Second Chance SEAL(90)

Hartley pulled in a few people back, behind the family of four. I glanced back and saw the annoyed expression on her face as the young boy swerved from side to side, blocking her from getting around. I laughed and spun my wheels again, kicking dirt up into the air.

The group moved north along the trail. I had to admit that the damn hill country was beautiful even though it was deadly and dotted with mines. Back before the companies moved in and started tearing up the earth, the hill country was an ideal place to live. Plenty of space, fresh air, deep woods, fresh rivers, wild game and more, it had everything you needed to survive out in the wilderness. That was why Knoxville was founded to begin with. Settlers found the hill country and they never wanted to look back.

These days, though, there weren’t many places left undeveloped and wild. The forest around the Caldwells’ was probably the cleanest and the best land in the area, but only because of the mine shafts. Most folks didn’t want to venture out into the wilderness for fear of dropping into one, which was good for the Caldwells. They probably liked to reinforce those feelings. That way they had the land to themselves, plus all the tourist dollars from the ATV tours.

We came around a bend and suddenly I heard an ATV engine rev. The sound of tires tearing through dirt was followed by a shout of surprise from that family’s mother.

Hartley tore up the path, pushing through underbrush, and blew by me. She glanced back and flipped me off as she shot past the older women, kicking up dirt and spraying them down with mud.

I laughed loudly and hit my own engine, tearing up after her. I blasted past the women, and they were clearly pissed about Hartley’s mud shower. The path narrowed up ahead, and Hartley was forced to slow down and get back in line. I fell in behind her, laughing loudly.

“Didn’t think you had it in you, Hartley,” I called out.

“You just try and keep up,” she said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re a SEAL out here, you know.”

I laughed again, feeling a thrill run through me. I loved the wild way she laughed and grinned at me, and I was impressed by the way she rode. There was a confidence and a strength inside her that maybe she didn’t show often enough. She was a farm girl and seemed to know her way around the wilderness.

The group moved down the path and suddenly entered into a clearing. King stopped and killed his engine as the rest of us gathered up around him.

“Well now,” he said, “this is the first mine shaft. It’s an old one, probably an original, dug into these hills back in the eighteen hundreds.”

“Where is it?” one of the older women called out. I ignored the dirty looks they were giving Hartley and me.

“Right here.” King pointed to a patch of ground, overgrown. “Doesn’t look like much, but everyone get off your ATVs and come on over.”

The group killed their engines and walked over. The ground next to King looked normal right up until we were on top of him. Suddenly, in the underbrush, a hole into blackness opened up.

“Wow,” the young boy said. “How deep is that?”

“Who knows,” King said. “Truthfully, it’s not all that deep.”

“Have you been down there?” I asked him.

“Once, as a boy. It’s dangerous though. These old mine shafts are liable to collapse at any second, plus who knows what kind of gasses are in there.”

“What about the newer shafts?” I asked him. “Get into those?”

He grinned at me. “Sure, but we’re not supposed to. The safe ones are mostly still active, actually.” King grabbed a rock and dropped it down into the hole. The rock disappeared, and I never heard it hit the bottom.

“Seems deep to me,” one of the older women said.

“Oh, it’s deep, but relatively speaking it’s not that bad. A couple hundred feet, maybe, if I had to guess.”

I whistled and the group laughed. Hartley smiled at me.

“Okay, back on the road,” King said, and the group got back onto their ATVs.

As we pulled out back into line, I managed to swerve around Hartley, laughing as I went. That earned me a look from King, but at least I was ahead of Hartley in line.

The rest of the tour went about as I expected. As we got deeper into the hills, we couldn’t chase each other around as much and were forced to stay in line for the most part. King showed us more mine shafts, some active and some long abandoned. He told ghost stories about the area, pointed out local wild life, and at one point let us ride around in a muddy, swamp-like area, getting everyone absolutely covered in dirt.

The most satisfying moment of the whole trip was watching Hartley spray that family of four with mud during our little romp in the swamp. I couldn’t help but laugh at the evil grin on her face. The kids loved it, but the parents were clearly a little annoyed. That didn’t slow Hartley down one bit, though, and she managed to sneak into line ahead of me for the remainder of the ride.