The Oasis

Chapter 5

Ch 5 

A blaring alarm shot into Jake’s ear. Apparently both his COM and the rest of the house could give a brutal wake up call. Once out of his extremely narrow bed, the lights in the room stopped flashing, and the sound died away. Jake had to manually shut off his COM alarm. Living in such close proximity with others, Jake wondered if his alarm had woke up the whole colony. In all reality, he shouldn’t be concerned about that. The truth of it was, every other house nearby was filled with laborers waking up at the same time for their similar jobs. As Jake’s bed folded back into the wall, he could hear Bogs getting himself ready as well.

                  Still rubbing his sleepy eyes, Jake waved his COM over the closet section of the wall, and a uniform assembled itself for him. Light, waterproof, durable, and simplistically styled, Jake donned his grey outfit and wandered into the kitchen.

                  Jake pulled up a display of the ingredients and food options available in the house and selected a few. Though they had no real pantry, there was a section of the housing unit that stored a standard food set. Coffee and a bagel sounded pretty good for the moment. After tapping the items, Jake pushed the “Accept” button, and the display was replaced with a progress bar.

                  “One moment, please.” The message said above it. After several seconds, the image vanished, and a section of the wall split open, revealing a nicely toasted bagel with a cup of hot coffee and a package of cream cheese and creamer beside it. Jake reached in and the entire alcove light up with a flashing red light. A warning bell chimed as the flashing message, “Caution, contents may be hot.” Displayed before the food items.

                  Jake immediately jerked his hand back and clutched his chest. He slumped his shoulders with an annoyed sigh.

                  “Caution, warning labels may give you a heart attack.” Jake said in spite. He reached in and grabbed his food, this time without incident. With no place to sit, Jake merely leaned against the side of the kitchenette as Bogs squeezed his way in and ordered a biscuit and gravy along with a cup of Joe.

                  “It’s gonna freak out on you when you reach in there. Just so you know.” Jake said.

                  “Is that what happened to you?” Bogs asked. Jake simply nodded, blowing over his coffee.

                  “Wondered what that was.” Bogs said, waiting for his meal to assemble. Jake shrugged and bit into his bagel after liberally applying the cream cheese. It wasn’t five star dining to be sure, but at least it wasn’t any worse than airplane food.

                  “So what they got you working on today?” Bogs asked.

                  “Dunno.” Jake said with a partly full mouth. He set his coffee down on the small counter behind him and tapped his COM. Scrolling over to the duty roster, he read through a short file.

                  “Looks like they have me on perimeter expansion.”

                  “You don’t say? Me too. What section?” Bogs asked, reaching in for his meal. The alarm blared at them again, and Jake jumped despite his best efforts. He gave a surly glance at the duty details.

                  “Uh……Dev-Sec. Not sure what that is.” Jake said.

                  “Development Sector. Each part of the city has it’s own short name. Con-Sec, Med-Sec, Sci-Sec, Dev-Sec, Pro-Sec, and Mech-Sec.” Bogs said through his biscuit.