Rubberman's Cage Page 9

  “Gas them?” Karen asked. “I try to avoid that. But you're the Provider, whatever!”

  Lenth silently followed behind Gabe. There was a quiet hiss, but it ended shortly. Gabe led Lenth in the direction that he knew as 'work', but there were no stations like he was used to.

  Instead, there was a vast, vast area, much larger than the rest of Karen's domain combined. It was very bright, and very warm. The lights attached to the grating underfoot, shining down to the Subject's level, were different and large, with wide metal plates. Row after row of standing...'things' sat below. The tops were green and chaotic, held up by greyish, roughly-shaped...pipes? In the middle of each cluster of green, one big pipe, about forty centimetres wide, reached to the dark floor. At the top of the big pipe hung clusters of yellow roundish shapes.

  Gabe pointed at them, and spoke quietly. “These are trees. Papaya trees. The yellow things are the papayas. They're one of the things used to make our food. Without these, no food. No food, we die. Everyone.”

  “It's so much!” Lenth said, looking out across the vast collection of these...'trees', as Gabe called them.

  “This isn't the only room like this. They grow really slowly. We need more than this single room can make alone. There's also other rooms that grow other things that we need. The women here take care of these ones and collect the papayas.”

  Lenth was in awe. The air here smelled unlike anything he had smelled before. “Why didn't me and my Brothers do something like this?”

  “You maintained filters. They help keep the air clean. That's a whole other story. We can't waste anything, which is why I brought you here. See the dirt?”

  “Where?”

  “The floor. You could grab a handful of it and toss it around if you were so inclined. It's also deep. The trees are about as big under the surface as they are on top, and they need that dirt to live. And we have to keep the dirt reasonably fresh. We have to make new dirt by adding compost. New dirt, sort of.”

  “The trees turn 'dirt' into food?”

  “Yeah. That's a little simplified, but yeah.”

  Lenth nodded. “And we need to get them fresh dirt to eat. We feed them, they feed us.”

  “We do,” Gabe said. “The compost we add is made out of a lot of things. Our crap, for one.”

  “Ew.”

  “Parts of trees and other plants that we don't use for food. Plants that die. Everything that can die...” Gabe stopped talking. He lifted his mask and looked to Lenth sorrowfully.

  Lenth took off his own mask and knelt on the grating. He stared at the dirt and his eyes glazed over. “Slim...”

  Gabe sighed. “Not quite yet, but eventually.”

  Lenth curled forward with a gasp.

  “Oh, oh, no,” Gabe said. “If you're going to throw up, do it into your mask or something.”

  Lent held a hand out, and stared at the size of the orchard. So many trees, so much dirt. “No...I'm. I'm okay. I just...it's all of us, right?”

  Gabe helped Lenth to his feet. “We all help in this way after we die. And help those who come after us. It's how we all go on.”

  Lenth laid down, and curled up a little. “I...”

  “I know,” Gabe said. “That's how death works. It ends up being life again, but in a pretty roundabout way. Let's go, we can't stay here too long.”

  “Do the women know?” Lenth slowly got up. “Does Carin' know?”

  “Maybe, Karen used to be a Provider, and many Providers know, but it’s not really a level of knowledge that Rubbermen generally need.”

  By the time they got back to Karen's room, Gabe had put his helmet back on. He didn't pester Lenth to do the same, reconsidering enforcing the procedure in this matter against an ex-Provider. Karen was sitting in bed reading when they arrived. She stood up, stricken by the look on Lenth's face.

  He was comforted to see Karen, until a moment later he realized that eventually, even she would die, and be made into fresh dirt. His distant gaze reinforced itself as Gabe went to Karen's button panel.

  Karen put her hand on Lenth's arm. “Is everything all right?”

  Lenth forced a meagre smile and put his hand over hers. “I guess it has to be.”

  “It's me. Let me out,” Gabe said into the panel.

  “Okay.” came the response. The back door clicked, then pushed towards them by a few centimetres.

