2018-12-09 - spike - The New Shop 89

Author: spike
Title: The New Shop 89
Date: 09 December 2018

Chapter 89
The wash and flush wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d been expecting. The glycol to clear out my system sent my guts into somersaults again and the painful gut filling to clear out all the crap from the solid food I’d been eating, true, but the rest? It stung. It didn’t burn as the first one had. Obviously not necessary yet, only being in a temp suit.

God it felt good though. To be hairless again. To be me again and empty, I felt as light as a feather and knew from past experience I wouldn’t feel hungry for a few hours.

The moment I unfroze, a voice. The doctor’s voice.

“Come to the gym, Eleven. It’s time you got some exercise. I have your old baseline. That’s your goal for the next week.”

God, it was good to get back in there. To work out the kinks after being confined to a wheelchair for the past few weeks. He pushed me hard too. Weights, treadmill, exercise bike, I did a few rounds of everything in there. Then he told me to stand still and shoved a couple of things up my nose.

“Ten lengths of the pool, Eleven. Then report to the scanner. We’ll freeze you in the vertical one for a few hours.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

It was certainly interesting, swimming in the suit. The instant my head hit the water, my nose sealed. God that valve was responsive, head above water, breath, below, sealed. I found I could do things I’d never been able to do as a human. Swimming a length underwater, for one. I’d always been forced to the surface when I almost inhaled as my lungs began to burst, but the valve… It allowed air out, it just stopped anything from entering.

A couple of lengths, front crawl, a couple more breast stroke, a relaxing couple back paddle and then a more intense backstroke. I loved it. Everything about the suit improved things and when I was done, when I stepped out of the pool, the water ran off me and I was dry in seconds. Not even a need to towel down.

Twenty minutes later, I was frozen in the scanner and this time, I did feel something. It was a strange feeling, something tickled my midriff. At the same time, my eyes blurred and shifted focus a few times and snapped into a sharpness I’d never experienced before. What the hell was that?

As if he’d read my mind, the doctor spoke.

“Yes, Eleven, you’re having a few more fixes. The nanites detected a very mild myopia. Nothing to concern yourself with in normal circumstances but with a little tweak here and an adjustment of muscle tension there, perfect 20/5 vision. And we can do that for every slave, even the blob. Laser eye surgery has nothing on our procedure. No damage to your cornea. No removal of tissue or replacement of lenses. The other things? As you’re frozen now, fixing your internal injuries with far more precision. By the time we’re done with you, your body will look like it grew up with only one kidney. A lot of other scar tissue around that area to remove and repair too.”

It wasn’t a pleasant sensation after a while. In fact, it became maddening. An itch it was impossible to scratch that grew to intolerable, painful levels of itchiness.

It stopped an eternity later and I unfroze to find the doc waiting for me.

“How was it?”

“Fuck me, sir, that hurt. I’m not going to have to go through many more of them am I?”

“The nanites were restructuring your innards, eleven. How bad was it?”

“Itchy. The absolute worst kind, the kind you can’t scratch that builds and never stops. Just gets worse until it’s painful.”

He nodded. “A few more but look on the bright side, you’ll be back to fighting fit and back in your permanent suit within a week at this rate.”

“A week? I thought you said it’d be months away, sir!”

“That was using the measurements and results we’d gained from treating your wounds before you could be frozen. Now, with you locked in position we can be much more thorough. Much more precise. I think a week.”

“Have any of those nanite things been shipped to the store yet, sir?”

“I… believe so. A shipment of enhanced food was delivered last week.”

“And you said you could do the same for the blob? Even though its eyesight’s way worse?”

“Yes.”

I chuckled to myself. “I’ll have a word with my master. See if we can have a word with seventeen and the blob too. Might finally be able to convince it to cooperate. Performing the impossible on it.”

“Just as well. Q ordered me to send you to him after the scan anyway… And I think I can guess why.”

“The dog? Oh god!” I rushed off.

When I got there… Well I wasn’t expecting that. Two suited figures, one sat on the throne, the other by its… his side. Even before I reached half way down the hall, I could read their marks. The standing one, Property of Master Q and the seated one, this one in gold, I am Master Q.

