Tenth

A few hours later, we start patching up a rotted section of the piping; looking like the lead equivalent of Swiss cheese. We gab away like old hens, this young man and I, and he fills me in on everything topside. Unemployment's non-existent since Operation Open-Ends passed. Hell, that was just being debated as they were rounding up the first waves of debtors. It's funny what a no-party system was suppose to do and how it ended up enslaving the entirety of the United States.

Stock markets across the world are flying. Honduras has finally been accepted as the fifty-ninth state. Newspapers are crowing about the new American golden age; the young man lets out a heavy sigh and shakes his head because the awful lie weighs too much. But, that doesn't matter to us or the thousands under the watchful eye of our keepers. What matters is the task at hand and it seems that for every crack we slather the sealant on, we're losing another small patch of skin. The scratches, scrapes, and burns we accumulate here are the smallest price of the greater whole. Our keepers would put a value on our living souls if they could take that from us as well.

We talk less and less as the day progresses. With every sentence I can feel the reality of the situation starting to sink into the young man. By the time the bright, blinking red light signals the end of the day, his mouth might as well have been another crack that he sealed up. We trudge back to the hatch in silence. Our pace had quickened exponentially when the conversation had peaked and as we exited the sewer, slowly pealed off our layers, and stumbled into the area to be purged; we had nothing left. This may have been the hardest day of the young man's life.

We grip the handrails that hold tight to the walls of the hallways and corridors. I lead the way, he drags behind. Every breath he takes his heavy with a slight wheeze. I try to keep a slow pace, but I'm desperate to get off my feet. It's been awhile since I've been so physically exhausted, most of the time I suffer from a perpetual mental fatigue. It's a bittersweet feeling; I'll eat and then fall asleep before the gas puts me down. A whole night to dream means a whole night to dream of her. I'm not too overtaxed to smile and I do so the whole way back to my cube.