《The Garbage Man》Chapter Fourteen
Advertisement
Jack exited the tent, sandwiched between two guards that had come to take him to join “the others”, whoever those were. He’d braced himself or what he’d see, and was unsurprised to be met by the sight of more tents, surrounded by a stockade wall.
The bright sunlight made him squint, but after his eyes adjusted he noticed that even the sky here was a different colour to what he’d seen when under the care of Confucius. Blue, but with a tinge of green.
The encampment was small, and after passing a few tents they came to a rutted path, the guards turning left. To his right, he saw a structure resembling a sand castle made large.
Passing through a sturdy gate, he was surprised to see that it led to another smaller camp of shabbier tents. He didn’t fail to notice that the wooden stockade around these shabbier tents was double sided, with a few bored looking guards keeping a lazy eye on the area.
“All yours”, the guard in front suddenly spoke, addressing a dark skinned man with tight grey curls that was waiting on the other side of the gate.
“You must be the new recruit the Captain told me about”, the dark skinned man greeted Jack with a large smile. “Of course you are. Come, come!”, the man said jovially as he walked up to Jack and lay an arm over his shoulders, urging him to walk alongside him.
“Recruit?” blurted Jack.
“A little joke to break the ice, we are all little more than slaves here”, the man replied, chuckling. “My name is Isaac”. He paused, giving Jack a chance to reply.
“Jack”, Jack replied. “Slaves?” his mind was screaming at him. What kind of a joke was that? He eyed out the guards on the stockade with this new information at hand.
Advertisement
“Don’t even think about it”, Isaac warned in a much softer voice, still grinning as if Jack was his best friend.
Jack could feel that the friendliness was genuine, even if the smile was plastered on. “Sorry, I didn’t expect to find myself in a situation like this”, he explained. “Where are we? What is this?”, he followed up with questions.
“Why are you here? Does your family owe a debt they can’t pay? Some petty crime?”, Isaac countered.
“No, nothing like that. I was.. somewhere else… and then I woke up in a tent, here”, Jack wasn’t sure how to reply. “I’m not a criminal!”, he added vehemently. “I really don’t know what’s going on”.
“Strange. How unfortunate, for you to wake up here of all places”, Isaac said, only half to Jack. “But let me tell you where you are”, he continued. “This is one of the Bairid Kingdom’s secret earth element mines, and we are the Kingdom’s humble servants. Indentured servants, that is”, he chuckled at his own joke.
“Indentured servants?”, Jack asked. “Bairid Kingdom? And what are earth elements?” he filed alongside the growing list of “Things Jack Knows Nothing About”.
Isaac eyed the boy out of the corner of his eye. Too pale to be native to this desert Kingdom, lacking the build of someone used to hard labour, too open to be a successful criminal. “Probably some poor scion sold off to pay the family debt, but too embarrassed to admit it”, he placed him as. Although he had arrived outside the usual schedule; the kid obviously had his pride and his secrets.
“Yes. We are all here to pay off debts; some their own, some the debt of their families and others their debt to society. Petty criminals and the criminally poor, you could say”, he elaborated. “We are not slaves”, he added with a hint of affront.
Advertisement
“And which are you?”, the boy asked.
“Mine is a debt of honour”, he said wryly.
“Sorry”, Jack said as he sensed the man’s mood growing somber. “So if you’re not a slave, does that mean you can leave here?”, he asked.
“We’re not slaves”, Isaac corrected pointedly. “I wasn’t much older than you appear to be when I was sent here. What do you think?”, he continued. “But don’t despair! I’m the exception here; my debt is simply too great to be paid off”.
“The more fortunate will have their debts paid off by others. Family. Friends. Lovers. The Kingdom doesn’t care as long as the debt is paid” he elaborated further. “The less fortunate, and those sent here for petty crimes, can usually work their debt off in a few years”.
“Are there any other ways to leave? Escape?”, Jack probed.
“Escape? Pfft”, scoffed Isaac. “The guards you see are symbolic. Where would you escape to, when it’s a thousand miles of desert in any direction?”, he asked. “Besides which, there’s always the Captain.” he added, not explaining.
“Are you close to awakening? Good in a fight?”, Isaac asked Jack. “And I don’t mean a street brawl, I mean a fight to the death?”.