  “Thanks.” Gabe said. He walked by Lenth and Karen, opening the back door further. He looked back at them and muttered, “That's not good.”

  “What isn't?” asked Karen.

  “Nothing, forget it,” Gabe said. “Lenth, let's get going.”

  A moment passed and Lenth drew away from Karen, her fingers sliding off his arm slowly as he did so.

  “Nice seeing you again, Lenth,” Karen said softly.

  As Lenth and Gabe left, Gabe frowned slightly as he ensured the door sealed behind them.

  Gabe and Lenth didn't talk much on the way home. When Lenth went into his home, the door locked behind him. He thought that his new 'trusted a bit more' status would have won him more freedom. Maybe it was an oversight by Gabe. But right now, Lenth didn't care.

  He sat at the learning chair and found it difficult to get motivated enough to turn it on. He went to the shower instead.

  Under the warm water, he decided to get his mind off of the fates of the dead. His mind slipped back to Karen almost immediately. He wanted more of Karen. He wanted her to touch him again.

  Feelings he didn't understand or bother to analyse seeped into his head slowly, pervasively. He imagined what it would be like holding her, and to be held in return. Tender thoughts turned into something alien to him. Something that made his heart pound.

  He put his hands on the wall of the shower and pressed against it, as if trying to reach through the walls for her comfort. He hung his head and opened his eyes to see something else that wanted comfort.

  It had never stood like that before! Startled, he looked at it, then poked it softly. Well, that didn't hurt at all. He grabbed it.

  Woah, what? Hey, that's not normal!

  He reached up to press the button that would blast him with warm air to dry off, then hastily put his clothes on. His abhorrent appendage was still sticking out firmly! It made his clothing look ridiculous! This wasn't good!

  Walking carefully, he pressed the button by the door that would purportedly summon Gabe. It made a little buzz.

  What to do now? He couldn’t be standing there with this...thing protruding. He sat on one of the learning chairs and found he could position himself so that his malady wasn't so apparent. Every time his clothing rubbed against it, he was confused be the sensation.

  Thankfully, by the time Gabe showed up, the swelling had gone down to normal.

  “Hi Lenth.”

  “Uh, hi. It's better now, but I wonder if maybe I should go to the doctor.”

  Gabe leaned in, as if his brow was pulling down on him. “What's wrong? What happened?”

  Lenth indicated the general area of his groin with both hands. “It swelled up, and felt really weird.”

  Biting his lower lip, Gabe tried to restrain a laugh. “Oh. Okay. Well, that's good!”

  “Good? I don't think that's a good thing!”

  Gabe put his fist against his mouth to repress himself. “No, no, it means your old meds are out of your system. That was faster than I expected.”

  Lenth's eyes widened. “I was taking medication that kept me from swelling up? Why would I want to stop that kind of medication? What's going to swell up next? This is horrible!”

  “Calm down, calm down,” Gabe said, putting his hands on Lenth's shoulder. “It's only that part that swells up like that. And for good reasons. The meds prevented it to keep you out of trouble. About half the male Subjects are on that med.”

  “Will it happen again?”

  “Probably at least once a day, when you wake up.”

  “How can I prevent it?” Lenth asked, wide-eyed.

&
nbsp; “Lenth, Lenth, it's natural, and you'll get to like it.”

  “How would you know? Wait...does yours do that?”

  “Yup!”

  Lenth eyed Gabe carefully. “Can I see?”

  “No!” Gabe staggered back, guarding his groin area with his hands, as if Lenth could see through his clothes, or was liable to reach out and grab.

  “Huh? Why not?” Lenth asked.

  “Wow, some of you Subject types really have no concept of privacy, do you? It's not polite to... aw, I can't believe I'm explaining this to a full grown adult. That is a private area. You don't just go asking people randomly about them, and you don't go showing them to other people. Doctors can look for health reasons, but other than that, it's off limits.”

  Lenth absorbed for a second, then shrugged. “All right, so... why does it do that?”

