Jake harrumphed and grabbed his shovel, around him lay his friends and what you might call colleagues, if colleagues in this instance didn't mean fellow slaves. All jake had been doing was digging out tunnels or mining rocks. This had been his life every day, twelve hours a day, seven days a week…

Sitting on the ground watching Jake walk up and grabbing his shovel made everyone else think the exact same thing, he was an idiot. It wasn't like everyone else was incredibly lazy, if they took a break in work hours they would be punished, but this was lunch time, and there was no way in hell that they would be doing extra labor for no reason at all.

"aren't you all tired of staying here?" said Jake provocatively with a wide smile on his face, waiting for the others to get angry and run after him, no one did. This wasn't the first time Jake had started working in the middle of lunch, or after work even. He did this all the time, almost like it was an obsession.

The reason for this strange behavior was no secret to the others. Three years ago, one of the foremen had said that whoever would work especially impressively would have a chance to leave this place. Obviously, he was lying, and while he said it, he barely held a straight face before breaking into laughter, but Jake had taken it as completely true.

With a shovel in one hand and bucket in another, Jake strolled towards his work area. They were digging the ground to make it plain and even. Some huge building was going to be built here, but Jake had no idea what, it wasn't like there was any reason to tell a slave anything of importance.

Each area was guarded by several guards, to make sure no slave would dare to leave. It was usually the same guards, guarding an area for a week or so before they changed. Jake enjoyed making small talk with them.

"hey Carl, how's the wife"

"shut up, slave!"

The massive guard Jake spoke to turned around with a metal rod and started beating on Jake, it wasn't Carl…

After a good ten minutes of beating the confused slave did the guard stop and walk back to his post, Jake slowly stood back up while tears filled his eyes. He knew making a scene would only make everything much worse and just kept on walking.

Bruised and bleeding, Jake started to dig up the ground for hours and hours on end. He didn't stop before his hands were even more bloody than they had been when he was beaten. His body sore and hurting all over he took a skin from his waist, it was filled to the brim with water and he drank at it with greedy gulps.

"cough, cough argh!"

Water spilled from the water skin as Jake gasped for air and clung to his stomach, it felt like his stomach was on fire and he could see his skin on his stomach growing dark red. Feeling an impending terror grasping his body, and fear began to spread.

"help… help me!" Jake screamed and fell to the ground, he was clutching his stomach as people ran over, along with two guards, one of them being the guy who had beaten Jake so fiercely before.

The guard recognized Jake instantly and cursed under his breath, no one minded them beating the slaves, but a dead slave was an issue and he would have to take responsibility killing a worker, thereby making the owner lose money.

"back to work slave!" said the guard as he watched Jake clutching his stomach with a pained expression.

"I don't think he´s faking this, we better get him to the med care before he croaks. I mean for Christ sake; his stomach is dark red…"

The two guards grabbed Jake on each side and dragged him along, it was a long journey to the med bay since the construction site only had the one. Jakes feet was dragging along the ground and was starting to go numb as the two guards approached a small group of tents., they were all very lazily put up and seemed to have been made with very little effort.

On the side of the biggest tent where a sign dangling with a red cross on it, indicating it was a medical tent. With all the dried out and fresh blood splattered not only on the tents but also on the ground around it, it didn't seem like a medical area but instead an execution ground.

Outside the tents stood several people with bandages and gaping wounds, all looked on the verge of dying on the spot. As the guards walked past them, they noticed how extremely pale they all looked and sucked in a breath of air, thanking the stars they wouldn't have to seek medical treatment in this godforsaken place.

The guards prepared them selves to enter the tent with the red cross on it, as head popped out wearing a surgical mask and some goggles. The head was like the tents around it splattered in blood, it seemed very fresh, and a scream from inside the tent hinted as to where the blood had come from.

Both guards dropped Jake in fright who was at this point incapable of defending himself from the fall and landed flat on the ground with a groan. The frightened guards leaped back and let out shrill screams, before they realized what had happened.

"what can I help you gentlemen with?" said the head in a calm and very feminine voice, never looking at Jake who was slowly dying on the ground. The guard Jake had mistaken for Carl and who had then beaten him half to death, kicked Jake to point out why they had come.

"he started clutching his stomach and began screaming, see if you can't save him or at least take him out of his miseries…"

Before the head could respond had the two guards already turned around and was walking away, they had done what was expected of them, they didn't really care if Jake died, so long as it didn't become their problem.

Jake was starting to lose track of reality, and the only thing he could do was look up at the weird head sticking out of the tent. After looking at the two guards leaving did the head move its attention to the dying man on the ground.

"you died fast this time… did you forget your assignment? maybe we need to make a couple of adjustments"

the head said, and the tent opened, revealing the person he had been looking at. The figure looked like a woman, and was wearing a long white lab coat, with rubber gloves on and holding a bone saw. Jake didn't figure out anything more before he passed out and everything turned completely black.