2019-03-14 - spike - The New Shop 104

Author: spike
Title: The New Shop 104
Date: 14 March 2019

Chapter 104
I awoke again to a kick in the side and leapt off the bed. I joined the line-up.

Eight stomped to a halt in front of us and began to twiddle furiously.

“It seems you’ve been plotting behind my back. That ends now! From now on the only thing I want to see from any of you is yes, sir unless I ask you a question! If we get a repeat of yesterday, I’ll give you all a full day of what you got last night! When I send you out you come back upon completion of whatever jobs I put you to! If you change your footwear you fucking well put your boots back on before you get here too and if even one of you swears in my presence my god… Two days of it for all of you! Is that understood?”

My shoulders slumped. “Yes, sir.”

A day? Of that? I know I couldn’t handle that again. Even ten minutes of it. It looked like our little work to rule was over.

It prodded the blank at the end. “You. Step on that platform, back to the wall.” It pointed at the box… thing.

Its shoulders slumped too as it walked across the room and did as it was told.

The moment it was in place, Eight snapped the box shut. I hadn’t really looked closely at it, but it had a hole big enough for a neck at the bottom and as it closed it enclosed the head.

I’ve got no idea what was going on in there, but within a minute the blank’s hands shot to the box, gripping the sides.

“SCUBA, step forward.”

I did.

“Move to one side, you go last.”

I backed to the side of the room by my bed and waited.

Half an hour later, the box sprang open and the blank staggered down shaking its head.

“Map case one, sample case one. Piles outside. Pick them up and go there.”

It ran out of the room without saying anything.

“You, platform, same as that thing!”

And the next one did the same. It was another couple of hours before it was my turn. I wondered what the hell was going on.

I found out the moment the box closed around my head. My head and neck froze solid and my air cut off soon after. My hands shot up to the box in shock. Then just as suddenly, I could breath, I took a deep breath and again, I couldn’t. This repeated four more times… Wait… Four? Decontamination. It was the same number of stages as decon! What would they need to decontaminate my head for?

Then, I felt it. Something began to fill my suit and then my stomach. Food? Water? And a wash? Obviously no flush though. So that’s what it meant, only needing to go back to get the stronger dehairing wash once a month.

Warm soapy water, clear and then the hot air cycle. I’d never experienced it when I could mostly move. Only my head and neck were locked in place.

Suddenly, the box released and I staggered down just as the others had.

“Map case five, sample box five. There’s an air tank and weight belt there for you too. You know what to do with them now. Do your fucking job!”

I ran out of the bunker.

The cases were where it said they’d be. I strapped on the air tank, shoved the hose into the filter inlet, snapped on the belt and collected the cases… The flippers. I’d left them where I changed my boots. I looked around, picked them up and ran for the steps.

It hadn’t told me to do that but I wasn’t taking any chances this time.

When I got to the jetski, I sat on a rock for a few minutes to study the charts.

Another set of grid squares. These were further out so I snapped the cases to my belt and I was away.

I hated Eight with a passion I’d never felt before, but I liked the work. Talk about conflicting emotions. If that… psychopath hadn’t been in charge this would’ve been a job to rival being a statue. One I could quickly learn to love but with Eight around, it was a lot less pleasant.

Something that made me hope never to see an outpost again.
* * *
I trudged up the steps just as the sun reached its zenith. Noon and god it was hot. In the water it was fine but out? I hoped that cunt hadn’t got them out there working in this.

I was half way up when something came to my ears. The first thing I’d heard since I left the compound to get here. A voice. A voice I’d never heard before. It had a far more mechanical quality to it than the usual laptop or armbands. Maybe Q’s computer? Considering the message, it had to be the case.

“Blank, report to B2 for transportation.”

I jumped. Fuck! That was it? My month as a blank on the island was over? I increased my pace. The only problem now was trying to get that thing to ask me a question I could use to tell it I needed to go.

I ran up the last flight of steps.

I was at the bunker in minutes and it was there waiting for me.

“Give me the samples and in.” It pointed at the door.

I held my hand up.

“Don’t make me tell you again.”

I handed the samples over again and again raised my hand. It just grabbed me and threw me into the cell and slamming the door behind me.

The other four were already there.

I sank onto the bed with my head in my hands.

I felt a nudge from Chell sitting on the bed next to mine.

“What’s wrong?”

“I thought I was free of this hellhole. I need to get back to the compound. I’ve been summoned.”

“Summoned. For what?”

“Transport back to New York.”

“What? Why?”

“That’s where I belong. I wasn’t entirely honest with you when I arrived. I wasn’t Hero. I was Tyson. They need me back at the store. I’m only here because I asked for a month as a blank after I’d recovered from my injuries.”

“Month as a… Tyson? You’re Eleven?”

I nodded.

“Oh fuck! This is good. What are you going to do to it?”

I chuckled. “I’ll be in New York but I’ll ask Q if my fob’ll work from there. I think it will.”

“What? From that distance?”

“It works from here to there, so I don’t see any reason it shouldn’t. Only when we’ve got an active connection though. I’ve got a few other ideas to fuck it over too, of course.”

All of them gathered around me.

“What else?”
“What are you going to do?”
“Come on, make it good!”

I held my hand up. “Give it time. I’ve got to get back there yet and I’m not going to be unblanked when I do. I’ve got a race to be entered into and this time, it won’t be as Tyson. I’ll be a racer, not a hunter. It might be another few weeks before I’m named again. Maybe even a couple of months.”

“Why didn’t you tell it?”

