The Greatest Lie

The Other Side of Living

A whole generation of kids left without parents, mentors or anyone to look up to left a need that M Corp easily filled. The schools that used to at least allow less fortunate kids to have teachers and role models to look up to were forced to close. Teacher shortages, and the danger of being alone out in public had made it impossible to keep the schools running. Some kids were hidden away inside their family homes to protect them, while others were allowed to wander the streets during the day as their parents tried to keep their jobs and put food on the table. Some parents never made it home as they were killed in the riots, hauled away by their government for fighting back, or recruited and sent away to fight in an unknown war. As the lines began to deteriorate as to who was running things, M Corp stepped in, offering security and jobs to a new child workforce. With limited life skills, children could never make it on their own without some direction from an older generation. Child labor laws evaporated because it was necessary to have someone working the manufacturing facilities and day care facilities were not around and a waste of time if you could get the children working. The adult workforce was greatly diminished with everything going on in the world and materials and supplies were still desperately needed to keep whatever was left of society still running. There was a whole group of people doing nothing but waiting for the world to turn right side up again, but the longer they waited, the less hopeful things appeared to be. Victor was one of these kids that had been left with nothing but the opportunity to work for M Corp and it was the only option he knew existed. It only took a couple days without a meal before people were desperate enough to do anything to stop starvation and M Corp saw no ethical dilemma in taking advantage of the helpless.

As soon as he left his neighbors he was overtaken with anxiety. He couldn't believe he was so brazen as to rant against M Corp and the lottery in front of so many people. For once in his life he was actually thinking for himself, and this new righteous mentality made him uneasy that he was digging himself his own grave. Within a few minutes he had convinced himself that M Corp had already been alerted to what he was up to and that they would be showing up any second to take him away. A panic attack took hold as his heart raced with anxiety and sweat beads began to develop on his forehead. He felt dizzy as tunnel vision took over his eyesight and he was sure that he was going to pass out and wake up in an M Corp jail cell. Through his hyperventilation, Victor became certain that someone was going to have loose lips and he was going to go down with the ship before it even left port.

Victor had never cared much for school in the few short years he had gone to it in his early childhood. He enjoyed playing with friends on the playground, and some of the arts and crafts projects they did, but he barely had any interest in learning to read or write. His passion had always been Legos and building things with his toys. By the time he was old enough to start getting homework sent home with him from school, he stopped going to school. This relieved Victor as he now could spend his day playing and building with his toys. As heart broken as Victor was for his parent's leaving him, it was not as bad as he expected it to be living and growing up under M Corps control. It was like always having friends over when he shared a room with a group of other similar aged boys. They had plenty of toys and things to do everyday to keep the kids occupied. The informal training they were provided was geared around teaching the kids certain jobs within M Corp. This was more interesting to Victor than what he had experienced in elementary school. He learned basic carpentry skills and enjoyed using different tools like hammers and tape measures. He and the other kids were trained in basic maintenance of plumbing, electricity and gas engines, which was more life skills oriented than most kids had received in the normal route of public schools. As he learned these different trades, they were tested periodically and the training was then groomed towards what they excelled at. Victor never was a stand out at any of the things he learned, but he became a jack of all trades which he was proud of, but M Corp did not hold in as high a regard. Anyone who was not deemed as the top of their training within M Corp was assigned lower level positions like warehouse workers, janitors or cooks. The people allocated to this class of workers were allowed to start working earlier than their peers, as it did not require as much training to start doing those jobs. At first it felt like Victor was doing something with his life and was a productive member of society, but after years of doing the same thing day in and day out, the allure of being a measly warehouse worker was beginning to wear off.