obvious he's not going anywhere: not now, anyway, not until it's possible to move particularly /large/ bits of stone easily. He slumps backwards, head towards the ground, as he tries to pull it free, entirely in vain. Xeoshen looks up sharply as the roof starts coming down. "Oh shi-" No time, wand thing coming down forward, he's diving back the way he came, a rock landing on his back that sends him tumbling to the ground, and groans, as he lays there a moment. A sudden burst of coughing, followed by a groan, announces Taikrin's return to the land of the living. "What---" More coughing, then, as the swirling dust gets into nose and throat and lungs. "Th' bloody shells just happened?" She sits up, slowly, propping herself up with her left arm; her right is notably limp and at rather an odd angle to boot. Dark eyes squint at the dust that keeps vision down to perhaps a few feet in front of her. "Xeo? Still with me?" Fortunately, there were two overseers on the outer side of the fall, and the one who'd merely been watching on is quick enough to recover his wits and rush outside, yelling for help. And help is not long in coming, several of the miners attached to the dig rushing inside to see exactly what happened. "Stand still," one warns softly. "Don't shout, don't move, don't do anything until we can get some support in here to shore up the outer edge of that fall." He eyes the collapse with a wary eye. "This... might take a bit. Was there anyone in there?" His head not actually about to be knocked in by more falling rocks, the unnamed overseer draws himself up off the floor, wiping dust off of his already dirty shirt and staring, blankly, at the brand new wall. "Someone call for help," he starts, though he's clearly too late; he turns his head about a moment later to blink at the arriving miners. "Bunch of 'em. Convicts. Some of 'em /candidates/." Someone outside must have had the wit to summon help. It's not but a few minutes that there are pounding feet and Gabrion comes running in, breathless from crossing the bowl at top speed. Not far behind is his journeyman mentor Syef, who's older and bigger and slower. Riuder was already on the move, so he has to come to a hopping stop when he's informed to do otherwise and the twitchy way he does so makes evident that he isn't going to stay still for long. "What he said," he grunts out through the haze of dust, gesturing somewhat to the overseer he'd been talking to. "Lousy bit of no good tunnel-- alright, what are we doin' about it?" Because here's his helping hand, and it's not going to be refused. It's only as the overseer lifts his hand to run it through his hair that he seems to realise he's bleeding heavily from the head; he holds his hand out in front of him and stares at it in horror. His knees buckle; he's not going to be much good from here. Don't move? Easy to do, don't make a sound, that's a bit harder to accomplish. Xeoshen gives a sore groan, and couching as his lungs work top get the dust out of them, as he moves to get up, and looks around. First thing he notes is the guy with the leg trappoed, and more closely, Taikrun down. He moves to the girl first, cough. "You alright?" He asks, trying his best to check for injuries. Taikrin draws herself completely upright, though with another hiss of pain. "Xeo?" Ever so slowly legs are drawn up then underneath her with the tentative moments of one expecting large amounts of pain. Her undamaged hand swipes at her face, clearing the worst of the dust from around her eyes before leaning back again on that same hand. The other arm with its bizarre sprawl is just... ignored, for now. "Still breathin'," is Taikrin's hoarse reply, punctuated with another cough-and-grunt combo. "You?" Gabrion swears under his breath when he sees all the rock and dust, and freezes, wide-eyed. Syef pounds him on the shoulder even as he's moving toward the overseer, reaching to support the man and help him sit down. "Gabrion. Come and support him for me," he says, and as soon as the apprentice is in position, Syef starts to try to wipe away the blood with a towel he brought with him and assess the damage, while Gabe stands behind to make sure the man doesn't topple over. Head wounds always bleed a lot, and this one is not actually as bad as it looks, as a result, though the overseer looks awfully pale and unhappy, even once he's sitting down. "My head is bleeding," he tells the two healers, quite calmly, though he looks like he's in shock: he sounds almost surprised. "They're all trapped inside. We can't get them out. How are we going to get them out?" It doesn't matter what the miners are doing at this point; Riuder's unhappy with it. He marches around the new rocky terrain to get in the personal space of anyone who looks like they've anything to say about cave-ins. "Well, what are we doing about this? I got me some people in there, don't I!" Hey, convicts are people. Zahriel steps in, hair mussed from his hurried run, and slips through the crowd. "Hush. Echos can cause trouble in here," he says, voice pitched low and steady as he pauses by Riuder's side. "How