The day I died started out like any other day. A few mishaps, a few successes. I fell out of my bed before I woke up in the morning, I actually managed to get the ingredients I needed for a meal that didn’t taste like manure, and then the moment was ruined once more by an early morning call from my boss. I grumbled a bit about work and put on my suit.

    I was a major programmer for a robotics company, Pluto Inc. We were an interesting group of people, working on the development of autonomous mining drones and machines. The world was like that nowadays, machines doing all the work for people, while most of us just sat back doing nothing. The few of us still working were in crucial positions of management, things that could be accomplished by robots, but were much easier to do by people.

    As I finished up my morning routine, I stepped outside, starting to walk towards my workplace. The company was a tight knit group, each of us very close friends. We also mostly lived within walking distance from our workplace, the Chicago Branch Headquarters. A larger building than most, the CHQ, as we called it, was where we and five other groups of ten or twenty people worked together to develop any kind of AI imaginable. Anything that was too monotonous for people to handle, we made robots to do it for them.

    I stood across from the light on the corner of Madison St. and Bloomfield Ave. It was one light away from HQ, and my eyes were still drooping from sleep loss. I yawned, and looked at the walking light, silently wishing it would move faster. Whatever. A minute wouldn’t make any difference.

    I arrived at work a minute late, cursing my lasafare attitude. A short jog into the office, I found Bridget, Leon, Gerald, and Sophie waiting for me, each with their arms crossed. They looked really mad.

    “Umm… Hey, guys! Look I can explain…” I barely got into my whole elaborate excuse when they burst out laughing, so much so that Leon fell out of his chair and started rolling on the carpet. I just stood there, mouth ready to catch some flies. Then I closed my mouth, and it formed a smile.

    “Okay, idiots, you’ve had your fun. Back to work, slackers!” I feigned a loud, obnoxious voice, and they cracked up some more, moving towards their desks. I walked over to mine, turning on the machine. “Where are we so far, Leon?”

    The guy had reoriented himself in the chair, and started to look semi-professional, if you could excuse his poor dressing and laid back posture. Then he smiled some more. “We’re more on time than you, Max. The programming is almost complete. I estimate two, three weeks for a beta test.” I nodded. Leon was second in command here, sort of. He could run the show, make sure everything was in order that needed to be while I was out. Everyone was a well oiled machine, and we functioned more like a family than peers.

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    We worked through the day, long into the night, bug fixing, testing, theorizing methods to improve. Soon it was late afternoon, and the group was exhausted. Our caffeine diet had not worked out well today, not at all. So, I sent them home and finished up compiling my report to the boss. I went up to the door and prepared myself for it.

    I knocked, and after receiving permission to enter, I did so. My boss, Frank Mason, was a plump guy that you could tell was rich and arrogant about it. I closed the door, approached his desk, and put the report on the stack of papers from other project leads like myself. I turned around to leave.

    “Max.” He spoke, and I stopped turning. “Yeah?”

    “The company has decided that it needs to cut off some loose ends. They’ll choose next month, and your group is pretty low on the list. If you don’t pick up the pace, you might fall behind. This is a warning.”

    I looked at him, through him, contemplating my options. There really wasn’t any good choices for jobs besides this one. I was already near broke. The only thing that paid less was the government pay that you got for free just by living. Nobody could live well on just that. Those who tried generally wound up with nothing but pain and misery.

    I thought about complaining, that we had been doing much better than any other group that was actually our size, but I realized that it would be useless. If they were going to cut us, there was nothing I could say or do that would improve the situation, so I backed down.

    “Thanks for the heads up, boss. See ya.” I walked out the door, mind abuzz with the new information, thinking about what I should do next. I meandered down the street back to the light that separated my house from my work, or my soon-to-be previous office. As I did, I saw a small family, a little girl and boy laughing and running while their parents walked up behind them.

    I was at the light when the pair of children reached me, and the light opposite us turned red. The girl stepped out before the walking light turned blue, and spoke out. “Race ya across the street, bro!” Then she turned to run, not noticing what I did.

    I quickly stepped forward out onto the street and grabbed the girl’s hand, pulling her back to the sidewalk. As I did though, I lost my balance and fell forward, right into the path of a small, pitch black sports car, barrelling down the avenue like it was a highway.

    Three flips later, my head hit a power line, and I knew no more.