A Non-Standard Threeday

We are one, so we are free.

Individuality is sin.

My life and death are always ours.

Never aspire, never seek betterment.

Never doubt the Light that guides.

Believe in the Light and we will ascend.

Twoday, Lunch Phase One, 06:00

The Twenty Nine swayed silently, the bedding taut around her neck. Her lips had gone blue. Her hands hung limply by her side, the nails chipped and bloody.

Poppy looked at the girl, frowning. I’m missing lunch for this, she thought. She turned and picked up the ladder. The bedding had been tied around one of the rafters and the Twenty Nine’s weight had tightened the knot. Poppy had been provided with some scissors for the job. They made short work of the knot. The Twenty Nine fell a few feet and sprawled out on the floor. Poppy winced at the sudden noise.

She unwrapped the bedding from the girl’s neck and put in the laundry chute. The girl’s throat was bruised purple with bloody gouge marks from where she’d clawed at it. Poppy lifted the girl in each arm, glad that she was young. Having to drag someone her own size would have wasted more time.

The supervisor thanked her as she deposited the Twenty Nine at the Recyclers. Poppy glanced at her tablet. Twenty minutes wasted already. She gritted her teeth and hurried to the canteen. The queue was pretty short thanks to her lateness. She looked around the silent room, trying to spot Rei. She hesitated for a heartbeat as something caught her eye. She glanced out the window.

Her stare was caught by a red eye with bulging veins trapped in the fog.

Poppy put her head down and continued walking. She filed into line, heart racing. She had already sinned. She had seen what she had seen.

If anyone else had noticed, they weren’t making a show of it. Doubt. A new word to her, it nestled inside her brain, an unwanted guest. She didn’t dare look out the window again to confirm what she had seen. She was already risking too much by letting such a word invade her privacy.

Poppy took her meat from the machine and got a table by herself. It was hard to hold cutlery in her thick gloves. It was much colder today than usual. Even with her hands covered, she could feel it biting her wrists. Maybe that was why …

She glanced back out the window. The white fog was absolute as usual. She studied her food, biting her lip. Who did she doubt? Life, or herself? Maybe she was going crazy. Like the Twenty Nine, or that Sixty Two who had claimed to have actually seen the Light. That was the kind of stuff that scared Poppy.

Her breathing was shaky. She forced herself to calm down. It was fine. All she had to do was stay silent. And she was good at doing that. Hopefully it would slip from her memory soon. That eye in the fog.

She slapped herself as punishment. A few people stared at her then turned back to their meals. She shovelled food into her mouth as fast as she could, cursing internally. What was she thinking, admitting what she had seen out there? No, no, she had to stop thinking about it. Focus on something else. Anything else.

‘Hi, Poppy!’

The canteen’s silence was broken by Rei, the bubbly Fourteen. Rei sat down opposite her sporting her default cheerful grin.

‘Oh. Hi, Rei.’

‘What’s got you down in the dumps, ey? The cold? Well, that’s got most people down, but not Rei!’ Rei tapped her head twice then wolfed down her meat. Poppy rolled her eyes but smiled despite herself.

‘Yeah, the cold’s killing me. You’d think we’d be used to it.’

‘You just gotta move a bit, girl!’ Rei said gleefully, pretending to run on the spot. ‘No wonder you’re freezing when you’re as still as a statue!’

Poppy nodded without really listening. She ate her food in silence as Rei rattled on about her morning’s low Errand Score. Poppy found her gaze drifting to the window but she quickly wrestled it back.

Twoday, Errand Two, 07:00

She was distracted during her second Errand in the Lab. Once, one of her rats escaped - there’d been a large commotion chasing it down but even then, every time she blinked, she saw the eye. That eye, unblinking amongst the fog, pressed right up to the glass. And then it was gone? She shouldn’t have looked back. The eye alone could be explained - the corpse of someone who had escaped.

Escaped? she thought nervously, distracted from her work. Escaped from what? What are these words?

She didn’t even hear her supervisor’s whistle at the end of the shift. Everyone around her began shuffling out while she continued working numbly.

‘Poppy!’

Poppy’s eyes widened a bit. The supervisor’s robotic voice cut through her daze. She walked over to him, taking deep breaths, consoling herself. It was shaking its head and the helmet’s eyes were turned to blue for disappointment.

‘Poppy. This is your average Errand Score.’ It held up a tablet and jabbed a finger at the screen. ‘Three point four three. Already below average but still safe. And this,’ it said, moving the finger down the screen, ‘is your Errand Score today.’

Two point nought four. She gulped.

‘Do you think this is acceptable, Poppy?’

‘No, Sir.’

‘You won’t get paid for this shift, Poppy. You understand?’

‘Yes, Sir.’

‘You are aware of the consequences.’

‘Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir.’

The helmet’s eyes switched to green.

‘Good,’ it said. ‘Never doubt the Light that guides.’

‘Never doubt the Light that guides.’

Twoday, Sleep Phase, 19:37

Poppy struggled to sleep that night. This was serious. An Errand Score that low was disastrous. Two point nought four … anything below a two was enough to kill her. She’d just barely survived by the skin of her teeth and even then, the score was likely to send her average plummeting. Anything below a three was a trip to the Recyclers as well.

So why couldn’t she stop thinking about that eye in the fog?

