Ire waved us over to the door and we walked our way over with Estry close behind us, seems like she'd be doing the refuelling part of this trip.

  Eventually the caravan stopped in its tracks with a harsh screech from the tires, which is probably one of the reasons their desperate to upgrade it. The door swings open and we jump out to an odious green mist which hurts to look at as much to breathe in.

  The kid attempted to use his hands to push the terrible smell away from his face to no avail, it was simply replaced by slightly less infected air. Directly in front of us was some sort of pump which needed some sort of key to actually activate, with pipes clearly pointing to a building onward.

  Beyond the pump was a collection of somewhat intact stairs which led up to an elevated platform which had a large blast door. That's enough to prove exactly what this place is, another sort of den for another sort of asshole.

  Me and the kid make our way over to the staircase and cautiously make our way up each step which shook at the weight we added. We reach the door and I knock with the butt of my revolver.

  "Why does is smell so bad?" Kip irritably asked,

  "Could be some sort of reaction from the acid hitting something, or it just stinks." I surmised,

  "What could it possibly be hitting to smell like this?" Kip questioned,

  "If we ever get to see one, I want it to be a surprise for you." I humorously reply,

  "Then I hope we never see it." Kip bitterly said,

  I knock again before looking about for any sort of device I could press instead, and see a strange looking boxy protrusion off the side of the wall. I flip it up revealing a button and I press it.

  "Nothing's happening!" I shout down the stairs,

  "Give it a second he's kind of slow!" Estry shouted up to us,

  A slow stir came from the large blast door and it lifted up releasing a thick white smog from its original position. Eventually it opened completely and we stepped inside with the green smog.

  Directly onward from us was another similar blast door. This one had a logo of some sort of mining filtration mask surrounded by a cog. Pretty generic for a place like this.

  "Does that logo mean some sort of company owns this place?" Kip cautiously asked,

  "Owns, possibly. Owned, probably. I wouldn't put much thought into a logo till you see the people behind it kid." I reply,

  He nodded in response. The original blast door then closed behind us and immediately the green smog was filtered out from the corridor.

  "Oxygen." I quickly stressed,

  Me and the kid near-simultaneously turned on our oxygen tanks. I had assumed this was a trap, which it clearly was, but instead of suffocation a static signal came on.

  "Looks like we're good, turn it off." I calmly order,

  "How do you know?" Kip justifiably asked,

  "It's a talk first, trap later sort of contraption." I bluntly reply,

  A camera up in the top right corner of the small room stared at us, and someone managed to violently cough over the speaker in the room.

  "Oh? Who the fuck are you?" The speaker blurted,

  "We're here to buy some fuel, caravan's just outside, if you're selling anything." I say,

  "Oh. Well, why the fuck didn't you say so? We're having a few issues with supply right now, but it should be fixed momentarily, if those fucks could do their job!" The speaker ranted,

  Whoever was speaking over the microphone seemed to have began ordering someone around to check something, I couldn't quite pick it up.

  "Where do we buy the fuel?" Kip reasonably asked,

  "Oh? Inside obviously, dumbass." The speaker replied,

  "I'm more concerned with how much it's gonna cost." I quietly remark,

  There was a period of radio silence, which unnerved me momentarily, but patience is a virtue in a place like this. Just a place like this, otherwise it's probably a bad idea to wait.

  "Oh. Are you two idiots scrappers?" The speaker asked,

  "Yes, we're currently heading to Pipetown for business." I admit,

  "Oh- perfect, I will let you fuckers in a second." The speaker blurted,

  The door in front of us finally began to shift before opening, looks like the kid's question reminded him that we're not actually inside his building.

  Before us was a fork path which led two ways, one path led down three steps onto a platform, which then repeated twice more until a longer path to a circular vault door. This door was in fair condition, and sealed shut with mechanisms I didn't bother to discern.

  On the other path three steps led upward and repeated twice to a door which led into an observation platform, the room inside had a window which looked over the pathway down to the vault door, so I guess it's some sort of control room, which one could open the vault door from.

  Straight forward and to the left was another thick door, which led to some other place which would not be relevant to us- I hope. The lower area had walls caked in black markings and stains, with an overwhelming amount of dust which specifically led from the vault door on the floor.

