Rubberman's Cage

by Joseph Picard

  Lenth was unsure when it happened exactly, since it was so gradual and subtle, but he realized he could now see a little. A glint of light along the pipe, mainly. Then he spotted a little bit of sheen reflecting off his thumbnail. It was still so dark. But there was hope.

  The further he went, the more he could see the pipe, and himself. At last, he saw something different. The pipe ran alongside others nearby, all going together to several other pipes from many directions. Where they all met, they bent together upwards. Where they all led up to was a sizable rectangular hole.

  As Lenth got closer to the hole, he could feel the combined heat from all the pipes radiating out to him. Light was coming down from the hole, and when he got close enough, there was enough room to stand comfortably next to the bundle of pipes. Some of the pipes made sounds as water rushed through them.

  Together, the pipe bundle was wider than a person, and metal fittings on them seemed to be situated randomly. Many of them had numbers and other symbols on them. Lenth knew about numbers from the exercise and work displays, but these other symbols were unknown to him. They looked like forgotten numbers or something.

  One was like a zero, but with a piece missing from the right side. Another looked like a backwards three, but boxy, instead of rounded. Another looked kind of like a backwards seven, with an extra stick sticking out from the middle. Many didn't look familiar at all, but they all seemed to belong with each other.

  Up the hole, the pipe bundle fed into a large object that was attached to a higher portion of the wall. Above it was another ceiling, but across from it was an opening where the light was coming from.

  Planning for a climb, Lenth put his hand on a pipe. Hot! It was one making sounds steadily. He touched one that was silent. It was merely 'very warm'. Touching and listening to all of the pipes, Lenth found the ones that were coolest, and provided for good handholds.

  Careful not to accidentally touch a hot pipe, especially with any bare skin, he made his way up high enough that he could get his hands on the ledge of the opening. He abandoned the pipes, and pulled his torso up onto the ledge, so he could rest a little, and still be able to drop quickly if something unpleasant came.

  Looking forward, there stood a set of metal doors within arm's reach. The upper parts of the doors had a series of wide slats that were letting light in from the other side. Lenth pulled himself up, and looked through the slats. He paused for a bit to let his eyes adjust to the brightness.

  There was a room much like the one he and his Brothers slept in, but different somehow. Not as bright? Well, the light was bright enough. The walls and floor were discoloured. Dirty?

  He gently opened the metal doors and walked into the room.

  Against opposite walls sat two beds with large, soft looking lumps on them. Two more beds stood upright against a wall, by an open doorway. Lenth had never considered the notion of a bed that wasn't attached to the floor. But he'd also never seen beds like the other ones with big lumps...that...move?

  The lumps were breathing! They were alive!

  Lenth panicked, and staggered back, hitting the metal door to the piping with a clatter.

  Suddenly the lumps on the beds were moving even more! One of them sat up, groaning. There was a head on top of the lump now! And on top of the head was...something? Black, like its eyebrows; it was hairy like Fill!

  Lenth squealed. “Ahh! Are you Providers?”

  The other lump sat up, and it had a head now too. He had something on top of his head too, matching his light brown eyebrows. Hair! They had long hair! Not as Long as Phil's; maybe two centimetres long. “Are we what?”

  “I know you!” Lenth said. “You're ceiling guy!”

  Ceiling Guy's head wiggled, and an arm came out of the lump. “I...oh, you're one of those guys from that Unit. Uh...what are you doing here? I never found any females or anything. Which is a shame.”

  The other head wriggled more, and an entire human came out of the lumps. He stood beside his bed, looking a little threatened. “Wait a second, who is this guy? You know him?”

  Lenth pointed at the discarded lump pile on the bed and laughed nervously. “It's just like big clothes you were sleeping in! I...why?”

  Ceiling Guy got his other arm loose and patted his lap through the lumpy pile. “It's called a sleeping bag. We found them a couple days ago. They're comfortable, but ya get too hot. And yes, Eyes, I know this guy. Well, I've seen him anyway.”

  'Eyes' looked back and forth between Lenth and ceiling guy, pointing. Lenth understood how he got his name. 'Eyes' had very different eyes than himself or ceiling guy. Narrower. They sort of looked half-closed. His skin was a little bit darker as well.

