Chapter 1 - Lucky
It was a cold day, but Frederick could tell, there was hope in the air. After having endured the torment of waking up after not having slept more than a few hours. Frederick could detest the sorrow of sleep. To numb the pain, the closest convenience was just a walk away. The track was exhausting, it was terrible to bump from the sidewalk, but they didn't maintain in anymore. Ever after they switched to the air, the people on the ground had nothing to do but live in squalor. He soon reached the long step to the convenience, as usual the steps were completely falling on themselves, after so much use, how could a feeble piece of 73 year old concrete survive this long. "What a heck of a cham" exclaimed Frederick, as he trek through the stairs little by little, one single step would be the end of him, by the point the concrete stands. As soon as he reached the top, he blew a deep breath. The convenience was a simple store, since the invention of huge contraptions of transportation, you only needed to go to a single place to buy things on, but "lucky you if you were rich" then you wouldn't even need to leave your bed. The metal birds dealt with everything and better yet, they dime a dozen if you had the cash for it. As soon as I reached the desk, I saw old blondy on the store. Since they didn't want to just take all the human touch from these convenience, they decided to personalize it a bit with their own perspective hologram, it was nice at least, didn't have to just touch some screen. "Ahh I'll need one of em, Cocacoffee!" raffled Frederick, Blondy calmly replied "Right ahead", well "Right ahead my ass" Frederick babbled, the convenience had a 2 minute wait time, but never the less the shift was coming up, and time couldn't be wasted. Frederick grimaced, "Oh how I missed my old work, it was a hell of a back pain, but it had a better touch" while the time was free Frederick decided to look ahead into the horizon. The horizon was a congested beauty, congested in the sense that since the nature laws, no structure could impede with nature and as so, every structure in the city had to be all clumped and infested like a big bee hive, "Frederick's time in the college made him remember how pretty the old cities looked, with their organized lanes, their parking lots, and don't forget how everything would be unique and didn't have to strictly adhere to one set of rules or two. After the while of contemplating, The Convenience, yelled "It's Right on!". Right on, Frederick decided to have a look at his order. The Cocacoffee was there, and just as his preference stated, with some sugar and no cream. Just as he liked. Right as Frederick went on to grab his cup, he noticed a little form which the cup firmly sat upon. Frederick spilled a bit of his coffee on top of it out of surprise, and some of the message was abstracted. He grabbed upon his shirt pocket onto his thin glasses, and read attentively. CONGRATULATION! You ~~~~~~~~~ have~~~~ stupendously~~~~ made~~~~ Lunar Colony~~~~~~ fortune~~~~ sign~~~~. Well, Frederick thought, looks like I won something, but ehh, might just be like a stamp. Frederick decided to crumple the paper and put it in his left pocket and go on to work.
It kicked in. He could feel it the power! All his sense of delusion, all the despicable sense of drowsiness gone in a matter of an instant. "Thank god, Cocacoffee was invented" Frederick cheered, just as he steeped into the lift to his work. The lift was slow, but at least it had a view of the building, the building made him somewhat nostalgic, it was made of wood, and after all he built it. He was a simple foreman, but now he was on-top of what he built, self made man some may call him. Frederick "sighed" although he still didn't feel like he achieved much, he went from working his body, to now working his mind. The lift opened, it's crude metal shrieked. Frederick looked at his watch, right on time "6:00 am", he walked and walked through the hallways of the building until he arrived to his designated box, this box was his home, or whatever that was, it was his, and had all that belonged to him. He had his treasured bottle caps "they were worth a fortune" he thought to himself, each one had their own original Cocacoffee bottling logo, which unforgettably was discontinued centuries ago, due to wastefulness. Well despite that he had his big and wonderfully poster of Blondy, Blondy was the all time great of the time, both icon and god. Well atleast the only god he knew. Blondy was the encapsulating of beauty, both man and woman, both desire and need, evreything that the eyes could gaze at and leave wanting more, but one needs good eyes to see to be able. Besides the point Frederick took a deep breath and began to work. For today his assignment was to fill in some forms. These forms were special this time, that exited him, it was always the same, complaint forms of convenience wait times, they were all saying respective issues of their experience. Some said they waited hours, others said they was some weird person instead of Blondy in the counter, others just say how good of an experience they had, etc, etc, etc an etc. The thing that made it exhausting was that he needed to sort them into 8 distinct piles, all depending on specific criteria, that was absurdly specific. Like after 8, did they see the color blue, did they complain about the smell, did they like what they had, things that most of them didn't even mention, or just said minutely despite their concern, all I know is that what I always hear from the letter, is that if I make the slightest mistake I'm done. So it is very exhausting work. Despite the point, Frederick thought, this forms are special. They are all asking about their opinions of Cocacoffee, he went on and sorted each one extremely detailed, "did they like the sweet taste", did they "liked the design" it interested him profusely and after months and months of boredom in this job. He finally felt happy.
