Unmarked

12. Unfair

One of the guards, whose name I haven't learnt yet, sits watching the two of us clean. Mopping the floor, I can't help think this is not fair. They go outside for a run and we have to stay inside to clean.

"The others will have chores to do as well. Gloria keeps everything as fair as possible. We all contribute," Lena says quietly, wiping a table's surface.

I've noticed no matter how much we both scrub nothing seems to penetrate the layers of grime. Both of us are just smearing the grease around.

"How often do they go for a run?" I ask.

"Everyday. Hopefully, I'll be allowed to go out soon. I miss fresh air."

"What does Gloria base her decision on whether you're ready to go out?"

"I think when she trusts you enough not to try run off." Lena shrugs. "I'm fairly new so I'm considered more of a flight risk. Not that I have anywhere to go. I was picked up when Lars took over my previous owner's business. Lars allowed me to choose where I wanted to go whereas the two places I was in before, never gave me any say in what I wanted to do." Lena stops for a moment. "Did you volunteer to come here or get found out?"

"I didn't volunteer," I say flatly.

"You're lucky Lars was the one to find you. He's one of the nicer ones."

"Yeah, lucky," I mumble. "How long have you been here?"

"Only a month, but I got caught two years ago." Lena's face darkens momentarily. She flashes her wrist at me. "No engagement seal. What about you?"

"Same," I respond.

"How come?" Lena asks.

"It was never really an option," I say honestly.

"Me neither. My parents died and I was looking after my younger brother so I didn't have time to organise a fiancé. I meant to but before I knew it my eighteenth birthday arrived, someone informed on me to a business owner, and I was picked up and taken to the first place I worked. I hated that place the most," Lena sighs her voice barely audible. "I always think if I'd had a chance to explain to The State they would have understood. They would have made an exception if they knew the situation. Don't you think?"

"Yeah, probably," I say gently.

I'm lying again. I don't believe The State would have given her a chance to explain the situation. Everyone knows the rules and you must follow them or face the consequences, no exceptions.

It's why illegal businesses can exploit those who have broken the law. Most will chose to not be sent to a labour camp or hung from the platform, even if it does mean giving up large parts of yourself to strangers.

"I know I've said this already, but you really are lucky that Lars caught you. At least he gave you an option of where you wanted to work. I wasn't so lucky in the first two places I was in." Lena scratches at the table aimlessly.

She looks much younger than twenty-one but on closer inspection, I notice the dark circles under her eyes, the creases along her skin, the telltale signs her life is ageing her prematurely, a life she hasn't chosen.

Silence descends and neither of us says anything for a while. I welcome the quiet. I need to focus on figuring a way out which doesn't involve the main door because it's always being guarded, but I find it hard not to dwell on Lena's past, on what she has probably had to deal.

I'm aware of what goes on at my clients' businesses although I don't see it first hand. Occasionally, you get business owners who only takes volunteers who are running from the State, who are fair and treat their workers well, or as well as can be treated in our illegal world. Often the owners are brutal, corrupt and force people to do things they don't want. They threaten them with death or being handed over to The State which holds the same fate, only a more painful route.