The overhead speaker emits its digital chime meaning smoke break time for Blue 457578314 and all the rest of his coworkers in the sector.  This mandatory break happened every fifty minutes throughout the ten hour work day.  They filed into the smoking chamber coughing and grumbling about the production load.  White 19820525, their supervisor, sealed all the workers inside, and the overhead speaker cooed,

"Flame ignition commencing in three, two, one."

The ignition kiosks throughout the chamber ignited in a dull, simultaneous burst.  The workers gathered around the kiosks in groups lipping their cigarettes as they lit up.  The ignition kiosks zapped off.  Blue looked up and was startled enough by the presence of his supervisor inside the chamber that he dropped his cigarette.  White walked over and picked it up.

"Mind if I bum one?"  he asked.

"You're gonna get enforced if ya do," Blue muttered.

"And you're going to get enforced if you don't.  I'm well aware.  Can you spare one or not?"

"They upped my ration to two packs after my eighteenth birthday last week. Knock yourself out, boss."

Blue gave White a cigarette and his lit one.  White lit up, coughed hard, and gave Blue his cigarette back.

As he exhaled and examined his cigarette, White remarked, "I haven't had one of these in over thirty years.  Kurt Vonnegut said smoking is 'a classy way to commit suicide.'"

"Does he work over in Sector Ten?"  Blue asked.

"No, he's a Pre-Globalized era writer." White said.

"I ain't got a reading clearance.  Don't need one, ain't got one, don't want one.  I hear over there at Sector Ten, they get breaks every twenty-five minutes.  I can't wait 'till I get bumped up over there," exclaimed Blue.

"Oh, you will, when your time comes," said White knowingly.

"Man, that's what all the bosses say, every time I ask," said Blue, a bit flustered.

"Have you ever known of anyone not eventually being promoted?" said White.

"No," said Blue.

"Well, then, there you have it," said White.

Blue puffed away, slightly annoyed with White's smugness.  He looked over through the plexi-glass door and there stood two Enforcers waiting for White.


"That was fast," said Blue.

White was unphased, continuing to savor his smoke.

"They were due to arrive anyway," said White.

"Why?" asked Blue.

"Because I'm being retired.  By the time this cigarette is smoked, it will be 30 years to the minute that I have worked here.  Thirty years . . . gone. Done.  Finished," said White.

"That's crazy.  I ain't even been here that long and I already can't wait 'till I can retire," said Blue.

"You won't have to wait that long.  Blues retire in half the time Whites do," said White.

"Good.  We sure as hell work twice as hard!" said Blue.

"Yes, but we don't get any smoke breaks," said White.

The digital chime sounds overhead concluding the break and everyone lined up preparing to exit.

"Gone, done, and finished," says White as he puts out his butt.

"Yup.  Well, have a nice life. Maybe I'll run into ya on the outside," said Blue.

White chuckles, "Have you ever run into the retired on the outside?"

"No," said Blue.

"Well, then, there you have it," said White.

White walked to the front of the line, waved his chipped hand in front of the door, walked leisurely out of the smoking chamber, and left the sector with the Enforcers.  As Blue waited in line for those ahead of him to get their saliva swabbed by a Health Enforcer, he was already looking forward to his next break.