The Raft

Chapter 7: The Mines

The prisoners were led in shackles deep down into the dark humid caverns that rested beneath the facility. The journey down was a torturous one in itself as the temperatures slowly rose the farther down they went until now where it practically felt they were surrounded by the fires of Hell. Along the walls of the endless networks of carven tunnels, each made by the very prisoners brought down, were strings of fluorescent lights that staved off the pitch black darkness of the depths. The jagged rock surface was only occasionally broken up by hints of metal that pulsated with a subtle blue glow, vibranium. It was what powered the prison and most of the restraints and bars were made of the substance. There was a cruel irony in how the inmates endlessly toiled to mine that which kept them imprisoned. This was especially ironic for the Wakandan prisoners who had once relied on vibranium for their society, only to have that society destroyed and now tasked with gathering the metal for the people that conquered them.

The mines were absolutely the most miserable of all The Raft's many miseries, where down here the prisoners would work for hours upon hours doing backbreaking work with few breaks in tunnels that reeked of body odour. The guards assigned to watch over the work seemingly hated being there just as much as the ones they guarded, often it being assigned as punishment for various things, and they took their displeasure out on the convicts with pleasure. The prisoners who showed weakness were dealt with and forced to learn that there was no mercy here. Any unauthorised pause only earned that inmate more time working until they either passed out or somehow managed to make it through. A few lucky ones were extended the offer to sleep with a head guard and they'd be given a short leave of anywhere from a few minutes to a couple hours of entertaining the guard before being brought back to resume their shift.

Somewhere among the hardworking prisoners, Yelena and Natasha were shackled together. Both of them struck down on the hard rock with their pickaxes, the sharp dinging sound echoing on the walls around them and making their ears hurt. Natasha wiped her forehead with a dirty, muddy hand and huffed out air.

"So, Kate huh?" She said, smirking at her sister as she continued digging.

Yelena grumbled, distracted. "What?"

"You seem to like her a lot." Natasha said, non-accusatory. She knew making friends as an adult was something that had been really hard for Yelena, given that she trusted no one. It was surprising to see her interacting with a stranger.

"Yeah, she's funny." Yelena snorted, thinking of all the stupid shit Kate had done after they met in New York.

"Okay so is she like a friend-friend or...you know..." Natasha tried carefully, knowing that Yelena never had crushes on anyone and was pretty guarded when it came to love. As far as she knew, Yelena had only loved one person and it had ended really badly for her.

"What do you mean?" Yelena stopped hacking at the tough stone and looked at her sister.

Natasha chuckled. "Just saying...I've never seen you like this. About anyone."

Realisation dawned on Yelena and she flushed red. She scoffed and continued digging, albeit using slightly more force.

Natasha was afraid she had upset her sister, so she stayed quiet. Sometimes, it was hard for her to know how to interact with Yelena, because they hadn't really grown up together. Both had been through so much individually, it was difficult to know what would trigger the other.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Natasha eventually whispered apologetically.

Yelena sniffed. "I'm not uncomfortable."

"Okay." Natasha replied, rolling her eyes. They continued working in silence for a while.

"So what if I like her?" Yelena broke the silence suddenly. "Is that bad?"