Wild West - Chapter 6 - Part 17 - 5 minute freewrite challenge

With the empty wheelbarrows in place they all went back to work, smashing their iron tools against the bedrock. Definitely not a ridiculous amount of fun. It seemed, however, that the break time came faster the second time around, and even faster the later times. It wasn't because they were working faster – they were more sluggish with every passing minute – but because they got much better at putting their mind on idle. Instead of counting hours as they would otherwise, they kept track of the number of breaks that they had.

Over time they noticed that some areas were very rich with the desired ore, while the others were completely deficient of it. It definitely seemed as if the further they dug, the less ore there was. Looking back they also realized how much of the rock they had already excavated – the tunnel had widened substantially – and because they were using no support at all they tried their best not to think about the possibility of a cave in.

With every break they were increasingly more tired, but at the same time cared about it less and so resembled brain-dead robots always more. On the 30th break, however, the miners started leaving alongside the other workers and James and Tom happily followed suit. ”Is our shift over?” They were wondering quietly, both with a subtle smile on their face. The light outside was blinding and they were squinting their eyes hard, but before they could adjust to the light again, they were instructed into a new tunnel and had to start with mining all over again.