Disclaimer

I don't own RWBY, or any company related to it.

Chapter 4

After a short flight and landing they were at their destination. The guards unfastened them and ordered them to leave the bullhead in a single line from the lowest number to the highest. She was the fourth one to leave and she took a quick look around while following the person in front of her. There were some wooden barracks with number signs increasing every twenty per building on the right side, a couple of stone and wood buildings on the left side for staff, supplies and guards. Wall around them with a couple of turrets on it for protection against grimm. In front there was a mountain towering above the mining site with an entrance at the side for miners. All buildings and mine shafts were connected by a series of dirt and stone roads.

"Yours barrack is the one with numbers from 81 to 100, with exception for number 80 who is in barrack next to. The canteen is that big wooden building on the left. You go there in the morning, before mining and after mining. Showers and toilets are inside yours sleeping quarters, so there should not be a problem. You are expected to at least mine for ten hours every day. Failure in doing so will result in immediate punishment from the shocking chip in your arm, as leaving the area, or attempting to damage and remove it. Mine is open all day and night, so you can come here when you want, or never leave it. Outside there are some wheelbarrows for transporting mined dust, or dead bodies outside… If they were to pay attention to instruction movie, they would have still been alive. Pickaxes are inside the shaft entrance. Now off to go to work. On your first day you are to spend five hours mining. Also the exit of the mine got a dust crystal detector, so if you try to leave with it… Just prepare to be shocked. Leave it inside a wheelbarrow next to the guard and staff members who are at the exit" The speech was performed by an official of mine, who stepped out from his building which was the closest to the bullhead.

Shortly after it he went back inside his office and the group dispersed into three directories leaving her alone. First group went to the barracks, second to the mine and third to the canteen.

After standing for a moment alone, she decided to go mining, as she ate before and was at full strength after having a forced nap for operation and transport.

On her way there she saw some faunus leaving mine, as all miners were most likely of her kind. They stuck with a sweat, but she decided to ignore it and then she saw that some were lacking a couple of fingers and had burn marks on them. The view caused her to hesitate for a moment, before stelling her nerves and going forward to mine.

She picked up a wheelbarrow and loaded a pickaxe inside it and went inside the mine. There were a couple of corridors inside to different parts of mine. The insides were quite weakly lightened, as the only light sources were a couple of light bulbs every few meters. Walls had a wooden beam support in order to minimize a risk of collapse, but they had been covered in a burn mark, which scared her, but she hoped that nothing would happen during her mining time.

She continued through one of the corridors and after a while she went past some miners, who were digging at the side wall and excavating dust crystals. After reaching the end of the shaft, she placed her wheelbarrow and took the pickaxe. It was heavy, so she used an aura to augment her strength a little. It helped enough for lifting it and she let gravity hit the stone. It barely did anything, but it was always better than nothing.

After some time her muscles were in pain, but the progress was minimal, as only a small rock fell off the wall and it contained nothing else. According to the instructions there should be one of the miners going every fifteen minutes collecting waste rocks from ground and pulling them outside, so she left it behind her and continued mining while taking a break every digged up rock.

It took her about two hours to find a fire dust crystal that she carefully excavated, as accidently striking it would cause an explosion with the possibility of harming her with the shards from the rocks and pickaxe. It took her a while, but she managed to place it inside the wheelbarrow and she could continue mining.

After counting twelve courses made by the rock collector she stopped mining and decided to look at her job. It was a small nook in the wall the size of her head and only a single dust crystal in her wheelbarrow.

After spending five hours mining, she placed her pickaxe next to the crystal and pushed the wheelbarrow to the exit of the mine. She placed the pickaxe back on the shelf and brought the wheelbarrow to the staff that took the crystal, examined it and asked "Yours number?"

"83"

"Your canteen account has 10 lien on it now for the mined crystal"

"Umm… What are the earnings for mined dust?" She asked with little fear and hesitation in her voice.

