2016-08-20 - spike - Trapped 8 Rescue

Author: spike
Title: Trapped 8: Rescue
Date: 20 August 2016

Yi-erwu split his time over the next week between working, thieving, setting up and sorting out the kit he’d stolen.

The camp had taken a couple of days to set up on the moor. Thirty ten man tents in all, each tent had 5 large rucksacks filled with spare clothing, tools including hammers, saws, axes, spades and a pickaxe, a tent and basic camping gear, towel, lights, stoves, toilet roll and pots and pans.

If there were more than a hundred and fifty men in a hut then they’d just have to issue more rucksacks for that batch.

Ian had finally come through with the coach and bus hire costs and Yi-erwu had done what he’d planned for Marty to do and gather a few thousand by till dipping in the local supermarkets, in other nearby worlds of course.

Saturday finally arrived.

Greg, Ian, Phil and Angie were there ready to hand out the kit to the newly freed men, clothing, rucksack and food bag. The buses were waiting on the road by the Clarence with the story that there was a series of sponsored night walks across the moors and everything was set.

Yi-erwu was wearing his full work clothes, flat cap included, he’d got one of his tasers, 9 volt battery pack all connected up and ready to go and a spare just in case. He shifted, drifted and waited a foot away from his old cell and watched.

Slowly, his brothers filed in, he looked towards the other cells and noted one was already occupied but the other two hadn’t returned yet.

“Fine, it’ll take a while to get them all sorted anyway.”

“Computer, when I touch an unknown servo device and utter a sequence of numbers, use those numbers to connect to it and its companions. Then issue the 3 step sequence rotate anticlockwise, one second delay to each.”

“Affirmative.”

Unable to resist one final joke at the expense of his brothers’ torturers at the end of the room, he positioned himself right in the face of the one who’d wanted him flogged before drifting in completely.

“BOO! You fucking cunt!” He walked away, laughing, shaking hands with his brothers as he went.

The man fell back in shock, looked around, saw Yi-erwu actually talking to his brothers and sat there dumbfounded. The others raised a ruckus.

“I TOLD you! It is! It’s him!”

“Where the fuck...”

“Get him!”

By now he was well out of reach of their chains. He strode confidently towards Lingjiu and Lingwu with a grin on his face.

“No more Chinese unless I’m talking to a brother who can’t speak English, no more subterfuge. Lingjiu… It’s time!”

“What? Now?”

“Yes, look…“, he held out his wrists, pointed at his neck.

Lingwu stared at him in shock. “Fuck me I thought they’d choked you, thought I’d never see anyone from home again!”

“Sorry about that, let’s just say it’s been a busy couple of weeks. Lingjiu, get out of bed, stand up. Got a little surprise for you, and you too Lingwu.”

“O..Kay… What kind of surprise? Never did like surprises. Always opened my presents early so I knew what I was getting.”

“Just stand up, this is important and we don’t have all night.”

Grudgingly, he got out of bed and stood next to his brother.

Yi-erwu touched Lingwu’s collar. “zero five four one three”

3 snaps issued from all his restraints as they loosened. He sat down in shock.

“Wha… How the hell did you do that?”

“I never intended you to be stuck here for life, I only wanted a little revenge and to teach you a lesson. I knew there was a possibility that you MIGHT, but I’ve got this,“ he tapped his forehead, “and I figured out everything I needed. Today is your day to choose. You have three choices.

One: Remain here, a slave, there will be no more visits and no other chance of leaving after we’ve gone. It will be your home. (I know, it’s a stupid thing to say but I’ve got to offer you that choice along with the others. I imagine some slaves here may turn rescue down because this is all they’ve ever known)”

Two: go home or

Three: come with us.

Before you answer consider this. You’ve grown here, if you return home and start mixing with your old cronies again, chances are Barker the idiot will be back before you know it. All the pain and hard work over the past month will’ve been for naught. But I’ve been planning this rescue for months, even before I escaped. Once I realised that the taser was the cause of my being trapped, I knew there had to be a way to make it work for other worlds. I solved it. Not just for getting you back to your old home, but for moving everyone here there and then on to a NEW world, the world I’ve been working, earning, and learning about.”

“Escape?!”

“Yes. Allow me to demonstrate. Now, stand still.”

Yi-erwu lifted the collar away from Lingwu’s skin, the world slowly slid to one side, though quicker than he’d been expecting. Then he moved the collar away down the corridor to where there was no neck for it to enclose, swept it to one side and dropped it on the floor.

The collar landed with a clang. Lingwu stared at it in shock, his hands reaching for his neck. “Fuck me! How did you do that?”

