Mara sat in the front office, her trembling hands still soaked with blood, waiting for one of the managers to finally speak to her. One of them, the shift leader, finally hung up the phone he was speaking into and turned his attention to Mara. "So, what happened."

"We decided to take turns on the early stops like we always do." Mara explained. "He went down first and didn't come back up...I waited too long to check on him."

"It wasn't your fault." The shift leader started in an attempt to calm her but his tone was strikingly unemotional. "These things happen. Just get yourself cleaned up and go home. Feel free to stay home tomorrow."

Mara was bewildered by the shift leader. Of course, it was her fault. A human being was dead because she didn't react fast enough and the shift leader spoke of it like it was just another broken machine. She didn't know what to say but she knew couldn't take a day off work. "No, I can still work."

"Alright." The shift leader looked at her blood-soaked sleeves. "You can leave the uniform here, we'll have a new set ready for you ready when you work tomorrow. Same shift?"

"First shift." Mara corrected, her hands still shaking.

"Ok. I'll let the shift leader know." He returned to his desk. That seemed to be the end of the conversation. So, Mara stood up and left the office.

She went straight to the ladies locker room, got herself out of the blood-soaked uniform and hoped into one of the shower stalls. She scrubbed off the blood and then took a moment to shake off the shock of what had happened. She wasn't quite sure how long she stood there with the scalding hot water falling down on her but she felt like she was in a haze. The longer she remained in the shower with the steam building up, the more valid that feeling became.

Once she was finally done in the shower, Mara got herself dressed in her regular clothes and grabbed the empty oxygen she carried around. Several of the other temps asked her how she was as she went up to the payment station but she assured them all that she was alright. Or, at least, she would be alright. People had died at the factory since she had started working there but this was the first time she had actually witnessed it.

With all of her stuff now in hand, Mara got into the line at the payment station. It was Thursday after all, it was time to collect her pay. A form of pay anyway. She worked her way up the line and swiped her factory id card. This both clocked her out for that day and put together a tally of the hours she had worked over the course of the past week. She had put in some overtime.

From here she had a choice. She could take the payment in the form of oxygen or credits. The factory was owned by the City of Wakefield and oxygen was heavily regulated by the central Union government. The air is the property of the state. Even so, most people didn't have to choose between money and air on payday...but, Mara wasn't most people.

Mara checked the level of her oxygen tank. It was near zero and she knew how much she had left at home. Mara cursed to herself but she knew she had no choice. She pressed the oxygen option and plugged her tank in. It took a moment for it to fill up but, once it did, Mara checked her remaining paycheck and sighed. The price of oxygen had gone up...again. The price of oxygen always went up.

Mara unplugged the oxygen tank and inserted her credit chip to collect what little remained of her paycheck, only 34 credits. Once the computer gave the signal, she removed the credit chip and walked off. Another day at the factory was in the books and, after everything that had happened, Mara hoped she could get out of there without incident. Unfortunately, Mara's bad luck would persist as she encountered the maintenance worker, Nick, again on her way out.

The brat was ranting to his fellow maintenance workers. "It's bullshit! The stupid temps can't keep track of what they are doing and now we all have to go through the safety training again. Can someone explain that to me?"

It was amazing, a water bottle was enough to draw a tantrum from this kid. Now he was upset, not by the loss of human life, but the inconvenience that loss of life had on his schedule. Mara quickly remarked. "Somebody died!"

Nick turned to Mara, gave an indifferent shrug, and replied. "I would thank him for 'that' if I could. One less mouth to breathe."

Nick then returned to his rantings about the forthcoming safety meeting. Mara didn't say anything else. She was done for the day. All she wanted to do is get herself back home.