By the end of the day most of them are crying, tired, and complaining about how their hands hurt. I feel bad for them, but I have to keep them going. We’ve barely managed to fill one cart all day. I’m nervous to learn what penalties are enforced when miners aren’t pulling their weight.
Janice doesn’t cry or complain once. I smile down at her as we return to the central cavern and hand our shovels and tools to the guards. We move to the side to wait for the other girls, and Claryce grabs on to my arm, pointing out a commotion up ahead while hiding her body behind mine.
Two mech guards step into the cavern wrestling with a strange figure between them. I mistake him for a guard at first, but he’s clearly a prisoner. Large shackles bind his gloved hands, and he’s wearing some kind of helmet so I can’t see his face.
He turns toward me and my blood freezes at the yellow smiley face displaying on the screen of his visor. It’s out of place down here in the mines, and its false cheer clashes with the blood on his collar.
He’s bigger than the guards, and muscular, though I can’t tell how much is him, and how much is the bulky suit he’s wearing. The sentinels hold a shock stick against his neck right below the helmet, and he flinches as the current hits him. They bypass the implant machine and just walk him past us and down the tunnel that leads to the cell blocks.
I frown and hold Claryce close to my side.
How many more surprises will today hold?
I can sense the whole crowd of men around us are on edge by the scene. They shift nervously around me, rippling in unison like a centipede. Before we can line up behind Edward, we hear loud voices on the other side of the cave. I look over to see a man yelling and shouting at one of the mech guards. His eyes are manic and wild. The sentinel stands his ground and orders the man back in line, but he refuses. I hold my breath as the man shoves the guard in the chest. The other men back away from the confrontation slowly, as if they know what’s about to happen. There is almost no warning. The guard raises his arm. A laser gun telescopes out from the end of it, aimed at the man’s chest.
Then in a flash of light the man is gone. Only ash is left behind, drifting into a thin carpet of skin and blood where he once stood. The melted rubber soles of his shoes smolder from the ground. There’s a stunned silence, and I feel the girls crowd around me.
“The fastest way out of the mines,” a man with rancid breath mutters behind me, shaking his head knowingly.
***
“Get back into your lines,” yells the mech supervisor from the table we just passed. I can tell the leaders apart because of the gold plating in their enhanced armor, and the antenna that branch out from their shoulders like small wings, so they can communicate with the Kreon ship even while deep underground. Men all over the cavern scramble back into their positions. By the smell of urine, I can tell somebody has pissed themselves. I hope it isn’t me.
The girls quickly get into line behind me and Edward marches us back to our cell. He says nothing to us as he locks our door and walks away.
We fall exhausted onto our mats. For a while no one says anything. I keep my eyes closed hoping they’ll all think I’m asleep. I’m uncomfortable pretending I know how to care for this group of girls. I’m not even an adult myself.
“Rya?” a small voice makes me open my eyes. It’s not Claryce or Janice. None of the other girls have spoken at all. I can’t remember if they’d told me their names.
I sit up and look around.
“Will it always be like this? Every day?” It’s the little red-headed girl sitting next to Janice. This is the first time she’s spoken. She holds out her bloody palms toward me.
“Oh sweetheart.” I get up and go sit next to her. “I’m so sorry. Your poor hands.” I look around at the others, remembering the blisters I had the first day here.
“Do the rest of you have blisters too?”
Everyone nods. I frown and look around the room. I get up and grab my water bottle. Near the cell door I dig around to loosen the dirt and add water until a nice mud forms. I put some on each of the girl’s blisters. I remember when I first learned to chop wood, my father would make a poultice of mud and herbs for the blisters that formed. Although nothing grows this deep, the cool mud should help comfort the girls.
“This is gross,” Claryce looks up at me with a small smile, holding up her muddy palms. I smile back, glad that her little spirit hasn’t been completely killed by this awful situation.
