Going Nowhere

I stared out the window as my slow-speaking professor droned on with his lecture. My eyelids felt heavy and my head almost slammed on my desk when I closed them. As I was about to drift off into dreamland, my professor started to say something interesting for once.

"The Photon was developed by the Helios corporation around 50 years ago introducing the world to hard-light technology. When it was first conceived it could only make rudimentary holograms of a few shapes. The actual machine was around the size of a fridge and was considered obsolete by many.

However, Helios kept developing it believing in its untapped potential. Over time they refined the system and reduced its size exponentially. The biggest breakthrough was when Helios tried linking the Photon with the human brain. This link allowed the brain to directly control the Photon drastically increasing its versatility. Rapid success soon followed for Helios and their technology became more and more widespread. Today, nearly 8 out of 10 people have a Photon installed in their head."

The Photon. A seemingly limitless device embedded in the back of our heads. It used the light in the surroundings as a tool to be bent and shaped at will. I had always wanted one as a kid and when I finally got it a few years ago I couldn't have been happier.

On the first day, I had it installed, I used it for so long that I got a migraine. I was always looking for new uses for it. At first, I could only make static objects like tables, chairs, and silverware. Eventually, as my understanding of it increased I was able to make clothes out of light, though they were quite uncomfortable. I even made a functioning bike that I still use to get around.

As my professor was wrapping up the lesson I packed up my stuff and headed to the cafeteria for lunch. As usual, I scanned my card at the entrance to pay for my food.

"I'm sorry but your card didn't go through." The lady behind the scanner said.

I tried it again.

"It still won't go through."

"What exactly do you mean by won't go through?"

"It won't go through because it seems that there no more money left on your card." The lady replied with a smile.

"No money? That's not poss-" I stopped myself when I realized that I might really be broke. All that money I came in with my first year was gone. It was supposed to at least last the rest of my second year. I knew buying so many lattes at the coffee shop would come back to bite me eventually.

With an empty stomach and wallet, I went back to my room. Since I had a good amount of snacks my food situation was good for now but they'd only last me a few days at most. What I really needed was money. There was really only one thing that could get me money right now. Even though it went against every fiber of my being I knew I had to do it. Yes, I had to get a job.

However, getting a job is hard work and I've never been the hardworking type. Determined to be lazy, I set out to find the easiest way to find work. Not long into my search, I found a site that let you upload a resume and it would send it to various businesses in the area regardless of what they did. I figured that if I sent my resume to enough places then surely some of them would hire me.

I threw together a resume in about half an hour and included some made up attributes of myself like hardworking and sociable. I also listed Photon researcher under work experience. I submitted my resume to the website and waited for the job offers to roll in.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

[!]

I received a notification. I had finally gotten a job offer. I quickly opened it and read it over. The job title was "information examiner" I had never heard of it but it sounded official enough. There was no actual description of the job but maybe they just figured that it was pretty self-explanatory. The address was listed but the actual business was never given a name anywhere.

There was also a note at the bottom that read "We'll take anyone at this point. Come and finish the interview and the job is yours." Wait ... finish? Why specify that? The more I looked it over the more this "job offer" seemed like an excuse to bring me to a secluded place perfect for staging a kidnapping.

That offer was way too sketchy for me to accept and it was only the first one I'd gotten. There are probably lots of other businesses that would hire me and just haven't seen my resume yet.

Two days passed. Not a single other job offer appeared in my inbox and my snack reserves we're running low. I opened the job offer I had gotten earlier. My mind told me that if I went to that interview I'd probably be lying dead in an alley the next day, but my stomach said otherwise. Eventually, my hunger won out and I pulled on some business casual clothes and started heading to the address listed on the job offer. It was time for an interview.