Miracle

Scott follows Katie to join the other two, respecting the silence. Looking across the site, he sees so many people…so many at work… For just a moment, he wonders how the rescuers must feel… To be working so hard, and facing the frustration of not finding what they’re looking for…then when they finally do, if lives have been lost, how many shoulder guilt for not working fast enough?

Stepping up closer to Katie, he slowly moves to put an arm over her shoulders.


Jason looks up at them for a moment, analyzing his own feelings for just a second or two. He was glad Katie had someone to comfort her…he knew this time had to be tearing at her own heart.

All eyes watch…all eyes listen.


Con opens his eyes, a faint sound catching his attention. He’d been asleep…he didn’t know for how long, but he could hear his wheezing breath along with Dean’s as they struggled for air.

There was the sound again. He couldn’t tell if it was really that faint or if he just wasn’t hearing it well.

All of a sudden a tiny spec of light appears to one side of the small enclosure about three feet off the earthen floor. Con’s heart leaps. No…could it really be?

The buried men were suffocating, starving and dying of thirst, but adrenaline somehow manages to surge through Con’s veins, enough for him to call out. “Down here!”

The rescue worker stops, stunned, and wondering if he were just hearing things. He swings his pickaxe again.

“Hey!”

The worker stops again and knees down, examining where his axe had struck. “I’ll be,” he breathes. There was a hole. “Anyone down there?” he calls loudly.

Con’s eyes widen. “Yes!”

The rescuer is on his feet again in an instant, yelling to the others. “Get over here on the double! I found them! One of them is alive!”

What had been a fairly calm atmosphere becomes chaotic as several workers join together to dig and move rocks.


Jason watches from a distance as movement suddenly picks up along with loud voices. He straights and stares ahead, trying to figure out what’s going on. “Something’s happening…”


Con blinks as more light comes through the cracks. “Dean,” he urges. “Dean, are you awake?”

Dean gives a little groan, groggily stirring from his deathlike sleep. “W…what?”

“They found us,” Con breathes. “Praise the Lord, they found us.”

Dirt and small rocks begin to shift and fall from the low ceiling. Con looks up with a bit of worry. “Hey, take it easy, guys!” he yells. “It’s unstable in here, you’re gonna cave in!”

Voices muddle together and Con strains to hear what he can. He turns to his other side. “Brandon?”

No answer. There had been no answer for hours now. Con reaches out to check his pulse. It took him several seconds to even find one, and he almost wondered if it were his imagination that he felt it.

“Come on guys, move it up!” A rescuer orders. “Work fast and tread lightly!”

A face appears in the widening hole. “We’re coming,” he encourages. “Just hang on.”


“…And we have breaking news from our ongoing top story, involving the site of Titan Inc. Only moments ago one rescue worker broke through to a small pocket under the rubble and has discovered at least one man alive. It’s a miracle to say the least, and the worker is joined by his partners in an effort to clear that area away. No one has said yet what condition the man is in, or whether he is with the two other missing men.”

Eyes in the TJY break room snap to attention at the new news. Laura’s hand goes to Nate’s in a vice grip as she’s the first to reach for her phone and dial Jason.


The hole grows larger and larger. Though the workers clear as fast as they can, it still takes a long while just to make a hole big enough for a man to get out.

Con shifts around and crawls nearer to Dean. Ignoring the fact that his right arm felt like dead weight, he reaches under Dean’s head and legs. “Come on, partner, it’s time to get you out of here.”

The one worker looks through the hole and waves to his partners. “He’s coming out! He’s got someone else with him!”

Con can hear them, and struggles to crawl through the hole with Dean. “Get an ambulance over here!” he barks. As he works his way up and out, the earth begins to shake. He pauses for a moment, the tremor continuing.

People outside begin to shout and run. Someone reaches in and grabs Con and Dean to help pull them out.

“It’s going to collapse!” someone shouts.


Jason takes several steps forward, feeling the tremor from where he is, and seeing the sudden chaos. What was happening? What was going on? Another cave-in? Had they found anyone? There were too many people. He couldn’t see. He moves closer. He ignores his vibrating cell phone on his belt. Now was not the time to chat.

Scott moves with him, his eyes shifting all around. From the shouting, it appeared they had found someone, but where, and who? And would they be lost in another collapse?


The bright light hits Con and blinds him. His eyes water as he tries to focus. Dean still in his arms, he drags him clear of the rubble and finally gets to his feet, though is shaky after not standing for almost three days. His body is weak to the point of breakdown. “His legs are broken,” he informs quickly, his mind struggling to stay alert as a wave of dizziness hits him.

