The Mine

Chapter 1: The Brothers

The massive tanker of a ship cut through the raging waves that crashed against the steel hull. The open sea that remained in front of them had waves as high as houses. The only light on the open seas was the massive light panels that were on the edges of the boat. Massive beams of light cutting through the darkness. They were but one of the things keeping the boat heading on course. The other was Miles Teller, he was the leader of this rag tag team of gold chasers.

Miles was an older man just passing his early fifties. His face was wrinkled from experience in the mine. His hair was in a shaggy brown pattern and he had cold eyes, very little emotion ever covered the mans face. He was the typical explorer type with outfits that would likely be seen more in movies. He had the beige cargo pants and a dirtied white button up shirt, with half the buttons open exposing the top of his hairless chest.

He was the enforcer as the waves sprayed around the boat while it fought the raging sea. The boat was a masterpiece of great precision as the boat doesn't hesitate to plow through any upcoming wave. Behind Miles the wheel on the bridge's door started to spin before releasing and the door squealed open as a man in a red polo was coming through on the other side.

The man that was about to enter the room was Jared, Mile's younger brother. The man was still in his late forties. His hair was cleanly kept keeping it away from the frame of his glasses, as well the man was much more cleanly kept then his brother. However It was Jared's presence that caught Miles's attention as the horrendous screeching of metal filled both of their ears.

Miles didn't even flinch as Jared took the spot beside his brother, a tablet resting on his forearm. They don't make eye contact with each other, both focusing on the shadowed ocean in front of them.

"How's she handling."

Jared was the first to break the silence, a cardinal sin on the boat. Especially when it came to addressing Miles, the older man craved the silence, and being alone with his thoughts.

"Don't bullshit me Jared, I know you're not here to ask me if this colossus is handling well, you and I both know she's one of a kind. So what is it that you want?"

Miles was always straight forward and to the point, everyone else was insignificant to him. Beside him though Jared looked up from the tablet and briefly turned his attention to Miles's content face, his eyes like stone as he stared out at the sea.

"See the thing is Miles. I hope you're right about this next treasure, because due to the failure of the last two exhibitions we'll be bankrupt by the end of the month."

Jared had made his point as he lowered the tablet to his side and stared at his brothers stone cold expressionless face.

"Well Jared, Let me do my job of driving this boat and you can go back and do yours by researching this operation. Then maybe we'll actually see a change in our performance, besides by the sound of it we have nothing to lose."

The older brother's tone was becoming more aggressive, as each word left his mouth. Jared couldn't believe what his brother was saying but there was no point in arguing with Miles he only did things for himself.

"So you're blaming me for our recent failures?" Jared was getting just as frustrated with Miles, they were always at each other's throats now though while Jared was simply waiting for a response from his brother but the silence slowly crept back into the room. "Fine have it your way."

In the reflection of the glass that lined the wall of the bridge, Miles's could see Jared giving him a disgusted look of betrayal before finally giving up and walking back to the door. As Jared reached the iron door he opened it up bringing back the horrendous sound of metal scraping on metal, before he disappeared back into the night. With the large metal door no longer supported it fell back and slammed against the threshold, and felt like it shook the entire boat. Outside Jared headed back down to the crew cabin where Kevin, the brothers new recruit was sitting, typing away on a laptop.

Kevin wasn't anything special from any other intern. He was still full of life, and determination while also only being twenty four and already going on expeditions with a world class team. However as positive as he seemed to be Miles always gave him the cold shoulder where Jared was more open with him. Now was one of those times as Jared sat across from him and placed the tablet with all the statistics of the trip on the table then leaned back.

"How did it go?"

"Pretty much the same as usual, y'know Miles is always right and Jared isn't working hard enough yada yada."

"Well if you're coordinates are right we should reach the island by dawn tomorrow."

Kevin mentioned as he stopped typing and looked up at Jared who was still seething with some of the anger from his conversation with Miles that he had only minutes ago.

"Well good to know, anyways I'm going to hit the hay for tonight, are you okay to hit the night shift by yourself tonight, chances are you wont see Miles again till land fall anyway."

"Yea for sure, take it easy Jared get some sleep."

Jared rose from his chair and walked over to Kevin, and put a hand on the boys shoulder.

"You're a good kid, Kevin. One day you'll be leading expeditions like this one with you're own team."

The mentor of a man removed his hand from Kevin's shoulder, and walked back into the barracks of the ship. Acknowledging Jared's compliment, Kevin returned to the work on his laptop.