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George the miner lost count of all the times he had been pulled from his Work Team to go dig out the dangerously volatile pure fuel rocks. In time, he began to turn a nice reddish tint from being so close to the pure rocks’ dust and absorbing it- a nice reddish tint good enough to match the best of the old, dedicated miners. Quite a status symbol; it showed off one's many years of hard-working service, breathing in the dust over many years, for Gov. Bright. The other miners grumbled. It was not right that an ingrate and slacker, a Digger (but not worthy of being called a Digger) without even a full year at the mines, like No. 317, should sport such a beautiful glow. Nevertheless, there it was, the result of his constant exposure to the pure fuel rocks.

George the miner wasn’t the only one who dug out the perilous rocks on a regular basis. Now also so did 248, who became quite good at it, too. After their daily work details, when each of them returned to lock-up, No. 248 and No. 317/George greeted each other in passing one another on the way to their respective cages. Later, while eating their meals left on dinner trays inside their cages, they called to each other and traded tips on how to lessen the risk of blowing up while uncovering the buried pure fuel rocks.

George was digging with his Team when he found himself yet again called upon to perform his special job, and as he carefully freed the potent stones from the ground, while mentally blocking out that annoying, blaring miners music from his head so he could concentrate better on the task at hand, he thought of his escape plans. He had taken out a couple of large sparkling rocks and a few separate pebbles as well. The reluctant miner glanced about to see if anybody gave him much attention. All the other miners had gone far from him, just in case he had an accident and vaporized himself and the surrounding area. No one cared to watch him; they instead heartily dug for fuel ore at the new place to which they had gone to get away from George and any possible accident. They waited for No. 317/George to complete his job. George pretended to wipe dust from his face, but in reality he slipped into his mouth a larger pebble of pure fuel, and he swallowed it.

The rest of the pure fuel rocks which he had dug out George gathered into the special transport cart, a cart full of thick packing gel. Once he pushed a rock into the goop, it stayed in its place in the goo as he moved the cart, and the rocks would not collide with each other during moving the cart.

Then, after he had loaded the rest into the conveyance buggy, he took it (accompanied by summoned human guards- who followed from a safe distance) to the special pure fuel storage site. Once there, No. 317/George took the rocks and stones and pebbles from the cart and packed them in another container full of similar stiff gel, and the pure fuel slowly absorbed the inert gel into itself, reducing its grade to that of post-proscessed fuel ore, becoming somewhat stable and safe.

George went back to his Work Team, where the other miners ignored him or insulted him, as usual, because of his lack of love for the Governor... and also because they were jealous of his body’s red tint.

At the conclusion of his work day, a pair of human guards and some robot guards escorted him back to his cage with another dinner on a greasy tray awaiting him and also the chance to take care of biological needs. Some days he passed No. 248 in the doorway and sometimes 248 worked different hours. Today, the two monitored miners arrived at the same time at lock-up and said Hi to each other on the way to their respective cages.

The human guards verbally pushed them along, keeping blasters at the ready. "Keep moving, get into your cage, don't dilly-dally!”

Except for the two cages occupied by Nos. 317 and 248, the rest had been empty the past few days, and yet the two miners were locked up in cages at either ends of the chamber as before. Once both of them were locked in, the guards left the imprisonment cave. The two miners did not expect the guards back until the beginning of the next work detail.

George ate the same mystery garbage that he had been given every other day for food. He called to his friend, "I'm ready for another try at freedom after I eat. How 'bout you, 248? You game?”

“Okay, but, well, there is a slight problem. I am locked up in a heavy-duty cage. I don’t know its composition, but it must be expensive to make. And so are you confined."

"Ha ha, that's no problem, because I smuggled away some pure fuel rocks from a few of those assignments. I got some more today. A tiny amount. I have been saving it and saving it, until I got enough. I simply hide it from prying eyes in with the dirt and trash of my cage, piled in the corner. No one's the wiser. Now I have enough to blast off my door- mine, and yours, too."

248 grinned. "Great. You kept it as a surprise for me, until you got enough, eh, George? But how did you sneak it past the guards?"

"I swallowed it."

"What? Isn't that dangerous? And it must taste awful!"

"Actually, it tastes a lot like chicken." Both laughed. George said, "It makes me spit up blood for a day or so, but then this miner's body heals itself up again."

"Oh... So how do you make yourself throw it back up again?"

George tried to put it delicately. "When it comes out, the direction it uses isn't upward."

248 winced. "Oh."

"I can only swallow one pebble at a time, in case they rub against each other in my digestive tract and I explode. I must be careful not to trip. Luckily, my stomach acids don't set it off, being neither extremely hot nor high impact. But now, the trick is to estimate how much pure fuel is enough to blow off the cage door, and to see that I don't use too much pure fuel and blow us up with the cage doors."

George removed some tiny stones from the hiding spot. He put a few pebbles on the cage floor directly under the door lock. The rest he kept with him at the back of his cage.

