Unknown Depths

Chapter 1: Prompts

Diane lived leisurely since the start of her unemployed life. But days passed by and she got social anxieties of being useless and a waste of space in this advanced technological society. It does not help that all her applications seem to have sunk in the many resumes sent by others who are also looking for a job.

Nowadays to stop her anxieties, she has been using the virtual gadget she got more and more these days. Indulging in the world that is not her reality. In a space in the wide network, she can be more than she could ever be.

Getting the goggles out of her eyes, she checked the time and saw she was past her lunch. No wonder her stomach was protesting. She should just prepare some sandwiches to fill her stomach, a hearty dinner will be in order to make up for this pitiful lunch. Let it be known, Diane never eats small amounts of food due to her high metabolism, having just sandwiches for lunch was more of a snack than a proper meal to her.

Just as she was preparing her lunch-snack, Diane turned on the TV to watch the news. Or in her current place, she was listening to what was said in the kitchen. News was her entertainment for some reason as other kinds of shows really don’t appeal as much to her.

“....in district G there has been a huge number of people suddenly going into a coma. Authorities are currently looking for reasons as to why they fell into this predicament, but are warning people to go to the nearest hospital for a free check up to prevent the same situation from happening in other places.” The news anchor said as Diane imagined the screen of the TV showing the said people with mosaics on their faces. The anchor continued saying a few more words in regards to the incident before he switched to another news.

Diane absent-mindedly took note of the incident in some corner of her mind. Fully preoccupied with her task at hand to even listen well to what was said on the news. Though she did hear some things that concern the other district in the city-state she is living in.

Butterfly city is composed of twelve districts, each divided into four major areas. District A-C were the most prosperous areas wherein most companies as well as the central activity area of the government. It is typically the area of the rich as well as the people of power stay their whole lives.

District D-F was the lesser version of district A-C. There is less crowd and there is less commerce than the first three sectors. People who live here are generally those who one way or another have some connections on the higher side of the city. Most of them are new people who are invested by those in district A during their younger years and are expected to work for the companies in those most prosperous areas.

Diane belonged to those invested by a patron in district A. She was an orphan and not the most intelligent person there is nor do she possess something that is worthy to be given too much attention. If she can ask her patron, she wants to know why she is here and what is the purpose of them paying so much for someone as mediocre as her. 

Ability-wise Diane thinks she belongs to the district G-I. Her greatest characteristic lies in her physical strength. Here in district G-I, she could exert her greatest potential: manual labor.

District G-I was full of many factories. There is no much need for thinking nor is there too much pressure in the workplace. There is no boss who is breathing on her neck nor there are nosy workmates who think of schemes everyday. The only thing she had to mind was the mainframe monitoring their work and other than lesser pay than those in the district A-F, everything else is bearable.

As for the world outside the city-state she was born and raised in, most people in their city are unaware of them. There were some reports in the TVs and other media, but this information was vague at most and almost obsolete whenever they appeared.