Rubberman's Cage

by Joseph Picard

  “Slow down, Lenth, your head's gonna pop. Yeah, I had another name.”

  “Neil,” Tara chirped.

  Lenth looked at her. “Kneel? Why?” he asked. Tara chuckled.

  “It's not the kind you're thinking!” Messenger snapped. “I wasn't a Subject, Neil is a regular name. It's spelt differently, and has nothing to do with kneeling.”

  “That doesn't make any sense!”

  “Just forget it. I'm not supposed to use it anymore anyway. Tara, we were going to head over to the residential section and ask around. I mean, if you haven't heard anything about Six being down here, odds are no one else knows either, but it's worth a shot.” Messenger signalled for Lenth to follow him to the door.

  “All right, Messy, good seeing ya,” Tara said.

  “Messy...” Lenth mumbled with a suppressed smile.

  “And you're not calling me that either!”

  They passed through the round room, passing by the large door with the radioactivity symbol on it, and entered the residential section. The first room was a lot like the cafeteria in the Provider area, and as they wandered about, fruitlessly asking Engineers about Six, the similarities to the Provider area seemed to continue. A small office, like an ode to Contact's office, a smaller clinic, and so on.

  Most of the Engineers seemed to know Messenger, and some had worked with him before he was the Messenger. He spoke with them as equals. As friends.

  When Messenger spoke to most others—Providers, Citizens, Contact—he spoke with words and timbre of authority. A representative of the great Actual, far above, but here in this lowest of places, Messenger found people closer to being peers.

  “Do you come here in your free time?” Lenth asked Messenger when he had a moment.

  “Not really. I am not one of them anymore.”

  “Seems like you kind of are.”

  Messenger smiled a little. Sadly, a little. “It's complicated.”

  They stopped to talk to another Engineer who had no information, then nabbed a disk of food each as they passed by the small cafeteria.

  “Is it because you'll be Actual some day?”

  Messenger paused, and leaned against a wall as he idly pecked at his food. “He teaches me things. Trains me to do what he does now. I know my path, and see my future happening to him right now. I've known my future since becoming Messenger, maybe better than anyone. And I learn more of it every day.”

  Lenth took a small bite so he could speak sooner. “I don't know much about my future. You don't sound happy about yours.”

  Messenger crossed his arms. “I will be Actual when he can no longer perform his duties. It is the greatest honour. I...I will live the same life that I am now watching him live. And then another after me, the same, always.”

  Lenth scratched his head and smirked. “Reminds me of being a Subject. Every day, the same. No other choices.”

  “You chose,” Messenger said.

  “Well, yeah, but I wasn't supposed to.”

  A voice, Tara's voice, interrupted Lenth from a fixture in the ceiling. “Available people, suit up. Someone's gone into the reactor unprotected. Move, people!”

  “What does—?”

  “Move, Lenth. We're already suited up.”

  Messenger led, and Lenth tried to keep up. Several un-suited Engineers were coming with them to the round room. Once there, the panicked Engineers rushed to the hall with the radiation-protected Rubberman suits.

  Messenger put his mask on and sealed it, watching to make sure Lenth was doing it right. He corrected a one of the seals between Lenth's hood and the mask, then reached for the large horizontal handle to the radioactive door.

  “It's locked!” he called out to the ceiling. He had to yell a little. The mask was built to let sound through around the mouth, but it couldn't do so terribly well.

  “Inner door was left open,” Tara's voice came, “I'll do an emergency unlock. Get in there and shut the outer door, fast.” There was a clunk. Messenger heaved the door open, and shoved Lenth in before following. He yanked the heavy door shut behind them, and it locked immediately.

  The room they found themselves in had a grating for a floor, with darkness below. Overhead and on the walls, an array of spray nozzles.

  The inner door was wide open. “Crap,” Messenger called out. “Tara, when I get in, just start purging the decontamination cham—”

  Tara's voice cut in from above. “Yeah, yeah, go!”

  Lenth and Messenger went in and started pushing the inner door shut behind them. “Do you think it's Six?”

