Nothing but Dust

The room was dark, with damp concrete walls and the strong scent of cigarette smoke and car oil. A single source of light came from the flickering electric bulb fastened to the ceiling, under which a large man could be made out

dressed in leather and sat at a table, nursing a whisky.

'What have you brought me, Menos?' He asks, looking pointedly towards the shadowed doorway at one corner of the room. Stepping out from the safety of darkness, a rather lanky small,nervous, man with mouse like features and a long waistcoat shifted, on his feet.

'Nothing yet boss, b-but soon. Very soon. Yes, very soon.' Menos, stutters with a bowed head. His slit beady eyes glancing up at his boss, the druglord every so often.

A ringing bang echo's as the boss's drink is slammed down hard and Menos jumps with fear rattling down his spine.

'I want those coins, Menos. Now,' the snarl vibrates around the room, along with a screech of metal chair legs against concrete flooring. With a shaky nod Menos manages to escape the room, scampering out past the armed bodyguards and iron bolted door, into a dusty terrain made of muddy land pits and grey dried up marsh beds.

Taking a narrow right turn down one of the steep ditches, the leith little man follows a narrow winding path over the terrain and into a hollow mud tunnel which also worked as a mining shaft. Children from the ages of twelve greeted him with pitiful enthusiasm, clothed in ragged overalls and shovelling patches of dirt, stone and mud into wheelbarrows which they then carted out to toss into the Pit. A deep crater that went down to the planet's core, Menos had been witness to a dozen child deaths through means of falling into said Pit.

Pushing his way through the sea of little workers, Menos grabbed one of the overseeing men and pulled him aside with a hard jerk to the arm. Once out of sight of any onlookers the man shoves Menos back with an angry growl, 'What!?'

Shiftily glancing around, Menos whispers 'He knows. He's on to me.' The

man scowls down at small mousy Menos.

'What you on about?' He asks.

'Garth, he knows we have them,' Menos cries desperately.

'He knows nothing,' Garth scoffs

'We can't stay any longer, he'll kill me.'Menos pleads,Grabbing at the larger man's jacket.

'He won't,' Garth reassures.

'He will, I know he will,' Menos tires.

'We still need the last coin to make a fortune. Just wait a bit,' Garth wheedles, pulling at Menos grip on his jacket.

Letting go, Menos frowns up at his partner 'I'm leaving tonight, stay or come, but I'm going. We came to free these kids not get rich off of their labour.' Before more could be spoken there was a cry and the bustle of feet. A landfall.

'Tonight then, outside the Pit. 5pm,' Garth whispers before leaving.

It was dark by 4.55pm and Menos stood shivering in the desert cold as he waited for Garth to show, his cold fingers flicking over the circular pieces of metal in his pocket. He could already imagine the tabloids blow up with this story, the front cover being a picture of the drug lord's arrest.

Both he and Garth would be lying on one of those Bahama beaches drinking margaritas in coconuts, like in the movies. The sound of boots on gravel had Menos jerk around fearfully, calming once he saw it was just Garth.

'What are you doing? Hurry up,' Menos quietly called.

But once Garth got close enough it was clear that they would not be leaving for any beach resort. Silver glinted off of the gun's hard barrel currently pressed to Garth's head.

'I believe you got something of mine.' The dark smirk on his boss's face had Menos skirting back to the edge of the Pit.

'W-what?' He asks.

Giving Garth a ruthless jab to the side, the drug lord sneers 'Give it.' Shaking, Menos pulls two coins from his pocket 'Let us go and they're yours.' Releasing his hold on Garth the boss lurches forward to grab the coins, but seeing this Menos, thinking quickly throws the coins in Garth's direction and manages to side step his boss's fist and avoid being hit.

'Give me those coins,' snarls Menos boss, stumbling, on the edge of the Pit.

This was his chance, Menos thought and before he realised his own actions, he'd given his boss the push to send him over the edge and down into the black depths of the Pit.

Feeling shook at what had just transpired, the small man backs into the safety of his partner, 'We did it,' Menos breaths in disbelief. They were free, free from death's grasp and with the two most valuable, sort after, collectors coins.

Garth laughs a hysterical sound from behind him, 'Finally,' he says.

'Now we can go to the press, tell them everything,' Menos exclaimes.

Garth's hulking body tenses behind Menos and then those same arms that pulled him into a hug now pushed him to the same death his boss had just fallen into.

Garth stood alone at the top of the hill, two coins worth over a million each in one hand and the fallen gun in his other, a small satisfied smirk curled at the corner of his lips.

'I'm sorry partner, but there was just no way I could leave this place. Once a convict...you know the rest,' he said, looking down at the still body by his feet.

The End