Devoid of culture, character, and community, where people exist only to produce and consume and live meaningless, atomized lives.
Noise pollution, light pollution, and air pollution are a part of everyday life.
On the east side of the city, in an area designated for industrial use, we find Organic Sprouts Inc.
Located inside a nondescript office plaza, this company is where organic seeds are grown in organic soil and then cultivated and packaged for distribution.
Nutrient-rich microgreens for the health-conscious masses.
The three main employees are the production manager, the sales rep. and the delivery driver.
All three are slender grey aliens with menacing eyes. They were brought in as a team for their expertise.
The rest of the staff are Japanese workers on temporary visas who work in production.
The owner of the company is a soft-spoken Japanese woman who started the business from scratch. She is responsible for financing the operation and making sure everything goes according to her plan. She also handles payroll.
One morning, not long after the greys were hired, the driver showed up to work as he normally does before dawn to drive the delivery van to the back of the building to load it up.
This morning, however, he decided to drift the van around the back corner and briefly lost control. Once he regained control he caught a patch of ice, and the van flipped over on to its side.
Shaken up, he managed to exit the van from the passenger side and proceeded to call his colleagues who assured him they would be right over.
The back parking lot was strewn with litter, and the garbage bins were full to the brim, and despite still being nighttime, there were no stars visible in the sky due to the light pollution. Only the moon was visible on this dark and frozen morning.
When his colleagues arrived, they all decided it would be best to light the van on fire and watch it burn.
In no time, fire quickly engulfed the van, and soon there was a black plume of smoke heading towards the night sky.
They had informed the driver that they had already called for a replacement vehicle to be delivered.
Soon the replacment truck arrived, and its driver was in shock at the sight of the burning van.
He assured the greys that he could have the vehicle removed in half an hour, so the greys agreed to use his services.
The truck he dropped off was loud and was spewing out black exhaust.
The man told the driver to be careful as it burns oil.
The greys thanked him and got to work loading the truck.
Soon they were done loading, and the driver was on his way to start his deliveries.
He took the off ramp to the highway and was soon amongst the masses who descended on to the highways like a virus.
Traffic was moving well, though, and by dawn he was already close to the city core.
His first stop of the day was to the city's oldest indoor market, to a building that was over 120 years old. It is a tourist attraction due to its architecture and history.
As he reached the vicinity of the building, while stopped at the lights, he noticed a small crowd gathered at the corner.
As he drove by, he saw a fat man with a top hat and an eyeglass at the centre of the crowd. He seemed to be promoting something and was quite the orator.
The driver drove to the loading area and backed his truck into a free spot.
He then grabbed a long, thin knife and prepared to confront the fat man.
He called his colleague for any advice.
"Wait!" said the sales rep.
"Don't harm the fat man! If he's a good salesman, he can help us move more product and would increase production."
"Good point!" said the driver.
"Instead, give him one of our cards and tell him to call me."
With that, the driver approached the fat man and gave him his card, and it seemed like a productive meeting.
After dropping off his products at the market, the driver was on his way to continue his day.
Back at the headquarters, as the van was being towed away from the back parking lot, the first production worker arrived to start the day.
Soon they would all be there working diligently, and the boss would be there as well, doing her invoices.
All in all, a typically productive day.
By the end of the day, the driver would be the last one back, and the greys would all go home.
Home was not far from the headquarters at all.
They lived just north of the city's busiest highway in a highrise condo building that was one of three on a small plot of land.
The buildings were built in the same generic, soul-crushing, minimalistic architectural style as all the other buildings that have come to dominate the skyline throughout the city.
The greys lived in a bachelor apartment with one bunk bed and a single bed. The wall on the left was adorned with a Finnish and a Swedish flag.
Most of the units in the building were empty. The ones that weren't were occupied by defeated, cultureless people who had succumbed to apathy.
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