03 New Life

That night I struggled to fall asleep, how to blame myself, my life was about to I did not want all this be turned upside down, I was about to fight in a revolt together, with the other miners… with my family.

I didn't want all this, it would have been nice for me to continue my life as it was then, but I understood that the miners had a valid reason to act ... I was afraid, should I have killed someone? I didn't know it yet; I didn't want to kill... if it had been possible.

My father, that was sleeping next to me… maybe the next day he would have died or maybe I would have died, maybe I would have lost everything... why couldn't things go on as they were? Why?!

After all, even if it was hard, I didn't mind my life in that cave very much, perhaps because I didn't know any other life ... but, anyway, here I had my father and the other miners.

When would the revolt break out? My father hadn't told me, but all in all, I would have fought, even if scared, I would have fought with my family and I would have shared that pain with them.

'And then ... this gift'. I had a bad feeling...

Between these thoughts, I fell asleep.

...

I was in my house, but it was not the usual decadent hut, the wooden walls were shiny, clean, like new, it was also bigger than usual, almost double, looking around I saw my father and a woman whose face I could not see fine, but I felt it was my mother.

Now I was sitting on something I had never seen before, with 4 wooden legs, a flat part to sit on and another to support my back, maybe it was a chair, my father had taught me and in turn, he must have learned it from my mother ... in front of me there was a table, bigger and taller than what I normally had at home, with food on the plates.

I was happy, my parents didn't talk, and I was always silent too, but it didn't matter, I was happy, I had a perennial smile on my face, after eating, without rushing to any work, I left the house with my parents, always with a smile on my lips.

The other miners, cleaner than usual, greeted me at the sight, they were happy too.

Then, together we headed to the lobby where instead of the usual pile of stones there was a huge banquet where other miners ate, I was really happy.

Perhaps a God had accepted my prayers, and not only restored things as they were, but also improved my life. I was happy.

Things, however, could not be so beautiful, I understood that what I was seeing was nothing more than a dream, deep down I had always known it, but I did not want to accept it, even now that I knew it, I could not accept it, I wanted to live like that forever.

A light appeared in the atrium ceiling, this light, which I identified as the awakening light, wanted to take me away from this paradise… I clung to the large atrium table, opposing the light with all my strength.

"I DON'T WANT TO GO!"

"I WANT TO STAY!!"

My voice was not heard by anyone... which were now quite still.

As I screamed and tried with all my strength to stay in that dream, the light suddenly went out and everything went dark in the instant, the force that pushed me upwards had suddenly disappeared, however, being dark, I did not understand. more where I was more. Where was I? Still in the atrium of the mine?

Being able to do so, I began to walk, to my surprise I did not bump into anything, from what I remembered in front of me there should have been a large table…

*Squash

(*= onomatopoeia)

I stepped on something slimy. Suddenly, a flashlight appeared in my hand ...

Without asking too many questions about it, I lowered myself, shining light in front of me...

First, I glimpsed a hand, then an arm, finally, a body all wet with blood.

'What... ah... AAAHH!'

I jumped backward screaming.

I began to pant.

I was trembling with pain, fear, terror, sadness, I didn't even know what I was feeling at that moment.

After calming down my breath as much as I could, I got closer to the body once again and looked at the face.

It was my father.

Eyes open, but lifeless... arms with obvious wounds and a spearhead, of those that had the guards of the mine, stuck in the chest.

Suddenly, when I was still in a state of complete panic, the room I was in lit up.

Around me...

Lifeless bodies: my mother, still with her face obscured, and the other miners, all dead.

Continuous streams of blood continued to come out of the bodies until they submerged the entire room.

I was drowning, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't scream, I couldn't cry, I couldn't hurl my anger at anyone.

'HHhh'-"haagh!"

As I screamed in despair in my mind, I woke up pouring the ending of my scream into reality...

It was all a dream… a nightmare.

"Fiuuh"

I breathed a sigh of relief, I was sweating and had a big headache, I had not yet fully recovered from what I had just witnessed.

I looked around and noticed that I was in a narrow place, unknown to me, surrounded by rocks and minerals put in such a way as to leave a small room.

From what I remembered, yesterday I went to sleep as usual in the hut with my father...

'Then, what happened...'

I tried to make an effort to remember ... but nothing, the last thing I remembered was lying in bed thinking back to the discussion I had with my father moments ago.

"... oh, no..."

An idea was emerging inside me, which, although logical, I did not want to accept.

I looked around and saw a crack in the rocks that looked outwards ... I went up to it and tried to lookout. What immediately caught my attention was a color that was little present in the mine: green.

'And… what are those?'

I didn't know what I was looking at, after all, I had never seen a tree in my life, I didn't recognize the place where I was. Huge trees stood before me, forming a dense forest.

On top of that, I noticed that the thing I was in was moving and vibrating at times. And when I read the various points I had in mind, I understood that my concern was well-founded.

"Dad..."

The day before my father had warned me about the future uprising and his intention to make me flee, and his plan to hide me in the cart of the delivery of minerals headed to the city while there was the uprising.

'How stupid I am'.

Everything was clear in my head, of course, I couldn't be one hundred percent sure of what had happened but somehow, I felt that it had gone like this.

My father probably intended to make me escape from the mine during the uprising with or without my consent, and, probably, the other miners were of the same idea...

'Last night, when I fell asleep, my father had taken me to this secret room in the rubble placed on the delivery wagon destined for the city. He had probably prepared it together with the other miners… yes, I think that's how it went'

As for the night guards who were in control of the "dormitory", they had probably been knocked out by the miners, after all, they had decided to revolt that day... but they could not attack at night, if they wanted me to escape, they would have to attack when the tow of the wagon would have arrived...

