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Zeiss felt resistance; his boot had caught on something half buried in the dirt. It was a small skeletal hand with shreds of grey flesh hanging on. Zeiss remembered that a small boy had worked in these fields some months ago. The dead were left to rot in the fields. If you could not work, no one would help you.
Zeiss was a grizzly bear of a man. He had a perpetual look of disgust, like he was smelling farts. He had a bristly beard and long, oily shoulder-length hair.
He shovelled dirt and fine stones into his buckets. They hung on a single plank held by his shoulder, allowing him to carry more than two. He was not the only one. There were hundreds of men, women, and children working the fields - shovelling dirt, purifying the minerals, and setting bricks. Those who defied the Supreme Leader were sent to labor camps. A lot of the work was used to maintain the walls that caged them.
"Weakling!" a guard laughed. He wore crimson armor and a helmet, so his face could not be seen. A woman had staggered onto the floor, clutching her side. She was hyperventilating. The guard lifted his metal-toed boot and kicked her in the gut.
"How dare you stop working!" he shouted.
She began to weep silently. Zeiss continued walking. He did not look back. He hated that he could hear everything. The whole camp went silent when someone was beaten.
"Please… I’m sorry…" the woman begged as he kicked her repeatedly. He laughed like a hyena.
Bastard!
Zeiss dropped his buckets - he ran at the guard and knocked him out. Zeiss repeatedly hit him until the visor broke. Soon his knuckles were raw and bloody. He looked into the cowardly eyes of this man. He was only a boy - not more than twenty.
"Hey you!" Another guard noticed. Soon, half a dozen guards were beating Zeiss to a pulp with their batons. Zeiss could take a beating. He looked through a pair of guards' legs and saw the woman on the floor. Her cold, dead eyes staring back at him.
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Zeiss had been thrown into solitary confinement. He was jammed into a hot metal closet without food and water for days. There was no place to go to the bathroom, so his room soon smelled of excrement. He lay there bruised and beaten without any medical treatment. The rats began to nibble away at his toes.
Finally, the slate of the door was opened, and a gust of fresh air entered, and Zeiss could breathe again.
"You worthless ant," a voice said. That voice… It was the same guard whom Zeiss had attacked. He opened the door and held a glowing red stick of metal. The light reflected on his face - on his shiny buck-toothed smile. He plunged the hot metal into Zeiss's left eye. Zeiss screamed in pain as the hot metal melted his eyeball into glue.
KA-TOOM!
There was a deafening roar, and the ground began to shake. The entire container was flipped, and a large metal rod impaled the guard. Zeiss was hurled with the metal closet across the field. The air was filled with this bright green aura. Then everything went black.
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Zeiss woke up in the rubble. Everything was destroyed. The buildings and walls were reduced to nothing. Bits of shrapnel had lodged in Zeiss's torso. He pulled them out - luckily, they were only superficial. Blood oozed out like syrup. His senses were greatly impaired. His left socket throbbed and smelled like barbecue pork. His ears were ringing due to the explosion. Otherwise, it was quiet. There were no screams.
How long had he been out? It was night now. There was an eerie green glow coming from the distance. Zeiss was pulled to it like a moth to a lamp. He should be running away - nothing would stop him… But he kept walking towards the light.
As he got closer, he noticed the dead bodies of men, women, and children sprawled around like rag dolls. None of the guards were alive either. Was he the only one?
It was a crater. He looked over the edge. A large meteor had devastated the camp. Everything around it had been incinerated. Green plasma oozed everywhere. Zeiss had never seen such colors. He slid down the slope of the crater. At the centre of the crater was a woman.
She was beautiful.
She had long spindle-like limbs and her body was covered in a coarse green lettuce like material. The skin on her face was a shiny ivory with green undertones. She had wooden twig-like antennae protruding from her head. Then she opened her eyes - they were pink and glittery - innocent and pure like Semira.
"What are you?" Zeiss said.
The woman spoke with unintelligible words. She raised her hand to Zeiss's face, and there was sadness in her eyes. She placed her palm over his eye and spoke. Her hand began to glow green. There was a tingling sensation, and soon his eye was not painful. He could see. His eye was healed! She smiled and began to speak again.
A beam of light shone on the pair. It was a helicopter. Zeiss was not going to be caught again. He looked at the woman. Who knows what they would do to her?
Zeiss sighed. He picked up the woman and ran off into the forest.
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