Chapter Two - 23 years and 10 months before the collapse-1
357 Words
Chapter Two - 23 years and 10 months before the collapse
Jim remembered his to-do list and pulled out his flip. He had promised Annabel he would call Evans to ask whether she could continue her piano studies. Evans was very polite and even promised to cut some red tape.
Next on his list was a new flat. The cheapest one bed flats were in Leith. There were some outside of the fenced off crime pacification zones and the transport to the university was fine. He knew they couldn’t afford more and so far inquiries with estate agents had been fruitless, each recommending another. Any of the flats Jim had liked, they had ‘just’ let to someone else.
Their furniture had been in storage for four years, but the housing shortage was getting worse since the collapse of the country’s largest house-builders.
Jim had still not received a reply from the Army regarding his petition for discharge, and he visited the company headquarters site online.
He scanned his NFC tag in his flip. The screen flickered, and a lieutenant appeared.
“We will discharge you, Sergeant Smith,” said the lieutenant. “Report to the infirmary for your medical.”
Jim thanked the lieutenant and clicked the link for the infirmary.
He waited in an online queue for a while. Jim had heard stories of soldiers faking symptoms, attempting to achieve either leave or a medical discharge, but they did not easily fool the online doctors and just made it take longer for genuine visitors.
When the site connected Jim, the doctor dealt with him with courtesy and efficiency, and soon Jim was free to click back to the main site to end his business.
Back in the main site, Jim was told he would receive back pay and four weeks leave prior to the discharge coming into force. They also added more credits to his food ration app and told him his discharge certificate would arrive via his message app.
Jim felt the experience had gone very well and clicked five stars on the post-service survey. At that moment, although independence made little sense to him, he was pleased that at least the military still seemed to function as it should.
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- Writer
