Below ground, men were gathering at the hollowed-out area at a depth of about 1,300 metres in Shaft 11.Patrick had made his way there in November, having heard there might be food, as the men around him in Shaft 10 tried to survive on salt and toothpaste mixed with water collected at the bottom of the rock face. On his way to the passage, he had seen a body hanging from the shadowed mass of steel girders above him. The man had fallen from the upper levels while trying to escape.As he half-crawled, half-staggered along the passage, he felt he heard his children telling him: “You’re not going to die here. This is not going to be your grave.”But now in Shaft 11, panic was growing. The rescues were too slow. Not enough food or water was coming down. Patrick was finding it hard to cling to hope. The miners were growing weaker and had only the stagnant water oozing out of the rock to sustain themselves. Over two days, seven people had died.Below the men, the shaft stretched even deeper into blackness filled with water to an unknown depth.One day, a miner lo …
