The Life of Tiberious Taylor

Chapter 1

It had only taken a few moments for the previously black sky to be lit up by the warm radiance of the blood red sun. Light bounced around the room as the sun shone lethargically through the droplet covered window. It had taken an even shorter amount of time for the unwanted sunlight to reach the eyes of a short tempered teenager asleep cosily in bed. He awoke with a grunt as the light was reflected off the unfortunate teens corner mirror and into his eyes. His eyes opened wearily as he sat upright, grunting and swearing to himself on multiple accounts. He rubbed his tired eyes and looked out his window only to see the same landscape of machinery and steam. The expression on his face changed from displeased to a look of downright annoyance. He was annoyed that seemingly nothing interesting ever happened, and how the scenery never changed, not in the slightest. He began to feel regret for waking up as he felt a slight breeze come in through the door. He turned his head towards the source of the breeze and saw his mother standing there with her arms crossed and her fiery red hair swaying in the breeze.

"Tiberious Taylor! What are you still doing in bed?!? It's past midday and you start work in less than 20 minutes!" His eyes open widely as he looked woefully at the wall clock. It seems to take a moment for the positions of the hour hand and minute hand to register in his mind. He sprung out of his bed and ran towards the family shower. Accidentally knocking over his own mother in the process. He ran as fast as he could down the hall leading towards the shower. Almost tripping several times over items of clothing and other objects just laying on the floor. He eventually reached the shower and immediately fell backwards. He had ironically slipped over a puddle that he had made from his shower the previous night, the same puddle that he told himself that he would clean it up the next morning. He let out a loud grunt as his back hit the cold, hard, unforgiving tiled surface of the bathroom floor. He sighed and got up off the ground and turned towards the frosted glass of the shower door. He tugged on the handle and the door swung out to reveal an oversized shower. He quickly entered the space and closed the door behind him. As soon as he closed the door, he sighed and re-opened it. He had realised that he hadn’t taken off his clothes yet. He quickly stripped himself of his clothing and threw them out of the shower and closed the door again. He quickly turned the tap on the wall of the shower. To his relief, he felt the warm water gently wash down over his head. He sighed in relief as his cold, shivering body was slowly warmed up by the ever so gently flowing water. Without looking, he reached to the side of the room and grasped a bar of soap to wash himself with. He soon shook his head violently in an attempt to fight off sleeping in the copper piping covered room. The soothing hiss from the shower head almost making him trail off into a world of his own again. He grunted lightly as his hand grasped the tap on the wall, twisting it in the opposite direction than he had before. With a slight gurgle, water stopped flowing from the brass shower head.

The teen shivered slightly as the cold breeze gently blew against his flesh. He wrapped his towel around his waist as fast as he could to try and preserve some of the warmth that he had collected from the shower. He ran down the hall towards his room, not bothering to even dry himself in the bathroom. He heard his mother curse at him a couple times for dripping water onto her floor. All he could muster up was a simple “sorry” as we practically flew passed the opening in the wall that had a clear view of the kitchen. He searched through his wardrobe as fast as he could in search of his work clothing. Eventually pulling out a bright orange jumpsuit. In the top right hand side of the suit, a faded logo resembling an atom with the words “Steaming Nuclear Power” beneath the image could be seen. The teen quickly scruffed up his short black hair and ran back down the hallway, stopping just in front of the opening to the kitchen. He walked quickly towards his mother and gave her an affectionate hug, before grabbing the lunch that she had prepared for him. After he looked at his pocket watch, his eyes opened widely for the second time this morning. He ran down the hall and towards the front door. As soon as he exited the house, he was blasted with steam. He sighed and began to sprint towards the power station. Coughing as he ran through a thick cloud of smog.

He eventually reached his destination. ‘Steaming Nuclear Power. INC.’ He shivered as the thoughts of the interior flashed through his mind. The exterior alone was frightening enough for the young teen. After regaining his composure, he walked gloomily towards the oversized power plant. Pushing open the large glass doors to the open style reception area.Giving a friendly nod towards the receptionist before walking down the long corridor and towards the steam powered turbines. He pushed through a set of large, heavy metal doors into the main work area of the turbine room. His job was to transport coal from the docking bay to the steam turbines themselves. Appearing on a platform relatively close to the top of the semi submerged turbine room. He shivered once more as he looked down through the supposedly “strong” metal grate walkway.

“Don’t look down, don’t look down... J-just don’t look down and you’ll be fine” He spoke aloud to try and encourage himself to continue. He let out a heavy but thankful sigh as he neared the end of the suspended walkway. He panted slightly from fright as he finally reached the staircase at the end of the walkway. Sighing once more as he walked down the cast iron staircase. Eventually reaching the level labeled “sub-zero” on the sign above the exit door. It was named “sub-zero” due to the fact that half the power station was built below sea level. Even past his first year working here, he had never gotten over his fear of heights on that walkway. He always foolishly looked down to see the 87 meter drop to the work floor. He walked quickly over to the sign in sheet to sign himself in for work for the day. After writing down the hours he was going to be working today, he walked over to bay 1 and picked up a shovel. He began to shift shovel after shovel of coal into the fire place. Glancing over to his mate in the parallel workstation, the upper right corner of his lip lifted slightly in a smile before continuing to shovel coal into the furnace.

“YOU GOT LONG SHIFTS TODAY?!?” He practically had to yell out over the sounds of pressurized steam and burning coal to be heard by his friend. The friend, whom Tiberious referred to as Joe, put down his shovel exhaustively and walked towards his friend. “Yeah. Unfortunately I’m booked for 9 hours today. I have a feeling it’s going to be a living hell.”

“Ahh, I see. I’m booked for about 5 today. When did you start?: He spoke loudly to his close friend.

“I started 4 hours ago and i’m tired as it is. I still have 5 hours to go!” By the time that Joe had finished his sentence, his face had changed from relatively happy to full on depressed.

“Hey, at least we can leave together!” Tiberious spoke loudly towards Joe.

“Indeed we can.” The slightly older male smirked and re picked up his shovel then began shoveling coal into the furnace once more. After 5 hours of torturingly tedious shoveling had passed, the fifth hour bell passed meaning that both Tiberious’ and Joes shifts were up. Both of their heads quickly snapped towards each other as soon as they had heard the first chime. They both discarded their shovels onto the pile of still remaining coal and ran to the staircase. Tiberious had started laughing mid way through their sprint as he had seen joe trip over someones coal. Due to the fact that his eyes were blurred by the tears of laughter, Tiberious almost tripped over himself, however, unlike Joe, he managed to stay upright. Tiberious waited for Joe by the staircase.

It had taken the older teen an extra minute to catch up to Tiberious. He simply patted Joe on the back and began walking up the stairs. Eventually reaching ground floor. He smiled and walked backwards towards the exit door with a grin on his face. That is before a bundle of loose fibers from his jumpsuit caused him to fall backwards onto the questionably “strong” metal grate walkway. As soon as he had heard his back hit the walkway, he had heard another noise, a noise of buckling steel. He gasped as he felt gravity kick in again as he felt the effects of the floor giving way beneath him. Before Joe had had time to react, Tiberious had been left hanging by the small bundle of fibers from his suit that had miraculously been able to hold him up. A few of the workmen down below looked up as they saw a few pieces of steel land in front of them. The sound of his suit fibers tearing could be heard only to Tiberious.

To Be Continued