Joe flew through the district at a blinding speed. Flying above the blackened steam of the factories, watching the maze of metal below fly by.
“I am one of the district's strong,” he thought to himself, “I am a member of the district's unrivaled black steel mages. As a mage I am proud to serve the needs of the people for as long as they serve me faithfully.” He knew the creed of power the mages use seems crude to some, “but there will be no complaints from those who understand the power we wield.”
“The power,” he spoke softly to himself as the air burned from the magic of his breath, “this is the power of a god.”
He flew above the district, shattering the very sky as he blurred above the mortals who toiled in the factories below. He did not need to fear the shock waves of his flight. The people were hardy and weak materials like glass have long been banned from the district.
Joe remembered being weak, he remembered longing after the power of magic for years. He hated those memories, hated being weak, hated being just human. But now he roared his pleasure to the world by shattering the sky itself.
Joe's thoughts of power continued unabated “I am beyond the steel forges now, above the grav trains, I can fly without the need of others! I no longer need the alleyways of man, or the money that ruled their lives. I'm above the laws that govern mortals.”
In this state he could finally see the whole district spanning out before him.
A massive underground network of factories, living centers, and government sectors almost entirely consumed in shadows as far as he could see in every direction. Dozens of massive columns of dark-steel climbing high into the sky, far above the blackened steam clouds, to meet the hanging district. It was all his to explore. All his.
“I am Joe Fortune,” he said to the world below. His voice thundered; the world shook. “I am Joe the powerful!” The people below knelt; the air trembled with his decree. “I am Joe the…”
“Wake up Joe, your alarm for the ‘495th shift of the 89th cycle of the district lord Erret’ has arrived. This message will repeat in 5 minutes.”
The damned words of a bored woman bore into Joe’s unconscious mind. The message even overlayed themselves onto the horizon of the fading dream.
The message only left when he finally opened his eyes to the sight of his cold, pale, metal ceiling. Powerless, once again.
“That was a cool one, but damn why does dream mage me make me want to punch myself in the face.” Joe thought. He sat up a little and looked at the hole in his wall.
“Morning hole, morning dark gloomy district of orphans,” Joe spoke to the two-meter hole in his wall and the fires of the district visible outside. He felt like he and the hole were old friends by now. Of course, the hole did not reciprocate his feelings or respond. Instead, it made a cold draft, sapping the heat out of his sixteenth story room.
“You know,” Joe said to the hole while ignoring the cold, “the manager of the habitation center said you’re gonna be gone in a shift or two. Now I know she’s said that before, but I think she really meant it this time.” He was unable to convince even himself of that lie.
He stared at the hole, thinking about the beautiful manager's antics over the last cycle. He knew she was lying to him about the repair job, and other un-available rooms, and being sorry he has had to deal with the issue for so long, and about caring at all really. But she gave him a free meal at the end of every hot shift, when he actually came home. Okay it was just a nutrient bar but damn him if he wasn't a little hopeful that she wasn't the manipulative bitch everyone thought she was.
“Shame someone in charge of thousands of peoples' homes acted like such a bitch to everyone. Maybe I should introduce her to Luke. He has really powerful dad energy.” But Joe knew better than to try and mess with other people’s lives, and he respected Luke too much to do that to him.
Luke was the building's self-appointed child caretaker. The man had his own issues but made a point to help kids adjust to the district and teach them how to take care of themselves. “He does have that annoying habit of trying to help me like I’m 5 years old though. Maybe I will try and get them to meet,” he thought with narrowed eyes.
Looking back to the hole, Joe spoke quickly, and with some concern in his voice, “Is this what I have become? Planning petty, stupid things while talking to the lack of a wall?! Sorry, I know you are much better than an ordinary wall. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have such a great view of the district. But I have to be honest with myself, I have some issues I should probably address.”
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“Screw it, let's see,” he thought, staring at the hole. “I didn’t really choose to be born, that was my mom choosing to have a child to reduce her own prison sentence a little, so not my fault. Besides, nearly everyone in the district had no family to speak of, for one reason or another. At least I know my parents didn’t want me, and I live a whole district above them. So Ha!”
Joe shook his head to get his thoughts back on the track of his choice, then winced when he remembered another great decision he once made. “I got to choose the type of schooling I went to when I was 4, so that's one strike for choosing manual work school.”
“What can I say,” Joe said to the hole with a pained grin, “I thought books were stupid when I was four.”