many are in there?" he asks, directing his question towards the overseers and guards as he steps sure-footed towards the fall. One of the other miners opens his mouth, hand half-raised to stop him, then lets it drop, shaking his head. "I don't know," Syef says, with just a hint of levity as he adds, "Bleeding heads are my specialty, not moving rocks. We'll patch 'em up the minute they pull 'em out, though, that much I can promise. Ah, there... this is not as bad as it must seem to you, sir. We may even be able to get the bleeding stopped without having to stitch you up. Take this, please," by which he means the towel, "and press it tightly against your head." After he turns over the towel, he sets about checking the man for concussion: how many fingers, and all that. And, in between questions, he's rattling off a list of things and people he wants Gabrion to run and fetch. Xeoshen coughs some more at the lingering dust in the air. "Yeah, me." He says. "What happened." And how many did they loose? He wonders to himself, and then looks around. "Worst I can see is him." He says, and points out the guy with the leg under a boulder. He groans a bit though as looks back to Tai. "My backs sore, possibly injured, but, I'm livin'." The guard does what he's told, holding the towel carefully to his head as he stares blankly ahead of him. He seems not to be concussed: just in shock, shaking, now, though his hands manage to keep hold of the towel. "What if we can't get them out? They'll be entombed in there forever, and everyone will know it." Finally, someone asking Riuder something in turn. He spins on his heels and follows directly in Zahriel's wake, eventually catching up to him and standing alongside the rubble. "Maybe abo--" His loud rumble breaks off to turn into a slightly lower rumble, "Four, five... Shut up over there, we're getting 'em out. He's gettin' 'em out, aren't you, buddy?" This look means /you'd better/. Deruan lets out a long, low groan, a kind of gurgley one. "Got to get up," he tries to say, trying to push himself up to get a better look at that leg of his. "Got to get out of here." He's shaking and pale; he looks terrified. Nothing like the way he was acting earlier. "S'good, keep on livin'." Taikrin's tone is distracted, and more than a little distant. "Go check 'im, will ya?" After sending Xeoshen off, finally, her attention settles on her arm. Her pale face gets paler, but her jaw clamps firmly shut. One deep breath (still punctuated with coughing) is taken, then another, and then-- with a burst of motion, she's up on her feet and staggering backwards to the support of the wall, arm dangling awkwardly by her side. The accompanying grunt of pain is loud enough in the small echo chamber to send pebbles cascading down the fall. "Oh yes. We'll get them out." Zare simply makes no promises as to what kind of shape they'll be in when they do. Grimly, he leans forward, studying the fall. "First things first," and this time he looks over his shoulder to the other miners, "lets get some boards in here and reshore this." As two of their number go, one of the other journeymen approaches, studying the fall with Zare. "What do you think, Nashun? You're our expert on tunneling here." "One way or another, we'll get them out," Syef assures the injured guard. Or anyway, people of the rock-moving specialty will. "You just sit tight, though. Don't go all wonky on me, alright? I think you've lucked out, no concussion, though you might have a bit of a headache for a while yet." He asks the man some random questions about his family, trying to keep him talking and distracted from the problem of the trapped people. Gabrion has disappeared off to the infirmary to go fetch the people and supplies he was asked for - that will be a while, probably. Riuder accepts this answer from Zahriel to some extent. Clearly unhappy with standing around, he turns carefully on all that unstable ground and marches off to get these here boards, as if he's just one of the crew. Better that than nothing. "Staying right here," the man with the towel at his head promises, attempting to nod, then pulling it off abruptly: maybe that's a bad idea. He answers the question as best he can, but it's obvious he's worried: he just keeps staring at the wall of rock, and letting out long, low breaths. "Guess maybe they'll give me some time off after this!" It's probably supposed to be lighthearted, but it comes out near hysterical. Xeoshen nods. "Ya keep on livin' too." He says, they didn't need to loose anymore in here after all. The crumbling makes him cringes. "Try ta keep it down, we don't need more stuff comin' down on us!" He whispers lowly, and nods, heading over to Deriuan, crouching down by him. Man, he didn't look good. He's calm though, he's been through falls before, best to stay calm during these, right? "He aint lookin' too good." He says towards where Tai is leaning on the wall. "My leg," says Deruan, rasping the words out; he is /definitely/ not in good shape. "Are they going to come and get us now? Are they getting us out?" He attempts to tilt his head to