Write to Rank: 2023

Brown Belt: Freedom Unhinged

My best friend's skull hung around my neck while I struggled toward freedom.

Water whipped around me, my disformed feet battling to find purchase on the rocky ground. The river pulled on the excess material on my pit trousers and miner's jacket, threatening to pull me back to the commune deep within the earth. Tears mixed with dirty water.

"I'll get you out, Peri." I held the skull in my palm.

It was smaller than it should have been. In fairy tales, girls' limbs were the same size on both sides of their body, they had straight backs, and faces free of black lung. Peri and I always wondered why that was. While it could have been the difference between us earth-dwellers and those above ground, something told us it was the work we do. That mining 12 hours a day had changed our bodies forever.

The bell chimed through the tunnels, the loud thrums vibrating through my body. The speakers made the announcement: "All subjects report to the Sorting. I repeat all subjects..."

For fourteen years, I'd followed the lines of children to the Sorting every day. The bell sent shivers down my spine. Should we turn back? Was it really worth it?

Only death awaited me there. And yet, even a sure death was more comforting than the stories of what was above ground.

~ ~ ~

Several weeks earlier, Peri walked atop the rock wall separating the miners' hobbles from the Supervisors'. One slip and she would have fallen over into their land, an act punishable by death. She swung her pale arms in the air, a big, gap-toothed smile resting on her face.

"All miners report to their posts," the speakers blared. "I repeat, all miners report..." the announcement continued while dozens of children moved toward the tunnels. Lanterns lit the paths toward the dark holes in the rock wall.

"Which tunnel should we choose today?" Peri's voice slashed through the noise. She jumped off the wall, landing in front of me. One of her legs was taller than the other, causing her to wobble before finding her balance once more.

"How can you be excited?" I shook my head. If it wasn't for her, I would've died long ago.

Most of us were terrified to set foot in the tunnels each day. Not because they were dark, save for the headlamp, but because once we went in, we had to come out with gemstones. The thought of showing up to the Sorting with nothing was enough to cause anyone to shake in their work boots—anyone except Peri of course.

"Each time we enter the tunnels, I get a rush of energy. It's like I was born for this." Peri bounced with each step. I held our tools while she scrutinized the tunnels as if we didn't do the same thing yesterday.

Unlike the others, Peri and I always worked together and split the product we found. I'd known her for as long as I'd been alive—or rather since the Supervisors took us away from our birthing adult and put us in the same hobble together.

"This one!" she shouted, climbing into it. I followed, a small smile on my face.

My trousers scraped against the rocks, causing a new set of scabs on my pained knees. The darkness set in, and our headlamps lit the way. Peri went first and with one crawl at a time, we made it to the back wall where no one had yet to mine.

The clink of our pickaxes resounded through the space in a familiar rhythm. One by one, the rocks crumbled, and we inspected them for gemstones.

"Ever wonder what would happen if the wall crumbled and the world above was right there in front of us?" Peri questioned, her pickaxe slamming into the rock with a cling. "Would you enter? Or would you return to the commune?"