  “Well what do you want?” Eyes asked with frustration.

  “I'm looking for my Brother, Slim. I have to wake him up.”

  Eyes and Ceiling guy exchanged grim glances. Ceiling Guy spoke in a cautious tone. “Pal, when you say you need to wake him up...are you sure he's not dead?”

  “Yes! Dead! Rubberman used that word. I have to wake Slim up from dead.”

  “You can't do that, moron,” said Eyes bluntly. “Dead is dead. It's the last thing you do. I doubt you could even find the body anyway. Just go back where you came from before you get us all caught by a Provider or something.”

  “What's a Provider?”

  Eyes sighed with more than a little exasperation. “They get supplies to this area. Yellow suits, not very social.”

  “Oh, oh! Yeah, Rubberman mentioned the Providers.”

  “You were taking with a Rubberman? We're thinking about the same thing, right? Guys in the black rubber suit? And the mask?”

  “Yeah? But I found out his name is Fill.”

  “Ooh right, I'll be right back!” Eyes jogged to the next room, and shortly came back wearing a Rubberman's mask. “Ooga booga! I'm a Rubberman! Zap! Zap!”

  “Moron,” Ceiling Guy said.

  Lenth backed away from Eyes, as stupid as he looked without the rest of the Rubberman suit. “What are you doing with Fill's mask?”

  Eyes slid the mask up and perched it on top of his head. “Relax. It's not as if there's only one of these. And it's not like there's only one 'Rubberman'. Me and Six used to be Rubbermen.”

  “We were not,” Ceiling Guy said sternly.

  “You're no fun.”

  Lenth was still disconcerted by the mask, but was gradually starting to overcome it. “So...Ceiling Guy's name is Six? Why? And where did you actually get the mask?”

  'Six' finished getting out of his sleeping bag and yanked off a shoe to raise a foot and wiggle six toes. “Six. And the mask, we...found in one of the rooms back there. There's a whole suit back there, and a bunch of other junk.”

  Lenth wandered slowly towards the doorway out of curiosity. Eyes made a motion to intercept, but Six waved him off silently before Lenth even noticed. “Hey, let me show you around,” Six said.

  Lenth smiled in gratitude, then looked at the door frame itself. He ran a finger along its side and peered at the top edge. “Is it always open?”

  Six made his way past Lenth, and pointed at a darkened control panel in the second room. “Yeah. I think that used to open and close it, but if it did, it doesn't work now.”

  This second room looked a lot like the room Lenth had confronted Rubberman Phil in. It even had another door on the other side, but it was closed. “No way to open that, then, I suppose.”

  Eyes gave a mirthless little chuckle. “I think that's where the Providers come from. If that ever opens, I'm jumping back down into the dark where you sprouted up from. There's other places to hide. This spot just has the most room.”

  Lenth stared at the closed door. “You guys seem to fear the Providers. Fill seemed to not be super comfortable with them either. What do you know about them? Could they have Slim?”

  “If your Rubberman doesn't have him, it's a safe bet. There's no one else to have him,” Eyes said.

  “That's pretty short sighted,” L
enth said. “The last time I woke from sleep, I didn't know you or the Providers existed. I'm betting there's more. I get the idea that you haven't been in this room forever. Where did you come from?”

  Six bellowed, “Yes, yes we do fear the Providers, all right?” Six paused to regain a little composure, and no one spoke until Six continued. “That's enough, isn't it? They didn't take too kindly to Eyes or me, so now we're here, and your Slim isn't the first person to have died. If your Rubberman is still in a good mood, you might be better off to just go home and hope for forgiveness.”

  Silence. Lenth shook his head a little.

  “Yeah,” Six said, “I didn't think so.”

  “So now what?” Eyes asked, leading the way back to the first room again. “We have enough room here, and access to enough food,” Eyes' hospitality was reluctant, but in earnest, “but I'm getting the idea you didn't leave your place to just go live in another hole.”

  Lenth just pointed up.

  “What do you hope to find?” Six mumbled. “Your buddy is dead, and dead is dead.”