“The same way I did it for myself, though in that case, drifting helped and I needed another person to hold it away from my skin.”

“So, what’s this option three thing?”

“Another world, a world where the great war, world war one, lasted into the 1950s. They’re well behind us on technology, their cars are useless and everyone still uses horse and cart and canal barge for transport and shipping. They’re also desperately in need of manpower. No unemployment there. That world is the perfect place for these men. You’ve got used to a bit of hard graft, and there’ll be plenty of it there. We located a string of dead villages, villages vacated when all the men who’d lived there had died in the war. I intend to free everyone here and move them to there to rebuild. A life of freedom, where men can do what men are meant to. Even Greg, Ian and Phil like the place.”

“And if I go there with you, I’ll never see my family again?”

“Never.”

“Count me in! Always hated my dad and my mum’s a complete waste of space. I’m in!”

“I wasn’t expecting it to be that easy a choice.” Yi-erwu grinned. “I’m going to be living there too, permanently once this is done with.”

“So you’re planning on freeing everyone in here… not THEM surely?”

“Oh, no, not them, they can go screw themselves. But I think you’ll want to see their faces in a minute… anyway, choice made, you’re coming with us, good, I was hoping you’d say that. I’m actually liking you now, hate to see you regress into Barker again. Arms out.”

Lingwu held his arms out and Yi-erwu repeated the process on both manacles at once, tossing them onto the bed. Finally the shackles came off.

“I think you’ll probably want a nice big stretch now, I know I did when I had Greg bring the bolt cutters on the first day after I escaped”.

“Oh god, you’re not wrong there.”

Yi-erwu touched Lingjiu’s collar and repeated the procedure. He felt his neck, rubbed his wrists, moved his legs further apart than they’d ever been before.

Lingwu watched as the restraints snapped loose at Yi-erwu’s command. “How the fuck did you DO that?”

“Magic!” Yi-erwu grinned. “I’ll show you later.”

Lingjiu could contain himself no longer. He grabbed Yi-erwu in a huge hug. “Thank you! Oh god thank you”

“Time to tell the rest, stand out in front of them all when I tell you both.” Yi-erwu grinned.

He switched to Chinese and caught Lingjiu begin translating for Lingwu in the corner of his eye.

“The time has come brothers. When I learned I could escape I promised you I would never let you down, it’s taken a month, but everything is now in place. Those who want freedom, stand by your beds.”

Every man in the room stood by their beds.

“Everyone at the back, fuck off”

The room was filled with laughter.

“Step out in front, Lingjiu and Lingwu”

The two men stepped out in front of their brothers, free of their restraints for all to see.

There was an uproar, everyone started asking questions at once. Yi-erwu just stood and let them calm down by themselves before continuing with the process.

Within the hour, each of his brothers was free of their restraints.

Yi-erwu returned to the front.

“I have jobs for you both. Lingjiu, I know you, I trust you with my life, and now I’m placing them in your hands until I can join you. Guide them, teach those who can’t to speak English. Lingwu, you amongst all these in this camp are the only one who has handled money in the last thirty odd years. I’m going to give you the wages I’ve earned just before I send you across to your new, permanent home. I need you to walk to Stoke-on-Trent and begin pricing up vital supplies, food, horses, clothing for the men and yourself. Once we have horses we can use the carts we found in one of the mines to ship in other things like building materials. It’s going to be a lot of hard work, but instead of getting punished for not doing enough, you’ll be rewarded for a good job. Price things up and pick the cheapest for now, we need all the money we have and that’s only about ten pounds right now.”

“Ten? Ten quid? For how long?”

“I’ve spent some, I needed a battery to power the taser, I’ll be getting another battery before I give you what’s left, but yes. A tenner doesn’t sound like much but trust me, it’s a hell of a lot there, enough to feed a whole family for three months, easy. It’s more complicated there. They never decimalised. It’s still pounds, shillings and pence. But you’re the only one here with money knowledge, go for the cheapest until we’ve built up cash reserves to buy better stuff and you’ll be fine. Oh, and this is the clothing that’s worn there.”

“You look like something out of a chrismas carol!”

“Yep, so does everyone else. They’re stuck in the 1900s, even though it’s 2016 there. That war really fucked them up. Even the railways are dead, no-one to repair the machines or tracks, only a couple of lines still open between Manchester and London via Crew and Cornwall and London”

“Are you sure about this? Doesn’t sound very appealing.”

