Chapter Six
Beyond the Noisy Box
Trying to keep out of view from the door as much as possible, Lenth climbed to the back of the box. All the pipes attached to it made for excellent handholds.
The walls around him and over by the door were strange. They were just flat light grey. They didn't look rusty...maybe not even metal at all.
With his body against the back of the box, he could feel the small but fervent vibrations from machinery inside. Getting to the top, he rested his torso across the top, between a few of the larger pipes, his legs dangling off the back.
He rested his head on the box and nearly didn't hear the door open. He slid back a little so that his head was less visible from the door and watched. A man in a yellow suit, presumably a Provider, came in. His clothes were baggier and covered him head to toe, but it was still a lot more like Lenth's outfit than the bulky Rubberman outfit.
He had a lot of hair on his head, too. It was the same colour as Six's hair, he had but more of it. Where Six's stood tall, sticking out of his head a centimetre or two, this man's hair was at least five centimetres long, and had fallen to the side a little.
He came in and closed the door. It was thinner than the kinds of doors that Lenth was used to, and the handle was more compact, but it looked like it operated in much the same way.
Lenth assumed that the Providers would look at least as intimidating as a Rubberman. Phil was afraid of these guys? Then again, just because Phil wears a big suit, that didn't make him any stronger.
The Provider carried a box of ...”Wait a second,” Lenth thought, “those are the things I worked on! This is where they get used?”
Many of the pipes going into the box were about the same width. The Provider walked right up to the front of the big box.
The sound of the big box started to get quieter. Then he heard a sudden, hard screeching sound that seemed like it would never end. It left silence in its wake.
A moment later, he heard a much lighter metal sound. Then, scrape, plunk. Scrape, plunk. Four times, which was as many cylinder things that the Provider brought with him.
Then tap, scrape, click! Tap, scrape, click! Tap, scrape, click! Tap, scrape, click! When all that was done, the smaller metal sound happened again, and the box's big sounds started up again.
Peeking over the edge again, Lenth saw the Provider leaving with the box again. Eventually would these things be sent back to Phil to get them cleaned inside? Lenth felt a sense of understanding despite still not knowing what the objects were actually accomplishing.
Lenth stared down at the big, noisy, metal box he was sitting on. So this is why he did the work he did? To 'feed' the box? He leaned forward more to look at the front. There was an array of letters, but to Lenth, they were just meaningless scribbles.
This was too interesting to ignore. He slid forward more and reached to open the metal door that the Provider had opened. As he’d figured, the things were in there, snuggled tightly, plugged in and held down with little straps of metal. He could see they connected to pipes on both ends, on one side also attached to some other big chunks of machinery—those were the noisy chunks.
The box was pumping in...air? Doing something to it with the cylinders, then passing it back out. Why? What were the Providers doing with the air?
Putting more weight forward over the edge of the box than was comfortable, Lenth got a grip on one of the cylinders and pulled on it. Trying to wrangle it out caused the seal to open just a little, causing a furious hiss to escape, blowing a small but mighty stream of air against Lenth's hand. Startled, he jammed the cylinder back into place. Hopefully the noise wouldn't bring that Provider back.
Lenth looked to the door and looked up. Taking Six's advice, he started heading up.
When he had climbed far enough up the pipes, he found himself in a very similar space, with an identical door in the same direction. The pipes split into several directions, all of them going through walls or ceiling. This appeared to be the end of the line, as none of the pipes had any further space to crawl alongside.
Did Six know that this was all that was above the big noisy box? It didn't matter, the choice was now between doors. One definitely has a Provider behind it, but the other? Who knows. Lenth was starting to see Six's lack of enthusiasm for going up more. Up to what?
Focus. Have a snack. He moved from the pipes, and sat on the floor in front of the door. He pulled Phil's care package out from his sleeve and took a single food disk from it. He chewed idly while staring at the door.
He stared for quite a while, imagining opening it, rallying the courage. Realising he had already eaten three disks when he had only meant to eat one, he hurriedly put the rest away.
He stood and made two bold steps to the door. And stopped. The metal piece to operate the door was some kind of handle, but it was different than what he was used to. Trying to remain quiet, he grabbed it and pulled.
Nothing, it wouldn't open. Maybe it was broken, or maybe a Provider needed to press a button somewhere else.
It sounded kind of broken. He wiggled it a little, and it made rattly sounds. He moved to the opposite edge of the door and grabbed the handle, ready to yank it. When he did, the handle gave way, turning enough that Lenth lost his grip and fell backwards, landing in the corner.
The handle...could turn! He got back up, and stood in front of it, turning it carefully. It clicked, and the door became loose.
Lenth took half a step back and took a deep breath. His hands felt unsteady. Breathe. He put the ominous mask on, and fitted the hood around it. Well, he should look the part now. He let his eyes adjust. On top of being dark, his field of vision was restricted notably.
He opened the door slowly, just enough to get himself through, and closed it behind him.
He found himself in a hallway made of the light grey, non-rusty, non-metal material. He could go left or right. Both directions looked like they ended up splitting in two directions again. There was also another door right in front of him. With the threat of being caught increasing, the thrill of having choices was becoming less and less... comfortable.
