Old streak of Blood and Silver

 

“Is the camera recording?” spoke Archer to the camera man behind him.

Isabella, who was the recording, held up her left hand with the thumbs up sign. The equipment was much lighter than what she used when they started, this gave her more room to move and follow Archer through their investigations. I was following both through their shoots, being the back up to Isabella I would normally be carrying the extra batteries and infrared camera for shots that needed them.

We were just a 3-person crew going to places few would try to, this time round it was an abandoned silver mine. The gold ones did not have much to show, and they were mostly covered by the famous ghost investigators, with also the hope of finding some undiscovered gold along the way. We chose this one because the owner reached out to us, he mentioned that there was a ghostly lamp that would move through the tunnels. I followed Archer into another tunnel; he would shine his light around to check if the tunnel was safe then would walk around calling for any spirits. Isabella was behind us making sure she did not bump into anything while recording, her new camera was using night vision to capture any ghostly lights.

I stood to the side to let her through; I could smell the sweat on her. The tunnels were cold, but she was sweating from the effort, I looked back to where we came from, and I swore I saw a face looking back at me at the entrance. I shone a light and caught just the wall, still this place was much more oppressive than I had expected. We made our way to a collapsed section to try and see if we could capture any voices on out EVP’s.

“What the hell?” Archer exclaimed as we reached the marked spot, there was a collapsed tunnel in front of us but there were signs of someone trying to dig through. Isabella began documenting the scene while Archer narrated what we were seeing, there were loose rocks laid on the side like they were moved. The mine owner swore that after the collapse no one was allowed in without permission and this part of the mines were off limits to all, due on part that they were deemed structurally unsafe.

We were maybe 10 feet from the cave in, that was as far as we risked but there were clear footprints leading to the collapse. Archer wanted to take a better look, but we refused him, he looked genuinely disappointed by this but shrugged. He chose instead to use the zoom on the camera to take a better look, I was also the editor, so I asked Isabella to let him look. We were there for 30 minutes looking and recording the site when I heard footsteps behind us, thinking it was the owner I turned to check and found nothing. The dust hung in the air where my light shone, and it was not disturbed by anyone; I moved the light around to check but did not find anyone.

“You heard them too right?” Isabella was talking to me, I nodded looking at the tunnel behind. “Hey guys, I am here, remember?”

We turned to Archer; he was looking at us with some amusement etched on his face. “We heard someone walking to us so we wanted to see who it was.”

Archer’s lifted an eyebrow in curiosity, “did you see anyone?”

I shook my head; he looked past my shoulder and shone his light. I blinked at the sudden bright flash, Isabella lowered her camera and head also, “who are you?” Archer asked. I turned to see as did Isabella with her camera, she caught a shadow of someone passing the tunnel we came from. “Wait what was that?” I asked her. Archer was already brushing past us, the tunnel wasn’t narrow so all he had to do was weave past us. I followed him to the entrance of the tunnel and watched him walk down the tunnel and begin to look around. Isabella followed huffing from the thick air and dust, I was feeling the same and wondered if Archer did too.

He was shinning his light down then up and finally to the end of the tunnel, he was trying to find track but looked like he was not able to. “Shit, whoever it was moved faster than I expected. Wait, did you guys hear him running?”

“How sure are you it was man?” asked Isabella.

“That was because I saw him, he was wearing those old timey miner’s outfits. I thought he was just those kooks we find at places like this trying to make an extra buck from leftover stuff.”

I looked at him confused, why would anyone wear old miner’s clothes anymore. Before I could ask a sudden shake forced me off balance and I desperately leaned forward to keep from falling, Isabella did the same almost dropping the camera. Archer stood still looking up and around, there was a sudden gust of air that rushed past us and the dust followed. After the dust settled, we stood there wondering what was happening, Archer was scared, and we both could see it on his face. “There is something here, we need to leave now.”

Neither Isabella nor I needed another reason, and we began to hurry back to where we came from, Archer was practically running now. Isabella was trying her best to make sure the camera was not bumping into the sides of the tunnels; I let her go first while I followed to make sure we got out. Running with the flashlights helped but the debris of old mining was everywhere, and I was having just as much trouble getting out. Archer was way ahead of us until he wasn’t, we were running and saw his figure just ahead of us forcing us to stop. He just stood there, Isabella called out to him, we got close and she put a hand on his shoulder and he just dropped. I jumped back as did Isabella dropping her camera, we looked down at what was Archer, and he had a pickaxe sticking out of his chest.

Isabella screamed and went berserk; I grabbed her watching my old friend lying there dead. I looked around to figure out what or who could have done this but could not see, I thought maybe the old man could be some serial killer or something. More thoughts were running in my head, Isabella became hysterical and tried to run but I stopped her.

“We need to move carefully, listen to me Isa. We could be next, and I need us to get out of here.”

I heard a voice further down the tunnel, it was a man, and he was talking something with a very deep voice. I could not make it out and Isabella heard too, we began to run faster now, heading for the entrance. I heard rattling now coming from deeper, it was like a cart moving on tracks like the trains. I could see the tunnel exit, Isabella ran even faster and before I could slow her, she was 5 steps ahead of me shouting for help. I tried to catch up and did not notice the branch ahead where I saw something and that stopped Isabella cold. Her hands and feet flew ahead of her and then swung back; I almost fell onto her. Looking at the spike sticking out the back I realised how lucky I was, it was a support beam with a large spike on it. I realised we were lured here to die by someone; I ducked down and tried to peek but just missed by a hair from being brained by a sledgehammer. I ducked and fell on my butt; I tried to shuffle backwards but all I did was kick up more dust. I got up and tried to run back into the mine.

I heard another voice in there of someone laughing and realised I was cornered; I looked back at the entrance and saw a figure stand up. He was thin and held a hammer in his hand, I knew I needed to get out. I rushed forward and ducked the swinging hammer and pushed the man, he landed on the protruding spike with a grunt. I got up and saw it had gone through his chest and was bleeding from his mouth trying to talk, I did not wait and ducked under and rushed out to the exit. I ran as fast as I could to the point, I also did not notice the lowered beam and I hit it head on at full speed. With that I was out cold.

I woke later in the tunnel with my head throbbing like mad, I tried to get up but could not. All my strength was gone, trying to lift my hand was a mission and that was when I heard the loud wail. It came from within the mine; whoever it was must have found the dead guy. I did not get a real good look at him; I tried to run my mind through everything. We were ambushed and set to be murdered by some crazies, I wanted to get up but my strength was still gone. I heard footsteps coming from within, I heard the shuffling come closer and realised that I was going to die. Closing my eyes and praying I held my breath, the shuffling got closer, and I could feel the tremors in the ground.

I heard the same laugh as before then I heard another voice, it was of the landowner calling out, the person screamed and a loud bang. Dust fell on my face, and I felt something drop. I heard footsteps coming closer, “hello? Anyone alive?”

I finally managed to raise my hand, “shit, you ok son. I saw you guys had gone too long. Shit, let me, where are your friends?”

He raised me us and I saw his face, I looked at him and just muttered “dead, they were killed.”