  The door to the control room suddenly opened, and we made our way up the stairs over the platforms until we entered the room itself.

  "Oh, come on in, come on in, scrappers. Don't I have an opportunity for you." A low raspy voice announced,

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  There was a fat man in a chair in front of some sort of control apparatus and off to the left in the corner was a young lady with various visible injuries across her face and arms.

  "Been a while since I've been in an oil operation." I bluntly commented,

  "This doesn't look very good." Kip whispered to me,

  "None of these places ever do kid." I half-whisper back,

  The large man sucked out of a tube next to himself, which likely contained the highly addictive chemicals from the centre you can find at terrible value.

  So this is the operation we're dealing with.

  The fat ass began to violently cough and waved at the bruised woman to fetch himself something, and she handed over some sort of concoction which was blue and strangely bubbly.

  He smacked the woman away without any warning, as if her listening to him was somehow the wrong decision. It was extremely awkward for the kid to stand there, but it was fairly standard.

  "Oh. Now, I got some fucking idiots down in that vault, and they haven't been out for hours. I need my business to keep running, so I want you to go down there and whip them into shape." The fat ass offered,

  "Who are you exactly?" I pivot,

  "Oh! I am Adrianus Fredus Arbaral, otherwise known as by initials A.F.A. Manager of local outskirts operations to extract fuel." The fat ass proudly said,

  What the fuck is a Fredus? Arbaral sounds familiar, maybe one of those family companies in the centre, strange to find one of those pampered fucks out here.

  "I'm Rory and that's Kip. We're scrappers, we're not company employees, and we're in need of your service for fuel. I don't have interest in 'whipping' anyone." I briefly explain,

  "Oh, and that rotting idiotic carcass of a servant over there is... Oh, I forgot. Well, it doesn't really matter does it, she's a fucking idiot." The fat ass randomly stated,

  He would throw the now empty bottle at the girl which he had managed to slurp down without anyone noticing. Kip flinched in response and my hand instinctively hovered over my gun.

  "Oh, if you managed to get those rats down there to do their fucking job, I'll give you however much oil you want free of charge! No catch, just business." The fat ass smarmily offered,

  I look at the kid and he shook his head at me, it's fair that he'd be uncomfortable doing business with someone like this. But, sometimes this is all you have down in a place like this.

  "We'll do it, but don't expect any manhandling." I reluctantly say,

  "Oh, no problem! Off you go." The fat ass joyfully said,

  He pressed against his console in a couple of areas, and a horrific low crackling came from the vault door and it loosened before opening from just gravity I assume.

  Me and the kid make our way down to the vault door from the control room.

  The vault door led into a circular tunnel which had a grate flooring so you could properly stand in it. The corridor itself was fairly tight, I couldn't properly stand up straight inside of it.

  It was extremely dark, to the point that we were forced to put on our multi-visions to actually see further ahead into the tunnel. These are maintenance tunnels specifically for chemical processing, take any particular chemical or compound and it probably is managed through these tunnels.

  Just below the grate was a viscous black-blueish liquid which I assume is the fuel, and as expected it isn't even remotely pure. Most of these extraction points are fairly damaged and are held up by hopes and dreams, as a result none of them give you a complete pure product, and never will.

  The tunnel begins to slant downward before plateauing at a certain intersection with another circular door leading into a ladder which led into a deeper level of these tunnels. There was a sign right above it which stated 'Do not go down.' The handwriting was abysmal.

  I heed the signs warning for now and we head deeper into the tunnel, and eventually we see glimmers of an orange outfit. I pull out my weapon as we get closer.

  There was sounds of argument and I stopped in my tracks to look back at the kid. He was close behind and looked past me to the figures.

  "They're pretty short, no?" Kip affirmed,

  "This looks like a job for you kid. Go on ahead if you can get past me." I say,

  "Ok, sure." Kip nervously agreed,

  The kid squeezed past me and began to make his way forward to the grouping of orange figures. I followed close behind with my weapon in hand but with it obscured behind the kids pack.

  One of the orange figures turned toward us and waved at us with another flinching at our arrival.

