BREATHLESS

   Sometimes fear can be so profound and so powerful that its effects can be felt beyond the individuals who actually experience it. Sometimes fear rips at the soul so violently that it persists long after death.   Fear is not simply an emotion or physical response to danger.  Fear is a force of nature that resonates through the earth. It taints the air and stifles thought. If there is no release for fear, no hope of escape… then fear remains. Forever.

The tunnel was dug by hundreds of poorly paid workers using picks and shovels. Row upon row of young men hacked away at the limestone, ferrying barrows of rock back to the surface. Work was painfully slow and the conditions underground were hellish but jobs were hard to come by and the men knew that for every worker that tired or fell, there would be a dozen men willing to take their place.Accidents were frequent, and explosives were used in such a haphazard way it became a common sight to see stretchers emerging from the dark carrying workers with blooded limbs.

It was a grim life, but however unpredictable the dangers were, they were dangers that they understood. And yet the most horrific peril that awaited them in the dark had been overlooked.

Once the main body of the tunnel had been dug, a series of smaller passages needed to be cut from the rock. During the work on these utility tunnels, it became clear that along with the dark and damp, the workers were being forced to work where the air was dangerously thin. The oxygen dwindled with every flame and worker’s breath. With less than a quarter of the total distance covered, the small tunnel would need to be ventilated if work was to continue.

And so a solution was devised. Clean air would be pumped into the tunnel using rubber hoses attached to bellows on the surface. The new system was deemed a success and although the workers continued to suffer, the digging continued without further incidents and the tunnel progressed.

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