By Catdude

The sun had set and the area was lit by the harsh, fake light of the streetlights, shadows filled the gaps where the light pools failed to meet, a van drove between these alternating pools of light and shadow ahead a warehouse that was indistinguishable from the ones around it waited. The van pulled up to the roller doors at the front of the warehouse, the roller door opened to admit it and then closed behind it, with a certain finality.

The van drove inside the warehouse, around it boxes and crates moved silently along conveyer belts, packages being sorted and scanned. There where people monitoring the progress of the packages, they were not dressed as you might expect, however heavy 20 hole doc martin boots where laced over the top of a rubber catsuit, heavy iron bands around ankles, wrists and waist connected to each other via lengths of heavy chain made the movement of these rubber covered workers slow and shuffling. Their heads covered by a weird futuristic looking rubber helmet, sort of a cross between a gasmask and a Halloween horror mask. They moved along the conveyer belt line, scanning barcodes on boxes, checking the scan readouts against manifests, and redirecting packages that had strayed from the path. There was no need for them to move out of the way of the van, heavy red lines were panted on the floor, about 2 meters from the conveyer belts though in some areas the lines broke away and formed squares or circles all interconnected like some giant ant’s nest. The shuffling figures stayed within the confines of the lines.

The van pulled to a stop, and a man dressed in head to toe leather approached, he was not chained and moved freely and swiftly, his face was handsome but this was offset by a cruel arrogance and although he had beautiful blue eyes they were empty of the usual human traits of kindness and compassion.

The man who got out of the van could nearly have been his brother, he wore a heavy bomber jacket with tight leather jeans and black harness boots glinting under the bottom of the jeans. He too had a handsome face that was equally empty and cruel. He smiled and shook hands with the man who approached.

And this is where our story continues.

Ben walked with Josh to the back of the van, “you’re sure you wanna enter him in the program? Did he fuck up?”

Josh shrugged, “I thought I wanted him, but then when I had him and could do whatever I wanted with him I found it too easy, it was more fun when he fought me, guess I will know better for the next one.”

Ben nodded, “you could always just set him free?”

Josh looked confused, like someone had suggested that if he was tired he could try hopping on only one foot for a while for a rest. “He’s mine but.”

Ben nodded, as if it made perfect sense, he understood what that meant. Josh was sick of his toy, but that didn’t mean someone else couldn’t play with it.

They opened the back of the van and both men smiled at what was there. The figure was encased in a rubber catsuit, it was sitting in a wheelchair, medical braces on the legs kept the legs bent in the seated position. The arms where securely strapped to the armrests, as well as to the back of the chair, allowing no movement at all. Heavy leather straps across the chest kept the seated figure from moving. A high posture collar with chin guard kept it looking straight forward and slightly up. The figure was hooded. The mask looked slightly like a Russian gasmask with no eyes, three tubes poked out of the mask, the steady sound of breathing could be heard through one. Ben moved away and returned with a unloading ramp designed for vans, Josh moved and grabbed a remote control unit from the passenger seat of the van, he pushed on a control lever and the the chair moved out of the back of the van and down the ramp. As soon as the chair was in motion the breathing became agitated and slight moans could be heard. Ben looked at Josh with a raised eyebrow, Josh answered the implied question. Magneto attached to the wheel, when the chair is in motion his ball and ass get volt put through them.

He maneuvered the chair across the floor, both men laughing as Josh made the chair spin in circles around them, listening to the muffled moans from under the hood. He brought the chair to a stop and gestured to the chained workers,

“So tell me bout it?” Ben nodded to where the workers were busy along the conveyer belts. They arrive like that, there is a RF chip imbedded in the masks, we scan it, tells us how long we keep them here for and where to send them next. Their tops have codes, they can track their slaves on the same website that customers can track their packages, request them returned etc. Shock collars are built into the masks as well, they move outside those red lines they get some serious volts. We have the most here, 6 and one full time, the whole business is pretty much run by slave labor. They work through the day 7 days a week, ah here we go, it’s feeding time.”

As one the rubber workers were slowly shuffling toward an area marked by a large red circle, around the circle, hung hooks, a worker would walk up to a hook loop the shackles connecting his wrists over it and then tug, at the tug the hook would slowly raise until the rubber worker was standing with his arms stretched above his head. Once all workers were like this Ben motioned to Josh, come on, we can grab their food and I will show you the one lost package we have.

Josh followed Ben to the back area of the warehouse, a massive walk in freezer was positioned against the back. Ben pulled the door open and him and Josh walked into the freezing cold room, Ben continued his explanation, ‘his R.F chip broke, so we have no idea how long he was meant to be here or where he was to go to next, we waited a few weeks for his top to contact us but we didn’t hear anything.’ Josh looked at the lone figure in the freezer section, his hood was like the others, but over the top was a thick woolen jumper, in fact from the looks of things the figure was in about 4 layers of woolen jumpers and pants, Ben motioned to him and the figure shuffled over and returned carrying a large plastic bottle like those that go on a water cooler, except this was filled with a thick slimy pale liquid. The figure put it on the floor and then moved to the back of the freezer section, a small cage was postioned there. The figure crawled in and pulled the door shut and the sound of a latch clicking indicated the door was locked. Ben walked over and picked up a smaller bottle filled with the same liquid, he glanced over at Josh, ‘has your toy been fed yet?’ Josh shook his head, he was still watching the caged figure, ‘can’t you take the hood off and ask who he is?’ Ben shrugged, ‘only the main office has the key to the hoods, and to send him back there when he is not due is so much fucking paperwork, I figured I would stash him here till someone contacted me. Been about a year now so I am sure someone will be looking for him soon, or not.’ He walked over and attached to the small bottle to one of the tubes on the mask, he turned and walked out carrying another small bottle and pushing the larger one on a trolley.

He pushed the trolley to the center of the suspended circle of hooded rubber workers, he attached tubes to the hood of each figure and dipped the other end in the plastic bottle, the level in the bottle slowly started to shrink as it was sucked up the tubes. Ben then handed the other small bottle to Josh,  ‘here you go, give him this, he better start getting used to it, it’s all he is gonna get for a loooong time.’  They both laughed and Josh attached the bottle to the feeding tube of the hood, He handed the remote to Ben, ‘well I wanna get home, I got some ass that needs tapping waiting for me’ he moved back to the van, he paused as he was getting in the van, he turned his empty eyes to Ben, ‘oh don’t worry bout sending me the code to track him, I really don’t care.’ He Jumped in the van and Ben watched as he drove off, he turned his eyes back to the figure in the wheelchair, he would load him up and crate him off to head office tomorrow, in the mean time though, he smiled and pushed the stick forward, the sound of the chair doing laps of the factory floor filled the otherwise silent warehouse.

The End