Cave In Book Set: Cave In

By Michael P Buckley

The complete Book Set for the cave in series.

Book 1: During a fire Inspection a cave in almost takes the life of Ben. "The forces of Good and Evil" are battling each other, Ben finds love and the two struggle to stay alive to enjoy it. If you love dogs, this series has a hero by the name of Rocket.

Book 2: "BEN & DIANE'S OASIS" Opens to help troubled people, the last stop before they end up in prison or institutionalized. They get married and run the Oasis, The devil helps create murder and mayhem. If they are to survive, they will need help from up above. Through it all they learn to love each other and find a way to turn evil into a peaceful place for all.
Rocket a Belgian Malinois, bonds strongly with Ben, and you will find out, he is a dog like no other.

Book 3: The conclusion to the series tests Rockets ability and loyalty. The Oasis threatened, when Ben and Diane are taken from their cabin. Rocket is shot and Bobby is nowhere to be seen. Chris with his security team is not enough. The magical touch of Bobby is no longer there to help.
Adult content, strong violence. Page count 185
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael P Buckley
• Release date: Sep 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781502290328

Michael P Buckley

Michael Buckley is 61 years old, currently living in the Philippines. He served 3 1/2 years in the US Army in the Infantry. He worked in Iraq for seven years, and Afghanistan for one year. He enjoys writing stories from his vivid imagination.  Michael's Blog can be found here: http://mikga45.blogspot.com/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-buckley/131615023677907 https://twitter.com/mikga45

Book preview

Background Image courtesy of

HAAP Media Ltd

Cover design by M.P. McDonald

Author of the Mark Taylor Series

Copyright©2014 by Michael P Buckley

Cave In Book Set

Complete series

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Prologue

The story of one man’s brush with death and lost of hope. Ben Erickson thought he had all his peas and cues in order and he enjoyed a happy life until the event on 12 November 2013, would change all of that. He will soon learn even the toughest men need others. Heaven and Hell battle each other. Ben finds love, if they can survive the forces of evil. They just might have time to enjoy happiness together.

Cave In Book Set

Chapter 1

Daylight was turning to darkness and Ben Erickson still had a few hours of work before him. He had to finish doing an inspection on a building that had washed out underneath the main flooring and parking area.

The last Hurricane that came through SW Florida washed out a lot of parking areas for condominiums and caused some of the swimming pools to cave in and collapse.

The name of the condominium Ben inspected they called the Egret, at four story’s tall it did well, and all the apartments sold. Ben went to get a flashlight out of his truck after hearing some noises near the southwest corner of the condominium parking area.

They had fallen behind with all the damage the Hurricane had brought and now long hours were part of the job.

Protocols were set for everyone’s safety and followed to a tee. Hourly calls to the dispatcher were required, if the check-in calls were not made, two men from the fire station were dispatched to check on why the person did not check-in. The fire chief would have someone’s butt for failure to check-in.

Ben did not like what he saw when he inspected the SW corner; the main column was starting to crack. The column supported the building, driven into the ground at least 100 feet deep. Without seeing the blue prints, Ben knew there were at least thirty support columns and maybe more. Ben would request the blue prints for the building before his inspection report was completed. He would go over the details with the county building inspector to make sure everything was up to proper building codes.

The Hurricane hit the condominium ten days prior, Hurricane Cindy will be remembered as doing the most damage to the residential coastline.

The residents forced to evacuate the building and the Manager of the condominium has pushed to have the inspection completed so repair crews could repair the damage and move people back into the building.

Ben called up the dispatcher to check in and then he called the fire chief to report hearing noises on the SW corner of the Egret. He would take his flashlight to further investigate the area and call the chief back within ten minutes.

After getting the flashlight he returned to where he herd the noises and further inspection he could see cracks starting on the column, it was not a good sign and it was an indication the ground had movement and was no longer stable. Ben saw the ground collapsing around him and he started to move back and removed his cell phone to call the chief.

Chapter 2

I felt pain in my legs and arms, my ribs felt as if I had broken a few of them and dirt filled the front of my face entering through my nose and mouth, trying to take the little bit of air I had to breath away from me. I was disoriented and did not really know where I was. The pain I felt kept me from entering into a state of unconsciousness. It was dark, but some light still came from above. I slowly gained my senses and knew I had fallen into the cave-in alongside the column, now I had to wait for someone to get me out of here. I knew the chief would send someone out to check on me if I did not call him back. I was at least 30 feet down in the hole next to a column that could give way at any time. I knew not to let fear take over, or I would never make it out of this alive.

I checked my pockets for a flashlight I carried on a key chain, not much but it will give off a little light. I lost my cell phone and main flashlight when I was sucked into the hole. I did not think my chances were good to make it out of this one a live, but I had to try. The slightest movement I made sent pieces of dirt from the hole falling on my head and trying to block my nose and mouth. I was really in a bad situation this time and the darkness had completely removed any sign of light from my surroundings. I wondered if this was how dying felt.

I turned 46 a few weeks ago and my life had become routine, work, eat and sleep. I stayed busy and lived alone in a small one-bedroom apartment, which I was given to use when I had taken the job as fire inspector six years before. It turned out not to be a great benefit, because it meant I was on call all the time and very close to the fire station, But I liked my job and the men I worked for. I had no wife or girlfriend to disappoint with the long hours I put in at work.

