Smol Sick Spoon

"Name?"

"Vivian Ika Volta."

"Shift?"

"Heavy 4"

"Alright, your cart's over there, make sure you strap in." The foreman gestured to a busted up cart in the corner of the room.

Vivi walked over to it and strapped on her gas mask. She tightened the band around her face until it stung, then released just a tad. Shaking the salt dust from her heavy canvas jacket, she broke the cart free from its idle and heaved it onto the track.

"Damn thing!" Vivi thought, "I get put on Heavy 4 and I get the shittiest cart in the entire mine!" She pushed the cart and continued to grouse behind her mask as she descended into the mine. 

During the descent Vivi would see another heavy shift bringing large chunks of salt up from the bottom. Some of them looked almost done with their shift, they had what other miners called "Hour 17 Face." On the other side away from the car tracks there were miners going to and from their shifts. Vivi preferred when there was no-one around. Her imagination made the mine shaft yawn open like the gate to hell, an apt description of a full shift so far underground.

As she was nearing the bottom Vivi spotted a man collapsed on the other side of the mine shaft. "Mid 30s? Shit, he's probably dead. I'll tell 'em at the bottom. We're all gonna be doing fucking double time." Vivi clicked a button on her headlamp. The pale orange flicked into a brighter white before she clicked it again. "At least my double time light works."

When Vivi got to the bottom she reported the fallen worker. To her chagrin she learned he was dead. Not only that, she was right that the foreman decided to push everyone for two hours of double time effort. A tactic to remind everyone not to let it happen again. By the end of the double time she was exhausted.

"Fuckin'...16 more hours. Focus on the next step. Focus on getting this next load back to the top." She thought as she clicked off the bright white light, warming the cave with the orange of the less powerful standard one. As she clicked it off one of the cart's wheels jammed. Vivi hit the brakes and stopped to fiddle with it. Sitting there without the buzzing of the light she could hear something ahead. "Huh? Voices? Better not be another dead guy." 

Instead of anything morbid, Vivi heard the voices grow more melodic as her ears filtered out echo, which lessened as they drew closer. A group of miners on their way down were singing.

'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,

Hard Times, hard times, come again no more.

Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;

Oh! Hard times come again no more.

Just as the singing miners passed Vivi she pulled her mask down and screamed "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" then strapped it back on tight. The miners looked at each other in disturbed silence while Vivi finished fixing the cart and got moving again.

"I'm doing them a favor. Keep singing like that and you'll get 36'd." Vivi chuckled to herself. "36 straight hours of mining. That'd show 'em."

16 hours of hauling salt up out of the mine later, Vivi finished her shift and parked her cart back in the stall. As she did she laid into it with a kick. "Fuck you, I hope you break." She thought as it clicked back into place.

"Name?" The foreman asked.

"Vivian Ika Volta."

"Shift?"

"Heavy 4, and fuck you." Vivi replied as she dumped her gas mask on the counter the foreman was standing by. Before a word could be said Vivi scuttled out of the mine and hurried to her beach side hideout. It was just a small wooden shack made of driftwood, but it was good enough. 

Today was a special day and she had prepped something equally special, one whole lemon and a cheese stuffed fish. As soon as she got to the shack she shuffled off her work jacket and gathered some driftwood and trash for a fire. Her custom built lighter lit the materials quick and she put the fish over to cook, then ran to the water to clean off. 

Vivi lay in the water, staring up at dark sky until she felt clean enough to climb back out and dry herself by the fire. She ate the fish in three bites and didn't peel the lemon before stuffing it in her mouth. Both were rare enough she wasn't going to hold back. The acid and rich flavor combined in her mouth to make for a top tier dish, for someone that lived in the Brack Conglomerate. The air had enough salt to season it too, about like everywhere else in Brack. Once she was done chewing she kicked sand over the fire and climbed to the top of the nearby cliff.

"Well Viv-ster." She said aloud once she reached to top. "The big 1-8. After 7 years you're one step away." She reached into her pockets and pulled a waterlogged paper from it. One side had scribbled blueprints from months ago, the other side had something she'd imagined she would say when she made up her mind to leave the mines.

Vivi read that side aloud. "Only those who wish for limits will find them. I have no limits, they vanish behind the horizon with each step I take. The only thing that holds me back is my ability to take that next step. And I never stop walking."

"Is that too melodramatic?" She pondered. "Whatever."