James walked passed the four people sitting at the table and went to the furthest left most kiosk.
This was James' lifeline. He put his arm with the red ribbon on it inside the machine.
"Death Row inmate: James. Please deposit your gains in the carrier tray on the side."
James took his arm out of the machine and placed the orange agate on the tray that just stuck out.
The tray of the machine slowly re-entered the automated kiosk.
"Scanning... .4 kilograms of orange agate collected. Registering to Death Row inmate: James."
James walked to another kiosk with a slight smile and two glossy eyes. Life wasn't so bad if you stopped caring about everything.
This entire time he could hear the four people at the nearby table talking about him, but why should he care?
James arrived before the automated breakfast kiosk and started choosing from the limitless options.
There were grain pellets, oatmeal, bread, and even a steamed bun for the big spenders. That was James.
James bought a steamed bun and started returning the way he came. When he walked by the table of four who were all staring at him strangely, he had to voice his doubts.
"Who got whipped this morning?"
There was an old man at the table who was a newcomer. Besides him, there was an ugly woman, a man that looked half evolved, and a tall sturdy fellow.
The ugly woman looked extremely beautiful to anyone that was in jail long enough. However, James still called her Ugly.
The man that looked like a monkey was called Monkey by James and the sturdy fellow was called Rock by him.
Now it seemed he would have to come up with a fitting name for this old man. "How about Old Man?" He thought. James was very creative.
The three experts; Ugly, Monkey, and Rock smiled knowingly as Ugly said, "We don't dwell near you. You live alone, remember?"
James scrunched his eyebrows. "What happened to those two fellows that lived next to me?"
Ugly kept an ugly smile and explained, "They left a few months ago."
"Oh." James walked out of the building and started heading back to his territory. That's right, his territory.
No one else lived in his Death Row block of the 48th district. Didn't that make it his territory?
When James disappeared out of the four's sight, Ugly said, "See old man? That kid ain't right. Best to leave him alone." Monkey added, "Yeah. The guards are biased towards him too so be careful."
There were two guards present in the building. Both of them were wearing the standard dark blue military greaves of the Baylin empire.
At this moment, both of them were staring at Monkey fiercely. One of them shouted, "Monkey! Do you want another lashing?!"
Monkey cowered back and whispered to the old man, "What did I tell you?" The whisper was loud enough for the two guards to hear.
The other guard that wasn't the one who shouted said as a matter of fact, "James might be a little messed up in the head and he's even a Death Row inmate, but that doesn't change fact that he's never woken up late and he's always mined his fill during the day."
The guard who previously shouted readily nodded in agreement and added, "Besides, everyone here knows that boy is innocent."
The guard next to him jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow and gave him a cautious look.
The loud guard immediately shut his mouth and returned to standing guard quietly.
Rock, Ugly, Monkey, and Old Man all finished eating their meals and returned to their cave dwellings to get their pickaxes. The two guards followed.
There were no fancy gates or high voltage fencing keeping the four locked up. They basically lived out in the open.
After collecting their pickaxes, the three experts led Old Man to where they have been mining recently.
The four started monotonously striking the stone over and over and over again.
Old Man watched as the three drifted into their thoughts, thinking about who knows what.
Old Man was surprisingly as proficient with the pickaxe as everyone else, but he couldn't find the right mindset. Everything just felt dull and boring.
Thinking this, he asked a question between his swings.
"If the guards know that boy James is innocent, why is he here?"
Monkey signaled with his hand to be quiet. Then, he looked at the two guards that weren't very far away from them.
He breathed a sigh of relief after not noticing a change in their expressions.
"Don't talk here. Wait until we all reach the quota and head back to the dwellings." Monkey said in-between each swing
The loud guard heard Monkey speaking and shouted angrily. "Dammit Monkey! You're really asking for it!"
"No, no, not at all. I was just explaining the rules to the new guy here, honest."
The loud guard looked at Old Man seemingly trying to get an answer from him. Old Man saw this and nodded in affirmation.
The loud guard looked a little disappointed and put his whip back.
Monkey breathed a sigh of relief and got back to work, glaring at Old Man who almost just got him whipped.
Old Man smiled wryly and didn't say anything else.
Back in the Death Row inmates territory.
James had finished the delicious, exquisitely hand crafted steam bun and patted his belly in satisfaction.
He walked back to the pit he had been mining in previously with a full belly and began swinging his pickaxe again.
*Clang, Clang, Clang*
"Phew. Another successful long day of work."
James wiped the sweat off of his forehead and looked at the pile of different minerals he had found today.
"Not bad, not bad." James left his pickaxe in the pit and carried about half of them to the electric fence he was previously at.
After confirming his identity, the electric fence opened up and let him through.
James leisurely walked all the way back to the plain building and went to the automated mineral kiosk.
"Scanning... .3 kilograms of orange agate collected. .4 kilograms of lapis collected. .1 kilograms of tyrite collected. Registering to Death Row inmate: James."
Monkey looked at James and swallowed his saliva. That was a lot of contribution points he just saw him turn in.
To people who weren't Death Row inmates, contribution points not only got them their meals, excess contribution points could also be contributed to their sentence, shortening it greatly over time.
Ugly saw the drool coming out of from the corner of Monkeys mouth and frowned. "Don't get any stupid ideas."
Monkey heard her words and wiped the drool from his mouth. "I know. Don't worry." He assured.
James of course heard this, but again he didn't care.
He was focused on the second most important part of the day; dinner.
"Too many choices, too many choices." James muttered to himself while looking at the list of five options for dinner.
Although he muttered it to himself, the four people at the table and two guards all heard it. They didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
James seemed to be the only excited one. He went through the list of grain pellets, oatmeal, bread, steam bun, and a beef sandwich which tonight's dinner speciality.
Of course the king had to eat like one. He pressed his short and stout finger on the image of the beef sandwich.
A small tray came out of the side of the automated food kiosk. On the tray was the beef sandwich.
It looked absolutely delicious. It smelled even better. Steam even came from the sandwich showing that it was made fresh and ready especially for James.