2095
The lights came on suddenly in Joe Smith’s sleeping cubicle, and a gentle alarm began ringing. It was exactly 6 A.M. Central Standard Time. Time to get up. Time to be productive.
Joe blinked, let out a soft groan and sat up in bed. It was useless to plead with Sully (the A.I. that ran Amazon Deep Underground Fulfillment Center and Worker Housing Hive #285-C) for five more minutes of sleep, because the A.I. would only increase the volume on the wake-up alarm until it became almost deafening.
Joe stretched his arms above his head, yawned, and winced as he put his feet on the cold metal floor. “I’m awake, Sully,” he muttered as he stood up and shuffled toward the small kitchen nook of his 400 square foot studio apartment.
“Good morning, Joe and Happy Birthday,” the warm and friendly voice of the A.I. known as Sully spoke from the speaker mounted on the ceiling of Joe’s apartment. The speaker also functioned as a camera that was on 24/7 because human beings were Amazon’s most precious resource and had to be looked after and safeguarded. This was Sully’s main job, and the A.I. took it very seriously.
“Thanks, Sully,” Joe said and opened the kitchen cabinet to grab his favorite coffee cup from the shelf. The mug featured a grinning happy faced yellow emoji on it with bright red letters that spelled out: Smile and the Day is Yours! Joe took his cup to the Keurig coffee unit that was built into the wall, placed his mug under the dispenser and watched as hot, fresh coffee streamed out, filling his cup to the brim.
Joe placed his cup on the small kitchen table and trudged to the fridge. He opened it, looked inside and sighed. Only a few containers from Mr. Wong’s, the Chinese restaurant in the fulfillment center’s food court, an old jar of pickles, and a carton of milk were left inside the fridge. Joe picked up the carton of milk and frowned when he felt how light it was. He looked inside the carton. Just enough for one cup of coffee.
Lucky me, Joe thought as he poured what was left of the milk into his cup of coffee.
“Are you out of milk, Joe? Would you like me to order some more?” Sully inquired politely.
“No, Sully. That’s all right.”
“Are you sure, Joe? I can have it here by drone in 15 minutes.”
Joe thought about that for a second. He looked at his smart watch. It was already 6:08 A.M. He had to be at his station at the fulfillment center at 6:30. Normally, Joe liked to have two cups of coffee before he left his apartment and took the high-speed elevator that transported him and about 50 other Amazon workers to the lower levels of the hive where the vast fulfillment center was located. That fifteen minutes in the morning was his favorite time of the day. It was his time. Not Amazon’s. Even Sully knew not to disturb Joe during his coffee time.
Joe sipped his coffee and thought about his life. He was 70 years old today and still working, because that’s what one did in the U.S., INC. You worked until you weren’t capable of working anymore. Then you had a choice: move in with some family members if you were lucky enough to have any which Joe didn’t or assisted suicide which was legal in about 35 states. Unfortunately, Joe lived in a southern state where, thanks to the Christian Nationalist Party, assisted suicide was still illegal. You could find a shady doc on the black market to do the job, but that usually cost beaucoup Yuan. Joe didn’t have that kind of money, so he was stuck working for Amazon until he dropped.
Joe had been born in 2025 to a single mom in the backseat of her old Honda Civic in the parking lot of a dead shopping mall that used to have a Sears. His mother was working as an Uber Eats driver at the time and logged off the app just long enough so she could give birth to Joe. She gave birth, wrapped Joe in an old blanket and logged right back onto the app so she could deliver food to the wealthy and privileged of America.
Between her string of gig economy jobs, Joe’s mother tried her best to home school him, but Joe was a rebellious young lad and ran away from home when he was twelve. He started working for Amazon when he was 13, because the southern state in which he lived had done away with child labor laws. Cut to 57 years later and here he was. Stuck working for a mega-corporation and living deep underground in a metal monstrosity because global warming and catastrophic climate change had made the surface of the Earth a living hell hole that made those old Mad Max movies look like a Saturday Night Live skit.
It could be worse, Joe thought. At least I have a job.
“Joe, shouldn’t you be getting going? It’s 6:20. You don’t want to be late again. That will be the third time this month,” Sully warned. The A.I. even managed to sound worried.
“I’m going, Sully. I’m going,” Joe said as he headed to the small closet that held his grey Amazon work clothes. Joe dressed in silence, slipped on his white sneakers and headed to the door of his apartment. He opened the door and stood still for a second.
“Where did it all go?” Joe said quietly to himself.
“What’s that, Joe? I didn’t hear you,” Sully answered.
“Nothing, Sully. Nothing at all,” Joe said. He closed the door and trudged down the long hallway heading toward the elevator that would take him to the fulfillment center and his job.