“It is believe me, simple life, no tv, plenty of hard graft and the rewards you get for it, these men here could never survive in our world. It’s too high tech, too controlled, they don’t have any documents, no birth certificates, no national insurance, no driving licenses. And considering how many I’m planning on sending to that world, the dead village idea was the only way. Best way too. It is a GOOD world there, I’ve worked there for weeks. I love it and I think you will too.”

“Hang on… considering how many… How many slaves are you planning on freeing?”

“All of them!”

“In our hut?”

“No. In the camp.”

“FUCK! That’s got to be over a thousand. I’ve seen them all lined up, they had a flogging last week when Qiyisan fell underquota! The whole lot of them, all one hundred and five!”

“They flogged ALL of them? How many?”

“Fifty and then 2 hours left hanging! It was brutal!”

“You know what… I was going to leave this” he pulled out his collar “as a calling card once I’d freed everyone in this hut. I’m not doing the camp all at once, too many, split it over a few days or couple of weeks. But when I’m done… I think I’ll put this around that commandant’s neck! Considered it before but now! Definitely.”

“I’d love to see that.”

“Sorry, you’ll be busy elsewhere by then.” Yi-erwu grinned, “now, I think it’s time I sent you on your way, you’ll appear in exactly the spot you’re standing in our world. That’s Dovestones near Greenfield.”

“Naked?”

“Don’t worry, everything’s taken care of. I said I’d been busy! Now brace yourself, this is gonna hurt. But if Greg and Ian can handle it you can. Or… OK, your choice, first to leave or last. If you choose last you can see the looks on their faces as everyone but them vanishes, been wanting to see that for months myself”

Lingjiu couldn’t resist “Definitely last, I’d love to see that too”

“OK, If he’s going last, I’ll go second-to-last. Don’t know where I’d be without him.”

“Exactly my feelings. Watch. Oh yeah, almost forgot, roll up your blanket, pillow and mattress.”

He walked up to Baqi and his bunk mate, said a few words in Chinese. They began rolling up their bedding and when done, he zapped them with the taser. They grunted in pain, looked at him as if about to say “that hurt!” but before they could utter a word, they were gone. Within five minutes the entire cell was empty, both of bedding and men. The ex-guards beds had also been stripped, there’d been a bit of a struggle over them, but the ex-guards were no match for people who’d put effort into their work. Lingjiu and Lingwu watched.

The ex-guards at the end were staring in disbelief, they looked at their restraints. They looked pleadingly at Yi-erwu. One of them got on his knees and began begging in Chinese. Lingjiu began translating again as Yi-erwu walked up to them.

“PLEASE! I don’t know how you did that but don’t leave us here!”

“After what you did to me and my brothers, after you refused to stop after the commandant ordered you to three times? And yet you, scum, continued to remain separate from my brothers for months refusing to even speak to us. What on earth would possess me to take you with me? I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s not just this cell I’m freeing, It’s all of Siyisan, all of this entire camp eventually. And guess what. When I’m done, there’ll be ten slaves left. You and your old boss.”

More began pleading, but Yi-erwu simply turned his back on them and walked away. Then he paused, said something under his breath and returned, standing directly in front of the worst of them.

“A final parting gift.” He touched his collar. “one zero seven four one three”.

Then he muttered something else under his breath. “And a gift for you…”

The man who’d threatened to kill the little shit who he’d just touched also got a touch on the collar. “One zero three four one three”

“Oh, it was bacon, I brought it in for my brothers.”

As Yi-erwu returned to Lingjiu’s side a couple of loud snaps could be heard behind him.

His accuser, the one who’d wanted him flogged, grasped his collar in shock trying to wrench it off.

His defender, the man who’d threatened to kill the idiot if he ended up in the flogging frame again, also reached for his collar in shock, but it wasn’t one mingled with horror. He smiled.

“What did you do?!”

“Loosened his. He defended me, only for his own sake but still...”

“And the other one?”

“All his restraints just tightened one notch, it’s not over yet, watch.”

There was another snap, he clutched his collar even more, his face, hands and ankles turning red. He rolled on the floor in agony gasping for breath.

“What the hell did he do?”

“He saw me speaking in Chinese, wanted me flogged for lying. Lingjiu spread it around I was a simpleton because I couldn’t speak Chinese when I got here. I played along until I was fluent enough to talk whenever there were guards present. Saved me from a few floggings that did.”

Lingwu was beginning to look worried “You’re not gonna leave him like that are you? He’ll die!”

“Nah, 5 minute delay and he’ll loosen a notch again as long as I’m here. Ah yes.” Yi-erwu placed the shackle that had held him for so long and was now just a calling card on Lingwu’s bed.

“You have changed, you got a real cruel streak to you now.”

