Prologue

In the beautifully wild and extensive group of mountains whose peaks stood majestically like they held the very earth from floating away. The height of those peaks stood blocking the evening sun from peeking over. Below those peaks laid a rough patch of greens spanning the size of a football stadium. And the remaining was occupied by a fiery river waiting to gobble any being walking past it.

Looking at the beautiful scenery anyone would want to build a tiny house and spend their retirement here. But contrasting to the thought, the sound of heavy machinery hitting the ground with dust tainting the air and the reek of diesel could even make the devil frown.

A bellow of laughter resounded near the machinery as two people walked towards a guy who stood watching the broken piece of a drill. His facial expression could make anyone doubt whether the soul left his body. The two men looked at each other with a smile as they walked towards him wearing an expression of satisfaction.

"Ahmm..." one of the men clears his throat.

Ignes stood there without flinching as if he didn't hear the guy's sound.

On the machinery, the machine operator watched them from above wearing a look of distress. He held onto the rail with his one hand and descended slowly. He walked towards him and pressed his palm on Ignes shoulder. Ignes jerked in surprise and turned back.

The Operator stared at Ignes who was not spectacularly built. He was his height – five feet seven and weighed a hundred and fifty pounds. His hair is short trimmed on his sides and back with a clean shave accentuating his professional look.

The machine operator signaled towards the arrival of two men.

"Mr. Ignes, as we reported previously this month, the date of expiry of the contract is near. And the mining rights under your name is set to be transferred to the Goodwill Corporation. We hope to talk further about this matter with you. If you will…"

The man who talked felt like he was talking to air. The expression Ignes made them uncomfortable to take the conversation any further.

The Operator intervened and said, "I'm sorry, please excuse him. He's not in the right state of mind to answer your questions. So please leave your contact, I will make sure he calls you."

The men looked at each other and then nodded. They walked away after sharing their contacts with the operator.

After seeing the two men leave on their cars, Ignes recovered from his groggy state and bellowed a sigh.

Today another drill pile broke. Each one costs about 50 thousand dollars. And Ignes doesn't have enough money to replace it.

Ignes owns a mining company with a dozen staff working under him. He took the contract of mining a meteorite ore which is one of the most needed materials in the making of the newest type of Solar panels. With these ores, the panels show a crazy level of 1070% efficiency. While the current panels' only gives about 30 or 40%. So the government lent a tender for the mining rights in this area.

But the problem started with the discovery of fossil fuel near the ores. So technically, they couldn't mine until the excavation of crude oil is completed. Ignes could've voided the contract, but he took the risk against the advice of his parents and Girlfriend. He wanted to mine to crude oil hoping to hit the jackpot. But the bedrock is riddled with small ores of meteorite which shredded any signals sent below making the exact estimation of crude oil levels impossible.

The government lent a two month grace period for starting the excavation and supplying the ores to the plant. But Ignes and his group were still stuck in the process of boring the crude oil. The hard rocky bed has already destroyed piles which used to drill holes numbered close to two digits. His estimated loss was close to 500,000 dollars. And he doesn't have any more money to spend.

Ignes regretted not heeding his parent's advice. Now his company is almost bankrupt and his girlfriend left saying that she needed some time off and he knew most of his crew has secretly been in touch with Goodwill Corporation. He couldn't blame them, he knew at some point they would leave him to find a better paying job and this was their time. The crew also knew this was their last day working here. So they shut down the machines and left saying their goodbyes.

The machine operator watched the back of still standing Ignes and left feeling sad. He was the first person to join Ignes's company and now the last person to leave. The crew member left after properly arranging the machines in their place, but only leaving the bore 90% closed.

Ignes walked towards the bore still dazed. He stood near the unclosed part of the bore and stared at the darkness below reminding of his future ahead. He gave a sigh and turned around to finally leave this place.

But like the saying goes, when the misfortune hits, it hits hard. The soil below Ignes's foot crumbled carrying the still dazed Ignes a trip to hell.