Mines {C.H Oneshot}

Plunged

Your eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly, as you were plunged down into the mine with 14 other women. The shabby elevator was crowded, and you savored early morning light and the last few breaths you had of fresh air. It would be nine hours before you saw the light of day or felt the breeze on your face and in your hair. No air stirred, and even if it did, you wouldn't be able to feel it much. Your hair was bound in a once-white scrap of coarse cloth in an attempt to keep the coal dust out of your hair, but you knew that it would creep in like smoke under a door. Your tattered coat was permanently black, no matter how long you scrubbed. Your dark grey dress barely reached your ankles, you had long since grown out of it. Black stockings covered your legs and slid into your scuffed shoes, and as you glanced down you wiggled your visible toes. No amount of clothes could shut out the cold you felt.

Your ears crackled painfully on the silent descent. Everyone was too tired from the past day to gossip or giggle like they normally did. It was like a never ending cycle, you never overcame the exhaustion from the day before.

You felt a jolt and the scream of the rusty metal hinges of the elevator door broke your train of thought. You all scrambled out of the unstable elevator, knowing that you only had a set amount of time before it was caught up again, whether you were out or not. The stale air of a place of suffering attacked your nose and you gladly awaited the moment when you would get used to it again and it wasn't as noticeable.

You all walked in a single file line, shoulders brushing against the jagged rock walls. It was a tiny passageway, soon opening up to a larger room with a single lantern suspended from the short ceiling. The ceiling was so low that you had to crouch, which was the cause of your constantly aching back. This was where you worked.

Your job was to pick the rubbish and shale and everything that wasn't coal out of the conveyer belt. You felt genuinely sorry for the women who had to power the conveyor belt, knowing that they are breaking their backs for roughly $1.25 a day. It wasn't fair but it was one of the only options.

You set to work immediately. You were under the watchful eyes of the Overseer Lain and you simply couldn't afford to lose this job. Your trained eyes quickly saw the things that needed to go and you threw them into the pile on the other side of the belt. The scratches on your fingertips let you know they were there, and you winced every few moments. This was the world you were set to live in, struggling for survival.

---

You heard the steam whistle blow and you felt sure that it was few minutes late. You all backed away from the conveyor belt and grabbed the metal buckets that were lined across the wall. You filled the buckets with the rubble that you had picked out and carried about ten meters before dumping it into a rail car. The boy behind the it started to push it along the rails, getting almost perpendicular with the ground in order to push it. He couldn't have been more than 15 years old.

You all scrambled into the elevator, desperate to get out of the dusty mine. As you rose higher and higher your ears popped but the light that you could see at the top of the mine shaft was enough to make you smile. You finally arrived at the top and you barely noticed the squeal of the door as you all rushed out, eager to get home. The dirt road was overrun with people, children running to greet their various family members. There were too many people to count crowding around the various wells, wanting to get the black coal dust off of their skin. You walked along the lines of houses until you came to yours, taking off your shoes and stockings before walking into the house.

You were greeted by a hurling mass of two little girls, a little boy came running at you a few seconds later. You quickly tried to pry them off of you. "You all know that you aren't supposed to touch me until I get washed up, you don't want your school clothes any dirtier than they already are!" You scolded them, but failed to wipe the smile off your face.