“You know what’s even more gross?” Her mouth pops open when I spit into my palms and rub them together. “Saliva helps wounds heal faster. I think.”
Several of the girls mimic me and then giggle. After that, they open up to me. They tell me their stories. Where they came from, what their families were like, how they got caught. We talk until most of the girls have fallen asleep.
“We should sleep too,” I tell the last few girls left awake. They nod and settle down on their mats. I lay on my side and instantly Claryce is nestled up next to me. A small voice in my head says I shouldn’t let these girls get into my heart. We don’t know what our futures look like. But it’s impossible not to.
That night I dream of the Kreons. The monstrous ones in the stories our neighbors and people at the trader camp would tell us about. Ones with tentacles and a dozen eyes and powers that can turn humans inside out. Gage’s severed arm, the man in blue that was eviscerated by the Kreon energy form, and the stubborn miner in the cavern that stood up to the mech guard, all visit me in my dreams.
When the yellow warning light blinks on, I’m more than ready to wake up. I try to shake the nightmares as I get dressed, but the images linger. I concentrate on the girls, making sure they’re ready to go before Edward gets to the door this time.
He nods as he unlocks the cell and we follow him right away in single file. I realize we’re ready so early that some of the men’s cells are still closed. The girls and I automatically walk on the far side of the tunnel from their doors. Out of the corner of my eye I glimpse the man from yesterday. The one with the helmet. The screen glows ominously in the darkness, today displaying a cartoon character I recognize. I wonder who has chosen the programming, and why his face needs to be covered. He’s calmly standing at the door of a cell, his gloved hands on the metal bars just watching us walk by.
I shiver and hurry past. I urge the girls in front to quicken their pace.
In the main room we go through the usual routine. This time I ask the supervisor if they can find smaller gloves for the girls. I hold out their fragile hands to show him why.
“Humans are weak,” he says to me, his mechanical face revealing nothing, although the comment is definitely not just robotic programming. There’s some sort of opinion in that small statement that has me narrowing my eyes at him.
“We weren’t built for mining. Why don’t you do it yourselves?”
He answers me by pointing his laser canon at me, and bristling his antenna. I hold up my hands and back away quickly. I get the girls back in line and we wait for our escort to take us to today’s dig.
Behind me I hear whispers among the other men in line. I crane my neck around to see what they’re talking about, and see the helmeted man at the back of the line. He’s a head taller than anyone else, which makes him hard to miss. But they aren’t even looking at him.
They’re staring at a group coming in from a side entrance. Guards are bringing in new prisoners. I can tell because they’re still wearing clothes from the outside, or the strong colors of the compounds. They’re being lined up at the implant machine. My stomach sinks when I realize I recognize one of them. Elan, the thief who stole my rabbits. Looking far too young and handsome, and entirely too self-assured for someone about to live out the rest of his natural life in the mines.
THIRTEEN
MY HEART FEELS LIKE IT’S going to beat out of my chest. He looks up suddenly, like he can tell I’m thinking about him. Our eyes meet and he smirks at me, as if to sa
y fancy meeting you here.
I tear my eyes away, but my head is spinning. What are the chances that the person who was supposed to rescue me from the compound shows up down here in the mines? Was he really a prisoner, or was he here by choice? But who would choose this?
I glance up again, and this time my eyes rest on the young girls standing behind him. My stomach churns, as I count half a dozen new recruits. The Kreons must really be getting desperate to find this thing. According to Tessa, it was some kind of weapon, and I’d heard the royals call it the artifact. The Vajra. I sounded the strange word in my head, wondering how many other humans knew its name, and what that knowledge could buy me.
The men in the line beside us have left, but we’re kept standing. The girls and I watch as the newcomers are processed. They’re being sorted into lines and escorted to the larger digs. I glare at Elan as he walks past me. His smart aleck look drops as he sees the girls behind me.
