Greater Good

Set far into Earth's future, a citizen cannot be bothered going to work.

Colin Bernard was running late.  He knew this would happen, after all, when you go to bed at five in the morning, whilst high on some drug, expect to run late.  Why did he have to go in? He had been going in for the past seven or maybe eight years now, nothing that was required of him was benefiting mankind.  He thought to himself…  Isn't that the point?  The greater good?  Looking at his watch got him panicked.  It was eight-thirty, he was half an hour late and running on a meager two hours sleep.  Maybe they would fire him?  Colin would like that, however, the embarrassment would eat at his mind.  His mind was all he had left and now he had handed that over to the drugs.  Why did he do this to himself?  Colin was now in his late Thirties, around Thirty-Seven or Thirty-Eight. The few people that knew him had forgotten a long time ago how old he was, this had now happened with Colin himself.  He recalls he was born sometime in June, the year before India had drowned.  A part of Colin wished he was born earlier so he could have seen it happen.  Colin Bernard was not a cruel or dark minded man.  It was the sight and spectacle of an entire continent being washed away by unimaginable waves.  It was the imagery he craved, not the death and destruction.  Apparently there was very few casualties when it did happen.  Scientists had been watching and monitoring the Himalayas melt drastically since the year Twenty-Thirty-Three.  It took just over Nine-Hundred years to cover the last spec of land.  People had left India long ago. Colin Bernard sat up and dwelled on the Himalaya disaster for a few minutes. This trail of thought had led him to think about the skies, birds, Eagles especially. Closing his eyes, Colin Bernard dreamt up an amazing image of a golden brown Eagle, swooping between mountains, gliding high; a silhouette in the shadow of a dying Sun. The only noises he could hear in his head were the sounds of the wind blowing and the Eagle screeching, the images were becoming wildly vivid and annoyingly loud.  The drugs must have still be in his system.  A thought soon dragged him back to reality… he must sort out his work problem.  Colin stretched his back and reluctantly picked up the watch and spoke into it's receiver,
"Bernard Six-Six-Twelve, Block Two-Hundred L."
The watch let out a whimpering whirring noise, as if aluminum was being grated.
Over the Audiator in Colin's apartment came a man's voice.
"Six-Six-Twelve, you are not in your current block district. Explain."
Colin, climbed back into bed and got under the sheets.
"My All-Zone keeper awoke me at the wrong time, also, my mind has become compromised." After a few moments of dead, uncomfortable silence, the Audiator responded.
"Six-Six-Twelve, how did this occur?"
"I took some Trepozil last night after I had finished my time, turns out someone had swapped them for something else, something which has compromised my mind and made me unable to reach my block district today."
This of course was a lie. Thankfully, it was still illegal for the World Union to use lie frequency devices in workers' living quarters.
"This is not good enough, Bernard Six-Six-Twelve, this is your final warning."
Before Colin could respond, the voice was gone. Colin felt relief and drifted back to sleep.  Hopefully he would dream of Eagles and a place where he could be worthwhile.  He would dream of the greater good.