8 January 2023

I was really tired and struggled to think of what to write about when I wrote this. It’s not factually accurate to real mining projects, especially the comments about the backup lights, but eh. That wasn’t the point.

It’s easy to say, out in the light, that darkness isn’t a thing. And they’re right; it’s not. It’s the absence of a thing, the absence of light. But when you’re trapped hundreds of feet down without any light, the darkness has got weight to it. If you’re not careful, it’ll crush you just as surely as any cave-in.

Such were my thoughts down in the mine when the power cut out. Whatever happened must have been catastrophic, because even the back-up lights never came on. For better or worse, most everyone else had already left by that time, so it was just me. Alone in the dark. With none of the lifts working.

The only way I could go forward, then, was the backup path. It was a narrow set of tunnels that curled around on itself to wind its way back up to the surface. A hefty iron chain had been bolted in, so we’d have something to follow even in the dark. I held onto that desperately. Sure, I had the weak little light from my headlamp–most of the time, anyway–but that only got me so far. I had to hold onto that chain like my life depended on it… because in a way, it did.