Yi-erwu looked at his newest brother and thought he caught a glint of fear in his eyes. “I can live with it, if this place taught me anything, it’s this. Don’t take shit from anyone, he wanted me flogged, that’s my parting gift. Revenge, best served cold, as the saying goes. Suppose you were on the receiving end of that too, come to think of it. In your case, you’ve come out of it a better man.”

Lingjiu was continuing to watch as the drama unfolded at the other end of the cell. The other ex-guards were flocking around the prone figure desperately trying to pull the collar aside to allow more air through. Meanwhile his hands and feet were turning purple.

A minute later, there was another snap and the restraints loosened a notch. He collapsed gasping for breath and sat up, dazed and began rubbing his hands and feet in attempt to regain some circulation.

“Time to go.” Yi-erwu zapped his last two brothers and followed them home.

They arrived to a crowd of newly dressed men, all gathered around Greg, Ian and Phil as they tried to explain what was going on.

Greg spotted Yi-erwu and his brothers as they appeared. “Final lot Mike?”

“Far from it, these are just the brothers from my cell. Still got the other three to go yet, hand us a couple of clothes bundles will you.”

“OK” Greg managed to squeeze out of the throng and fetched a couple of bundles, tossing them to Yi-erwu.

“Here, t-shirt, sweat pants, hoody, trainers.”

“How did you afford all that?”

“Oh, this is just the beginning” he walked to the edge of the road where the rucksacks were and grabbed a couple. “The buildings in the village all need rebuilding, until then, camping gear, tent, you have your bedding, tools you’ll need over there, cooking gear and lantern, and a few other bits and pieces too. Along with a change of clothes.”

He tossed over the rucksacks to his brothers.

“But… how?”

“Oh you’re not the only one who can shoplift you know, I just did it on a larger scale, from warehouses. And with my little… ability, I could do it with no chance of getting caught.” he grinned. “Besides, it was necessary, every time I go there I feel more and more impatient, my original plan for the rescue, take my time, get everything in place and maybe do it after a couple of months, but… I don’t know, just feel itchy after being there, the need to do something. Speaking of which, there’s still three other cells to do tonight. Back in a bit.” Yi-erwu vanished again.

Yi-erwu appeared in the middle of cell one.

A few of the slaves noticed immediately and sat up in shock.

“Isn’t that…?”

“It is, it’s a ghost! It’s Yi-erwu.”

“Shit!”

“Calm down lads, I’m not dead. I escaped. And since I escaped I’ve been working tirelessly to free everyone. My home has now only got nine slaves in it, the others are free. I’m here to offer you that same freedom.”

“How, there’s nowhere on the planet we can flee to, we’re slaves here, forever”.

Yi-erwu sighed. He knew it would take a lot of explaining. Here goes…

“When I was captured seven months ago, I was exploring. I’d never seen anywhere like it, the whole of Oldham was in ruins and I wanted to find out why. I’m not from this world. I came from a world where the USSR collapsed, Germany was reunified, even China started embracing capitalism. There was no nuclear war in my world. I know I sound insane, I’ve had all this before so before you start shouting about madmen in your cell, I’ll show each one of you I’m telling you the truth.”

“How?”

“Simple. How would you like to see the stars? I never saw anything but that fucking black cloud in all the time I was here. I could take every one of you but that’ll take ages. I’m not just here to free you, I’m here to free everyone in this hut tonight. My brothers knew about my… abilities for months before their rescue. But we’ve barely had contact with the other cells.”

“Oh come on?”

“Deadly serious, pick someone, volunteer, I don’t care but hurry up, I don’t have all night.”

“I’ll do it! Whatever it is.” The voice came from the back of the room, all the bunks in this cell were occupied.

“Right, get out of bed, I’ll show you a taste of the freedom I’m offering, you report back what you saw.”

Yi-erwu approached the back of the room. It was an older man, looked like he was in his mid-forties. He looked at his name on his chest. “Erqisiyisan, I’m going to pick you up, so don’t panic, I’m just taking you to another world close to this one that hasn’t suffered from nukes or the Chinese. It’s night unfortunately, much more effective if you get a feel of the sun on your back.”

Yi-erwu hoisted his brother into the fireman’s lift and they both vanished from the room.

A couple of steps and he put Erqi down.

“Look up, almost a full moon, there’s Mars, think that’s Saturn, the bright one over there must be Jupiter.”

Erqi stared at the sky. “That’s Leo! And Libra over there! Good god, I remember them, not seen them since I was twelve!”

“Now, look down, no camp in sight, just springtime countryside without the freezing nuclear winter to hinder its growth. Look around. Breath the air.”

