My Last Day

I am working in an office, probably as a programmer, and although my workplace has aspects of my past jobs (WorldPay in particular) it is no place that I have worked in real life. The head of my department is Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager!

It's my last day of work before I leave to become a freelancer full-time. I don't think I'm doing a lot of work but am mainly just hanging out with my colleagues. At one point the head of department (Captain Janeway) walks into the room and I tell her that it's my last day. I'm not 100% sure how the conversation gets onto it but we end up arranging to go for dinner a couple of weeks after I leave.

All of a sudden the fire alarm goes off and people start to head for the exits. I know it is just a drill so I'm in no particular hurry, and I say to the head of department "If I'm going all of the way outside I'm not coming back in."

She says "That's fine," so I collect all of my things and make my way out of the building.

I remember that when I start packing up my laptop I notice a large sticker on the lid with some information on it, something to do with the source code I work on here, and thinking that the sticker no longer has any relevance to my life.

As I'm making my way out of the building I walk past the receptionist and tell her that this is my last day. She tells me there is a package for me and throws me a small brown box with an excessive amount of parcel tape all over it. She asks "Who's going to collect your mail now?" and I think to myself "She's right, that's the main advantage of working here!"

Walking Through the Ruins

When I leave the building, the outside is a lot like my secondary school. I see Faiza outside and approach her. Faiza wasn't exactly one of my friends at school, but was someone that we would talk to occasionally. She also used to live on the same road as me.

We start walking together and we are definitely back in Slough, although I don't think I've lived here continuously since school because I tell her "I'm back living here again."

As we walk down my road (which, by the way, we approach from the opposite end to where my school is in real life) the buildings are all in a state of disrepair. Many of the buildings are dark and dirty and almost look like they've been on fire, and some of the buildings are clearly falling apart.

As we walk down the street I point out my mum's house and tell her that is where I'm staying. I remember thinking that it is the only house on the whole street that's in good condition.

I'm not sure where I'm heading but I walk straight past my Mum's house and continue down the road. One of the last buildings on the left is even more damaged than the rest of them, and I say "Look, this one's actually held up by the scaffolding!"

I don't remember the rest of our journey but I arrive at someone's house, possibly Faiza's house. Whoever I'm supposed to be meeting doesn't seem to be there, but they've poured me two half pints of beer in typical half pint glasses that you would find in a pub, and they are obviously two different beers as the colours are slightly different. I think that it's sweet of them to do that, especially considering they don't drink.