Good. Now maybe he’ll think twice about causing trouble down here. I don’t blame Elan for my capture, not really, but I don’t need any more challenges. That’s when I remember, I still have the data stick. Could he be down here on purpose, to get the data? Would he go this far to get it? A wild hope flared in my chest. We’d made a deal once, to get me out of the compound in exchange for the device. If he had a way out of the mines, maybe we could renegotiate the terms. But I doubt he’s factored in my new entourage, and I can’t just leave the girls behind.
I hear the mech supervisor bark a command and I turn. The guards line up the new girls behind the four already trailing me. Somehow I’ve become some kind of caretaker to a tribe of tiny humans. Maybe because I can keep them from crying long enough to get a little work done. And then they lead the helmeted prisoner right toward me, and my heart nearly stops.
“This one is joining your group today. He can work with you girls, since the others seem to have a problem with him.” The guard laughs. Not like Edward’s subtle chuckle. Whatever personality programming is in this machine, it must be busted. His laugh sounds mechanical and creepy. I shiver at both his unnerving cackle and at the strange prisoner he’s forcing into our group. I seem to be a magnet for the unwanted down here.
I close my mouth and turn to face forward. I have no idea why this guy has to wear a helmet, but it can’t be anything good. His clothes are dirty and ripped, and cover every inch of skin, but I can make out the lean muscle and bulky arms beneath the fabric. I try not to dwell on the rumors I’ve heard about genetic experiments gone wrong and the monstrous results. I thought they were keeping the girls with me for protection, but then why put this weird brute with us?
We walk in silence through the sloping tunnels, crossing bridges and machines and perfectly drilled tunnels. It takes nearly an hour to reach our destination, even though we catch a ride down a large supply cart. Yesterday, while digging, we made up stories about what we might find this deep below the earth’s surface. It helped keep our minds off the pain in our hands and muscles, as well as the boredom of the job.
Today however, after we get the names of the newcomers, we barely talk. None of us feel comfortable with the man in the helmet, and the new girls are scared out of their minds. They mimic our movements, shoveling dirt into buckets and carrying it to the cart. Claryce doesn’t stray more than a few paces from me all day.
Thankfully, the man doesn’t try to talk to us. At break time he sits off by himself. Today the projection on his mask is displaying some kind of nature documentary. Hyenas hunting gazelle under palm trees. The guard doesn’t offer him rations, and he doesn’t ask for any. He just sits there with his head resting against the wall. Sometimes when he turns, I can see the vague outline of his head behind the shiny chrome of his helmet.
At the end of the day the girls and I are more anxious than usual to be done with our dig. We hurry along behind our guard and efficiently hand in our shovels and grab our dinner rations. It’s an orange paste that tastes like vegetables. If I close my eyes, I can almost pretend it’s mashed potatoes and carrots. As we’re descending down the sloped tunnel to our cell, in the shadow of one of the stone bridges, I see Elan again. He’s with a group of grizzly looking men, huddled together whispering.
He winks, and I look away and stare at Claryce’s curly ponytail as she follows the others down the narrow passage. Whatever he’s doing down here, I don’t want to get caught up in it. I’ve seen what the guards do to insurgents.
Once we’re in our cell the girls are full of questions for our new cellmates. Then the conversation turns to the man in the helmet. I try to address their fears and questions as best as I can, but I really don’t know anything. Why does he wear a helmet? Why didn’t he eat? Can he even talk? These are all questions I can’t answer.
We decide as a group that I’ll work near him from now on, since he freaks the girls out too much. I talk Claryce into sticking with Janice tomorrow.
“It’s just for a few days until we figure out what his story is.” Claryce sits in front of me and pouts, but she doesn’t argue. I look around the small cell. There are eight girls in here with me now. I repeat their names in my head like a mantra, though the exercise doesn’t help me remember them all, and their features blend together. My brain feels foggy and slow, possibly from lack of oxygen or nutrients, or just sheer exhaustion. Or maybe I’ve already lost too much to care for something new.
