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The New Republik



Chapter 2 – Business as usual

The shiny glass door of the agency swung open gently, and a figure awkwardly dragged himself inside.

“You’re late for work, Johnny5.” It was the manager’s personal assistant, Katarina, who appeared to be reviewing a document at the reception desk.

“Sorry, I’ll stay back at work a bit longer. I had a sore back this morning for some reason.” He shuffled past the reception desk towards his own work area, although as he passed Katarina he noticed she was actually reading a magazine.

Johnny5 observed, “I take it the boss isn’t in again today. I wonder what the deal with that is.”

The manager’s office was closed off by a wooden door, with faded opaque glass panels. It may have appeared quite elegant and refined had it not been untouched for many months, judging by the dust build-up on the doorknob and the spider webs on the ceiling above.

Johnny5 proceeded to his own office area, which was shared with a dozen other workers. They briefly acknowledged his existence with a vague collective groan, which was about as warm a reception as Johnny5 had expected, so he took it in his stride and sat down to prepare for another day’s work.

This is what I trained for, this is what I do. It’s a part of who I am now.

He pressed the green button.

“Ok, time to go hit the gym.” The rest of the group was already half out the door.

He never particularly felt like going for intensive military training, and was less inclined today due to a genuinely sore back. It was generally considered the thing to do after work, even for the elderly and paraplegics. Exercise for health reasons is one thing, but arranging for a whole population to aspire to be killers is something else. Today he decided instead to linger and remind himself of the company’s activities.

After only a few minutes of searching through filing cabinets, he found what he was looking for. A company manual of directives and protocols. It was as old as the company itself, and the pages had begun to turn yellow, but it held a kind of old charm. He wiped away the dust form the cover to reveal the company logo, a chimp riding a train and happily discarding a banana peel.

So.. I’ve been working for a “Moving Ticket” company, or possibly a zoo.

The book was filled with peculiar revelations, often completely nonsensical. For instance, workers were supposed to receive different wages depending on their “Work skill level”, which would imply that a newborn child couldn’t perform work tasks to the same extent as an adult with extensive specialized training.

Haha, that would be crazy. A “skill” element that factors into work performance.

The manual also mentioned something called “Project Z.” Johnny5 gathered from the context that it was some sort of strategy that management had implemented to increase worker productivity without extra cost, but the details were classified.

The end of the manual was signed by the company manager, the now absentee, Walter Barrymore. This continued to vex Johnny5, who could not even remember what his boss looked like. Most people did not really mind at the end of the day, as wages were given out automatically whenever the work button was pressed.

As Johnny5 turned to leave he heard a feint gurgling sound. He suddenly realized half of the office workers were still at their desks. They sat there blankly, motionless. Well, mostly motionless. One of them, asleep in the corner, was unconsciously gargling his own saliva.

“Err, what are you guys still doing here?”

There was absolutely no response. Johnny5 prodded the closest coworker, who reluctantly turned his head slowly around. To Johnny5’s horror, it kept turning, a full 180 degrees. The head stared blankly in his general direction with cold, dead eyes.

After a long pause, the man eventually spoke in a monotonous long drawl,
“We’re the marketing division. We put items on the market to sell. It’s very been slow the last couple of years, not a single sale.”

Johnny5 had already fled out the door.

“Do you want to buy a 5-star moving ticket?”