Ermine was the only thing holding her up right now. Gray sobbed into her friend's shirt. She'd been so close! Just a few more seconds and Opal would have made it out! Why hadn't she gone for help sooner? This was her fault.

"Can someone please shut her up?" One of the boys yelled.

"You shut up! You monster!" Ermine yelled back, tightening her grip on her friend.

"Are you going to help or just keep making girls cry?" Yue stood on the top of the trench looking down at the area above the tunnel. If the tunnel had fallen all the way in, she was done for, but if it was only a partial collapse she might still have enough air to breath for a few minutes as long as she wasn't crushed. "The ground up here is still even so not all of it fell. Can you see anything?"

Proga glanced up. His face was completely covered in dust. "Waiting for it to settle some. She's pretty far back. Opal- can you hear us?" He turned his head to listen.

Yue slid down to stand next to the girls. "She told you she was going to dig under the barrier and go outside the glass?"

"Yes." Gray sniffed and took a steading breath. She glared at him. "She said that you guys told her you'd been able to survive out there. What kind of sick people say that to someone with brain damage?"

Yue frowned. "What else did she say?"

"All kinds of horrible stuff." Ermine shook her head. "I don't want to repeat it and it doesn't matter now. Are you guys going to be able to dig her out?"

"Dig her out?"

"Yeah- like you did before."

Yue shook his head. "I didn't dig her out. She wasn't inside the tunnel- it was a rock outside that slid down. For this... digging is the wrong thing to do."

"Then go in after her!" Gray screamed. "Its your fault she's in there!"

Proga dropped his shoulders. "I would. I swear I would but its not big enough. Yue and I won't fit. If we try we'd probably make it worse."

"What about this guy?" Ermine pointed.

"Me? What about you guys? You're just sitting there getting snot all over yourselves instead of helping your friend."

Yue gave him a once over and glanced back at the tunnel, lowering his voice. "She's the only one without upgraded iron, Spark. I don't think we can afford to lose her."

The color drained from Spark's face. "No. Screw all of you. I'm not going in. I'm not going underground."

"Then why are you even here?" Gray snapped.

Yue raised an eyebrow. "If you're going to run away with your tail between your legs again, might as well do it."

"Eat shit."

"We can ask Kait." Yue mused. "She's smaller... might be safer. Proga, could you run back and get her?"

"Yeah, she's in the bunks right?"

Spark turned and shoved Proga.

To Gray and Ermine's shock he managed to push him back a few paces.

"You just trying to kill her too?"

Proga held onto his arm. It wasn't gentle. "That's quite ridiculous coming from you."

"Stop acting like morons. Kait'd be furious if she found out we were standing here debating this." Yue reprimanded. "Proga. Go get her."

"No. I'll do it." Spark was shaking all over. Gray thought perhaps he was just that angry until she saw his face. His eyes were rimmed in white. "If it falls in you better at least try and get me out."

Yue nodded and stepped aside. "I promise."

Still shaking Spark got onto his knees and started in.

When his feet disappeared Yue turned to the girls. "Do you know Kait?"

"I think I've seen her before... yeah. Dark braided hair?" "Iron earrings?"

"Yeah- that's her. She might be in the bunks or the infirmary now. One of you go check each."

"But- Opal is-"

"You're no help standing here." Yue offered Ermine a hand to stand up. "You want to help her go find Kait. If he does get her out of there, she is going to need medical help."

Gray nodded. "Ok- w-we can do that. I'll check the bunks."

Ermine watched her go and looked back towards Proga. "If she... if she looks bad. When you get her out. Don't let Gray see."

Proga put a hand over his eyes and nodded.

------

This feeling was familiar. Voices bounced around in her head. Some of them she thought she knew. Some were angry. Sad. There was laughter. Mean laughter. The tunnel.

She tried to spit out the dirt but that only allowed more to pour in. Opal cautiously tried to move her head. To her relief, she had space. Her arms too. In fact- she could see a small amount of light but it seemed farther away than the sun from the glass barrier. Her legs. Her legs were what was trapped. She tried to move her right one and winced. The left one wasn't in pain, just pinned. "H-hey." She coughed. At least her voice worked, for now. She'd forgotten how she ended up here at first, then it trickled in, slowly building the picture. She'd been trying to save her friends. Opal called them stupid. How ironic coming from the girl who tried the same escape plan twice. But this time is seemed she was going to take longer to die. At least with a head injury it was quick. Opal tried again to move her leg. No luck. She could hear the ground settling, dust seemed to be picking up. She didn't want to suffocate. Wait- not the ground settling. Something- someone was coming.

"Help!"

"Shut up."

The last voice she'd expected to hear. "Spark?"

"I said shut up! Stop using all of the air." His voice sounded shaky despite the usual irritation.

She couldn't see but she could hear him coming. She jumped when his hand gripped hers. "My leg is trapped."

"You might have to lose it then."

"W-what?"

"I can drag you out of here but I can't really reach over you and move it." He paused. "How bad is it?"

"I'm not sure. It hurts to move... like something is crushing it."

