[MalReynolds]

I had grown accustomed to awakening in my own bed. Weeks had passed since the A-6 incident, and life was finally regaining a sense of some kind of normality. Teller, for a brief period, had been genuinely interested in the shaft, but that interest was soon replaced with fatigue and contempt. Contempt for McGinley, contempt for this town, and contempt for me. I had dragged him all the way out here to this hell, it was the least I could expect from him.

It was late one night when I realized I had left my pickaxe in the main drift. There was a late equipment return fee that I didn’t have the money or patience to face, so I raced through the mine trying to find where I had left it. I passed A-6 and a chill went through my spine. The boards were lying haphazardly on the ground, the holes in the wall they had been nailed in torn. Someone had been going into the drift every night for some time, I noted. But I didn’t have time to investigate. It was either return the pickaxe, or I don’t eat this week. Not very much of a choice.

I found my pickaxe near the stair chamber and raced through the mine, my legs pumping, but not quite burning. I had grown such stamina since I first entered the town, this brief one mile run wasn’t enough to wind me anymore.

People littered the streets and weren’t entirely concerned with my well being. I screamed for them to move, shoved them out of the way, the need to feed urging me to my destination. The sun was already gone, the moon showing me the way, but I was worried. I had stamina, but did I have the speed it would take to ensure my survival for another week? I could see the shed in the distance, and I watched in horror as the door began to swing shut. I closed my eyes, held my breath and threw my pickaxe carelessly through the door as it swung shut and latched. If I had had to gone to McGinley to get the key, there would have been hell to pay and I probably would have starved to death. I raced everything evil that night and won.

I went to bed tired that night, my legs twitching as I tried to cast off the coil of consciousness and find a home in my dreams. They were twitching when I rose with the sun the next morning, in my house, the curtain once again hanging, dividing the room between teller and I.

I looked through the hole in the wall that McGinley called a window to see a round face staring back in at me, red streaks painted under the eyes, head shaved completely bald. The wide eyed man held up a finger to shush me and motioned that I step outside. I was nervous. McGinley said that natives never came into New Haven. What was one doing at my window?

The man was wearing nothing but a loincloth and fierce tribal paint. My hand was balled into a fist, ready to swing it at a moments notice and run for help, but his eyes seemed peaceful, unlike those I had seen outside of this town.

“What do you want, you dirty native?�

The native guffawed, his voice echoing in the small collection of houses. “To give you fair warning, child.�

His English was almost flawless, prompting me to ask him about it.

“Oh, child, I used to be the mayor here.�

Godammit, McGinley hadn’t lied. That piece of shit. I don’t know whether I was angry at him for being honest, or for not having committed murder. It made me uneasy to think that scum could be honest.

“A warning about what?�

“The dark crystal cannot be mined, or you will awaken the sleeping giant.�

“The dark crystal? The one in A-6?�

The native nodded. “You awoke in the dark crystal chamber several months ago, I’ve been told.�

“How do you know that?�

“The natives have eyes and ears in this village that tell us what we need to know. You’re depriving the land of something it needs and it will send the giant to stop the attack if it must.�

I began to grow uneasy. “Who put me in the shaft?�

“You walked there in your sleep. It isn’t the first time someone has sleep walked into that shaft before; the power of the crystal will draw you there. It holds power over those who touch it.�

I remember feeling at home in that small room with the crystal and shuddered. I didn’t like the idea of that small rock holding any kind of power over me, and at the same time, I yearned for that feeling.

“What do you want me to do about it?�

“Nothing.�

“Then why were you outside my house?�

The native shrugged. “You just happened to wake up as I was passing by. I was going to speak to McGinley, but he would have me killed for even stepping foot in New Haven. No one seems to like natives or the way we live.�

I laughed. I know I didn’t. “What way, exactly, do you live?�

It was the natives turn to laugh. “We live to protect the Earth, something the residents of this continent cannot seem to grasp.� The native turned to leave, approaching the mine. “You’ve been warned. I suggest you tell McGinley someone is mining the dark crystal. I gave him that warning before I left and he’s held true to it.�

I didn’t walk in to work that day, I decided that it would be in the best interest for everyone living in this bowl if I talked to McGinley. He wasn’t happy to see me, but as soon as the words “dark crystal� flew from my lips, he shut up. His face turned red, and he motioned for me to take a seat across from him.

“Where did you hear about that?�

“A native told me. He told me someone is mining the crystal, and I think he’s right. Last night, I went to get my pickaxe from the shaft and I saw the boards for A-6 had been taken down. Someone is in there mining the crystal, and I have no idea who it is.�

McGinley sighed. “Why didn’t you go to see who it was?�

“It’s your stupid town laws that prevented me. I could have looked into A-6 and starved for the next week, or I could have returned my equipment and paid for a food shipment… Ha, food. If you could even call it that.�

“Alright, son, I want you to check it out. Turn your equipment in tonight, and hide outside of the mine. Whoever goes back in, tell me. I’ll have them exiled… They have to be stopped. Did the native tell you of the giant?�

I nodded.

