4:00
Cole kneeled on the dirt floor and stared into the fire. This part of the machine burned hotter, looked bigger, and seemed important. All the parts Cole had ever worked with seemed important, but he was about to find out how true that actually was. In all of his years shoveling, the golden rule was to never miss a feeding. If you did, the world would end. In all of his years shoveling, nobody had ever missed their time. Once, he heard a rumor that someone was 1 minute late and he was executed on the spot. Cole never verified it, but he believed it. If the machine truly kept the world intact like they said, it was the most important thing in town.
Cole spit and his saliva bubbled on the ground. Everything that had happened in the past 24 hours led him to believe that someone, somewhere, was lying. First it was his accident. His old part had blown up and shut down, and he was suspected of sabotaging it, and kicked all the way back down to level 1. Then it was his conversation with Root in jail about how the machine wasn't connected to anything. Then, just when he thought everything was in the clear, someone attacked the barracks and all hell broke loose.
3:00
It all seemed like a little too much for one day. It seemed like someone had planned this all along, but as he started to unwind it and tie it all together, his brain wore out and shut down. It wasn't possible to him that this could have been planned. There were too many coincidences, and he started to wonder if this is what Root sounded like to everyone else; a madman trying to convince people of a vast conspiracy.
He poked at the ground with his shovel as he watched the seconds come off the clock. Either way, he would find out in less than 3 minutes. He would find out who was lying and what would happen if he didn't feed the machine. He guessed it would rage on like it always has, and wondered if anyone would even know.
2:00
After being prodded in the infirmary, thrown into jail, demoted back to level 1, and ignored and gassed by the elders in town, it would feel like sweet justice when that timer hit 0. If the machine really was so important, then by proxy the shovelers were more important than anyone else in town. If the shovelers didn't do their job, town wouldn't exist, so he wondered why were they always given the short end of the stick. They weren't allowed to go in certain places, they had the worst accommodations, and they could hardly get a word in when talking to people "higher up." It was all crap, and Cole was about to prove it.
1:00
As the seconds continued to melt away, a realization hit Cole; what would he do after the clock hit 0? He hadn't thought about it much and was too focused on his revenge. What if Root was right, then what? Would he have to figure out how to break down the rest of the system, the rest of town? Would he try and get out? He couldn't do it on his own. How would he convince everyone he was telling the truth? Who would he get to help?
:30
An even worse thought hit Cole; what if Root was wrong? What if the machine was as important as they say and if he didn't toss more fuel into this part in the next 30 seconds, the world would end? What would happen if his revenge had blinded him to the story that everyone had ever told him since he was little? What if he was responsible for killing everyone in town, including himself?
Cole didn't have much time to think about it, as the timer came to an end.
:00
Oooh. I can't wait for the next episode.