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An hour after sunrise they had all gotten up, cleaned and changed, and the tent was packed away.

"So, what are we taking with us?" Angus asked Germ as they gathered behind the car where Germ had laid out the various gear he'd brought along.

"Like I said, I've got lots of rope. I suggest we each take a 100' length. That's 500 feet of rope. If your hole is deeper than that... well, that's one hell of a pit. It's a good lightweight rope and each is fitted with a nice carabiner on the ends so it should be easy to link. I've also got one adjustable harness to lift us each up and down with. I could only find three flashlights, but they've all got good, strong batteries. I've also got four walkie-talkies. And... of course..."

He patted the flamethrower case while looking at Bea.

"It could come in handy - for light in large places if nothing else."

Bea let out a groan, but nodded. "And I suppose you think Gregg should carry it."

"I really think he'd be the best choice. He's quick and small but stronger than I am," Germ admitted.

"Okay, but Gregg, you're going first. And we don't open the case till we're inside the mine. Right?"

Gregg smiled innocently. "Sure thing Bea!" "Just... be careful with it."

"I will. Me and Angus brought water and food."

"Good thinking. Though really this shouldn't take too long. At least I sure hope it doesn't. We're not exploring a cave system here - we're just going to try to get back to that pit and see what's down there. Right?"

All nodded.

"Alright. Everybody ready?"

"Ummm..." said Mae.

"Better go to the bathroom first," Angus said.

"Me too," Germ added.

"Oh geeze. Yeah. Okay. Everybody pick a tree. We'll meet back here in 5 minutes."

Bea had naturally assumed the role of leader for the expedition and no one protested.

5 minutes later they were finally walking through the woods, following Germ. Each had a loop of rope across their chests and backpacks of various types. When they reached the edge of the woods, they looked around. The mine entrance was indeed nearby behind a newly erected chain link fence.

"Ohoh... Didn't think of that. Any ideas Germ?"

"Sure. Wire cutters. But I don't have any big enough for that."

"Damn. Foiled by chain link."

"Hey Bea?" May said and they all turned to her.

She pointed to a big tree on the far side of the fence. "That tree limb is pretty big, and goes out over the top of the fence. Why don't we just climb up the tree, then climb down from there?"

Bea looked to Germ.

"Actually... yeah! Why not?"

"Well, we can't all balance as good as you two," Angus said, a little concerned. "Well, let's give it a try anyway."

"Okay. We'll need to leave a rope so we can get back up."

"Not really," Mae said again. "I can just climb up the fence and jump up to the limb. It's not that far."

"Really? Can you do that?"

"Let's go find out!"

In the end, it was actually even easier because when Angus crawled out on the limb, it split at the trunk and ended up braced across the top of the fence anyway. In another ten minutes they were in the entrance, prying the wooden bars off.

"We are now committing a federal crime," Angus noted.

"Thanks Angus," Bea said sarcastically. "That's good to know."

"Well, I suppose when we went over the fence we already had now that I think about it."

The last board was pried back and they all stepped inside, turning on their flashlights.

"Flamethrower?" Gregg asked, trying to withstrain his obvious enthusiasm.

Bea nodded. "Flamethrower".

In another minute Gregg had it strapped on and the pilot light lit, which provided enough illumination that they were able to turn off their flashlights to save batteries.

"Okay. This part looks about like I remember it," Mae said. "Let's go on down to the elevator."

Once they got there, they were surprised to find that the elevator seemed to have been repaired.

"Well, they probably figured it was easier to repair than to bring up the bodies by rope," Germ offered.

"I guess. If we use it, anybody in here is going to know we're here."

"I don't think anybody's here, Bea," Angus assured her. "Let's use it."

The ride down was less rickety than she remembered it being before. But the damage of the cave-in was obvious once they'd gotten to the bottom.

"Wow," Gregg said as he gave the flame thrower a little boost.

The entire path was covered in rubble.

"I don't think they fixed the elevator for the bodies, Bea. " Germ suggested. "I think they used it to haul out rock."

"There's a path around this side," Gregg said.

"Oh god that looks small," Angus said. "I might be a little claustrophobic."

"Let me go first," Germ offered, turning on his flashlight and strapping it to his head. Suddenly he looked very competent indeed.

"How's it look?" Gregg asked when the light had disappeared.

"Use the walkie talkie," Germ's voice came back.

Bea fished the one she carried out of her bag.

"Hey Germ. You there?"

"Yup. It's not bad. The entrance is the tightest part. It opens up just past that. I just came out on the other side of the rock fall. Everything's pretty normal here."

"Okay. I'm going next," Bea declared. "I"m the biggest besides Angus. If I can make it, you can too. Gregg, you'll be the last so just follow Angus in. Mae, you follow me."

