The Darkness Within – Excerpt 8 – Malcolm Marsh

The Darkness Within – Excerpt 8

Time passed and before I knew it, I had been living and working as a miner in England for just over a year. Life was good, I was earning good money, I worked hard and played hard and enjoyed what pleasures I could buy. I missed my family and my country, but there was nothing I could do. If I attempted to contact them, the Russians might take reprisals against them for my resistance.

Then once again fate intervened, just when everything was going so well. I arrived at the pit with Imre and our other shift mates. The deputy of the shift we were relieving warned our deputy that during the day shift there had been a little rumbling, as if the ceiling was moving but they had spotted no obvious signs.

We descended in the lift to commence our shift. we worked away happily for about an hour. Then we heard a rumbling and part of the ceiling started to cave in, debris was showering down on us. I looked around me to take stock of the situation. Imre was staggering, he had a nasty wound on his head where he had been struck by falling debris.

I grabbed hold of him, and steadied him the best that I could, then the roof caved in and we were trapped, just he and I, separated form the others by a wall of coal and rock. Once the dust had finally settled, I could see the predicament we were in. We had very little water, no food and no emergency medical supplies, this could present a problem as Imre’s wound looked serious.

I shone my lamp near so that I could examine it closer, He had lost a lot of blood and his breathing was very shallow, It didn’t look good for him. I wet his lips with a little water to try to assuage his thirst. I could do nothing else for him but watch and wait and maybe pray, but I think he is beyond prayer.