James soon arrived in front of the pit he had been mining in. He grabbed his trusty pickaxe, went inside the pit, and got to work.
*Clank, Clank, Clank*
Like usual, James picked up the broken stones all around him and put them on the ledge of the pit so he could look in them at a better angle.
He frowned. "Nothing? Really?" James didn't think much about it and threw all the stones to the waste pile.
He picked up his pickaxe again and started swinging.
*Clank, Clank, Ping*
The blue tipped pickaxe in James's hands recoiled fiercely, nearly coming back into his body. Thankfully he was running out of energy and wasn't mining with much strength.
If the pickaxe recoiled when he was using his full strength, James might really have suffered gravely.
James first looked at his pickaxe and saw that it's condition was still fine. Then he focused his attention on where he just struck.
James didn't see anything special at first so he reached down and wiped away all of the rocks and rubble.
His trusty pickaxe wouldn't recoil for no reason.
After he moved all of the rocks into the waste pile, he observed the flat stone surface.
"Nothing? Not even a mark? Am I just getting too weak? No. Let me try again."
James raised his mighty pickaxe in the air and swung it downward at full speed.
*Ping*
The pickaxe struck the smooth stone and recoiled again. He had used much more strength this time around causing his hands to go numb from the force of the recoil, resulting in him losing his grip on the pickaxe.
The blue tipped pickaxe flew out of his hands and lodged itself into the stone wall next to James's head.
James swallowed hard and looked down where he had just struck using his full force.
There still wasn't a single mark on the flat stone surface.
"Incredible." The nervousness James felt by almost getting impaled to death by his own pickaxe was gone and replaced by curiosity.
He thought that he had to have found something really good and became eager to dig it up.
He reached out to pull his pickaxe out of the stone wall, but he couldn't get it at first.
"That sucker is lodged good." James repositioned himself and started pulling with both his hands.
He still couldn't manage to break the pickaxe free, so he put one of his legs against the wall and pulled with both hands at the same time.
The pickaxe wiggled a little bit.
James's strength grew with the anticipation of getting his prized tool unstuck.
The pickaxe started to slide out of the stone little by little. Then, it came loose at once.
James was pulling with all of his strength while using both hands and a leg. One can imagine that the force that was focused on the pickaxe was quite fierce.
Unfortunately when the pickaxe came loose, this fierce force had nowhere else to go but his body.
He fell backwards, stumbled and hit the ground.
It was a miserable landing causing him to scrape his left arm quite badly. It even tore the sturdy prison suit.
"Ow, ow, ow." He said out loud.
However, he was cursing himself internally. "Dammit! I knew better than to do that. Is acting like an idiot all day actually turning me into an idiot? I'm really going to get myself killed."
James laid down flat on the ground allowing the blood from his arm to flow out.
He let out a deep sigh but didn't regret his actions.
This injury would just further show the other guards besides Loud and Quiet that he really was incapable.
That way he could permanently avoid the draft. That was his ultimate goal.
He may not be 100% right in his head and he knew that. However, he still had his innate intelligence.
Back on the shithole planet of Rainier 9, when he was in the orphanage, he saw a broadcast from the Baylin Empire's media explaining to the common citizens that they would use the prisoners as cannon fodder before they used the Empire's soldiers.
James didn't think about it at first, but as soon as he was taken in by the investigators in charge of the murder case, he started his act.
He could tell by how they were handling the case that he didn't stand a chance.
Even in the court room he tried his best to seem like an unstable kid, whether it was being overly happy or uncontrollably sad.
James let out another sigh. "Time waits for no man."
He grabbed his pickaxe with his still good right hand and turned around to look where he was lying.
He noticed he was actually laying on the smooth stone he was just trying to mine.
He looked at the stone a bit more carefully, then he panicked.
"Oh no! Did I hit my head?"
The pain that was coursing through his bloodied left arm disappeared and his mind went completely blank.
"The sane test. What's the sane test...? Oh! Who am I? Where am I? How old am I? What am I doing?"