  “Who else?” Messenger replied. “He has no idea what he's doing to himself right now.”

  “Radiation? Here?” Lenth looked around, spear ready instinctively, as if he could stab the radiation away.

  “A fair amount. More of it further in. Lots more. Pick a direction, 'Subject',” Messenger said to Lenth, hoping that Lenth's hunch would be enough luck to find Six, another Subject. They had three options. Each with spartan industrial walls and ceilings, with piping and conduits bolted on, or cabling draped from place to place. All three paths looked cold and desolate, despite the omnipresent hum of unseen machines.

  Six would want to be sneaky, so straight ahead was no good. The way the door hinged, he would have seen the left passage first. It made the right passage feel more...hidden, in some small way. Lenth took the passage, and Messenger was right behind him. Lenth was feeling cautious, wanting to listen carefully as they went, but Messenger pushed for a quicker pace.

  After a corner, the hallway came across a four-metre-wide door, with a smaller, person-sized door built into it. A sign on it had two words. Lenth tried to read it. Did it say Picker Garbage? What was that?

  “Stay out here, Lenth,” Messenger said, peeking into the smaller door. “I'll just have a quick look in the Garage. Not really any good hiding spots in there. Holler if you see anyone coming.”

  Picker Garage. That makes even less sense, what's a garage? Lenth watched Messenger for a moment as he rushed in. Ah. So a picker garage is a big barren room with a few...shelves on four wheels with handles and...whatever. Watch the hall. Lenth heard Messenger poking about, when two Rubbermen came rushing around the corner; Engineers who had come through the decontamination room after Lenth and Messenger had.

  They stopped when they spotted Lenth and his spear, and spoke to each other. Several metres away, and with the masks, Lenth couldn't hear anything other than muffled mumbling.

  Lenth waved at them with his free hand. “Hi!” Lenth called out, hoping that he was heard clearly enough. “Messenger is in the Picker Garbage, looking for Six.”

  The two Engineers looked at each other, and one said something unintelligible before lightly smacking the others' arm. They jogged over to Lenth, one keeping a close eye on Lenth's spear. “You're not Six, are you?” one said. When they were closer, and making a point to be heard by Lenth, it was easier to understand.

  “Nope, I told you, Messenger is in the Picker Garb...ack. Garage, looking for him. Hey, is there any way that Six might get into the ceiling? Or the floor?”

  The Engineer that had been hesitant about Lenth's spear was now looking at the ceiling as if Six were going to leap on them at any second. The other one spoke up. “No, the reactor wing is designed to seal stuff in, not—”

  Messenger stepped out from the garage. “Yeah, seal in radioactive particles, inside sections of this wing. There's still lots of places for a person to hide.”

  “Stupid question, here,” Lenth turned to Messenger. “Is there any way Six can survive in here for a long time? Is there another way out?”

  Messenger shook his head. “Even if he was in a suit, it's not like there's food or water in here. Not water you'd want to drink, anyway. But no, going outside and waiting for him to come out or die isn't really a good option, if that's what you're thinking.”

  “Because he could turn everything off?”

  The nervous Engineer laughed. “Off? Off? That would be a
best case scenario! Off can be turned back on! It's hard, but doable. I'm more worried about him screwing the coolant system up, setting us critical, or whatever boom! These suits won't mean anything if—”

  “Enough.” Messenger said. “ We just have to find him before he manages anything stupid. Let's just keep looking.”

  An Engineer spoke up, “others are taking other directions out of-”

  “Good, good, let's move,” Messenger interrupted.

  After twenty or so metres down the hall, the other Engineers split off to go check 'the cask room', whatever that was. It wasn't long after that yelling was heard ahead.

  Messenger and Lenth broke into a full run, navigating turns as the sounds of commotion directed. A pair of Engineers in Rubberman suits joined them from another hall, and they were soon at a large room.

  “The pool,” Messenger said. “He had to go to the cooling pool. Moron.”

  In the middle of the giant room sat a circular hole, about fifteen metres wide. In the hole, filled nearly to the top, water almost seemed to glow a mesmerizing, pale blue. From this far, Lenth could not see the bottom.

