Is there such a thing as a nice Status-Warden?

Alice held out her arm for the Status-Warden to confirm the Green 68 it was showing. The Status-Warden took a moment to look at the reading before telling Alice, “Performance Reviews are mandated for under Green 75’s.”

“I know, Sir,” Alice said back terrified. She had heard stories of girls disappearing if they hadn’t passed their Performance Reviews.

The Status-Warden took a moment to look through the information that came up for Alice before asking, “you missed a day this month. What was that for?”

“I had my period, Sir. The cramps… I couldn’t work,” Alice told him faltering.

The Status-Warden reached up to the buckles that fixed his visor to his helmet and detached it the faceplate. It was Isaac but Alice wouldn’t allow herself to breathe a sigh of relief yet.

“You’re Generative?” he asked.

“I’ve not been tested but… I believe so,” Alice told him. She had never been with a man to find out if she could carry children or not. The rates of infertility had been proven to not be as bad as originally thought thanks to The Department of ReInformation.

“Interesting…,” Isaac said more to himself than Alice before passing her sentence down to her, “leeway may be granted for Green 70 and above. Two hours extra Labour before you can leave tonight. Now go, back to your work station.”

Alice breathed a sigh of relief at last as she hurried back to her work station to start her reinformation work again. Her Colour-Bracelet reflected the change of Social Credits on her wrist once Isaac was finished adding her additional Labour into his Status-Port.

Alice resolved to never let her Social Credits get so low again. She’d said that before but she really meant it this time. It had been too damn close to disaster this time. She logged back in on her work station and resolved to better to do greater reinformation than ever before. Her adjusted figures would be even closer to the real truth that she had made before. She worked her additional two hours of Labour with a zealous passion for creating positive reinformation.

After her two hours were up, Alice again packed up and made her way down to the ground floor of the ReInformation Building in the elevator. She found it creepy and a little scary to alone in the great big building at night. Normally she was surrounded by other ReInformation Workers but after the extra Labour she was all by herself.

On the ground floor, Alice held out her Colour-Bracelet to be scanned by the heavily armed Status-Wardens at The Gate. The Gate was a fortified portal that everyone had to walk through to get into government buildings. Alice had heard rumours of terrorist attacks on ReInfomation Buildings. Bombs going off after being smuggled inside. The Gate was meant to stop all that and Alice had never come across any sort of reports like that in her time with The Department of ReInformation.

It was late now, gone 20:00. The Transit Service wouldn’t be running now. Alice would have to walk home now which would take an hour. She knew she should go and give blood for the extra Social Credits that evening but she was already so tired. Giving blood would mean she wouldn’t get home until after 22:00 and then she had to be back for Labour before 06:00.

Her home and the Blood Pool were in the same direction. She could decide on the way when she got there. Alice has about ten minutes down the road towards both places when a figure stepped out of the shadows in front of her. Alice had her head down and was so tired from Labour she didn’t notice them until it was too late and they were a metre from her.