I got to the foot of the steps, sank to my knees and performed a much needed thank you.

Q tapped on his armband.

“Stand up, Eleven. It’s nearly time.”

“Yes, sir. Before we do this, I had an idea.”

“Go on.”

“The doctor, sir. He just enhanced my eyesight by an amazing amount. Perfect, he said, sir. He said he could do the same to the blob, sir. I think we need another chat with it, with seventeen present. Find out if it managed to talk some sense into it.”

“See if he talked some sense into it, you mean.”

“He? You got Kyle?”

“Sit beside me.”

“Yes, sir!” I jogged up the steps, he tapped on his keyboard and a video began to play.

Q chuckled. “New years day, a new life for both of them. One as a gold, one as a blank. A permanent blank that will never gain a promotion. This Kyle idiot… Never.”

It was a wet room. A blank stood in a cubicle frozen as the cleaning process did its thing and another suited figure walked up to it. This one in full leathers, a muir on his head and a gold seventeen just visible poking out beneath it. He tapped on his armband. He wasn’t very quick yet, but it does take a little getting used to.

“Hello, blank.”

I chuckled. It seemed he’d had the same ideas as me, voice wise. He sounded like Bruce Willis.

“No, don’t open your eyes yet. The pain you’re experiencing is the removal of every hair, a few dead layers of skin and your fingernails and toenails. You’ll never have them again. You fucker! I told you how I felt. You tortured codemaster for months. Well, this is your reward. Oh, by the way… I gave you to them. That suit’s permanent, all the additions, permanent. You’ll never be free of them. You’re a slave for the rest of your life and your name is blank. Same as most of the rest of them and that’ll never change. As you used the game to torture the blob, now it’s your turn. You’re level three. There won’t be any more human intervention. No Vixen to stop it or slow you down. You and the blob will be getting it full on now.”

I could imagine what was going through Kyle’s mind right then. I bet it wasn’t pleasant.

Seventeen continued. “I gave myself to them after I’d done a little research and found out more about them. For me, this is going to be a fucking amazing life. I’ve even earned a name and two promotions for helping them capture you. For you, well… The blob’s been offered a way out of the game. It can take its punishment like a man and be free of it in days if it chooses to. For you, there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Only the blob can stop it for you and the only way it will end is when the blob is down to its ideal weight.”

I glanced at Q. “He’s forgotten something hasn’t he?”

“Watch. I think he picked the right way to do it.” Q tapped and another video began or the current one skipped a couple of hours. I’m not sure which.

This time, another suited figure stood there too. This one in full rubber, holding up a keyboard. The frozen blank had rubber gloves on.

Again, seventeen spoke in the only way any gold could. “You can talk by keyboard for now. You’ll learn how to sign… Eventually.”

“What is this? Where am I?”

“Oh, you know where you are. Same place as Codemaster. Same suit too.”

“Fuck! Oh fuck, get this thing out of me, it… It’s agony!”

“No.”

“Please. Please take it out! I can’t take this much longer, it hurts! And I feel like I’m going to throw up from whatever it is down my throat too!”

“I said no. Even if I wanted to, which I don’t, you will never be free of them. They’re in you for the rest of your life. Just as they’re in me.”

“Who are you? What’ve you done? How did you find”

“What was it I said? Soon after Deadman announced that this place was real and that blob was codemaster, what did I say to you, you sadistic, psychopathic cunt!?”

“You? You were in the forum? But the only one who”

“Exactly. It scared me silly so I quit. Thorthechundergod is dead. Long live number seventeen and it will be for the rest of my life. A life I intend to enjoy. You… Not so much.”

“Thor?! Fuck me, how can you be Thor!? We’ve met! I liked you!”

“I liked you too, until you went full on psychopath on us. I didn’t speak to anyone on that forum after I quit but I’ve since heard only Vixen stuck around to stand up for the poor bastard.”

“I was doing him a favour!”

“Torturing it into exercise is not doing it a fucking favour. Well, you’ll just have to hope it puts the effort in from now on because once you unfreeze the game takes over. You could be running around like a headless chicken and getting shocked waiting for that elevator for the next two years. You heard what I said during your cleaning cycle. Oh, that… You get more of that every week too. Goodbye blank.”

