Stories from 2120: The Mines

eternity

 

Stories from 2120:  The Mines

 

It must have been the gas.  There’s nothing else to explain it.  It hasn’t happened to anyone; not that I know of.  What ever the case, I’m still here, they’re not, and I’m not sure why.  I remember the long days –although time has long since abandoned me- down in the mines.  The twelve hour shifts, the back-breaking manual labor, and most of all, his smile.  I thought that was hell; boy, was I wrong. 

“You’re doing what?”  She howled.

“Calm down, it’s not as long as you think.  Two years seems like a long time, but it’ll pass like that” I snap my fingers, “and when I come back we’ll be rich enough to live our lives in comfort.  Can’t you see this is our big chance?  It’ll be perfect-”

“No.  It won’t be perfect.  If you go up with those s**t-faced red-necks I just know you won’t come back.”

“Listen to yourself, you sound like my mother with her crazy premonitions.” 

            “And she was right most of the time, wasn’t she?”

            “I’m going up.”

            “I won’t wait.”

            “Yes you will.”  I said, giving her a wolfish smile before turning to leave.

            That was the last time I saw her.  The last time I saw her beautiful face, smelt her exotic Gloria Vanderbilt scent, and felt her warm presence.  Her eyes were so black.  Sometimes, even now, I find myself gazing off into the void thinking it was her eyes I had fallen into.  I wonder if she’s still alive. 

Hah, stupid thought.  Her grandchildren’s bones would have long since turned to dust by now.  But… who knows… maybe what happened to me… happened to her too!  It’s worth wishing for… right?  

            A week after our parting I found myself sitting in the same space shuttle as fifteen other miners-to-be, all eager to reach Yui Station, a habitat for the belt miners. 

            “Buckle up ladies, don’t want to fly out of your seat and break your neck do you?  Take off is T minus twenty minutes.  Oh, and if you die, your body will end up in the first garbage dump.”  A couple of the guys in back laughed and while the pilot’s back was turned, another to my front and left flicked him off. 

            Everything went as planned and we arrived 248 million miles from Earth at Yui station in what seemed like weeks.  That’s when we met “Mr. Sunshine”, officially, Douglas Jones, the station’s commander.  We called him “Mr. Sunshine” because of his sadistic smile.  He owned teeth whiter than pearls and a tongue sharper than a knife. 

Every day we worked and every day as we entered the mine he was there, smiling at us as if we were all lab rats, slaves for his demented experiment.  We weren’t given much time to ourselves.  After all, space habitats are expensive to maintain.  We were given seven hours.  One hour for food and rec., the other six for sleep.  It all started with the cave in…

 

Words:  499

Author's Note

Yeah, wrote this for a contest... turns out the contest locks as soon as the due date arrives a.k.a. 12:00am unfortunately I didn't realize this. After writing this I went to hand it in at 12:58ish and realized I couldn't! Lol.