Ren took a slow and careful walk across the corpses all the way up to a large gate. Even at the gate, he still had to shield his nose from the unholy stench that came from the pile. The young guard didn't seem affected.
"How are you not affected by this?" Ren asked him as he fumbled with a bunch of keys.
"You must be one of the new recruits."
He inserted the key into the keyhole and twisted it with a little strain.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it with time," he said smiling back at Ren.
"I doubt I will," Ren mumbled, his hands covering his mouth and nose.
The guard pushed the gate apart with a loud groan, giving a small space in between for them to walk through.
"You know where to go with the box right?" He asked as they walked into an open space.
Ren paused and looked around. He wasn't familiar with this part of the mine, being that he was never allowed out of the cavern except when he had to rest under the sheds. His happiness was that he wasn't going back to be a slave.
"No. I don't..."
The young guard frowned.
"...I mean, I have forgotten."
"I don't blame you at all," he lightened up, "those orientations they give are very boring."
He shook his head.
"You'll join the trooper over there," he pointed to a four-wheeled mechanical truck with a carriage attached behind.
"It's carrying other collectors. The soldiers will drive you along with them to the safe zone. Then you have to unpack it and they'll do the exchange."
"Um... what exchange?" Ren asked.
"That's none of your business. They'll tell you what to do. I got to trail back to the main sector."
The young guard walked away in the opposite direction.
Ren sighed, then his lips curled into a smile. This was the opportunity he had always dreamt of, but never thought it could come true without him losing his life or getting wounded.
He ran towards the trooper that was about to move.
"Hey! Wait!"
He waved as he approached the trooper. Two soldiers poked their heads out. One of them banged on the body of the trooper and halted.
"Who are you?" the soldier commanded.
Ren raised the box, "A collector," he said breathless. "I-I am a collector."
The soldier sized him up.
"He does stink like one of them," the other soldier behind him said.
"Get in the back, scavenger."
Ren sighed then walked to the carriage part. It had no door, so he could see the faces of the other collectors staring down at him as he tried to climb into the carriage.
There were about six of them, scrawny and looking tired. Wrinkles decorated their faces, even if they weren't very old, like it was a symbol of authority for their job. The more they scrunched their faces when they inhaled the unholy stench, the more wrinkles they had, which showed their experience. It was funny to think of, but it seemed to be true.
Ren shuffled through the tight space between them, lifting his legs a little high to avoid tripping over theirs. The only vacant seat was a small space on the long bench reserved at the corner inside the carriage.
Ren squeezed himself in and tried not to hold any eye contact. This reminded him of the carriage in the trial. The only good thing was that he wasn't chained to a trafficker or regarded as a bounty or a heretic. Yet, he could still feel the stares on his face.
'Curse this stupid mark,' he hissed silently, rubbing his forehead.
It was a long ride. That were driven through what looked like a wasteland with no single life around, just vultures scanning the entire area in the sky. It was no surprise as the corpses around were too many to number.
"I hate the Outlier. Brings bad memories to me. My entire family died in one night when rancidity broke," the man close to Ren said.
"That's not compared to what happened to my clan here. People got sick and turned Binged. The Binged ones killed the rest."
"Funny how the Imperial thought it was a nice idea to build here."
"Thanks to the Awakened. They are life savers. My girl just joined the force."
The men cheered and clapped.
"When's the homecoming?" the third man asked with big smile.
"I don't know yet. There's no freaking home to come to here. She's making plans to get me out of this hell hole."
"I'm happy for you, Harold. You're finally getting your Z-Pass."
The men cheered for Harold, taking off their nose masks from around their necks and tossing them at him.
For the rest of the journey, they jested about the items they found on the rotting corpses and debated how much each would get after "the exchange", while Ren sat in the corner, pretending not to be there at all.
The truck finally jerked to a stop. A loud bang signalled it was time for them to get off. The men jumped down, one after the other.
When they were all on the ground again, the soldiers ordered them into a single file and led them through a gate that was surrounded by a tall fence.
They flinched each time they heard loud growls and roars in the distance.
On the other side of the gate they were people walking safely around like they weren't living somewhere in the wasteland. The buildings around all gave off nobility, at least to Ren it did. They didn't live in sheds or houses built out of bricks.
People didn't look their way, and those that did grimaced like they disgusted them. The men all sighed and kissed their teeth when they were given those looks while the soldiers pushed them on.
They led them through a small, deserted road in a market. They were other smaller roads branching out from that single road but the soldiers led them straight on. They bursted out into another road full of merchants and their merchandise.
It did look like a place for the exchange. Ren saw men exchanging carved metals, foodstuff and other materials for coins.
The soldiers led them to the deck. There was a ship with the Imperial emblem on its body.
Some men in noble clothes that had same emblem stood in front of the ship.
"Hand over your collections to the regal merchants," the soldiers commanded.
Each collector stepped out and handed their box to the regal merchants. The merchants flipped open the boxes and pick out each item in them, scrutinizing them with the eyes of an eagle.
After the inspection, the merchants whispered the value of each box to the soldiers. The soldiers nodded.
'Greedy bastards,' Ren cussed in his mind.
"Move to the collection point and wait for your share," one of the soldiers ordered.
The men marched off the deck in a file to the collection point that was just a single counter under a shed amongst other merchants' shed. The only special thing about this shed was that it had the Imperial emblem on it and two armoured soldiers guarding it.
Ren was the last one on the line. He watched the woman at the counter shove a small bag of coins at each man.
"Ten crowns? Are you kidding me? My box is worth more than that!" the third man shouted, dropping the bag on the counter again.
The lady raised a brow at him.
"Do you all really have to do this each time you come here? Are you all that dumb?"
"Curse you!" the man banged on the counter, "Give me the real value of my box."
"You would prefer less?"
He reached out for the lady's neck. The soldiers grabbed him and tossed him on the floor. The other men pushed the soldiers away and tried to protect their colleague from getting beaten. Other soldiers that were on the duty rushed to the scene with spears.
While they fought to subdue the men, Ren slowly stepped back and ran into the crowd of traders.
"Hey! One of them got away," one of the soldiers signalled, pointing in the direction Ren went.
Two of the soldiers chased after Ren, raising an alarm as they did.