"Death, I Conquered You"

The tunnel was so dark. He has been hitting the wall vigorously for hours. He didn't eat his lunch and planned to eat it later. Only to find out that the corner part of his lunch box was gnawed by that rodent. His sweat is dripping from his body covered with a single piece of cloth, his boxer short. After a short rest, he started to hit the wall again with his pickaxe. While toiling with his tool on that wall, his mind is floating. He's planning to buy that big washing machine for her younger sister that is studying in college. She's been fussing about it for days. He understands because it's rainy season again and her sisters' uniform needs a lot of days in drying before it's ready to wear again and he reckons her sister only has two pairs. He had gathered a pile of sacks from his labor a few hours ago and as he checked the samples, he found the rocks are in a high grade. Even 10 washing machines he can afford plus a new first-class pair of denim and a new shirt as well with his favorite color and all worth a thousand bucks. He can also send some of it to his little cousins in their hometown as his advance Christmas present. Christmas is fast approaching. He will treat them to town when he gets home and eat in their favorite restaurant and let them decide on what they want in that commercial store since they don't have malls in town. They would surely love it.

A smile was drawn in his face while proceeding to his work when suddenly a loud explosion dispersed in the air. He was a bit irritated after hearing it, it is just a single level, and a few meters from him he can feel it's from the top tunnel. Any wrong move and wrong detonation will cause a life or lives when done wrong. His workmates are being careless this time. Did they forget that he is down here? He took a deep sigh and prepared to retreat before anything happens. They are going to hear from him when he's out. But before he can react, the tunnel 2 meters away from him began to collapse. He made a sudden reaction by stepping back and stopped a distance away from the spot. He can hear the sound of the rubbles fall from the top. What's this! he's trapped! there's no other outlet going out because it was a newly made subway.!

As he sat down he is being hopeful that the boulders are not much to remove. He can get out soon. He will be out not long before he notices it.

Hours past and nothing change. Had his workmates noticed his absence? There are lots of questions that came into his mind.

Additional hours expired, he figured it to be 11 hours past to be exact and it's now 5:00 in the afternoon shows the time in his divers watch covered with a handkerchief. His intestines are now growling. He checked his lunch box to eat his leftover but found out that it's already spoiled but he manages to eat it to provide something to his protesting stomach. Still, he can't feel that if ever there are rescue teams to help him out from this hell they are still far from his location. They can't ask for help from the outside because they are mining illegally as small-scale miners so they only manage to do the manual shoveling. He experienced being one of the rescuers a year back when 3 of his companions were trapped in the same tunnel also but in a different channel and it takes them 8 hours to remove the boulders. But assessing his situation' it takes longer. Another eight hours was added to his counting. He knows it's already past midnight outside. The realization hit him, the bar down is very serious.

He tried to blink his eyes. His mouth dried and formed a crack in his lips. No food, no water. He's tired of looking into his watch and will just be disappointed afterward. It's been 6 days in this nightmare. He doesn't think he can survive anymore. He's starting to hallucinate and find himself inside a mall accompanying his sister. They are heading to the food court and choose every food they want. He ordered water from the counter and gulped how many glasses of it but he's not satisfied. Coming to his senses he realized he's dreaming again.

Every time he wakes up, he is full of hope. He thinks of his unfulfilled dreams. He still has plans to accomplish. But this time he gave up. This very moment he is having a hard time opening his eyes so he will let it close and rest. He is hallucinating again. He is dreaming of hearing unusual sounds thinking of people trying as hard as they might shoveling the boulders and reaching into him. He smiled. What a nice dream. He felt his strength beginning to drain. He felt so much exhausted without doing anything. He tried to raise his hand to look for his watch for the last time. 8:00 in the morning. He wanted to sleep again and never wake up. Slowly... slowly.

A hand touched his neck. Even in his death he never though he can still dream. He felt floating in the airlifted by clouds. A few minutes later he felt raindrops in his mouth... he licked them slowly savoring its sweetness. Ah! this dream is so nice! Murmurs began to evade his surroundings. It's getting louder and louder. Heat touched his skin and it feels good but it hurts his eyes when he opened them so he closed them again. He tried to open again and angels are surrounding him. Faces that began to resemble people he knew. How come these people became angels? When he left them on earth...

"Kenneth, can you hear me?" He heard a familiar voice. "Of course I can hear you," he thought but he can't open his eyes and mouth. He wanted to answer but he's tired. Then, he managed to lift his lips and gave a smile as an answer, then a loud cry of joy from the audience fills the air.

True Story told by the character, my nephew who worked as a small-scale miner who encountered death but managed to survive.

>xzeon<

My 2nd entry to @Dangerous_Fly event 2nd phase.

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