  “Answers, I guess. Why he's dead. Well, Fill told me how, sort of. He didn't know the details. I need more answers.”

  “What you need are the right questions,” Eyes said.

  “Why seems like a good question,” Lenth said softly.

  “Why what?” Six asked, still a little snippy.

  Lenth nodded slowly, staring into nothingness. “Yup. Why what.”

  “You wanna know why we're here?” Eyes asked with a thin smile.

  Six gave an exasperated grunt. “Oh, here we go!”

  Lenth looked at Six with a curious expression. Six just threw his hands up in the air. “You may as well let Eyes spill his theory!”

  “Hey, it's the real deal!” Eyes hunkered down, his hands wiggling for emphasis. “We're all the same things! You and I, and the Rubbermen, and the Providers? We're the young ones! Every now and then, one of our kind just disappear, right? When we get old enough, we become Rubbermen! Or Providers; I'm not sure how it works, but it's something like that. When the Rubbermen and Providers get older, I don't know. Maybe they die when they're too old.”

  “Really?” Lenth asked.

  “Doubt it!” Six chirped in with sarcastic enthusiasm.

  Lenth tilted his head. “One of my Brothers, Joints, he's pretty old, about the same as my Rubberman Fill...”

  “Well, it's obvious!” Eyes said. “Your Rubberman must be a pretty new one, and your Brother must be just about to become a Rubberman! One day your other Brothers will wake up, and he'll be gone, and some new guy is there!”

  Lenth tried to rationalize that and compare it to Slim's death. But Slim was young. “Any chance younger people turn into Rubbermen?”

  Eyes knew what he was talking about and slouched down. “If he's dead, no. I don't think so. Dead is dead.”

  “Are you sure? How much do you know about being dead, really?”

  “No, no, no...” Eyes looked a little confused, and the two of them took a moment to ponder. Neither of them took particular note that Six had slipped away into the other room, but now he was back.

  Walking in a floppy, exaggerated manner, Six marched into the room wearing the full Rubberman outfit. “Graaaahhhh! I just became a Rubberman! I knew I was feeling old! I'm gonna shock you both if you don't go to bed right now!”

  “Moron!” Eyes snapped at him.

  Six tossed back the hood and threw the mask onto the floor. “I've told you before, it's just clothes!” He ripped off a glove so he could pinch the end of Eyes' sleeve. “Clothes! Rubbermen just have different clothes! They're just like us!”

  Eyes pulled away from Six. “What do you know? Then what's a female, huh? Is that just clothes?”

  “I don't know!” Six yelled. “If I ever find a female, I'll ask him to take his clothes off, and we'll see what happens! I wish I had more time on that learning thing I found before Providers showed up.”

  “All right, settle down!” Lenth pleaded, picking up the mask. He looked at it and fiddled with the fittings a little. “So where can I go up more?”

  Six paced a little, calming down. “The noise box is probably the best bet.”

  Eyes nodded.

  “Great; where's that? How do I get there?” Lenth asked.

  Six pointed back to the closet Lenth had come from. “You head down there, go left and follow the thickest pipe until it divides into two. Don't follow either one, but just keep going forward until you hit your head on a wall, and feel around for a cable, and—”

  “Six, just shut up and take him there already.”

  Six shot Eyes a nasty glance, then looked at the exit, then at Lenth, then at Eyes once more. “Yeah. Okay.” He shed the rest of the Rubberman suit and dumped it all on the floor. “Come on then, Lenth. Put on the suit. You might be able to blend in if you get spotted by Rubbermen or Providers.”

  Six led the way to the hole down, carefully finding the cooler pipes to slide on. Before following Six, Lenth turned to Eyes. “You not coming?” Lenth asked as he hurriedly put the suit on. Putting the mask on for a moment, he found the view very dark, so he just let the mask hang off his neck.

  Eyes shook his head with a smile. “I'll go back to that whole 'sleep' thing, thank you.”

  Soon, Lenth was in the darkness again, following the sounds of Six leading the way.

  “Okay, follow the sound of my voice.”

  “Right. And thank you, by the way.”

  “No problem. I didn't have anything else to do.”

