death of hope

Chapter 3 "Flying Windfall" (3) Operator
The next day, Roy woke up groggy, with a splitting headache, as if hundreds of bugs had crawled into his ears.

This is the price of a hangover. He is desperate for sleep now, and every cell in his body seems to be holding a sign to strike.

"Jingle Bell!"

Every time the electronic alarm clock rang, Roy stopped it once, and it rang three times without waking him up. If Anna hadn't forcibly pulled him up, he would definitely not be able to catch the train. If so, he would definitely be late today.

York City is foggy in the early morning, and the visibility is less than 50 meters. The cars on the road drive forward cautiously with fog lights on.

The original white mist was dyed urine-yellow by various chemicals, and the rain turned into highly corrosive acid rain. The raindrops dripped onto the car windows and left clear marks, like tear stains.

In order to save costs, the light rail trains are only equipped with simple air filtration devices, which can only filter out large particles of sand and gravel, but have no effect on the tiny radiation dust, so all the dirty things are sucked into the lungs.

The train broadcast reminded people over and over again that the urban and suburban areas are heavily polluted yellow alerts this morning, please pay attention to protection.

People didn’t respond at all, with numbness written all over their faces. Those who should listen to music listen to music, and those who should read newspapers read newspapers. These people have long been accustomed to living in a dirty atmosphere. Whether they live or die depends on luck. .

Throughout the year, only a few days with high winds can the air pollution index drop to a mild green level.

Living in York City, turbans and masks are useless at all, and gas masks need to be replaced frequently.

Most of the people in the car were coughing, and the ground was full of discarded tissues.

The syrup cough medicine in the vending machine in the middle of the carriage became a hot commodity and sold out quickly.
It's not because this syrup cough medicine is effective, but because the additives in it are highly addictive, turning ordinary people into addicts forcibly, and the boss of the pharmaceutical factory has made a fortune as a result.

Arriving at the Spike Fuel Cell Plant station, the workers moved in uncanny unison, limping and yawning like a bunch of zombies.

Working 10 to 12 hours a day, plus commuting time and private life time, I can only sleep five or six hours, which is far from the sleep time recommended by doctors.

If you suffer from insomnia, it means that you have no energy to work, and if you fail to achieve production efficiency, you will be fired from the factory.

In today's situation where most people have zero savings and high debt, unemployment is obviously fatal, so most people take powerful sleeping pills and pursue the effect of snoring as soon as they touch the pillow.

After printing time cards, workers lined up to receive protective clothing,

These cheap plastic protective suits are inlaid with several thin lead plates, which have a certain radiation protection effect, but they can only protect vital organs.

Roy is an operator in a testing position. His job is to put the semi-finished fuel rods of nuclear fusion batteries into precision instruments for testing.
If the readings are qualified, the product is placed on the left conveyor belt to the next production line, and if it is unqualified, it is placed on the right conveyor belt and sent to the waste bin for safe destruction.

Everyone in the factory knows that it is safe to destroy,
In fact, it is directly dumped into the landfill, and the highly dangerous liquid waste is directly discharged into the river through the pipeline. Anyway, the people in the Environmental Protection Bureau have collected money, and no one will hold them accountable.

Due to the hangover, Roy's reaction speed slowed down a lot, and he quickly dragged the entire production line back, and the "low efficiency" warning red light was lit on the workstation.

"What's going on?" Ms. Diana, the production line leader, walked towards his station.

Diana is a fat aunt in her early 50s, wearing thick high-myopia glasses and a bitter face.

She has never been married, has a bad temper, and often quarrels for no reason, as if she has been in menopause and cannot come out, so she is nicknamed an old maid by the workers.

"Roy, your red light is on again! This is the third low-efficiency warning today. Are you trying to force me to deduct all your points? Could it be that you don't even want your basic salary?"

"Please, team leader, please do me a favor, I almost have no money to pay the rent."

"Since this is the case, you should work hard and stop being lazy!" Diana pushed the high myopia lens on the bridge of her nose, which was her usual action, mumbling in her mouth, and walked away angrily.

Roy stuck out his tongue, and then cursed in a low voice: "Old maid! Make things difficult for everyone, and deserve to be unloved for the rest of my life!"

Finally it was lunch time,
In order to be quiet, Roy and Anna sat face to face at the table in the corner of the cafeteria every time, and didn't care that there was a toilet next to it.

On the dinner plate was a bowl of soup full of additives and MSG, several synthetic protein energy bars, and two small multivitamin cookies.

This kind of working meal is the product of precise calculations by nutritionists.
Although they are all man-made synthetic foods, they can also fully provide the calories, protein, vitamins, cellulose, etc. needed by the human body. Of course, the most important thing is to save costs.

Anna looked at her depressed boyfriend, looking very worried:

"Honey, drink less when you go to the bar next time, and you will be refreshed after a good night's sleep. Ms. Diana has a bad temper. If she deducts your points again this month, it will be miserable."

"Okay, I was wrong, I know..."

Roy ate with a fork in one hand and supported his head in a fist with the other.

"You didn't listen at all!" Anna kept persuading him and reasoning with him, which made Roy feel irritable:
"Understood...you are really long-winded..."

In the afternoon, a major accident occurred on the production line. An operator was locked in the machine and could not get out, and suffered a large dose of radiation.

When he was rescued, the poor man's skin was eroded and peeled off, his mouth and nose were bleeding, his eyes were protruding, and he looked like he was dying.

The ambulance staff put him on a stretcher and sent him away. Roy said: "This buddy is dead. If Mr. Spike still has a conscience, he should be given a pension to his family."

"Conscience? Does a factory owner have a conscience? What a joke!" Bart, a worker beside him, patted Roy on the shoulder: "Hmph! You're thinking too much!
Not to mention pensions, there will not even be compensation for work-related injuries. The factory will pay the accident appraisal personnel to identify the machine failure as a human error. "

"Oh, I'm going! Is it really this dark?"

"Hehe, Roy, you are still young, and there are many things you don't know!"

"I was wondering, Brother Bart, what if I secretly wrote an anonymous letter and reported this to the FBI?"

"You're looking for death! You idiot, don't even think about it,

factory owners and uniformed federal employees,

Vampires and moths, born of the same brood!These people have been colluding for a long time, so, the poor should be content, don't meddle in other things,

Do your job well and get off work at some time, that's it! "

(End of this chapter)