The Delicious Phytoanthropes

Part 4. The Five Jobs

"I know, right? I noticed there are more large rocks so I thought so." Hubert commented.

"People said we could have reached the bottom," Flora added in a worried tone.

"That's impossible!" exclaimed Dallas loudly, who had already finished her dish, "the mountain is at least this high and we haven't dug deep to this."

Dallas moved her arms violently to represent what she meant by "this" which is not accurate at all.

"Come on, Dallas. It's not like the whole mountain is filled with Phytoanthropes. Think." Hubert gave a light sneer.

"They are not?"

Alma sat there silently while listening to them discussing over the graveyard. The feeling of frustration haunted her, like having a stone stuck in her throat:

Flora had been with the farmer's team in the graveyard for the whole day. Dallas was out for patrol and Hubert had just returned from the three-day trip- while Alma has been locked in the camp for almost a month.

Alma always missed out on such important issues, could never witness the event or make any real contribution like her friends.

This is all because she is a Teacher

And, she hates everything about it.

Camp people are divided into five work types for the functionality of society. The name of each was set to a common job name back on earth, like how the Council has named the facilities. Alma found the naming of the jobs is the worst of all: instead of exaggeration, this time it's just wrong- the names don't match their function at all.

For instance, Alma herself is a Teacher, but instead of teaching anyone, she just possesses knowledge. And all the other kinds of knowledge-possess-and-apply jobs, using the earth term, like engineers or doctors, are all included under the title of teachers. A name like knowledge-possessee would probably be much better.

And for the Farmers too, instead of farming on land, they go out searching for food; Flora is a farmer. That's why she left early with the farmer team to the graveyard and returned just now.

Only the soldiers got at least a fit naming. Their responsibility is similar to earth ones, the only difference is that they only defend never attack.

Of course, it's not because of the naming that Alma hated being a Teacher. She hated it because it was the most boring one among the five of them. As a teacher, she had to stay in the camp most of the time, which was directed against her deep love of exploring the outside world.

And the worse thing is, her part of "Knowledge" was, unfortunately, the most useless and boring one even among the teachers– the "Knowledge sector", to learn about knowledge of the earth. Yes, like all these past history and fancy science facts could help her in any way now.

To Alma, the only effect of learning these earth things is to prevent her from learning something actually applicable in the real world. If there has to be anything positive about her job, it's just that she gets to throw in some "Interesting Facts" in conversations.

And it can get even worse: the most miserable part that makes Alma want to kill herself every time she thinks about it is the fact that she was alone.

Yes, she was the only one among her friends who belongs to the "Knowledge sector" of the teachers. In fact, there are only two people in this f*** sector among the whole camp.

Why? Why does it have to her?

For God's sake, why?

Author's note: If you have wondered why the narrative talked about earth things when the new generation isn't supposed to know about them, now you know the answer: the narrative is mainly from Alma's perspective. Since she knows about earth things, the narrative refers to them as well.