P106 woke up a little early. The lights were dimmed. He couldn't tell the exact time, but he knew he was up early because he wasn't called outside yet. His door was still locked, probably. He stared intently at the puzzle pieces scattered across the floor, bringing his blanket close to him as he focused on the pieces. Where did CTB105 get it? Was it a dangerous puzzle? Would they get caught if they had it?
Part of P106 wanted to destroy or hide the puzzle, but he knew that would make his caretaker sad. He gave it to him, as a gift. It's probably nothing to worry about.
Suddenly, he heard the bell.
"Wake up, pupils. It's time to begin your day." The robotic voice said. P106 yawned, getting out of his blanket and dressing into his usual clothes, which was in a drawer under the bookshelf. It was the same old thing. Always very short sleeves and collars and little badges. He straightened out his hair with his flippers and stretched, waiting for his door to be unlocked. His excitement rose when he heard keys. "Ready for another day, P106?" CTB105 asked. "Yes, sir!" P106 exclaimed. Him and his peers were brought to where they would brush their teeth as a group and eat breakfast. P106 went to where the 100-zeros were as usual. "Hi." He greeted. He sat down with his group and began eating his breakfast, some sort of dry, slightly sweet, mush vaguely resembling bread texture-wise. "I feel refreshed today." P106 said.
"Well, I don't. I'm nervous, I have to begin a test and from there they'll decide how good of a technician I am." T104 shivered. "Aren't you on the top of your class? T104, you'll nail this." P106 assured.
"Ya think?"
"Yes, I do think."
DRSH102 coughed. "Ugh, there's a piece of something in my breakfast!!" He spat it out. It was hard and bony. "Um."
LTK101 sniffed it. "What is that?"
"I think.. It's a.. a rock." T104 said. "Its what they make some of the materials I use from."
DRSH102 stared at it. "I like it. Maybe I will keep it?"
"What if they catch you?" P106 said.
"I'll be fine, it is just a... rock.. right, T104? It's called a rock?" DRSH102 asked.
"Yep," T104 assured.
LTK101 scratched his head. "But whats it doin' in the poor guy's meal?? As someone workin' in the food industry I can confirm that you can't put ROCKS or just hard stuff in general in food. They can choke and die."
DRSH102 stuffed the rock inside of his chest fur. "Well, I'm just going to put it here for now."
"All pupils must tidy up immediately and head to their designated instuctor's room." A robotic voice said. "Oh, already.. dang it." DRSH102 sighed, stuffing the rock deeper inside of his fur. "Bye, everyone." He farewelled. "Bye," they replied, packing their bags and going to their designated rooms.
"Today we will learn to wrap bandages, pupils. I've put some plastic arms on your desk, and from there I will instruct you on how to wrap it." P106 sat taller in his seat. It was finally happening!
"Remember, just because you'll know how to wrap a bandage, doesn't mean you're automatically some great medic," she lectured. "A hospitalizer has many jobs, from curing our sick to setting the old ones free."
A mouse raised her hand. "What is it, PR255?" The instructor asked. "What do you mean, by, 'setting the old ones free?'" She had a squeaky voice.
"Well, when hard-working members of this society can work no longer, they are taken to the hospital for an eternal slumber. They finally get to rest! Relaxing, isn't it?"
P106 gulped. Relaxing?! A sleep he could not wake up from?! That didn't sound very appealing to him. He hoped that he, as a medical worker, was an exception away from being set to an 'eternal slumber'. Besides, it would be a while until he was old.
"Anyway, I'm going to hand you these bandages and 1 clip one by one, and inform you on exactly how you need to wrap these."
P106 was handed two bandages and a clip of sorts. The bandage was soft, kind of stretchy, kind of bumpy. He slid his flipper across it. This is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life, isn't it? He thought. "Firstly, wrap the bandage around the plastic arm's hand." The instructor instructed. "Work it up the elbow. Make sure to be wrapping the arm the whole time." P106 followed the orders with loyalty, keeping a fair pace between instructions. "Then," the instructor was wrapping her own plastic hand as an example. It looked quite tidy, almost artificial in a way. "Use the second bandage to wrap it back around the other way, all the way back to the hand." P106 did what he was told. He was quite proud of his result so far. "Okay, now that that's done, secure the bandage on the wrist with your clip. Hurry, G404, We don't have all damn day!!!" The instructor snapped. G404 tried to speed up his process. P106 secured his clip happily. He didn't mean to compare himself to G404, but he was proud of his quickness and efficiency being higher than, by the least, one person in his industry. "Make it tight, but not so tight that it slows or blocks blood flow. Got it? If you're done securing the bandage, you can cut off the bandages that are hanging off, now." P106 ripped off the last bit of bandage that was hanging off the arm.
