Walking into the large tent we called the mess hall I looked around the room seeing the usual faces idly talking and eating the meager food given to us everyday that were picked up everyday from the rationing stations.

My eye landed on the boss sitting at the head table with Frankie on his left and Gerun the head of operations on his right. Without sugar coating anything Gerun was a balding old man who’s personality and temperament had more in common with spoiled milk than a regular person.

But it was a personality born from spending decades within the mines spending day after day working dawn to dusk. It also gave him far more experience with the various dangers of tunneling through hundreds of feet of bedrock, which unfortunately made him an invaluable asset.

Gerun’s milky eyes slid over to me as I walked up to the head table and he grinned flashing a smile that was mostly gums and a few crooked teeth, “Well isn’t it the scrap monkey? Here to tell us we need to buy more replacement parts for your little projects.”

Before I could open my mouth to respond Gunther raised his hand, “Today is not the day for idle banter. Speak your piece Ramos.”

“The drill is repaired but I want to travel with the mining crew today just in case anything decides to act up.” The boss nodded agreeing to my request, before he stood up and instantly the conversation in the room quieted before coming to a stop, “To the Mines!”

“TO THE MINES!”

Everyman in the room shouted as they rose to their feet before turning and filing out of the tent eager to start the work day. Joining them I returned to my workshop where a group of men already stood nearby waiting for instruction.

“Tony, is it your group today?” I asked with a sour tone.

The bald ginger bearded man with shoulders broad enough for a horse to stand on nodded stiffly in reply, “Aye, did you install the padding I asked for?”

I grunted, “Maybe if someone didn’t break all my hard work every third day I would have time to make some quality of life improvements.

Tony scowled before he waved his crew over and they all took up their positions along the wooden poles, “Heave!”

With a unified grunt of effort the eight men grabbed the drill by its handles and lifted it off the ground and over their heads before settling the machine on their shoulders.

With heavy steps Tony and the rest of the drilling crew walked back through the camp leaving me behind at my workshop to quickly gather a few supplies I would need for the trip.

Leaving the campgrounds we walked through the market in a small presession before we arrived at the entrance of the mines. A massive hole that sloped down into the earth glowing with the veins of magicite running through the walls.

Sticking close to the drilling crew my mind blanked as we descended further and further down into the earth, passing by countless side tunnels that branched off into even more pathways that had long ago run dry of valuable resources.

So further and further we descended until eventually a call made its way to the back of the group, “Drill Crew Advance!”

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Tony grunted as he and his crew forged ahead moving to the front of the group and I naturally followed him. After a short walk we arrived at the front where Gunther and Frankie stood at the end of the tunnel with pickaxes in hand waiting.

Turning to face the boss I gave him a thumbs up, “We’re ready to break stone!”

Gunther nodded and a second later the whirr of the drill echoed off the tunnel walls and everyone stepped back as drill heads made contact with the bedrock and started to chip away at the basalt.

Over the next few hours I walked alongside the drill crew as they chewed through the earth. Due to the sheer weight of the machine and the recoil of the drills the crew had to take breaks and change out members often. Still spirits were high as the drill managed to uncover a magicite despite a small iron vein that could lead to a much larger one. Without a word being said two teams of ten peeled off with pickaxes and hand drills of their own to extract the valuable resources. It was the efficiency that came from years of working as a unit, no one had an individual quota either we all made it or none of us did.

A loud bang jolted me out of my daydream and I stood up from the small boulder I had been resting on and jogged over to where the drill had come to a stop against the bedrock.

“Argh, stupid piece of junk!” I made it over just in time to see Tony cocked back his leg to kick my drill where it had dropped on the floor.

“If you so much as dent that metal Tony I will weld your boots to the locker room floor!” My voice boomed in the tunnel and Tony froze before lowering his foot and turning around to face me,“Your machine broke.”

“No shit, but what happened?!” I screamed before I pushed past Tony to get a better look at the drill. At first nothing seemed out of place but then I noticed a small curl of white smoke rise up from inside the drill, “Shit you burned out the conduit! I swear Tony if I need to buy another hand drill just for the inscription you owe me your pound cake for a month.”

Walking over to the access panel I yanked it open only to get a face full of smoke that clogged my nose and throat. Breaking out into a coughing fit I pulled a rag over my mouth and squinted my eyes as I tried to see what had gone wrong.

When the smoke cleared and my eyes landed on the tangled of burnt wires my stomach dropped, “FUCK!”

Yanking my head out of the drill I glared up at Tony, “How the hell did you manage to burn through all the inscriptions at once!”

Tony's face flushed red with rage as he leaned down to scream right back at me, “Listen boy it’s not my damn fault. You’re just scared that Gunther will realize your piece of junk isn’t worth bullshit and kick you out of the barracks!”

“No one will be kicked out,” Gunther’s booming voice echoed in the tunnel, cutting the argument short, “Tony stand down.”

The ginger bearded man instantly stood up as the look of barely constrained rage flashed across his face, “Aye Boss.”

Gunther walked over and looked down at me as I quickly got to my feet, “Ramos what happened?”

“I don’t know, but the drill is completely fried. I don't know what I can salvage but it’s not enough to save on the repair costs.” I answered bluntly because I knew the boss didn’t care for sugar coating good or bad news.

Gunther looked from me to Tony and tilted his head up for the man to speak, “Everything was going smoothly boss, but then all of a sudden it was as if the bedrock turned to steel. Then the drill kicked back so hard we all lost our grip and it nearly crushed Henderson’s leg.”

Frowning, I walked over to the front of the drill and looked at the stone instead of the machine. At first nothing seemed out of place, just more plain basalt, but then at the very base of the tunnel I spotted what almost looked like a perfectly straight line.

Kneeling down I reached into my tool belt and pulled out a chisel, chipping away at the surrounding basalt I flinched when my tool hit something harder than iron. Dropping my chisel I brushed away the loose stone and froze when I uncovered a perfectly shaped brick of a pitch black stone with a spiderweb of red impurities running through it.

“It’s a ruin…IT’S A RUIN!”