My Gold!

“Mr. Rigs! Sir Dorian!” the foreman screamed at the top of his lungs, trying to get his employer’s attention. Frantically waving his hands about in the air and going red in the face, Reese felt lightheaded for a moment, trying to call out over the diesel engines that worked the nearby pumps. Dorian Rigs was not a hard man to find amongst the busy workers that milled about him, who were mostly locals since most of the crew brought by Reese, the foreman, had become ill with some sort of fever and terrible indigestion from the local mosquitos, water, or meat. Everything was a gamble out here in the middle of the jungle. Dorian was wearing white pants, as usual, with white suspenders and a soft yellow shirt. He wore his typical wide-brimmed hat and had his own local servant carry a parasol to keep him hidden under and protected from the harsh sun. The pumps gushed water through massive flexible pipes and small mudslides had already brought several complaints from locals and more money out of Mr. Rigs' pockets. There was a brief lull to the grumbling engines that coughed black smoke up into the sky. It made the volcano we were working at appear alive once again. “MR. RIGS!”

Reese lowered his arms as Dorian turned to face him, obviously having heard the foreman this time. “What seems to be the problem, Reese?!”

“Sir, about fifteen of the local employees that we had digging on the southeast side! They said that they won’t keep going! They have talked it over and the money you are paying them is not worth their lives!” The foreman motioned for some workers to shut off the pumps so that he and Dorian could speak without shouting at each other.

“Keep those running!” Dorian commanded the workers. Mr. Rigs had a plump face and was slightly rotund but when he got angry the tall, two-hundred-pound man became imposing.

“Sir Dorian, we have been out here for almost a month longer than planned!” The foreman signaled to the workers to cut the engines again.

Dorian Rigs signaled for them to keep going, “and we are making progress; we have finally almost drained the lake! Imagine the treasure down there, Reese, and remember that you earn forty percent of whatever is found!”

“There is nothing down there other than the bottom of a lake or the top of a volcano! I will remind you that if there is gold down there, there is also a monster down there!” The foreman looked to the men operating the diesel pumps but made no motion for them to turn them off, he could tell this conversation was almost over.

Dorian signaled the workers to continue working, already having fallen into the habit. “You didn’t believe the rumors when we started, why do you care now?!”

“I thought this would be an easy job and you would be an easy pocket to squeeze. Now with the extra time, the loss of workers - both mine and the locals - and the cost of getting the diesel up here I am not so sure,” Reese answered honestly.

It took a moment for the foreman to register the sudden difference in the conversation. The engines were quiet, perhaps the workers had mistaken Dorian’s last gesture as a signal to turn them off but that didn’t account for the total silence that seemed a foreign sound to both Dorian and Reese. All the pumps were off, as though the workers had all shut down their machines in practiced unison. “Where did everyone go? Why are the pumps off? Did we finish draining the lake?”

A slight gurgling sound erupted as bubbles rushed to the surface of the shallow water. “It was simply a myth.” The guardian of the volcano, the beast that required gold, silver, and gems to keep the fiery mountain quiet.

“I HAVE FOUND MY GOLD!” Dorian yelled in triumph, but none would hear him. There was a shift in the ground as a growl rolled through the earth, echoing through the stone and shaking the trees. A massive plume of smoke shot from the center of the once-lake, now mouth. Steam mixed with ash and massive stones shattered the sky as the mountain was thrown into chaos. From the billowing ash and smoldering rocks came rips of purple light.