Cole stared at the clock. It read "00:00."
Nothing happened.
The fire kept burning.
The noise kept blaring.
The machine kept working.
The enforcer outside didn't notice. The town didn't collapse in on itself. The world didn't end.
He threw his shovel down and kicked the ground. Dirt flew into his mouth and he spit it out.
"I knew it," he muttered.
Hands on his hips, he stood and watched the clock. He always assumed it reset after the part was fed with fuel, but as he stared and did nothing, the numbers flickered, until eventually, they reset to read "00:30."
It was all for nothing, the years of shoveling, the years of killing himself to prove he was worthy of a higher level, it was at this very moment he realized he had been deceived. All the innocent shovelers who believed the lie, that they had to keep working to keep the world running, they had all been deceived.
Cole screamed and slammed his fist into the wall. When his voice no longer echoed in the room, he rested his forehead against the wall and wept.
He didn't know what his life meant anymore. He didn't know why he was here. He didn't know why anyone was here, and he wondered what it was all for. Root was right; the machine didn't serve a purpose. Nobody cared about it, or monitored it, or knew that he hadn't fed it and the clock above his part kept chugging away. It showed 25 minutes until the next feeding, and Cole laughed. The clock was a threat, but he now knew it meant nothing. He could walk away, storm the town hall, and this clock would keep repeating the same lie over and over again.
He stood in place as the tears on his cheeks dried and left streaks running down his face.
He stood in place until the countdown got to 15 minutes.
He stood in place until he figured out what he had to do.
He had to tell everyone, and he had to get them out of town. If the elders, and the entire town, were willing to lie to keep shovelers and repairmen and who knows how many others enslaved, it had to be a lie worth killing for. Cole had to uncover the truth and leave behind this place that had stolen his entire life.
It was a long road ahead, but it had to be done. Exactly how he was going to do it, he wasn't sure, but he knew he had to get past his enforcer first, just outside the door. Most of the time, the enforcers stayed in the room, and most of the time, they were armed. This was a different circumstance, but Cole had a strategy and a strong dose of hope. If he ended up dead, he knew the secret of the machine would die with him, so his number one goal, other than to free everyone, was to make sure he didn't die before someone else knew, besides him and Root.
He gripped the shovel in his calloused hands and headed for the door. He inched the door open and stood off to the side. He gripped the shovel tighter.
Within seconds, sounds of rumbling came from outside the door as the enforcer gathered his things to check on Cole. The moment his uniform appeared, Cole swung the shovel as hard as he could. The blade clanged against the enforcer's helmet, and the enforcer crumpled to the ground. Cole scurried over and dragged him out of the doorframe. He searched the enforcer's uniform for a radio and weapon, and when he found both, tossed them into the fire before running out of the room with his shovel. There was no way to lock the door behind him, so he sprinted up the stairs, careful to avoid the rusted-out spots, and climbed as quickly as he could.
And so it begins...