In fact, it was pretty tight. Bea made it alright but Mae got stuck once. With a strong exhale though, she squeezed through as well.

"Guys," Gregg said over the walkie talkie when Bea and Mae emerged back out from the rock fall.

"Yeah?" Bea said, fearing she knew what was coming.

"Angus is stuck."

"Fuck" Bea said, without pushing on the Talk button.

"Well, not technically stuck. He can go backwards."

"Did he try exhaling? It worked for me."

"Bea?" came Angus' voice.

"Yeah Angus."

"Bea, I can't do this."

"It's okay Angus. You just stay there, okay? We'll stay in communication with the walkie talkie."

"Sorry Bea. It's... I'm not good at tight places."

"Don't sweat it, Angus. You'll be our rear guard."

"Okay."

Germ and Mae were looking at her.

"One down," she said morosely.

Gregg came through with the flame thrower shortly after.

"You okay Gregg?" Bea asked.

"Sure! He's a big teddy bear - but he's safe back there. He's got his flashlight. He's good. Let's go on."

"Well, lead on, Flamer!" Mae laughed.

"Cool! I like that! I'm a Flaming Faggot!"

"Don't be offensive," Bea admonished him, but he was obviously having the time of his life.

The tunnel went on for quite a distance with no signs of any changes from their first trip. A few passages left off to the sides, but the main path was all they'd taken originally. However, as they got deeper into the mine, small rockfalls became evident and they grew in size. Finally they arrived at another that was too big to pass easily.

"Looks like it doesn't go all the way to the top though," Germ noted, and Gregg directed a jet of flame to confirm. Sure enough it looked like a passage was possible at the top, and Bea noticed a rough path up to the top across the rocks that looked like it had been used. "Alright. Gregg, you want to lead this time?"

"Sure!"

Gregg and Germ made it up and over without incident, but a rock shifted when Mae stepped on it, sending her falling back painfully.

"You okay? Mae!?" Bea asked when she'd climbed back down.

"Yeah. Hurt my knee, but nothing bad. Just scraped it. Stings like hell though."

"Let me see..."

Bea directed her flashlight at Mae's knee. The knee of the jeans were torn but she couldn't really make out how bad the scrape was underneath.

"Hey Germ? Did you bring any bandages or anything like that?" she asked over the walkie talkie.

"Should be some in your backpack. Little white box with a red cross on it." he sent back.

"Bea?" Angus' voice came back. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Mae just scraped her knee a little. Give us a couple minutes and we'll be continuing. Just wait there a little Germ."

"10-4" came the reply.

"Okay Mae, take the jeans off. I need to see how that looks."

"Really, it's not bad," Mae protested, but Bea began unbuckling her belt.

"Jeeze, if I knew you were that eager!" Mae laughed and finished for her, exposing her legs.

Bea checked her out.

"Yeah, it's nothing. Let me put a bandage on it. But you might have to crawl some on it."

"It'll be fine. Just maybe tape up the hole in my jeans to keep it closed?"

A little while later both were through the passage and back to the main tunnel with Germ and Gregg. "Okay, I think we're pretty close now," Bea said, then thumbed the Walkie Talkie.

"Angus, can you still hear us?"

"Loud and clear. I wish you could just leave the mic on though. It's damn quiet here when you're not talking."

Germ spoke up. "There is a Vox setting. Just activates when it hears noise. Will use more power, but these batteries should be good for a full day."

"Yeah, let's use that," Bea said. "Besides, we've got the other two if we need em. It must suck to be all by yourself down here."

"Hey Angus, we're switching to Vox mode," Germ said as he adjusted the set. You'll hear everything now.

"Really? Thanks!"

"Yeah. Okay, so we're probably pretty close to where the pit was. We're going on down," Bea said, and they did so.

A few more minutes brought them to the place they recognized. Immediately they knew why the sacrifices had not been discovered. The mouth of the pit was completely filled with a huge slab of rock that had fallen from the ceiling. Gregg had found some dark stains on the far side of the place as well, but Bea suggested he not mention that. People had died here, but there was no need to make a big deal out of it now.

"Well, Angus, we found out why the cops hadn't found the sacrifices," Bea said into the mic. "The whole pit and most of the space has this huge rock slab that fell off the ceiling. If no one told them otherwise, they couldn't even know there ever was a pit here!"

"So, is that it? No way to go farther?" came Angus' voice. There was some static now though. They had probably neared the limit of the range.

"I think this is the end of the line," Bea responded back.

Then Germ spoke up.

"Wait. There's a hole over here!"

Bea's heart sank. She was actually hoping to not be able to get into the pit. She was far from sure, now that she was deep underground, that she really wanted to anymore.