“Stop calling me blank!”

“That’s your name now. Get used to it.” And with that, seventeen tapped something on his armband, the blank withdrew the keyboard, yanked the gloves off and they walked away, leaving the figure completely frozen.

A little later sixteen appeared, disconnected the tubing, reapplied the core and switched off the cubical. It stood to one side to allow the newly processed victim of the game to step out. It immediately ran to the mirror to stare at itself. To rip the suit off. Futile of course.

“It’s a bit soon, sir! It’s still in pain, it’s not settled yet!”

“I wouldn’t worry. Frozen like that you just didn’t see the frame skip. It’d jumped forward two days when the tubes were disconnected.”

A minute later, it looked around in shock and its time as a pawn to the game began. It bolted to the panel by the double doors.



Q tapped away on the keyboard and the screen turned off.

He turned to me. “So what did you have in mind?”

“It doesn’t take long in the scanner for the eyesight adjustment the doctor gave me, sir. I spent hours in there but my eyesight altered, blurred and then snapped into focus within minutes. I think if you sent the blob up to room two, the doctor adjusted its sight and then brought it down to speak… We might be able to convince it there are benefits to being your property.”

“Very good thought, and while it’s up there, we’ll speak to seventeen. See if he did manage to get through to it. I need to have a word with the other golds there anyway.”

He tapped onto his armband, obviously including me. “All golds to the rec room, usual screen.”

I reached across and tapped the other suited slave. Immediately the name “N” appeared on my armband. So, it was Nicholas.

I selected him. “So, now you’re in it, how does it feel?”

He tapped on his. “Sir.”

“Oh no… No no no. No sir. Not while you’re in that. You’re…” I leaned to the side and looked. Yes, back of the head, a gold “N”. “You’re gold until you’re released and soon you’ll be the one following orders from me.”

His shoulders sagged. “Fine then. It feels amazing. Happy?”

“I’ll be even happier when you’re on all fours learning to walk.”

Q’s shoulders shook. “Lucky you came when you did, Eleven. I’d already set the computer to count down for five minutes. If you’d been a little later, we would’ve both been blanks.”

N stepped back. “Blank, sir?”

“I don’t know what you’re looking so shocked about, N. It’s not as if you’ll have the ability to communicate while in a dog and your marks wouldn’t be visible anyway. As a blank I have no access. No authority. No means of reversing the change. I’ll be as powerless as the rest of the blanks down there. It’s hard locked to two weeks and that is what both of us will endure. Well, I hope I learn to enjoy it this time.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Sir.” An idea occurred to me. “Just out of curiosity, how many dog suits are there on the island?”

“Oh, a few. And they’re all the latest model, the hunter variant. Once we’re sealed in, that’s it until it’s time for release. No zips to get in the way. Why?”

“Because I think a few more might want to take part and I could possibly organise an event with whoever takes control. Not a race like ours, but something.”

“Now that is interesting. I approve. At the end of the two weeks… Speak to Ten. He’ll be the one organising all things related to the suited slaves. My human slaves have full autonomy in their fields of speciality while I’m gone. They know what needs to be done to keep the place running smoothly.”

I imagined that smile as he said that.

“Sir, even four expressed an interest but for him, some serious modifications would need to be made.”

“Oh god, you’re not wrong there. Disable all sensations in the tail for the duration for one thing. But without the tail…”

“I know, sir. No navigation skills but he does know the island. I suggested maybe a map, unless there’s something else you could do… AR goggles perhaps? Showing him the information we normally have to sense?”

“For Four, it won’t be this time but the goggle idea is certainly something worth looking into. Google glass was ahead of its time and now the tech has improved considerably. We can easily knock something together.”

Another rattle on the keyboard and the screen sprang to life showing the rec room. Beta was already present and it wasn’t long before M, Twelve and Seventeen joined him.

The TV there sprang to life, showing all three of us.

M leaned forward to look, to read that gold legend on Q’s chest.

“Suited, sir?”

