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Walter has been working at GenStockCo for upwards of 16 years, 12 hours every day, as a condiment packer. The company was created after the explosion of automation in the manufacturing and service industries which created widespread unemployment and an economic catastrophe. In response, companies had to be created to give real people jobs that could also compete with automation by working human employees just like machines. Those employees are housed in company dorms within the workplace, forbidden from leaving the warehouse, where they must live alone, separated from families, in order to maintain the strict working schedule. The only contact they can have with their families is via a machine in their dorm rooms that they can use to send messages and receive daily updates. However, when the company unexpectedly terminates all of its employees one morning, Walter will see the outside world that he had been sheltered from for so many years.