The next day Sol and Ratface set out to the place of the recruitment.
It was located in a wide circular hole that led further down, way further down than where the pipelines lay.
And yet there was no convenient way down, only a circular set of stairs that seemed to spiral off into nothing.
"Hey Puti."
Sol spoke, It was too much to just stay in silence looking at the abyss for the whole walk down.
"Yes?"
Ratface responded, taking his gaze off the gas lantern he held.
"Do you miss them? Beth and Barth?"
Sol stared into Ratface's dirty brown eyes, looking for any sorrow, reluctance or nostalgia.
"I mean, if you want to go back and live with good ol Barth, I won't judge."
"It's fine, I do miss Beth a little, but what Barth said was true, I'm tired of just surviving, maybe here I'll find my purpose."
Ratface said in a rare moment of verbalness.
"Uh Wow wasn't expecting you to just gush there, but cheers to the new you searching for purpose, hope you succeed." Sol smiled.
Ratface looked upwards.
"Can you hear that?"
"Yeah, It's the other applicants behind us."
Sol also looked upwards.
"Don't you think it sounds somewhat strange."
"Somewhat strange?" Sol scratched his head.
"It sounds perfectly normal."
Sol turned round to look at Ratface when he saw it, around the corner of his eye, a blur of a figure clothed in darkness briefly illuminated by Rat's flickering lantern.
But by the time he turned around it was too late, the figure had plunged into the lightless abyss below.
"Holy sh*t! Is he crazy?" Sol exclaimed as he peeked over the boundary into the dark pit.
"We have to run, now!"
Sol dragged Ratface, ripping him from the boundaries.
"Why?"
"We have to find out if he went splat or survived"
Ratface looked at the rich expression of excitement on Sol's face and began to wonder.
Why did he show such interest in something as mundane as someone falling from great heights?
Many people fell from great heights in the slums and yet no one had cared then, so why was he different.
"Hurry up, Hurry up, we need to hurry up."
Sol hummed through ragged breaths.
But then again, this was Sol, an odd individual through and through.
After running for a couple of minutes without stopping Sol and Ratface reached the bottom battered.
Their chests heaved as the both stood there gasping for breath.
"I guess ~ gasp ~ he survived, since ~ gasp ~ there's no blood stain here."
Sol and Ratface fed information about their surroundings to themselves.
They were in a wide circular room with long passages that stretched into the distance.
But as he was looking around he noticed an odd behaviour about the crowd.
They all stayed clear of one person in the crowd; A young girl with blood red hair colour, sitting eyes–closed against the wall.
'Is she the one who jumped down?' Sol thought.
'That would explain why everyone's avoiding her, if she could survive a fifty foot drop. Who knows what else she can do.'
"Hey." Ratface tapped Sol's shoulder.
"People are staring, let's blend in." He whispered.
"Right."
They both mixed into the crowd and spent the time talking, thinking, counting, waiting for the entrance examination to start.
But at the time of the Sun's fade, just as many people started to fall asleep, It finally started.
"Hmm, you all are a bit over my quota, some of you will have to go."
A barefoot man dressed in white singlet and grey pants spoke muttered to himself.
Everyone froze, just a second ago that spot had been completely empty, all those who were awake could verify, at the blink of an eye, he was there.
Even after he finished speaking, no one dared to speak, no one would treat this guy in casual looking attire casually.
Sol felt the wind shift around him along with a chill down his spine.
'How did he do that?'
"Are you our proctor?" A voice called out.
Shockingly, someone dared to speak! The whole crowd turned their heads to see.
"It's that woman from earlier." Sol muttered.
"Yeah, that, I am your trainer who's gonna change you from being the rusty metal you are now to fine metal ingots, but first…" he smiled. "You have to cut these numbers down, only five hundred people should remain in this room, anything goes."
All hell broke loose, a few quick fellas had already started killing other people.
"Puti, Me, you alliance." Sol said in a rush.
"Yes, of course."
"Great!"
Sol got down and searched his bag for his knife.
'I should have put it higher up in here, No! I shouldn't have put it in my bag at all, I should've held it.'
As Sol was searching his bag, a guy from the mob of fearful applicants ran towards him.
'That's expected, I look like an easy kill right now, of course he'd go for me.'
Just as Sol was about to drop the bag and fight unarmed, the guy running towards Sol got smacked in the head with Ratface's gas lamp.
Crack
Blood flowers bloomed from within the cracks on his skull.
"If you keep being a burden, I might have to abandon you."
Ratface said while spinning his gas lamp from the chain straps attached to it.
"Common, I thought you said you were tired of just surviving?"
Sol laughed as he finally got a hold of the knife.
"Doesn't mean that I don't want to live." He responded, smacking the lamp on another unsuspecting victim.
With a knife in hand Sol felt safe enough to inspect the situation.
In just a few seconds of carnage, the place had turned into a bloodbath.
People were fighting, killing and knocking each other out, like savage animals with no concept of civilization.
Lots of people left, through the stairs, through the passages, running anywhere to get away from this horrific display of human nature.
At least the blood bath would be much shallower with their escape.