Veiled Eyes

by C.L. Bevill

  Her head popped up, like a cork in the water, and she brought the flashlight out in a wide circle, panting for breath, and the coldness seeped into her bones. The huge Peterbilt shifted its position as she fought for purchase, dog paddling in the water, one foot braced on some piece of equipment that hadn’t been budged by the water. Chunks of ceiling, pieces of salt rock that resembled fragments of a mammoth glacier, showered down striking the water all around her.

  The water began to rise, and the current almost ceased at once. Anna stared upward at the lake water that was gushing into the cavity. She shone the light up and could see that not all the explosives had gone off. It was the reason that she was still alive. The ones on one side had been set off, causing a rippling crack through which water was exiting like a tremendous geyser pointed downward.

  The earth continued to undulate and swell and the water around her was a billowing mass of debris that jarred every inch of her body. Anna looked around her frantically, but the Dodge, along with its precious cargo, was gone in the frenzied soup. She caught onto the Peterbilt and yanked herself upward, lying across the black hood of the long snout. For an instant, the irony struck her, and Anna almost giggled. Dan Cullen’s truck was helping to extend her life for a few minutes.

  But then the entire chamber began to shiver, and a resonant thud made the waters sway with little waves that knocked everything in their path about. Anna grasped the windshield wipers and hung on with all of her might. The flashlight fell to her chest and she pressed against it, trying to keep it from falling into the roiling waters. She brought her chin down and held it in place, praying for the mine to stop its movement for just a moment.

  Water continued falling into the excavation at an amazing rate. The roar of it almost overwhelmed everything else. Anna felt the earth finally stop its movement, and it was then that a wretched pressure abruptly applied itself to her head. It was like something had fallen on top of her, something that she couldn’t move. It pressed down inexorably, and she almost let go of the truck to reach up and try to push the invisible force away.

  Sebastien, she realized. Sebastien is hurt. I can feel you, Sebastien.

  Almost unwillingly, Sebastien’s mind opened up to Anna. The pain contained there pushed against every inch of her body. It heaved against her, compressing her lungs, causing her to gasp for air, and there was none to be found. The smell of bleach and blood permeated her surroundings, as though she was drowning in it instead of water. The explosives? It was a weak thought as he lay inside an ambulance, the blood in his brain beginning to swell and crush the fragile matter.

  Anna wanted to scream at him. He was dying. Sebastien deserved whatever he got. But the anger ebbed away. She could feel that it was too late for him. There was no escape for her father, and his mind couldn’t quite grasp it. His thoughts were almost childlike, desperate for a last note of approval. They went off, she answered him. All along one side. Not on top. For some reason those didn’t.

  The det cord, he thought. It was weak and pulsed in and out of her mind, as if he didn’t know what to think, trapped in the darkness, alone with his thoughts and with Anna’s. Doesn’t always burn at the same rate. If one side blew earlier than the rest, then it might have gotten the rest wet, and those wouldn’t explode at all. Shoulda thought of that.

  Sebastien, she thought desperately. Dying. You’re dying. Something’s wrong with your head. Pray for absolution, Sebastien. The Peterbilt was beginning to fill with water, and it began to sink, bubbles escaping from the windows at the sides. The water started to climb over her shoulders. Anna could feel the pressure in her head starting to ease. She let go of one of the wiper blades and grasped the flashlight again. Groaning with Sebastien’s pain, she scrambled on top of the semi-truck, her feet slipping over the slick surface. Moving the flashlight around, she was amazed that it was still working. She could see the graveyard was half full, and the water was rapidly mounting.

  Somewhere far above her and a distance away, Sebastien’s heart was beating its last beats. For a moment, Anna closed her eyes. His were closed, and a tunnel of white light appeared before him. She didn’t know what was on the other side but she urged him. Sebastien, pray before it’s too late.

  Heavenly Father, he thought, struggling for one last breath. Please forgive… And he died.

  Anna watched the water swirling around the Peterbilt. God have mercy on his soul. Something in her suddenly let go, and all psychic walls dropped away. She reached out, seeking something, seeking someone special.

