True Salvation

Rubbles and grits are only what's left of the collapsed mine, burying it as soon as it has started. The detritus outburst caused a momentary haze within a hundred meter radius, though no one was actually there to witness the catastrophe. No one but Emir. He could only stagger with his hands cupping his mouth trying to restrain a voiceless scream, horrified by the unprecedented disaster. He couldn't believe his friends could go away just like that without him realizing the imminent tragedy.

Emir fell to his knees, groping the debris to try and make sense of how it can all happen in an instance. It was beyond belief. He felt nothing but rage and regret. The grief turned into a surmounting grudge of hate. He walked away ignoring his bleeding knees from the dropping impact, wiping his tears with clenched fists.

"They're gonna pay for this. No one shall suffer the same fate anymore," he whispered under his breath.

4 Years Ago

Emir had nothing but his mother who was working as a janitor and knitter living in an inheritance house at the far eastern side of town. As a 9 year old boy, he had just started school during midterm. Though he didn't have much of an exposure on future careers, he could only tell his teacher of becoming a businessman when he grew up. This prospect alone thrusts his spirit and volition to catch up with his studies having more than three years of inevitable temporisation due to financial issues. Now his mother could barely sustain him even without government aid.

Everyday after school he would sell drinks in front of his school to help his mother but just three weeks after admittance he received an exceptional customer. The customer was a highschool girl with blond hair and dazzling blue eyes. She ordered three dozen cups of apple juice, making him offer to help bring those drinks to her house which she said was not far away. He quickly packed his stall and followed the girl. They talked gregariously until they reached a dingy terrace half covered in verdure. He lost track of the pathway home going to the desolated dwelling.

The girl contentedly led him to the ragged door. She opened the singular door to a long hallway diverging into several rooms in which the kitchen was the end of it. The house was of a medieval design barely furnished as if nobody had lived there. Cobwebs and dust were profusely covering every surface of the house except the floor and a few doors. He followed her hesitantly upstairs via a spiral staircase at the left side of the door to a similar hallway only distincted by a window at the end. She opened the first door on the right and told him to put the drinks in there. He entered only to see a group of husky men playing poker.

One of them noticed Emir and continued playing as if nothing had happened. His first instinct was to get away as quickly as possible. That was exactly what he did. He dropped the drinks and sped down the staircase. He reached for the door knowing that this was all a grave mistake. He opened the door and got smacked in the left temple, leaving him unconscious. The last thing he could perceive was a man holding a bat with rose tattoos on his forearm.

Emir woke up in a spacious room holding about 20 kids with the same fate as him, hands and feet tied together in a dead knot. His temple was slightly bleeding but stopped short. Some were crying slowly, some were still asleep but most of them just stared at their feet, terrified of what would happen next. On each corner of the square room there was a man keeping an eye on them but occasionally looking at their phones. Emir nudged the person next to him.

"What's going on?" Emir whispered.
"Guess this is where all the missing boys went for the past few months," he replied coldly.
"Oh shrimp. I'm Emir by the way," trying to sound cheerful.
"Jim,"

The door was opened by a bald man wearing brown leather jackets with the similar rose tattoos on his neck. Emir recognized him as one of the men playing poker in the other room before. All the boys turned instantaneously to face him.

"Wake up boys!" Kicking the boy in front of him on the forehead causing it to bleed.
"Drink up cuz we have a busy day ahead of us. A lifetime for that matter," the bald man laughed hysterically as the girl walked in to bring in the drinks bought from Emir's stall. The men untied their knots and all the boys drank up the juice in an instant.

"Why's nobody fighting back?" Emir asked Jim.
"It's useless," Jim tersely replied.

After they were all tied up, they were directed to ride a truck with three more guys with pipes waiting at the back. The truck was a closed one so no one can see from the outside nor inside. It took them less than an hour till the truck stopped. None of the boys spoke or even lifted their heads. Emir was still lost in his thoughts, not knowing what to do. They got off the truck in a single file with their hands tied to their back. Just from the look of the entrance, he could already guess where they were all heading. The adit of a mineshaft.

He stayed alert should there be an opportunity for him to flee away. None so far. The adit was on the side of a hill far away from town. They all went down the mineshaft without a soul to be heard other than the groans of the men.They were descending a flight of worn out cement stairs which was clearly never renewed as it had cracks everywhere. The stairs were parallel with an eight feet wide conveyor belt on their right running to the fifth level of the mineshaft. Emir could see loads of ores and gravel traveling on it rather slowly. The journey itself was a strenuous one as the distance between levels was 100 feet.  As they got closer to the first entry on their left, Emir could hear the sounds of mining stones. He saw a long drift occupied by exhausted miners. Only that the miners were children.

The loud noises and debris falling off the ceiling every now and then took away all the courage in him knowing that their lives are far away from their control.  Some of the boys had already started crying at the sight of the miners. One of them broke out of file and ran towards one of the drifts. But he was cut short as one of the guards, as Emir calls them, kicked him directly in the chest. The boy rolled back to their line with tears streaming down his face, gripping his chest.

"Understand now boys? That's what happens to those who try to be brave," one of the guards warned them with a chuckle.

Their group stopped at the fourth entry. They were all shoved to line up in a row facing the bald man though most of them can't feel their feet anymore. Now there were only five guards with them including the bald man. The drift they're in was freshly bombed and about 200 meters long.

"Listen up! From this day onwards, you will become miners of The Smooth Mine, managed by me, Adam Font. As I don't want to waste any money on electronics and machines, we must all work together to do this manually. Thank god we have that belt to carry those ores! Normally people use explosives to break the ores and carry them by truck or conveyor belt straight to the processing area but I won't have that. So make yourselves useful tomorrow by picking up those rocks and putting them on the belt. Easy right? Mine them if they are too big, no slacking, no yakking and absolutely no requests. The belt will bring them to the fifth level which is forbidden for any of you to be in. the rest should be self explanatory,"  Adam briefed them with no emotions whatsoever.

"What's the long face? You all might think that this is all wrong. But let me rationalize it for you," he said jeeringly whilst bending to Emir until they could both feel each other's breath. "There are a ton of kids doing the same thing out there, so don't worry about it. It's all part of the norm," he went deeper into the drift and turned into a crosscut.

Another bald guard who Emir soon acknowledge as Dini, brought them to their sleeping cells. As the drifts were on the left side of the staircase, they needed to go deeper for about 50 meters to turn another left into a crosscut with their cells. Each cell was a cube lengthed about seven feet which were neatly cemented. They were all shoved inside with untied hands before the guards lock the gate of the cells.

"We'll start first thing tomorrow. Gates will be opened. The whistle in the afternoon would only be a 20 minute rest, not more than that. The second whistle would be bedtime. I want you to be in your cells by 10 minutes from the whistle. Saturday would be laundry day," Dini explained to them rather furiously before disappearing into a metal door at the end of the passage of their sleeping cells which creaked terribly.

Emir's cell was the first one with Jim on his right. The cell contains a rusty toilet bowl with the end leading to the abyss, a pail of water and two long sleeved T-shirts plus two pairs of thick tracksuits. He used the pile of clothes as a pillow and lied down. He tried to sleep but the flood of thoughts kept him wide awake. He would never see the light of day ever again, his mother, school, let alone his dream to become a successful businessman. The only prospect of his future was dying in this bedridden mine with people he didn't know nor will care for his death. This thought only forced tears out of his eyes. Half of the night was just Emir crying softly with no chances of survival. The fourth entry of The Smooth Mineshaft was sorrow and gloom filled with the tears of hapless boys with no hope of life, let alone living.