  Around the room were eight Engineers in Rubberman suits, all keeping their distance from Six.

  Six stood at the edge of the pool, still red with Mike's dried blood. He was smiling nervously, sweating, and trembling. “Rubbermen! Rubbermen everywhere! Is this where you come from? And here I am without a knife!”

  Messenger stepped closer, but still several metres away from Six and the pool. “Six. You're in…you're in so much danger right now. We have to get you out of here.”

  Six howled a sharp, delirious laugh. “Out of here? And into where? Into a 'Unit', with nice cozy tethers? Getting shocked by one of you whenever I work too slow, get up too slow, or drop my food? Every day wondering if I'll be able to feel my hands when I go to sleep? And then?”

  This was not how Lenth remembered living in his Unit. Shocks? Yes, but rarely. Feel his hands? What was going on in Six's Unit?

  “I'm not going with you freaks!” Six looked down into the pool. It went down for over twenty metres, although the refraction in the water made it difficult to judge. Near the bottom sat a circle of shelves that obscured what might be under them. On the shelves stood grey cylinders, which looked to be about a metre in height.

  “Think I can make it through? The bottom's got to go somewhere...”

  “There's no way out the bottom, it's the cooling pool! It's just a big tank of water!” Messenger pleaded, “and those are spent fuel rods down there! That water will kill you, if you haven't already taken in enough radiation to do it! If you touch one of those rods, you'll be dead before you can float to the top again!”

  Six looked down into the pool, and then around to all the Engineer Rubbermen watching him. He clenched his fists, pushed out a hard breath before taking in as much air as he could and jumping in. The water washed off some of the blood, and the blue hue began to turn a gentle violet.

  Every Engineer recoiled in horror.

  Having never seen more than a cup of water concentrated in one place, Six found that he did not know anything about swimming, much less diving twenty metres. He tried, pushing down in futile grasps at the water, trying to yank himself down through it, clawing at the wall to gain traction. Needing air, instinct forced him back up. A frustrated yelp came with a gasp before he tried again.

  Lenth dropped his spear, ran along the side of the pool to where Six had jumped in, and held out a gloved hand. “Grab on, Six!”

  “Never!”

  “Grab on! You're getting nowhere like that, idiot!”

  “Rubber can go—get away—not again—kill you—” his repeated attempts to dive were only getting weaker and more pathetic. Lenth grabbed at his arm when he got a chance, but Six yanked free with a scream. “Don't touch me! You can't touch me! I'm not—don't!”

  Lenth yanked his mask up above his face. “Six. It's me! You need to get out of there.”

  “Lenth!” Messenger hollered, “Get that mask back on! Now!”

  Lenth held his hand out, waiting for Six to look at him. Six floundered to stay afloat, finally submitting that the needed to grab the edge of the pool at least.

  Despite the opportunity, Lenth did not take advantage to grab at Six's wrist. He just held out his hand. “Come on.”

  Six stared up at Lenth and all the Engineers stared at them both. The hum of the machines, the occasional ripple of water, the shifting or squeak of a rubber suit. And a silence.

  Finally, Six reached up and let Lenth help him out. He was dripping, less bloody, and shivering.

  “How do you feel?” Messenger asked. “Headache? Sick to your stomach?”

  “N...no...” Six said, not used to conversing with a Rubberman.

  Messenger nodded. “Might be a while before it sets in. Let's get you out of here.”

  Six reluctantly followed directions from the Engineers, despite being Rubbermen. He stayed well out of reach from them though, including Lenth, who had put his mask back on before collecting his spear again. Most of the Engineers were happy to give Six a wide berth.

  “Why?” Six mumbled as the loose procession headed down the halls. “Why any of this?”

  “This place keeps the lights on and stuff working,” Lenth offered, following behind Six.

  “Fine, whatever. Why the Units? Why Subjects? Why Citizens?”

  They continued on for a few moments more, before Lenth replied. “How else should it be?”

