It was hot, and so were the red dyed dogs sizzling. A grill powered by charcoal sat in the shade of ghostly buildings. This entire town may have been deserted, but the ice crystals in the diner's walk-in coolers had kept some stuff cool. Jed held a plastic spatula he found, and cooked in an apron labeled “Chief’s special chef”. The dogs flipped revealing cracks forming in the natural casings, next he moved to buttering the frozen buns.

The air here had become flat and windless. It was much like the soda found behind the expired fountain in the community center. Most of that liquid had pulled an escape act from sealed cans anyway. Fortunately the big rig truck he had just managed to make it here in had plenty of jungle juice remaining in storage. It's highly intoxicating properties also helped numb the roaring pain of his injuries. The question was how long it would last in the open heat until he could get it dug out. Or how long would his body keep going?

At least he had already found some fresh bandages, and peroxide in the gift shop. The problem was he hadn't removed the bullet lodged in his thigh, but somehow he could still get around alright for now. It really was a ticking time bomb that needed the attention of a medical professional. To get out of here in one piece he was going to have to become a pro at assembling junk into working parts. The big rig needed a ton of them to ever get on the road again including some serious jacking that probably wasn't doable by a single man.

The sandstorm had buried much more than the truck. He had to dig to get into there. What wasn’t torn off yet by tornado was covered in fresh debris stuck in the top of many layers that covered the old. Jed had also dug up bones, coins, pots, pans, and a carpet wrapping them all together in a bow-tie. To both sorta remedy the payload evaporating, and keep him cool while working he had a solution. When lunch was finished he needed to get back to looking for some kind of canopy tent to cover the operation. He was going to have to rig something up over the big rig truck.

“I really wish Mule was still around.. sigh… I suppose nothing is invincible even the most shifty of shape-shifters” he said, packing hot dogs in the toasted buns one by one.

A dozen were circling the plate. Jed slammed the grill shut. He grabbed the serving tray in one hand, and his refillable Maxxx-gulp mug in the other heading to the rear of his truck. The vehicle was looking rough at this point. A few of the rims that had been revealed were going to need to be replaced. Jed grabbed the hose sticking from the tanker, and filled his cup to the brim. The only way he was getting out of here was if he could convert the big rig permanently to a train.

The only man isolated in this location walked towards the barn that towered on the edge of town. It was painted bright red just like his hotdogs for some reason he hadn’t quite figured out yet. Jed walked through a dead garden that sprawled behind the deserted hotel and houses. The path became well worn, and flanked by rock walls. Soon he climbed stairs of stone through an area of windmills that stood still. A tractor had turned to such a sheet of rust that it was worthless.

He arrived, and let himself inside the building so much cooler than the jail. Sure the loft was unbearable but the ground floor was as nice as it was gonna get around here. Especially with the doors shut, and the power of the ice crystals in the basement. They had been stored there and gone bad, forming a giant pool of slush slowly melting. For now there was still enough cooling power to keep the barn's 1st floor nice and comfy. .

Jed groaned while lowering himself onto a seat and table constructed of hay bales. His back wasn’t getting any younger, and the hay wasn’t soft until it was strewn about loosely. The material was so dry he didn’t dare bring any magma in the building. It was too much work to empty out the premises, but if a fiery attack happened it was game over.

At this point Jed was out of farcs, not that he ever possessed any. He was only getting over the finish line with some calculated gambles. He also didn’t have much ammo remaining. Surprisingly there wasn’t a round anywhere in town.

“MMMMMM that’s tasty!” he exclaimed after gobbling up a wiener and bun in two bites.

He grabbed one in each hand this time, and ate the first in one go. He was like a dog who had discovered chicken shit.

“BUUUURP”.

The jungle juice was good, even warm. If you had to be stranded this wasn’t bad at all.

“If it wasn’t so fucking dry out here I would start a farm, well that and the only girls available out here to marry is the dead” he groaned.

Jed knew he had been changed significantly over his journey. He could guess that he wouldn’t be living in society if he ever returned to it. With the reward money for delivering what remained of the jungle juice he would buy some nice green rural farmland. His only hope was that he hadn’t been damaged or gone mad enough to never be able to be married, but that was a hard thing to self evaluate.

“MMM this is some killer spicy mustard I looted,” he said to himself, going in for thirds.

As Jed ate the dopamine from the food jogged his mind.