He couldn't hear anything from the door, so he quietly went in, feeling proud to operate another of those turning door handle things quite deftly.
This room was vast, many times the size of the room he and his Brothers slept in, and twice as high. The amount of emptiness was a presence in and of itself. He found it even more unsettling than the long hallway.
Shelf after shelf of boxes sat with various numbers, and those strange numbers, which aren't numbers. A group of symbols he didn't understand, and the number 1000. That was the biggest number he had ever seen, but he had seen '100' often enough while exercising, and more or less understood what an extra '0' must mean.
He walked over to a box far from the large aisle down the middle of the room. He pulled one of the boxes a little closer and fidgeted with the lid until it popped off. Inside were more food disks than he had ever seen before. 1000, apparently. A box like this probably could feed him and his Brothers for more than ...well, it was too hard to guess! Dozens of meals! This was never anything he had needed to worry about. It was always there, thanks to Phil and the Providers.
The realization gave Lenth pause, a moment of genuine gratitude before he remembered his mission—finding Slim.
Lenth popped another food disk from his sleeve-stash into his mouth.
He looked around for anyone else, then restocked his care package before closing the box again and putting it back in place. He looked at the symbols on the side of the bin. This combination of symbols would seem to mean 'food disks'. That was a lot of scribbles to represent something so basic. Numbers were easy; these new symbols were crazy. There were ten types of symbols for numbers. These others? Seemed to have no rules. There's got to be at least twenty of these things!
Feeling safe for the moment, Lenth wandered down the aisle in the middle of the room. There were so many boxes of food. And they wer
e all labelled. Wait...that one has a different bunch of symbols on it. He pulled the lid off and found large cylindrical containers with more symbols on them, the number “1”, and a single symbol after. A singular symbol seemed important, so he made special note of it. “L”. Something something, “1L”.
If the food box had a number for how many were in it, but no “L”. This container has one of something. And a bent line. The top of the container had some kind of latch on it, but fiddle as he may, he couldn't get anything to open. Maybe it was better to not open. For all he knew, it was full of sleepy-gas. Then again, he was wearing a Rubberman mask. Hmm.
It didn't seem important to mess with, so he put the container away and continued down the aisle. He got to the far end and was ready to inspect another door when it opened from the other side.
Two surprised, yellow-suited Providers stared at Lenth, aghast.
Chapter Seven
Fair
“What are you doing here?” the first Provider asked with a bewildered look on his face.
“What Unit are you from? Why aren't you there?” The other demanded.
“Uh...Unit...four?” Lenth said. It didn't seem to offend the Providers.
“Unit four? What's wrong in Unit four?”
What is wrong in Unit four? Why wouldn't he have just used the talking machine to call the Provi...ah. Yes. “I can't seem to talk to anyone up here. I think something's broken in the...machine.”
The second Provider relaxed and rolled his eyes, turning to the other Provider. “Great. Ugh. If we're lucky, it won't be a short in the wiring. Last time that happened, there were half a dozen of us crawling around in the dark, testing things for days. Are things otherwise okay in Unit four? Why did you need to call us?”
Why? Why? “The food supply was less than usual, I wanted to find out if you knew, and, uh... why. It's not an urgent thing right now, but...”
The second Provider turned to the other. “I'm going to see Rick in a little bit. I'll get him on this if you deal with the electrical.”
The first Provider sighed. “Yep, I guess I'll get at that after I check off today's outgoing.”
“I guess you can go,” The second Provider told Lenth.
“Uh, I don't know where...”
“Heh, yeah, I forget how this floor can be for those who don't come here regularly.” The Provider pointed down the hall behind him. “Just head that way, make the left at the second last intersection. Just forward from there, and the elevators will be on your right. Can't miss ‘em.”
Lenth nodded. “Thanks.” Now what the heck is an elevator? Lenth went in the direction he was pointed.
Behind him, he heard one of them comment, “—must be ex-Subject. Cute how they usually don't take their masks off except in their own spaces. It's like they're hardwired from Unit protocol or something. I saw a Subject-turned-Unit Manager take his mask off once. It was awkward for everyone.”
Providers called a Rubberman a 'Unit Manager'? Okay.
He wasn't familiar with the word 'intersection' either, but he made a good guess. He found where he thought he needed to go and turned back to the two Providers, who were still chatting. Lenth pointed down the hall.
One of the Providers waved his hand. “Yeah! Down there!”
Lenth waved back in thanks and headed down the hall. He passed a few Providers as he went. None of them took a whole lot of notice of him, other than an odd glance. Walking at a normal pace seemed to give him a look of confidence. A look of knowing what the heck he was doing, and that he had the right to be here.
He almost passed by the flat metal doors of the elevators when a helpful Provider reached over and hit the 'down' button for him. “There ya go. Down, I assume? I know those gloves can be a pain.” The Provider didn't question as to why, if they were such a pain, he didn't simply take them off to press buttons. It was assumed to be normal that a 'Unit Manager' just kept them on. That was handy.
