Rubberman's Cage

by Joseph Picard

  “Seriously, guys...did I dream that?” Lenth asked, pointing a thumb upwards at the ex-hole. Answers came to him as heads discreetly shook no. What would Rubberman do if he knew?

  How does he not know? The Brothers assumed that Rubberman was the one responsible for their food, their work, their showers, their lives.

  Everything.

  Now that was cast into doubt. They'd never actually seen Rubberman dispensing the food, or much of anything else other than functions that helped herd them around.

  “I wonder if the stranger is Rubberman's…'Rubberman',” Spots quietly said as they left the shower area.

  “Why would he have to peek in like that? And why does he look like us?” Blue asked.

  “If you ask me, he didn't want to be seen by Rubberman either,” Joints said. “He was sneaking. He wasn't where he was supposed to be. But then ya gotta ask, where in blazes was he supposed to be?”

  In the exercise room, some of the Brothers expected that the images in the visors might reflect the stranger's appearance, but it showed only the usual shifting colours. The stranger had no impact. He was there, then he wasn't. Despite his origins beyond known reality, puncturing into the common world, the status quo survived.

  The status quo thrived, in fact, ignorant of the short yet fantastical event that the Brothers could not help but think about.

  Snippets of theories passed about when Rubberman wasn't around.

  “Think he made Rubberman?” one Brother might say.

  “Does he have his own Rubberman?” another would later muse.

  “Does he have Brothers?”

  “Are we his Brothers?”

  Finally it was Lenth who made the more assertive stance. “I'm going up there,” he said one evening. He pointed to the spot that the stranger peeked from as his cuff dangled from his wrist.

  “Yeah, good luck with that.” Blue said.

  Lenth threw Blue a sullen glare. “Well, not right this second, obviously.”

  Joints chuckled softly to himself. “All right, I'll bite; what's your plan?”

  The next waking passed, and the exercise, and the work. Quietly, Lenth managed to convince Spots to help. When it was time to sleep again and the lights were low, both Lenth and Spots closed their cuffs, but not around their wrists. Instead, they simply laid down on top of their cuffs and wrists. This way, Rubberman above could not see that they were not tied down.

  When Rubberman walked away, his footsteps could still be heard. Lenth and Spots sat up and looked at each other, listening to the footsteps fade.

  Then they heard the 'clunk' sound that marked the end of footsteps.

  Lenth nodded. He and Spots sprang into action while Blue and Joints watched.

  Spots knelt at the head of his bed and awaited Lenth. After some fumbling due to inexperience, a foot found a knee, clasped hands, and a shoulder. Lenth climbed him.

  Lenth touched the bottom of the grate. It didn't even shock him. It was so easy; why had this never been done before? He stuck his fingers up through the grate and wiggled it this direction and that. And then...up?

  “This kind of hurts,” Spots said, Lenth's feet digging into his shoulders.

  If Rubberman's ceiling could be pushed aside, why not the grating? Lenth pushed up and found that the section of grate came loose. Possessed by a sense of urgency, Lenth sent the metre-square chunk of grating sliding across the top.

  Lenth grabbed the edge of the hole he had made and pulled himself upwards. Unable to pull himself all the way up, he looked down at Spots. “Push! I'll pull you up after!”

  “Crazy. You're crazy!” But Spots obeyed. At least the first part. When Lenth was up top, he stood, and looked around, jaw agape.

  The Brothers looked up at him.

  “Well? What's up there?” Joints asked.

  Lenth looked back and forth. “It...it's big. I mean, we kind of knew. Down there is almost as big, but we have walls in between it all. Up here, there's less walls, and they're further off. I don't see Rubberman anywhere. I see the top parts of the thing we get food from, the exercise stuff...that kind of thing. But...it’s big up here.”

  “And the stranger's spot?” Spots asked.

  Lenth looked up. “It doesn't look any more special from here. I bet I can open it as easy as the grating.” He turned back to the hole to reach down for Spots. “Come on up, give me another boost!”