Another pupil of his, TJ152, tried to rip off his bandage, but he did it too aggressively and the entire bandage fell apart. The instructor walked to his desk. "Well now, you, young man, have just proved to me and to all of your peers that you're worthless!! You hear me??" She snarled. "You got 5 years left to prove if you can truly work in the medical industry.. and by then we'll already figure."
TJ152 quivered. "Y..yes ma'am.. sorry ma'am."
P106 sat down with his group. "Hey, P106!! You were right. They do think I'd make an efficient technician! I passed my test!" T104 cheered.
"See! I knew you could to it. Congratulations, T." P106 said.
"T?! Where did that come from?" DRSH102 said.
"It's a shortened version of T104's identity. That's cool, I think," D103 said, eating her dinner.
P106 stared at his meal. It was green, with a more bitter, less sour taste. The slight bitterness took away from the light, easy texture. "I got to work with bandages today," P106 announced. "Finally! That's great! How'd it go?" LTK101 said with his mouth full.
"It went really well. I worked very efficiently I think. Almost like a full grown hard-working member of society." P106 boasted. LTK101 smiled. "And.. it was also kind if scary," P106 admitted. "One of my peers accidentally unwrapped his bandage and the instructor got mad at him and called him worthless."
"Oh.. that's the industry for you. They only want the best of the best. I don't blame them. But P106, you've already proven that you're a very efficient worker by excelling on your first wrapping lesson. You're good at this stuff already." D103 fortified.
"Aw.. thanks." P106 told her. "You guys are.. the.. well I don't have words for it, but that's what you guys are."
"I think I feel the same," DRSH102 agreed, giving a bit of a grin to his peers.
P106 took a shower after his dinner, then headed to his room with CTB105 escorting him. CTB105 unlocked the door only for P106 to see their unfinished puzzle, waiting for the both of them.
"Well.. do you want to finish it?" CTB105 patted P106 on the shoulder. "Of course!" P106 said, excited. It beat reading.
They sat down and began putting the puzzle pieces where they belonged, piece by piece, fitting it all into one huge canvas fit on the floor. P106 was so lost in his head and so excited to see the final result that he forgot to look at his progress. When he put the last piece down, it revealed..
Some sort of black and white swirl. It was very simplistic, straightforward. Almost hypnotizing in some way. P106 gawked in disappointment. CTB105 was silent.
"What did I even expect.." he mumbled, glaring at the puzzle miserably.
"Huh.. it has a scrape on it." P106 leaned for a closer look. The scrape was... green. P106's eyes widened, using his flipper to scratch it a bit more. The black and white image began to scrape away, P106 beginning to scratch more aggressively and quickly. Finally the image revealed itself, a strange one to say the least... a door, made of wood, connected to some sort of one-room apartment, made from modest materials, some that P106 didn't recognize.. and greenery of sorts, surrounding this one-room apartment. It looked so alienating to him, like something of another universe. The greenery seemed to dominate the apartment, and little creatures with pairs of what can only be classified as wings, buzzed around the bright buds that the green produced. "CTB105, what is this?!" He gasped, amazed and perplexed by the pieces that lied in front of him.
"I don't know.. I really don't know at all.." CTB105 whispered.
Am I supposed to know about this? P106 thought, getting a sudden nausea in his stomach. What if he was caught? What are they trying to hide?? He knew at this point that there was something wrong...
he looked up at the security camera, sticking to the corner of his room, eyeing him like a hawk.
YOU ARE READING
The Division - a dystopian Octonauts fanfiction
Science Fiction[DISCONTINUED] P106 (Peso) was born to work in the hospitality industry. Or at least that was what he was told all his life. He was always being informed about who he was and what he was going to be, safe inside of The Great Dome, a wondrous communi...