“O I go it,” he said, while his teeth kept eating.

He had remembered that the saw had been stored somewhere in the truck. If only it was still there he could find it. A cutter like that would greatly help with survival, and construction.

Time had passed. The high noon light was beginning to reduce through the cracks in the building, and its entrances. Jed held his face in his hands continuing to wallow in indigestion. He had consumed 9 hotdogs, and the plate below him was empty. He slurped up the rest of his juice through the straw and fell back into a bed of straw. This stuff was a heavy brew, and a nap was in order. His eyes shut and the darkness took over.

The prisoner aboard the elevator opened his eyes. Gears ground on the open sides as the platform slowly lowered. The cave walls went by a blur that all looked similar. Edward tried to say something, but he had been muzzled. A straitjacket had also been fastened. Seven guards surrounded him with weapons.

His chest burned with pain so severe it was disorienting him. The new heart he had been given pounded in his chest haphazardly. Edwards' vision faded in and out, and he tumbled forward towards the edge.

“ZAP!” said a guard's shocky stick.

He was jolted to his senses. Picked up by two, and smacked around back into place. The funny thing was the electricity made him feel a lot better. He chuckled as best he could under the mask locked to his head.

“ZAAAAAP!”

“I say he lasts no more than one week,”

“I say under a day, and i’ll give you… 1 Electrostone,”

“I’m out to find another sucker,”

“Let's make it 1 Electro, and a Farc,”

"Deal," The two guards finalized the wager between them with a handshake. Four in total sat stationed in a grimy booth surrounded by barbed wire, and lit by torches. A table full of cards, a sofa, a water-cooler, and a cabinet full of guns to keep them occupied. The surveillance feed was supposed to be strictly for monitoring.

A man with a face full of dirt sat on the coach dirtier, and opened a book staining the pages with filth. The four on duty had moved to different areas to get space away from each other.

The sound of the incoming elevator immediately snapped everyone to attention. They had a buffer of five minutes before it would actually arrive, but there was 30 minutes of work that had been put off forever. They threw trash into bags, stuffed sour laundry into closets, and attempted to make beds. With that mostly completed a panic ensued as they fought over brooms, and mops. The final touch was cleaning the windows with ammonia.

The elevator loudly clicked into the dock. Edward was escorted off into a loading zone of supplies, and spare parts. A crane on a rail moved slowly around overhead remote control. The sign greeting him said: “Welcome to the Killin Mines. Miner check-in, and human relations department,”

“Simon it’s good to see you, how's the surface?” asked a guard behind the bulletproof see through crystal of the booth.

The warden holding the prisoner grunted in acknowledgement, and spoke with his eyes. A shirtless man of so much muscle it slowed him down significantly. His height was big enough to also cause him problems. However, he was really good at his job.

“Of course I'll let you through, but you know I gotta see some ID as company protocol,” said the guard in the booth.

The same guard jerked and involuntary response, jumping out of his office chair that spun empty. A fist had cracked the glass, and the guy behind it had run away in a flash. A large section of the cave wall began to open up past the station.

“Just this way, you common man who used to be royalty hehehe,” laughed a shrill voiced woman behind him.

Her voice was familiar to Edward, but things had turned so fuzzy his brain wasn’t connecting the dots too much. His legs moved automatically underneath him. The cavern went in and out of focus until they traveled into the secret entrance, and it got worse.

A large cave filled with lights, wires, equipment, and buzzing. It wasn’t a natural formation but something drilled or blasted. A layer of smog that smelled of chemicals intensified with every step forward. As they rounded a corner he heard the distant clink of what had to be pick axes.

“Now surely a former ruler can appreciate our ambitions,” the lady called, stepping in front of him.

She wore a white lab coat that looked brand new, held a clipboard, and had a patch pocket full of pens. She also was wearing heels so high they put her on equal footing to Simon. Her long nails descended towards Edward’s eyes, and he closed them.

“Common look at this don’t be shy,” she cooed unlocking the face mask constricting his vision.

“Zaaap!”

They stood on the edge of a cliff lined with red tape that wasn’t protecting anything from failing. Simon held Edward over the edge by the ropes on the back of his straitjacket. The cavern here was ginormous, and fell several hundred feet to the little lights below. Edward squinted and realized there might be a million humans working just like ants at a bigger scale.

“This is where our common prisoners toil, and guess what you ain’t nobody anymore” she cackled.