“I tried. I raised my hand. It ignored me. You heard its orders, I’m not going to risk you getting it in the ass for a whole day just because I choose to speak. I couldn’t handle that again either.”

“Oh fuck! So if it doesn’t allow you to speak?”

“I’m stuck here until we’re all recalled. That could be another month if that cunt has any say in it.”

“Oh shit!”

“I know! I’ll try to speak to a gold when I get back delivering samples. It did say that was one of my jobs, but you can guarantee I won’t be free to leave then. It’s already said if we don’t return we all get a day of it.”
* * *
It returned a few hours later again. This time it just handed us maps and sample cases, handed me another air tank and pointed at the door.

I held my hand up.

Again, it ignored me. I shoved it up even more and waved it.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Just do as you’re told!”

“I’ve got to leave, sir.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been summoned. I got a call on my ears last night, sir. Return to the compound.”

“Fuck off! You’re here until I tell you otherwise and I warn you now, if you even think about using that fucking jetski to go back there, it’s not only you who’ll suffer. Now get going and collect those samples.”

“Yes, sir.”

I ran out. If I could’ve mumbled under my breath right then, my god I would’ve been calling it every name under the sun. I glanced down at my hands as I ran and realised I was doing the blank equivalent. My fingers were.

And that’s how it went for the next three days.

There seemed no way out of this situation. I worked, collecting the samples as dictated and returned to be locked in our cell at the end of each shift. A two hour break during the hottest part of the day and right back out there.

Finally, a new order.

Instead of handing me a sample case and map, it handed me a backpack.

“Deliver them. I warn you now, I don’t give a flying fuck about this imaginary recall. You’re mine. You do what I say and fuck anyone there. If you’re not back here in two hours, you know what happens.”

“Yes, sir.”

Air tank and backpack on, I bolted for the jetski and made my way back the way we’d come to get here as fast as the machine could manage. I’ve got no idea how long it was before I reached the beach.

I pulled the jetski onto the sand and ran to the entrance to find a blank awaiting me.

“Quick. I’ve got samples for you but I need your help.”

“Help? What with?”

“I’m screwed, blank. I should’ve reported back here days ago but Eight won’t let me. I’ve got to get back there but I need to speak to Six. Please, find the nearest gold, tell him to contact Six and get here. I don’t have much time. Just tell him it’s urgent.”

At the mention of Eight it stepped back. “Oh fuck, I’m sorry. I’ll be as quick as I can.”

“So you’ve been stuck working for that fuckwit too have you?”

It nodded, took the backpack and stepped into decon.

I knew how long decon took but god, it felt like an age before Six stepped out.

“Oh thank God. Six, I need your help, sir.”

“Why? What’s so urgent?”

“It’s me, sir. Eleven. Please, sign, don’t use your armband. Not yet. I need to tell you this but I don’t want Q to hear of it just yet.”

It stepped back and signed. “What the fuck is going on? You should’ve been podded and on the way to New York four days ago!”

“I know, sir. What’s going on at Eight’s outpost is… well… Seriously fucked up, sir. The first day there it punished us on a really high setting for nothing multiple times and even set a really nasty pain program on us. It treats us like fucking robots, sir. It has us writhing on the floor in agony for merely expressing an opinion in front of it or offering an idea. As far as it’s concerned we’re blanks in more than name. We’re not worthy to even have a fucking mind.”

“Fuck! What did it punish you for?”

“The place is fucking covered in filth, sir. The first punishment I got was for trying to clean up. The only thing there was a broom. I swept up the place while the other blanks bashed the dust from the beds and pillows. The moment I admitted it was my idea I was on the floor, sir. Another suggested it could turn our ears on so we knew it’d walked in. That ended with it writhing on the floor too. So, we decided, if it didn’t want us to do anything without being told, we wouldn’t. Nothing. Even common sense flew right out of the window. It told them to collect samples, it didn’t tell them to return. It did tell me to return from sampling the seabed but it didn’t tell me to change out of the flippers. That got us an hour of what I think is the program designed for the pain pig.”

“Oh fuck! Fucking hell? I… Oh god, I’m sorry. So, what do you suggest?”

“I have to get back there. If I don’t return on time it threatened all five of us with a day of that program, sir. Next time I’m due to deliver samples, the only thing I can think of suggesting is Q blanks himself. He needs to see what’s going on there and I think being a blank is the only way to do it. If he went as himself there’s no telling what lies that cunt would tell. Q could take my place, freeing me up for shipping.”

Six nodded. “Right, I’ll pass on that suggestion.”

“Please, don’t tell him how bad, I don’t want him punishing Eight because we might get it in the ass if he does. He might need to disable its fob during the switch-over for a few hours until I’m out of range though. And please, ask him not to punish Eight for what it does to him until I’m me again. When I am, after the races, I… I need to teach that fucker a lesson, sir. Ask him if the fob can work from the store to here, or if not, can it be made to?”

“I’ll do that. I had no idea this was going on. Why the fuck haven’t any of the other blanks reported this?”

“They’re probably terrified of it, sir. I know I would be if I was a normal blank. It’s so bad we’ve all made a pact with each other. Each of us who gets a name beats the crap out of it.”

Six’s shoulders shook with laughter.

“I’d better be off. I don’t know how much time I’ve got left before it punishes me again, sir. It only gave me two hours to get back.”

“Two? Oh fuck. It takes… Run. Run to the boathouse and get a fresh jetski. Make sure it’s fully fuelled. You’ll need to go full throttle to get back in time. I know your ident, I’ll talk to you. Tell you what’s happening each night.”

I nodded, signed “Thank you, sir.” and bolted down to the beach.