He answered himself, "I'm James. I'm in the No Man's Wasteland Prison. I'm 15. I'm currently staring at a rock that has my name carved into it."
"Alright, still got it." James smiled in relief. Then his expression froze as he recalled what he said last.
He looked at the flat stone he was laying on incredulously.
He blinked hard a few times and rubbed his eyes for five seconds each before blinking a few more times.
He stared at the stone intently and read it again.
"The Ramblings of a Mad Man, to my only disciple James. Yes, you James. The one that just foolishly injured his left arm quite seriously. The one that feigns brain damage to not get drafted. That's you isn't it?"
James couldn't help but reply out loud. "Yes that's me."
More words appeared under the previous ones. They said, "Good. Now stand up and read all of the questions and answers that you see appear here as well."
James was doubting his mind right now, but he still stuck to the current topic and went to ask, "Why?"
Before he could ask, more words appeared on the smooth stone.
"Because the warden of your prison is currently observing you through the live footage that's required to be on all Death Row inmates at all times."
James swallowed his words and decided to obediently play along. He thought to himself, "Could blindly following words that magically appear on a stone go wrong?"
James stood up and stared down.
He said, "Why are the stones gray? They don't taste gray. The stars are yellow. Do they taste yellow? Yes. Are they too hot to eat? No. I eat them all."
One had to give James credit. He might have the best poker face in the universe. His facial expression didn't even twitch while he was talking to himself.
The words on the smooth stone ended with, "Don't repeat this next line out loud. Do it."
James stared intently. The words, "Now go to that plain building and get your arm fixed. The rest is up to you. Come back here afterwards." appeared.
James followed the stone's orders and climbed out of the small pit with his bloodied and mangled left arm.
He started heading towards the bland building without hesitation.
Ten minutes ago.
Quiet and Loud were standing on ceremony in the bland building that was like half of a pavilion.
*Click, Swoosh*
The two looked into the distance at the same time where the large steel gate to the 47th district was.
Looks of surprise flashed by their eyes when they suddenly heard it open. An even more surprised look appeared on their faces when they saw who opened it.
It was the warden of the No Man's Wasteland Prison.
Seeing the tall, stalwart man wearing the same greaves as them, just with many more badges, they hurriedly left their stations and walked over to greet him.
Quiet and Loud both arrived before the warden and saluted with the standard Baylin Empire salute.
The warden nodded in satisfaction. "At ease soldiers. I'm only here to make sure that the reports you sent in about the prisoners are all correct. I personally visited every other district as well so don't worry."
Loud was always the first to speak. He said, "Warden sir, would you like to see the profiles and our personal accounts of the prisoners to make sure we sent all of the eligible inmates to the frontlines?"
The warden smiled in appreciation. "It's always nice having capable people around. Yes I would like that."
Loud said simply, "You flatter me sir." He then
clicked on the high tech bracelet and sent the profiles of Old Man, Ugly, and James to the warden.
The warden touched his bracelet and had it display all of the information in front of the three in a holographic manner. If there were any mistakes, he would openly point them out and show the two their mistakes.
"Let's see here... the first one's alias is Old Man. He's 75 and in prison for tax evasion. Alright no problem here. He's definitely too old to go to the frontlines."
The warden clicked on the next arrow and the portrait of Ugly appeared.
The warden jumped back in horror and covered his chest so his heart wouldn't burst out and run away from the fright.
He frantically clicked the next arrow.
James portait, information, and the guards personal opinions appeared.
The warden read, "Death Row inmate James. He's 15 years old and was imprisoned for the murder of an 11 year old boy."
A knowing light flickered by his eyes. He somewhat remembered this story from four years ago. However, he didn't say anything.
The warden continued to read aloud.
"This boy is quite polite and his work ethic is very commendable. Not a single time has he woke up late and needed to be punished. However, he's not right in the head. He's actually quite wrong."
The warden raised his extremely thin eyebrows and looked at Quiet and Loud puzzledly.
"What's wrong with this boy?"