Rubberman's Cage

by Joseph Picard

  Finally the water stopped. A few of the Engineers hopped up and down, or shook off excess water. The sounds of the trickling drainage below became the quiet, but dominant ambiance.

  “I didn't get naked,” Six said flatly, with quiet, defiant pride.

  Messenger pushed back his hood and pulled off his mask. His face was grim and resigned. “Honestly... I don't think it'd make much difference overall.” The outer door cracked open, and some of the Engineers walked out towards the hall where the suits were stored.

  “What do you mean, it won't make a difference?” Lenth asked.

  Messenger looked at Six. “He swam with the spent fuel rods. They're no good for making power anymore, but they've got more than enough to kill. He's dead. His body just hasn't processed it yet.”

  “I feel fine!” Six stood up straight. “I feel fine!”

  “And you,” Messenger turned to Lenth, “how long were you sitting there with your mask off? I'm not sure how bad it might be for you.”

  Lenth echoed Six's statement in a whisper. “I...feel fine...”

  Messenger looked at them both and sighed. “All these years, nothing quite like that has ever happened. Let's clear the chamber, others want through.”

  Lenth picked up his clothes, and Messenger helped carry his Rubberman suit. With the decontamination chamber clear, Messenger closed the door. An Engineer came with towels and fresh clothes for Lenth and Six.

  “Thank you,” Lenth said. It was only now that he realized that three Engineers standing around were here in case Six got violent.

  Six took his bundle and hastily changed, not spending much time to dry off before putting the clothes on. As such, they didn't go on so easily, and looked to be ill-fitting, clinging in uncomfortable ways.

  “Six, back when you were in your Unit...” Messenger said quietly, “your Rubberman...what kinds of things did he do?”

  The tone of Messenger's voice made the hair on the back of Lenth's neck stand up. Six seemed mildly irritated. “The usual, you know.”

  “For argument's sake, pretend I don't know.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Flee

  Lenth was told to go make himself comfortable. Grab a bite to eat, find a place to get some sleep, whatever. Messenger took Six elsewhere, with a couple of Engineer escorts for safety.

  What were they going to do to Six? Likely nothing that he doesn't deserve. How many people had he killed, or just injured? How can someone do those things?

  Despite being offered a bed when requested, Lenth realized almost immediately upon putting his head down that sleep wasn't about to happen. Maybe this was a chance to go visiting people—except that he'd have to use the central elevator. That would strand Messenger, and it wasn't as if he knew how to use it.

  Not knowing where exactly Messenger went, Lenth headed over to Tara's computer-filled office space. There were also a few more Engineers in there now.

  “Hi. Len...Length, was it?” Tara greeted.

  “Lenth, yeah. Hey, does all this stuff keep track of everything that...does stuff?”

  Tara chuckled. “Electrical stuff, a lot of it, yeah.”

  “Does it zap Subjects?”

  Tara's smile faded. “It doesn't control the zaps, but it does supply the power to do it.”

  “Right,” Lenth said. “Rubbermen...I mean Managers control it. Does this thing remember?”

  Tara gave a sad smile and tapped a bunch of keys on a nearby keyboard. “It logs, ah...'remembers' overall usage. To monitor need. What was your Unit number?”

  “I have no idea. My Manager's name is Fill, though, it that helps.”

  “Yeah, Phil, Phil...okay, yeah, here's your Unit's power consumption over the last year. A little below typical for a Unit.”

  Lenth stared at the mess of numbers on the screen, and the colourful graph above it. “And...how about Six's Unit?” Lenth didn't know the Manager's name, or the Unit number, but Six's breakout was notorious, and Tara was able to find it easily enough.

  The numbers didn't tell Lenth much, but the graph did.

  “Woah.” Tara pressed a few keys to examine more detail. “This isn't some power bleed somewhere. He just shocked them a lot. I mean...a lot. Oh my...”

  “How much is a lot?” Lenth asked.

  “Looks like...looks like he almost always shocked them all at once. In a twenty-four hour span, like...looks like maybe fifty or more times. And this stopped right when that Manager was killed. The new one has been more reasonable.”

