The clinking of metal chains echoed through the narrow corridor, a grim echo of a hopeless procession. Dampness, ever-present, oozed from the stone walls, seeped into throats, and chilled the bones. It seemed to weep for this place, cursing each step taken in these suffocating tunnels.
Kael struggled to breathe, his lungs rasping the stale air, each breath brought him closer to asphyxiation. The darkness, thick and alive, tripped the children one after the other.
Sometimes, a dull thud would ring out, a grim signal that another had fallen.
"Hey! Get up, you idiot!"
The burly guard with the receding hairline roared his rage, reverberating through the shadowy corridor.
"Filthy bastard! You choose now to drop dead?!"
While the man cursed at the frail child who had collapsed at the rear, Kael held himself together with all his will.
My legs are giving out. I can't take this anymore. Please make it stop. I'm so hungry... so thirsty...
The boy's entire body screamed with despair, but even voicing a complaint felt like too much energy wasted, energy he no longer had.
There were only ten of them left. Thirty at the start. Ten children with hollow faces, vacant eyes, marching for a month and a half through the underground veins of a forgotten world.
Their steps were guided by men with sordid appearances, replaced at every guard post. Kael, despite his exhaustion, had noticed it took about seven days to reach one of these checkpoints. There, they were given a little water, a few bites of stale bread.
Too little. Far too little.
He had to endure. Not fall. Not fail.
I mustn't give in. Not now.
Blows echoed in the dark. The child who had fallen earlier. Kael risked a glance and recognized a girl he had met upon arriving, barely older than himself.
How had he ended up in this cursed corridor again? He couldn't even remember.
The man struck her again, perhaps out of habit, or just to amuse himself.
After several minutes, the big-bellied guard gave the order to move on, dragging behind them the lifeless weight of another broken soul.
I can't take that sound anymore. Why not just leave her there, dead? Why must we drag her along? It's draining us...
Is that the goal? To kill us slowly, like rats?
The girl's limp body scraped across the uneven ground, her teeth grinding against the stone tiles in a shrill, inhuman shriek.
Kael shuddered, a chill running from his nape to his heels. Goosebumps rose from sheer disgust.
Behind him, the weight of sorrow and fear paradoxically kept him moving forward. Ahead, the echo of chains and shallow breaths reminded him of a fate as dark as it was painful.
Each step pulled at his aching ankles, cut raw by iron.
Each dry swallow awakened the sand in his throat, begging for just a single drop of water.
The farther he walked, the more the corridor seemed to stretch, allowing the shadows to grow endlessly.
Time dragged on painfully, but the atmosphere eventually lightened. The rhythmic noise of chains grew livelier.
At last, in the distance, a black grate appeared in the darkness, blocking the corridor's width. To the right, a heavy wooden door, stained and foul.
The guard post.
A new hope, as fragile as a flame in a storm, flickered in the hearts of the children.
A renewed strength, almost unreal, allowed them to hasten their pace, driven by the illusion of rest.
At last... a break. A day's respite. Hopefully...
The grey-bearded man pounded on the door. The noise echoed through the tunnel like thunder across an endless sky.
Moments later, the door opened. A colossus stood there, taller, broader, colder.
Bald, his skin marked, a patchy beard shadowed his neglected face. The two men exchanged glances. The taller one inspected the children.
His eyes held nothing. Nothing human. Only the stare of a merchant assessing his wares.
"Bring them in. These rats'll croak before we can sell 'em."
Wares. That's what we are to them. Objects. Beasts of burden...
I won't accept that fate. I'll survive, and I'll claim my freedom, over your corpses if I must.