The sun's glare could be seen through the clouds high in the sky, it was the hottest time in the mine, the temperature must have been around forty degrees, Ivan sat leaning against one of the wheels of the gigantic dump truck, one of those that transported the material to the forgotten zone, he took out of his backpack a cloth bag in which his mother had carefully packed; three bread rolls, a container of boiled eggs and a piece of dried meat, plus a large bottle filled with water, which had originally been frozen, but was now completely liquid, although it was still fresh. He quickly devoured the loaves, after opening them with his hands and filling them with the eggs and meat, the time to eat was short, he had to make the delivery of the material before three o'clock in the afternoon, otherwise he would have to wait until tomorrow to do it and he would lose part of his pay.
This would be his third delivery of the day, hopefully he would be back home by five in the afternoon, he drove the giant truck along the dry river bed from the mine for about twenty minutes before he saw the signs announcing the entrance to the forgotten area, He saw himself in the side mirror, as if confirming that he was wearing it. A few minutes later he began to enter the mist, luckily he would not be there for long, his was the last delivery of the afternoon and there were no more trucks lined up to unload the ore.
The landscape of the forgotten area was like the illustrations of other planets that he had seen in old books when he was in school; there were only orange rocks and earth, and everything was overshadowed by a slight yellowish haze that became denser as one went deeper into it.
The slope leading to the unloading hopper was completely clear, in front of him, he could see the giant shovels moving as they transported the material along a conveyor belt, which seemed to have no end, lifting it from the hopper to who knows where, its extension lost in the mist a hundred meters further on.
When he reached the slope, he turned the truck around to climb in reverse and thus be able to unload the ore into the hopper, this was the most terrifying part of the maneuver, luckily the truck's reverse sensors were synchronized with some lasers that were on the edge of the cliff in the unloading area, so he only had to follow the directions of the voice that from the loudspeaker told him: -right, ..., left, ten meters to the edge, ... right, stop, ..., you can unload now-.
He stopped the truck, set the brake, and flipped the switch that dumped the ore into the hopper, the clatter of the big rocks falling and the mill wheels inside the machine was so deafening that it completely drowned out the noise of the truck's engine and the whirring of the conveyor belt. When the noise stopped, he knew he was done unloading, so he flipped the switch on the dump truck again, this time in the opposite direction, and set off down the slope.
When he was about a hundred meters down the slope, he felt a strange vibration under his seat and a new noise began to fill the cab of the truck, a screeching sound that became more and more intense, until it became painful; He began to lift his foot off the accelerator to stop, but at that precise moment a tremendous bang shook him, lifting him from his seat and almost throwing him over the steering wheel, the truck began to stop on its own, while a cloud of black smoke came out of the exhaust, the screeching began to become more serious as the truck stopped moving forward; even when he pressed harder on the accelerator, it did not pick up speed.
There were about two kilometers to go before reaching the signs announcing the exit of the forgotten area, when the truck came to a complete stop, the engine was still running, but no matter how hard I stepped on the accelerator, I could not get it to move. Ivan had some ideas of what might be happening, but in neither case did he have the tools, or the time, to set about repairing it.
If this had happened to him at any other time, he would stop to wait for another truck to come by, to take him to the mine, and someone would take care of towing the truck back; but his was the last batch of the day, no other truck would come until the next morning. He could stay in the cab of the truck, the air filtration system would continue to work as long as the engine was running, but he didn't know if it would keep running for long and if he stayed there he would have to spend the night. The other option was to leave the truck and walk to the mine, which was about fifteen kilometers away, possibly arriving after six in the evening, but at least he would no longer be in the forgotten area.
After turning off the truck, Ivan adjusted his respirator mask, took his backpack and opened the door, he could see how the mist began to fill the cabin, went out to the door step and began to descend the stairs, halfway to the floor, he stopped briefly, to turn on the emergency lamp that was attached to his overalls. Once on the ground he opened a compartment that was at the foot of the ladder and took out a box that was there for emergencies, opened it and took out a couple of signal lamps, a black bag with the Orbis logo and a small toolbox, walked to the back of the truck and placed one of the lamps, which as a beacon, began to rotate emitting an intense blue light, then set off in the direction of the signs, leaving the other lamp in his path, in front of the front of the truck.
He walked for about fifteen minutes before leaving the signs behind, although it was still not safe to remove the mask, he felt relieved to be out of there, he continued walking for another two kilometers before taking the risk of removing the mask, he felt that this thing more than helping him to breathe, it was choking him, He released one of the latches and separated it a little from his cheek, he smelled the air that entered and felt a sudden burning in his nose and throat at the same time that a smell of rotten eggs filled the mask, he quickly readjusted the latch and held his breath, He quickly readjusted the safety catch and held his breath, while he pressed the button of the mask purge pump again and again, after pressing it about twenty times he took a breath of air, the smell was gone, he felt relieved that he had not removed the mask completely, before he smelled the air, although he was already far away from the forgotten area, the stench of the mist was felt, he picked up the black bag and toolbox and kept walking, there were about five kilometers to go when he decided to try again to take off the mask, this time the air felt normal so he continued without it.
Back at the mine, the transport to La Villa had left an hour ago already, so he had to stay overnight in the changing rooms, after taking off his overalls and taking a bath, because he felt his skin itching, luckily he always had a change of clothes in his backpack. As he drifted off to sleep he thought that he would never again offer to carry material to the forgotten area, no matter how good the pay was. Now he had to figure out how to explain to his mother, when he got home the next day, why he had been hauling material for two weeks already and hadn't told her, even more so after the discussion they had that morning when he started doing it.