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'08:04' was the display on the bedside clock. Julia's eyes went wide with panic as she tried to scramble out of the covers. Shit! She was four minutes late for cell inspection!

She stopped. There was no cell inspection. She was free.

Julia sighed and scratched at her messy bed-hair. She looked around her bedroom, still unable to believe that this was her home now. Her bedroom alone was over four times larger than her cell. A king-size bed in the middle of the room. Very soft foam mattress. An empty walk-in wardrobe because her clothes were all folded up inside the chest of drawers. She had yet to buy nice clothes despite having the money for it. She tried to go clothes shopping in the Spire once, and her courage ran out. Nobody wants to see her old, scarred one-armed body in a cocktail dress, least of all herself. The clerks were practically begging her to the contrary, desperate to make the sale. She wanted to shoot them both then and there.

After a quick shower, Julia got dressed in baggy cargo pants and a navy blue vest. She always liked to dress comfortably on gym days. She entered the main living are of her open plan Spire apartment. It was swish. Intimidatingly nice. She'd earned this, but still felt wierd enjoying it. It felt like living in a hotel you needed to be careful not to trash because one day the real owner's going to tell you that your time's up. But this was hers. She was the real owner. Her benefactor had paid in cash for the apartment. They'd even asked Julia if she was sure she wanted somewhere so small and basic. Julia assured them that any Spire house nicer than this and Julia wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

She cooked herself a simple breakfast of bacon and eggs then crashed on the couch and watched junk TV on her home cinema while she ate, more for the background noise than anything else. It reminded her of the buzz of the prison cafeteria. Eating in silence made Julia self-conscious now. She didn't want to hear herself chew.

All of this, had been done with only one arm. only now, at 9:30am, did Julia finally walk to her arm stand and attach her arm. The robot leg, she couldn't live without. The robot arm, she was re-learning how to live with. That's why her frequent visits to the gym every morning were so important. Yes, she'd gotten soft after thirty jears incarcerated, but the main purpose of her gym sessions were to get her brain used to being able to use her left arm again. She'd spent longer without a left arm than with one at this point in her life. Even so, it was shocking how quickly it was coming back to her.

She fished her gym clothes from her unironed clean laundry pile, tossed them in a duffel bag, pocketed her keys and threw on a leather jacket as she left her apartment. The door autolocked behind her, and she was off to the Spire's gym.