The morning was brutal, my cell phone was ringing at an alarming rate, no one is supposed to text this early in the morning. I checked, and it was only five-forty five, the sun had barely gone over the horizon and began lighting my apartment, my job didn't even start before another two hours and a half. I decided to check my phone, maybe it was urgent. As I touched it, It lighted up and showed an emergency message:
URGENT
Good Morning Jake Anderson
Please proceed to eat the pill
URGENT
The pill? He must mean the memory pill, a new method the government found to send messages to the people, created a new memory with what the sender wants you to know and forces your brain to relook at it, so in an instant, you got the message. I got up, took a five minute shower, put on my black uniform consisting of black trousers, black socks, black boots, a silver belt, a white shirt, yellow tie, and black tweed double breasted blazer. This was a typical government uniform issued to anyone working for the State, which was basically anyone. I then put on his insignia given by the government to indicate what job I worked, mine was a bee, meaning I was in the ministry of agriculture, on top of a golden, meaning I was in leadership, X symbol, meaning I was in the statistics department of the agricultural ministry. I was ready and in the kitchen in 10 minutes. There I found a pill laying, next to a typical breakfast: two eggs, two breads, a sliced avocado, a glass of milk and one of juice. This was all furnished by the state since the government gave a communist overhaul of the country, everyone's lives got better. I wasn't the best citizen apparently because it took me until five fifty five to have taken the pill in my hands, As I put is in my mouth and swallowed, my brain froze for a moment, and man appeared in my mind, it was the minister of defense, in his fancy uniform and his fancy medals. He opened his mouth and said:
Thank you citizens for listening to my call of needs. This is an urgent matter of security. As you know, the government has had some issues lately due to social unrest at the border with neighboring countries. We are impressed that you did your military service in preparation for hostilities, and now we ask that you volunteer to help defend our society. Thank You Citizens.
The message must have been sent to multiple thousands of people and that's why it wasn't personalized, usually they say my name at least so I know they talk about me. But, I proceeded to finish my breakfast, put my working cap on and went out to the hallway, where I met some friends and coworkers that lived in the same apartment building. They all said they were going to be recruited too, they must have had the same message as me. They were glad to put themselves in the conflict to help preserve the peace and security, plus families of dead ones were always taken care of by the state, so no worries there. In my case, I hadn't met someone yet, so I lived in this apartment complex where there were mostly single men and women to "help" us find a mate. I finally decided I would go with them to the recruitment office. We headed down through the elevator system, in sixty seconds we had descended a hundred levels to arrive at the ground floor. Once there, I went to the tram station, the government had become efficient enough to allow one tramway to pass at every station about every five minutes, at least within the city center. Once in the tramway, the high buildings of the city center passed by, almost all of them two hundred story high, all skyscrapers in a perfect line with straight streets, the buildings were often replaced by parks to bring some greenery to the city. We passed by our usual stop: a skyscraper like the other but with the name written on it in big silver letters: Ministry of Agriculture, we passed until we came to the Ministry of Security, there was the sub-ministry of defence inside. All the tramway passengers got down at this station, we were all either scared or excited, none of us were forced by fear, but forced by a sense of duty to our nation. The whole wave of people was looking a bit the same, but height, color, hair style, and uniform colors changed, even some caps were different. We all lined up in front of the rotating doors, the lineup was considerable, it was a moment of pride to know so many of us were ready to defend our society and our values. We were united by our nationality. When it was my time to get trough, I finally saw the other sides of the doors, it was the same as my ministry, I thought it was weird, but it was fair enough that all ministries look alike. Of course the symbols changed, a red panda replaced the bee. The reception wasn't even telling people where to go, they knew we were here to be conscripted. We all waited for the elevators to bring us to the fiftiest floor, where recruitment usually happened, as we were so many, they even opened the stairs. I decided to go trough the stairs instead of waiting for a spot in the elevators. I could hear the discussions happening, they talked about the insurgency, about an international war, about their loved ones, discussions were happening and no one really knew what was happening. Once arrived to the right floor, I presented myself to the desk, behind it a man sat with a military uniform on, I believe he was a captain of the light infantry, if my military training wasn't too far back.
