Sometimes, Ruby dreams about cheese.
It's odd. She never really liked cheese outside of it being on pizza. Even then, pepperoni hogged most of her attention. But recently, Ruby had been having a recurring dream. One of sitting in the cafeteria of Beacon Academy, and digging into a frankly absurdly large cheese platter. Sharp cheddar, smoked gouda, even milder cheeses like feta and mozzarella. Ruby was a fan of powerful, overwhelming flavor, so this was a bit of a surprise.
Sometimes, her friends would be there. Blake would eye the platter hungrily. Weiss would scold Ruby, warning of a stomach ache. Yang would stare in awe at her sister going to town on the cheese.
The dreams were strange for sure, but comforting. Relics of a simpler time, before the fall. But these dreams wouldn't last, as Ruby's alarm would blare at 7:00 in the morning, on the dot. Of course, she couldn't just go back to bed, lest she get a strike and be declared a miscount. So, as was routine, Ruby groggily pulled herself out of bed.
She had to be quick. Work started in an hour, and the train station was not close to her apartment. She removed her itchy, government-issued sleepwear, and slipped into her itchy, government-issued daywear. All citizens were required to wear it. Generic blue jeans, topped by a navy blue shirt, accompanied by an information tag on the left breast.
After getting dressed and telling herself positive affirmations in the mirror, Ruby left her apartment and headed down the hall. The only issue was, the stairs were blocked. The door to the apartment closest to the stairwell was wide open, and Ruby could hear screams of pain and desperate pleas come from inside. A Civil Protection officer stood in the doorway.
"This stairwell is closed. Take the back entrance." The officer told Ruby, voice obscured by the modulator embedded in his mask. Ruby sighed and began to walk in the opposite direction. Police brutality was nothing new to her, but it still hurt seeing it. As it turned out, the CPs were beating down on her neighbor Laura, for some reason or another.
"I wonder if she'll be alive when I get back." Ruby muttered to herself, out of earshot from the officers. CPs beating citizens to death was not uncommon. In that situation, all the citizens could do was pretend the deceased never existed. "The apartment down the hall was always vacant. The apartment down the hall was always vacant." Ruby repeated to herself, trying to get the excuse stuck in her memory.
Ruby made her way down the rickety back stairs and out into the back alleys. CPs didn't patrol this area, so this is where Ruby came to vent her feelings. Many times Ruby had bawled her eyes out, leaning against the rusted dumpster. In her four years of living in City 28, no one had emptied it.
Ruby exited the back alleys, into one of the main city squares. From here, it was a short walk to the train station. Citizens went about their business here, most of them traveling to and from work.
Of course, ever present everywhere in City 28, was the holographic screen. Ruby stopped a moment to stare at the screen. A woman was talking, spouting blatant propaganda. Normally, this would be worth batting an eye to. But it just so happened that Ruby knew this woman, many years ago. Yes, it was none other than Weiss Schnee. SDC heiress turned Administrator of Remnant, and Ruby's former friend.
"Before, Remnant was divided. We fought over silly things, such as race, resources, and ideology. These petty conflicts were sure to bring an end to the human race eventually. Luckily for us, Our Benefactors so graciously liberated us from these vices, bringing humanity to new heights, and securing us a place within the Universal Union." Weiss babbled on. Ruby shuddered how she once considered this woman a friend. She even had a bit of a crush on her, back in Beacon. But those days were long over. Weiss had proven herself a traitor, a turncoat, and an opportunist. She had betrayed the human race itself, collaborating with the hostile alien force colloquially known as the "Combine."
But Ruby didn't have the time to curse her former friend out. She had a mere 30 minutes to spare. So she speedwalked to the train station. Ruby knew from experience that running is a good way to get Civil Protection on your back. Last time, they beat her so hard she went blind in the left eye for a week.
The train stationed smelled of ash and smoke. But out of all the evil the Combine wrought on Remnant, at least the trains ran on time. Entering the station, Ruby noticed a fox-eared faunus man painting a wall white, almost certainly covering up anti-Combine propaganda. The man was in shackles, and was being watched closely by a Civil Protection officer, stunstick at the ready in case the man was working too slow.
Ruby's train arrived at 7:40 on the dot. The old thing screeching to a halt was hardly a nice invitation to go inside. All this alien technology, and the Combine relied on shitty decades-old trains for transport?
Regardless, Ruby entered the train and took a seat. The cushions were comfortable at least. Small luxuries.
Ruby had 15 minutes until work. "Shit." She cursed to herself. She will be running late today. "I better prepare myself for the beating now…" she told herself.
As the train flew across the tracks, Ruby looked out the window. Ugly grays and beiges looked back at her. Totalitarian repression aside, why did the Combine have to make everything look so drab?
Ruby sighed and prepared herself for another long day at the factory. Hopefully, she'll have another cheese-related dream tonight, even if it's just for a bit.