I sit with my back against the cool dirt wall and watch them interact. I think back to my time in the compound. Tessa kept everyone busy by giving us a job, a task in our tech class or in the dorm, and the Kreons motivated their citizens by allowing them to dream of a future. I need to find something to give these girls purpose.
They were most animated when we imagined we were digging for a treasure trove or a secret hiding spot for pirates. From what little I knew of human history, there shouldn’t be anything on this continent, not this deep at least. But maybe I could pretend, if it kept their spirits up.
I try to remember stories from the books I grew up with, to tell the girls the next day as we dig. When I can’t remember some detail, I make it up. A small spark of hope lights inside of me. Maybe the Kreons screwed up by putting the girls with me. Without them, it would have been easier to sink into self-pity and despair. Now I have something to fight for, despite the hopelessness of our situation. Each day builds upon the next. I just need to survive long enough for an opportunity to appear. There’s always a chance I can find a way to get the girls and me out of here. Maybe in a year. Maybe two. I can’t even imagine us living down here our whole lives. It’s too big, too awful to think about.
The girls wake and get dressed at the first yellow light without me having to say anything. We walk single-file down the dark, narrow path that’s punctuated only by tall rods of electric light. We hear a scuffle ahead and shouts echo down the tunnel. Edward stops us and we press ourselves against the wall. I lean around the line of girls to see what’s going on. Up ahead, men are swearing and the mech guards bark orders. I watch sentinels drag several humans out of a cell. I hope they’re just unconscious, and not already dead. I squint at their bloody faces as they’re hauled off somewhere. There must be a med center down here, right?
Edward orders us to move again once the path is clear. As we pass the cell with all the commotion, I realize it’s the same one I saw the guy with the helmet in yesterday. There are still a few guards at the door, and sure enough as we pass by I can see that they’ve got him heavily restrained, with chains around his neck and wrists. He’s bent over slightly, and the chrome helmet prevents me from seeing anything of his face, but his clothes have blood on them. I wonder if it’s his.
The guard gestures for him to follow me in line. I frown but keep facing forward. Why aren’t they taking him to the med bay as well? And why was he fighting with the other prisoners? My blood chills as I realize he incapacitated at least four fully grown men, and now they are putting him down a dark tunnel with me and a bunch of childr
en.
We grab our rations and shovels and follow our guard to the dig. This time I realize, the assignments aren’t random. We’re just a little deeper than we were yesterday, at the end of a parallel tunnel. They must have us working in shifts. I shudder as the glowing torches illuminate the walls. From this angle, I can see that the thick lines of white rock I’d assumed were marble, were actually pieces of an enormous skeleton; we were passing through the belly of some ancient beast.
It’s quiet down here, and apart from the distant sounds of drilling machines and the steady picking from the nearest other work crew, the silence hangs heavy. The girls have been getting stronger each day, so I hope we manage to fill our quota and earn some extra rations. I look sideways at the strange man behind me, and see him clutch his ribs as he tries to lift his shovel. The shackles restrain his movement. Not sure he’s going to be much help today.
When we get to the vertical expanse of dirt at the end of the tunnel, I hug Claryce and remind her what we agreed to. She doesn’t argue after seeing the blood on the man, and heads to the other side with Janice. I look nervously as the guard heads back to the entrance, leaving us alone. He must feel like the man isn’t a danger to us girls. Or that we’re dispensable enough to risk it. I shake my head and grip my shovel tighter. A single source of illumination, screwed into the rocky ground, casts our dark silhouettes against the wall; it looks like we’re attacking our own shadows with our tools as we work.
While we were getting dressed, I told the girls my favorite story about a poor orphan who found a magic lamp that could grant three wishes. I made each of them agree to tell me right away if they spot anything strange or unusual as they dig. They looked at me with wide eyes and small smiles. I don’t expect them to find anything exciting, but I hope the game will keep them working. I wasn’t sure what the punishment would be if we fell too far below quota, but I didn’t want to find out.
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