The Providers seemed all right with talking to a Rubberman, but they didn't seem eager to see one out of his suit. There were lines drawn. Social norms.
The metal door slid open on its own. Insanity. Come to think of it, the door to Fill's room could do the same thing. Stepping in, he found a rather small room. It had railings around the walls and a panel of buttons near the door. Before he knew it, the doors closed behind him.
All right, now what?
He took a closer look at the panel of buttons. One was lit up, and had the number '2' on it after a letter that looked like a circle with a broken top. There was also a '1' and a '3' button with the same symbol attached. Most of the buttons had a number and a symbol to go with them.
He pressed the one that was lit up.
He waited.
Nothing happened.
He pressed a random one, and it lit up! It was a “1” with a symbol that looked like a stick with a couple of smaller sticks attached to one side, sticking out.
He was about to press another, when he felt the room do something. The world seemed to be invisibly pushing down on him. Terrified, he staggered back from the buttons and leaned against the rear wall, gripping the railing.
Okay. It didn't feel quite so strange now, but the room was making a noise. It was a smooth noise, but Lenth still found it unsettling. He was considering pressing more buttons, but what would that do? Make it shake more? Stop?
It was then that he noticed the trail of lights above the door. The looked a lot like the buttons. Only one was lit up, and every few moments, the next one in the row would light up.
Okay, what did it all mean? He figured that something would happen when the light above the door was lit on the number he had pressed, something would happen.
The upper light of “1”, with “stick with two sticks sticking out of it” lit up. The same unsettling feeling washed over him, but this time the force was pushing him up a little.
The sound ended at the same time as the feeling dissipated. A short moment passed and the door slid open again.
The outside has changed since I got into the little room! Lenth was amazed for a moment before he realized that the little room had moved him to another place.
Which was also pretty amazing. Rooms that move. Crazy.
This new room had vaulted, dingy walls. A lot like Phil's room, but much larger. Near the middle sat some kind of thin but wide platform. It had thick round disks attached with little metal arms under each corner, holding the platform up off the floor. The disks were a bit bigger than a fist, and black, except in their centres where they attached to the little arms.
A handle stuck up from one side of the platform. The handle had a rounded triangular piece of metal pipe at the top to grab, with a smaller red piece where one's fingers might rest.
A small, random scattering of black...something...powder? Sat beside it. Lenth was eager for a closer look, but carefully glanced around.
The room had a closed doorway ahead that was held shut with some kind of large latch. Not far from this door stood a ladder. Lenth had never seen one before, but its purpose was obvious enough.
Well, he had been aiming for 'up', so the ladder won out. At the top, through a wide opening, sat a small room with vaulted walls. It was bare, other than a door with a heavy lever for a handle.
Lenth yanked on it and the door gave way reluctantly. He stepped through and the heavy door eased itself back into place.
He found himself in a bedroom: a bed, a small door, and a big door. The small door went nowhere. It was storage for clothes.
In the bottom of the little storage space sat several items that had unusual images and some symbols on the front. Most were only a little bigger than his hand. He picked one up and found that it opened easily. One side remained stuck together, but the rest of it split into hundreds of super-thin pieces of something like cloth, but thinner. The pieces were an off-white colour and had hundreds and hundreds of symbols on them.
He stared at the groupings of symbols on a random page for a wh
ile. Looking at how they were arranged in rows, the rows stacked one on top of another, sometimes with a gap here or there.
It started to seem that these symbols were more important than just labelling things such as food bins. For now, this wad of symbols would have to remain a mystery. He put it all back the way he found it and turned his attention to the other door. It opened to a room almost exactly like the room he had his chat with Phil in. Yup, he was in a Rubberman's domain.
Thankfully, the resident Rubberman wasn't at home, but the open door on the other side of the little room suggested pretty plainly that he wasn't far. What now? The curiosity drove him to the doorway to have a listen. Footsteps, far off. And talking. Strange voices, higher pitched than any he'd heard before.
Lenth looked across the iron grating floor and looked for movement. It was much like above the grating of his home. Even though up here was far more open than below, there were still several walls and mechanical constructs obscuring his view.
Lenth held still so that his Rubberman suit wouldn't make any noise. Small sounds of metal on metal came from somewhere on the right. The high voices came from straight ahead. The metal was probably the Rubberman adjusting a machine, so forward he went.
As he got closer, he could make out the voices more. It sounded like they were straining, and if the layout here was anything like his home, the workout room was ahead. They were talking about the same pointless things that Lenth and his Brothers usually did.
When he got close enough to see them working out, they saw him as well. Lenth was indistinguishable from their own Rubberman, it seemed. Just like his Brothers did, these people got a little quieter when Rubberman was around. Which, for the most part, was kind of silly. It was rare that they had discussed anything worth zapping someone over.
But look at these men! They were different! They had even more hair than even Eyes and Six. As he watched them lying on the exercise benches, raising the weights from the floor, he saw how their bodies seemed to be a little smaller overall. Especially in the middle. It made their hips look a bit bigger in comparison. And the lumpy bit that's supposed to be between a person's legs? It was almost as if there were no bits there at all.
Rubberman's Cage Page 5
