Jarek hated this city. But he didnt knew anything else.

'One day Im gonna escape the walls.'

But he knew how impossible that was. Even tho he himself had never seen the walls. He had heard storys from the wierd lœnkers who where new to the underground. They where rich once, but lost all their money. Most of them had gone insane long before arriving in the depth of the city where Jarek lived. From what those people were waffling about, rumors came to live about the city above them, the city that wasnt underground. It was only a small part of the city where the richest of the rich lived. Sometimes he just sat down in some hidden corner and thought about how great live must be up there, how bright the sun and the sky would shine everyday. Jarek hadnt seen the sky ever in his live. Most of the people underground hadnt. Apart from the high officials and the lœnkers, no one had.

"HEY, YOU! WHAT DO YOU HAVE THERE IN YOUR HAND??"

It was a weird old lady, probably from deeper down in the city. She was wearing a loose suit out of some black material, similar to most other people down here. Additionally, she had something like a greyish headscarf. On her back was some weird metal backpack with cables connected to her arms. Considering her question, he looked down to his hand and realized, he had pulled out the weird little machine thing he found earlier.

"Fuck off, thats mine."

The old lady frowned.

"Yours? B..b..but I...can't I...just for a second..."

She extended her arms and opened her fingers to grab it. He quickly pulled away.

"HES YOU OLD WITCH DO YOU HEAR ME? ITS MINE!"

He quickly pulled the little piece of metal away. Anger filled the face of the old woman and she began screaching in a wierd, very high pitch. Jarek turned away and ran. If he knew one thing, that was when to run. And that old lady was reason enough for sure.

***

He ran until he reached the factory. To check, jarek turned around and the lady was gone. He must have lost her somewhere along the way, probably on the escalator next to the clothing shop.

In the factory before him, Jarek had worked for his entire life. Most of the work was done by machines, but someone always had to repair those machines and keep them working. That job was done by Jarek and the other people in the factory.

The boy pressed the button on the door of the factory and waited.

Looking around, he analyzed his surrounings, despite exactly knowing every inch around here: a few feet above him was the ceiling, made of concrete. The concrete wasnt even visible thru all the cables and pipes, but he knew it was there. To his left was the wall of a housing complex made of a dark metal, which looked quite clean for how old it probably was.

To his right was a coffee shop. The outside of the coffe shop was also made of dark metal and decorated by tons of bright and colorful lights, like every shop down here. Jarek tried coffe once on his last birthday but it tasted wierd and bitter and he never tried it again after that. It reminded him of that one time he accidently got machine oil in his mouth. That tasted horrible too.

The synthetic food they got down here barely tasted like anything. Sometimes they got bread, but mostly it was just some grey slimy paste that tasted slightly sweet. But it was enough to live off.

In this moment, the robotic voice that greeted him every morning asked for his number

"your number please"

He sighed. "128864"

The robotic voice paused for a moment, then the doors slid open.

"good morning, worker...jarek."