Season 01 - Episode 06

‘no way out’

Ko stands in front of her vidscreen and smoothes down her dress. For a moment she can't remember what day it is since every day is the same. Rising from her bed over there, washing in the washspace over there, then dressing and coming to stand here for her daily job interview.

She's so distracted trying to recall the day, she jumps when the vidscreen flashes to life. Her boss looms large on the screen, sat at his desk looking weary. Someone once told her that the interviews used to be formal, almost religious rituals. Now they don't even say hello.

Her boss runs through the questions flat and fast and she answers the same way. Same questions every day. Same answers every day. Then the screen goes black and she has one more, day-long contract of employment.

Ko looks to the corner where a waist high conveyor belt emerges from a hatch. It runs to a short stubby pillar from which sprouts another belt. This one runs at at a right angle to the first then disappears into another hatch.

The little square workspace behind the belts is where she'll spend the next twelve hours. She stares at the space and hates it until the hate twists up her guts. She wants to scream, to cry, to rant, rave and break things. She doesn't.

Any moment now, the first box of the day will appear through the hatch. This knowledge nudges her to begin, regardless of how she feels. She's supposed to go and stand by the belt now but instead she quickly strips.

With quick, practised hands, she binds her chest, flattening her breasts until they almost disappear. She rubs off the makeup and slicks back her hair then treats herself by donning her favourite shirt, the one that grips her biceps just a little.

Ko glances at himself in the mirror and feels a little better. He crosses the room and climbs under the belt to stand in the workspace. It feels like stepping out of one prison into another. Before he can think about it too much however, the first box of the day appears.

It noses its way through the thick rubber flaps of the hatch then trundles along the belt. The box reaches the little platform before him. Ko checks it over before pushing it onto the second belt, which carries the box away again.

The day has begun and so it proceeds. Box after box, different shapes, sizes and markings. Ko inspects each in turn and pushes it on. Sometimes he picks them up when he doesn't need to, just the feel the weight, just to do something with his hands.

A few hours in, his back begins to ache but this is normal and he ignores it. He thinks about where the boxes come from and where they go. He thinks about the endless tunnels and belts, threaded all through The Levels.

Ko tries not to look at the clock because watching it makes it go slower. He rations out the glances, waiting as long as he can between each. Then comes a gap between boxes and nothing happens for what feels like forever.

He looks around the room and thinks of the old woman who lived here before him. She was a box pusher all her life, or least until she was too old to work and was evicted. The room came and went with the job.

When he moved in, he found her things. To him, boxes were boxes but she'd known all the different types, had written about them in notebooks. She also made strange little arrangements of crystals for a hobby.

He'd thrown it all away of course, there was barely enough room for his own things. Waiting for the next box, Ko thinks about the old woman's life, pushing boxes in this room. He sees himself following the same hemmed in path, high walled on either side.

Just like her, he must work all day, every day, to retain the room, leaving no time to find an alternative. Just like her, he will one day suddenly find himself too old to work and then have to leave with nothing. Ko looks around the room again, at the belts, the bed, the washspace, the vidscreen and the door.

There is an exit but no way out.

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