“Yes. And very soon, blanked. I won’t be available for a period of two weeks, beginning as soon as we’re done here today. Eleven’s agreed to train me as a dog for that period.” He nodded at the other slave. “This is N while in the suit. He’s normally one of my human slaves but requested dog training too. First on the agenda… Seventeen, step forward.”

Seventeen did so. “Yes, sir… It is still sir, isn’t it?”

“As long as I have a legend stating my identity on my chest, yes. I am still master Q. Did the elevator freeze work?”

“Yes, sir. I don’t know whether it understood a word I said to it though, sir. It was too preoccupied hitting the panel and looking around in a panic, sir.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised.” He rattled away on the keyboard again. “M. Go to the elevator. The blob will enter and when it has, blacken its goggles. Guide it up to room two and put it in the scanner. It’s going to receive a little… Modification.”

“A what, sir?”

“The means by which we’re repairing Eleven is very complicated and may shock you, but with it, more than mere repairs are possible when combined with a medical scanner. We’re going to correct its eyesight. More than that, give it the eyesight a hawk would envy. When it’s released from the scanner, it’ll take about ten minutes, its goggles will blacken again. Guide it down there. We want to speak to it.”

“Good god! How can a scanner correct eyesight?”

“A scanner can’t. One of your food additives can. For the past couple of weeks, you’ve been ingesting nanites. Molecular sized machines which, when guided by a computer and medical scanner can correct all kinds of medical problems without removal from the suits. Our latest innovation.”

“Fucking hell, sir… So if someone suffered an injury like Eleven again”

“No, not quite. His injuries were far too severe. They needed to be dealt with quickly. The work the nanites do is a much more gradual process, but, they did knit his leg together so successfully he could support his own weight a week later. Now, he’s back on his feet properly and soon, as I said, he’ll be training us as dogs.”

“So, elevator, blacken its goggles…”

“Yes, and tell it you’re guiding it. Its goggles do need to clear during the scanning process, so the nanites can detect the light in its eyes and adjust the focus accordingly. Blacken them again once released. I do not want it to see the store. Not yet.”

“Yes, sir. I’d better warn Alpha.”

“Alpha?”

“The doctor’s given him permission to resume his duties. Not fully, yet, but he believes it’ll help, sir. Sarge is on hand to assist. It’s only half a day.”

“Very well.”

M ran off.

“Seventeen. When the blob is present, it’s time you introduced yourself properly. This time, it won’t be able to ignore you. You have a voice now.”

“Yes, sir. Do I tell it what else we’ve got?”

“Kyle? Yes. And you tell it who was responsible for all its pain until a week ago too.”

“Gladly, sir. Can I also tell it what we’ve got in store for it when it is free of the game?”

“If you wish. It might give it even more incentive to try to resist. I imagine the eyesight adjustment will be the thing that really grabs its attention though. With good eyesight, we’ll also be able to show it a before and after. As it was on the day of its arrival and as it is now. It is recognisably… I would’ve said slimmer for anyone else but for that… well, less fat for now. Beta, fetch the laptop.”

Beta nodded and ran off too.

It was a few minutes later, just after Beta had returned when the doctor’s voice sounded in my ears.

“Sir… And Eleven, I decided he should hear this too. We performed initial calibration and using the scanner we were able to correct its sight without a need for it to see the changes occur. We cleared its goggles for a minute but it hasn’t witnessed the results yet and it won’t until you give the go-ahead, sir.”

“Excellent. Thank you, doctor. Even better. How difficult was the procedure?”

“A little more complicated than Eleven’s. A lot of muscles around the eye. It may feel some discomfort until it adjusts. It was a much more extreme correction, after all and we couldn’t manage full 20/5 this time but we have given it 20/20. Average eyesight will have to be enough for now. We had the nanites adjust the shape of its eyeballs by a small degree too.”

“Very well, thank you, doctor.”

“My pleasure, sir.”

A few minutes later, the elevator arrived. M guided the blob to the sofa and shoved it into the seat. It rubbed its goggles, probably in an attempt to relieve that discomfort the doc mentioned.

“Ah good.” Q tapped away. “The blob returns. It’s time we had another talk. I know you can’t see now, but there’s a reason for that. You’re also feeling some discomfort in your eyes. We know. I am your owner. And the reason for your discomfort is because we’ve just corrected your vision. Permanently. A few more corrections and you’ll have the vision of an eagle.”

