I Am Mortal

01|Chapter 1|I Am Mortal

Chapter 1|I Am Mortal

mor·tal/ˈmôrdl/
adjective
(of a living human being, often in contrast to a divine being) subject to death.
causing or liable to cause death; fatal.
noun
a human being subject to death, often contrasted with a divine being.
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"Are you sure?"Jia asked as she walked behind Katelyn and Brain, who ignored her and continued to stump against the rich earth.

Jia watched Katelyn's blonde hair swayed from side to side, with every stride she made. It interested her to no end how it swayed constantly, as if she were doing it purposely. I wonder if it's her neck causing it to sway or her entire body? She mentally asked herself.

Suddenly it stopped swaying and Jia still mesmerised walked right into Katelyn with a groan.

"Ow!"She complained as she rubbed her now throbbing forehead.

"If you stopped looking at my hair, that wouldn't have happened,"Katelyn hissed back over her shoulder.

"It's just interesting--"

"No, I do not deliberately shake my head so it moves!"Katelyn exclaimed, beating Jia to the constant question she had asked the entire walk.

"You sure?"

Katelyn's fists clenched as well as her jaw.

"As much as I'd like to see a cat fight, we have work to do,"Brain breezily interrupted with a knowing grin.

"Which I would win,"Jia stated arrogantly and walked passed a now red faced Katelyn.

Jia lead the way, to the forever growing whole that situated itself in the ground. The three of them worked at the mine seven days a week, for sixteen hours a day. It wasn't a choice nor was it a forced occupation to support their families. They simply had to wake up everyday at one o'clock in the morning, make a two hour trip to the mine and work for sixteen hours none stop. At seven o'clock in the evening they made a two hour trip back to the Mortal Compound(MC), eat and sleep, before preparing for the next agonizing day.

It was tough, that much was obvious as well as tiring but you had to do what you were told as a Mortal. Any Mortal who rebelled against the system was punished accordingly. Sometimes publicly executed or tortured to death but generally stripped of something you never found important until it was stripped from you. Like your index finger, or thumb; all ten toes; or sometimes an ear or eye.

The mine buzzed with drills and the rusted churning wheels of contraptions that enabled them to descend to a abyss of darkness below. The sun was slowly rising and beach-orange strands of light coloured the sky. The wind blew with a slight bite but felt refreshing.

"Let's go check in,"Brain stated as he walked between the two girls.

They silently agreed and followed his lead to the long line of people who too waited to check in and get to work. The line slowly moved forward but soon the three found themselves in the front of the line.

"Name?" The electric system asked.

"Jia Brenda Rogers,"Jia replied.

"Jia Brenda Rogers, age: 17, born in year 2511, birth place: MC14, job occupation: vertical surface drilling, Fitness rank: 1, Worth rank: 1. Please look at the lens," the computed voice announced in a robotic emotion-less tone.

Jia crouched down so she could match the lens' eye-level and let the laser scan her iris. She had recently grown a couple of inches taller and hadn't been to a fitness test in a few weeks.

"Confirmed, take equipment," the machine stated as a compartment opened displaying Jia's drills and safety harness.

Jia took the items and shifted out of the line, she attached the safety harness to her waist and placed her drills in the slings that connected to her the harness. She then waited for Brian and Katelyn to finish their check in then all of them proceeded to their working sections. Brain was a weight lifter, so he would remain on land and carry all heavy minerals and metals that came from the whole. Katelyn classified different minerals and raw resources into the different quality classes and sections. Jia was the only one of the three that went underground, to drill on the whole sides-making the whole grow wider.