“Faster, Boris, we have a deadline and at your pace we ain’t ever going to make it.”
Boris, a squat, broad man with a thick orange beard looks over at the other man. There is a muddy orange hard hat on his head and his blue-jean overalls are torn and filthy. “I ain’t moving no faster, Dave. My back ain’t up to it.”
“Stop complaining and just do it before the boss comes over!” says Dave, a slightly taller man than Boris with blond hair pulled back into a short ponytail and a short blond beard. His hard hat is a deep red with a cracked light on the front, and his red and green flannel shirt has holes scattered throughout, similar to his work jeans.
“We’ll get this road done when we get it done. It’s their bloody fault for wanting it done like the eighteen hundreds! We’d have been done weeks ago if we could have used the bloody machines!”
“I know, I know, Boris, but we have to do what the boss says we have to do.” Dave picks up a pick ax and hits it against the rock.
“It’s stupid.”
Dave glances over at him and then grins. “You know… The ol’ cowboys would have used a few good sticks of TNT when making their railroad…”
Boris looks over at him and then grins as well. “A few good booms with those red beauties and we’ll be done in no time.”
“Exactly.” Dave stands up and leans his pick ax against the rock wall. “I know we have some back at the shed, I’ll be back in a wink, you keep picking away. Make a few ruts to stuff the sticks in,” he says before walking away to his truck.
Boris grumbles to himself as he grabs Dave’s pick ax and slams it hard against the rock wall. Dirt and rock bits fly up towards his face and all around his feet. He then repeats this over and over again until Dave finally returns with several boxes of TNT.
Grinning maniacally, Dave carries bundle after bundle of dynamite over to their dig site and begins to set them up and wire them. He checks to make sure everything is connected correctly and then walks over to Boris. “How’s that?”
“Looks great, you pyromaniac.” Boris laughs. “But how far away we need to be you reckon?”
“As far as we can go with the lever.” Dave shrugs. “We’ll hunker down behind a few rocks and we’ll be just fine.”
Boris nods and the two walk as far away as the wire will let them. “Let’s blow this puppy up already. I’m hungry.”
Dave nods and prepares the ignition. He stands up with both hands on the bar but then stops as he sees two dots running near the detonation zone. “Boris?”
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“Ain’t them your children there?”
Boris squints and then his eyes widen. “We have to get them away! Don’t you dare touch that lever ‘til we have my kids safe, Dave. You blow them up and I’ll blow you up,” he growls and starts running towards the TNT bundles.
Dave watches them from a distance. Then there is an irritating buzzing by his ear and he swats at it and steps back. He trips over his own feet and grabs onto the lever for support. The level lowers with him and he stares at it with wide eyes before covering his face with his arm as the rock explodes with Boris and the kids still over there.
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“No…” he gasps and stares at the large, though shallow, indentation in the rock wall. He gets up from the dirt and slowly walks closer. He then stops as he sees Boris’s foot, still in its shoe.