He then shook his head and pointed at the sign with prices:

Dust - 1,5 lien per gram

Small crystal - 5 lien per piece

Medium crystal - 10 lien per piece

Big crystal - 20 lien per piece.

"Thank you" she answered and realized that it took her five hours and luck to get ten credits into her account and she did not know it yet for what. She left the wheelbarrow at a designated place and passed by the dust detector and the guard sitting next to it. She was hungry, thirsty, sweaty and covered in rock dust, but she knew now that the punishment would be avoided for this day. After a while of complemating in what to do now, she decided to clean herself in the barracks.

After entering hers she saw a row of numbered hard wooden bunk beds without the mattress. Luckily there were small pillows for the head and something to cover themselves. She then spotted a door leading to showers and entered it to see it was a wall of showers with no covers on one side of the wall and shelves for clothes and hanging towels.

There were two naked males and one naked female showering there, completely used to it. She saw one of the numbers on a male arm was 98, so they most likely weren't in her transport and had experience. Resigned and tired, she went to one of the shelves and stripped her clothes, leaving nothing on her and took a fast shower trying to cower herself as much as it was possible, while not getting too much embarrassment.

After finishing it she used one of the towels to wipe herself and wear her clothes. She realized then that her clothes were also covered in sweat and stone dust, but she decided against stripping herself again and washing them, as the time for them to dry up would leave her naked for a long time.

Ruby left the barrack and followed the road to the canteen. The sun was getting low as it was getting late. Inside there were a lot of people with staff behind the counter and a price sign above them. There was also a small computer with a numerical keyboard. Out of curiosity she went to the computer and saw on its monitor 'enter number'.

She typed her number and hit enter, which caused it to display 'Balance: 10 lien'.

She then checked the sign above the counter and saw:

Gruel: free

Water: free

Rice: 1 lien

Potato: 1,5 lien

Juice: 1 lien

Salad: 2 lien

Chicken meat: 4 lien

Pig meat: 4,5 lien

Beer: 6 lien

Basic dish (3 potatoes, chicken meat and salad): 9 lien

Advanced dish (...): 16 lien

Freedom: 100 000 lien.

The prices were a ripoff of between 5 to 30 times bigger than in the market, but there were no alternatives and for good food she would need to work hard. Price for freedom was unattainable as even if she were to earn 20 lien per day it would take her 5000 days on gruel and water, which was above her match skills to count how many years it would take.

Again she resigned to her fate and bought two potatoes and chicken meat spending seven lien on it. After all, mother always said that she needs to eat a lot to grow big and strong, which in this situation would apply a lot. She chose a seat at the end of the hall seeing that a lot of the people curiously eyed her and some newcomers were jealous of her food and might try to steal it from her. After seating she recognized one of the people that was with her on transport with number 87 on arm standing up and going to her with his empty platter.

Lucky one of the residing faunas stood up from his seat and stopped him with words "no stealing, we are all in this together. If we fight between ourselves then we will be no better than humans. She worked hard for it and is able to eat her prize. The rules here are mostly about stick and carrot"

With these words being said a couple of other faunus stood up in unity, showing that they all respect the rules and she felt safer now being able to eat in peace something that tasted better. The person who tried to reach her turned back and placed his platter on the return counter.

After eating she left the building and seeing it was getting dark, Ruby decided to go sleep in the barracks. She climbed on top of her bed, which was above number 82 and cried herself to sleep.

At midnight she woke up, due to yells of pain from the half of the people from her batch. They were getting electro-shocked, and she nervously rubbed her arm, but no pain came. One of the people yelling was the person from the canteen and by the looks of his, he didn't go mining before. She recalled the speech and realized that this was punishment for lack of work. The last of them went silent after an hour as he fell unconscious from pain like the rest. She then fell asleep with nightmares haunting her and knowledge that tomorrow it would be worse, as she has to work for ten hours total.