<Unknown Research Facility Micro Inc.>
Minutes passed in the silent room Mal and Franklin looked at one another. Mal started towards the Nanite revitalizing machine( The machine in-charge of rebuilding the cells inside of the body) when the ventilator whirred into motion. Seconds later the heart monitor started with a soft beep. Mal turned and looked at Franklin.
“And now we wait”
<Lenzing Family home. 4:55 a.m. Mikals training day>
The alarm in Abigail’s room blared like a propane siren but she was already awake. She had been looking forward to this day since Micro Inc. had called her two days ago to inform she had gotten the job. She had barely slept. It had been a dream of hers since she had heard about the company in middle school and now that she was twenty-one she was allowed to work there. She had applied when she turned 18 but they had informed her due to the nature of the job, only people over the age of twenty-one could handle the consorts. So she had waited. And now that she was, “This is going to be a great day.” Abigail told herself.
She was told that she had to be there by 6:45 to fill out paper work and then she would be on the floor and working the counter. She crossed out of the single room in her studio apartment and. undressed. She pulled the ponytail out of her hair and let down past her shoulders. She stepped into the shower with water set to luke warm to help wake her up.
<Micro Inc. Store 7:30 a.m.>
Ariel was waiting by the door staring into the rain. She was fidgeting with her shirt when the new girl rapped on the door startling her. She looked and then sighed “Thank god.”
Ariel crossed the store and unlocked the door. “You’re late.”
The new girl was wearing Uggs, with blue jeans and a black tee that were both stuck to her skin with the rain. “I was told 6:45, it’s 6:45”. She responded.
“No, It’s 7:30. You should’ve been her an hour ago and you’re soaked”
“I’m so sorry! I had to walk to work. Buses weren’t running and my car wouldn’t start.” The new girl said.
“Well, you’ll dry off as the day goes on. Hope the tiny doesn’t mind too much. I’m Ariel by the way”
“A Tiny?”
<Abigail>
“Yeah, you’re going to be stress testing a new consort today. It’s nothing much, you just put them someplace on you and go about your day. They have to be under a majority of your weight for at least two hours. but other than that as long as you don’t kill them or permanently injure them you should be good to go.”
“Wait, since you’re the one who should be training me, shouldn’t you do it?” I ask with hesitation.
“I have a yeast infection. Protocol says that we can’t test them if we have any infections or anything.”
I was over the moon. My first day on the job and I get paid to torture a consort this was going to be the best day ever. I grinned with excitement.
“Don’t get too excited. Some legalities before we grab them out of the elevator, do you have any infections, a cold, athlete’s foot?”
“No, I had a medical yesterday, it was clean,” I respond.
“Good, we usually have a form, but in order to get the 8hrs in we have to get started, and the store opens at 8:30, and customers can’t know. So, you kinda put me in a pinch. But, we’ll deal.” Ariel went and grabbed a clipboard.
“How tall are you?” She asked without looking up.
“Uhh, 5’4”” I replied. She scribbled on the clipboard.
“Weight?”
“190lbs”
“Good, he’s durable. So we need a heavy person to test him and I do not qualify.” She chuckled.
“Shoe size?”
“Why is that important?” I asked.
“Force calculation, on the consort. If you’re heavy and have small feet, puts a lot of pressure on them.” Ariel glared.
“Uh,” I looked at the bottom of my soaked ugg to see a worn 10, “10,” I said and dropped my foot with a squelch.
“No running on him okay?” Ariel said.
“Got it, boss… wait, it’s a, him?” I asked and followed her behind the glass counter that held the display cases for the consorts.
She turned to me, “Is that going to be a problem?”
“No, I’m just surprised. That’s all.”
“Yeah, studies showed most people are more comfortable if Micro Inc. employees were ladies so most of the stores have female employees that working the days. The evenings are usually a guy and a gal and the overnights are usually up to the store. We aren’t open overnight so you don’t need to worry about that. And as for consorts we have any age from 18 to 45. Once a consort reaches that age we usually retire them from the entertainment industry due to the physical demand.” She walked over to a fuse box and started to flip switches. The lights in the store came on one by one and various machines began humming to life.
Ariel grabbed a tablet out of a drawer and handed it to me. “This is a consort controller. It controls everything from the power mode of the core in the suit to the climate controls. I will keep ahold of it most of the day because you haven’t been trained on it and I wouldn’t want you killing them. But if we get busy, you’ll have to monitor It.” she set the tablet on the table and tapped the screen. It lit up with a hologram of the consort.
“Mikal Nelson? Isn’t that the guy who was convicted of killing li…” I asked.
“And you will treat him just as I told you. If you go brutal on him and he doesn’t make it to the 8hr mark, that’s criminal negligence on your part. We aren’t here to punish. He has to make through this day and if he doesn’t that falls on you. This guy is built like a tank so he can take a lot, but you’re 20 times his size so you’ll do a lot of damage. Now, stop interrupting me. he starts in 10 minutes.”
