Abigail (24, accountant)

With a heavy thud, Abigail dropped the last box on the desk. A thick layer of dust blew up into the air, sending the poor girl into a coughing fit. Once it had subsided, she threw herself down on the desk chair, stared up at the ceiling and gave a great sigh.

It's not that she was in bad health. She was 5'4, and she wasn't exactly slim and athletic - the cheeky gay guy on the sales team called her Super Buns on account of her large posterior - she wasn't in bad shape either. A little chubby, but she liked to spend at least an hour each night in the gym after work.

It didn't help lifting the boxes, though. That was the kind of long, gruelling work for which there was no preparation.

"That the last one?" Mildred, the elderly accountant who sat at the desk opposite Abigail, asked.

"Yeah." Abi replied. "Nothing left in stores. So what now?"

"You take a little break, dearie. Get some water or a cup of tea. I'll start sorting through and seeing if we can find any reference to this Henderson File the managers are looking for."

Abigail groaned. Carrying the old case files from the store room down the hall had left her in a heavy sweat; her blouse clung uncomfortably to her armpits, and she could feel her panties sitting uncomfortably from all the squatting and lifting. Sorting through a bunch of dusty old files for the next few hours was not her idea of an exciting career. With a sigh, she pushed herself to her feet and hobbled her way over to the water cooler. There had to be a better way. All these stupid old boxes of paper... surely there was an easier way?

As she stood by the cooler, sipping a glass of water and kneading her sore back with the other, the cheeky gay salesman walked over to her and poured himself a glass.

"Alright Super Buns." he greeted her cheerily. "Your back nearly done in?"

"Sure is, Fruit Cake." she retorted. He chuckled at the name.

"You hear about Aaron?" he asked before taking a long sip of his drink.

"No. Why, which girl has he been sleeping with this week?" Abigail said with a roll of her eyes.

"No, it's not that. He's got a new job."

"Really?"

"Yeah... in the CITY."

Abigail's eyes widened. Their dusty little office was slap-bang in the middle of a Namish Town, about a mile away from Edinburgh. That could be the only city he was referring to.

"You mean with the..." she said, and made a gesture for breasts.

"And the..." he held his hand in front of his crotch and made a flapping kind of motion.

"Eurgh! Why would anyone move THERE?"

"Career opportunities, I guess." he said with a shrug. "Businesses out there aren't stuck in the nineteenth century. Not to mention there's more jobs out there, more chances for promotion. The only time an opening appears here is when somebody retires."

Abigail nodded to herself. That much was true; the Namish Towns were pretty much stuck with whatever talent pool they were born with, and there wasn't a lot of growth for businesses. Abigail had been working here for nearly four years now and not a single promotion opportunity had presented itself.

Something about that stuck in Abigail's mind, unwilling to let go.

That night, after a long, hard day of sorting through boxes, Abigail settled into her couch with the Jobs section of the newspaper in hand. The non-Namish section. Something about that conversation was still buzzing around in her head, stirring up all kinds of ideas. Her hands were covered in a dozen papercuts, and she couldn't help but thinking 'how can this be made better?'. The simple answer seemed to be 'technology'. Oh, they had some basic computers in work - Windows 98, MS Dos and solitaire the most advanced software available on them, but most of the work was stuck in the past. Her mind boggled at the possibility of technology somehow making it all... better. Simpler. More efficient.

That evening she sat on the couch with her house phone nearby, making calls to all the different companies offering positions. By the time she settled into bed that night, resting her weary body, she had a job interview.

In the Nudist City.