He had to shout ‘three’ at least five times before we heard “Pull!” And we pulled. With back-breaking effort, wheezing, stifled moans, and sizzling oaths. We dragged it about five steps, then stalled when several of the weakest of us stopped. I noted gladly to myself that I wasn’t the weakest. I made it about half a step more. The team of barge haulers next to us decided to keep moving, and stopped a couple steps ahead. Damn strongmen...
“Two minutes of rest!”
The two minutes passed far too quickly. And again:
“Three!... Three!... Three!... Pull!”
It took us half an hour to take thirty steps. A minute for each step. By the end, we were resting for three or four minutes at a time, but the last few yards were brutal. I was shaking and covered in sweat. At that moment, trembling, with no strength to even take the fucking strap off my shoulders, I bitterly realized how badly I had been tricked, and why all the smart people had stayed at intersection 17.
I had used up tons of energy and overworked my body, but tomorrow’s job was still ahead of me. Sweat with a sickly chemical smell was literally pouring from me. It didn’t take a genius to realize my body had lost a lot of fluids. I would be thirsty soon, and when my body gave me the signal, I would need to drink water, and badly. But I’d only get water in the evening, and even then just one liter. I’d start smelling bad soon, too, so I would need a shower. Maybe the system wouldn’t react the same way as last time. It wasn’t like sweat was as bad as the gray slime, and it wasn’t really that noticeable if you didn’t sniff too closely. But I would still eventually have to take a shower. If that was allowed when you were in debt. Damn... Hopefully whatever they would give us here would make up for all this a little.
“Over here,” one of the women called out, unslinging a backpack from her shoulder.
Not good. The bag was much too small to hold an appropriate reward for eighteen sweaty goblins.
“One at a time,” the woman said, trying to hide her contempt the same way her boss did.
I was in the middle of the line for rewards again. She threw a neatly-folded piece of fabric, the same quality as my shorts, into my hand. I took a step back and unfolded it to take a look. A t-shirt. A gray t-shirt. I would take a closer look later. I pushed back through the line to the woman, holding out my hand demandingly. She looked up briefly, her contempt undisguised, then turned away:
“Don’t push it, goblin. You got your reward, now fuck off.”
“Shoes,” I said. “I was promised shoes, too.”
“We said ‘or’. You got a t-shirt. Some people got sandals.”
“That’s not what you said,” I disagreed.
“Cortos!” The woman raised her voice. “This one’s complaining.”
One of the thugs stepped towards me menacingly, coming between me and the woman and looming over me like a boulder. But caught up in his power, the boulder didn’t realize that the worm crawling through the dirt wasn’t intimidated — it didn’t even look up. Without even looking at the thug, I kept talking to the woman right
“You owe me a pair of shoes.”
As I said it, the thug pushed me solidly in the chest. I took several small steps back to avoid losing my balance. Then I looked at the thug for the first time, assessing him from head to toe, and asked with a grin:
“Did you push me to show this weak, sick goblin how strong you are? Is that right, you stupid fuck? Decided you wanted to show this weak, sick goblin how strong you are? Huh? You wanted to impress her with what a strong and mighty asshole you are?”
“You motherfucker...” His right shoulder moved back. Slowly — too slowly. When he swung, I easily moved aside, his fist shooting by.
“Stop!”
This sharp shout froze the thug in place. I turned to see the man in the coat striding towards us.
“What’s going on?” The question was sharp, commanding. The man was clearly used to asking questions and getting immediate answers.
“This goblin is being a wiseass,” said the woman.
“This goblin is being a smartass,” said the thug.
“Hey, that was almost in unison!” I smiled admiringly. “This goblin is overjoyed at his masters’ skill! The goblin is especially delighted by this stupid pipsqueak! A talking monkey!”
“You motherfucker...”
The thug’s right shoulder moved back...
This felt familiar...
“Stop! You!” he poked a finger at me. “What do you need?”
“Like you guys said earlier — clothes and shoes. We spent half an hour walking here, then half an hour of hellish work, and now another half an hour to get back. I was promised clothes and footwear. I got a t-shirt. Give me the rest of my reward. It’s only fair.”
