A giant holographic clock alternates between 4 usable colors, instead of the pre-set five. The building on which it's projected seems never-ending, rising above rainbow gas clouds and whimsy pink smoke, with the roof connecting with the black-pit ceiling above it.
The hour shows 3:33 -M, and nobody knew anymore if it was supposed to be morning or evening. Except for the tenants of the apartment building on which it is projected, who live in perpetual darkness in their homes after they blacked out their windows to stop the holograms from lighting their apartments like carnival attractions 24/7. Complaints were made, all ignored and life went on, under the cover of painted glass.
On top of everything, their building was also a host for a second massive clock, an old analog type. During the first 100 years of its lifetime, the only sound it made was from the teenagers who used it as a hangout spot. Then another century went by, and the years of neglect made clock arms to rust and for dust to gather in the joints. Each movement of the arms left a small creak in their wake, and a rumble as if a stone is dragged over a concrete road. To add insult to injury, this clock pointed towards 3:03.
A support pillar for the County's upper floor had a third clock attached, a lengthy digital clock, that could be used for brief messages or commercials. It flickered in dim light, on and off, with letters appearing between the numbers or empty spaces. This one was set to 3:13.
Between the tall condos, factories, and weirdly shaped buildings, the giant support towers sprawled all over the County floors were the first to entrap the attention of the underground workers. It followed them through every level, piercing between the structural layers of the settlement. Always churning, keeping it all stable with the sounds of rusty old machines, which with time have become background noise for the citizens.
At some point, the doors of one of the elevators disguised as the towers split open, letting a horde of people exit in a hurry. Amid all this havoc, two young boys get pushed out before they can react, but they expect to be swept by the waves of passersby. Back in their sublevel village, at the base of the pyramidal shape County, they learned some know-how about the upper levels, passed down by other laborers; still knowing about, and acting while the rampage happened were two different concepts.
The exit connected to a pair of four lanes filled only with mechanical people or people with mechanics grafted into them. The boys noticed that some had messy hair and were dressed in stained jumpsuits, while others were changing into old work suits and grooming their faces in the middle of the road. Many used bikes or skates incorporated into their feet to stride around in a hurry. Most of them gave a quick nod or hello to acquaintances, traded or delivered snacks and drinks, and then continued moving on. No one could afford to be late.
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The newcomers, trying to get a better grasp on what kind of pickle they were dealing with, moved to an empty spot on the side of the road. There they noticed that on each side of the lane, there was a separate, hidden road filled with the elderly and sickly, which shipped them to the factories and offices.
Besides the people's engraved hurriedness, most of which branded some sort of metallic contraption on them. They rustled and clanked with each step, some having robotic arms longer than their body, dragged around by tiredness and resentment. Others were built like fridges, with perfectly square angles to their bodies.
The middle level of the pyramidal megacity was more intense than what the brands prepared them for. " It's at least very busy. That part of the infomercials was true", thought one of the boys. It was more overwhelming than they expected, and they needed a few minutes to take it all in.
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Elder brother -" Now that we rested for a bit, I would love to loiter around it some more, but we've got a shift to start", said the eldest of the boys. Their first and only plan was to maybe, possibly, follow someone that mayyyybe had connections on this level, but that shriveled the second they got out of the lift.
As if being in the new environment wasn't enough of a shock, the divergent times displayed by the clocks confused them even further. Their day-one instructions told them, firstly and only, in which direction the factory was:
Speaker voice -" Just go straight to the giant building on the left, that spews orange smoke. Not the dark yellow, mustard kind, but straight-up orange, ok? Ok. Good luck, and welcome to the team!". Afterward, they got shoved with the rest of the new starters into the elevator and sent on their merry way.
Elder brother -" Well, I guess we at least have some kind of direction. We can definitely see a building with smoke coming out of it", said the older brother.
Smaller brother -"Yeah, but one question. Do you know what orange or mustard, or whatever, even looks like?", asked the other sibling. They then stared at the different colored smoke from the factories, guessing now which was which. At some point, they even tried letting fate solve it for them, using a falling wrench to show them the way.
Elder brother -" Ah, c'mon, why is this so complicated? And stupid clocks are showing different numbers, so we don't even know how much time we have left until the shift starts!".
Smaller brother -" Tsz, yeah, you're right. Wish those dumb things explained what orange is. Or mustard. We should at least go in the direction mentioned in the instructions, maybe we can find a map or something", complained the younger one.
With a trajectory in mind, the two set off towards, hopefully, the correct future workplace. Along the way, they tried to ask for help, but with no luck. They lacked some need-to-know bits about the Brand logo, the eighth one, and post designations on their suits made them appear as if they were plague-bearers for the rest of the people. It was one of the many unwritten and unspoken rules that the County held from outsiders.
Their unfortunate strike ended, though, when a raspy, but excited voice greeted them. Frightened by the sudden noise, the boys quickly turned around and were doubly surprised by the unknown person who greeted them.
The stranger had albino skin, but the paleness wasn't sickly looking, more like their body was entirely covered in paint. The bald head and lanky frame, though, reminded them of an ill person, and from a distance they seemed emaciated. Their height, while being in the middle of the height scale, didn't help the figure to not appear as a stick person. The feeble presence was only on the physical side, though, as they were brimming with energy and passion from every word and movement of their body.
Pale stranger -" Hi there, you two. Let me guess, you're lost, am I right?" With a wide smile and sunny disposition, the stranger asked the two if they needed some help. The boys then noticed the logo on their suits and were relieved when they saw a colleague of the same Brand.
A few moments later, though, the younger's one-reassured face turned into one filled with contempt for the person. He recognized what the stranger was. His brother noticed his obvious repulsion, but quickly tried to avoid any useless conflicts:
Elder brother -" Oh, hello, sorry. It's our first day, and we couldn't figure out when or where, or what we should do. The clocks and roads and, well, everything, confused us a bit", he remarked.
Pale stranger -"They do, huh? Ah, you then must be from the new batch of hires, right? I actually saw you running around a few minutes ago, to be honest, but I didn't know for sure if you were newbies or not." said the stranger.
They noticed the younger one's attitude, but thought: "Poor guys must be under lots of stress on their first day". Their inaugural entry into the work life was already as sour as it got, so to sweeten the deal a little bit, the stranger tried to give them some insights into how the workers of the middle levels handle some of their problems:
Pale stranger -" Guess you weren't told, but most of the employees get a device like this", they say, pointing towards a brown bracelet attached to their arm. "It's called a WristCom, and it's an amazing piece of tech if you ask me. Quite easy to use as well!- You just grab this part here, stretch it over your hand, and it forms a holographic screen. It's a nifty thing, right? We mainly use them to check the correct time, though. Or for entertainment during the allowed minutes."
The boys soon learned that once the stranger started to ramble about products, they couldn't be stopped, but did manage to ignore it since something else was bothering them -"What is the point of the three clocks then, and how come we didn't receive a device like that", they both were ruminating on.
Their older colleague guessed that from the intense stares they were throwing at the clocks, something about the ruined devices was bothering them.
Pale stranger -" Sorry, nobody takes care of the clocks anymore, and the rest of us kinda forgot about them. I apologize for the collective screw-up boys. Also, don't worry about the Coms, you will get one of these if...when you make it past 3 weeks. Still, until then, you can use the middle clock, that one still shows the correct time. Sooo, is there anything else I can help you with?