"Shit."

She could hear his ragged breathing. "What now?"

"Can you move your other leg?"

"Yeah."

"Try... try and kick whatever it is off the other leg while I pull. That's all I got."

Opal thought for a moment. "Ok."

"Count of three."

"One..."

"Two-"

"THREE!"

Opal screamed, kicking as hard as she could, feeling her wrist bones pop as he pulled her forward. It hurt. She knew she was bleeding. She wiggled her toes and giggled.

"Are you laughing?"

"I can feel my toes still. My leg didn't come off."

To her surprise he laughed too. "You're insane."

She felt him release her hands. She winced, trying to follow him as he backed out. Her foot pulled away from the rock that had been on her. Something slipped.

The small amount of light that she had been able to see around him disappeared.

-----

"Dammit!" Yue kicked the ground as a second cloud of dust spewed from the tunnel entrance. This one was worse.

Proga covered his face. "We'll have to dig them out."

"You know that won't do anything." Yue shook his head.

"We aren't doing nothing, Yue. You sent him in there you are going to get him out. Now help me."

Yue watched him drop to his knees and start digging. Yue wrapped his fingers around the iron band on his forehead and squeezed, teeth gritted. No good. He cursed again and dropped down as well to join the futile effort.

"This is just to make yourself feel better, Proga. We aren't going to be able to save them."

"Fine then I'll make myself feel better."

-----

She spat out dirt. Opal was getting very tired of that flavor. Muffled sounds in front of her. He was still alive. She listened for a moment.

"Are you crying?"

Dust blew into her face. "So what if I am? I didn't want to die for you."

"I'm sorry." Opal found that she truly was. She reached out a hand. Her fingers wrapped around one of his bracelets. "How are we going to die?"

"Don't touch me. I hate you. I hate you so much! Don't say stupid shit like that!"

She waited but kept her hand on him. "We won't be able to breath soon, right?" she could feel him shaking. "I guess I shouldn't talk then."

"You can talk. Its not like I really wanna prolong my life here in this nightmare."

"What happened to Yue when he tried to break your irons?"

"What?"

"He didn't cut his hands. He hurt his side somehow... I don't understand."

Spark was silent. Had he already passed out?

"How-"

"Opal. You have to break them. Right now! It only has to be one- please just break one of them."

Opal blinked. "I can't. You know I can't. And I'll just get hurt like he did."

"Yes you can. That's why I climbed in this hellhole to save you!" He grabbed her other hand and forced her fingers to close around the iron bracelet. "The least you can do is return the favor you useless bitch."

The iron was so cold beneath her fingers. Opal let go. Was it cold? Or was it burning her?

"Do it!"

She gripped it again, wincing at the feeling. This was useless. How could someone break metal with just their hands? It felt like the ice was running down her arms now, making them tremble. At the same time her fingers tightened. Something electric was flickering in her muscles. Then the cold seemed to be washed back down, her arms becoming warm, her fingers pulsing. The iron- it was- bending. Opal had to make herself squeeze down to keep from pulling away in shock. She was bending it? Like the roots she pulled out so often, Opal started to twist. The metal popped and clicked in ways metal shouldn't. She heard Spark grunt in pain and then his own hand joined hers, tearing the iron into fibers until with a crack and a bright flash of blue light it splintered.

"I did it." Opal was panting, stunned. She wondered if this was trick of her brain again. "I did it." She told him.

To her surprise, she could see him. Faintly at first, then a glow, like a flame- no not like a flame, a real flame. Opal stared as the bracelets around his wrist burned red. His eyes were glowing with the same fire. He was grinning, teeth illuminating as his mouth filled with swirling yellow and orange she could feel the heat sweeping over her.

"Cover your face, dumbass."

Opal buried her head under her arms and wished a second later she'd covered her ears as an explosion rattled her skull. She screamed.

Fresh air joined the falling dust. There was sky over her. Bright and purple. Opal started breathing again and looked at Spark. His eyes still swirled with otherworldly yellow for a second before fading away. He looked down at his hand and then grinned at her.

She pointed to the ragged walls. Half a potato, charred and broken, rolled down to her. "How. How did you do that..."

"Opal! You broke the iron?" Proga's face appeared over the side. He grimaced. "She's bleeding pretty bad. Spark- get her out of there."

"Haven't I done enough?" He staggered to his feet and seemed about to pick her up when his knees buckled. Opal stared at his face and realized he was still trembling.

"I won't tell them you cried."

He glared at her but then averted his eyes. "I-Thanks..."

With Proga's help the two were pulled out. Opal's leg had a deep gouge in it but she was correct that none of the bones or nerves were damaged. It hurt though. A lot.

Yue examined it. "Kait will be here soon. Your friends went to find her. We don't have much time though. You'll need to break his other ones if we are going to escape."

********

Fun fact

Speaking of explosions dead animals like whales sometimes blow up because of the trapped gas. Not to be outdone by nature, in the 1970s Oregon some folks intentionally blew one up to remove it from the beech. It did not work.