Thwack! "Ow!" The kid opens his eyes and finds himself on the wooden dilapidated floor of his room. A single bed with torn sheets and a half cut blanket can be seen with a desk with a broken mirror and a hoodie on a chair with its back gone can be seen.
"Another nightmare of that terrible night. When will they stop, I wonder..."
Just then he hears a knock on his door and a girl's voice.
"Zero? Are you up and dressed? We gotta be outta here in ten minutes to get to work or you know what will happen!" The voice tells Zero
"Yeah, sorry I'll be right out!" He responds.
"Ok, we're all waiting downstairs. Don't forget your D-Device!"
Zero got up and went to his mirror to fix his messy black hair. He goes to his closet and picks up a half torn green jumpsuit with the patches, "Number 0" sewn on it.
(Another day, at least we're not dead I guess.) He thought.
Zero got dressed, grabbed a circle like earpiece looking device before heading to the stairs. On his way out he smacked into a kid, slightly smaller than Zero, with brown hair wearing a regular t-shirt and shorts. They both fall to the floor.
"Ouch!" they both say.
"You know Zero, you're really good at hitting stuff, but could you not hit me in the process?"
"Sorry, Rhyunous."
"It's all good. I should have been watching out more."
The younger boy, Rhyunous, is one of the people who survived the same ordeal as Zero.
"Let me help you up."
"It's ok. I'm not a kid you need to look after anymore, Zero."
"Ok, my bad. Let's go before we miss breakfast."
"Sounds good!"
They walked down the stairs into a normal living room with a holo screen with a timer on it. Then they entered the kitchen where a young woman was slicing some bread. She wore her blue hair in a side ponytail with a blue bow. It went well with her blue choker, light blue hoodie and blue sweatpants. This was Sierrna. She was 16 and was to be the spouse to Zero according to the governing rules.
"Good morning, Zero, Rhyunous." She greeted them with a hearty smile.
"Good morning, Sierrna. How was last night?" Zero asked.
"It was ok. Today I made bread but this time we have butter." She said proudly.
"Where is Rykar?" Zero asked.
As if on cue, a boy with orange sticky-like hair wearing an orange jumpsuit with, "Number 72" entered the kitchen.
"Heyo! The king is here! Don't fear!"
Whack! Siernna smacked him with a pan on the head.
"Quit that! You know Zero is King. If they hear you they'll punish us!" she said.
"Ow! Sorry sis, but damn that hurt! Even though we're the same age you pack a meaner punch!"
"Well if you worked as hard as you talk, maybe we would be Tier 1 workers."
"Stop saying that like you're proud!" Zero interrupted with a disgusted look on his face. Before conversation could continue, the holo screens countdown timer ended with a loud noise as an was announcement was made,
"Tier 2 workers, it's 5am! Time to get to work! All tier 2 workers head to the site immediately! Insubordination will result in punishment not only for you, but the house. Thank you and have a blessed day!"
"Well time to go boys! I'll see you at the end of the day!" Sierrna chimes.
"Ok, see ya."
Zero and the guys headed out of the house and waited at a sign that had a person and the number 2 on it. They waited a few minutes till the bus arrived and opened its doors. The automated voice commanding Tier 2 workers to board now. Zero and the boys got on and walked back to the back of the bus. The next stop would be the Excavation site: A. As the ride went on Rykar turned to Zero.
"What do you think they'll have us do today?" Rykar asked Zero.
"Who knows it could be anything, it's always something new for us" Zero responded.
He looked outside the windows and saw destroyed buildings and wreckage from the tragedy left over and saw some people with numbers on their clothes lifting it up and cleaning up debris.
"Might be clean up duty today, we haven't done that in a while" Zero told Rykar.
"Heyo I hope not we always get blisters and sore hands doing that."
Rykar exclaimed, which made them both look at their hands.
The bus pulled up to a place with a bunch of tents and entrance to a mine.
The bus arrived at Excavation site: A.
"Workers! off now!" The bus queued.
"Well, let's get to work."
The bus doors opened and in front of the boys was a gate with a sign,
"Workers Enter Here".
The boys entered through the gate where a man was waiting to explain what they were doing today.
"Hello, my name is John. Grab a pickaxe and a box. You'll be working in the mines today. You can't come back or have anything to eat till the box is full of dimensionite."
A worker in the group grunted with disdain. John grabbed his gun and shot him right where he stood.
"Are there any other complaints today? No? Good. Get to work maggots!"
Zero grabbed a pickaxe and a box, then headed outside to get to work. However, he was stopped by John.
"You! Number Zero! I killed the Ruins Department help so you'll be heading there today. So drop the pickaxe, you're not gonna need that. Hahaha!"
Zero did as instructed and was brought to the ruins section. Here was the deadliest section of the excavation work. You were given a bag and sent down to the ruins with nothing and couldn't return till you found anything of value.
"To find something of value use your D-Device. I heard a tale that there's a tomb down there cursed to kill any who disturb the resting place. Hahah! Get to work, you hog!"
Zero was given a bag and was told to head to Hole Digger 2. Zero walked around and saw a barren dirt field with holes dug everywhere. He was never here so he had no idea what to expect or if he would even come back alive. Zero reached Hole Digger 2. It was a worker strapped to a drill.
He said, "Another poor soul… not even gonna ask your name cause you're gonna die down there, kid. Nice life, huh?"
The guy dug a hole wide enough for Zero to go in. He then grabbed a 60 ft rope, brought it to the hole, threw it down and connected it to a machine.
He instructed Zero, "One tug to bring you up with nothing and two if you have something. Don't bother doing one tug, they'll kill you if you come back empty handed, kid. Good luck!"
Zero attached the rope to his waist and started to slide down the hole. It was dark, cold, and damp for a long time. For minutes, Zero kept descending till finally he hit the ground he detached from the rope. He reached up to his ear and clicked on the flashlight of his D-Device. He saw a huge open cavern in front of him filled with destroyed buildings and weird mechanical lights. He walked for a while looking at all the stuff down here till something caught his eye. A huge intact looking building-like structure. In front of him was a temple and a bunch of city's buildings from the ancient days. He was amazed at how much was buried under the city he lived in now. It seemed to go on forever. He started in the direction of the temple in a decayed state. As he walked he wondered if he would be able to find anything worth of value or if he would truly die here.
He used his D-Device to decipher what age the temple was. The device responded with, "1000 years old. Human built. Structure based on Greek inspiration." There was old text written in a different language all over the temple. Zero used the D-Device to decipher the language. It read, "Here lies the Red Sacrifice."
He entered the old temple inside there were eight tall thrones in the building and a 9th one in the middle with the symbols "E.L.H" carved into the pillar.
Zero then asked the D-Device, "Can you tell me the history of the temple?" The device responded, "No data has been recorded of this structure or the Red Sacrifice."
Weird. The data device usually knows everything about the things in the world and dimensions. Zero thought.
He continued into the center of the throne room where he examined the other thrones. Each of them marked differently; Angel, Fallen, Sarit, and Human.
"Wonder what they mean." Zero stepped back and activated something on the floor. A holo-screen popped up with a video of someone who the D-Device couldn't recognize.
The person in the video started to speak.