"Hey! Get up! Quick!" Someone hisses as I was shaken awake. 

"H-huh??" I could barely see in the dim light while my head pounded hard with pain. "W-where am I?"

"Hurry up and get down!" The owner of the voice pulls up on my arm, dragging me up onto my feet before shoving me besides them. I rubbed my eyes as they adjusted and I could see a line of kids standing on the other side of the small room, heads bowed. 

I glanced over to the kid who had pulled me over here; seeing that they were also bowing, I quickly followed suit. I don't know what was going on but I didn't want to stand out.

******

We stood in silence for a long time, allowing time for my mind to slowly catch up. I knew that with the pain in my head that I wasn't dead but I know that I should be- seeing that metal bar going through my chest and the dog's bloody teeth with the last feeling that I had.... 

I shook my head from those thoughts as the door swings open, slamming into a wall.

"Good to see everyone up!" A really fat man enters, holding a cloth up to his face as his beady black eyes stared down at each kid. I quickly avoided his eyes and stared down at my feet, noticing that they were thinner that before and caked with dirt. 

"You all have a big day ahead of you so work hard!" The man chortles, flicking his wrist as the light caught onto his shiny rings that he wore on each thick finger. 

The kids immediately line up behind him, offering up their arms as they left the room. I followed along and winced a little as heavy chains were shackled to my wrists, another long chain attaching me to the kid in front and behind me. 

We dragged the chain along with us as we walked single-file down a stone hallway, passing a few wooden doors before heading up stairs then through two giant doors. 

The door creak open as sunlight spills out with blinding brightness and causing the kid behind me to push against my back to get me to move forward. It took a few moments to get use to the harsh light and see that I was definitely not in the city.

A mountain took up much of the sky, it's tip hidden by dark clouds. The top half of the mountain had green shrubs that dotted across its sides while the bottom half looked like it was stripped of everything valuable, stumps and uprooted ground showed that something was once there. 

Directly in front of us was a large cave with many people coming in and out, carrying shiny stones. 

I look behind me and see a large stone building that look really similar to the picture of a castle I had once seen in a book- a tall wall surrounding the building with men staring down at the people working. 

"You all know the rules." The fat man uses the cloth to wipe his sweating head. "No meals until you fill up a chart."

He points towards a large chart before walking off as a man with white hair and glossy clothes runs up to hold a umbrella over him as he walked back to the castle. 

A large man with a white scar across his face unlocks the chains on our arms.

"Don't even think about running." He scowls. "All of you will be punished if one tries... Now get to work!" The man pulls out a long leather thing and flicks it at my feet with a loud sound.

I fall backwards in a panic, flinching at the loud sound. I quickly scramble to my feet and follow everyone as we entered the dark cave.

******

"Ugh..." I sighed heavily as I carried a large stone to the cart and handed it off to another kid, every one of my limbs shaking.

It's been a few days since I suddenly came here and I was starting to wonder if this was hell. We worked from dawn to dusk for one meal of thin soup and bread so hard that rocks were much softer. 

I was never able to eat a lot back home but that was a feast compared to here. 

I don't know what the shiny rocks were but if we didn't move fast enough; we were whipped. If we dropped a rock- we were whipped. We couldn't even take a break to breath without getting whipped.

I had to ignore the large number of cuts on my back and legs to continue moving. It wasn't unusual for a kid to be silently crying as they worked, the tears cleaning some of the dust and dirt before the rough breeze blew into their faces. 

The kid who had told me to get up a few days ago was one of the strong ones. He never cried out when he was whipped and would help other kids with some of the heavy stones. 

"Hey Seven." He whispers to me as we walked into the entrance of the cave, lots of tunnels spreading out from the large tunnel in the center. "I saved something for you."

"What?" I whisper back after avoid the guard standing in the center of the walkway. 

Seven was what the fat man called me and that was the first name I've ever been called before.

"I saved some bread for you. You need to eat." He tries to pass me some until I shake my head.

"I'm fine Five. You should eat it." I tried to reassure him though my stomach rumbles at the wrong time.

"Eat it." Five passes me the bread with a smile before picking up a rock and moving away. 

I stuff the bread into my mouth to free my hands as I picked up a rock when the ground starts to rumble, shaking the walls and sending small rocks with dust to fall out from the ceiling.

"GET OUT! QUICK!!!" People starting yelling and rushing out, knocking me over and trampling over me.

I curl up around, holding my head in my arms to try protecting myself while trying to not cry out as I was stomped on.