by DRK
As expected, most of the miners volunteered for the job, fervently shouting, "Me!" "Me!" "No, me!" "Pick me!"
To the disappointment of one and all, the supervisor selected No. 317, who, actually, never even had volunteered.
A jealous miner demanded to know, "Why him? He doesn't even like the governor!"
"Who says?" 317 wanted to know, but in reality he really didn't, since he didn't even know him.
The supervisor explained, "Team, let's give 317 a chance to prove his love for Gov. Bright. If he has an accident- well, with his lousy attitude, I think it is best that, if something happens, it happens to him, and not one of us. It will hurt our team less, I think, if it is only 317 who gets blown up."
The others agreed with this reasoning. Of course, they had to agree. It was well-known that Gov. Bright hated when the underlings argued with their team leaders.
No. 317 resigned himself to the suicide mission. Maybe it was a good thing if he blew up, since he never got the hang of loving the governor...
Alone, 317 walked back into their work tunnel while the others watched from the safety of the larger tunnel beyond. He carried his shovel and didn't look back.
"Be careful!" the supervisor called after him. "One slip, and you'll set us back a month if the tunnel caves in! If you clear out all the nuggets and don't blow up, which I doubt, we will send in the cart for you to pack them safely- I already sent for the packing gel."
Trying to look brave, trying to hide how tense he was, 317 took his shovel and started to cautiously scrape the dirt off the end-wall with his shovel, looking for brilliantly sparkling deposits of pure fuel. He carried away one small shovelful. He brought up the shovel to gently, carefully remove more of the rock wall, sifting and searching, when suddenly-
"Bang!"
No. 317 jumped in surprise, almost scratching his shovel hard against a pure nugget that he had uncovered. He turned and glared back at the practical joker in the tunnel beyond who had yelled the unnerving exclamation.
All the miners (except 317) laughed, and then the supervisor scolded the joker. "Okay, stop that. We need to get the situation under control as quickly as possible, so that we can resume work. We are losing time, and we will have to work extra-hard as it is, to do No. 316's share of digging."
So, after that, the wiseguy kept quiet, letting 317 work undistractedly, but he could hear the other one, even from this distance, giggling to himself over his joke on 317. No. 317 figured he could do the job without blowing up, as long as that jerk kept his mouth shut. At least he had no mad zeal like a regular miner would have in a situation like this, pushing himself to recklessly dig and dig, without enough concern for his own welfare, even while knowing the danger that there must be more of that pure fuel in the wall, leading to accidentally blowing himself up like 316.
Well, No. 317 supposed, this lack of crazy, unthinking zeal, while making him a misfit among the miners, seemed to also work at times like this in his favor... Ooops- careful, careful... Pay attention to what you're doing, don't mess up! Could he finish the task without setting off the pure fuel?...
Good-bye, Jane