Chapter Text
Beep Beep Beep-
The beeping alarm sound was cut short as a hand—or rather, a leg—lazily stretched and reached out to turn off the alarm. The figure then sits up, rubs their eyes, and walks through the room. They open a door, walks out to the balcony and is greeted with an amazing sight—to the left, the sun was just halfway through the horizon, it's warm, gentle yellow glow tracing the edges of mountains cloaked in a mysterious layer of mist as if sending out a call for a hero to set out for their adventure, gazing towards the front, they were met with the sight of a sea, it's surface gently flowing with small waves, blanketed in a thin layer of fog barely illuminated by the Sun's aura, gazing upwards slightly, they can see a few birds flying in the air towards an unknown destination, to the right, the sky was painted in a warm exotic reddish orange, transitioning from yellow to orange seamlessly. The wind was blowing into their face gently before they turned back and returned to the room. They turn on the lights, which flicker for a moment before the glow starts to stabilize and brighten to normal. They open their laptop and click on a text file named "my workplace".
"Hi, my name's Clock.
I'm a Corvun, working in Riaa as a railway maintenance worker for a month now in Station 17, also known as the Occulum Sea station, a part of the International Centauran High-Speed Railroad Initiative, or ICHSR for short. This station in particular directly connects the industrial heartlands of Northern Centaura with my home country, so my job matters a lot to my country as a whole.
I believe in Solism; the Sun is my god. I only work when the Sun is up. When it drops below the horizon, I'll have to drop everything I'm doing. Some call me lazy and say that religion is my excuse for working less, which is true to an extent. Still, I've been trying to work as much as possible without disrespecting my religion. I now work from 6 AM to 8 PM, which would amount to an hour or so working without the sun, which feels like I'm betraying myself and my traditions, but I had to do it. Yes, the view from my room's balcony at dawn is that majestic; however, some of my co-workers work from 5 AM to 9 PM, much longer than me. I don't blame them for calling me lazy, working at 5 AM and 9 PM is equally grueling, but what else is as terrifying and dangerous as working with heavy machinery on the side of a mountain right next to the sea?
Vampires
Neither me or any of my peers knew what, when, where or how did it started or reach us, but now, these vampires linger around the station, picking us off whenever they have the chance, my co-workers knew about this and were envious of me that I had religion as an excuse to work less and prevent myself from being killed by these vampires. One by one, the workers here started to 'disappear', some decided to quit, we even occasionally stumble upon corpses of animals and personnel killed by the vampires every now and then, now, only 12 people maintained this as a full-time job on this damned platform which regrettably, includes me.
You'd think the authorities would help, but you'd be wrong. Our station is located at the tip of the Riaan panhandle, separated from the rest of the country by the Columban ranges. To our west is Corvus, my home country, in a very bad situation, dealing with the outbreak, and also blocked by the mountains. To our east is Columba, blocked by even higher and treacherous mountains, one of the most rural and underdeveloped parts of the continent, even more than the Riaan panhandle. To our south is the Occulum sea, which our station is located directly on the northern edge, and across it? Cetus, not doing very good against the outbreak as well, a very bad situation, you could say, which I've miraculously survived for weeks."
Clock paused, contemplating slightly before moving his legs onto the keyboard and starting to type, continuing from the previous paragraph.
"I miss home and I wanna go back, but I guess I'll have to stay for another 3 months."
"钟表，我需要你在这里！ 你能快点吗？" (Clock, I need you here! Can you be quick?) A faint, muffled voice in a foreign language suddenly pierced through the air from outside. Clock immediately turned towards the door, flinching back slightly from the suddenness, before answering.
"Uhhh... 好的，好的... 我来了!" (Okay, okay... I'm coming!) Clock struggled and took a second to think of a response in Chinese, but he yelled back. He turned to the laptop, sighed, closed the document, shut the laptop, and stood up. With one last glance out from a window, where the mist still danced on the sea’s surface but was starting to dissipate, he walked out the room, the door clicking shut behind him.