  "Uh, who the heck are you?" A short orange figure asked,

  "We're scrappers, we need fuel and your boss sent us down here to check on you." Kip explained,

  There were four of them in total, all wearing bright orange outfits which were too large for them resulting in them being hilariously baggy.

  They had oversized black gloves which were tied around their wrists and boost which were a similar story. Alongside having black hardhats and a filtration mask specific for digging.

  "By check on us you mean check why we're not getting his pump to shit black stuff?" One of them commented,

  "Shut up." Another one said at the other,

  I nudge the kid to say something, he needs to assert himself in a situation like this, we're here to solve something and we need to understand how to solve it.

  "Alright! So what's the issue." Kip half-confidently asserted,

  "Trev's stuck." Another of them said,

  Me and the kid look over them as they scoot side to show the fourth one who was barely visible. He was in fact stuck with him being elbow deep into a pipe on the wall and waved at us.

  "Which one of you are meant to be in charge here?" Kip asked,

  "Uh, I guess me, but nothing official. I'm just the oldest- uh, second oldest if you don't count Ava." One said stepping forward,

  "That's the girl that he threw a cup at right?" Kip loudly asked me,

  "Uh, yeah, he's prone to slapping us around a bit. I'm Ore, that's Ink, and that's Vince. Uh, and that's Trev, but you know that." Ore stated,

  "Those are some terrible names." I haphazardly comment,

  "That's cuz the geezer named us, and I think Vince and Trev were bought from someone." Ink explained,

  "Howdy." Vince greeted,

  Howdy? So this one is originally from a forge sector. I'm surprised he isn't missing a limb, or at least it doesn't look like it on the surface. But I can't actually tell what he looks like beneath all that.

  "So, what's stopping you guys from getting him out?" Kip calmly asked,

  "Uh, we don't have any tools to actually take apart the pipeline, Trev managed to rip it off because he was being an idiot." Ore admitted,

  "Wait so how are you guys meant to fix it?" Kip then asked,

  "Uh, with our wit and ingenuity of course." Ore proudly said,

  "Otherwise known as our hopes and fucking dreams. All of our previous 'fixes' was mostly just patching up holes with tape. Now there's a real problem and we got nothing." Ink complained,

  Who the fuck sends podlings down to fix something without tools? It's a miracle this place hasn't flooded or worse, this is dumber than I expected.

  "Is him being stuck is the real problem or is there a problem on top of this problem?" Kip confusingly questioned,

  "Uh, the reason why we were sent down here is for another leak. Uh, It's less of a leak and more of an explosion problem." Ore explained,

  "These filtration masks are so shit, I can't even see through them it's all smoggy down there." Ink loudly complained,

  In his or her defence, they did look pretty shit, held to their face by rubber bands.

  "Don't worry. We'll help you get Trev out first and then we can sort out the little smog problem." Kip righteously proclaimed,

  "What? Fuck no, kid that's not our job." I gruffly whispered,

  "Shouldn't we help them out? They already have a tough time with that fat fuck up there, why have them get even more hurt?" Kip quietly argued,

  "Kid, that's not what we're here to do, we're here to at most get that one's arm out the pipe and wait for them to do their job." I quietly counter,

  "That's a load of shit, why put them in more danger than they already are, they don't even have the right equipment." Kip argued,

  "Uh, so you know how to fix piping?" Ore interjected,

  "Yeah." I instinctively answer,

  Kip and the rest of them look at me, as if I'm the insane one for knowing how to do their job. As if they're not retarded for being maintenance workers with no maintenance tools.

  "Nice, alright, let's get your buddy out of the pipe first." Kip said,

  "Uh, that's one of the liquid pipes. And there's already a lot of gas build up in here, we're leaking remember." Ore interrupted,

  "So how is he stuck?" Kip asked,

  "Probably his suit is stuck on one of the screws. If he manages to get out I have a feeling we're going to get flooded with black shit." Ink surmised,

  "Alright, we'll go fix the gas issue first, and come back after for your friend." I say,

  Everyone nods in half-agreement and the kid strides forward with me deeper into this abyss of stupidity. The kid doesn't look too happy about the state of this place.