Bryn felt sickened as he felt the ground shake, knowing that one of the two shafts had collapsed.
Now, he stood in the pump room and watched the two thrumming pumps as they pulled water out of the deep mines. He knew that one of them would strain when the water became fouled with coal dust and debris from the collapse, and if it was pump number two, it would mean that his father and older brothers were probably dead.
It seemed like hours went by as he watched the pump work, but it had only been minutes since the first intense vibrations had struck. He knew that if pump number two began to labor, his plans to leave Carbondale would be one more of the coal mine's victims. Just when he planned to check on pump number one, he saw the pipe to the second pump begin to pulse before the belt on the drive wheel squealed in protest and his worst nightmare had come to pass.