“Another strike,” he continued thinking, “for getting a job in a recycle factory. Then again,” he thoughtfully added, “all the factories suck so maybe that one doesn't count. No, no I should have been a blanket maker, or a merchant. One gets more soft warm blankets, one can run gambling halls to make a ton of money on the side.”
Then a thought struck him, “I do roll dice every shift to see how good or bad the shift will be, nearly every shift. But that's because it works, and if it works it's not stupid.”
After continuing to judge his life choices for a while longer Joe started to fall back asleep feeling like there was something he was forgetting, something very important.
“Wake up Joe, your alarm for the ‘495th shift of the 89th cycle of the district lord Erret’ has arrived. This message will repeat in 5 minutes.”
Joe jerked awake again. He laid there, defeated, his heart thumping, staring at the words floating in front of him. “One shift,” he thought to himself, “One shift I will be powerful enough to go anywhere I want, when I want. I’ll fly to any district, to any city. I will see the sky with my own eyes, if for no other reason than to spite this place. And I will slap the ever-loving crap out of whoever made the dam worker system!”
His thoughts made his chest tighten in frustration as he fought to sit up in his bed, then gave up on that immediately as his head stung a little from being woken up so rudely again, so soon. Joe looked around at his cozy room, it was quite a bit larger than some places he had lived in. There was room for his bed, his pile of blankets and pillows, and his own sink and toilet. What made his room special, other than the hole, was the narrow sliding door that opened into his very own private shower, with actual hot water. It was a luxury, but one he was happy to pay for.
He rolled over and shoved his face into his pillow, “I still have some time to sleep.” he said into the pillow.
Once again, Joe laid there, staring out of the hole in his wall. The panels lining every meter of the colossal columns slowly turning off. Soon the panels will mark the start of the hot shift by heating the district for the first half of the twenty-hour long shift.
Joe looked up at the soft pale light coming through the dark, terrifying clouds of poison, ash, and steam roiling above the district. “I wonder if that’s what the light of the moon would look like,” He smiled brightly looking at the soft lights coming through the darkness into his room. Without that light they wouldn’t even know the clouds were there. “Funny how being able to see at all only makes us aware of what we cannot. Hey, look at me, I’m having deep thoughts today. Thinking about the quality of my thoughts while thinking cool thoughts and…”
Joe blinked in confusion; he had gone somewhere for a moment. He didn’t know why, but sometimes his thoughts just got away from him until he finally snaps back to himself. He never minded it though; it only lasts a few seconds anyway.
He finally collected his thoughts and returned to where he left off looking at the districts’ sky. “I’ll take the clouds over what the surface has though, I don’t think I could handle the sight of a small planet suspended above me for light. I know the mages are powerful, but that seems like overkill just for some light. Why not just keep the sun out all the time. Well, maybe light is expensive even for the rich. Guess I should be glad we get even this down here.”
Joe rolled over in his bed, and looked down at the faint, scar-like white lines that traced the back of his left hand that showed where the worker system had been embedded, “I’m too tired for this self-reflection stuff,” he mumbled. Joe decided he would just turn off the alarm and go back to sleep for a bit longer, he didn’t have to be at work for well over an hour anyway. He spent a few seconds trying, and failing, to remember the correct movements to turn off the alarm. Eventually he remembered that he had changed the movement necessary a few shifts ago for some reason. Annoyed with himself he opened the menu with a flick of his finger, making the small pale window appear in front of him showing his menus’ tabs: shift duties, Citizen currency, available work, transportation, convenience, and system. He selected convenience.
“I still don’t understand why this thing can speak to my brain,” He said aloud, “but I have to use sign language and point around to use it. And why did I change the alarm movement anyway?”
He finally got to the alarm portion of the convenience menu and tried to make the alarm stop. Then the voice of the government issued worker system spoke straight into his mind, again.
“User altered/ set alarm settings require you to leave your habitation center before disabling this alarm.”
“Oh yea,” he thought, “I was experimenting with the worker system’s alarm settings the other day. Great thinking past me, you really know how to annoy people ya prick.”
“Wake up Joe, your alarm for the ‘495th shift of the 89th cycle of the district lord Erret’ has arrived. This message will repeat in 4 minutes and 30 seconds.”
Joe turned to look at the hole with a confused and resigned look on his face. “Did the time on that get shorter?” he asked the ever-great listener.
When no response was forthcoming, he turned to look out at the district and said, in a defeated tone, “Past me really was a prick…”