This was it. I failed.
I didn’t even reach close. My name showed up only twenty pages later when each page had 50 names. My chance of ever getting to the so desired university was done.
I would need to pay up to 18,000 new dollars a year just to get pre-university grade. No one from my family would ever be able to pay that up and I’d be on debt for life. Maybe I was really doomed to just be a Typhoonware low worker.
---
One day, my rich cousin, Jeremy, visited home. Previously I didn’t realize I had a rich cousin, but now that I do, I feel like he’s the worst person I could ever borrow money from.
- Ryan! - He called my name with a stupid grin.
He was quite obnoxious and I remember him speaking quite long, but I didn’t process a single bullcrap from him. Until he asked me about the university. How the fuck did he know that? Who told him that?
Anyway, I was quite vague when speaking about it, but eventually I was forced to admit I failed and for fuck’s sake I decided to hint I need his money borrowed.
- Ryan! - Jeremy spoke a little more serious and attentive way, but then quickly returned to his grin. - I have the perfect solution for you!
He then proceeded to type on his device and it printed something that resembled one of those cards generic stores like to give out for their clients.
- Pay attention! Because this is how I got this rich. - My cousin spoke as if I was really interested to hear his life achievements.
He proceeded to talk about...huh...mining?
From what I got, I’d work at mining some pretty valuable mineral in the rocky caves for seven days. Apparently that mineral should be valuable enough to get myself signed into the first grade if I worked average. Jeremy then proceeded to talk exclusively about what to do afterwards, but I had no interest.
To be honest, I wanted mostly Jeremy to just go away. After he “peaced out”, I just looked at the card again and thought it was my only way of getting to the university.
---
I learned the rocky caves is a pretty dangerous largely unexplored set of caves. It had a lot of mutant creatures ready to attack anyone they detect. I’d need to be drugged, which would make my body stronger and more agile to take on them. It was made pretty clear I would be risking my life for money.
First came the interview. The contractor would ask me to tell my motivations and what I intended to do afterwards. He also tested me through the whole time, I knew he would be ready to ditch me off if I showed any hesitation. I also noticed he seemed to be feeding my greedy through the whole interview.
When the drug was injected into my veins, I didn’t feel stronger or more agile, I just felt more whole body freezing. I was told to rest until my time came. When it did, I was given a uniform, all the stuff I’d need to mining and to provide light, my own supplies and sleeping bag, and I also got a light-rechargeable plasma gun.
After going through an endless maze of tunnels, the transport stopped when the map seemed to show a vast unexplored void forward and dropped me alongside three other workers.
The first one is named Kenny, he apparently is a retired soldier with the most generic greed out of all. He would taunt us occasionally for not working “as hard as he did”. His only good quality was his obsession with being the hero, keeping me from having to take the monsters by myself.
The second one is named Madalena, a fairly elderly woman who claims to have worked almost her entire life in the caves. Sometimes she would talk to me criticizing the other two workers, but eventually I figured she would criticize me behind my back to each of them. She also seemed to carry extra weapons with her.
The third one is named Ethan and he seemed to be quite of a, sometimes annoying, science fan. He took responsibility for all the complicated electronic stuff, such as the AurDrones, mini-drones designed to send the extracted aurbornite to the contractors.
---
The progress went pretty slow. About four days of mining, we barely got 4 pounds each. During the fifth day, Kenny just grunted:
- This won’t get us anything! - Even though I think that would be enough to pay the first year.
- Sometimes we score big, sometimes we don’t. - The woman tried to pull the philosopher and then proceeded to start talking about how she had her ups and downs in her last career.
The retired soldier soon got angry at her while Madalena kept smiling. Ethan meanwhile looked to the path that would lead to somewhere not in the map. I instantly noticed the bad idea and whispered him not to do that, which the other two overheard.
- Do what? - Kenny dumbly asked. Madalena pointed forward and Kenny immediately realized what she meant. - Are you fucking crazy? It’s a fucking unexplored area! May be a nest of those fuckers ahead!
- What? A retired soldier is scared? - The woman taunted. - Don’t worry, you can stay here while we find more aurbornites scattered somewhere.
Madalena would feed up his greed enough to change his expression to a challenging grin. I had a lot of objections to this idea, but I expected them to not change their mind.
- We’re returning if this gets bad. - I warn them.
---
Kenny took the front. Some rat-like and bat-like child-sized creatures would eventually pop up in small groups, but not strong enough to take on Kenny’s strength and Madalena’s weapons. Though, I still had to crush one of these things’ head.
- Woah! It’s our lucky day! - The ex-soldier gasped.
It was none other than a big wall with the aurbornite clearly visible. It would grant not only all the money I need to university, but also the money to ascend to upper class.
- Let’s clean this wall up! - The woman hyped up.
We were now making quite the progress. As we mined through the walls, I felt something wrong, as if we weren’t supposed to be doing that. It turned out to be right, I could distinguish the figures showing up in the distance and the growls coming from them. My workmates also took notice.
- Pack these things! We gotta go! - Madalena shouted.
Kenny and she had taken the defense, the former mostly using his strength and while the latter using all sorts of weapon available. Ethan prepared the AurDrones while I gathered the most aurbornite possible.
One of these rats bit my left arm, but luckily the drug didn’t allow my limb to be teared up. With my other arm, I managed to twist its head. However, a bat attacked me from the above and I had to keep it away enough to blast it with my plasma gun.
- Fuck this, we gotta go now! - I shouted.
They were coming from all places. We left half the minerals behind and we tried to follow the map back to our previous “safe” location. However, we ended diverted the wrong way.
Somehow we ended up in an underground building. As soon we entered it, we closed the door with the closest thing we found: a large candlestick. I noticed someone was missing:
- Where’s Madalena? - I tried to catch my breath.
