Reclaimer 42

[reclaimer42]

You figure out where you can find a public restroom in any occasion. I've been in so many back hallways just looking for a place to go. Sometimes an orange vest and a clipboard help.

[reclaimer42]

I always like to get lunch where I end up. That's probably the best part of the job. Your gut bacteria are already primed from the shots so you can eat just about any human food. I never would have had the chance, otherwise.

[reclaimer42]

They don't tell us. Like after it's done you don't know, it's just done, and whatever your part was then that's done, too. I usually try not to think about it. It won't change anything.

[reclaimer42]

You can always tell when there's something that doesn't belong somewhere. When something is from another time it just sticks out. If you're not sure you can just grab it anyway. Stuff disappears all the time, it's when there's extra stuff- basically just litter- that messes things up.

[reclaimer42]

Most of the time I'm working I'm by myself. It's the kind of job where even if I don't know what to do, I can even call and someone will walk me through it. Sometimes someone just needs to be there and that's enough, something about the bystander effect or something I don't know I guess physics wasn't my strong suit either.

[reclaimer42]

You know it's funny we can do everything we can do but we still haven't found a replacement for a long needle going in your arm. I hate shots. I asked the nurse what all this was for, like what diseases did she think I was going to catch. They said when you're going forward is when you're more likely to pick something up, but because of the way the viruses develop along with us over time it's when you go back that you could accidentally wipe everyone out without meaning to and that's sort of a bad way to start off. They said all this while they injected me, I guess it was a common question.

[reclaimer42]

I'm waiting to get my shots and the room has the faint stink of burnt smell from when they bake it in between exams. Any minute now someone is going to walk in and jab me in the arm so I'll be all ready for my trip, and then this room will become the temperature of a small sun to make sure nothing biological remains. The shots aren't even vaccines, kind of like the opposite, it's meant to emulate the bacterial background of that era or something, I don't know. Virology wasn't my specialty.