“Awakening?”, Jack thought to himself. “I’m not a trained fighter, no.” he replied to Isaac. What did that have to do with leaving here?
“Then the answer for you is no, there is no other way to leave”, Isaac smiled.
Jack was still mulling over what Isaac had told him. He wasn’t a criminal - petty or otherwise - and he certainly didn’t owe anyone money. So why was he being treated like this?
Isaac led him to one of the tents, slightly less shabby than the others. “Welcome to my humble abode. Here, put this on”, he tossed Jack a change of clothes that had been lying on a bedroll and waited. Jack saw that there were two bedrolls in the tent, and one side had a chest and a few personal belongings. The other looked newer, obviously placed there for him.
Dressed in basic but sturdy work clothes, Isaac walked with Jack towards a decent sized shed that stood out as the only wooden structure inside the walls. Where was everyone, or was it just Isaac and himself here?
Advertisement
The Entire Mankind is Acting As Me, I Shall Secretly Build a Battleship and Shock the World
“The world’s top ten conglomerates had joined forces to create a programme where the crew had quietly evacuated all the people from a city, leaving behind only Raymond and his family, who were kept in the dark. Their purpose was to see this child, who had emerged from the slums of America, get humiliated. The whole world wanted to see this young man named Raymond make a fool of himself, and through what Raymond had done, and all of his doings, they wanted to decry the poor for being short of ambitions. Early the next morning, the show officially began. When Raymond noticed that the world outside was overly and strangely quiet, and when he had determined that all of humanity had disappeared. Just then, the survival aid system was activated, and the system notified Raymond: In a month’s time, there will be a huge meteorite hitting the planet, and it is going to cause great destruction.
8 4403A Tale of Space & Magic: The Last Humans of Gliesen
Plunged into a strange world, Jayr finds himself on the Gate of Hamae, the crossroad of all interstellar worlds. But after getting intertwined in series of mysterious events while finding who was behind his transport and why, a destination reveals itself. Now, Jayr will have a chance to meet the last humans of Gliesen, and the mysterious truth behind their curtain of existence. Yet a lingering question remains, will he ever find his way home?
8 104Blackula
Blackula: the classic tale of Dracula, but all the characters are black. Jamarcus Harker is a Black British lawyer who is traveling to Transylvania to meet the mysterious Count Blackula. But the longer Jamarcus stays in Castle Blackula, the more he notices that the Black Romanian nobleman isn’t quite normal. While he is having his adventures in Romania, his fiancée, Moesha Murray, has her own troubles in Whitby, England. Her best friend, Lupita Westenra is acting strangely. Their doctor, Dr. Jabari Seward believes the situation is so dire that only the great Professor Abrafo Van Hassain can save them.
8 143Shards of Sugar (2022 - x) - [Poetry By Eclipse 3]
▫️Words as Sweet as Silver.▫️This is Eclipse's Third and Latest Poetry Book/Collection.▫️@DarkenedEclipse739's Poetry Books:1.) Poetry By Eclipse 2.) Finding the Edge [A Vault...Days]3.) Shards of Sugar ▫️@AllRightsReservedFull Title: Shards of Sugar (2022 - x) - [Poetry By Eclipse 3]Used to be called "Shards of Sugar - [Poetry]"🔘MORE POETRY: LOOK OUT FOR;MY SECOND POETRY BOOK:• "Finding The Edge [A Vault of Poems from my Idle Days]"•MY THIRD AND LATEST POETRY BOOK:• "Shards of Sugar" •🔘 Started: May 2022Completed: X
8 105Backwards rollercoaster || Mairimashita! iruma-kun
[ "Don't walk in front of me... I may not follow. Don't walk behind me-I may not lead. Walk beside me... just be my friend." ] -Albert CampusBecoming the demon King was quite the task for Iruma, but to rewind all of the hard times again with the same people? Had God finally come down with his hands-punishing Iruma for his sins?*This story will be purely imaginative after the latest manga chapters. All words aren't canon unless the creator released more manga chapters the same as this (storyline.)This is a fanfiction for Mairimashita! Iruma-kun.
8 152Ink Splatters
the follower and the greeter advised that there was a power cut at 123 slaughter me street high school and there was ink splatters just inside the 9th grade hall. they used clues to know who did this. can they solve this mystery before the first day of 123 slaughter me street high school?
8 122