The Robotics Team

Breathing deeply and with a dryness in his throat, Thomas paused only briefly while climbing the outside stairs up to his 5th floor coop apartment. The air quality has become worse with the increase in heat and humidity. Most of the time the oxygen is at incredibly low levels and doing simple tasks are difficult to perform. For some five flights of stairs might sound like a lot, but Thomas is young and in his prime teenage years when a boy should be hopping up the stairs two at a time trying to beat his previous record in time. Sadly, these are not the days of teenagers roaming aimlessly through the streets after school, but instead everyone that can work must work. School is not a priority any longer and neither is teenage angst or antics. One would think that after the great technological revolution and the social revolution that followed in the new millennium that the most productive and relaxing years for human civilization would be upon us.

“Hey, buddy, you doin’ okay today?” asked Whitlow walking down the same steps Thomas was walking up.

“Ah, yeah, just the usual,” Thomas answered breathlessly.

“Okay, just checkin’... you’re not looking so good today. There is food cooked and available for when you get in. You should rest until your next shift.” Whitlow continued as he was swinging himself down the stairs trying to skip a few every couple of steps to increase his time.

“Oh, thanks. I will try this time.” Thomas continued his journey up the stairs and into the building.

He and most of the people he is living with all work for the same corporation. There are four hour shifts that are worked between a group of individuals. You must have a team to get a decent job and see actual wages. For some, they cannot keep enough together and getting along to keep a job. The air in most places is too thin for someone to be able to work the long shifts required of most ‘corpse’ jobs.

Thomas grabs himself a few pieces of the food that has been prepared. Most of their meals are ground corn mixed with some water, vegetables, and spices. Sometimes there will be added animal lard for extra calories but this is usually a luxury. The building has a garden on the roof that grows most of the vegetables. Thomas’ team mainly grows broccoli and trades this with other teams for added variety. Thomas’s grandfather also lives with him and his team. This is a blessing for Thomas because he doesn’t remember his mom and he never met his father before both died of the ‘virus’. Thomas never had any siblings and never lived in any other situation than a team environment. Thomas’ grandfather was one of the founding members of this team and they have increased their productivity level by slowly moving closer to the ground floor of their apartment building as the space came available. It could be looked at as an upward move in a downward direction. Their team consists of three men, two women, two trans, and Thomas who is still a teenager. The eight of them rotate their tasks for keeping their robotic drone moving and doing its job per their work contract with the local corporation. Their drone was salvaged and built originally by Thomas’ grandfather and his uncles. Living in an apartment so close to one’s operations headquarters is indeed a luxury and one that Thomas does not want to lose. He knows his grandfather is getting older and having issues with keeping up with others in the team. He will have to be replaced soon to keep production up so that their robot gets to keep its position at the ‘corpse’. Thomas is getting anxious about what that transition looks like. He has not seen a member leave a group because of old age before. There are not many old people at all these days; most people die from murder and some from starvation. It is all new territory for him and the other members of the team. There have been people who left because of prospective opportunities or because they were too sick to work any longer. Those that leave for travel to the west are usually never heard from again. It is all hearsay, but many do not think anyone even gets very far outside the walls of the city before they are killed by rogues in the outlying jungle.

“How was your shift, Tommy?” Gramps asks with a crackle in his voice.

“The stupid drone is going to need some more grease soon. One of the arms keeps getting jammed on the line and it is hard to pick up some of the smaller units for packing,” Thomas replies back to his grandfather as he began changing out of his work clothes.

“That is a problem we need to remedy. I’ll get Edgar on it with the next shift change. Did Onyx make it in time for you to switch out the wires on the left hand?”

Thomas turns around to face his grandfather with a look of anger, “No, he didn’t. I didn’t have time to get it right before the bell rang and the robots had to go back to the line. We are going to need to double shift the exchange of controls to get it done correctly. I left it the way it was and can only hope the hand will hold up until tomorrow.”

Gramps stood as Thomas was talking and walked toward him. He places his hand on his shoulder with a sigh and states, “You are getting better at this delegation work. I am so proud of you. Your mother and uncles would be proud of what you’re growing into.”

Thomas smirks and looks around the room at the others napping, “Well, thanks, I hope I can keep it up when you’re...uh, you know, when you must...” Thomas looks down at the ground and places his hand up on his shoulder over his grandfather’s hand.

Gramps cuts Thomas off quickly stating, “When I rest, and you take over the operation.”

“Yeah.” Thomas smirks knowing his grandfather does not really want to talk about his future either.

Thomas finishes his meal and lays down to try and sleep until his next shift. Anaulty is just rousing from their sleep. Thomas nudged them when he came him so that they could be awakening to get tasks completed and get ready for the next shift change with Onyx.

Anaulty runs their hands through Thomas’ red locks as they rise from the bed. Everyone thinks Thomas’ hair gives them luck. He truly is unique when it comes to teenagers around these parts. There are not many ‘whites’ anymore and even rarer is the bright red hair and freckles of Thomas.

‘There was a near perfect combination of genes for him to come out so light skinned with hair the color of fire,’ according to Thomas’ mother. Over the years these words have been repeated to Thomas by many on the team. Thomas only feels like his hair makes him a target, but he likes hearing about his mother, so he does not complain. He smiles at them. He reaches his hand under his pillow and grabs the cold metal of a locket positioned there as he closes his eyes and slowly begins to drift off to sleep. He is not aware yet, but one day he will learn that this heart-shaped locket is the key to the success of the robot and team, but for now it only holds the power of memories that keep him moving.