Seatair Chronicles: Book 1

Olmar

In the darkness of the mines at Olmar, all that could be heard was the clanging of pickaxes. The slaves all wore the same clothing, black sleeveless tops, thick black trousers and boots. Some of them have covered their head with a bandana and a cloth to cover their noses and mouths. Each slave has their cart to fill with ore, which converts to credits for them to buy food and clothing. Credits are logged on a device that they wear on their wrist called 'The Shackle', which also tracks where they are. Guards patrol the tunnels, wearing black armour and carrying batons, making sure none of the slaves is slacking. As one of the guards walked through the tunnels, he stopped, looked into one of the carts and shouted at the owner,

"Half breed. Not bad, looks like you were made for job," he gruffly chuckled. Darcy stopped swinging her pickaxe and turned to face the guard. Her blue eyes with red lines running through them stood out in the darkness. Although she hadn't inherited the height of the Songu she had their strength, her thick black hair had blue highlights running through it although most of it was covered in dust from the caves. Her pale skin had scarred over time from beatings as well as injuries from mining. The guard took a step back and reached for his baton, "you going to behave yourself half-breed?" he growled. Darcy looked him up and down before turning back to her pickaxe and carried on swinging as he grunted and walked away.

After a while, a siren started blasting through the caves, and all the slaves stopped working,

"Cave-in. Stop mining and leave the caves," an automated message came through the speakers. They all stopped working, quickly filled their carts and started to push them towards the exit. Darcy fell in behind the line as the guards were ushering them along. As they approached the cave-in, she saw a group pulling at rocks screaming and shouting,

"Please! Please help them!" The slaves in the line quickly glanced at the commotion but continued forward, focusing on their carts. She was staring at her cart when she couldn't ignore their calls anymore, she stopped her cart and ran over to the cave-in,

"How many people are there behind the pile?" she shouted as she removed her facemask,

"Five. They didn't run," a man said panicking. She walked up to the rubble and started pulling rocks from the top of the pile until she had made a big enough hole to crawl through,

"Wait here, I'll go see if anyone's alive," she said to him, he nodded as she crawled in the hole. Once she got past the pile she was faced with darkness, she could hear faint breathing and smell five bodies. After a while, her eyes had adjusted to the dark, another thing she had inherited. She could see bodies on the floor and started to check them, the first two she found were dead, their heads crushed by rocks. She found a woman laid on her front and covered in some debris, she walked up to her and checked for a pulse, it was weak. As she started to remove the debris off the woman, she stirred,

"Help," she said weakly, and Darcy gently picked her up,

"Don't worry. I'm getting you out of here," Darcy carefully walked back to the hole, avoiding all the debris on the floor. She shouted, "I found one alive, grab her from the other side,"

"We're ready," the man shouted back. She climbed the pile while holding the woman, she steadied herself against the pile and passed her through the hole. Once she felt the people on the other side take hold of the woman, she went back into the darkness. She walked past the previous bodies, and the cave started to get smaller. She could see two more bodies right at the back, one of them was moving and groaning. She had to crawl to get them. This time it was a man, and his legs were twisted under him, he moved his head towards her,

"He's dead," he said weakly. Darcy glanced at the other body then back at the man and looked at his legs. They were crushed under rocks from the knee down, she knew the only way to get him out was to pull as hard as she could,