Its head jerked at the voice. A second later it sat bolt upright as its goggles had obviously cleared. It looked around. Then at the screen. Then at the laptop.

Its fingers immediately reached for it. “Please, let me go! I want to go home!”

“We explained your situation, blank. You are home. Forget your old life.”

“But I hate this. I can’t handle it anymore.”

“You have no choice in the matter. Well, you have one choice and it’s time to be a little firmer with you. Last time we spoke you were told you had a way out of the game, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Well, now I, as your owner, your master, am ordering you to resist it and take your punishments.” he rattled away and numbers appeared on the TV in one corner. The target number of over seventeen thousand, below that, two thousand seven hundred and fifty-three and below that, the number remaining. The number it still had to take. Fourteen thousand eight hundred and one.

“Since you were informed of your way out of the game you’ve only improved at avoiding the shocks, blank. I order you now, take them. Work off your penance for what you did to Alpha because at the rate you’re taking them, you won’t be free of the game for another one and a half years. I for one am losing patience with you.”

“Please! I can’t! They hurt!”

“We corrected your eyesight to prove to you that being my property can have its advantages, blank. Do you understand?”

It nodded.

“Good. Well, until you’ve worked off your penance, you belong to the program. It’s a much harsher master than I am. Seventeen. It’s your turn.”

Seventeen nodded, walked around to the front of the sofa and knelt in front of the blob. He looked it square in the goggles.

“First of all… Did you understand a word I said to you when I froze the elevator?”

“Froze the… That was you? What did you do that for?! It hurt! It shocked me when I couldn’t get to the next panel!”

“Well that was your own doing, blank. Your modification to the program. Don’t lay any of that on me! Did you understand anything I said?”

“No! You just waved your hands around in front of my face!”

Seventeen’s shoulders sagged. I could tell he’d sighed. Probably looked up at the ceiling in exasperation too. “That’s how we talk, you idiot! Sign language.”

“Well why didn’t you talk to me like you are now?”

“Because in order to have one of these you need a promotion. Two in fact. I earned them by providing my master with a new slave.”

“You? You did this to me?”

“No. In fact, when I realised you were you, I got thoroughly spooked and quit your games forum. Kyle was the one who continued to torture you, knowing full well who you were. Vixen tried countermanding many of his orders but it obviously wasn’t enough. You know me, blank.”

“My name is”

“Your name is blank now. That might be all it ever will be again. You haven’t exactly given my master anything to prove you’re worthy of anything more, have you? You tortured these slaves for days, one, you tortured so much he’s seeing a fucking shrink to get over the trauma of it. You know how to escape the game.”

“What did you mean, I know you?”

“We even met last… A couple of years ago. I researched after I quit that forum, blank. I found them and more than that, I gave myself to them. I’m just as much a slave as they are now and I know I’m going to love the rest of my life in this suit. You could too, if you take your punishments like a man. Stop being a fucking coward.”

“You still haven’t answered my question!”

“My old username was Thorthechundergod, blank.”

“Thor? Oh god, what’ve you done? Why would you put yourself through this hell?”

“It’s not hell to be a slave, blank. In fact, oh my god it’s fucking good. You on the other hand have a penance to work your way through. Once you have you join us as a normal slave. You’ll be trained and take your place with the rest of us.”

”So, if it wasn’t me you did this to… who was it?”

“Oh, you’re going to love this. I really hope this might give you the kick you need to try. I gave them Kyle, blank. He’s in the game too now and you control when he escapes it.”

That certainly got its attention.

“Kyle? He’s here?”

“It’s here. Its name’s blank too and in that one’s case that will never change. It’ll never earn the chance for promotion to named slave. It’s a blank for the rest of its life. You… Might. But you have to prove yourself and one way to do that is take it like a man!”

“How does what I do affect him.”

“It. Remember. It. Not him. It’s nothing now. A voiceless rubber object. As for how. It only gets out of the game when you reach your ideal weight.”

It started to convulse. At first I thought it was having a fit until it clutched its sides. Eventually it pulled itself together enough to reach for the keyboard again.

