Conviction

Two years after the 'occurrence' a flaming tornado made of the flesh-faced spun around the planet for every tenth of the week.

***

Joe would sit with his nine younger siblings, as he would braid his sisters hair under the cold roofing. The walls cracked and squeaked, vibrating with every pellet of water that sunk into their dry veins. On the other hand, in contrast to the fragile walls that contained them, his brothers, five to be exact. Ran around the entire room, for even though it was small, they didn't let it hinder them as the little boys would jump over the table. Making the roofing shake even more.

Finally in a tired tone, "Ay! All of you stop it now! Seriously, I got to work early tomorrow, so all of you just sit and relax." Joe turned back to his youngest sister, for she was only five. He then continued to braid her hair as he let out a long sigh.

Joe was a simple young man with only one pair of clothes, he would scrub these clothes diligently every day just to keep the small stink of his work sweat away. In turn as the oldest, he gave his old clothes to the rest, last year as well on a similarly rainy day such as this. He dropped out of school. Tomorrow was also his birthday, he would be turning fourteen. Something he felt was a momentous occasion, for once you turned fourteen on the island, you were allowed to have a proper job. So rather than working small odd jobs for neighbors or local store owners, he could be officially hired. His plan was a simple seven to seven. Feeling he could make enough money to finally support his siblings.

***

The next morning Joe hurriedly signed a contract for a simple construction site. It looked to pay well, and they were short a couple of hands. With this, he could make about six or so vrets an hour. This in Joe's eyes seemed like a gift from heaven.

As the night came, Joe was still working, and so finishing up the last bit of things he needed to move, Joe heard a loud bang.

'What the hell!'

Rushing to where the sound was, flashlight immediately in hand, Joe searched to see what was wrong.

"Childish?" said a crusty voice from the shadows.

"What?" Joe stammered back, he knew not whose voice this was. 'Wait, shouldn't the supervisor, or head, one of them should...'

Before he could finish his thought, the man popped out.

"I'm right here," with a smoothed-out tone, a grimmest-looking midget stood below Joe's feet. Spock of fright strode up his spine and Joe jumped eight feet in the air, his legs clenched together and bolted like two steel beams sawed together.

"Well hot damn, ain't that a jump. Ya got some good legs on that skinny body."

"My golly, don't sneak up on someone like that."

Joe was more astonished by the fact that the older gentleman seemed so normal. He blinked a few times, questioning if this was truly where the voice came from.

"Ya know Sonny, everyone left about an hour ago."

'Really!'

"Seems you didn't know." The old man seemed perplexed in a way, taken aback by how foolish the young lad was.

"Haha, well kid I'll give you something alright, you are one hell of an L7."

"What?"

"Hard worker, hard worker is what you are."

Joe could only shake his slightly, he never liked being rude to the elderly, but he was getting a bit annoyed at this particular individual. Weirdly he couldn't place where his frustration lay. Leaving it to the fault of exhaustion.

"Tell me this kid, if all you had to do was work a little harder than now, but make hundreds of times more wallet paper than now. Well, what would you do?"

"Are you speaking mainland currency?" Oddly to Joe's disbelief, he had a tickle of curiosity. This feeling was long gone when his mother passed. Now he only cared to give his siblings the best possible opportunities.

"Well."

Then Joe came to his senses, realizing how stupid this all sounded.

"Do you think if it was that simple that I would've done that by now?"

"Well obviously, the problem is, you're just not doing it in the right areas."

"And that's supposed to mean?"

"It means, train under me, and you'll be richer than whole milk."

"Whole milk isn't that rich."

"..."

"..."

"Kid has anyone ever said that you're a real buzz kill."

"Sadly to say I haven't, is that some type of compliment, or like do I kill bees or something."

"Damn, you really didn't look as stupid from afar, no wonder you haven't gotten a proper job. Thank your parents, kid, for they're the only reason you'll be making any more money from now on."

'What does being a buzzkill have anything to do with getting a job, doesn't he realize what my age is? I couldn't look that old, but maybe I really am quite mature looking.'

Completely erasing those thoughts, the old man yanked Joe's arm, gripping his wrist tightly, and slipped a small paper into Joe's hand. Without even blinking he vanished.

'What the actual...'

***

By morning's graces Joe stood outside the door to an old wooden building, somewhat like a shack, but just a tad larger. As he slid the door open, heavy wheezing swelled through Jo's throat, and a large smack broke behind him. He hadn't needed to look because he knew what had just fallen. The floor was the color of pure dusty dirt, or maybe it wasn't wood at all and just dusty dirt.

