Meter 310

Meter 310 The blaring of the morning alarm ripped Mirche from his dream. Sometimes, he was able to recall the contents of his dreams, but not today. In mere moments, the images vanished from his inner eye and all he could recall was a vague feeling of uneasiness. And the tunnels. Mirche knew from experience that there were always tunnels in his dreams.

"Get off your ass, Pavlovski", he heard a voice from somewhere in the barracks and proceeded to follow that advice. Shoving the itching, gray blanket off, he off the clunky mattress, yawned and lined up with the other soldiers. Slowly, they shuffled forward to receive a rough towel, a piece of gray soap and a toothbrush with pre-applied cleaning paste from a pair of recruits looking even more tired than them. Mirche passed them a sympathetic glance as he walked by as he could remember his own time on morning duty quite vividly. Getting up even before the others, heating the boilers for the showers, hauling crates full of soap and towels around, cooking gruel and bread for thousands of ungrateful, hungry mouths. Yes, he did not miss that time. Though he never had the pleasure of serving with such a pretty girl. Pale, dark hair and big eyes, Mirche threw her a smile which she replied tiredly before he was pushed forward with a gruff "Move your ass, Pavlovski" before he could say anything.

The line proceeded to the showers, entering through a door over which someone had stenciled 'A Clean Body Pleases The Emperor' and someone else had scribbled 'and the noses of your comrades' in very small font underneath. Mirche stepped under one of the countless iron shower heads dangling on flexible tubes from the ceiling and hit the big, round button in the tiled wall in front of him. Ice cold water drummed on his head, turned scorching hot for a moment and then became tolerably lukewarm. Mirche sighed as the water ran down his body, washed the fatigue from his mind and eventually disappeared in the drain under his feet. Like many others, he used the opportunity to do his morning business right away since the metal grid was wide enough to allow for easy disposal.

(WIP)