  Anna? It was another thought pattern that reached out to her. Not available before, Aurore’s thoughts had blocked hers, and then she had blocked her own not willing to have Gabriel risk his life. But she caught the full force of his vast relief. Anna! Oh thank God.

  * * *

  The tide of dirt and sand knocked Gabriel from his feet and pushed him along for a dozen feet before coming to a rolling stop. The woman under his arm crawled out and wiped mud from her face. A dozen voices could be heard in his head, asking if anyone was hurt. Camille was prying Mathieu out from under a pine tree, but both had escaped with only scratches. Someone else, Gabriel couldn’t tell whom, had a broken arm and was reassuring his wife. The remainder was helping those who needed it. Some were looking at half-buried cars, and Gabriel noticed that the dirt slide had put out the fire in his truck by simply enveloping it in earth.

  Gabriel climbed to his feet. The slide had chased them all to the edge of the bayou, but the bayou was gone. The water had been sucked out into the lake and his eyes grew wide as he saw the slow circular spin of the water. Even with only the moonlight, he could see the lake turning in a counter-clockwise motion, like a giant drain with its plug pulled. The nearest cypresses appeared like huge plants that had been pulled out of their pots. The two flat-bottomed boats sat on muddy earth, sadly beached. The water trickled away in a hurry to be elsewhere.

  “Maman!” cried Raoul Benoit. Gabriel turned to see the youngest Benoit digging at the mudslide with frantic hands. There was a residual feeling of pressure in Gabriel’s chest, as if he could feel the woman being crushed by the earth and buried alive. Gabriel looked around him, knowing that Anna was still inside the mine, cut off from him, cut off from all of the family, but she was still alive. Why, Gabriel wasn’t sure, but he could feel her.

  Others began to help him, using their hands and sticks to dig.

  It was a long minute later that Raoul stopped digging with his bare hands and cried out with his pain. Aurore had died. The people around Raoul grasped him and comforted him as best they could. At that moment, Gabriel knew that he could reach her again. Anna? Anna, oh thank God.

  But then Gabriel realized she was cold and wet and had no place to go. She wasn’t dead yet. But it wouldn’t be long.

  * * *

  Gabriel. Anna looked around her. The water was climbing the sides of the Peterbilt. She could stand on the roof of the cab or on the air dam that covered the sleeper of the truck. Sebastien, she almost choked aloud, looking at debris floating around her. Sebastien and Aurore. Gaspard is dead. Oh God, they killed all of these people. And the mine…

  Where are you? There was a twinge of desperation in his thoughts.

  You can’t help me, Gabriel. Anna panned the flashlight up. The water still poured in. It wouldn’t stop until the chamber was full, and then it would move up the tunnels until the level of the water in the mine equaled the level of the lake.

  Then the earth began to shudder again.

  Chapter 27

  Saturday, February 21st – Sunday, February 22nd

  The Lake People say that seeing Goujon at dusk always brings luck, seeing him at dawn foretells ruin, but seen at night means that he watches over you, and good fortune will rain down upon your head.

  Anna wasn’t afraid, although she should have been. The crack on the far side of the chamber was letting water pour into the graveyard like a broken faucet. The only source of light she had was a simple flashlight that ha
d been submerged numerous times and had been on constantly for what seemed like hours. There wasn’t a perceivable way out of the ordeal. But Gabriel was alive somewhere far above her and apparently healthy. She propped herself against the air dam of the truck and worked to keep her balance as the big truck shifted ominously under her. Somehow, somewhere, she’d regained her ability to work through even the toughest of circumstances.

  Anna, dammit. Gabriel was so incensed and worried that it was difficult for her to get what he was thinking. It was a garble of thoughts that shot at her like a weapon.

  Not now, Gabriel. I’ve got a little situation.

  There was nothing for a moment. Then he must have concluded that honesty would help her most, and his thought came through clearly to her. The mine opening’s collapsed up here. The bluff fell in on it.

  Oh? I think Sebastien and Aurore would have appreciated the irony. Thinking of irony, you’ll never believe whose truck is saving my ass right now.