  “But should we be talking so much? I mean, what if someone hears us that we don't want noticing us? And what if we don't notice them noticing us?”

  “I've never heard anyone else when in these dark places, I don't think anyone out there can hear in here, either. But yeah, I'll warn you when we get closer to where strangers might be. In short, if you see light, that light is probably there for someone else.”

  “And that could mean people like my Brothers, Rubbermen, or Providers.”

  Six stopped crawling for a moment to think. “I...I don't know.”

  “What happened with your Rubberman?” Lenth asked quietly.

  Six huffed a little. “His floor, our ceiling, just sort of snapped one day. I woke up and one of my Brothers was screaming like crazy.” Six paused, and Lenth could only imagine the look on his face while his voice drifted away. “The edge of the grating...and what could any of us do?” Six said, pausing again. “There was our Rubberman, lying on top, as stunned as the rest of us. He panicked and struggled to get up, but that just pushed the grating down harder. My Brother...he was almost two pieces. Eyes went crazy, it was ...it was crazy. Eyes came just short of killing the Rubberman, but he wasn't looking good when we got out. One Brother dead, another scared out of his mind, curled up in the corner...Eyes and I got out. We found out we could go above...well, like where I peeked on your and your Brothers.”

  “Yeah,” Lenth said, a bit stunned, “in two pieces...my...when I left, it was a lot less violent. He let me go.”

  “...just let you?”

  “Well, once I was up on his floor, we fought a little, but in the end, yeah. He was as surprised as I was that his ceiling had more 'up' in it.”

  “Huh.” Six could be heard to turn and continue forward. “Kinda sad that he couldn't imagine there was more to life.”

  Lenth followed without comment. Until he spotted Six that first time, he hadn't thought about it either. But now the borders were...well, the borders were still there, but he now saw them for what they were. “How far does it all go? How many Rubbermen and groups of Brothers are there?”

  “That I know of? Four Rubbermen, each looking after four 'Brothers'.”

  “Does that count your Rubberman, Six?”

  “Ha. Yeah, I don't know if mine got better, or died and was replaced, but there's a Rubberman where I lived until me and Eyes got out. And four new Brothers. All strangers to me.”

  “We're...we're all
replaceable...even the Rubbermen...?” Lenth asked. He fidgeted with the Rubberman mask hanging from his neck. Had this suit belonged to Six's Rubberman? It felt like Six was holding back details, but Lenth didn't feel like prodding.

  “Replaceable?” Six mused. “Maybe. All thanks to our generous Providers, I guess. And just because I only know of four Rubbermen and Brother sets doesn't mean anything. I haven't been as eager as you to explore. I have a cozy corner, access to the things I need, and I have no plans on messing that up.”

  Lenth nodded. “I guess I can understand that.”

  It wasn't long before they crept into the first signs of light. Lenth was able to make out Six's face as Six turned back to cover his mouth. Lenth nodded and covered his mouth to signal understanding. It was quiet time.

  They came to a grouping of pipes that were much larger than those that Lenth had been seeing so far. Each as wide as his thigh, and none of them were warm in the slightest.

  There was sound, though. A soft, yet somehow large hiss, which grew louder the closer they got to the nexus of them. The low ceiling opened up a little, enough that they could sit up on their knees.

  All the pipes led up to a huge, three-metre wide metal box looming overhead...It was the source of the sound. Six got closer to Lenth so he could communicate without yelling.

  “If you climb up to the height of the box, you're gonna see a floor to one side, a bit of a room, and a door. Skip all of that. Providers come out of there sometimes. I almost got caught here. Wearing that Rubberman suit might help you out if you meet a Provider, but don't count on it. Keep going up. I don't know if further up is any safer, or free of Providers, but...”

  Lenth thought maybe that talking to the Providers was exactly what he should be doing, but between Six and Phil's uneasiness about the Providers, it was reasonable not to go running to the first Provider he saw.

  “Hey Six. If Eyes is right, do you think there's something else above the Providers? Something they become when they get old?”

  Six smirked and shrugged. “If you find out, you come back and let us know, huh?” He patted Lenth's shoulder and headed back down into the darkness, leaving Lenth to tackle the noisy box.