get a good look at Xeoshen, and to implore him, silently, with his gaze. "A rock to the head is worth at least three days, I'd say," Syef says, continuing a friendly banter with the man, and patting his shoulder to try to calm him. "Keep that towel on there. We'll give it another few minutes and take a look, see if you need stitches. The fortunate thing is that you don't have to worry about scarring, hey? If it'd hit your nose, that would be another thing entirely." Taikrin's breathing is ragged, and punctuated with those coughs still. "Ain't none of us lookin' to good." Now that the dust has settled a bit, she's now had a chance to look at the wall. Her expression is fatalistic where it's not white with pain. "Can y'hear anythin' out there?" Teeth grit as she shoves away from the wall in a gate resembles nothing more than awkward zombie shuffling. "Quiet," is the hoarse command to Deruan. "Don't use up th'air." As she gets closer to the trapped inmate, her expression sinks from fatalistic to whatever comes after on the direness scale. Uberfatalistc, maybe. "An' hold still." "Let's get it shored," Nashun finally decides after studying it for a long moment. "Once we get it secured, then we can get in here and start pulling free the rock. We need to get at least enough space in there to get those people some air to breathe." The words are almost clinically spoken - but then, this is one of the miners who made it clear he didn't care for the convicts. Hey, they con's going to get any days off too? Wait, when has luck ever been in their favor? Well, except now with just being missed by thirty tons of rock. "Stay calm, the faster you breath, and more oxygen you use." Xeoshen warns, and looks at the rock cringing, there's no way he could move it without help, and, well, Tai's in no shape to help, and considering the rock may be stemming bleeding for the moment, may be best to leave it. He looks down to the pale man. "I sure a shall hope they are. "We'll get out, we have to." He says, trying to calm the man down. He then looks toward the fallen rocks. "I can't hear a thing, and I think yelling aint the best idea." Being told to stay calm only makes Deruan more inclined to panic. "Not enough air!" he all but yells out, sounding as though he's on the verge of losing it completely." His gaze swivels between Taikrin and Xeoshen, and then he slumps backwards again, as though he just can't keep himself upright. He really does look to be in a bad way, even ignoring the leg. "We're all going to die. They're going to abandon us here to die... it's all because of you. That beam shoulda held. All of it shoulda held." "Shut up," is directed towards Deruan, but in a desultry manner. Taikrin is studying the fall, now, though from the safe distance of several feet back. "Maybe..." Her good hand reaches towards a spot high up on the wall, but the fact that pebbles trickle down before she's even come close inspires her to pull back again. Slowly, ever so slowly, she leans back against the nearest portion of solid wall that's close to Deruan. "Ain't my fault. Give it a rest, hey." Voice remains oddly distant; possibly shock is setting in. "They ain't gonna leave their precious Weyr all broken, they'll get in 'ere." Not very confident in that assurance is Taikrin. Still, though, one attempt is made to communicate with the outside: "Oi, anybody alive out there?" Her voice is pitched high, but not nearly as loudly as the trapped convict. Did somebody want to support this place back up? Because Riuder's returned with a load of wood and supplies that he may have wrestled off some poor miner apprentice out there in order to have something to carry back in. Striding up to the other experts like he's something to tell them, he passes a critical eye to the injured overseer then to the wall separating them from all that work that's supposed to be done. His nose wrinkles, then, "You fellas hear something? Hey!" He's apparently forgotten that shouting is /not/ a good thing, "Ya'll alive in there, ain't ya?" Surprisingly, Deruan /does/ shut up when Taikrin speaks to him like that, though he attempts to prop himself up once again as she calls through-- and gets a response. "I heard that!" he says, after a moment. "Did you hear that? They can hear us. They're going to /save/ us. Are they getting us out? Are they coming?" So maybe not quite so much with the shutting up. Zahriel shoots Riuder a glance that might well be as effective as clapping a hand over his mouth. "If you want to kill them with another fall," he says, voice soft, "by all means, keep shouting. If you'd like to help us save them, keep it down." Several of the miners approach to divest Riuder of his burden of wood and begin to set it along the outer edge of the fall, shoring it up as flat against the wall as they can. "Would you like me to explain what they're doing?" the journeyman asks. "Well, least then I'd know for sure they was dead," the guard mutters under his breath, the residual annoyance turning into a glare at any poor miner who just comes to take the equipment off of him. "I'd like you to