  Gabriel was slowly garnering control over his emotions. Anna thought she could feel Camille’s subtle influence aiding him, both Camille’s and others beside. They stood as one, more of a family than ever. Anna, goddammit. Where are you?

  An air tank bobbed by, and Anna made a noise. She let go of the air dam with one hand and reached out to snag it. It was a standard Aluminum 80, designed to hold slightly less than 80 cubic feet of air. She couldn’t remember how long 80 cubic feet of air would last her, and it wouldn’t do her much good unless she found a regulator. She was going to have dive down and see if she could locate one.

  The graveyard, Anna answered Gabriel.

  There was a roar of muted emotion that was her response. Others’ thoughts sought to calm him.

  Anna felt instant remorse for having let that nickname go to him. She concentrated for a moment, trying to reassure him. It’s not exactly a real graveyard. Just old trucks. New trucks. Junk from the mine.

  And more. You can’t hide it from me, Anna. The Benoits deposited the vehicles and belongings of the people who vanished there before they…got rid of their bodies in a sinkhole. Oh Dieu. You’re on top of that bastard trucker’s tractor-trailer!

  And I thought you wouldn’t be able to guess. Anna gauged her location in the chamber. Beggars can’t be choosers, whistling man. The Peterbilt had been close to the Dodge. However, there was no guarantee that anything was remained in the back of the truck. The water was sure to have washed some or all of it away, down into the sinkhole or to any number of places inside the graveyard.

  Men are going for tractors, Anna. Gabriel’s mind was almost chaotic. Digging equipment. We can clear the opening. And your arm is stinging. What’s wrong?

  Anna glanced down and remembered the falling piece of rock salt that had gashed her arm open. Blood was spilling down her flesh, and the salty content of the water was making the wound burn. She ripped a piece of T-shirt off and bound it quickly. Gabriel, she thought, trying not to let what she already knew get out to him. He was yelling at the family, urging them to hurry. Oh Gabriel.

  The chamber’s filling with water, he thought, realizing what she was trying to keep from him. So quickly, you’re going to drown far before any of us will be able to reach you.

  I’m so sorry, Gabriel. It called to me. Something wanted me to expose this secret. It’s been going on far too long, and it was escalating. Aurore had lost her mind and taken her family with her. Anna searched for the right words. It’s like some other force wanted me, no, needed me desperately, to bring this out into the open. I didn’t intend to be killed in the process. I’d never do that to you.

  Gabriel’s thoughts were a jumble of feelings. Anger and rage mixed with fear and longing. Desperation coursed through his mind combined with a hope for the extreme reversal of her circumstances. He had lost the ability to think coherently for a moment.

  Camille’s soft thoughts came to Anna. Anna, is there any way out for you?

  There’s an opening. On the far side of the excavation. I don’t know how far it is, but the current might be too strong for me. Water is rushing into the mine from different places, draining down the shafts like rivers.

  Go now, Camille urged her. Hurry.

  Other voices of reason aided Camille’s. Yes. Hurry. Find a way out. We’ll help you. If you can reach the elevator shaft, there’s a ladder that leads up to the 500-foot level. Help you.

  Anna tucked the Aluminum 80 canister in the cowl of the air dam. She shoved it in securely so it wouldn’t budge. There’s another entrance outside, she thought. Gabriel perked up immediately, grasping for straws. By the sign. The big sign when you leave town. It’s in the bushes under the sign. Right under it. If I can get out of the water-filled tunnels… She didn’t want to think about what was going to happen if she didn’t do just that. Then Anna took a dive.

  * * *

  “Sign?” repeated Camille. “What sign?”

  “The one Alby tried to burn down last year. He said it was scaring him every time he drove by.” Jereme Villian spouted off the answer, pointing with one hand. “I think he must have been très intoxicated on his own moonshine.”

  Camille turned to Gabriel, but he was already gone. Men were following him. She looked back at the lake and saw the slow rotation that was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. The moon above illuminated the waves where the force of nature was causing the water to spin. Phillippe and Pierrot stood beside her, looking out as well. All of them would start helping dig out the mine. If there were any chance they could get to Anna before she died, then they would try everything they could.

