Free Inhabited by Ike Hamill Page B

We’re talking about how to get un-fucked and out of this mine.”
    “Easy,” Roger said. “Clearly, we don’t know which direction to go here. So we go back that way, try the other tunnel, and continue until we get to a junction. If there’s no flag there either, then we know you were right. If there is a flag, then problem solved. Can we at least try that?”
    “No,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s not procedure. The procedure says that if we get lost, we wait. We’re supposed to camp out and simply wait. Radio checks every fifteen. We’ll just relax here.”
    “Why didn’t you say that before?” Roger asked. He unshouldered his pack and flopped it against the wall. Roger made his way carefully down to his butt. He was already starting to feel the exertion of the day down in his bones. He wasn’t old, or particularly infirmed, but he wasn’t accustomed to so much climbing and contorting.  
    Florida paced.
    “That’s how you relax?” Roger asked.
    Florida mumbled something.
    “Pardon?” Roger asked.
    “I was just thinking out loud.”
    “Well think a tiny bit louder so we can both hear.”
    “I was thinking that they don’t collect the stamps until the mission is complete. What if another team crossed trails with us and picked up our stamps? What if Dr. Grossman already crossed us off the attendance list?”
    “That’s crazy.”
    Florida gestured towards him. “I mean, you were late. Like really late. She might have already crossed us out on her sheet because the bus was about to pull out.”
    Roger sighed and let his head rest back against the rock. He tried to tune out her voice.
    “We have a radio though. You would think that they would miss us because we didn’t turn in our radio or our packs. It has to be too early for everyone to have left. I should have gotten a new battery for my watch. What was I thinking?”
    “What indeed,” Roger mumbled.
    Roger looked down the tunnel, back towards the shaft to the hangman’s room. He reached up and turned off his headlamp.  
    “Or maybe our drop-stamp and flag weren’t picked up erroneously. What if someone did it on purpose? Maybe the point isn’t about studying the mine at all. What if there is…”
    “Do you see a glow down there?” he asked.
    “What?”
    Roger pointed, but she didn’t see. She was looking the other direction and he wasn’t wearing a headlamp.
    “Look,” he said. “Do you see a glow.”
    She turned and her light washed out the tunnel.  
    “I don’t see anything.”
    “Of course you don’t,” he said. “Turn off your lamp.”
    “We’re lost in a mine. I’m not turning off my lamp,” she said.  
    “Then turn it away. Put your helmet on backwards. I don’t care. Just tell me if you see a glow.”
    Florida didn’t do it. Instead, he felt her light encircle him.  
    “What do you do for a living, Roger?”
    “Pardon me?”
    “Who do you work for?”
    “At the moment, I work for Dr. Deb. Being lost in a mine is my sole source of income.”
    “Well, then what did you do before? How did you come to know about this experiment?” Florida asked.
    “I answered an ad in the paper. Same as anyone else,” Roger said.
    “And what did they say was the purpose of the experiment?”
    “What are you getting at, exactly? Aren’t we both here doing the same work?” Roger asked.
    “That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” she said.
    Roger shook his head. “I don’t think I’m following you.”
    Florida turned away and started pacing again. “This wouldn’t be the first time. But what would they be trying to measure? Do they think I’ll panic? Are they watching me right now? No. They can’t be. This place is too big.” Florida turned her light back to Roger. “But he’s watching me.”
    “I get the sense that you’re starting to go a little crazy,” Roger said. He turned his light back on and stood up. “Here’s what I’m going to do—fuck those flags. I’m just going to use my