In the slums, in a bare ground there was a group of men gathered. In front of the men gathered, were children ages raging from 13 to 18 years old.

The children all were wearing dirty torn clothes, while carrying a large bag on their back.

They were moving in a queue towards a machine and a desk. The machine seemed like it is used to measure weight of the bag the children were carrying and according to the weight they each get a token like thing from the man sitting behind the desk.

Tap.tap. The queue moved slowly.

"Move faster!" A lackey at the side of the queue shouted annoyed.

The children's body trembled slightly before the queue moved slightly faster.

These children were all in fact workers or slaves for the men who sell Garbage. Although some of the older ones realised their situation , they kept quiet because all they wanted was to not starve. The token they get for a day's work get them 3 meals a day. And that was enough for them.

And some of the men standing around were in fact once like the children, who climbed the ranks later and now live a good life. And many children in the queue was aiming for that too.

" yesterday, mine weighed 3 kg, but today the bag is bigger, so maybe I can get a 5 bag this time..he he" one such child murmured to himself as he dragged his large bag forward.

After a while his turn came.

" name ?" The man behind the desk asked in a tired voice.

"..hmm it is D-Dustin." The boy said not used to his name.

He was just a nameless beggar 1 month before. And was given a name for his good work directly by the boss.

This made the boy treasure his name deeply even though he didn't know what it meant. But he also earned the envy of other nameless members, as one could see many cold and snide remarks being made behind him.

' I tend to forget that I have a name now..hehe' but Dustin didn't care as all he wanted not live a dog's life in the streets.

So even though his life if compared other children of his age was worse, for him he was the lucky one.

" quit spacing out and put the bag." The man said breaking dustin's stupor.

" put the bag on the machine." He commanded his tone carrying a hint of annoyance.

And sensing this , Dustin didn't dare to make the man wait any longer as he hurriedly went and put the bag on with some effort.

The machine weighed it giving it a final score of : 3.6kg

" pass." The man said plainly seeing the number. Any worker should atleast bring 2 kg of garbage to get a token. To pass.

But Dustin was disappointed. ' not even a 4.' He thought dejected. But soon his eyes gleamed. It seemed like he decided to put his frail body to more work.

He just thought that if he worked hard enough he might rise the ranks easily, his naive and innocent mind didn't even think of the possibility that he could have fooled by the men he work for, by tampering the machine and such.

And soon he just took the token he got and went to his way.

As they say 'ignorance is a bliss.'

He wanted to get to his a hut fast, to get some sleep and rest his tired body.

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But just as he was walking, from the corner of his eyes he saw a group of five men coming into the area.

They were the one who searched for Midas earlier.

Dustin seeing them, first searched for something else as he looked behind them.

" He's not there." Dustin murmured silently as he lowered his head worried.

He was worried because his friend was missing.

Dustin met him on the streets while living as a beggar. He was also a nameless orphan like him. After both of them shared a piece of bread he got, they quickly became close friends. It was just a year ago when they both arrived here.

' we were happy, but what changed 6 months ago.' Dustin thought. It was a sudden change, one day his friend said something to him.

' Brother, I found a light...a light for a brighter future.' At that moment Dustin thought he was practicing a scene from a book he picked up like he used to.

But after a while, as days passed he came very late to the hut and always had less collection of garbage with him. Sometimes he didn't return at all for one or two days. This made both him and the people above him to be worried.

And this time he went missing for 1 week. Needless to say Dustin was very worried about him when he saw that the team sent by the higher ups didn't find him.

He kept his head low as he walked to the hut.

The hut was much, much better than Midas's but it was still in poor condition.

As he walked in, he immediately collapsed into his bed.

He slowly closed his eyes as he fell asleep.

***********************

Rustle. Rustle.

'Hmm.'

Rustle ...Rustle.

'..hmmm' Dustin's eyes stirred slightly at the sound.

' what... is that?' His thought were groggy.

' hey..wake up..wake up.' He heard a whisper.

' hmm..is someone calling me?'

He then slowly opened his eyes. And through his blurred eyes he saw a silhouette of someone, a male who was right in front of him crouching.

'What!' Dustin immediately became alert at the sight of a intruder.

"Ah- " He planned to shout for help but was stopped by a hand that hurriedly covered his mouth.

"Shh..It's me."

At that moment, he properly saw the intruder. The intruder had dark hair and was wearing torn clothes that was covered in filth.

And his eyes widened as he recognised this person.

"...you-" Dustin tried to say something but the intruder who was clearly Midas put his finger over his mouth as he made a shush sound. Which was much louder than words.

"I will tell you later, now get up and follow me." Midas said as he slowly removed his hand.

But before Dustin could make sense of what was happening he saw his friend Midas turn around and walking out.

'Wait!' Dustin didn't know what to do in this situation so he decided to go with the flow for now.

He hurriedly followed behind him.

After a while of travelling the area where the huts, we finally came to secluded place just near the border of the quarters.

Huff huff.

After catching his breath for a moment, he raised his head and asked Midas.

"Hey, where were you?..and what are we doing? Where are we going?" Dustin poured out all his questions in a single sentence.

But Midas again put his finger on his mouth -shush.

He did it again before pointing at somewhere else. Following the direction his finger was pointing, Dustin saw a guard.

"Do you wanna get caught? You know what happens when we are seen wandering the night not in our beds." Midas said in a low voice.

Dustin gulped. Ofcourse he knew, one guy who was caught wandering the night was taken by a group of unfamiliar men the next day and Dustin didn't meet him ever again.

' And that is exactly why we shouldn't do this.' Dustin thought

But his friend- Midas - was one to listen so he shut up.

After the guard passed and went some wherelse, Midas and Dustin continued their journey.

They both walked for a long time, Dustin even slept while walking only to hit some garbage and trip.

After some tumbles here and there, Midas stopped in front of what seemed like a tent. Atleast that was what Dustin thought.

But the words written in a broken board seemed to prove him wrong.

'Midas hut.' It read.

'Huh..' Dustin stood there gawking for a while before he turned his head to Midas - his friend.

Seeing Dustin look towards Him, Midas smiled slightly.

" I will first answer your second question." He said as he spread his hands wide in the air, almost slapping Dustin.

" We are going to...Escape!!" He said in a low voice, which didn't match with his dramatic gesture.

But anyway his words triggered a reaction from Dustin

As his face turned grim.

'Did I jinx myself earlier when I thought my life was good.' He question himself amidst the silent garbage dump.

There was one more face that was just as shocked as Dustin. This face was hiding a few metres from them behind a pile of garbage.

He was a one of the nameless member among the gatherers and was quite jealous of Dustin getting himself a name. So when he saw Dustin going out of his tent at night he followed them.

He had followed them out of curiosity, back in the quarters but he didn't expect himself to land in a...gold mine.

The shocked face slowly turned into a cold smile.

' if I give these traitors to others I will get up in the ranks.' He thought as he slowly backed off planning to run back and inform the others.