  Gabe shook his head. “Okay, this, I don't have to explain. There's a lesson for that on the learning chair. Ugh. Give me a second to find it.” Gabe tinkered with the controls of the learning chair, searching through menus, and found the appropriate lesson. “Okay Lenth, have a seat, watch this, and if you have any other questions, ring the door button.”

  “Uh, all right.” Lenth got seated and Gabe let himself out.

  With a similar visual style as the exercise guides he used to watch, Lenth was presented with minimalistic figures of a male and a female, colour coded blue and red. As the calm, dispassionate voice explained, Lenth watched the figures engage in a strange activity. Then a close-up of the male part urinating white shapes that each looked like a ball with a wiggly bit out the back.

  This wiggly thing and its peers went on a journey to another circle, and one of the wiggly things went into the circle.

  “And thus, fertilization is accomplished.” the voice proclaimed. The view cut to the female standing there. The voice told of time passing, and the woman became larger around the midsection. Very large. This swelling issue was apparently much more of a problem for women, and they caught it from men! Now, something called a baby was in her.

  “And this concludes the basic educational lesson on fertilization and sexuality.”

  A menu popped up with several options, none of which Lenth could read very well. T...h...e...B...he managed to figure out “T'he burt-h-ee-nn-guh Pr-oh-kess”, “Kohntrasehpt-eye-on”, and a few others.

  All right, he needed Gabe. He pressed the door button, and it was not long before Gabe arrived.

  “So? What do you think?”

  “I...if I put my...into a woman's...she gets swollen and something called a baby grows in her? That sounds unpleasant and dangerous!”

  Gabe chuckled. “Uh, yeah, some of it is, but babies...they're young people! They come out and grow up to be...well, us!”

  Lenth could barely remember being a lot smaller, but small enough to fit in another person? “Well, I'm not going to be doing that!”

  With a smirk, Gabe fiddled with the controls more. “There, watch some of this. I'm gonna leave again. Just watch some of this, and see how you feel after.”

  Lenth peered at him with suspicion, but Gabe just smiled back as he left. “Oh, and don't feel bad if what you see makes you think of your buddy Karen! Ha, I wouldn't blame you at all.”

  Karen? But Karen's a woman, and she was nice. She was very nice! Lenth didn't want to think of her suffering as her body swelled and a human started living in her. Bracing himself for horror, Lenth put the visor helmet back on and played the new lesson.

  He saw a room with a bed and little else. A woman and a man were there. Not simplified iconic images, but real people. And they started touching each other, and pulling each other’s clothes off. A woman! Without clothes! Startling and fascinating! The front swollen parts seemed to be ...well, what...? And now...the man was suffering from the same swelling that Lenth had earlier!

  The two people were talking to each other in low tones, with sounds that implied pleasure and strangely serious facial expressions. What is he doing to her front bumps? She likes it at any rate. From the sounds of it, she likes it a whole lot!

  Lenth realized his swelling was returning. He shifted his clothes around a bit so that the waistband kept his swelling from protruding in such an undignified way.

  The man in the lesson seemed quite proud. What is he doing with it? What is she doing with it? That's not where the other video said it goes! He really likes it anyway!

  The duo went on and on, doing odd things to each other. Despite each activity being repetitive in their own ways, Lenth was entranced. He felt hot, his breathing was heavy, and that stupid swollen bit, well...stayed swollen.

  When it was over, Lenth just stared into the screen. It was so...wrong. But fascinating. He thought about making it start again, but no. He decided not to. Not right away. He needed to talk to Gabe. He went over to the door button and pressed it in a mental daze.

  “So?” Gabe asked when he arrived.

  Lenth didn't make eye contact, just rubbed his chin. He then pointed abruptly at the learning chair. “Those people...” he said.

  “Yes?” Gabe asked with a smirk, “What about them?”

  Still avoiding eye contact, Lenth slowly shook his head. “Those people were having fun at that, weren't they?”

  “Quite a lot of fun.”

  “I...wait a second,” Lenth muttered. “Can I do that? Like, with Carin'? Or some other woman?”

  “Wow, eager, are you?”