  Six replied immediately, nearly screaming. “I didn't need to be treated like that, in the Unit. I didn't need to think there was only a handful of people in existence. I didn't need to be forced to work every day on things when I had no idea what they were!”

  Lenth couldn't argue, and added meekly, “I didn't need my Brother to die, and disappear with no explanation.”

  “And now you're one of them,” Six said spitefully.

  “It's not...” It wasn't worth trying to reason it out to Six if he couldn't quite reason it out to himself. It was time to visit people. Karen. Gabe. Leena. His Brothers. Phil. Joints. How was Joints feeling? A bitter taste washed over Lenth, thinking that Joints might die soon, without knowing so much of what's out here. Slim had died in even more ignorance.

  Why.

  Why indeed.

  When they got to the decontamination room, about half of the Engineers came in with Lenth, Six and Messenger. The rest would have to wait. The inner door sealed behind them, and the outer door to the central round room remained shut.

  “Six,” Messenger said, “strip down. Even if they weren't so stained with blood, your clothes are garbage now. We'll have a fresh set when we get out the other side.”

  Six looked around with disgust at the Engineers standing around, all suited up with masks on.

  “Lenth,” Messenger continued, “you too. You had your mask off in there. You'll need to scrub down to the skin to be safest.”

  “What's going on?” Six seethed. “As you may have noticed, I just had a nice little wash-down.”

  Lenth threw his gloves and mask onto the floor. “You were in some bad, bad stuff, I think.”

  “What do you mean? What bad stuff?” Six was on the edge of yelling.

  “You've been shocked? As a Subject?” Messenger asked.

  “Ha! Yes, one or twice,” Six rasped with barbed tones, “maybe, now that I think really hard on it! Yeah, I might have been shocked!”

  Messenger tried to look Six sternly in the eye; a futile attempt with the mask on. “To vastly over-simplify things, what you swam in is linked to the source of all the shocks, all the lights, the power that makes the elevators move, that pumps the water and the air around. The human body isn't made for that kind of thing.”

  “I feel fine!”

  “So far. The onset of the radiation sickness is usually delayed. You could start feeling it in a few minutes more, or maybe a day...”

  “Radiation sickness? What is that?”

&
nbsp; “The cleaner you get, the better. Wash off any additional particles before they can infest your body.”

  By this time, Lenth had removed his Rubberman suit entirely. “I don't totally get it either, Six, but these guys work with this stuff all the time, I think they know how it goes.”

  “Obedient little Lenth!” Six wailed, backing into a corner. Still soaking wet from the coolant pool, he seemed to shrivel back, doing his best to hide in plain sight. He touched one of the spray nozzles on the wall. “Shower time? Get your clothes off, it'll be fine? Where's my cuff, Rubberman? Why aren't I cuffed, Rubberman? If I don't do what you say, do I get the sleepy-gas, Rubberman?”

  “Six, this is already uncomfortable,” Lenth said, trying to calm Six down. Lenth was already half way out of his clothes. “Let's get this over with, scrub down, and get out of here.”

  “All right, Tara, you may as well start it up,” Messenger called up to the ceiling.

  “Okay,” came the reply.

  Every nozzle in the walls and across the ceiling sputtered to life, spraying warm water. Most of the Engineers began rubbing themselves down in their suits. In the sound of the spraying, you could barely hear Six whimper. Lenth just let the spray his body from every direction, and watched the still-clothed Six cower in the corner. The pressure and warmth of the spray washed away much more of the red that the pool didn't clean. But not all.

  “Six. It's all right.”

  Messenger began walking towards Six, but Lenth put a hand out to stop him. “Messy. Give him space. He's terrified.”

  Messenger looked at Six, and looked at Lenth. “He's got to strip down,” Messenger said, backing away. He said something else, too quiet to be clearly understood through the mask, but Lenth guessed it was something about the nickname 'Messy'.

  Lenth turned his attention back to Six. “Look, I stripped down, and I'm fine. Gotta get the radiation off.”

  Engineers continued cleaning themselves and each other, often using the sprayer hoses from the walls to spray the nooks and crannies of their suits. Six just stood in the corner holding himself and glowering at everyone.