The earth continues to shake and Con turns back toward the opening.

Someone grabs him. “Don’t go in there! It’s going to close up!”

Dean holds up his hand. “Listen to them. Don’t do it!”

“But Brandon!” Con states in panic.

“He’s dead!” Dean shouts at him.

“I have to get him out!”

“Tank, No!!!”

Con shoves aside the rescue worker and dives for the hole again, cringing as pain shoots down his arm and his head throbs. He wiggles through the small opening into the darkness again.

“Move back, move back!” A rescuer shouts. “It’s going down again!” No one had any idea if there would be another major sinking again, or if it was just within the small passage, but the whole area was unstable.

Dean is quickly put on a stretcher and moved a safe distance away. Workers form a line to push people back, shouting orders as tension rises.

Suddenly, the earth begins to collapse around the hole. Rescuers fall back immediate to get out of danger as rocks break through the surface to plummet into an adjoining sinkhole. One could hear the rubble and rocks falling under the surface, proving there was empty spaces there.

Shouting. Running. Madness.

Then…silence.


Jason skids to a halt at the edge of the roped-off area, someone’s arms reaching out to stop him from entering the danger zone. His eyes are glued to where the rescuers had been and he stares, his heart beating loudly in his chest. Held back by a construction worker, he doesn’t fight, but says put, trying not to assume anything from what he was witnessing.


A cloud of dust covers the site. People cough. Someone runs. Voices slowly pick up. Questions hang in the dense air.

And slowly, a breeze begins to wisp the dust away. Onlookers squint at a dark form. What was…was it…could it…

Con is on his knees, bent over a lifeless form, covering Brandon’s body with his own, protecting from flying dirt and rocks. His eyes are shut tight, but finally he blinks, beginning to cough from the dust. Still squinting in the light, he slowly lifts his head, realizing that he had made it out right before the collapse. He didn’t even know how.

As people are rushing toward him again, he ignores their presence and feels for Brandon’s pulse.

Nothing.

He tries again.

Still nothing.

“No!” Con can feel his already strained emotions being pushed to their limit. Nothing around him seemed to matter. “Brandon!”

Leaning down, he starts to perform CPR. “Come on, Brandon, you made it this far! Come on!”

After several attempts, Brandon suddenly sucks in air and begins to cough.

“Get that stretcher over here!” a rescuer orders. “Now!”

Temporary relief washes over Con as Brandon is brought back to the living. He sinks back to sit on the ground, his mind in a total blur. People are talking to him, they’re asking him questions. Someone looks at his shoulder. Someone examines his head. He can barely hear anything. His eyes sting from the light and dust. Blood has stained his clothes, and he’s not even sure whose it is where. He feels almost numb all over, severely dehydrated and malnourished as the other two men.

Trying to think clearly, he still focuses on one thing – those who he knows good and well have been waiting, praying and worrying for him. He doesn’t know how much time has passed, but regardless, he knows they’ve been watching. Their prayers could be the only reason he was alive.

Con somehow manages to pull himself to his feet against the protests of the medics surrounding him. Head and shoulders above the others, he scans the area, still squinting in the light. He can’t focus very well, but he looks for faces he knows…he has to tell them he’s alright….he has to….and Laura…and Jamie…he has to see Jamie.


Jason’s eyes widen. No one could mistake that tall frame. No one could mistake that hulk of a man. It was Con. Shocked, Jason remains glued to his spot.

By now, Scott has come up beside him at the edge of the zone as well, and follows his gaze. “My word,” he whispers. Looking to Katie and Jamie, he utters words he honestly thought he wouldn’t. “It’s Con.”


“Sir, just stand still and let us look…”

Con shrugs off a medic’s hand and tries to walk forward, staggering just a bit.

“Sir, please! Let me look at your head. You’ve been bleeding, and…”

Con whirls around, anger in his eyes. His nerves are shot, he’s not thinking clearly, and he’s just trying to stay focused on one thing without being pulled in three million directions at once, amplifying his headache. “I just survived two tons worth of earth on top of me, no food, no water, no light, and was able to get out alive with my two partners. I think I can live another five minutes, and if you want to too, I suggest you lay off for that amount of time!”

Turning back around, Con takes a couple more unsteady steps, looking about, groping for relief of worry.


Laura’s eyes stayed glued to the television set. Jason hadn’t answered his phone. “Oh, Nate,” she breathes quietly. “I don’t want to hope…but do you think…maybe…?” She swallows hard. “Will they show who was found? We have to find out…”