Clang! Clang!

Dwayne groaned as the he felt his whole ears vibrate upon hearing the loud uncomfortable sound. Groaning yet again, he eventually opened his eyes.

The first thing he sensed was the thick smell of sweet wafting in the atmosphere. Followed by a painful lash on his back.

Wallop!

"Arrrghh!!" letting out a cry of pain, he looked behind him, to see a hefty looking man in nothing but singlets and shorts standing proudly, with a whip on his left grip.

The man had a pipe placed in between his lips and his bronze colored skin oozed with sweat, perhaps from the stuffy environment.

"You trash. How dare you slack off again huh?" the man who was responsible for the earlier whip questioned Dwayne, with an expression of both disdain and displeasure.

"Can't you see that the rest are mining? who gave you the order to have a nap huh? do you take here as a day care?!" the others party questioned angrily, further confusing Dwayne.

Mine? Mine what?

His eyes unconsciously darted around, falling on a male. He didn't look to be more than the age of sixteen. He had dirty blonde hair with strands of it sticking to his sweaty face.

However, Dwayne wasn't concerned about the other party's facial appearance but what he was doing. Currently, the teenage boy with dirty blonde hair held a pickaxe, excavating through a rough rocky surface..

Once in a while, a multi colored object would drop amongst the pile of broken rocks and then this boy would pick it up, stowing it away inside the woven basket slung around his neck.

Peeling his eyes off, Dwayne was shocked to discover that there were thirty more people repeating the teenage boy's action. There was a mixture of both the old and young, however none of them dared to slack off in the activity they were performing.

Because standing not too far way from them were hefty men weilding terrifying looking whips, eager to land it on their backs should they show any sign of weaknesses.

"What in the hell!" Dwayne had the urge to roll his eyes and go unconscious upon witnessing such a sight, however, another heavy stinging whip lash on his back snapped him back into reality.

"Why in the hell are you dazing around for? get to work!"

Perhaps it was due to the fear of being whipped again, but Dwayne found himself unconsciously hoisting up the woven basket and pickaxe which were on the ground a few feets away from where he stood.

"That's more like it. You still have six more hours to go before you get a break. So make the best out of it!" the man who had whipped Dwayne laughed with glee before strutting away, obviously in search for another scapegoat like Dwayne who was slacking off.

After silently observing the way others around him went on with their excavation, Dwayne soon got the hang of it.

Although it was his first time excavating in real life, he had some experience doing so, thanks to the Minecraft games he usually played on his PC.

As he excavated, a lot of questions popped in his mind. Where in the hell was he?

The last thing he remembered was lying back flat on his bed with a happy smile on his lips and the image of his crush appearing constantly on his mind. It hadn't even been up to two minutes upon closing his eyes and now, he suddenly found himself in such a stuffy excavation site.

"Is this one of my imaginary dreams?" he mumbled as he picked up a multi colored stone from among a pile of excavated earth, tossing it into the basket.

"No. There's no way I am dreaming. If I was, I could've woken up after that bastard flogged me with that whip" he was quick to reject such speculation.

But if this wasn't a dream, how could he explain the fact that he was in this strange, dimly lit environment, clad in tattered clothings and being forced to excavate rocks?!

It felt like he was an unfortunate survivor straight out from an apocalypse story book, pillaging for resources.

Although Dwayne wanted answers badly, he didn't dare slack off, for fear of receiving another lash on his back.

And so, six hours saw Dwayne engage in a tedious excavation activity. Just then, the sound of a whistle being blown echoed in the surrounding, causing the other laborers to release sighs of relief as they dropped the basket filled with multi colored stones, slumping helplessly to the stony floor.

"Is it the break?" Dwayne wiped off sweat as he also dropped his basket which was already halfway full. Currently, his fingers were sore and trembling, causing Dwayne to let out a small wince of pain.

He had never undergone such a tedious labor all his life!

"Hmph. You trash should conserve your strength for the next one hour. After that, begin excavating " a hefty man wielding a whip scorned as he went ahead to pick up a basket containing the multi colored stones.

His other colleagues followed suite as well, picking up the baskets and making their way out from the excavation site.

"H-ungry!" an old man among the laborers groaned weakly.

"Old Pops Jamal. Be patient. We'll have our lunch in the next six hours " a middle aged man amongst the laborers replied weakly, counting his thin and frail fingers.

"Six hours huh? I don't think my old bones can last me that long " the Old Man known as Old Pops Jamal shook his head.

Scanning his bulging eyes around, they eventually fell on one of the Whip weilding men.

"Hey young man" he called out in a weak tone.

"What is it you old miser?" the guard snorted.

"Can you spare me something to eat? a few bread crumbs will do"

"You want to eat?" the guard stood up, making his way over, with an amused smile on his face.

"Yes please" Old Man Jamal nodded in a pathetic manner.

"Hmph" arriving before him, the guard kicked his face, causing him to sprawl weakly on the stony floor.

"Trash like you don't decide when they want to eat. Got that?" he burst into a fit of sadistic laughter

"B-But I am going to die if I don't eat something" Old Man Jamal refused to give up, grabbing the left leg of the guard.

"Let go!" the guard made an expression of disgust as he stomped on the elderly man's fingers.

Cruunchh

Even though he was currently crushing somebody's fingers underneath the soles of his feets, the guard had a sneer on his lips as he gazed down on Old Man Jamal who had a look of pain on his face, however who was at the same time too exhausted to cry out in pains.

"I don't give a shit if you die or not. We can just find more slaves. I heard that you began working in this mine when you were at your twenties?"

"Now, look at you. Nothing but a pile of old bones. You have served your purpose. So perhaps it is time to put you out of your misery?"

The guard suddenly brought out a pistol from the holster wrapped around his waist. Aiming it at the old man, he attempted to shoot when the whole excavation site suddenly shook..

Boom!!