Chuck Fair

Ever wonder what it would be like to be five miles deep inside a coal mine and experience a methane explosion powerful enough to blow coal cars out the portal with the force of a cannon. Read some free pages...

Excerpt

INSTRUCTOR
Can't wait to get at them -- huh, kid?

(He proffers a drink which A.B. accepts.)

What the hell makes you want to be a M.E.S.A. inspector? Surely not for the pay. With your background, you can work for any mine in the country.

(A.B. doesn't respond)

You may have the wires crossed in your head, but you do stand out from those other apes.

A. B.
I needed a job.

INSTRUCTOR
Come on. There ain't no one in their right mind who wants to be a M.E.S.A. inspector in the Cumberland Valley.

A.B.
I was born there.

INSTRUCTOR
You got a cause to pursue -- want to reform the mines all by yourself?

(A. B. hands the glass back)

Your father was killed in that Hyden blast five years ago -- wasn't he? Curious you should wait so long to do something about it.

(A.B. is visually shaken by the Instructor's remark. He seems to withdraw into another world. CAMERA BLURS.)

EXT. MINE ENTRANCE, HYDEN, KY. - DAY

The heavy-timbered entrance is surrounded by muddy, discolored snow which abruptly stops at the dark hole. Above the rugged 12 foot entrance is a sign almost obscured by the fog. It reads: MINE 16 & 17, FINLEY COAL CO., HYDEN, KENTUCKY. The time is shortly before noon (five years earlier). A tall, emaciated MAN is in the process of setting a section of track on the scaled-down road leading into the mine. A younger A.B. is carrying a lunch pail.

MAN
Hey A.B.! What brings you around these parts?

A. B.
Day off. Thought I'd come over and have lunch with my daddy.

MAN
That would please him. He's in 17. Tell you what, soon as I fasten down this piece of track, I'll take you down. Go get a shuttle-car. Over there by the work house.

(A.B. moves to get the vehicle. The ground trembles violently. He swings his attention toward the mine entrance where the entire mountain seems to quiver. A rumble is heard (SOUND) from within the portal. Instanteously, an enormous ball of fire shoots out the mine's entrance. Its awesome force blows track and equipment before it. The man is killed instantly by the explosion.)

EXT. M.E.S.A. BUILDING - DAY

A.B. stares blankly at the INSTRUCTOR. He takes an amphetamine (Black Beauty) from his jacket pocket, slips it into his mouth.

INSTRUCTOR
You runnin' off the tracks?

A. B.
I'll be okay.

INSTRUCTOR
Look, kid, you know why I'm teaching? Because you can't beat them.

A. B.
Them?

INSTRUCTOR
The mine owners. They're smarter than we are. It's bad enough up here but in that Cumberland Valley of yours, the owners pretty much do as pleases them.