She rubbed her eyes with her knuckles and ground her teeth. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She shouldn’t have hesitated. Shouldn’t have looked back. Should just keep her head forward. It was that simple. Sin. Sin prodded her, laughing as it did so. So stupid. If she just did nothing, she couldn’t regret anything.

But that regret … she couldn’t let go. These alien words in her head. Doubt. Escape. Sin. Why did they feel so welcome? They’d settled so quickly like they belonged there. And with that, the word ‘Doubt’ just grew and grew. These things had been hidden from her. What else was hidden?

There was something else, something gnawing at her. This was …

Feeling?

Threeday, Wake Up Phase, 00:00

She didn’t remember drifting off but the alarm woke her all the same. She stretched and tapped her bedside tablet to check her routine. Today was a new day. Besides, she had to lift that average up. She couldn’t afford to waste time with all of the new guests in her head.

Threeday, Errand One, 01:00

It was a standard Threeday which meant Recyclers first. She filed in with the other Fifteens to the familiar screams. She hated the Recyclers for that. The boiler room was loud, too, but at least it was a consistent volume. It was hard to get set into a proper pattern at the Recyclers what with every new package bringing its own brand of screams. She hated the Uncooperatives most of all.

Poppy took a seat at her work station and pulled the lever to let the first package in. He appeared behind a one-way glass window in front of her, pushed forward on a conveyor belt. He was completely naked but for shackles around his wrists and ankles. He was slightly overweight and losing hair. He was old too, at least seventeen or eighteen. She flicked a switch, the conveyor belt stopped. She raised the microphone.

‘Read the sign on the wall and obey the instructions,’ she said diligently.

He screamed.

She rolled her eyes. Another “U”. ‘This is your final warning,’ she said. ‘Read the sign on the wall and obey the instructions.’

She fiddled at the controls. A large taser appeared from the wall, flickering with electricity. He looked at it then at the glass. Tears rolled down his cheeks.

‘Please,’ he begged, ‘I don’t deserve this. I don’t-’

The taser shocked him. He convulsed without a sound before crumpling to the floor, hair standing on end.

A magnet appeared, lifting the shackles above his body. A blade flicked out from the magnet, slicing his hands off. She moved the magnet to delicately place the shackles in their own bay. She did the same with his feet. She’d lose a few points for his hands and feet but he seemed the Uncooperative sort. The less time arguing with Us, the better. The conveyor belt moved him into the Recycler.

She made good pace for the day, with only two or three other Us. There was only one person she had to save - he was only six years old and his two bad scores had come from two new Errands in a row. Bad scheduling wasn’t his fault. If you saved someone, you could earn a percentage of their points. A six year old’s meat wasn’t worth it and she could possibly earn more points this way.

While working, she kept an eye on her tablet. She breathed a sigh of relief as the Errand Score went over three. That wouldn’t be enough, though. She had to get her average higher. She pulled the lever.

No.

Poppy froze at the controls. Her heartbeat stopped. Naked on the conveyor belt before her was Rei. The bubbly Fourteen was slouching and shaking horribly. Her mouth was moving but Poppy couldn’t hear a thing. Poppy stared hard. A scream from Rei brought her to her senses and she smashed the switch to stop the belt. Rei stopped two metres before the Recycler.

Poppy took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She raised the microphone.

‘Read … read the s-sign on the wall and obey the instructions.’

Rei’s head turned towards the glass. Her eyes widened, her lip trembled.

‘… Poppy … ?!’

Poppy took another shaky breath.

‘This is your final … your final warning. Read the sign-’

‘POPPY!’ Rei screamed. She tried to move to the glass but fell hard. Still shouting Poppy’s name, she clawed her way upright. She smashed on the glass with a fist, shackles ringing loudly.

‘Poppy, please, Poppy, you understand, right? I-I just had a two point nine eight, that’s barely even below the mark, that’s barely anything-’

Rei kept rambling, incomprehensible. The room had stopped. She felt her supervisor’s blue eyes burning into the back of her skull. Poppy looked at Rei’s broken face and then at her tablet. Three point nought one, the number shone happily. Safe.

Doubt.

But …

‘Read the sign on the wall,’ Poppy said, ‘and obey the instructions.’

‘NOOOOOO!’

The taser appeared and hovered behind Rei’s back. Rei slammed the glass again, screeching. Poppy’s finger hovered over the switch. She closed her eyes and the eye in the fog appeared.

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.

Escape.

She hit the switch. She heard the electric current running through Rei’s body but forced herself to hold the button. After a few seconds, she let go. She opened her eyes.

Rei had fallen against the glass. Her hands hung uselessly above her head, the rest of her body slumped. Her face was pressed against the window. One eye hung open, veins bulging.

Sin.

Poppy stared forward, seeing nothing. Her hands flicked switches on their own. The magnet did its job. The blade removed Rei’s hands and feet. The shackles were placed delicately in their own bay. Rei’s body slumped onto the conveyor belt. It moved her into the Recycler.

Threeday, Food Phase Two, 12:00

Poppy finished the day with a three point something. The supervisor nodded his approval at her, eyes green. She stood in line for her food, her head up. She passed by the window. She sat down with her meat at a table. Alone. At last, a tiny, intoxicated smile touched her lips.