11.0 – The Magline Four

Year: 2292

“Not long now ‘till another shift is finished” said Brigan to his colleagues. 

“You’re wishing your life away with that attitude, Brig” replied Portia. 

“And what a life it is, cleaning up dust, dirt and rats from a dead billionaire’s vanity project” Mark shouted from further down the tunnel. 

The three of them started to laugh, just as Gaz appeared from around the corner. 

“What did I miss this time?” Gaz asked dejectedly. He always seemed to miss out on most of the laughs down in the tunnels. 

“Ah, nothing, Gaz. Brig’s just throwing his life away one day at a time. He doesn’t appreciate the sights, smells and textures that we get to experience down here, is all” Portia summarised; she knew that Gaz often felt left out, due to him mostly working the stations while they spent more time in the tunnels. 

Brigan, Portia, Mark and Gaz were one of the many Magline cleaning crews. Gaz was the oldest at 58 and had been doing the job for the past 26 years. Mark and Brigan had both joined at around the same time and had been working alongside Gaz for the last 11 years. Portia was the youngest and newest to the group, joining Gaz’s crew fresh 3 years ago. It wasn’t the most glamourous of jobs, but if you had a good team, which they did, the shifts weren’t so bad. 

Magline clean crews were split into three main shifts each day. It was a demanding job for any crew, but the night shift had it the worst. Each night shift crew was assigned a stretch of tunnels and stations that they maintained between line closure at 2:00am and re-opening at 4:30am. For the remainder of their hours, between 8:30pm and 2:00am, they would keep their assigned stations clean, service any Mag-trains that were held on side lines and be on-call in case there was a need for emergency cleaning. 

Gaz’s crew was on one of the mid-level tunnels. As a result, they had less stations to clean, but a lot more tunnel. They were also assigned to one of the major depots where Mag-trains were held before entering service, which they shared with two other cleaning crews. 

As they were collecting up their gear to finish the shift their boss, Dawson, met them on the station. “Come see me in my office once you’re done here guys, ok?” 

“Sure thing, boss” Gaz replied. 

“I wonder what that’s all about?” Portia asked. 

“Probably gonna give us a raise.” Brigan said. There was a slight pause where they all looked at each other before they all burst out laughing.