  Lenth backed away from the computer slowly. “We have to tell Messenger! And Contact! Fifty times a day?”

  Tara nodded. “Yes, Contact should be told. That would be Messenger's job to tell him. I mean, that Manager is dead, but the fact that it happened at all...”

  “I'll go find Messenger,” Lenth said.

  “He's probably in a storage space with Six, once you're in the residential wing, keep to your left.”

  Lenth had only begun wandering the left section of the residential wing, when Messenger came along.

  “Messenger! We found out from Tara's computer that Six's Manager shocked him a lot! I mean a ton!”

  Messenger seemed unmoved, and put a hand on Lenth's shoulder. “I know. Six told me. His Manager did a lot more than that, too.”

  Lenth's eyes widened. “What? Like...like what?”

  “Quite often, he would incapacitate them. Gas, often, and when they were helpless he'd go to their floor and...and do things to them.” Messenger was pale, and staring into the floor.

  “What kinds of things?”

  Messenger swallowed hard. “I certainly can't blame Six for killing him when he got the chance.”

  They stood there in the hall for a moment before Lenth took a guess. “Stuff like the Citizens used to do to each other?”

  Messenger looked into Lenth's eyes. “Yeah. Yeah, something like that.”

  “So what happens to Six now?” Lenth asked.

  “Well, I can forgive him killing his Manager, but the others...Six is...I highly doubt that he could be corrected. Even a risk as part of a Unit. I don't know. I just don't know what to do with him.”

  “Ask Actual?”

  Messenger nodded. “Yes. Yes, that makes sense. The ridiculous thing of it is, it's not as big of a dilemma as I've let myself think. His radiation poisoning will kill him, and I don't think it will be all that long. A month at most? I don't know. Either way, the decision of what to do with him has been made for us.”

  Lenth cleared his throat. “And me? How long do I have?”

  Messenger sighed. “Sorry, I forgot about your exposure. It wasn't full-body, and not for nearly as long. And you certainly didn't dunk your head in the cooling pool. On the other hand…”

  “On the other hand, it's still my head, and those things are kind of important.”

  Messenger sighed again. “Yes. But if you're lucky, you'll recover completely. Maybe some time with some bad headaches? Or a fever?” Messenger put his hand on Lenth's forehead. “Well, not right now anyway, but like I said, it can take a while to show effects.”

  “How about the clinic in the Provider area?”

  “They know less about radiation poisoning than the doctor here...or even anyone who's worked in the reactor area.”

  “Well then,” Lenth said faintly, “I guess I'll just have to wait and see.”

  “Let's go to the control room. I want to check in with Tara before we head out.”

  “Back so soon?” Tara asked when Lenth and Messenger walked in.

  “We're going to head to the elevator pretty quick here. I need to talk to Actual,” Messenger said, “about what he thinks we should do with Six.”

  “What's his condition?” Tara asked.

  “He says he feels fine. At least so far, but he was flailing around in the coolant pool, no suit. The longer it takes to manifest, the longer his death is going to take. It's not going to be nice.”

  “I feel fine right now, too,” Lenth
said.

  “And you probably are fine,” Messenger replied hastily.

  Lenth grimaced. “You're awfully quick to assume he's going to die, and I'm fine.”

  “There used to be a tool for reading radioactivity in a person,” Tara said. “It broke long before I started here. It sure would be handy right about now.”

  “Lenth's fine,” Messenger said. “We can't run around waiting for him to drop or something.”

  “Thanks,” Lenth mumbled.

  Messenger grunted. “I didn't mean it like...Ugh. I need to talk to Actual. Come on.”

  The pair went to the central round room when three Engineers came out from the residential wing. They were wide-eyed and jittery. “Did he come this way?” one asked.

  Messenger cocked his head. “Did who come this way?”

  “No, no, no...” Lenth groaned. “Is anyone hurt?”

  “A couple of people, but they'll be fine, I think.”