  Spots sighed and began to reach up when the clunk sound came again. “Rubberman!” Spots whispered urgently. His eyes welled up in terror. “Come back down! We can just—”

  “Too late,” Lenth said. “He sees me.”

  Spots waved at Lenth all the more frantically, but Lenth wasn't paying attention. Lenth stared at Rubberman, and Rubberman stared back.

  Behind Rubberman was a light. A doorway! That's what had been making the clunking sound. Lenth wanted Rubberman to approach him more; to get farther from the door. But Rubberman instead took a step back and reached for a counter that sat just inside the door.

  Lenth charged at the doorway and Rubberman. Rubberman looked back and forth between Lenth and the counter and the buttons on it. He hit buttons repeatedly in panic.

  A trace of sleepy-gas got to Lenth as his Brothers were dosed directly. In a reduced density above the grating, it was not strong enough and not fast enough to put Lenth to sleep. He tackled Rubberman, and they fell together into the room through the doorway.

  Chapter Four

  Fill

  Large rubber fingers wrapped around Lenth's neck and threw him aside. With no idea what to do next, both of them stumbled to their feet as quickly as they could and backed away from each other defensively.

  Lenth nervously looked around, never letting Rubberman out of his sight. The room was small, less than half the size of the sleeping room. The vaulted walls and low ceiling were dingy white, and behind Rubberman was a counter with a clutter of buttons and a small screen. The floor was a dimmer shade than the walls, but solid; not a grate.

  Rubberman relaxed his stance, arms dropping to his sides. Lenth cautiously lowered his arms. A bit. No longer rushed, Rubberman found a specific button on the counter and pressed it, causing the doorway to close shut with the familiar 'clunk'. Seeing what it looked like closed, Lenth could now see that the opposite wall was very likely also a door.

  But for the moment, he was simply trapped in a small room with Rubberman.

  “Crap,” came a muffled voice from inside Rubberman's head.

  “What? You...you can talk?” Lenth asked, jaw agape.

  “You've violated your quarantine level. I guess I'm going to have to sterilize you now.” Rubberman turned his back and knelt down by the side of his buttons, reaching for something.

  Lenth considered attacking. But to what ends, exactly? He considered messing with the buttons. But which ones, and again, to what ends? Escape to where he came from? Or open the other door to end up in…in who knows where?

  This moment of hesitation didn't last very long as Rubberman was turned around again, now with a muted yellow scrap of cloth. He came at Lenth with it, pushing away Lenth's resistant hands with one big rubber hand, and used the other to superficially clean Lenth's face with the rag. Rubberman then took the rag to Lenth's hands, then feet. All the while, Lenth made attempts to evade this ceremony; attempts that became less and less concerted as it all became plain that it was harmless.

  With all exposed skin 'cleaned' with token 'scrubbing', Rubberman stood back. “There,” he said. “You're sterilized.”

  “I'm what?” Lenth held out his hands to look at. They looked the same as always.

  Then, Rubberman began sterilizing himself all over with superficial scrubbing. He leaned forward and stuck his big rubber hands around his face, which was obscured by the floppiness of the rest of his head. After a little wiggling, the rubber face fell to the floor, big glassy eyes and all.

  In horror, Lenth yelped and pressed back against the wall.

  “What?” Rubberman
picked up his face and stood up again. Under his face was a face! A person's face! “Oh, I get it. Calm down, calm down.”

  “A person!” Lenth said. “You're a real person in a bunch of rubber…clothes?”

  Rubberman pulled back his large hood. A person, a human, plain as day. About as old as Joints, maybe. The sides of his head, his jaw, and the area around his mouth were matted with grey hair, as if fluffy eyebrows had sprouted out all over spots of his head. Lenth had never seen hair on top of a head more than a few millimetres long before it disappeared again overnight.

  Lenth looked at him and stroked his own chin and jawline questioningly. Where Rubberman had bunches of hair, Lenth had only ever felt rough stubble, or nothing at all.

  Rubberman sighed. “Hair. I haven't shaved in a while, all right? I didn't expect company. “You don't have much because I shave you every other week or so.”

