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September 4 2650

Green trees, a fresh breeze, extensive fields of flora and a clear blue sky. The sun rises above Conqueron, the land without boundaries, like it has done for years. Long live equality, long live peace, long live our freedom. Father Xavierno watches over us. Enjoy the day and the work that has been given to us.

Cass put her copy of the Conqueron Times down and lowered herself off the top bunkbed. The cold, white neon lights flickered and buzzed above her head.
      “Long live equality,” she sneered. “Equality, my ass. If those cultists would show their rich, powdered noses in the Secluded Zones every once in a while, they would know what Underconqueron looks like.” She took a pill from the bottle standing on the table and exited the concrete sleeping cabin with just a few steps, only to be surrounded with more concrete walls and a few fake plants. Through a few windows, artificial sunlight was let in just enough to illuminate the hallway properly. Behind each door Cass passed, there was another room like the one she had just left. That was all the bunker, or ‘Beehive’, consisted of. The buildings had been given this beautiful nickname by the enforcers of the Conqueron law. The workers of Underconqueron spent the little amount of spare time they had in these concrete hexagonal complexes. The rest of their day was spent working in a factory, like the one Cass was heading towards.
      Everything was cold and gloomy in the fake daylight. The big concrete structures and thick piping through which the air of Conqueron circulated, so their beloved workers could breathe underground, would sometimes be interspersed with fluorescent green, artificial grass fields on which kids could play. A half inflated football was the best thing available to play around with – though children kicked it around nonetheless. It made Cass physically sick. She’d always get nauseous whenever she saw the kids playing, unaware of the bad environment around them. It made her even more determined to find a way out of this hellhole though. She continued her route to work with a heavy heart.

The closer she got to the big steaming factories, the busier it became around her. More and more workers left their bunkers. And the nearer she got to the gates to the factories, the more danger signs concerning nuclear energy she saw. Like they had gotten a choice to live this close to a dangerous zone. Nuclear energy was praised by the enforcers, because it was the cleanest, most efficient and most developed way of producing energy and none of the renewable energy methods had gotten even close to what nuclear energy could do. So for Conqueron, it was most definitely the best option, because they didn’t see any of the disadvantages of the power plants. Nuclear waste was a problem for Underconqueron, not for them.
      Cass paced towards a white door to a dressing area with a small plate ‘Lab – Women’ on it. Next to the door, the scanner for their worker-badges was located so their working time could be registered. Cass held her badge in front of it and waited for the door to automatically swing open. Inside, her pure white labcoat, surgical gloves, face mask and protective glasses were waiting for her right beneath her nametag. Next to hers, more hooks with nametags were present. Some with the same protective equipment, some already empty.
      “Time to fill more bottles, hm?” one of her colleagues who was getting changed asked, just to have some small talk before the quiet during work. Cass didn’t even know her name.
      “We can’t do anything else, can we?” Cass smiled weakly, her answer as politically correct as possible.
      “Long live Father Xavierno?”
      “Long live Father Xavierno. Have a good working day.” Cass quickly walked out of the dressing area towards her working counter, where the white capsules were already waiting in big boxes and the white bottles were lined up perfectly, with the corresponding green caps in a box.
      The working hall was just as gloomy and grim as outside of the walls, with no decoration whatsoever. Not very motivating, Cass thought. But whining and complaining was a no-go. Those who complained outside of their sleeping bunker, were never seen again. Throughout the past three years Cass had worked here, she had seen enough people leave this hall who never returned the next day or the day after that. Some were instantly removed from the working hall under the guise of a ‘performance review’. No one knew where they went and no one dared ask. Cass breathed in deeply and mustered up all motivation she could find for the day before she sat down on her designated stool. And when the clock struck eight o’clock exactly, the dainty tune that signaled the morning prayer started.
      “Dear workers of Underconqueron, a new day has arrived. A beautiful day for work. We, the Military Enforcers of Conqueron, wish you an amazing and safe workday. Thank you for your effort. Long live Father Xavierno.” After that short announcement, that had been the same since the day Cass had started working, the morning prayer followed. It was broadcast live from the Great Church above the ground and could be heard throughout Conqueron and Underconqueron. As usual, they talked about and praised the greatness of Conqueron and Father Xavierno, and how wonderful life between the walls of this empire was. The session ended with an old song Cass couldn’t understand, sung by everyone attending the prayer in person. The final notes of the song still echoed through the hall while everyone started working, filling more bottles with pills.