The blue stomach sickness, named so because of how it turns it's victims blue around the belly just before their demise, had been widespread and almost totally out of control in the town for some time now and the mine bigwicks had been at their wits end trying to find a way of of the situation.
Angelo now understood why everyone in town looked desolate and haggard. there had been several thousand deaths according to what Russell told him, and the mine was on the verge of closing down to curb the spread, but also because it was getting harder and harder to get people to work out there.
"Why hasn't any of these been reported to the authorities back in Phoenix?" asked Angelo...another silence, then "you have to understand that out here life is different from the big city, we have been doing all we can to mantain_"Nonsense! why on Earth is everyone concerned about production and not the lives of the people working out here" cut in Angelo..."Sound the alarm....we are suspending production until we figure out how to deal with this mess".
Angelo felt overwhelmed by emotions as he left the office building and went around looking at the faces of the miners as they came out of the quarry site. they were all full of dirt and sweat...it was obvious the conditions down there were inhuman. he had no idea where to start fixing this, but he was convinced that he had to do something.
Mr Russell, the manager followed a few paces behind and kept his head down ..it was hard to explain the inner workings of the mine to the hier of the company because it was obvious he knew nothing of what was happening down here. he regretted not refusing to all his boss to sent her son out here. how could she leave all this to him to explain.
the truth is, the people at Headquarters were aware of the conditions down here...and they even knew the source, but yellow cake was an important commodity and he was under orders to keep production going no matter the cost. he didn't like what was happening any more than Angelo, but he was more aware of the situation.
"I would like to go and take a look at the sickbay " he said after the lengthy explanation. "as you please" answered Chief Russell.
They took a walk towards the desolate miners sitting in front of the sickbay. Angelo's legs became heavier with every step. He kept wondering how it was possible to let people be in such a condition and not do anything. How was mum able to sleep at night knowing that she made her millions at the expense of so many people. By the time he arrived at the sickbay, he was close to tears.
The look on the faces of the miners spoke of hopelessness and vanity. He walked around and saw the same empty eyes looking back at him, there was no life in the eyes, no hope, nothing, just hopelessness.
"this must have been how the eyes of the slaves of the old looked" he thought.
He felt repulsed by the sight and turned away from them. He turned back to the administration block in silence, with his team following and trudged on.
The whole place was threatening to drive Angelo insane and he just decided to go back to town and get himself drunk in the nearest bar he could find. after all he was known as the drunk of the family.
He didn't notice the van driving beside him as he exited the mine and headed into town. He stepped into the Eagle's beak; a run down old western style saloon bar and headed straight to the bar.
"What's your poison mister" asked the bartender. "you! what are you doing here?" inquired Angelo. He found himself faced with the girl from the boarding house where he was staying. "I work here" she replied.
"And what about the boarding house?" he asked, "you gotta work twice as hard if you wanna make it out of this hell hole" she responded with a wink, "are you going to order something or continue this interrogation?" "give me a high ball, wil you" he said.
"what is that?" she asked.
"Arggg, never mind just pour me a class of whisky"
She did and he took it to a table near the window and set down. he downed the contents of the class in one swing and his face twisted with pain. He raised his class and the bartender brought him another.
"Why don't you bring me the while bottle " he said. She shrugged and went behind the bar and brought him a bottle.
He sat with glazed eyes and drank the bottle without so much as looking around. He didn't notice the place filling up with miners who were happy for a short day at the mine, nor did he notice the two fist fights that took place just meters from his table. He was brought back to life life by hands bumping his table and he drunkenly looked up to see the bartender standing there with her hands on her hips. "are you about done? we gotta lock up for the night".
He looked around and noticed that it was indeed night and it looked like the place was all but closed, with upturned chairs on top of others and glasses filling up the bar.
He rose up and swayed around a bit before finally managing to make his vision stabilize. "I guess I gotta get out of here then" he said and swayed around and headed for the door. She could only shake her head and watch him try to chart a route between the tables and head for the door before collapsing in a heap right in the middle of the bar.