“So it’s in the game for life?”

“Why do you think that?”

“I told them the first time. I can’t lose weight! It’s glandular! They tried lying to me saying I already had but I know I can’t.”

“Look at the screen, blank.”

Seventeen shuffled to one side.

“Why?”

“Just look. Sir?”

Q rattled on the keyboard. “This was you, blank, on your first day.”

A picture appeared on screen. God, I’d forgotten just how huge it used to be. It really was a noticeable difference.

“So?”

Another image. “This is you, now.”

It sat bolt upright and leaned forward, its fingers frozen in place above the keyboard.

“That’s fake. It has to be. That can’t be me!”

“Next time you’re in the gym, look at yourself in the mirror.” Q brought up more statistics. “That’s you. In total, over the past three months, you lost fourteen pounds the first month, twenty pounds the second as your fitness improved and thirty pounds as of New Year’s eve. It is now the eighth of January, 2022.”

This time, it didn’t sit bolt upright. Instead, it seemed to shrink into the sofa. It looked like it was deflating like a leaky balloon. I almost expected to hear the squeak of escaping air.

“Three months?”

“Yes.”

“Oh shit!” It looked up at the screen as if finally, the realisation had hit it. “I’m never going to go home am I?”

Seventeen shrugged. “We said, this is your home now. We meant it. This is not your final destination however but you’re here until you’ve lost the last of that weight and trained to be a good obedient slave. Once you are… Sir, do you have any pictures of the island?”

Q’s shoulders shook. “Damned good idea. I’m sure all of you will want to see this.”

After another rattle on the keyboard, the final part of that corporate induction video began to play. The paradise of the restored section of island. The slaves wind surfing, jet skiing and kayaking…”

M and Twelve were the ones to lean in closer as that video played.

It was M who tapped on his armband. “Oh god, that looks amazing.”

The blob however, it shook its head. “But I’ve got a life out there!”

Again, Seventeen knelt before it. “What life? You never did anything with your old one. With your new one you might actually have a positive impact on the world rather than sit on your fat ass stealing video games and doing nothing but getting fatter. Look at that! One of those blanks on the water could be you in a year! Even less if you start pushing yourself but first, you have to earn your freedom from the game.”

“But I can’t! It hurts! Even one shock’s enough to force me to touch the next panel! I tried to resist at first. I did! I want it to end but I couldn’t!”

“You could always ask for help.”

“Help? Help how?”

“Well you can’t touch the next panel if you’re frozen. Ask them. Ask them to freeze you for a few hours. Take those punishments in the same way Alpha took his. Frozen and helpless. If you do that every day you’ll likely be free of it within… How long, sir?”

“Very good thought, Seventeen. By my estimates, if it was to request a four hour freeze every day, it’d be free of the game in two weeks.”

“Four hours? I couldn’t! I couldn’t handle that!”

Q was the one to shake his head this time, obviously in exasperation. “I’ve given you an order, blank. You will resist. The only choice you have now is to take it willingly or we could force the issue but either way you will take it and once you have, you will continue to lose that weight.”

“What happens when I have?”

“Seventeen… you wanted to be the one to tell it.”

“Thank you, sir. We’ll train you to be a good slave, as we said but we’ll train you in something else too. We’ll train you to box.”

“Boxing? But that looks hard!”

“By the time you start on the boxing you’ll not only be slim, you’ll be fit.”

“Why boxing?”

“Because Master Q likes boxing and when you’ve been trained in it, you’ll be put in the ring with the blank that was Kyle. You can beat the living shit out of it for what it did to you.”

“I still don’t understand. How can anyone… Were all these captured like me?”

Seventeen’s shoulders shook. “Oh god… Of course not. They gave themselves to our master. Willingly. Every single one of them.”

“Why!? Why would anyone give up their entire lives? For this!?”

Seventeen looked up at the screen. “Sir?” He waved his fob.

Q nodded. “Very well. I swore it wouldn’t but at this stage, it should be a big incentive for it to submit to me.”

It was my turn to interject. “Seventeen… Don’t start with a high one. Lowest building up, take its level.”

