Oof, I could not get inspired by digging. Instead, have a silly double-drabble about the start of Emil's rude awakening in the Cleansers:
***
“Running five kilometers should be easy,” Emil proclaimed. “My tutor told me about this man from… from Matterhorn, a foreign place, who ran at least twice as far, to warn his friends about… three hundred attacking giants. My tutor said the key to running is pacing yourself.”
To his intense displeasure, none of the other recruits seemed to be listening to his scholarly insights. Some continued to chat among themselves, while others seemed to be posing in weird ways, stretching out one limb after another.
“All right, you ugly lot!” the drill sergeant shouted. “Let’s see what you’re made of!”
***
It was only after fifteen minutes – or was it fifteen years? – of running that Emil remembered the man from Matterhorn had died of running. The realization was not unwelcome. Trapped as he was in an endless nightmare of burning lungs, screaming leg-muscles, and the excruciating shame of being so, so far behind all the peasants, Emil longed for the sweet release of death.
It was not to be. He reached the endpoint last, ridiculously red-faced and sweaty, but alive.
“Pacing yourself, eh, Västerström?” someone asked.
So, at least one person had listened to him. That was… something.
Emil felt cheered.
