Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 634

But that wasn’t what impressed him the most. It was the fact that every single person he passed
looked happy and content with themselves, in spite of the work orientated culture. He had never
been anywhere before where he was met by a sea of warm, contented smiles from any and all he
crossed paths with. He gazed out the full length windows at the spiralling buildings that kissed the
sky, at the bridges that linked the six districts of the city, at the commuting crowds that resembled
worker bees of a beehive. It seemed that everything within the borders of the Greater Bay Area
had been groomed to perfection, not even a blade of grass was out of place. Judging by what he
read from an introductory manual given to him after the Lottery, he knew the city’s pillars was its
Timekeeper, which kept everyone on their toes and reminded them when to work, rest, eat, sleep
— everything. It was a flawless system, really, because it ensured the perfect balance.
He felt his stomach lurch, and the Hyperloop came to a sudden halt. Not knowing what to
expect, he looked around, the frowns and mutters around him telling him something was out of
place.
The questions rose to a clamour as the seconds passed, but one voice stood out: ‘A
MALFUNCTION?’ A surly man in his fifties roared.
‘This has never happened before!’ A willowy young woman chimed in.
‘I don’t have time for this. Now we’ll all be late for work.’ The man’s expression darkened.
‘Why don’t we use the emergency exit and walk? Is the next station far from here?’ Aiden
suggested tentatively, shrinking back at the stares he received.
‘Well… it could work,’ the young woman replied, not unkindly.
And so, on his first day in the Hub, Aiden experienced a failure in the city’s unrivalled,
immaculately planned out framework, a flaw so rare most others were yet to experience it, too.
He followed the crowd through the emergency exit, a sea of people flowing out at once like water
from a broken dam. The crisp, cool morning breeze brushed his face and he relished the feeling. It
reminded him of home.
Lost in his thoughts, he wandered slowly at the back of the group. 0645. Your first shift begins in
fifteen minutes. He blinked, startled by the Timekeeper, and only then realised he had taken a
wrong turn. Abandoned by the stream of commuters, he had no choice but to find his way back
to the city on his own. By the looks of the dense thickets on his left and the lack of skyscrapers
around, he was by the outskirts of the Hub, or at least far from the central area.
The announcement sent him into a panic. He knew work started at 0700. He was late and stuck
in the middle of nowhere, but he simply could not allow himself to mess his internship up. That
was his ticket to giving his mom a decent life, and he wanted that bad enough it made his heart
ache. What a good first impression, he thought dryly.
Desperate to get to his workstation and salvage his reputation, he wandered aimlessly in scattered
directions. He didn’t care where he was going, he just needed to move so he felt like he was doing