In a place far away from where Juliana was, a young man, yet to become a full-fledged man, was plowing a dry and arid field.

The young man, the son of local farmers with a long line of farming, spent most of his day trying to bring life to a barren field. He was poor, just like his parents were, and his parents' parents were, and when he had children, they would also be as poor, if not poorer than he was. The little food they produced was to stave off hunger, as it was not enough to fill a hungry belly, but only to avoid death by starvation.

There was thus young man, turning the soil so that it would better absorb the little moisture he poured on it. The boy paid particular attention to the piece of land that was in the shade of an enormous Dead Tree, a gray trunk that emerged from the ground and that, according to his parents, had been a leafy tree many years ago, but after the Punishment it had become dry and lifeless. He could no longer remember how long the tree had lived, but it must have been something very beautiful. Nowadays, trees like this were no longer to be found, or indeed any type of tree. The tallest plant was no taller than a bush, and the short ones were.

After digging in the soil so much, the exhausted young man decided to rest among the tuberous roots that emerged from the dry ground. He took a deep breath, resting from the scorching heat and stayed there for a few minutes. The shade helped, but the heat was so great that he decided to go back home. It was still hot underground, but much less so than when exposed to the atmosphere. When he leaned on the trunk to gain leverage, the young man realized that his hand was against something soft and damp. When he removed his limb, he was surprised by what he saw: a small seedling of leaves was emerging from the dry trunk of the Dead Tree.

He plucked the seedling and, with it in his hands, ran towards the entrance of his community. His Supervisor needed to see this as soon as possible.

-

The metal entrance, like a mouth full of teeth, slowly opened. Asrael, panting, turned the crank to open the entrance for his friend.

- Raphael, you still have a few hours out there. I doubt you've spread all the seeds, and if the Supervisor catches you, you'll get beaten up much worse than before.

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The young man extended his hand to his friend and carefully opened it, revealing the small green seedling. When he saw what the other was showing him, Asrael's eyes widened, almost falling out of their holes. They both stared at the small plant until a strong gust of hot air almost knocked the seedling out of the boy's hands.

- Hell. Hurry up and show this to the Supervisor. I'll have to stay here to guard the door, but later I want to know every detail! - Asrael shouted as he exerted all the strength his thin body could muster to turn the wheel.

The young man ran through the narrow, poorly lit corridors, the smell of dry concrete guiding him through this labyrinth, each space in the community had its own smell, and the poor lighting barely kept the darkness at bay.

A few hundred more corridors and entrances and the boy finally reached the entrance to the monitoring room. Before he could speak, the door began to open, rising until it disappeared into the ceiling. A loud voice reverberated from within the dark rook.

- RAPHAEL, number 8.135649. You were assigned to the task of planting roots between the hours of 0700 and 1900. Evasion of mandatory activities may and will be answered with an act of justified violence to indoctrinate the subject who disobeys the community's guidelines. Are you aware of this?

The young man swallowed hard, the punishment for disobeying an activity as essential as planting would be terrible, the last time this happened it cost him almost half a liter of his blood. Raphael looked towards the Supervisor; he was a tall figure, covered in a large amount of thick robes and his face covered by a featureless mask.

- S-Supervisor, I found something you need to see. - He extended his arm and opened his hand, revealing the small green thing that was, surprisingly, still full of life.

The Supervisor looked into it and remained motionless for several seconds, to the point that Rafael's skinny arm began to tire and he slowly lowered his limb. At this moment, the supervisor's enormous gloved hand grabbed his.

- WHERE? Details.

- I was planting the seeds when I stopped to rest... - the mention of stopping his orbital activity made the Supervisor's hand grip his limb tightly. - Ah-h... I ended up leaning against the Dead Tree outside, and I ended up running my hand over the trunk, when I looked there was this seedling. I had never seen a plant so green before.

The Supervisor carefully picked up the seedling between his thick fingers. He grabbed Rafael by the arm and dragged him out of the room, both of them towards the entrance of the community.

- YOU will show me exactly where you found this, if it is true you will receive a proportional reward.

That was the last day raphael ever had to pluck the fields. He would learn to miss these days.