There's a mining accident. It can be any mine you'd like. I hear salt mines are lovely places to work.

How long had it been? An hour? A day? Two? Jeramiha couldn't tell as he looked around the small pocket he'd somehow had the luck to be in when the mine collapsed. Right underneath one of the air vents, he was sure that he wouldn't die of asphyxiation. And the company hated to have deaths on their hands, they always did their best to rescue trapped miners. Well, once they were sure that the giant worms that had most likely caused the accident had moved on. Relatively comfortable, Jeramiha leaned back against the cold metal piping that had saved his life. He didn't think many of his buddies wouldn't have been as lucky as he'd been. Most of them were still trapped in the main part of the mine. Some of them had probably been eaten when the worms came through, a quick and gruesome death. Not that the worms actually meant to eat anyone. It had long since been proved that Rock Worms only liked just that, rock. Anything else ingested was purely coincidental. Just bad luck. Jeramiha smiled to himself again; he'd gotten out at just the right time, definate good luck for him! He knew that most of his buddies were probably either trapped within a pocket like his or had been crushed by the cave in. All they could do was wait for rescue. He, on the other hand, had an advantage. Picking up a chunk of rock, he banged against the metal wall. Instead of the hollow ring he expected, though, all he got was an inelegant thunk. He tried again on a different part of the pipe, then another, tapping all the way around. All he heard were thunks. For the first time, Jeramiha was afraid. Somewhere overhead a worm had eaten through the pipe. While the pipe had been designed not to collapse if such a thing happened, the resonant pipe that should have carried his signal up to surface was clipped in half, unable to transfer sound. Still, he'd been lucky this far, this would probably be the shaft they checked first for signs of life. He didn't realize they'd never start with a clipped shaft; too dangerous, even if it had been designed not to fall. No, they started on the other side. Unfortunately for Jeramiha, it would take several more days of starvation and dehydration for him to realize that he'd been the unlucky one.