The transport wagon consisted of two parts, one in which the stones and minerals that had to be transported to the city were placed, and another, which arrived on the same day of transport to the city, which was used for towing, this was in fact connected to two horses.

'But ... do all this for ... me?'

I did not understand it, attacking at night seemed to me the best choice, after all the darkness would have accentuated the effect of confusion due to a surprise revolt and, in addition, the guards at night were somewhat negligent.

Had they decided to act in the morning, when the wagon had left, just for me?

To this question, only one answer came to my mind...

'They knew... they knew their plan was hopeless... '

So, they decided to at least save me, probably because I was the youngest among them.

'Right now, they are probably fighting... or is it all over already... are they all... d-dead?'

I could no longer hold back the tears, my heart, which had already been put to the test with the nightmare of that night, now seemed to me on the verge of breaking, the breath became irregular. Even trying, I could not calm down, after all, it was very likely that my father had died along with my "family" ...

Actually, mine was more of a feeling, it was as if I felt that my father and the others had died, and, in any case, it would have been strange the opposite, after all the revolt had been caused precisely by the fact that the guards had exacerbated their behavior against us ... almost as if they wanted us to choose whether to react or die slowly in silence.

The wagon continued its run along the dirt road, the further it went, the more it seemed cared for...

I couldn't calm down, I couldn't think, my heart had been torn to pieces and my mind had followed it.

Minutes passed... an hour... now the wagon I was in no longer had strong jolts ...

"... We are coming to the city..."

My father had told me that the mineral transport wagon went from the mine to the city, even if at that moment I felt empty, without strength, I still had to think of some way to escape from that wagon just inside the city, or I would have to flee while I was unloading the mines?

I was thinking about what to do, as much as I could at that moment... I could not make their sacrifice in vain.

I looked around better to see if there was any way for me to get out of my hiding place, without having to wait for them to pull away from the boulders above me.

I saw that from the side where there was the fissure, which was, among other things, the side closest to the open air, three rocks were resting on each other in a particular way, two elongated rocks placed vertically with another rock of similar size placed on them horizontally, forming a trilith.

Under it there was only debris that was easy to move, and, after moving them, there would be enough space to pass through it in between.

It did not seem to me at all a coincidence, it was an artificially created passage...

I should have taken advantage of this step at the right point...

'Maybe though... before arriving in the city...'

I thought it was better to thin the wall of rubble that stood between me and the outside before arriving in the city, so as soon as I had the chance, I would be able to escape from where I was in no time.

I pushed about half of the debris out into the passage, and as a small crack had formed that faced outward, I decided to stop.

The vegetation around me diminished until it almost disappeared.

'Have I almost arrived in town?'

I waited a little longer, to be sure.

I thought back to when my father told me about the city... things he knew thanks to mom...

"The city has high walls all around and a ceiling* much higher than that of the cave and with many lights attached to it... although it is mainly brown-gray like the one we have here... then there were houses of many colors and ... "

(*rock wall that covers above the large cave where the city stood.)

The chariot stopped, and I returned to reality.

'Oh no, I got distracted... have I already arrived at the point of unloading?' If that had been the case I would have had to change the plan…

I looked out and saw the towering city walls to my right, while in front of me I saw a stone flower arrangement that served as a cornice for the bridge where I was standing.

'Maybe I'm at the entrance to the city... '

Luckily, there were no checks.

After a while, the wagon took off more slowly than before. At first, he heard faint voices that became more and more deafening the further he went. In front of me walked people of all ages, sometimes soberly dressed sometimes bizarre, people waving their hands behind tables full of stuff, at that time I didn't understand what they were doing.

I was perplexed, but, at the same time, their liveliness... the liveliness of the city, in general, was warming my heart, the houses were colorful, the clothes were colorful...

I was walking along a main road.

"Wow... the city, this is the city..."

I was enchanted by what I saw. This vivacity distracted me a little from the events in the mine.

After a while, we turned to another street... which for a brief moment was similar to that of before, but which, the later you went, the grayer it became.

People decreased, the "heat" decreased, the houses were not entirely decadent, but not even colorful and beautiful as those before...

The road we were traveling on was poorer than the rich and lively one before. And from this, other even poorer alleys probably started.

The few people I was now observing were hollowed out by fatigue, not very different from those who lived in the mine.

I passed a group of people who were secretly exchanging something, we passed a building with an illegible inscription and with half-naked women on the outside, with faces that looked hopeless or dreamless.

For a while, I didn't see any more people, so I decided to get off the wagon, although after seeing what part of the city I was in I felt a little scared, but I had to.

I pushed the debris left in the escape route with my feet and with an uncoordinated momentum I threw myself out of the hole between the three stones in an equally uncoordinated way.

I landed sideways, with my left side, getting an abrasion on my arm, luckily nothing serious.

I got up in a hurry and ran away as soon as possible before any guards in the wagon could see me.

I ran as fast as possible, I also wanted to escape from this road, I wanted to go back to the colorful and lively one as before, the people on the side of the road looked at me with often dull, sometimes furious, and other times just curious looks.

I arrived at the intersection with the "lively street" ... with a confident face and looking for a new purpose to live for, I walked along the great highway...

I tried to get close to people, however, as soon as they noticed me, they walked away from me with contempt painted on their faces.

My heart, the pieces of which were held together by a thread of hope, the hope of being able to live a new, lively life, was definitively fragmented ...

I don't know what I looked like at the time, but if I had to guess, it must have been like the empty ones I had seen on the other street. My place was among "the poor and the damned" ... they didn't look at me like that.

That day a deep hatred arose in me towards the society in which I lived and for the people who benefited from it ... the same ones who killed my family and who, in part, also killed me.

With an empty face, I retreated into the cold, gray street from where I had come out.