It was Jae’s birthday today. She turned eight. What a beautiful sunny girl! Hyo planned a surprise or two; Li, his wife, did too. Birthday cake, a puppy and … Don’t forget, they grinned just before he drove off. Traffic was intense. A long call came from yesterday’s new customer Bo. Could Hyo go over the options for the SUV again please? Bo’s partner had some questions too. Yes, he was distracted.
Traffic halted then limped forward. Police diverted him into the new Kaiso tunnel. He groaned. He would be late and miss coffee.
A huge shuddering and rocking. Again. He collided with the car in front, and someone rammed into him, shooting him into the windscreen. In just an instant. Pain and nothingness.
Noises woke him. Loud cracking and creaking. Then the dirty dusty smell. His left arm was pinned and his back and head hurt like crazy. Blood on his face. He yelled out, and again, but there was no answer. He couldn’t see ahead more than a metre. He was a sardine in a sardine tin. No lights or phone. The tunnel ceiling had mostly collapsed.
Any scandal will happen when you are in opposition, which owns most of the TV stations. At first, it was on the spot reporting, then calls for an inquiry into the collapse, then a whipping. The rescue task force was divided. Some wanted to blast the openings of the tunnel open; others said that would collapse all the tunnel. Kin of the crushed or detonated would surely sue and win. Numbers and names were unknown. Nothing was in order. The head of the rescue force was told to resign. The former chief engineer was found, skiing at Whistler, and asked to return urgently.
Panya brought a new approach. She said we can drill down through the hard rock above the tunnel into the ventilation shafts. That will be slow. Shafts are thirty meters apart, ten metres high and two metres in diameter. The plan shows their positions. Then we cut a door in the shaft to get rescuers in and out. Dogs and search robots too. When we get there, we can check for sounds of breathing. They began drilling.
Hyo suddenly felt something wet. Was water leaking in from broken pipes? No, it was a dog’s nose. He cried as he rubbed the dog’s head. They both were so happy to find each other. The dog was brown and smooth skinned; Hyo didn’t know the breed. Call him Sailor.
He started thinking about the birthday party, then found he was thirsty, very thirsty. Sailor was warm. Hyo told him all about Jae, her party, Li and the SUV then drifted off.
Bad news. The drilling should have found the first shaft opening but didn’t. Panya was embarrassed: the shafts were not built to plan. The builders positioned them where they liked. That’s a secret, right? Drill again. We can use LIDAR, the under-surface radar, to guide us.
Sailor wriggled. Someone or something had come. Hyo couldn’t speak. Later … he awoke dizzily in hospital at sunset. It's red, orange and blue colours scared him; that was the flames of hell, wasn’t it? No, a nurse closed the blinds. He was not the same. The Lord God had spared him, more or less. Sole survivor.