The Power of Five Oblivion

through a dark green tunnel.
    And then the rainforest opened out and they found ourselves at the edge of a clearing. The helicopter had dropped them on high ground, on a plateau, and suddenly a whole panorama opened up in front of them. It was a sight that none of them would ever forget.
    There was a vast, monstrous hole in the ground. It was as if an entire mountain had been scooped out and this was the empty space that had been left. In fact that was exactly what had happened. The hole was man-made. The earth had been cut into, layer after layer, with long ridges and platforms that continued down for five hundred metres. To get from one level to another there were ladders – hundreds and hundreds of them – cut from the branches of trees and roped together so that they looked horribly fragile and unsafe.
    And there were people still digging. It was impossible to say how many of them there might be. The ones in the distance were tiny, the ones close by packed together in dense crowds. They were climbing the ladders – swarming up them – carrying wooden buckets filled with earth. Most of them were half-naked. Some of them wore only a loin cloth wrapped around their groin. And they were filthy, so caked in mud and sweat that they barely looked human at all, smothered in brown and grey, their hair matted, their eyes staring out hopelessly.
    They were taking soil from the bottom to the top, a back-breaking journey up one ladder after another, with long lines of people in front and behind. Up to the top with a full bucket and then immediately down again with an empty one. Fall and you would die. You could break your neck. You could suffocate in the soft earth. You could be trampled underfoot by the others. Nobody was speaking. These people were worse even than slaves. They had been turned into caged animals: mindless, helpless, existing only in exhaustion and pain.
    And Matt and Lohan had been chosen to join them.
    “This is the Serra Morte mine,” the bearded man exclaimed. The new prisoners were huddled on the edge of the plateau, looking down at the chasm, knowing that we were going to be sucked into it, that they would become part of it and it would never let them go. “It is the largest gold mine in Brazil,” he went on. “Your lives mean nothing any more. All that matters is the soil that you bring to the surface, the flakes of gold that it contains.
    “From now on you will work together and you will live together. Your team name is 1179 Verde . Remember that.” “Verde” was the Portuguese for green. “Your own names do not matter any more. If a guard asks you who you are or what team you belong to, you must answer ‘1179 Verde’ . If you are unable to tell him, you will be punished. Now, before I take you down, are there any questions?”
    Nobody spoke. Then one of the boys who had been on the platform with Matt put his hand in the air. He was thin, dark-haired with a sullen face, aged about eighteen.
    “Yes?”
    “When can I get some water?” he asked. “I’m thirsty.”
    The bearded man walked over to him and stopped in front of him. Everyone knew that something bad was going to happen – and they were right. He held out a hand and one of the other soldiers tossed him a plastic bottle of water.
    “You want water?” he said. “You can have water.”
    He weighed the bottle in his hand for a moment then suddenly swung it with all his strength, crashing it into the side of the boy’s head. Water exploded all over him as the plastic broke. The boy crumpled. It must have been like being hit by a club.
    “Learn from this,” the man said, addressing all of them. “You do not ask for water. You do not ask for food. You do not ask for rest. You take it when you are given it and you are grateful. Now let’s get to work.”
    Nobody else had any questions. Several guards moved forward, carrying knives, and although some of the slaves writhed or whimpered, it soon became clear that their task was only to cut the bonds and set their hands free. Someone helped the boy to his feet and the whole group was about to make its way down when suddenly something moved through the sky above them, causing them to stop and look up. It was the Legacy 600. It had made no sound on the other side of the forest but suddenly it was roaring right above them as it cleared the treetops.
    Lohan watched as it arced over the pit and veered away into the distance, then he turned back to Matt and his eyes were filled with