Erqi looked, he was amazed. “I haven’t seen the moon in...”

“It’s probably about thirty-four years.”

“That long?”

“The month is March, the year, 2016. You’ve been enslaved for a long time and now I’m offering you freedom. Not just freedom from the Chinese in your world, a completely new one for you to thrive in, maybe get married and have children. Do what men are meant to do. Oh, there’s going to be a lot of hard work, but it will be work you’ll receive rewards for, rather than punishment for failure.”

“How did you do this?” he stared at the moon, the landscape around him amazed.

“Let’s just say the universe is a lot more complicated than most people realise. Occasionally, someone’s born with the ability to walk to other places, other “could-have-beens”. Anything that can happen, does happen, somewhere, and I’m one of the people who can visit those places. I stumbled on your world by accident seven and a half months ago and ended up being trapped there for over six. If you remember lingling’s little demotion, I was one of the ones he sentenced to a hundred lashes for tipping a mine cart. Until then I was convinced that I’d lost my ability, during that flogging though, it returned, big time. It took me a while to master it, but once I did I plotted my escape. I deliberately brought down the roof on myself in that mine section, but before it could land on me, I stepped into another world, covering up my escape with a perfect faked death. Since then I’ve been working tirelessly to find out what stuck me here in the first place, how to remove the collar and shackles and how to make the thing that stuck me here work for me.”

“I’m convinced. I’ve never seen anything like it. But what about these? There’ve been whispers…”

“About them shrinking? I discovered that once I escaped. Told my brothers on one of my visits, when I delivered them a little food, real food, apples, bananas, bacon butties.”

“Resume original directive concerning unknown servo devices”

“Acknowledged”

“What? Who said that?”

“Watch.”

He touched his colllar. “two seven four one three”

Three snaps. Erqi felt his restraints in shock. “How the hell did you do that?”

“Never mind that, that’s just the opening, this is the good bit, stand still.”

Yi-erwu held the collar and the man vanished, he dropped it and drifted back, sweeping it up again and tossing it to Erqi.

“Yours, I believe.”

Erqi felt his neck, he looked at the collar, he felt his neck again not believing what he was feeling.

Several of the surrounding slaves watched in awe as the men vanished and then their brother reappeared without a collar on, closely followed by the man promising to save them.

“Anyone who fears freedom, anyone too set in their ways to change, stay in your bed. Anyone who wants to spend their lives as they were meant to be spent, stand up. I’m not just offering you freedom in this world. But in a different one, one where hard work is rewarded, one where we have located villages abandoned after a long and drawn out war. Villages that I intend, with your help, to rebuild and make our home for good. I’m offering you the chance to meet with and possibly marry women, have children and live out your old age without ever again having to fear the whip or execution if you can no longer work. All you have to do is stand up, I’ll do the rest. We may have never spoken but you are still my brothers, Siyisan.”

As if in unison, each and every one clambered out of their beds and stood by them.

A couple of hours later every man in the room was free of their restraints.

“Everyone gather your bedding, mattress, blanket, pillow then pay attention when I do the next bit, I think you’ll like it. I’m afraid it will hurt a bit though first.”

He walked the room, zapping each in turn with the taser. Five minutes later, the room was empty.

He used the same tactic in each of the other cells with similar results. Dawn was approaching by the time he’d zapped his final slave.

“ZHUYI!”

Yi-erwu couldn’t resist, he stood there facing the door at the end of the room well out of range of their tasers should they try to use them. He watched as the door opened. He saw the look on the guards faces as they recognised him, then he vanished, he walked back home again.

By now, everyone was settled, wearing their new clothes and chatting with each other.

“Time to go. Everyone load up the buses, then we’ll get on our way to our new home. Lingjiu, I want you to go around everyone, explain things. I’ve done what I can but I’ve had enough of repeating myself tonight. I’m knackered.” He crawled into his ditch. “Wake me up when everyone’s loaded.”

Lingjiu, Lingwu, Greg, Phil, Ian and Angie began talking about the night. Yi-erwu slept.

* * * * *
The commandant was staring at the latest productivity figures. Another increase from Siyisan, and this time, for the past week, the bulk of the increase seemed to be coming from his ex-guards!

He pondered what had changed for them, they’d had the lash often enough over the past few months to teach them to work hard but a few of them had continued to be stubborn but now, another twenty percent over quota from them.

There was an urgent knock on the door.

“Come!”

“Sir, it’s Siyisan!”

“What about them?”

“They’ve gone Sir. Every single slave in the hut except those guards you sentenced! And one of them’s in a bad way! Looks like he almost choked on his collar, Sir!”

