Chapter 17Deeper and Deeper. The Coal Mine

Seriously, we had to cut back on food. We only had enough supplies for like, three days, max. I figured that out at dinner. The worst part? We weren't gonna find water in those transition rocks, apparently!

I’d read about how bad thirst could be, and I knew that if we were stuck there, it would end our trip - and our lives! But it was totally pointless to talk to my uncle. He’d just drop some random Plato quote on me.

All day long, we just kept going through this crazy gallery - arch after arch, tunnel after tunnel. We didn’t say a word. We were as quiet as Hans, our guide.

The path wasn't going uphill anymore, at least not noticeably. Sometimes, it felt like we were going down. But it was barely there, and it didn't really reassure the Professor. The rock layers were still the same, and the transition rocks were getting more and more obvious.

It was wild seeing how the electric lights made the walls sparkle - all the calcareous rocks and the old red sandstone. It felt like we were in one of those deep cuts in Devonshire, you know, the ones that give that soil its name.

There were some amazing marble samples sticking out of the walls: some were agate grey with white veins - super colorful, others were yellow with red veins. Further down, we saw samples with cherry-red streaks in all their brightest shades.

A ton of these marbles had markings of old-school animals. Since last night, nature and creation had really stepped up their game. Forget the basic trilobites - I spotted remains of something way more evolved. Like, fish with reptile features - a geologist could totally spot it.

The Devonian seas were packed with these creatures, and they’d been layered into the new rock formations in the thousands.

It was super clear to me that we were climbing the ladder of life, and humans were at the top. My awesome uncle, the Professor, didn't seem to notice these hints. He was dead set on going further, no matter what.

He was probably expecting one of two things: either the ground would open up in a vertical shaft, letting him keep going down, or we’d hit a wall and have to turn back along the long way we’d already traveled. But night came again, and to my total shock, neither one happened!

On Friday, after a night where I was seriously feeling the thirst and losing my appetite, our little group got up and followed the twists, turns, climbs, and drops of this never-ending gallery. Everyone was quiet and bummed. I could tell even my uncle had gone too far.

After like ten more hours - a seriously boring and repetitive slog - I noticed that the echo and the light from our lamps on the tunnel walls had gotten way weaker. The marble, the schist, the limestone, the red sandstone - all gone. In their place was a dark, gloomy wall, totally bleak.

When we hit a really narrow section, I put my left hand on the rock.

When I pulled my hand back and glanced at it, it was totally black. We’d hit the coal layer of the Central Earth. "A coal mine!" I shouted.

"A coal mine without miners," my uncle replied, sounding a bit serious. "How do we know?"

"I know," my uncle said, his voice sharp and authoritative.

"I’m sure this tunnel, cut through all these layers of coal, wasn't dug by people. But whether it’s nature's work or not doesn't really matter. It's time for dinner - let’s eat."

Hans, the guide, started getting food ready. I was so done eating. All I wanted were a few drops of water. What I was going through? It’s hard to even describe. The guide's gourd, not even half full, was all we had between the three of us!

Once they were done eating, my companions crashed on their rugs and slept, a way to deal with how tired and miserable we were. Me? No way I could sleep. I just kept counting down the hours until morning.

Saturday morning, around six o'clock, we headed out again. Twenty minutes later, we stumbled upon this huge, massive excavation. It was clear the hand of man couldn’t have built this coal mine; the ceiling would’ve collapsed. It was only held together by some crazy natural thing.

This giant natural cavern was like, a hundred feet wide and a hundred and fifty feet high. The earth had been thrown around by some wild underground event.

The whole thing split in two after some huge natural upheaval, leaving this massive gap that we from the surface had just walked into for the first time.

The whole story of the coal age was written all over those dark, gloomy walls. A geologist could totally follow the different stages of how it all formed. The coal seams were split up by layers of sandstone and a super-compact clay, like it was squished down by what was above.

Back then, before the secondary period, the earth was covered in crazy amounts of huge, rich plants - thanks to the tropical heat and constant humidity. A thick cloud of vapor surrounded the earth, blocking out the sun.

So, that intense heat wasn’t coming from the sun.

Maybe even the sun wasn't quite ready to shine - to light up the whole universe. There were no climates yet, and the whole globe had the same level heat - the North Pole and the equator were the same temperature.

Where did it come from? From deep inside the earth?

Even though Professor Hardwigg had all those fancy theories, a serious fire was definitely burning inside the earth. You could feel it even in the very top layer; the plants didn’t have buds, flowers, or smells, but their roots got all their life from the burning ground of those early days.

There weren't many trees - just tons of huge grassy plants, thickets, mosses, and a few other families. But back then, there were like, tens of thousands of them.

Coal totally comes from all this crazy plant life, you know? The Earth's crust was still moving back then, thanks to all the heat and pressure bubbling up from below. This caused tons of cracks and the ground to just sink. Since all these plants were underwater, they piled up into huge masses.

Then, natural chemistry kicked in. Down in the ocean, the plant stuff first turned into peat, and then, thanks to gases and underground stuff fermenting, it totally mineralized.

That’s how those massive layers of coal were made - layers that we're gonna burn through in like three hundred years if we don't find something cheaper than gas and steam.

All this stuff from school popped into my head as I looked at all this coal. It's rich, for sure, but we’re probably never gonna use it all. Mining it would just cost too much and wouldn't make any money.

But honestly, it's not that big of a deal, since coal is everywhere, just a few feet below the surface. So, yeah, these untouched layers are gonna stay put as long as the world exists.

We kept going, but I totally zoned out, super into all this geology stuff. The temperature was still pretty much the same as when we were hiking through lava and schists. But my sense of smell was seriously messed up by this really strong odor.

I knew right away the gallery was packed with that dangerous gas miners call fire damp - the kind of explosion that causes awful accidents, leaving a hundred widows and hundreds of orphans in just an hour.

Luckily, we could see where we were going with the Ruhmkorff apparatus. If we’d been dumb enough to wander around with a torch, a huge explosion would’ve ended our trip, just because nobody would’ve been left.

Our trip through this crazy coal mine, way down in the earth, lasted until evening. My uncle could barely hide how annoyed he was that the road just kept going sideways.

It was so dark, like, you couldn't see anything a few feet in front or behind, so there was no way to guess how long the gallery was. I started thinking it was just endless, like it would go on forever.

Then, at six o'clock, we hit a wall. There was no way to go right, left, above, or below - nowhere. We’re at a place where the rocks were totally clear: No Thoroughfare.

I was speechless. The guide just crossed his arms. My uncle was quiet.

"Okay, that’s actually kinda good," my uncle finally said. " Now I know what's up. We're definitely not on the path Saknussemm took. All we gotta do is turn around. We’ll get a solid night’s sleep, and in three days, I promise, we’ll be back at the spot where the galleries split."

"Yeah, maybe, if we’re still going," I said, my voice kinda bummed.

"And what's the problem with that?"

"Tomorrow, it’s just the three of us, and there won't be a single drop of water. It's just...gone."

"And your spirit too?" my uncle asked, his voice serious.

What could I even say? I rolled over, and just totally crashed, falling into a deep sleep full of dreams about water! I woke up feeling even worse.

I would've traded everything - like, a whole diamond mine - just for a single glass of fresh spring water!