“The giant is a monster, son. I don’t want to deal with it, but I’ll kill it if I have to. Nothing threatens the citizens of this town.�

“Except for you.�

“Except for… Shut up. Get out of here. You have permission to go to work late today, son.�

I shook my head. “Thank you, sir.�

McGinley pointed to the door.

-

I only half worked that day, keeping an eye out for A-6, making sure I didn’t have to cart the barrow to the stair chamber today. I watched out for people who even so much as looked at the loose boards funny, but it was business as usual. Whoever was mining the dark crystal was doing a damn good job of keeping it themselves during the normal work day.

The sun hit the final mark on the inside of the mouth of the mine, and we filed out. I turned my equipment in with the rest of the men, going back to my house and waiting fifteen minutes before stepping back out and heading to the mine. I saw the shadow slink into the tunnel, and I quickly followed, trying my hardest not to make any noise.

The shadow pried the boards down and walked into A-6, stopping to grab a rock. I stood at the mouth, listening to the figure smash the rock against the dark crystal, knocking fragments down. The smashing noise stopped as the figure picked the pieces up, placing them in his pockets. Panicking, I ran around the corner and waited for the figure to pass. He was heading towards the stair chamber.

I stepped into A-6, walking down the path, being drawn to the small earthen room again. As soon as I was in the center of the room, the feeling of home washed over me quickly before dissipating as quickly as it had arrived. I looked up. The dark crystal was gone completely.

Damn, whoever was doing this had been going at it for a while. How could McGinley not have figured any of this out? Unless it was him…

I ran to the stair chamber, listening to the footfalls of the figure come back down the stairs with another pair of feet pattering quickly behind. I ducked under the stairs and watched Teller hit the floor quietly, a native in tow. It wasn’t a native I had seen before. Teller was leading the way to A-6. I quietly followed, listening to his voice drift up the shaft.

“It’s completely gone.�

“Good,� the native said, accent thick.

“Where’s the money?�

I heard the native unsheathe a blade and heard the blade find a new sheath in Teller. His body hit the floor and the native ran out of the drift. From the shadow, I slid my foot out, tripping the native, climbing on top of him and pinning him to the ground.

“Why, hello there,� I said warmly as my fist connected with his face. “What exactly did you go and kill Teller for?�

The native grinned. “It doesn’t matter. The dark crystal is gone. He was going to die anyway.�

Another punch, the native still grinning, his teeth slick with blood.

“The giant, huh? I think we’re well prepared to take care of it.�

The native stopped smiling and spit blood in my face. In the heat of the moment, I grabbed a rock and quickly swung it against the head of the native, killing him. Shaking, I ran from the mine to the center of town. McGinley was waiting for me.

“It was Teller. The rest of the crystal is gone, McGinley. The giant is coming.�

McGinley wordlessly stepped back into his office, walking over to the chest he kept beside his desk. He pulled a key out of his pocket, and opened the container slowly, grabbing the guns he had kept from all the newcomers. He tossed one to me.

“Go get the other miners. It’s going to be coming, and I’ll be damned if I lose this town.�

I tore through the streets, firing shots into the air, calling for the miners to join me. Men stepped out of their houses, pushing their children and wives back inside, running up to me.

“There’s going to be a fight, and we’re going to need your help,� I said, drawing the people to the center of town with me. They stopped when they saw McGinley holding a rifle in each hand and began to turn around, spitting out words like “Judas�.

McGinley fired a shot into the air, and the people stopped moving.

“You fight the giant with me, you don’t worry about paying back your debts. You don’t worry about what I pay you. You keep what you earn, if you fight with me. If you turn around and leave, you leave this town and you don’t EVER come back.�

Men drifted off, heading towards the mines, the solitary exit of the town. Few stayed. McGinley armed them. We waited in the center of town.

The footfalls began softly, in the distance. I stood my ground, listening to the foot steps echo as they came closer, through the town. Men ran.

“I would shoot them,� McGinley said, next to me, “But it sounds like I could use the bullets…�

The giant stepped over McGinley’s office, its gray foot displacing large amounts of dust into the air. It stood 20 feet tall, its back curved, leaning down to roar at the poor men who were quickly taken and flung into the distance. The giant’s sharp claws scraped the ground less than a foot from McGinley and less than half a foot from me, its nail digging a deep gouge into the ground.

This stirred McGinley out of his stupor. “FIRE AT THAT FUCKING THING!� he cried out, shouldering his rifle and shooting. I have no idea if he hit the creature at all, its gray skin didn’t seem to dent at all.

The fight was frenzied, bursts of light breaking through the dust cloud as men fired at the creature. Gunshots and screams filled the night as the battle raged. The sun broke over the crest of the mountain, and the giant screamed as the first tendrils of sun hit its skin. Slowly, its feet rooted in the ground, it turned into some kind of sick statue.

“What the hell just happened? Did that monster just go crazy and turn to stone?� I asked. The dust settled and the surviving men took note.