“WHAT?!” Alarm, shock, a little fear. He ran downstairs and across the square, he flung open each of the cell doors in turn, then he ran into cell three.

“What happened to my SLAVES!”

The nine at the back cowered against the wall as the commandant marched towards them with a look of pure fury on his face.

“TELL ME!”

“I… It was Yi-erwusiyisan Sir!”

“What about him? He’s been dead for over a month!”

“It was him Sir, he took them!”

“One hundred slaves do not just vanish into thin air!”

“But that’s exactly what happened Sir. And he seemed to have some weird power over the collars, he could command them to loosen, or tighten in his case” he pointed at the man still struggling to breath slightly “with a touch! He removed them by making them vanish and reappear, off the slaves. Look!”

The slave was pointing at the beds, each had a compete set of restraints on or by them.

“He spoke to us Sir, said he wasn’t just planning on freeing them, but the entire hut. And eventually the whole camp, Sir. Well, apart from us and linglingyisan. He said we could go and fuck ourselves, Sir.”

One of the guards who’d accompanied him to hut four called over from the front of the room.

“Sir, there are six restraints on this bed. Five belonging to Lingwusiyisan and this one! It says Yi-erwusiyisan!”

“This was the bed Yi-erwusiyisan slept in and the one his replacement was given too.” A dreadful thought crossed his mind “I don’t know who even sent me that boy. But after this, I believe it must have been Yi-erwusiyisan! What is he? Devil? Demon? Witch? Alien? Well whatever he is, I will not let him repeat this travesty elsewhere. Gather the guards!”

* * * * *

“I never thought it was possible.” Lingwu was still amazed at what’d just happened, “I was convinced I was stuck there for the rest of my life, and now, a whole new life. Never see those fuckers again.”

“Who?”

“Griffiths, Hyde, that lot”

“Thought they were friends!”

“Ah fuck that, they were worse than me. Just too cowardly to do anything without me.”

“Never thought of it like that, always saw you as the ringleader”

“Started out that way, they’re just suckups, stick to the most vile person they can find and encourage him. If I’d never met them I might’ve been OK from the start”

“Bloody hell, you have changed! He said you had but I didn’t believe it.”

“You would too after what we’ve been through. I’d be careful with him though, he’s developed a bit of a sadistic side.”

Greg looked warily at Lingwu, “What do you mean?”

Lingwu explained what had happened with the guards.

“Shit, really? Him?”

“Not to mention what he did to me. I think he’s a little bit on the revengy side now. I understand it completely, he was there a hell of a lot longer than I was. And to be fair, those guards were the ones who did the 60 and continued after they’d been ordered to stop. I suppose if that’d happened to me I would’ve done the same thing given the chance.”

“Why did he pick on that guard but loosen the other’s?”

“From what he said, they were overheard on the truck to work detail, the one he punished complaining that he was meant to be a simpleton but now he was talking in Chinese.”

“I was there” Lingjiu joined in “the one he punished was outraged that he was lying about being a simpleton and wanted to report him, the one he rewarded with a looser collar was the one who said he was the best worker of the lot of us and if he ended on the flogging frame again because the fuckwit reported him, he’d kill him. Seems like a fair and even punishment reward thing from where I’m sitting. Tell you one thing, if it’d been me, I would’ve left it on the choke setting for good. Fucking cunts.”

Angie looked at Lingjiu with disapproval. “I don’t care what you say, it’s not like my little brother to do that kinda thing.”

“Sorry… Angie is it? But until you’ve lived the life of a slave, you can’t understand what it’s like to have a guard at your mercy. Many of us have dreamed of an opportunity like that. We couldn’t kill them in the cell because they were part of our family, forced on us as everything is forced on you as a slave, but they were marked Siyisan. And we would have been punished if anything we did to them affected their productivity. Yi-erwu knew there was nothing the guards could do to hurt his brothers anymore and took it to its logical conclusion. The fact that he showed enough mercy to loosen the thing again should be some comfort to you. I very much doubt anyone else in that room would’ve done that final act.”

Lingwu nodded “I know I wouldn’t have if he’d been the guard who gave me the forty on that first day. He might’ve gained a cruel streak, but he’s no killer.”

As the sky began to brighten Angie watched as various looks of awe and joy spread across the faces of the men, then the sun poked above the hills. The older slaves pointed in excitement, some of the younger ones looked a little scared of it.

“What’s up with them, it’s like they’ve never seen the sun before?”

