The Mine

Chapter 12: Sacrifices Have To Be Made

Miles ran over to Jared's side while Rebecca walked out of the mine shaft behind him, while the desperate older brother reached his younger counter part he quickly realized that the blast did in fact have an impact on Jared. Getting a full view of his brother now, he could see a piece of the once rock door had flown across the room and crushed Jared's arm against the wall. The nearly dead man looked up at his brother with a weak grin.

"I can't feel my arm."

Jared's voice was weak when he responded to Miles as he tried to turn his head to look at the crushed limb, however before he can look Miles grabbed his head and looked him dead in the eyes.

"I know, it'll be okay though."

As the words left his mouth he looked back at Rebecca who was standing in shock at the sight of the brothers.

"Oh my god is he going to be-"

"Give me the machete."

Miles cut Rebecca off halfway through her sentence and drew his gun once more and pointed it at her. To Miles there was no time to waste and he wasn't going to beat around the bush anymore.

"What?"

"MACHETE, NOW!"

Looking at the armed man confused, Rebecca had forgotten all about the machete that she had on her waist. Now with Miles yelling at her, his finger was grazing the trigger since they both knew he would get the machete one way or another. Looking into the face of death, Rebecca unsheathed the machete from her side and threw it toward him. Miraculously the man grabbed the blade by the handle out of mid air and turned back to face his brother.

"You're not gonna do, what I think you're going to do, are you?"

"Do you have any other suggestions?"

Rebecca looked at Miles wide eyed as he felt up the edge of the blade, for a brief second he looked over his shoulder at her waiting for an alternative yet they both knew that this was the only option, given the situation.

"I can't watch."

"I'm sorry."

Knowing what happened next, Rebecca turned her head and covered her ears, while Miles looked at his brother, with a human like expression on his face. Jared was thankfully unconscious, as the man raised the machete up into the air and a subtle tear gleamed in his eye. Taking one more deep breath, Miles finally brought down the machete, swinging it over and over again. Miles was disgusted with what he had just done and pulled out the medical kit that they had packed with them, and tries his best to bandage up his brother.

"Alright, It's okay to look now."

He called back to Rebecca, who looked at Jared who was no longer attached to the boulder and who only had one arm. She gagged at the sight of the newly one armed man.

"I'm going to need you to take point, and go through the door first while I finish patching up Jared."

Miles focused on Jared's wound, while Rebecca was willing to do anything to get out of this grotesque situation, she happily accepted to go through the blown up door. Pulling out his lighter, Miles tended to Jared's wounds by candle light while Rebecca maneuvered over all the rubble. The path through the door was a tight squeeze, forcing her to carefully traverse the hole she walked into what she could only assume was the treasure room.

Immediately as the flashlight illuminated the room, a tomb was revealed while the rest of the room appeared baron. No treasure in sight. Rebecca walked over to the tomb and put the flashlight down beside it, she began to try and push the lid off of the tomb to see what was inside. Shockingly the lid moved almost effortlessly as if the seal had been broken prior to her arrival.

"WHAT DID YOU FIND IN THERE?!"

"THERE"S NOTHING HERE!"

As the two yelled between the two rooms, a loud WHAT! can be heard from Miles as Rebecca continued to look in the tomb that was still empty. No skeleton, no special belongs, just a solid stone box. Realizing that her journey was pretty much over she knew that she had to find a way out, she shined the light around the room not seeing anything at first glance and looked back at the crumbled wall where she had entered.

Through the darkness she could see a faint orange glow from Miles's lighter, coming closer which made Rebecca believe that her life was about to end as that orange light became brighter and brighter. With no where to run, Rebecca began backing herself into the corner of the room, keeping the light trained on Miles. The shadowy figure of the soon to be serial killer appeared and on his back was his almost dead brother completely knocked out.

When the two of them entered the room, Miles immediately saw the tomb. Without remorse Miles quickly dropped Jared off his back and onto the ground, not believing the tomb was truly empty. He ran over and peered inside it, completely ignoring Rebecca who was still in the room with him.

While Rebecca, seeing what might be her last chance of surviving the brothers, she didn't hesitate to run over to Jared's unconscious body and grabbed the pistol from its holster. Miles heard her scamper to the other side of the room, but still didn't pay it any attention as he continued to peer into the tomb seeing for himself that it was empty.

"What the hell did you do with it?"

Realizing there was nothing in the stone box, Miles slammed his hands down on the edge and looked at Rebecca. However now she had Jared's gun cocked and pointed it at the dying brother while Miles made a move for his gun.

"Hey don't do anything stupid now or I will kill him."

"Oh how precious, you actually think you have the high ground now."

Rebecca held the gun confidently trained on Jared, but in retaliation Miles sarcastically laughed at her while putting his hand around the grip of his pistol. Seeing the slight movement Rebecca put her finger on the pistols trigger.

"I'm serious, I will kill him."

"I know, but so will I."

Just like that, with no hesitation Miles drew his gun and quickly pulled the trigger as a flash of light filled the room.