  The hum and groan of the great central elevator was heard from the other end of the entrance hall. Messenger broke into a sprint, with Lenth following close behind with the three Engineers. They arrived at the elevator shaft far too late. Messenger opened the outer door to see the elevator shaft. Leaning in, he looked up and saw the elevator growing smaller by the second. “That's MY elevator, you murderous waste of air!”

  Messenger turned to the others. “Lenth. Climb. I'll catch up, I have to get the power cut off from the elevator.” He started talking hastily to the Engineers as they rushed off, leaving Lenth facing the elevator shaft.

  Dropping his spear to free both hands, He found a miniscule ledge to slide along and reach the ladder that ran the height of the shaft. A couple of metres below was the definite, absolute bottom. It was staggeringly plain compared to the view up. Up was breathtaking. The elevator was already far enough up that the distance looked a little bit like forever. He clutched the ladder anyway and started heading up. He hurried, feeling stupid for it, since the elevator was already so far up, and going faster than he could climb. Pace it out. Just like the exercise machine. It's going to take a while.

  The quiet was broken only by his own sounds for what felt like a long time. That elevator was still a long way off. Hopefully Messenger had managed to get it stopped by now. It was hard to tell if it was still moving from this distance. No...he was getting closer. Probably. The monotony of the climb began to overtake the focus of why he was climbing, and was becoming almost as bad as the strain on his muscles.

  Grab, pull, other hand, grab, pull, step, step, step, up, up, up.

  “Lenth!” came Messenger's yell from below. When Lenth looked down, he was a little startled at how far he'd come.

  “You stopped it?” Lenth yelled back.

  “Yeah! Keep going!”

  Lenth continued. Back to grab, pull, grab, pull, step, step, step. The fatigue had passed beyond feeling. This was a lot longer than his exercise had ever been.

  Despite this, he found that he was a bit faster than Messenger. He had no desire to get to the elevator before Messenger. After all, even if Six wasn't in there, he'd need Messenger to operate the elevator's controls.

  “Hey Messy! We...we are going to take the elevator when we get to it, right? We're not climbing all the way to the Provider level, are we?”

  A sharp single laugh echoed up the shaft. “Oh yeah! Sure, for fun, let's race to Actual with just the ladder, why don't we?”

  All right, then. Sarcasm and climbing it was, until the elevator. And then maybe a nice little lie-down. Lenth knew that the climbing had to be getting tiring for Messenger too. Lenth worried for Messenger, but a quick check made him think that Messenger had been doing a better job of pacing himself all along. He probably had several climbs in the shaft over the years. Experience counts.

  He finally got up to the bottom of the elevator. The rungs that went across the bottom of the elevator to the hatch in the middle looked like torture in his tired state, and a fine way to slip to his death. The bottom hatch was probably closed from the interior anyway.

  Lenth kept going up on the shaft's ladder, up beside the elevator, and onto the top of it. Once there, he collapsed on top and spread out on his back. He stared up the elevator shaft. Six was nowhere to be seen, but the Provider level was. Lenth had climbed well over half way to it. Six could have easily made it to the Provider's level by now if he'd started climbing right after the power was cut...

  ...but the hatch on top of the elevator was still closed.

  Had they left the ladder in there? Without it, Lenth didn't see how Six could have gotten out the top. Six could be in there.

  Then what? A yelling match? A fight to the death?

  Lenth, still on his back, struck the top of the elevator with his fist twice. “Six! You in there? It's me, Lenth!” It dawned on him that Six might have a spear or something. Lenth had to give up his spear to climb; Six didn't.

  Then it dawned on him that maybe Six had collapsed. That maybe his radiation poisoning had asserted itself.

  “Anything?” Messenger said as he pulled himself onto the elevator.

  Lenth shook his head. “Haven't heard anything.”

  Messenger crawled over to the hatch and opened it, looking in. “Gone.” He looked up. “Well, I can guess where. Get in, Lenth, we can rest while the elevator's moving.” Messenger climbed backwards into the hatch, and climbed down the ladder which had never been taken back out. He ambled over to the control panel.

  Lenth was soon behind, and sat on the floor, back against a wall. “How long until we're there?”

