The light fades and I find myself in a small office. A man sits in an old, well-worn leather chair and watches the flickering monitors before him. He's a plain and uninteresting middle aged man, with slightly thinning, greyish blonde hair, and thick, bushy eyebrows. His pale blue eyes are dim, hollow, and glazed over, though pretty much everyone has one of those thousand-mile stares these days.

It's Mr. Arlo, my boss. As always, he doesn't look at me at all and keeps going on and on with his sluggish typing.

I stay as still and as quiet as I can. Don't want to risk breaking some stupid-ass rule by fidgeting too much or speaking at the wrong time.

He finally stops, wrinkles his forehead, and sighs hard through his nose, but still keeps staring at the monitor. "Ferdinand... I understand you were witness to Langston's sudden Voluntary On-Site Turnover today. Can you tell me what you saw?"

"I basically saw what everyone else did. It was pretty terrible."

He makes an odd sound, something like a muffled bark. "I'm sure it was. Now, please, if you will, describe exactly what you observed. Just tell me everything, and I'll let you go home."

"Well..." I shift around and try to get situated in the steel chair. It's hard to get comfortable, but it's more the conversation that's putting me on edge. "At about three this afternoon, I went down the hall to get a drink of water-"

He twists his head and locks onto me with those dead eyes of his. "Lunch ends at one o'clock. Did you get permission from your team leader to take a personal break?'

"Uh, yeah. Of course."

"I'll have to speak with Cassandra later, but everyone should know by now: personal breaks are no longer permitted as of last week. Also, please be advised that consuming food or drink at anytime outside of the designated 15 minute lunch period is also grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including termination, depending on the nature of the offense. In addition, please note that your failure to comply with our policies will be noted on your record, and you will have to undergo additional unpaid training in the future."

He makes another odd noise, like a long, quiet groan as he turns around, clicks and types for a few moments. "So, please, continue, and take care not to have any more unauthorized breaks."

"Yes, Sir."

"Alright, then. Carry on, Ferdinand." He continues to stare at his monitor.

"As I was saying, I went down the hall, but as I rounded the corner, I caught a glimpse of the conveyor belt at the end of the line. That's when I saw what happened. At first, it seemed like he was just reaching out to grab the rail at the end of the platform to brace himself. But then he just swung himself over, hung there for a second, and dropped into the acid bath. There was a big splash and then-."

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"Wait, can you please clarify? When you said 'dropped into the acid' what did you mean?"

"Uh... Well, I mean, I don't know, but, it looks like he kind of did it on purpose."

"Langston grabbed the railing, swung himself out over the vat and dropped down into it?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Could you please just confirm this for me?"

"Yeah," I sigh, "he grabbed the railing and dropped himself in."

"That's quite the sight to imagine. Was anyone with him?"

"No. No one. He just hung there for a couple of seconds and then let go."

"Is that when he fell? After he deliberately dropped himself in?"

"Yeah."

"So, just to review: He reached out, grabbed the rail, then dropped himself deliberately, that is to say, on purpose, into the tank of Acid Mixture B12, otherwise known as the Highly Diluted HCl Solution?"

"Uh, yeah. That's right."

"Fine. Just sign this and you can go." He slides a tablet my way with a stylus.

I sign it.

"Good. Have a nice night."

I get up and leave without a word.

Once I'm outside the building, I swing around the back for a smoke. For once, Kris is there before me.

"Hey, Ferd. What kept you?" her voice is as smokey and smooth as her cigarette, and her black hair and eyes gleam in the red auxiliary lighting. She is petite and with pale skin and she cuts a good figure, even in her filthy brown jumpsuit.

"Hey, babe." I flash her a smile, but it fades a bit quicker than I want it to.

She never misses a thing. "What's wrong? Did you get your ass chewed out again?"

"I got a mark on my record for drinking water, but that ain't it."

"Then what?"

"Did you hear about Langston?"

"What, the guy who offed himself in the bathtub?"

"They're calling it a VOT, but yeah, I guess so."

She blows out some smoke. "Seems somebody takes a dip every week now."

I take a long drag of my shitty cigarette and let out a big stream of smoke that blows away in the smoggy wind. "I dunno... I guess it's because I actually saw him go in and all that," I take another puff, "and the screaming... I'm pretty sure he regretted it after he went in. Not for long, but still. It's fucked, you know?"

"A really bad way to go."

I kick a loose piece of asphalt into the darkness. "And the way that fatass Arlo acted about the whole thing pissed me off too," I take another drag. "Human lives mean nothin' no more."

"They haven't for a long time, thanks to this machine of a society we live in," she blows some smoke and cocks her head. "You good, Ferd?"

"I dunno. I've been seeing this shit ever since I was a kid, and I think it's starting to get to me. I was never an angry dude, but this shit is starting to piss me off on the regular, and it's getting harder and harder to get over it each time it happens."

"It pisses me off too," she rubs me gently on the back. "But hey, don't think about it too much, alright? You're gonna work yourself up. Just keep doing what you do, and stay off the radar. This place is a shithole, but it's the only one around with a humans-first policy. We just need to hold out until the revolution."

"Revolution?"

"Yeah, well, I've been talking with some people, and they have some interesting ideas and some plans to turn things around. For everyone. You should help out sometime, maybe think about joining."

"Shit. You'd better not get us into any fucking trouble. I heard about what happens in those rehab places."

"I'm not stupid, Ferd," she throws her cigarette down and stomps it. "These State fuckers, the fat cats, and bootlickers like Arlo... They're all gonna pay. Just hold on a bit longer, alright?"

I flick away my cigarette and put my arms around her waist. "I'd rather hold on to you."

She gives me a sexy little smile and kisses me deeply.

She pulls back, and gives my cheek a cute little poke. "You're the only thing that's good in this shitshow of a world. I could look at those eyes forever."

"I'll give you something else to look at when we get home."

She giggles, kisses me again, and the world goes white once more.