Abandoned

By Jay Harez

Lloyd Dougett, Jr., his father and nine other miners have been selected to conduct a government mandated survey of an abandoned salt mine. The three day project will pay more than most of the miners make in a month.

Suddenly stranded almost fifty stories below the miners soon realize that they are not alone and are definitely not wanted.

It's humankind's most primal instinct to fight to survive and neither horror that awaits them nor the miners themselves plan to give up.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jay Harez
• Release date: Feb 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370050499

Jay Harez

Jay Harez was born in Texas. During his early twenties he traveled extensively throughout Mexico and the United States. The majority of the stories he writes are loosely based on the places he has been and the people he has met along the way. His experiences in Mexico were the most influential and second only to his love of history for source material. Great writers such as J. MIchael Straczynski, Wilbur Smith, Garry Jennings, Quentin Tarantino, Elmore Leonard, and Aaron Sorkin have had a significant influence on his characters and overall style. Jay is a comic and graphic novel reader from childhood where he was introduced to writers like Warren Ellis, Allen Moore and Frank Miller. Jay lives in Austin, where he enjoys scotch, plays chess and travels whenever opportunity permits.

Book preview

Abandoned

By

Jay Harez

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2014, Jay Harez

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Cover art

By

Rochelle Contreras

Preface

Several years ago I traveled to south Louisiana to visit with the maternal side of my family - The City of New Iberia to be specific. As always the food was great and I had a really good time with my aunts and cousins.

I like to roam the seedier parts of cities I visit and soon found myself outside a dilapidated juke-joint on Hopkins St. trying to determine where to go. I was clearly out of place.

An old man sitting on an ice chest hailed me with ‘you lost young buck?’ I told him I wasn’t but I hadn’t decided where I wanted to go yet. He asked me what I did for a living and I told him I write horror stories. He gave me a look then asked me a really good question: ‘Do you write real horror stories or just make shit up?’

I apparently took too long to answer and he looked at the ground shaking his head.

‘I’ll tell you what. You get me a couple of forties and I’ll tell you what happened to me when I was nigh-on twenty or so year old. We’ll see if you got the balls to write that.’

I got the two beers and he introduced himself as Tee-neg. I later found out that his name was the Creole abbreviation of the French words ‘Petite Negro’ or ‘little nigger’. That part has nothing to do with this story but I thought it would be fun to share.

Enjoy!

-Jay

LOTTO

What do ya’ know ya’ half-possum bastard? Al Guilbeaux asked.

It was a common description for the miners of mixed heritage and Guilbeaux routinely started conversations like this. Over the years he had found an equal when it came to verbal salvos in William Sotolongo.

Sotolongo had only taken a few steps inside the cafeteria when he was assailed with the greeting. Sotolongo made his way to the buffet style serving table and begin to prepare his plate while he deliberated on his response.

As the two men’s routine had developed, the responses had become more elaborate and entertaining for the other men eating in the mine cafeteria. A few of the miners stopped their conversations to in anticipation of this morning’s exchange.

Last night I dreamt of a splendid thing, Sotolongo said as he carefully cut two biscuits in half horizontally. He then ladled gravy onto the four halves and made his way toward the coffee pot.

Splendid huh? Guilbeaux

Oh my friend it was quite the dream. I stood out in a field looking toward the heavens, Sotolongo continued. More of the salt miners stopped their conversations to follow along.

And what did your marsupial brain divinate during this…vision quest? Guilbeaux was going all out.

Sotolongo made his way to the table and sat across from Guilbeaux.

I was at a hot air-balloon show. Sotolongo said as he folded a pancake in half and dipped it in his coffee.

The hell you say! Guilbeaux countered.

Sotolongo took a bite of the soggy cake while the concept of him being at a hot-air balloon show sank in, then he continued.

I looked skyward and beheld a large, bisected, balloon. Whiter than the Baton Rouge Country Club, Sotolongo said.

Did he say bisected? Vincent Demarco asked to no one in particular.

Really? Guilbeaux asked grinning from ear to ear in anticipation of what was to come.

Then it got strange. You, see, I realized I was awake, and what I was seeing was the reflection of your wife’s giant ass, in the mirror, on the ceiling, above my bed. Sotolongo concluded.

The entire room burst out in peals of laughter. Sotolongo and Guilbeaux just stared at each other grinning conspiratorially. They had provided the morning's entertainment. It usually meant the start of a good day.

Tyonne Leger entered the cafeteria. The laughing men didn’t notice him until he reached the table reserved for management and took his seat.

Millicent, the mine cook, scurried out from behind the counter moments later with a plate holding a steak, two fried eggs, two strips of bacon and hash browns. In the other hand she held a thermos of coffee. Tyonne looked at her and gave her a wink as she placed the food and beverage on the table.

Tyonne was a married man and had been for almost twenty years. However, it was long rumored that he and Millicent were having an affair. People in small towns mind their own business and there was seldom much discussion on the topic. It was just accepted.

Today was a rare occasion. Both day and night shifts had been called together in the cafeteria. There were at least sixty men crowded into the room and speculation as to the purpose of the meeting was rampant. The mine was for all intents and purposes, shut down for the time being. In addition to that rarity – meaning it had never happened before – the company had offered free breakfast because the meeting was mandatory. The meeting was set to start in half an hour so Tyonne finished his breakfast at a leisurely pace for a miner and then stood up to address the room.

As some of you may have heard, the President of these United States, Jimmy Carter himself, has seen fit to finance an exploration of exhausted shafts in pursuit of new and renewable fuel sources. Tyonne the foreman said.

The men gathered in the cafeteria looked at him with varying degrees of interest. Some watched intently while others shook their head at the idea.

Don’t he know if there was something of value down there the company would have told us to get it? Lloyd Dougette, Sr. asked.

His son, Lloyd Dougette, Jr. snickered. Not at his father of course, but at the stupidity of the company.

Lloyd Sr. and Tyonne had a special rapport because they had served in Korea together. They had known each other since they were boys and that forty plus year friendship had held up. Neither of them considered anything the mine threw their way a serious problem.

Lloyd, as per usual you bring clarity to the situation. However, there are extenuating circumstances – several hundred thousand of them to be specific,