  Dr. Michel Quenelle was moving among the family who remained, checking injuries, issuing quick instructions to relatives. He had rounded up someone’s SUV, which was being used as an ambulance, when Gabriel took it, letting the back doors fly open as the vehicle scooted through loose dirt and sand. The doctor looked after Gabriel and shook his head. “I need another four-wheel drive!” Michel bellowed. “Truck. SUV. Freight train. I don’t care. Someone get one!”

  * * *

  Anna found the Nash Rambler. She found a backpack that wasn’t hers. It had clothing in it and a waterlogged Hustler magazine. She found a tire that was floating. The bumper of another car had found her head and grazed her temple. What she hadn’t found was a regulator or the Dodge truck. Now she sat on top of the Peterbilt once more, with her teeth chattering. It was true that the water wasn’t like being in the deep ocean or in an icy mountain stream, but it was much cooler than her body, and her body was reacting in the only way it could.

  She looked resolutely across the rising waters at the opposite side of the hollow. Perhaps there would be an air pocket somewhere up the mineshaft that she could breathe in. Cradling the flashlight under one arm, she judged where she needed to go and tried to brace herself to return to the water.

  Somewhere above her Gabriel was doing something intense. He concentrated on it fully, trying to ignore probable outcomes, sure that if he tried hard enough, he alone could change them.

  Anna jumped into the water. She dog paddled to the far side of the chamber, wincing as she went under the pounding waterfall and touched the distant wall. When she located where some of the explosives had not gone off, she followed the wires with the flashlight. I think I’m in the right spot.

  She forced her head down and kicked her feet once at the surface.

  * * *

  The sign was large and invited tourists to visit Unknown again soon. Lights had been placed strategically so that it could be seen a half-mile away, its huge lettering blasting an advertisement inducing visitors to return to spend their money in this friendly town.

  Gabriel screeched to a halt on the road closest to the sign. Rubber from the tires smoked as he stopped. A fire truck from Shreveport roared past him, headed into Unknown. A little thought tickled his brain for a scant second. The tourists at the festival had probably called en masse. Explosions. The lake was boiling. Now the lake was draining away. Some of them probably thou
ght the apocalypse had come. He rushed out of the SUV, leaving the door wide open and abruptly came to a stop.

  The large sign still had its lights on, but they showed that the sign was tilted strangely. It had shifted in its foundations. He frowned and thrust himself down the embankment next to the road. Another fire truck went past, its lights and sirens ablaze. He didn’t look to see where it was from. Two vehicles pulled up behind the borrowed SUV and men got out, following Gabriel.

  When Gabriel reached the sign, he already knew that the entrance Anna had somehow located was sealed up. The explosion had caused a collapse here as well. He stared at it helplessly.

  Maybe it’s only a few dozen feet deep, thought one of the men. The earth isn’t so shaken up here. Perhaps we can find the tunnel after all.

  Gabriel went to find something with which to dig. He ignored the feeling of coldness that had begun to seep into his bones, causing his teeth to chatter, knowing full well that Anna was beginning to feel the effects of hypothermia.

  * * *

  The flashlight worked under the water. Anna continued to be amazed at its resilience. Positive that this wasn’t part of the manufacturer’s intent, it was almost miraculous that it continued to operate. However, what the silty beam of light revealed wasn’t so encouraging.

  Whatever their intent, the Benoits had managed to seal this room. The explosives on one side had gone off and buckled the salt dome into a pile of rubble that concealed the opening to the graveyard. Anna gave it a lingering look and then pushed upward with her feet. A moment later she found the air above and was stunned at how fast the chamber was filling. She pointed the flashlight and discovered she couldn’t see the top of the Peterbilt anymore. She struck out toward the middle of the room, trying to get out from under the rushing water that was coming through the cracks above her.

  An idea germinated in Anna’s head. She shined the light up and examined the cracks. They were about a foot in width, enough to let water sluice through, not wide enough for her to escape. If I could only make them bigger.