The Sorrowful Rebel The Promising Rebel Part Eight

 The Slave Base

Loc could feel was back on the road. Her wrists and ankles were in chains. She could feel a needle in her arms. She looked at the others but did not register them. In fact, her mind registered very little as long as that strange liquid was in her vanes and coursing throughout her body. It was as if she was dreaming even though she knew that she was awake.

Then she felt the vehicle stop. She knew that she had arrived. They opened the doors at the back and the first thing she saw was the high stone wall with barbed wire at the top. Then she saw the arch that led to an underground tunnel. It was a dark orange colour.

They wheeled her out the moment the gate dropped. She was picked up and forced to walk forward. She noticed that she was being pulled by a coat with bubbles at the end of the coat. As she did, she had a strange thought in her loopy state of mind.

Why don't I use my fire?

She looked down and focused the heat to her hand but as always, it did not work. She tried this again, but to no avail. She knew that she was doing it right, but it was still not working. So she walked, almost like she was on autopilot, she tried again and again. She could feel the warmth but no fire. Yet as she walked on she could no longer focus on that as her hips and thighs started to ache.

How long do I have to go?

She looked up to see that they had a long way to go. As she looked back she saw the others at the base. She saw that they were more tired than she was.

Maybe it's because of all the training. Or all the walking I had to do in the academy. After all, that place was very big. Yeah, it was…I wonder how big it really was. Why was it so big anyway?

Does it matter? Won't be setting that ever again. No. Not while I'm stuck here.

That was when the first one dropped. She took him by the hand and pulled him up. She walked with him as they walked. Then they were all divided and stripped. They were squirted with water and cleaned as if they were dogs. They put yellow overalls in them and an orange collar was placed around their necks. Then the needle was ripped, painfully from their arms.

She walked to a mining chamber and she was taken to a stool and was given a rock and a table with a sack next to the table.

"Break the stones." One said.

She sat down and hammered the rock, only for it to break and reveal a lilac crystal inside.

"How beautiful."

They all chuckled.

"What? Never seen firecrys before?"

"No."

"Well, continue to break them, you will know what they do soon enough."

She took another rock and then hammered it. She then put them in the sack and then took out another and broke it. She put the pieces into the sack. She then picked out another and then hammered it and put the pieces into the sack. At first she did not think of it but as she continued, she broke stone after stone after stone, she started to wonder what it did. She knew that she did not have the luxury of being able to ask, so she broke stone after stone. Then the sack was full.

"Now what?"

"Put it in that freezer over there." He said, pointing to a freezer on a set of rail tracks.

She picked up the sack. 

"Careful. Hold it in your arms and don't let them rub too much against each other."

She nodded as she placed it in the freezer. Then she walked back.

"Now what?"

"Get back to work."

She nodded.

She sat down and hammered one after the other. She repeated this again and again. Then she noticed that there was a deviation in the heat. She found that the room was getting hotter and hotter as she broke stone after stone. Yet that was not the only thing that she noticed, her arms were starting to ache. Her hands had become dry and had plenty of cuts in them that were healing. Yet she could not allow herself to focus upon the itching coming from them. 

Then she felt her stomach growl. Part of her knew that would have to fill it soon or she would make a mistake. It became so bad that she was about to open her mouth to say, but her pride stopped her. She continued on and on, enduring her hunger the entire time. Then her hunger and arms and hands soon became unbearably painful.

She was about to take a break but then she felt the strike of a whip. This caused herself to force herself on and on and on. Yet she was determined not to give in and give any of them the satisfaction of another whip. Then she passed out.

When she woke it was night. She looked up at the maroon sky, filled with tiny stars. She looked at her hands. They were covered in blood as the firecrys shards scattered her palms and fingers. Her mind went over to the star Mortyamikira.

I wonder how many people it has killed by now? Where is it at the moment? Who cares? You will never be able to find out or stop it for that matter. In fact I don't think that I will ever see it ever again. Or anyone else from my world.

True. Maybe I deserve this. After all the things that I did as Grasharlo. I hardly want to think about all the horrible things that I did.

But I am not that anymore!

Maybe after Mortyamikira I do. 

But that was not my fault!

Does it matter?

She then looked at her hand. She then tried to summon a flame again, but all that she could do was produce a bit of heat to her ice cold hands. She tried to see just how long she could endre it, but she started to get sleepy before she could find out. 

Then suddenly she felt something and she suddenly became awake. She was led to a room and smashed rock after rock. The temperature rose and rose. Yet as she did, she could not help but become painfully aware of her hunger. She forced herself inwards until her arms and hands twitched. Her stomach became so painful that she could have sworn that something was in there, eating it.

"Alright, eat this."

He gave her a black cube. She then took a bite. To her, it did not matter if it was poisoned. It tasted like vinegar and alcohol. Yet despite the grim taste, she ate it until she finished. She then had to focus on pushing through the terrible aftertaste.

Then as she worked her hand slipped and a small shard dug itself into the heel of her hand. Yet she had to continue and did all that she could not to show the pain and she slipped several more times. Soon more small shards of firecrys embedded itself into her hand.

She did this until she passed out again. She woke up in her ice cold cell. She looked down at her, still twitching, arms and hands. She, wanting to keep her hands warm, went through the motions of summoning her fire. Then she felt a burning pain in her hands. She knew that it did not come from her blisters. Then she smelt the scent of smoke. 

Her eyes dropped and a smile spread across her lips. Fire coming from the firecrys!