explain how long it's gonna take. Really don't care what it is, if it's gonna do what we need and in what time." "I... dunno. Think I heard someone." The words are slow in coming, Taikrin's voice dropping down to its normal, albiet hoarse, tones. "Bet they're comin' in. Maybe it ain't so bad on th'other side. Maybe they got dragons digging..." For a moment, she goes all dreamy, voice and gaze both trailing off to the middle distance. It's only a moment, though, and then she's pulling herself back together with a shake that prompts another hiss of pain. "'ere, you." With difficulty, her attention re-focuses on Deruan. "Anything else hurt, 'sides that leg?" Deruan's face falls a fair amount, when Taikrin can't confirm for sure that they did hear someone. "Maybe," he says, though he doesn't sound so sure anymore. "I can't-- breathe properly. I don't feel all here." He looks terrified. "They have to get us out. They're not supposed to /kill/ us." He implores Taikrin with his gaze, despite his obvious awareness that there's not much she can do. "It will take as long as it takes," Zare replies calmly, watching the other miners work. "See, here we shore up the fall, creating a framework for an arch. Once we can establish that the tunnel is stable, we can start removing the rocks. But they have to be removed precisely, or they'll shift." And that, his tone implies, would be bad. Taikrin crouches down further against the wall; as her dangling arm touches ground her whole body stiffens, jaws clamping shut against the need to cry out. A few hitched breaths later, and she's at least able to unclench her jaw enough to attempt to reassure Deruan again. "We just... gotta sit... an' wait. Ain't nobody... gonna kill us." Her free arm wraps tightly around her ribs, which seems to provide at least some relief. "Just... lie back down, like. More air down there y'know." At least, Taikrin would sure like him to believe that. "C'mon, tell me how much... time y'got left. Where you gonna go... when we get out." Deruan takes in a long, low, gasping breath, then seems to calm a little more; he even follows Taikrin's advice, laying back down on the ground and staring blankly at the ceiling. There's no trace of the machismo of earlier, now; it's funny what shock and pain and terror do to a person. "Half a turn," he reports, using his words carefully. Talking does seem to help, and he tips his head to glance at Taikrin. Maybe there's thankfulness in his expression. Maybe not. "Not sure where to go. Don't got a family anymore... all gone. Used to farm, though. I liked that. Don't like being shut in." Xeoshen has lowered himself to the ground, nearby the other two cons. "Aye, they'll get us out, I mean, me and Tai, we're candidates after all, they gotta get us out, right?" Right? One could hope, maybe? "Half a turn, that ain't so long. Maybe they'll cut some time off, after this. On account'a good behavior." Taikrin wears a ghost of a smile for just a second before it becomes unsustainable and collapses back into that grimace of pain. "Stow it, you," is shot towards Xeoshen in warning, along with a dirty look. "Candidates, nothin'. Gonna get us all out, 'cause we earned it. Worked hard, like." Another cough punctuates the end of her statement, this one a bit harsher than the previous. "Farm, huh." Back to Deruan, then, with the ragged breathing again. "Farm'd be... nice. Never been... on one. What'd ya... do best, out there?" For his part, Riuder falls into the rhythm of doing whatever he's told to do as that's easiest for a man made of physical labor. There's no more voice raising from him nor pestering of Zahriel, though anyone working in close proximity is sure to be treated to the monologue: "Meteors and their shardin' tunnels and ridiculous cave-ins that are just as much a project as the first tunnel in the first place..."' Once the fall is as secured as the miners can make it, they begin to pull stone from the top, the careful pattern ensuring that no rocks are left unsupported to tumble away and rearrange the fall. Soon enough, a small strip of open air appears at the top, allowing at least fresh air to circulate into the inner room. The work, however, is tedious, and promises to grow only more so. This fall won't be cleared in a hurry, for certain. "Bovines," reports Deruan, beginning to sound quite faint. And, indeed, he doesn't get much further before he loses consciousness entirely, his internal injuries - currently invisible to the naked eye - no doubt causing all kinds of problems. At least he isn't /exactly/ a dead body, though, lingering here for the evening. Xeoshen nods to Taikrin. "Aye, half a turn aint long, that's how long I got too." He says with a grin, and then snorts at the girl. "I meant they'd have ta get everybody out of here too." He says to the girl, and then looks back to Deruan at his comment. "Bovines, eh? I'm sure you'll be able ta get back to them after this." He reassures the man, and then looks up. "Hey, I smell fresh air." Maybe they won't die from lack of oxygen after all. |
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