The transport glided along, emitting its hoarse sigh for several minutes, before coming to an abrupt halt. As the doors opened, an intense blast of heat was felt from the outside, while a profuse smell of rotten eggs pervaded everything and a hypnotic amber glow peeked through the doors.
-If you haven't put on your helmet and mask, do it immediately, - Rivas was heard to say.
Isaías could see how two rows in front of him, Hilbert, one of the new workers from the lower blocks, hurriedly and fearfully tightened the straps of his mask even more, at the same time he stood up, - No matter how much you tighten the straps, the result is the same - he thought, at the same time he also stood up, to go to the nearest door, of the two that were on his left. It was his turn to go to sector 8, the farthest from that level, luckily it was one of the farthest from the extractors' entrances, so the mist was less dense there, due to the effect of the air currents, and he could see better, although it would still be crazy to take off his mask.
He got off the transport and hurried to his station. He was in charge of operating one of the cranes that moved the crucibles where the molten material coming out of the furnaces, which were on the lower level, was poured. He had already been in that position for eight months, luckily he had managed to get out of the boiler, as they called the lower level, unharmed. He had spent a year and a half in the boiler and fortunately had only suffered a minor burn or two and the common recurring eye and throat infections.
As he walked away from the transport he began to feel more and more heat coming through the soles of his boots to the soles of his feet, Orbis said the boots were specially designed to withstand the temperature of the floor, but they never said they did not fully insulate, the hundred plus degrees he was at, on one occasion he slipped and fell resting his bare palms and suffered serious burns, which took weeks to fully heal.
From his station, he could see the door of the elevator that led to the boiler, every hour a shift of workers went up and another replaced it, at this time a group of about twenty workers, were about to go down, they were dressed in their respective silver uniforms, which made them look like those old photographs of men walking on the moon, a vestige of those times when space exploration was a source of pride of countries now disappeared.
First in one of the rows, facing the door, he could distinguish the face of Hilbert, the young man from the transport, who had barely a week of having started to work, after a season in the Orbis training facilities, possibly he had already realized that what they taught him in the operator course, was only useful to operate the furnace, but in no way helped him to cope with the harsh conditions of work in the boiler.
For Isaías the work was monotonous and boring, but by far, better than being in the boiler, the one-hour shifts, with two hours in between for breaks, even though they were fewer hours of work per day, were the worst thing there could be. The heat in the boiler reached one hundred and fifty degrees and in the vicinity of the furnaces it easily exceeded one thousand degrees, not even the suits could save someone from being incinerated, if he got too close to a furnace. On one occasion he saw how a guy they knew as Lester, for walking carelessly along the route followed by the crucibles, was hit by one who was returning after unloading the molten material, the blow threw him about five meters from the door of one of the furnaces that was open to unload material, the suit began to catch fire as soon as he fell to the ground, there was no way to rescue the body until the furnace door was closed again.
Twenty minutes into the new shift in the furnaces, the emergency siren was heard all over the place, apparently one of the workers in charge of securing the crucible brakes when they returned to reload, had tripped and fallen in the path of one, as he learned, one of the crucible wheels had cut the guy's leg below the knee.
-Over time, these kinds of incidents start to become unimportant - Isaiah thought as he heard about it, -the longer you are here, you get used to people getting injured-.
The rest of his eight-hour shift ended without any other incident, and on his way back to the transport he met a group of workers from the lower level who were commenting on what had happened.
-Were you there when the amputee happened, - he asked one of them, whose last name was Mota, according to what it said on his overalls.
-Yes, - he answered -. The guy was securing the brake lever and apparently the brake caught his suit, he tried to free himself, but the other crucible arrived before he could, and crushed his leg.
-So, what was he doing securing the lever when a crucible was on its way? - asked Isaiah.
-Who knows, he's a new guy, - said the other guy whose last name was almost illegible - I think he had never operated the brakes, since he arrived, he had only been cleaning the filters of the vacuum cleaners, just today they put him to do that.
-Yes, we haven't talked much with him - Morales interrupted - he's a guy a little slow, his name is Hilbert, I think he lives in section twenty-four, his father is the owner of a small food stand.
Isaías said goodbye and hurried to get on the transport, on his way back to the apartment block only one thought was going through his head - It doesn't matter how much you tighten the straps, the result is the same.