McGinley looked at me. “That wasn’t the giant.� He said breathlessly.

“What are you talking about?�

“That… I’ve seen one of those before. On the Endless Beach. That’s a troll…�

“If that’s not the giant, then what the hell is?�

“I dunno,� McGinley smirked. “Maybe the natives were lying.�

The ground began to shake, slowly. At first, I couldn’t tell anything was going on until I saw the buildings begin to buckle.

“Hold your ground,� McGinley called out, putting the rifle to his shoulder. “Hold your-“

McGinley’s leg fell into the earth, through the sandy ground. His other leg stuck out at a forty-five degree angle as his body was slowly pulled through a hole in the ground, his body making a grotesque crunching sound as his lifeless husk was pulled through a hole the size of a coffee mug.

I had enough. I wasn’t holding my ground. Like hell, I had just seen McGinley swallowed the hell up by the ground. I did what I did best.

I ran.

The ground began to fold upwards slightly, pouring loose dirt towards the center of town. My legs pumped towards the mines, as fast as they could carry me, burning, not from fatigue but fear. There were people running with me, people who weren’t watching their feet, people who were falling and rolling slowly down to the center of town, which was slowly sinking into the Earth.

I ran into the mine, terrified, the earth now sloping at a sharp degree. I grabbed onto the supports in the mine, but they were coming loose. The walls were bending inwards, fluctuating me, trying to crush me, trying to crush the people behind me. And they did. I was at the front of the pack, squeezing through the walls that were slowly collapsing, avoiding sharp crystals. The man in front of me hadn’t been so luck, impaled on a sharp, precious rock that dangled from the wall. I ran past his body as it slid off of the rock onto the ground, the walls pressing his body and folding him in half.

The people behind him tried jumping but only two or three made it as the mine finally closed behind me. I was in the stair chamber, taking the stairs three at a time, listening to the men cry out behind me. The walls were pressing inwards, breathing as I made my way up. At the bottom, I could see the walls extending outwards warmly, blocking off the stairs, swallowing them. I had to stay ahead of them. I ran.

I could see the exit up ahead, but I could also hear the walls pressing inwards behind me, adamant to have me fall off of the stairs to my death. I wouldn’t. I had made it too far.

Using a skill from my youth, I jumped from one side of the circular chamber to the other, grabbing onto the stairs directly in front of me, holding on for dear life. I tried to pull myself up, but it was slow work and I could see the wall eating the stairs, coming to the door, my only exit. I pulled myself up, scooting backwards as a man jumped across, grabbing onto my boot.

It was the man that told me to piss myself at work. There was terror in his eyes, and he could see the terror in mine.

“LET GO!� I cried out, feeling the wall closing in behind me.

“NO! PULL ME UP!�

I couldn’t. I swung my other foot out, connecting with the mans face and knocking him down the chamber. He cried out and I heard his body his as I quickly pushed myself out of the door, the stair chamber collapsing on itself.

It wasn’t over. The mountain seemed to be moving, pulling towards New Haven. I ran beside the now earthen hutch and jumped in the mine cart, which began to roll down the mountain. The mountain was continually shifting now, like a treadmill, pulling rocks and trees up to the town. As the cart hit the bottom of the mountain, the motion stopped.

No, the motion continued on the mountain… The motion stopped when I hit flat ground. I ran to the crystal train, the conductor sitting in his office, watching as the Halfway Mountain began to close on itself.

The sharp points of the peaks that just a few months ago had looked to me like teeth… Were teeth. They pulled together slowly, closing in the hole in the mountain, before sinking slowly into the Earth. The Halfway Mountains slowly, slowly sank, moving down before disappearing completely.

The hill in the distance, I swear… On each hilltop, it looked strangely like there were eyes gazing back at me. It was probably a few daisy patches, I told myself.

The conductor looked at me. “Did anyone else come out with you?�

In my minds eye, I saw the miner I kicked. “No.�

The ground lay flat as I stepped over, looking where the town used to be, looking where the Mountain used to be. The ground heaved and sighed slowly, feeling very, very warm. The ground was breathing.

As I looked in the distance, I saw the eyes on the hill close. The ground fell into a regular pattern of moving upwards and downwards every few minutes.

I shuddered. I was standing on the mouth of the giant. I walked back to the train, taking my time. I looked at the conductor, who was having a hard time grasping the situation.

“Hey, Conductor… Just take me home.�

He smiled nervously as I climbed into the crystal bed and fell asleep.

I had a dream that the Earth swallowed me. But in that dream, I felt like it was for the better. I knew that when I awoke, I would wake up on a locomotive heading east, and that thought comforted me for the time being.

I woke up, clutching something in my arms. I flipped over the board in my hands and felt faint. I was on the locomotive, clutching a sign.

I looked in the distance. The Halfway Mountains were still gone… The hill on the horizon was eerily calm.

And in my arms, I clutched a sign. I had no idea how I procured the sign, or where it came from… All I knew was that it that simply read, “Welcome to New Haven.�

-

Mal