  Lenth's eyes widened. He pulled the neckline of his suit out a little and peeked down at his body.

  “No,” Rubberman said, “just your face and head. That hair doesn't get messy. They just told me to shave your beard and head. Well, not the eyebrows.”

  “They? Who are they?”

  “You may as well know now: they're going to come down or call or something when they see your cuff isn't reporting your pulse.”

  “Who?”

  “The Providers. They supply our food and stuff. They want to keep you and your Brothers safe and happy.”

  “That...that's good. Safe and happy are good.” Lenth looked around skittishly and slid down to sit on the floor. “I...how many more rooms are there?” he squeaked, still in disbelief of his current situation, let alone more undiscovered places.

  Rubberman looked towards the door that Lenth hadn't seen open yet. “At least a few. The Providers don't tell me a lot. Just what I need to know, I guess.”

  Lenth looked back and forth at the two doors. “One in there, and one up? I think I saw one of the Providers from the higher place.”

  Rubberman frowned and squinted. “What do you mean, what 'higher place'?”

  Further conversation was cut short by some beeping from the panel of buttons. Rubberman turned to face it. “Yup, there they are.” He pressed a blinking green button and spoke. “I'm here, Providers.”

  A canned-sounding voice came from the panel. “We read an unscheduled gas deployment, and two pulses unaccounted for.”

  Rubberman gave Lenth a serious stare, making sure Lenth wasn't feeling chatty. Rubberman then replied to the voice. “Yeah, two of them were feeling overly energetic and didn't go to bed in a timely manner. I decided gassing them was the better option than shocking them all.”

  A bit of silence passed before the voice replied. “Next time, stick to routine, all right? Have the 'strays' had a pattern of disobedience?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Then tuck them in before they wake up, and adjust the timetables accordingly.”

  “Got it.”

  The light on the button went out, and the two men were left staring at each other. “Two,” Rubberman said. “Oh, of course, the Brother that helped you up wasn't in his cuff either. Lenth, are you going to go to bed nicely? And not talk about what you've seen? It's that, or the Providers might replace you.” Rubberman's tone was reasonable, almost kindly despite the underlying threat.

  “Replace me?” Lenth looked to the door and glanced upwards. “Is...is that what happened to Slim? He was replaced?”

  Rubberman lowered his head and shook it slowly. “Not by his fault or anything. I'm not sure yet what happened. He was only replaced because he...well, because he died.”

  “Died?” Lenth looked around again looking for explanations. “Died? What is that?”

  Getting up, Rubberman sighed in the face of Lenth's innocence. “People can't keep living forever. I'm old; I have less time than you, I know this. But Slim's death...when you stop living, and can't even be awake again...Slim's death was a terrible accident.”

  “Can't ever be awake again? Why not? Where is he? I can wake him up, just let me try!”

  Rubberman opened the door back to the grating above the sleeping area. “When you die, your body begins to decay, it won't work anymore. It's just the way it is.”

  “What's decay?! You're not making any sense! I want to go find him! Help me go up!”

  Lenth ran over under the stranger's spot and pointed up. “Come on, boost me up!”

  “Presumptuous thing, aren't you?” Rubberman followed behind slowly, his gaze sliding between Lenth, the spot he was pointing at, the beds below, and the second door in the back of his own room. “I told them I'd toss you back into bed.”

  Only a little deflated for a moment, Lenth shrugged. “Don't! Just don't! I have questions for ceiling guy!” He couldn't reach the ceiling here by himself any more than he could reach the grating alone. “The ceiling opened right here! Boost me up!”

  “If it will shut you up, and you'll get back in bed after. We have a minute. Just don't be upset when you can't open anything, and you realize it was a dream or something.” Helping Lenth up, he nearly dropped him when he saw Lenth pop up a section of the ceiling and slide it to the side. Before Rubberman could collect himself enough to object, Lenth grabbed onto the edge and clumsily clambered up with feet flailing about until he managed to pull them up.

  “Get down here!” Rubberman hollered.