The bells sounded at (7 pm), Frederick was done. He had an extreme amount of energy he had never felt before; it was like he was born a new. None of the matter, he thought, it's time for some socializing and manual work. Frederick went down the dark halls, as light was extremely rare at night to not disturb the habitual cycles of the night, and he met his friend Roger, Roger was an old man, worked at the job all his life, his skin was all frail and his bone were like he was about to break. Roger yelled a warm hello, to Frederick, and like he had never said before he exclaimed "right at you". Roger was flattered none the less, he was frustrated after mostly receiving the same old stares from Frederick, despite this Roger smiled as well, and proceed to follow behind him. Frederick headed to plaza for the time of communion, but he liked to call it "socializing" since communion sounded so formal. There they all sat, all the workers of the company, as usual Frederick decided to sit in the back, it always came with a nice breeze. Roger despite him never siting in the back due to the cold of the air, followed suit. There they sat Frederick and Roger, sitting attentively as the Administrator came for their speech. Anxiously Frederick, was boucing more than usual around with his feet, he usually just kicked a bit, but now, he was so excited that he couldn't control himself. As usual the deeming Sussy came to shut him up. She usually just gazed at him like a viper, but today, she decided to straight and yell "shut your self ya clown" towards Frederick, Frederick was stunned, he had always been the joke in the workplace, but he had never been given the title of clown. Sussy profused once more "We know you are addicted, but you can't just be so stereotypical". Frederick despite his usual coldness, felt this insult, he had never felt so ashamed. It was like his usual calmness had faded after joy came a bed with him. Well nevertheless, Frederick blurted "I'm sorry". Sussy was shocked, and just fained ignorance and looked back towards the podium. After minutes passed, the Administrator came. The Administrator came in to the picture, walking one foot after the other, limping and doing a hops after every three seconds. I have never felt this before but "I felt like laughing" still I wasn't, never, if I did I would be fire he thought. He hold the laughter, as then the Administrator yelled out "You spiffs, haf dun it!" he paused "Today we have finally made buk ooooouuur loses!". Everyone clapped. The administrator looked around and made eye contact with Frederick. He continued with his speech, and he proclaimed "As it is such a luvely day, and the mun is bright and fair!" he paused "We shall be forth, be granted one hur of slienciese!" I just couldn't hold it... It was to impossible the feeling I had never felt before the slight scratch on my cheeks, my built up joke couldn't hold it, I just laughed, and laughed and laughed!. My eyes were closed but at this moment but all I could see were colors, I had never seen, and the spectacle of joy never felt. Soon as I opened my eyes, evreyone stared at me. I had never felt so much panic before, but I had to say something; Or not, maybe it was just part of the silence, everyone just decided to look at this direction. Maybe my job is done for, Frederick thought. This is it, when I finally became happy, when everything I loved about the job finally came to light... I could fill Cocacoffee forms all day, but now I couldn't. His deep grin turned into a frown. Still Frederick decided to look around him, and he finally felt it. Coldness, dread. Death was near him, and just as he felt that his connection with Roger was to come, he saw roger limp body on the floor right next to him. Frederick left his breath, maybe the laugh wasn't why people were looking at me. It was because of him Roger. Just as Fredrick felt relief, he then felt sadness once more. "Roger" he thought, "Oh Roger", he thought. He was my only friend, yes he and Frederick didn't talk much but he always said hello to him, and now he had no one to say hello too. The silence was a mandatory event for everyone to participate, it was a moment for people to enjoy the silence of the world. And just as the world cried nothing, it also cried of death.