Lingjiu nodded “A lot of them haven’t, I hadn’t until six months ago when he managed to shift for the first time intentionally. It was a rest day so he took me to that little clearing where we appeared tonight and I saw it for the first time since I was five. Amazing experience, feeling the sun on your back after all that time. I’ll go and explain to them.”

He got up and began chatting with his brothers.

“Really?”

Lingwu nodded “Permanent black cloud over the whole place there, he says it’s probably nuclear winter, where all the bombs that went off sent so much dust and ash into the sky it blotted out the sun for decades. Considering how fucking cold it is there I believe him.”

Angie shuddered at the thought.

Yi-erwu stirred, groaning “Where are we?”

Greg was watching the other slaves, “You’re in your ditch, didn’t want to wake you. The buses have been loaded for an hour.”

“Shit, it’s daylight, we’d better get going.” He got on the bus followed by his friends, they all sat around him as the buses pulled away.

“Greg, might need to swap clothes with Lingwu for today, he’ll need them if he’s going into Stoke to get more clothes and stuff. We can go down with him but someone should stay with the men in the village and help set up.”

Greg looked disappointed,“Yeah, OK, I’ll stay in the village.”

“Sorry, Greg, but, I think you’re the best fit for him, Ian’s way too small” he grinned. “Phil would be stretching things too.”

“So what did you plan on him buying?”

“A few sets of clothes for the men who can start getting some work done to earn, want him to look at the price of horses too, we’ll need some, sooner rather than later too if we want to sell any of that coal.”

Phil’s ears perked up, “Horses eh? You really should’ve looked at that newspaper you gave me, it had things like that in the classified ads in the back, loads of them in fact, first thing you should do when you hit Stoke, buy a paper.”

“How much were they in Manchester?”

“Varied almost as much as cars do, anything from an old banger that’ll fall apart in a week for a fiver to a Porche for a few grand. Well, old nag and thoroughbred racehorse, but you get the idea. I doubt he’ll be able to get anything decent for a tenner though, got to think about tack, harnesses and feed too, doubt you’d get a carthorse for less than twenty.”

“BUGGER! Once we get Lingwu kitted out it looks like it’s definitely back to work at the canal on Monday. Leave the commandant to stew for a couple of days before releasing the next hut.”

“Won’t that give him time to make things more difficult for you?”

“Oh, I’m sure of it. Even expect him to do something to the restraints to make them more difficult to loosen. I’ll take the bolt cutters next time, just in case. Lingwu, which hut was punished again?”

“What? Oh, Qiyisan. Why?”

“I’ll free them next, and unpack some of the medical supplies I...procured.”

“Good call. They deserve it after what they’ve been through.”

“What happened?” Ian was staring out of the window in boredom.

“From what Lingwu said last night, fifty lashes and two hours left hanging in the cold, for working underquota. Every last one of them. I was there six and a half months and the most flogging frames I ever saw was the twenty we were strung up in. But one hundred and five?! It must’ve filled the whole square!”

“It did, they even had to time their whips so they didn’t get out of sync and tangle with each other.”

“That collar of mine is definitely going around his neck, I’ll make sure of that if it’s the last thing I do!”

“You’re not going to… you know...” Lingwu made a circle with his hands, shrinking it when he made a snapping sound.

“Only so it’s snug, he’ll know what that means. Hell, they would’ve probably enslaved the fucker anyway after “allowing” an entire camp to escape. Or even an entire hut. I bet he’ll try to cover the loss of Siyisan up to keep his neck free. Not that easy once the work quotas stop though. No idea who his bosses are but they won’t be pleased” Yi-erwu grinned.

The bus joined the M60 and started heading towards the M56. “Won’t be long before we’re on the M6 now, that little hop over past Tatton, probably half an hour from there traffic willing.”

“Right, then. Greg, you stay with Angie and Lingjiu and help get things organised. Show a few how to cook with the camping gear too, then tell them to pass it on. Me, Phil, Ian and Lingwu hop onto the train tracks to Stoke. Takes about an hour and a half’s walk, there’ll be a lot of walking there, everything’s over ninety minutes away on foot.”

“I’m up for that, it’ll be good to stretch my legs after being hobbled for a month.”

“Try six” he grinned, “Lingjiu, First work crews, 1, road repairs, they’re all cobbled, but roots have forced up the road in loads of places, they’ll need pulling out, filling in and recobbling. Once we have roads, arrange for a few trees to block the south and north roads in and out to stop any unwary travellers from stumbling onto the villages. Uproot, don’t chop, make it look natural.”

Lingjiu nodded his approval.