  Lenth laid flat on top and peeked down. He looked into the darkness around him, then back to Rubberman and down to his Brothers. He wanted his Brothers with him, but the need for answers about Slim outweighed his fears.

  “Rubberman...please tell them where I've gone. Tell them I'm okay, and that I'm going to find Slim.” Lenth waited as Rubberman stared up at him with a furrowed brow. Rubberman looked down, then looked up again. “I don't speak, remember? Get down here now!”

  “Nope. No going back now. I'm going. Just point up when they ask about me! Can you do that much?”

  Rubberman huffed and lowered his head in resignation. “I can try. What do I tell the Providers? And why am I asking you that?” Rubberman held his head in his gloved hands and moaned. “You're putting me in a really bad situation, I think.”

  Lenth frowned. “I’ll wish you luck if you wish me luck.”

  “Child,” Rubberman said softly, “the things you don't know. Stay right there; I'll be back in a second.”

  “I'm not changing my mind!” Lenth suspected that Rubberman would try to trick him, or do something to force him down. It would be easy to slide back into safely, though. So he waited, and it wasn't long before Rubberman was back.

  “Catch.” Rubberman tossed up a small tied bundle. Lenth caught it with one hand and looked at it questioningly.

  “You'll probably need that stuff,” Rubberman explained. “I ripped off half of my sterilization cloth. If you get into any situations where you think you might get infected by something, give yourself a bit of a scrub with it, right? And inside I bundled some food. If you only eat one when you're really hungry, they should keep you going for some time. Don't be a pig like you boys usually are. And you won't have your medication, so if your body does anything you don't expect...well, just don't freak out about it.”

  “Medication? What's that? And what kind of funny things might happen?”

  “Don't worry about it. And if you see any Providers, avoid messing with them.”

  Lenth looked at his gift from Rubberman. “Why are you helping me now?”

  Rubberman looked away. “I just am. Besides, I couldn't expect you to wake up with those guys down there and keep your mouth shut. It would mess things up more than they already are. I hope the Providers see it that way, too.”

  Lenth stuffed the little care package up his sleeve. “Thanks, Rubberman.”

  Rubberman smiled. “Phil.”

  “Fill what?”

  “My name. It's Phil.”

  That made sense to Lenth. Fill fills the food dispensing machine, and maybe the water
for the showers, and the supplies for the work. So someone named him 'Fill'.

  “Thanks, Fill.”

  Lenth disappeared into the darkness, and the panel slid back into place, leaving Rubberman standing above the three remaining, sleeping Brothers. He shook his head in disbelief.

  “There's more 'up'.”

  Chapter Five

  Six & Eyes

  Once the ceiling panel was back in place, it was very dark. A kind of dark that Lenth had never known. Even when it was time to sleep, there was enough light to see by. This was different. Maybe 'up' didn't have light. Maybe he would simply have to adjust.

  He reached up and found the ceiling very close. There was enough space to crawl, but only with a lowered head.

  Which way to go? In the absence of light, it all looked the same. He went in the general direction of Rubberman's room. If there were some structure above it, it could at least serve as a landmark. As he went, he found the occasional hard ridge that needed to be crawled over, being mindful of his shins especially.

  He bonked his head on something hard enough to hurt a bit. He snatched at it, and found it was a cylindrical piece of metal that his hand wouldn't close around. It was very warm, and he couldn't find an end to it to the left or right. Not from where he was, anyway. This seemed more interesting than getting above Rubberman's room.

  Left? Right? He turned to his right, and followed the pipe by touch. After some time, he wondered what he was over now. Feeling around, he didn't find anything below him that felt like he could lift it up and peek through. Onward along the pipe.

  It went on for a long time before he felt it divide into two. One branch went down into the floor. The downward pipe was sealed tightly against the floor, which also wouldn't open, so he continued on with the branch that kept going forward. It led on and on. He must have already crawled several times the distance of…of what he used to think was the whole world.

  More 'up' was a staggering concept. But he hadn't expected to also be amazed by the amount of 'sideways' there was. How much sideways could there be? Any fear he had was dwarfed by wonderment.