Monkey, Rock, and Ugly all looked at the hot sandwich James had just picked up with longing.
It had been such a long time since they could afford the dinner speciality. All they could do was watch James eat it every night, driving their bellies' mad.
As James was walking out of the bland building, Loud (What James called the loud guard) reminded him, "Tomorrow morning we're doing haircuts James."
"Thank you Loud." "Sure thing." Loud didn't get mad because of James nickname for him. He quite liked it actually.
Ugly frowned as she looked at the 3 or 4 inch long brown hair that was finally growing back on her head.
Rock saw Ugly's sad expression and spoke for the first time all day. "Ugly, Hygiene important."
Rock was not named Rock because of his tall and sturdy body.
The corner of Ugly's mouth twitched but she ultimately didn't say anything to refute Rock.
Old Man couldn't take it anymore and asked, "Why does everyone go by some weird nickname?"
Monkey asked doubtfully, "Are you as dumb as Rock? What'll happen to you if you form a grudge on this mining colony and finally regain your freedom? Do you want to lose your peace of mind in the outside world too?"
Rock was angry at Monkey for calling him dumb so he pointed his large finger at him and said, "Banana!"
Monkey's face darkened a few shades as he stood up. He hated being made fun of for his looks.
The guards watched this happen with smiles on their faces. If Monkey tried attacking Rock, then they would only have to scrape up a mutilated corpse.
Rock easily had a meter and 100 kilograms on Monkey. He was no small fellow.
The only reason he could stay in the most lenient 48th district is because he really is too stupid.
Monkey swallowed a mouthful of saliva and sat back down after looking at the tower of a man.
Forget it. Why should he throw his life away because of a single word?
Back at the cave dwelling James had dug himself.
James crawled into the small cave and patted his full belly, letting out a satisfied belch in response.
James then laid down on the smooth rock surface and glanced up at the sky.
There was no sun or moon. There was only a vast sea of stars all around in each direction that lit up the mining colony.
These stars didn't emit much heat or light, but the colony still managed to stay a reasonable temperature of 18° Celsius all day, all month, and all year.
James had gotten quite used to this temperature and actually even liked it.
It was just warm enough for him to not need any blankets to sleep and just cool enough for him to not need any blankets to sleep.
James didn't need any blankets.
He stared at the starry sky and fell asleep peacefully. This was his daily routine for four years already.
James looked around and noticed he was in a large building. The specifics of the building were all blurred out besides a little boy sitting in a stand, the other people present, and where they were seated.
"Two nights of dreaming in a row? How unlucky."
James found a quiet corner and assumed his waiting pose; cross legged with his palm supporting his chin.
He recognized this place all to well. It was the courthouse where he got convicted of Jesse's murder.
There was a hall full of people who had most of their faces blurred out besides their mouths. They were all sitting in wooden chairs with wooden tables in front of them. At the front of the room was a large wooden stand.
Despite the Baylin Empire being a monarchy, the people liked to pretend that there was sufficient law and order, hence this trial. However, that was just rubbish.
In the right side of the stand, 11 year old James sat with a dull expression.
On the left side of the stand, the six teenagers responsible for Jesse's death were all present.
In the middle of the stand, an overweight judge was sitting in a chair that could barely support his weight.
*Knock, Knock, Knock*
The fat judge knocked his gavel on the sound block three distinctive times, quieting down the chattering people in the hall.
"Ahem. Can Miss Carmelita take the stand please?"
A fat old woman came up to the middle of the hall and stood behind a podium.
The judge smiled causing all of his fat to roll and bend across his face. It looked quite scary. However, the old woman didn't seem affected negatively in the slightest. Instead, she even looked a little infatuated.
The judge smiled approvingly and asked, "Miss Carmelita, can you tell us your opinion of this defendants character?"
The little James in the stand became excited thinking that he had finally caught a break. He wasn't very close to this woman, but she treated all of the orphans in the orphanage very well.
"Yes your honor. This boy James arrived at my orphanage four years ago. At first, I thought he was a very well behaved little boy and treated him kindly. I even gave him a weekly salary. Little did I know that he would become greedy and start bullying the other orphans for their allowances."
The smile on the face of the little James in the stand froze.
Miss Carmelita continued, "The very day after I gave everybody their allowances, multiple of them came up to me with all sorts of cuts and bruises. They were in terrible condition. When I asked them to explain what happened to me clearly, they all said that James had attacked and robbed them."
The people in the stands all started murmuring.
*Knock, Knock, Knock*
The fat judge knocked his gavel on the sound block three more times, silencing the room.
"Thank you Miss Carmelita. You may take your seat."
The fat, old woman smiled at the judge and returned to one of the chairs in the audience.
The dream played out bit by bit.
The people in the audience came up to the podium that was stationed in the middle of the floor one by one.
They either praised the six teenagers character to the high heavens or dragged James character back through the sewage water.
The little James in the stand had lost all hope.
Fortunately, the next people to come up to the podium were the authorities who investigated the murder case.
The hope in little James's eyes was rekindled.
The lead authority with a blank expression pulled out a high tech wrist bracelet and sent all of the information that the authorities gathered from the crime scene straight to the judge.
The obese judge had a high tech wrist bracelet as well, but it was triple the size so it could fit around his wrist.
The judge pressed a few buttons causing all of the information he just received to be open to the audience in the form of an enlarged light screen.
Audible gasps were heard throughout the entire hall.
James who was sitting in a corner, clenched his fists tightly, but then quickly relaxed.
"It already happened What can I do about it?"
The judge let out a deep sigh and shook his gelatinous head side to side.
"Folks, as you can see, the evidence is extremely conclusive. Therefore, I sentence James to a lifetime of working in the No Man's Wasteland Prison."
The surroundings of James suddenly changed.
In front of James was a giant metal door. In front of the giant metal door was a group of 30 prisoners who had their arms and legs shackled. Among them was his little self.
The giant metal door opened up revealing a desolate, gray wasteland and a row of parallel guards wearing the blue greaves that belonged to the soldiers of Baylin Empire.
One by one, each of the prisoners got off of the ship. Each prisoner was handed a gray pair of clothes with a different colored ribbon wrapped around the right arm.
The colors varied from white, yellow, orange, and red. These colors represented the offenses you committed before coming to this No Man's Wasteland Prison.
A white ribbon means that the crime you committed was punishable by law, but it wasn't a serious offense.
The yellow ribbon means that the crime you committed wasn't too serious, but it was still bad enough for you to be locked up for a few years.
The orange ribbon means that the person committed a heinous crime and had to be taken as a threat to the citizens of the Baylin Empire.
While the red ribbon means that a person committed an irredeemable offense and by no means can be released back into the public.
Out of this group of 30 prisoners, James was the only one who received the gray clothes with a red ribbon sewed into them.
This caused all of the guards and prisoners to look at him strangely.
Little James didn't mind. He was already broken at this point. No matter what anyone thought of him, he wouldn't care.
James watched as his past self walked into the prison and disappeared.