"Well, here goes... May God guide my hand..." He grabbed his dinner tray. "I hope my aim is good. I don't remember if I was ever athletic." He tossed the tray with all his might straight at the pebbles of pure fuel sitting beneath the lock. A direct hit!

The pebbles burst with a white flash that smashed George against the bars at the back of his cage and popped the door right off its hinges. George slumped over onto his cage floor.

No. 248 shouted, concerned, "George! Are you okay?!"

George stood and rubbed his shoulder. "Ow! That sure has a kick! But we have success!"

The two of them cheered.

George scooped up the remaining pebbles and ran for No. 248's cage. "Your next, buddy-"

However, it didn't happen that way. Instead, this month's Warden, Piku, came in with Security Agent Samm, who substituted today for Security Leader Clyden. Agent Samm had arrived at the mines not even an hour ago with a fresh batch of new guards. "Since you are not as familiar with this section as is Security Leader Clyden, I need to show you our resident trouble-makers-" said Warden Piku. Samm and Piku gasped in astonishment upon seeing No. 317 on the loose.

George looked shocked as well to see them come in. Nobody was supposed to check up on them until the next shift! He hesitated a moment. Should he just run for it? He couldn't leave his friend behind-

248 shouted, "Go! Go! Get moving!!”

George pushed Warden Piku and Agent Samm out of his way. He ran past them and out the chamber exit. Samm radioed over his headset for guards to come ASAP to the incarceration hall to capture an escapee.

Once out into the main shaft, George the miner lost hope.

There were new and old human guards milling about the various tunnels in the mines. The old guards  were showing the new arrivals their various posts and stations that they would be taking over. But now the nearest group of guards dashed toward the area of the imprisonment cave, in answer to Agent Samm's call. They brought along robot guards and even some faithful miners recruited on the spot to”help catch the enemy of Gov. Bright.”

George didn't get far at all!

A small mob tackled him as he darted down a stony corridor. The small mob piled on top of him, and even though he was a miner, the numbers proved too much for him to escape, especially with more fellow-miners joining in the pile-up. Their extra weight made the human guards beneath them in the pile-up moan and complain.

George swung wildly, but then those atop him restrained his arms as they kept him pinned to the floor. A robot, full of new dents thanks to George's flailing limbs, struggled to hold the miner's thrashing legs.

One of the guards called in the capture to Warden Piku.

Warden Piku and Security Agent Samm hurried down the tunnel to where the mob had captured No. 317, to take charge of the situatiion.

Warden Piku sighed, staring at No.317/George under the mountain of guards and miners. The Warden shook his head. "This is what I was telling you about, Agent Samm. He's always trying to escape."

Agent Samm asked, "If he wants to get out of the mines, why not grant him his wish? Just toss him to the Eaters and be done with it, then."

The Warden replied, "He really is very good at digging out the pure fuel nuggets. Still, maybe you are right, since his companion-in-mischief is getting equally as good as No. 317 in digging out the pure fuel. I guess we can do without this one, if we have to."

Agent Samm nodded. He turned to the guards, still pinning down George and awaiting the decision about what to do with him. "Okay. Toss 'im."

A chill clutched George's heart. He recalled, during one of his earlier days as a miner, what happened as the miners loaded an ore truck full of the fuel ore. As the miners were crossing the narrow bridge over the moat, the bellowing Eaters below tried to catch for themselves a tasty meal. Some long hairy tentacles shot up, feeling about the bridge, attempting to snag a miner. And the stupid miners guarded the carts of ore with their lives as they pushed the carts over the trench's bridge, shouting "For the Governor!", even as some of them were snagged by the groping tentacles and pulled from the walkway into the darkness under them

The taken miners had put up a fierce fight against the Eaters, but soon all that was heard was the roaring of the awful things below, and the screams of pain from the miners, and then silence except for bones snapping.

This recollection inspired George to struggle to free himself from his captors with renewed vigor, all in vain. Against his will, the small mob dragged him, thrashing, away and up the tunnels to the mine's entrance. All along the way, more guards, who had been hurrying to answer Agent Samm's original call for help, kept coming to give support in case the prisoner should escape from their clutches.

"Wait, you don't want to do this-" George blurted out in fear. Obviously, though, they did. They pushed him out past the entrance way, to the outside. They took him- half-carried, half-pulled him- toward the edge of the deep trench full of Eaters that surrounded the mountain mine.

The throng of pressing guards running to the scene continued to grow by the moment, and amongst their numbers was the youthful Security Agent Osmo Martin. He wondered, guessing what the mob of guards planned to do, what this poor miner had done to deserve such a gruesome fate.

From the bottom of the moat came vicious growls and howls, Eaters eager for another meal.

Agent Osmo Martin looked, like everybody else, at the flailing miner. He saw the struggling miner's face, and he believed he recognized him-! "Hey! That's Mr. McCleer! George McCleer!" he shouted in surprise.”

(c) 2012 drk