“Yes… Sir?”

“Not anymore. We’re both gold, equals.”

“Tell me what this feels like.” He pointed the fob.

“It… It didn’t hurt! Why didn’t it hurt?”

“What did it feel like?”

“Tingly?”

“And this?”

“More powerful tingle.”

“Now?”

It shifted on the chair. “It felt… I… I thought.”

“Go on. Tell me, what did it feel like?”

“It was nice. I’ve never felt anything like that before.”

“It gets better. Now?”

“Jesus! That felt amazing!”

“Now?”

This time, it collapsed into the sofa and squirmed. It was only a few seconds, but it took a minute to recover. Its hands shook as it reached for the keyboard. “What the hell was that?”

“The plug’s not just for pain, blank. Most slaves don’t need constant punishment. They do as they’re told and if you do throw off the game and do well as a slave you’ll get more, a lot more. It might not even be the best yet. Tell me how this feels.”

Another collapsed onto the sofa. Another “Oh my god” moment.

The next one though… “It… it felt even better at first but started to hurt.”

“Well then, we know your pleasure level. One hour, blank. For slaves who do well.”

“An hour? Of that? How often?”

“Every week. More is possible if you do incredibly well.”

It looked at the screen. “And that… guy in the suit, on the throne? He… He owns me?”

Q nodded. “I do, yes. I own a lot more slaves than the ones there too. Well over one hundred are here on the island and trust me, not one of them would want anything but the life I’ve given them. Give it five minutes, Seventeen.”

Seventeen pointed the fob and the blob started squirming again. This time it took a further ten minutes for it to pull itself together.

“And I’ll get one hour? Of that?”

Q nodded. “Only if you do as you’re told and that starts with working off your penance, blank. After that, I want to see you really pushing yourself in the gym. Lose that weight.”

Its fingers hovered over the keyboard. It looked at everyone in the room, then at the screen again. It took a deep breath.

“Eight hours, sir.”

“Good. A sir without even being told. Very good and very well. Eight hours frozen a day until you’ve taken every shock. And the gym?”

“I will. I’ll try, sir. I’ll try. I don’t know how I can lose all this though.”

“I told you, blank. You’ve already lost a grand total of sixty-four pounds since your enslavement. We’ll get the rest of it off you.”

“But I was told I’d need surgery to remove excess skin if I did lose all the weight.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that. We have our means. The same way we corrected your eyesight, we can do a hell of a lot more, including tightening your skin as you lose weight.”

“But how?”

“We control every aspect of your life. The suit itself controls you, you’ve experienced being blinded by having your goggles darkened. We control when you piss, when you shit, when you eat and drink and thanks to a recent addition to your food, we now have a modicum of control over your innards too. You’re currently swarming with nanites. In a suit like that, surgery is impossible. They can make repairs. And they will. Once you’re free of the game, once a week, you’ll spend time in the scanner you were placed in today. By the time we’re done with you, you’ll be fitter than anyone you knew in your old life.”

Again it stiffened. It looked at Seventeen, placed the laptop down, grabbed him and gave him a hug.

When it finally released him it grabbed the laptop again. “Thank you. Oh god! I didn’t think… I didn’t… I couldn’t believe… And then…”

Q nodded. “Overwhelming, I know, but this is your life now. Get used to it. Embrace it. Learn to love it just as much as my other slaves do and you will do well in it.”

He rattled on his keyboard again and the blob looked up and sighed. “The game’s started again.”

“Yes, blank. But this time it’s to a very specific location. Follow it down to the wet room, M. When it gets to the cubicle, it begins its first eight hours. Q out.”

With a final rattle on the keyboard, Q turned the screen and a five minute countdown began.

“I’ve summoned Ten and one of my designers. Seems he’s the most qualified to seal us in correctly.”

“Sir, I don’t think you’ve told me your name.”

“You know my name and it won’t matter soon. In five minutes it’ll be blank.”

“Your dog name, sir.”

“Oh! As I was the only one, I wasn’t named last time. What did you have in mind?”

“I… think I’ll let your tail decide, sir.”

“Just as with all dogs. Good. I can’t believe I’m actually beginning to look forward to it now.”