I had a nasty bite on my left arm and plenty of scratches from the giant bat around my face. Ethan had a bite mark on his angle and was limping. Kenny had the worse however, his back was bloodstained and he had a missing ear and missing fingers, which would be incurable even with the drug.
- She’s gone. - The ex-soldier said.
The door somehow was resisting well, eventually the attacks diminished. I suggested it would be a good idea to rest here. Kenny objected, but eventually conceded as he really needed to rest. I ended falling asleep too.
---
I woke up to a brighter room and all its...signs? - visible. Ethan seemed like a child in a video game conference. I would ask what the fuck was he doing.
- This place is amazing! - He would then proceed to talk about each detail I wouldn’t bother about. - We can make millions with this discovery!
I was still pretty confused to react, but the millions behind it got me excited. Just then, Kenny woke up, visibly tired, but he seemed better than last time.
- We should be able to go back. - The soldier suggested.
Kenny removed the candlestick and opened the door carefully, just to close it and put it back. I was about to ask what was it, but he just looked at me in horror and said:
- We’re fucked.
Suddenly, the door started banging hard. It was still able to resist, but definitely was giving in bit by bit.
- I know an exit! - Ethan shouted.
We ran across multiple hallways following Ethan.
- I have checked all this building except this part that seemed like a large corridor. - He showed us a door leading to a fair fall, but not that much of a fall. - I don’t know if there’s an exit ahead or it just leads to a dead end. Once we go in, there’s no return.
Kenny just jumped in. “Dammit, Kenny,” I thought “we should’ve thought better about it. You’re right though, we didn’t have much time.” I soon followed him and after me Ethan, but he seems to have felt pain in his injured ankle.
We ran through the corridor while Kenny described the giant arachnid supposedly chasing us. Ethan suddenly tripped and fell behind. When I was heading for his rescue, Kenny pushed me back forward:
- We can’t stop now!
I forced myself back for him. The arachnid had appeared in the distance and was quickly catching up Ethan. I tried blasting the monster for no use and soon it would be catching on me if I stood still. Ethan was already panicking, when suddenly I see something being thrown and then I hear a loud explosion.
- Didn’t think I would need to use that woman’s weird shit. - Kenny commented.
The arachnid seemed to have stopped moving. Recovered from the shock, we went to the end of the long corridor. It had only one fairly out of reach exit. The soldier gave me footing to climb up, followed by Ethan, whom I grabbed his hand to help him climb up.
As I lend the hand to help Kenny climb, I heard that thing coming again. Kenny looked at me in fear before a giant spider-like leg pierced him through his back. I had to push myself and Ethan down through the exit.
---
At this point I had absolutely no idea where we were. There seemed to have an underground river flowing through my feet. Eventually we found a path of dead monster bodies. Following it, we found a sleeping bag resting against a slightly elevated platform.
- Stay still! - I felt a gun cylinder on my back.
The figure walked around revealing to be Madalena smirking at us.
---
After the casual meeting, we’ve talked about how we got here. Madalena reported her device has broken and she seemed to be walking in circles, clearing the area.
Without anywhere to go, we just talked about casual life things. Ethan revealed his scientific projects. I had the university as my life goal, but then I realized I had no idea what to do after that. Madalena seemed happy just working at the caves. Eventually I questioned why and she answered:
- I don’t trust anyone outside this cave. They aren’t going through the same we are. They just put their best false smile, talk pretty vague and say everything is gonna be fine. Glad I don’t even need to meet them again.
After resting, we explored the surroundings with an actual map. I heard wing flaps on the ceiling. None other than five, six and counting bat-like creatures were there. It meant we were on the right track. I could blast two, but soon some of them were on me. Luckily Madalena shoot them off, while smirking.
It was an obviously bad idea, but we decided to take a run anyway. The monsters kept piling up. It wasn’t long until we found ourselves surrounded both two directions. The woman still seemed to be enjoying:
- Take this! - She gave me a weird shaped gun.
I shot the closest of these things, engulfing it in fire. I soon got used to it. We were in circle. While I had the fire, Ethan had the electricity. The elderly woman seemed to be attacking with a retractable sword like a maniac.
No matter how great we did, the creatures would keep multiplying. I could see a small hole leading to a small tunnel on the wall a little ahead, which others did see too. As a last resort, Madalena gave me one of her explosive devices and lit up a red flare, telling me to go. She then went straight towards the monsters.
I couldn’t think a lot. I just went through the tunnel alongside Ethan. It was so small we almost had to crawl. I heard an explosion behind, from her probably. Still, I didn’t think about it and just set the device. It started beeping and the intervals between the beeps progressively became shorter until it set off.
---
The next day, I was transported back to the same place I got interviewed. Ethan kept talking enthusiastically about our discoveries. Eventually two men in uniform carrying guns ordered him to come along, while telling me to wait my turn. I could still hear him talking enthusiastically in the hallway with another man. A few minutes later, he went silent abruptly.
Later the same two men showed up to guide me. I met the contractor once again. He was smiling the same way Jeremy did. I asked him about Ethan, which he vaguely answered:
- He’s already outside waiting for you. - As he led me to the same kind of room I took the injection. - It’s to nullify the drug effects. Don’t worry, you will be fine after a rest.
He left the room, leaving me with the doctor, who told me to lie down. As he walked with the syringe, I felt something wrong in his eyes.
God forgive me for what I was about to do next.
I punched him away from me, apparently knocking him out. I hid behind the door as the guards kicked the door open. I kicked the first man strong enough to send him to the wall while I grabbed the other by the neck and cracked it. Before the other could get up, I took the first one’s gun and shoot him two, three times. By this time, the contractor showed up in the door and I could see his expression turning into horror.
It was all your fault. I should have never trusted you. Fuck you, Jeremy.