I divorced my wife ten years ago after 15 years of marriage and two children, both sons who were married themselves now. I came home from work one day and I had the divorce papers on the table waiting for my signature. We had fallen out of love after we were only five years into our fifteen-year marriage, signing the papers came easy.

I often thought if my marriage was what love was all about then getting a divorce was the best thing that ever happened to me. I had a few dates here and there over the last ten years but nothing meaningful. The holidays were the hardest time of year for single people, seeing couples and family members happy and enjoying the holidays together while I was alone.

I have done all right for myself, saved a little money and did a little fishing and motorcycle riding on my off time. I get the chance to shoot 3-d Archery every two weeks and compete in long-range rifle shooting competition. Skeet shooting at least once a month, life’s not bad, I do miss someone waking up by my side and romance, but I guess it just was not in the cards I was dealt.

I wonder what is taking the chief so long to check on me. I feel like I will not make it out of this one and I am at peace with myself.

I need to slow my breathing down, I am starting to hyperventilate, and fear is starting to set in. I need to keep my mind busy and think of anything besides the hole I am in. They will have someone call my family, no one to call. I have not spoken with my two sons in five years, they blame me for the divorce and their hearts filled with hate for me. I tried to give them everything they wanted but it was never enough, the wife wanted to live in a mansion and drive a new Mercedes, I could not keep up with the Jones and that is why the marriage ended. The house was given to her, all paid for and a two year old Toyota Camry which she had to have so I worked extra to buy it for her, brand new when I bought it. It made her happy for about a week and then she wanted something else so she could show the neighbors how rich she was, good riddance divorcing her.

I knew time crawled along slowly and what felt like day’s I am sure only a few hours had past. After losing the light in my hole, fear was always waiting to overtake me. I fought to maintain my sanity and to keep my thoughts on positive things, so fear had no place in this hole with me.

The hole surrounding the column was tight but I had enough room to move my arms and legs, my whole body ached and all I could do is wait for the rescue team to pull me out of this hole.

~~~

Chapter 3

Top side the fire department had worked feverishly on trying to establish communications and get breathing and lighting equipment down to Ben, thirty or forty feet in the ground. The man in charge of the rescue Dan Everly who was a twenty five year veteran of the fire department and a good friend of Ben Erickson. Twelve hours into the rescue, the city engineers had secured the area around the column with the help of construction workers to prevent the building from collapsing and to help lessen the damage from the cave-in.

Dan now started to establish lighting for Ben and he sent an airline attached to a positive pressure, breathing mask. The first item sent down in the hole was a rope with a safety belt, which they wanted Ben to put on so he would not fall deeper in the hole and a two-way radio to include food, water and a flashlight that was in a nylon-sealed bag and hooked to the rope with the safety belt. The 2-way radio attached to the safety belt so if it dropped it would not be lost.

After one hour, finally, communications started with Ben and Dan and the safety belt secured around Bens waste to keep him from falling deeper into the hole.

Ben can you hear me? This is Dan.

Go head Dan, I hear you loud and clear.

Ben, I am sorry it took us so long, but we had to have the engineers secure the area first before we could start the rescue.

Ben said, He understood and he asked what the plan was to get him out of the hole.

Ben, I first need to have a status report on you, are you hurt and what information can you tell us about the hole?

I have pain all over my body and it’s hard to tell if anything is broken or not, the hole is not stable and any slight movement I make causes dirt to fall on me from up above.

Ben we are going to set up a few pulleys and attach the rope to a winch and try to hoist you up and out of the hole.

Dan you have to go very slow and watch out for cave-ins around the column.

Ben we will be ready to start in fifteen minutes and we will call you when we are ready, by the amount of rope we gave you with the safety belt you are thirty five feet in the hole.

Fire chief Dan Everly set up everything to get ready to extract Ben from the hole, he told Ben to get ready the extraction would begin now.

Chief Everly told his people to take it slowly and be prepared to stop on his command. After only five seconds with the winch running and stopping every second or two, the Chief shut down the winch and stopped the extraction. The hole had started to cave-in again; they could not risk trying to pull Ben out of the hole. Ben called Dan on the radio, told him the cave-in had left the hole to unstable, and if he had not wore the safety belt he would have fallen again.

Dan told Ben he would have a meeting with his men and the engineer and get back to him with a new plan as soon as possible.

The men discussed re-supporting the SW corner, so they could bring a back hole in and dig down to twenty-five feet, which would put them ten feet above Ben’s Position.

Ben, here is the plan, we will re-support the column and dig next to the cave-in with a back hole and make a small hole when we are twenty-five feet down to past a rope through so you can tie off to the safety belt.

Dan that will cause the hole I am in to possibly cave-in and bury me alive.

Ben that is why we will make a small hole to pass a rope through to you, we will try to dig through to your hole after we get to twenty-five feet deep and when it cave’s in we will pull you through to the new hold we dug with the back hole.

The plan was that the cave-in would probably drop the last ten foot of dirt on Ben, but they did not want to risk hitting him with the back hole or