The CEO's Painted Skin

~~Day 3~~

Early morning Ramon called Catherine.

"Cath, good news!"

"What is it Ramon?" excitement in her voice.

"Sorry I was not able to call you last night because we are busy digging. We follow your suggestion and we got a message from John himself that they are alive and trapped in the tunnel."

"That's good!" she exclaimed in jubilation.

"Thanks to you, Cath!"

"Please don't thank me it's just a small contribution on my part. Ramon, what is the latest update there?"

"We are still digging but we already covered a lot, we are heading to their location."

"Ramon, how many workers are currently digging the tunnel?" asked Catherine.

"About 300 workers in total. We focus on this current crisis, we divided the workers into 3 shifts to work around the clock."

Catherine was silent for a while in deep thoughts.

"I have a suggestion, Ramon. Why don't you let all the workers work at the same time? The more people involved in the digging the faster you will get into the location where the miners are trapped? I am afraid of another earthquake happening and God knows what else gonna happened down there while the clock is ticking...," her voice quivered, a chill running down her spine.

Catherine has been researching online late at night about accidents happening in the coal mining industry. She was fearful of John's safety.

Ramon sighed. Catherine is right anything can happen down there.

"Okay, we will study your suggestion, Cath. I will call you later for more updates. Bye for now."

"Bye Ramon..."

Ramon put back his phone in his pants pocket. He sauntered to the area where Mr. Fajardo was sitting.

"Sir, why don't we let all the 300 workers dig at the same time to speed up the process? What am worrying about is that an earthquake may occur anytime and the whole tunnel might collapse and the area where they are right now is only protected by the removable roof. We don't know how long the removable steel roof and the ventilation system can hold. If we let everyone help at once we will cover a long way compared to the previous arrangement."

Mr. Fajardo was processing and analyzing Ramon's suggestion.

"You actually have a point, Ramon. Let me think of a few seconds how to make the workers work efficiently...," he said.

After five minutes Mr. Fajardo stood up and addressed the miners.

"Boys, the situation down there is critical, a new earthquake may trigger another collapsed inside the tunnel and the ventilation system may also collapse anytime cutting the trapped miners air supply. All those who are about to rest at this moment have to continue digging, only if your body can still carry on. All those who are healthy, young and willing and not suffering any serious health please proceed to the front line and continue digging."

About 250 miners come forward and resumed digging inside the tunnel...

"The rest of you guys, stay at the back to help load the sands into the dump truck. Those who wanted to rest and sleep you can go now and return later. Those who are hungry and thirsty can now proceed to the kitchen area."

Several of the miners went to the kitchen area and started eating and sipping coffee. Done with eating they returned to the entrance of the cave to help the rescue operation. No one wanted to sleep and stay idle, everyone wanted to finish the rescue operation because they all knew time is running out and the fastness of digging is the only thing that really matters right now!

...

Inside the trapped miners' location...

John inspected the remaining foods they had. The foods and the water can only last up until tonight. He will request for water, bread, chocolates, and biscuits from the outside by writing their requests in the paper. He took the pen and the paper and began writing their request and tied it on the tip of the rusty steel bar and pushed the steel bar backward for people at the entrance to picked up.

Although the spirit among them is filled with optimism he still can't help but get worried that anything bad may happen anytime. He can only feel happy and relieved if he can see the sunshine again outside the tunnel. As long they are still trapped inside the tunnel they are good as a living corpse.

The battery of their cellphone has already long died since last night. John estimated that the current time would be late in the afternoon. If only the rescue could come before nighttime it would be a big advantage for them, he doesn't want to stay another night inside the tunnel trapped waiting to be at the mercy of death anytime.

Then they noticed a sudden shift of the ground beneath their feet, another earthquake!

Earthquake!

No! No!No!!

Oh My God!

They all screamed in panic.

"Stand up everyone! Hands up!" shouted John as he noticed that the soil from all directions was rapidly filling the ground beneath them.

Their frightened faces stared at the soil began filling up the area where they were standing then slowly they were buried from the waist down. Thankfully the shaking of the ground stopped.

Some of the miners were already crying and bawling like children in total horror.

Fuck! This is like slowly being buried alive! John said to himself. At this very moment, they all knew that the aftershock or the next earthquake will bury them alive.

John who is near to the ventilation system grabs the pen and paper attached to the rusty steel bar. He immediately writes a message telling the people outside that they are now buried from the waist down and if they won't be rescued before the night is over they will all be dead.

...

While along the entrance of the tunnel...

When the earthquake registers in the miners' consciousness, they all run and scrambled outside far away from the tunnel's entrance.

Ramon immediately pulled the rusty steel bar and snatched the written message. His eyes widen in horror upon reading the contents of the message.

'Our current situation now is very bleak, we've now buried waist down, we can no longer move, we can not eat nor drink. All our foods are buried beneath the ground. Another earthquake and it will be our end. Please tell our goodbyes to our loved ones! This might be our last message, goodbye friends.'

'Ramon please tell Catherine that I love her so much! I will marry her in heaven in my next life!'

The message was signed with John's name on it.

Ramon read the message aloud in front of the scattered and shaken miners. The listeners fell silent for a moment and soon enough after realizing that they can not waste any more time they scrambled back to the entrance of the tunnel with renewed hope.

If there is thirty minutes or one hour more left they will grab it.

They start digging like mad knowing that their comrade's life's below the ground are hanging by a thread. They won't be able to forgive themselves if they can not save them by tonight! They formed ten rows at the front as soon as the people are getting slower or getting tired the people from behind steps in and continue digging, the result is an endless shifting of people that never get tired. At the end of the line, there are staffs who are handing out water and energy drink of the tired and worn out miners.

It's simply a terrifying race against time!