  “No, no, no,” Lenth went to sit down, waving his hands in the air. “No, I don't want to, that's a little too weird for me. I'm just trying to understand.”

  Gabe shrugged. “Well, yeah, you technically are capable of those things. But ideally, with a woman you love. And if you're not wanting to help create a baby, there's ways to prevent it, and of course she has to be consensual, and—”

  “No!” Lenth yelled, “I would never do that to Carin'! With the big swelling body thing? That's horrible!”

  Gabe sighed. This was going to take a while.

  Chapter Twelve

  Understand

  Lenth's journey into literacy was going well. In a matter of days, he could instantly recognize hundreds of words and figure out nearly any other. Silent letters, and the ones that made several different sounds were still infuriating, though.

  His access to lessons has been increased, and he was free to browse many lessons. Some he found interesting focused on farming and food production. It was still odd to think that his food was made of eight different things!

  Even odder to think that the clothes he was wearing right now came from a plant, which came from dirt, which came from—among many other things—dead people. That thought led Lenth into an odd mix of sorrow, revulsion, and harmony.

  He also learned more of the things that Providers did. Managing the water, air and heat, repairing things that broke, and making requests to someone called “the Messenger”.

  On a few rare occasions, the Messenger would bring things. Things that none of the Unit Subjects made. Things like learning chair screens and clothing. Even Rubberman suits, as well as the Providers' containment suits.

  The Messenger has been different people over the years. There wasn't a lot of information about them, but they were highly, highly respected.

  Every now and then, Lenth browsed through the... the other lessons, with the men and women doing things. They were getting less shocking and more interesting all the time. They still caused that swelling, though. And somehow thoughts of Karen intruded as well.

  Despite this, studies in literacy continued to inch along.

  Gabe came to Lenth, who was half way through a set of bench presses in the gym. “Do you want to see one of your Brothers?” Gabe asked in a subdued tone.

  “What?” Lenth said, sitting up. “Really? Wait...one?”

  Gabe grimaced. “It's the old one. Joints. He's had a stroke.”

  “What? What did he stroke, and why does it—”

  “It's a medical problem. The Manager
saw something was going wrong, gassed everyone, and called for help.”

  Lenth stood with alarm. “What? What's he...how is he?”

  “He's stable,” Gabe said, putting his hand on Lenth's shoulder. “He should be okay, but he's sleeping right now, up in the clinic. With one of the doctors.”

  “Let's go. I want to see him,” Lenth said with resolve.

  “You should know that you won't be able to speak with him. He has to stay unconscious—asleep—until he's returned.”

  Lenth sighed, already walking. “And the others?”

  “The other three Brothers will be kept asleep also.”

  “You mean two other,” Lenth said. “Blue and Spots.”

  “Lenth...” Gabe said as he pressed the elevator button.

  Lenth lowered his head. “I've been replaced. I forgot that. Huh. So it's already happened.”

  Nothing was said until the elevator arrived. A Provider came out and passed them by as they went in.

  “I mean, it makes sense. Look how fast Slim was replaced.” They stared at the doors as they went up and said nothing until they got to the clinic. They came to Joints' bed. A cuff was on Joints' arm, and a nearby screen kept a record of his various statistics.

  Lenth took his hand. “Hey old man,” he said. Now with understanding of what came after 'old', the term offended Lenth a little. Old led to death, and compost. Nothing of Joints' personality, smile, or voice would remain. Just a final duty for the food supply and memories.

  “He can't hear y—”

  “I know!” Lenth scowled at Gabe. “I know. I... so, what, does he get replaced?”

  “No. His recovery is going well. He might have to take a much easier exercise routine for a while, and he'll be on some other medications, but as long as he can function in the Unit, he'll go back. Besides, your Unit has had enough upheaval lately.”

  Lenth stared at Joints' face. “Why did this happen to him?”

  “Age. Maybe triggered by stress, maybe.”

  “Did...did I cause this? By leaving?” Lenth leaned over to call down the hall to the doctor. “Hey! Did I cause this?”