You wake on a mattress previously owned by someone who was killed by the
state for failing to seig heil fast enough. You were very lucky to win
it through the state run lottery. Your alarm is the blaring of air
raid sirens at 5 AM, and you don the jacket you had used as a blanket to
fight off the ever present chill in your unheated room. If you sleep
in, guards will break down your door and shoot you in the head for
betraying The Cause.
Leaving your door open and unlocked, for
easier searching by Labor Enforcement, you march down to the street and
join the throngs of people exiting their homes. As you exit the
building you are handed what is essentially a Power Bar in unmarked wax
packaging to eat on the way to work. The wax is edible, sort of, but
you're not that hungry this morning so you pocket it for later.
You
work at a Solution Factory in Resource Reclamation. If you are lucky
you will find enough teeth with gold fillings to earn lunch that day.
Today is a good day and you meet your quota. Lunch is a weak soup and
something that tastes like unsweetened energy drink, but with meth so
you can focus on your job and not be distracted by hunger.
Hey,
it's your friend Steve. Steve works in Materials Processing. His hands
are always covered in ink because he tattoos serial numbers onto the
Problems as they're inventoried. Steve waves at you from across the
lunch room. Seconds later, guards swarm him and he is taken away for
questioning about why he would make such an extroverted gesture. You
never see Steve again.
It is now 3 PM. You are allowed a 10
minute break to use the bathroom. A guard stares intently at you as you
shit. His job, among other things, is to ensure that you do not use a
decadent amount of toilet paper. As per your high school education,
you fold your 3 squares of toilet paper in half after the first wipe so
that you may use them again. The guard counts each section you pull off
the roll loudly, and you are required to show the front and backs of
each hand before each set of wipes. Last month you were allowed a day
off to visit the State Museum because you used the least toilet paper
out of anyone in your division. Once you are finished, you stand next
to the toilet and salute so that the guard can examine the contents of
the bowl before he flushes it. He is checking the size and consistency
of your stool to ensure you are not stealing food or drinking contraband
liquor.
8 PM rolls around. Work is over! You are allowed 30
minutes of supervised personal time in the town square. You and a few
friends accidentally stand too close to another group of people and the
guards beat you for, as they describe it, "conspiring like Jews."
The
half hour passes. It is now time for the silent walk back to your
apartment. What a day! You reclaimed so much gold, and you even found a
pace maker! You know it contains something called plutonium, and you
know the state thinks plutonium is good. You don't know know why
though, because you were beaten severely the first and only time you
ever asked why it was good. The air sirens blast the national anthem as
you fall asleep on your precious, precious mattress in your otherwise
bare room.
It is now 2 AM. You wake up and require use of the
bathroom. You press a button on the wall and await the Bathroom Guard
to escort you. He arrives 15 minutes later. He is especially fast for
you because you sometimes smuggle him a tooth as a bribe. He hints that
he will allow you the time and privacy necessary to masturbate on your
next escorted restroom break if you bring him a breakfast bar, but your
education was focused on the duties required of a good citizen so you
don't know what he's talking about. After he radios in the amount of
toilet paper you used to Central Resource Management, you go back to bed
and have dreams of the glorious future you and your people are working
toward.
