He woke up at 7 am.

Chugga, chugga, chugga

The sounds of the factories were already in full steam. He looked out his window and saw the giant plumes of black smoke they were emitting. The sky burned with a crimson tint thanks to the large amounts of pollution. In fact, you’d be lucky to see a single bird in the sky. The lands were barren and there was next to no life remaining.

He got up and stretched, he didn’t start work for another 2 hours.

He planned to get in 2 hours training before work. He grabbed a rusty old bucket and went down to the local river to scoop a pale of water. It was murky brown, obviously polluted but they had no other alternatives. Fresh water was too expensive for them too afford so they had to resort to drinking this dirty water. ‘I will get sick drinking this but I have no other choice.’

He filled up an old plastic water bottle he found and brought the rest of the water home for later. He tried to be as quiet as possible because Aruna was still sleeping, she doesn’t start work until 8.

‘Time to start my workout.’

He walked outside and started a light workout. 100 press ups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats and 10 km running as a start. But he severely overestimated his own body.

“1….Urgh, pah, pah, pah.” His eyes bulged and he clenched his teeth. It felt like he was trying to bench press a hippo.

‘What the hell is going on? I weigh at most 40 kg. Why can’t I do a single press up?’

He abandoned that idea and in the end he managed to do half a press up, 3 sit ups and 4 squats. Then he went for a jog but as he moved it felt like his lungs were being torn apart. He hadn’t felt this weak in over 50 years.

‘Starting from scratch is going to be more difficult than I thought.’

He ran 1 km and walked another 6, he still had time before work so he repeated his sets again. This time he managed to do 1 press up, 3 sit ups and 4 squats.

‘Quater to nine, time to get to work, I can’t be tardy on my first day.’

He made his way down the street passed the abandoned buildings and found himself in front of a giant mine. ‘This is the address but where do I go?’

An old man saw him loitering around and turned his gaze towards him. Lucifer experienced a fearsome aura wash over his body once again that forced him to turn his head. He was surprised to see that this feeling wasn’t from the same person he met yesterday. It was a different person entirely. ‘Two people with beast like auras? Masters that could release an aura like this were at least one in one hundred million yet he had met two in quick succession.’

“Hey kid, don’t hang around the mine entrance, this place is dangerous ya know.” His voice was deep and mature. Like a commander handing out orders to his soldiers but his accent reminded him of the wild cowboys he used to watch on TV.

This person was quite grubby; his shirt was torn and his overalls were covered in oil. He was wearing a miner’s hat and held a giant pick over his shoulder. He had a few grey facial hairs on his face and a giant knife scar under his eye. His facial expression gave you the feeling that he was a grumpy old man.

But Lucifer had met many people like this before; their expression usually betrayed their character. They were usually quite nice people once you got to know them.

“Uhh, sorry sir. I’m actually an employee here, but today is my first day. I’m not sure where I am supposed to go.”

The old man quickly ran his eyes over Lucifer’s body.

“A little brat like you who’s still sucking on his mama’s breast milk wants to work here? What’s the boss thinking? Shouldn’t you be at school little boy?”

Lucifer clasped hands in respect and replied, “My father is dead and my mother is in the slave mines, I can’t afford to go to school. I have to work to provide for my sister.”

The old man looked at this young boy again in a new light, “Hmm, quite mature for a little twerp. Alright, follow me.”

Lucifer’s short little legs quickly followed behind him, he sure was agile for a sixty something year old man. His steps looked slow but they were actually incredibly fast. “May I ask Venerable Elders name?”

“Venerable Elder? Hah, kid. Who are you trying to fool? I’m just an old peasant like you. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be slaving away my life here. Well, at least it’s better than actually slaving away in the slave mines so I can’t complain. My names Buckaroo but you can just call me Buck, how about you little boy?”

“Haha, my name is Lucifer.” He let out a smile as he replied, this old man’s personality wasn’t too bad and he was quite chatty.

“Lucifer? Hm, that’s an old fashioned name and a bit too long for my taste. I’ll just call you Lucif.”

‘Hey old man, you can’t just go around changing people’s names like that!’ But in the end he didn’t say anything because he didn’t care much. Nicknames were a sign of familiarity so that means this old man actually had a favorable opinion of him.

“Call me whatever you want old fart.” He sharply replied.

Buck smiled as he led him into the office. ‘Heh, sharp mouthed brat.’

When they arrived Lucif recognized the person in charge. It was the same man that he had spoken to yesterday. The one that had offered him the job, the other man with the fearsome beast like aura. So it turns out he was the overseer of the entire operation.

“This twerp says you hired em’, what say you boss man?”

“Ah Buck, I see you’ve met our newest worker. This kid has spunk so I’ve decided to throw him in the mines. Since you two are already acquainted you must share a common destiny. Why don’t you show him the ropes?”

Buck scratched his head and said, “Argh, damn kid you landed me with more work.” He flicked the tip of his nose with his thumb. This was a way of signing ‘Fucking hell’ or ‘Bloody bastard’ without actually saying the words.

‘Heh, cheeky old man.’

Buck lead him down some shafts until they came to a line of mine carts, they all had different names spray painted on the side. There were at least 500 different paths and a bunch of mine carts on each line. “Get in. We are working in blue zone today.”

He pulled a lever and the cart slowly pulled away, thanks to the force of gravity they started accelerating. ‘For the future, this technology isn’t very advanced. It’s worse than it was a thousand years ago.’ He couldn’t help his curiosity and decided to ask some questions about this place.

“Hey old man, why are these mines so basic? Shouldn’t they have high tech equipment down here but instead we are catching mine carts and using Bronze Age pickaxes.”

“Heh, what? This world was at war for 100 years and in the end we lost, that’s why we are ruled by the UCA. They bombed our Universities, killed our engineers and banned the creation of machines and robots. That includes guns and unfortunately drills. The UCPS is always watching us so we are forced into hard labor to survive. There is no light at the end of this tunnel; we can only toil until the day we die. Better to accept reality now and work your ass off, there will be no slacking under my watch boy. I don’t care if you are only 8 years old.”

“I’m 12…”

“You look like you’re 5, grab your pickaxe and lets go.”

‘Damn this old man is good with his words.’ The wind screamed passed his face as they went further and further down. It took 20 minutes to reach their destination and they covered just over 25 km horizontally before the cart came to a stop. Buck and Lucif climbed out with their picks swung over their shoulders.

Lucif looked quite ridiculous because the pickaxe was way too big for his tiny body.