The ceiling had one small light that flickers every so often. To his right was a sandbag that was less than a bag and more like a leather sack resembling a sumo wrestler. In the middle were two metal boulders, and to his left was an abstract contraption with cogs, ropes, pistons, levers, and weights.

'What in the world is all this.' Utterly astonished, Joe could only brush himself off and look around.

"Ah, it seems you came, well then, let's start warming up then. Take the boulder to the left, it's about fifty kilograms lighter, take it and sprint up the mountain with it, don't care how you do it, just do it. And when you reach the top, you'll take it back down, but because we want no one to get hurt, don't let it roll down the mountain. Ya hear, well alright, you got about two hours I suppose, should be enough time.``

Joe could only blink, he felt like his brain just got smacked with a shovel. Last night the words of the old man seemed to give a flicker of some hope, though deep down he knew it was most likely just a scam. Because seriously this was ridiculously shady.

"Hey wait a damn second, I thought you said I was getting a job with good pay, not some ridiculous, inhuman obstacle course."

That was as much as Joe could express.

"Haaa, here kid," with another deep sigh the man threw a small suitcase, "Open it."

"Umm, uh."

"Oh relax, it ain't a bomb."

"Okay," Joe slowly opened his eyes, then as if God had greeted him himself, Joe's life before his eyes. Down where he was looking, he could see hundreds of stacks of paper slips tightly bundled together. Each one that gave Joe a literal small heart attack was '1000'. Every single one of them, '1000'. Joe was confident in the fact that he may seriously pee himself.

He wasn't stupid though, unlike vrets it's a lot easier to forge mainland currency. Joe for a second considered doing whatever the old man wanted if this was seriously real.

"Kid stop looking at me like that. I know it's hard to believe, but I have many ways, right now this money has no use to me. For currently my face and this money... well let's just say people don't get happy when we're seen together."

Joe had a speculative stare, but just like last night, a bizarre convincing air surrounded him. Feeling compelled to believe this weird old man. Joe stepped outside, and around half an hour later brought nine children.

"Uhh, what the hell are those?"

"My siblings. You want me to push that steel ball up the mountain. Fine, I'll do it, but... Touch my siblings whilst you look after them and I'll make you wish you were still back on the mainland."

For a cold second, the man felt a grotesque fear build within him. A rumble of shivers bounced around his skin quietly.

'Seriously what's with some of the kids on this island? They're all so fucking scary. Well, that just makes it all the better.'

"Okay. You push that steel boulder as I watch... hey, you're just gonna give a suitcase like that to a bunch of children!"

"Hmm, well aren't I a child."

"Well... Yes, but that's like an actual child."

"All you have to do is look after them while I'm gone, nothing more, nothing less."

"I see. Well, work hard."

"Okay."

In a flashing mist, Joe bolted, his hands grew red and his face popped with veins rippling across his neck up his forehead. Every second an inch budged, but time fled by fast, and a mile up a mountain seemed futile. An insane incline of forty-six miles up and down, an hour and fifty minutes to move that boulder up and down ninety-two miles of rough terrain. Joe felt it was impossible.

"Kid I'll be quite frank, where I'm gonna send ya, is a place where many have died, and in all reality, no one in this damn town has a whole lot of talent. But I will say the one thing the people have around here more than those posh gods, is grit. Your only talents are your burden, grit, and ballistic-like legs. That's all I got, if you can't get this done in the allocated time, just be prepared to finish and have something a little extra at the end."

"Understood," Joe said whilst pain shot in every direction of his body. His teeth ground together, steam rising from his skin, like that of a demon his legs burrowed through the ground blasting the boulder through the door, and slowly but consistently, did Joe push that boulder.

It was seven in the morning since Jo arrived at the gym, he still hasn't finished and it was now four in the afternoon. The old man began to think he was dead or possibly walked out on it. So he began to think otherwise, but the feeling of ambiguity still lingered. Though he wanted to leave, feeling like Joe was out of the running. He still had a nut-sized level of integrity, worst case the old man would have to take care of these children for the rest of his life. He slumped down releasing a heavy sigh until he started to hear a rumbling, grunts, and stone cracking. As quick as one of his statures could move, he jumped out of the rusted building to see Joe. He was walking backward with his hands still planted into the boulder, and once Joe saw the browned box as he called it. Unconscious he became, with his hands so imprinted into the metal sphere that they did not drop from it. The old man stood, and stood, and stood, and stood, and stood, and…

"Tomorrow, we'll start with some light road work."

His siblings on the other hand were bored out of their minds, jumping on Joe's lifeless-looking body.