As we walked inside the cold stone building, a lady at a desk picked her head up. “Hello. How may I help you today?” I looked at dad nervously. He smiled and went on ahead to check in and wait for me. “Oh… uh I’m here for my new job.” I pulled out the welcome letter and blank paper I.D information they had given me. She nodded and typed a couple things into her computer. “Very well. Lieutenant Reinhart will show you to your duties in C Block after we finish filling out your I.D.” She stood up and showed me to a room with the picture of a camera above the door-frame. She gave me a janitor’s uniform and a bunch of keys with labels on them, told me to change in the adjacent room inside of the camera room and waited. The dark grey coveralls and white t-shirt were comfortable, but not really anything to look forward to. She had also handed me goggles. That only meant one thing, dirty work. Which I was fine with, just a bit repulsed that goggles were necessary. Who could imagine what kind of work would involve these? Once I got out from the changing room she directed me to a chair stationed in front of an ominous looking black box with small groves running along the surface. “It’ll be fast so don’t worry,” her sudden voice in the quiet room startled me and I sat down shakily. The photos of today were not like they once were. “Take a deep breath. One… two… three…” I heard a sharp click and small robotic arms emerged from multiple sides of the box and started scanning my face. Every detail was diagrammed onto the computer in the box. Eye color, eye size, freckles, moles, facial hair. Everything. Not that I had any facial hair or moles.

The whirring stopped and the arms retreated back into their casing. After the receptionist pressed a few buttons she handed me laminated I.D. and lanyard. “Lieutenant Reinhart has the rest of your job details outside.” I nodded and thanked her. I almost passed my dad in the hallway. If he hadn’t caught my shoulder, I would’ve been lost. “Hey there kiddo.” I jumped. “Oh! Dad- I mean Lieutenant. Hey, you scared me.” He smiled sweetly, his cheekbones turning up underneath his skin. “It’s fine. I always knew you hated pictures so I expected you to be this shell-shocked afterward.” “H-hey! It’s not like any kid isn’t when they’re introduced to it. What ever happened to the click and flash? Why all the 3D face mapping?” We were walking down a stark white hallway at this point and he started to tell me what I was supposed to do. “So you’ll only be working for C-Block. You still remember how to get blood stains out of clothes right?” “Of course… why would I need to remove blood stains?” He puffed out his chest and placed his hands of his hips. “Lot of fights happen around here. Kind of hard to avoid them, so much tension in a prison. We try to break them up before bones get broken. All these guys know the position they’re in though, so nothing too bad should happen.” He tilted his face towards me. “Don’t be surprised if everyone already knows your name or that there is gonna be a new guy working in C-Block starting today. That’s just them for you. Information spreads like wild-fire in this complex so don’t say anything about personal information. They get at you that way.” “Well then. Let’s start at the simple questions. Where’s my office?” He paused at a door with a hazard symbol on it and swept his arm out. “Right here my good sir. I’m glad you asked.” What a wonderful welcome.

As we stepped inside the dingy room the smell of multiple chemicals bombarded you. “Aw… gross…” the previous holder of the room had left a huge mess, multiple chemical bottles were open and a couple had been mixed together on the floor. “How pleasant.” My father stepped forward and ushered me to a corner in the room where a mop and a bright yellow bucket were. “First mess of the day yea? they'll be plenty more for you after lunch. It's where a lot of prisoners like to pick fights... anyways... ," he paused and handed me an arm band with a keypad on it. "This is where you'll be notified of spills via surveillance cameras and the staff. You have access to your schedule and a map of the entire complex, though I'll give you a tour after-hours today to make sure you know the layout." I nodded. "Sounds good."