There is a small bird outside my window when I wake up. It's chirping annoyingly, like it's trying to tell me something. I turn to my other side when I feel the sun on my face. I close my eyes tighter to try and-
Bolting out of bed as fast as I can, I look in dismay at the already rising sun. I've slept in! I work in the mills today too! I rush around my room quickly trying to find my shoes. They are cleverly hidden under my bed. I pull them on and run out of the room. The halls are incredibly quiet, only adding to my rush. I burst out of the barrack.
The mills are situated on the other side of the Palace. Two tall gray buildings are all that people see when they first see them. However, inside there are thousands of things going on. The first building is where we make clothes for the divisions, new Trainees, and Palace workers. We also make accessories and shoes. The other mill is for food. All pickings from the orchards come here, as well as the cattle raised in Earth. The food is then distributed throughout the divisions and Center accordingly. Today I will be working with the food, I believe. I rush over to the Trainees' entrance, where there is a worker with a clipboard about to close the door.
"Wait!" I shout.
The lady turns and sees me hurrying towards the door. She scowls, but still waits.
"You're late," she says.
"I know. I'm so sorry. It won't happen again," I say while trying to catch my breath.
The worker's face doesn't change. "Name?"
"Maia."
"Barrack assignment?"
"B2L3R7," I recite from memory.
The lady nods, checks something off her list, and then lets me through. "Go to your right and enter into the room. You will get your work assignment from there."
"Thank you."
I recieve no reply, but I hurry onwards anyways. I find the room and see there are sheets of paper hanging on the walls. I find my barrack first. It takes a while for me to understand the organization. When I find my barrack, I look next to my name and see that I'm in food packaging today. I rush to the assigned floor and don an apron, hair net, and working gloves. I spot my work station easily since it's one of the few empty. I've interrupted a lesson on how to do this process correctly. Quickly, I sit down. The worker finishes explaining what we are to do and we get to work. The table in front of me begins to move and I jump. (A/N: Imagine the "table" as a long conveyor belt.) Apples begin to filter through a shute to my right and move along the table. It takes a while for me to get the idea of how to package the apples correctly into boxes, but once I do, the process speads up considerably.
I do this until the sun reaches high noon. The mills are beginning to heat up. I feel a drop of sweat roll down my face, but I wipe it away before it hits the apples. I've nearly finished a box when the table stops moving and the apples stop flowing. The worker comes back and tells us to leave the boxes. The next group will pick it up since we are done for the day.
Thankful for the reprieve, I take off the sweaty hairnet and gloves. I toss them out in a nearby bin. The apron I hang back up on its hook. I file out of the hot building behind the rest of the Trainees. The outside air feels good against my sweaty skin, and I take a breath to clear my lungs. By the time I reach the place where my group meets up, the dining hall is swarming with Trainees. Our little group is assembled except for Tria, Clarisse, and Zen.
"Where are Tria, Clarisse, and Zen?" I ask.
It's Mire who answers. "They had a class out in the Field today, I think. They have to return to the classroom before they are allowed to leave."