  Messenger was already making a call. “Yeah, we made it. Nope, probably went to Provider level. Light us up. Yeah. Thanks.” He put the headset away, and turned to Lenth. “We'll have main power any second, and then, like...less than five minutes.” 'Any second' arrived with a mechanical clunk and a momentary soft hum. “Here we go.”

  The elevator heaved to life and Messenger slumped against the control panel. “When we find Six, I say we just lock him in a little room while everyone has a nap.”

  “Yay!” Lenth weakly cheered.

  Messenger tried to use the communication set again and gave up. “Contact isn't in his office.” With a sigh that threatened to be a yawn, Messenger looked over to the control panel, then to Lenth. “Might be a good idea to show you how to use this, some time.”

  “What? What does that mean, I—”

  “We're here.” The elevator halted, and Messenger walked over to the door.

  “That wasn't five minutes,” Lenth bemoaned as pulled himself to his feet.

  Messenger worked on opening the door. It was tougher than usual, and he had to yank on it harder, producing deep metal clangs. “Jerk didn't close the outer door behind himself properly. I should have gotten out and checked it before ...eh, whatever.” It made a more satisfactory clang and opened to the Provider entrance hallway. A couple of Providers were waiting.

  “He's here somewhere!” one said.

  “We figured,” Messenger said, “Got anything more helpful? He hasn't gone to the clinic? He's dying and he knows it. Might be aiming to get fixed up.”

  “Dying? How?” the Provider asked.

  “It's complicated. Contact has people searching?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “But he's proven he's good at hiding. All right, fine, we continue the hard way, I guess.”

  “I want to check on some people,” Lenth said. “Just to check on them as I look, you know?”

  Messenger nodded. “It's not a bad idea, search-wise. About as good as any idea, really.”

  “Who's closer from here, my Unit, or Carin's?” Lenth asked.

  “Not really my department,” Messenger said.

  Lenth turned to a Provider. “Do you know? Units managed by Fill and Carin'?”

  The Provider shrugged. “There's like... three hundred Units.”

  Lenth looked down the hallway to see if memory stirred up directions. “Ugh. How about Gabe? Where's he?”


  “Let's just head to Contact's office,” Messenger said. “We might get lucky. If nothing else, I can use his computer to look up Phil and Karen.”

  Lenth agreed, and the two of them headed towards one of the smaller elevators. As they passed an intersection, Lenth got his bearings. “Oh! I know how to get to Carin's from here.” He took a couple of steps in the right direction, urging Messenger to follow, but Messenger hesitated.

  “Maybe I should be heading for Contact's office still.”

  “Well, if you want,” Lenth said. “I can make it on my own; I'm sure of it.”

  Messenger shook his head slightly. “I don't know, Lenth. I don't like the idea of you running around the tight little spaces while Six is running around...probably in the same tight little spaces.”

  Lenth looked at the floor, and thought about their time at the coolant pool. About when Six accepted his help, even if very reluctantly. “I don't think he'd try to kill me,” Lenth said. “I'm a Subject like him. It's Rubbermen that he has problems with.”

  “Are you sure he doesn't see you as one now?”

  “Well, I don't look like one right now,” Lenth said, holding out his arms. “Besides, it's a pretty slim chance that I'll run into him, anyway.”

  Messenger shook his head again. “Fine. But be careful anyway.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Roots

  When she was distant, the idea of Karen was fairly abstract. Someone he liked, and was concerned for. As he got closer to her Unit, he began to remember her with a smoother, warmer clarity. Her voice, the way she moved, her curves.

  When he arrived in her rooms, she wasn't there, likely out on the grating, managing her Subjects. The adrenaline of anticipation twisted into paranoia. Yes, she was probably safe, out over the main Unit, but there was a chance that Six had come. Had killed her. The odds were in Carin's favour. If Six was in the mood to kill some random Manager, he had … what was it? Three hundred to choose from?

  Still, Paranoia is paranoia. He went to the door in her control room which went to the main Unit. He opened it, but didn't step out. He knew he wasn't supposed to be seen by the Subjects.