“2: Until the sewers are repaired, we’ll need a pit to crap into, nothing unusual for us lot, that, there are plenty of surrounding fields we could use for a large cesspit. To stop the smell though, I think the trick is to take the earth we’ve extracted and cover up each dump as we’ve done it. It’ll mean digging a fresh one once in a while but that’s not a problem. There’s a roll of toilet paper in each kitbag, there’s also a towel, they can wash in the pond and dry themselves off with that.”

“Toilet paper. You mentioned that before.”

“Yes, we free men don’t get chained up and drowned with a jet of ice cold water on a daily basis. We wipe our arses with bogroll. Use it sparingly, men can usually make a roll last a week or two… Women for some reason tend to use a roll up in less than 3 days.”

“Well you’ve got a cock, we don’t. We have to wipe down there too” Angie said, annoyed.

“And how is this paper disposed of?”

“Dump it in the pit, it’ll rot down with everything else. Don’t worry, it’s soft.”

“Strong, and very, very long.” Greg chimed in.

Lingjiu looked up as if a distant memory had just flashed through his brain. “Now that, I remember. Puppies! Cute little brown puppies. I’d forgotten about puppies.”

“If you want a dog, we’ll get you one, Lungjiu.” Yi-erwu grinned.

Angie looked at Lingjiu with concern and nudged Yi-erwu. “What’s up with him? Puppies? I’ve not seen him smile either since we’ve been on this trip”

“Well forgive him for having a pleasant memory for a change. He was five when the nukes dropped. Eight when he was enslaved. Since then all he’s seen is the inside of a cell, the inside of a truck, the inside of a mine, ruined towns or bleak moorland. The only times they get out of the camp is when they’re put to work. That reminds me though. Lingjiu, before we go to Stoke, I want to warn these men about the pitfalls. It’s not all butterflies and puppies being free. There are traps and I need to warn them to steer clear, or at least be damned careful. Think I’ve got most of them in my head but you lot can chip in with more if I miss anything.”

“OK, what’ve you got so far?” Phil asked with interest.

“Alcohol, tempting, but if you must, don’t overdo it. Last thing we want is a village full of alcoholics after a year, same goes with food, they’ve never eaten real food. Well, most of them anyway. They’ll be tempted to eat the lot. The food we have is enough for a week. Again, last thing we want is a bunch of obese lazy fucks, and that’s what too much food’ll get you. Gambling. The odd flutter’s fine but don’t keep betting more if you lose in the hope of winning it back. Tobacco, again, addictive as hell, don’t know what the drug situation is in that world but that too… And finally, one of the worst things that happened to any world...”

“And that is?”

“Religion. I’ll try to explain that people who don’t know better or have had it drummed into them from an early age believe in one or more gods and worship them, they find comfort in the idea of an afterlife and think god loves them and all that bollocks. We know how the universe works, we’ve experienced it, all of us to one extent or another. If it can happen it will, somewhere and there’s no big fatherly old man in the clouds directing things.”

“What do you mean we’ve all experienced it? What’s wrong with believing in God?” Angie looked annoyed again

“Oh no, not you too. Look Angie. You have experienced how the universe works, I’ve taken you to a couple of different places. You know that there’s no divine blob of imaginary bullshit controlling things because you’ve SEEN it with your own eyes. Blackpool, the sunny day a few stumbling gasping feet away from a monsoon? Canal world at Failsworth where there was a war for forty years? The hellhole I got stuck in? There’s no God, everything happens somewhere, praying to a god is like banging your head against a brick wall. Only less productive. For one thing, banging your head against a brick wall hurts and teaches you to stop doing it.”

Angie folded her arms, turned her head away from her brother in a pout and sank into her own thoughts.

“Tell you what. I’ll walk up the nearest mountain with a sword and hold it aloft, shouting “There is no god!”. If I get struck by lightning, I’ll stand corrected. OK?” Yi-erwu sniggered.

* * * * *

I'll leave it at that. Suffice to say, he rescues Qiyisan a few days later, then a few days later the rest of the camp is free. Marty showed up and saw a video Yi-erwu had made explaining things and panicked. The reason that world was so easy to reach from our own was it was what he called an anomaly. And it was slipping away.

So, one more rescue, the whole camp, and in the act of collaring the commandant, the anomaly slips away taking Yi-erwu with it. But, like a tree, when it snapped back to where it should've been, it lashed about, so he manages to land on a more benign world and runs for two weeks solid, drifting when he's not running, having finally zapped himself with his taser resetting his homeworld back to ours.

The rest of the story is the work they do down in Stoke, rebuilding the villages and grabbing a couple of police officers who've been investigating the dasappearances to convince them to drop the case.

End of book one. :)