“Okay. What do I need to know?”
“this is the overlay of the consort and the suit.” She pointed to the two human shapes on the screen. “Suit on the left, consort on the right. When a bone bruises it appear green, small fractures is yellow, and rough breaks are red. When the consort reaches 90% red the critical alarm goes off, 90% usually means vertebrae are still intact and the skull is bruising but everything else is broken. On the suit clear means suit integrity is 100 percent. Green means power core has started using resources to keep you off the consort, yellow is applying pressure. When parts of the suit start lighting up red it means the structural integrity of that part has failed and the consort is getting your full weight in that area. They should be able to take two hours of that before the consort has body parts breaking. If a system on the suit fails, it pops up here. If the consort goes critical it will flash on this. 45 seconds of flashing it sounds and alarm. 2 minutes of the alarm, and the Care team gets called. If they get called, you’re fired. You understand all of that?”
“Yeah, seems pretty simple. Don’t ignore the tablet, got it.”
“Yeah. Now, lets go meet our newest consort.”
<Mikal>
I kept checking the time on the interface. The ride up only took fifteen minutes but I had been in the elevator for almost twenty. I 8 was coming up and the more I had to wait the more nervous I was. The thought of aborting had passed through my head but then they would just reschedule for tomorrow or the next day. I figured it was just technical difficulties, or maybe they had forgot. The suit had linked up with the tablet it had registered me that but nobody had opened the lift. I was about to radio back down when the door dinged and I saw a girl with dark brown hair looking down at me. She had glasses and a soft face her hair was matted to her shoulders and her shirt was sticking to her skin. I stepped out onto the landing in front of the elevator and the mike clicked on. The first thing I registered was the rain. This should be interesting. I thought to myself. I saw a skinnier girl standing next to her holding the consort tablet. “There’s two of you today?” I asked with mild amusement. First rule broken, damn.
“Speak when spoken to, not before, consort,” the skinny one said without looking up from the tablet.
“Understood madam,” I said.
“That’s an extra two hours on your test time. Unless you crit out that is.” She set the tablet down on the counter and turned to me. “I won’t be doing your test today. Abigail is. She isn’t in the system yet, but we’ll work on that. Today is her first day so I’ll be controlling the tablet unless we get slammed. So, be nice, don’t squirm. I’ve entered her force calculations into the tablet, but as you know, you have to do a two-hour standard testing without the suits assistance we would usually have introductions and briefing and the such, but 10 hrs from now is five and I want to be done with this by six so no-nonsense. Understand?”
“Yes ma’am” I nodded.
“Have you decided where you’re going to keep him? For the two hours?”
Abigail hesitated. She obviously hadn’t thought about it. “Uh, I don’t know.” She finally answered.
“Take off a boot. You’re going to regret wearing those.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Ariel, my feet are soa…” Abigail started.
“It’s that or your underwear. Which, from the looks of it, are also soaked. So choose, if we put him in your shoe, you have to walk around for minimum two hours. We have deliveries and to set up the shop, so you’ll get the steps in but choose now, or I’m shoving him down the back of your pants myself. I don’t have time for this shit.” Ariel stated.
“Fine, come with me little one.” Abigail grabbed me off the ledge. “Where’s the bathroom.”
“There is a public restroom around the corner. On your left.” Ariel said as she turned her attention to the computer that was booting up.
She walked fast enough to make me queasy and before I knew it we were in the stall. “Sorry, I look and probably smell like wet dog. It’s pissing cats and dogs outside. So I got soaked.” I opened my mouth to speak when the bathroom door slammed open.
“Hurry it up, Abigail,” Ariel shouted at the stall door.
Abigail set me down on the toilet paper holder and undid the clasps on her jeans and then rolled them down over her ass to reveal a pair of black boxers. She picked me up and shoved me under her right butt cheek and let the elastic snap me into darkness.
The air was instantly colder I could feel the suit pulling in the wetness from her underwear. I groaned as she rolled her jeans up over me, which squeezed the wetness against her cheeks and me. She zipped them up and I started the mental countdown.
<Abigail>
It was weird just shoving him in there. But I had to run. Ariel was already irritated that I was late and things weren’t getting better. She was standing in the bathroom doorway glaring at me. “You can’t be so nice to him. This is routine for us. At some point in the day you’re going to be squashing the hell out of him and he’ll be pleading with you to get off, and you’ll either will and then that will just prologue the suffering or you’ll push through. I can see it on your face. Don’t feel empathy for them. This was his choice.”
“But can’t I ease him into it?”
“No. This day is to prove that they can take this emotionally, physically, and mentally. And some point of the day you’re going to be putting him through something unspeakable and you can’t feel bad because if you don’t do it somebody on the street will and they will take it to far with someone who isn’t prepared. Now come on!” she grabbed my arm and for somebody who was shorter and skinnier than I was she was strong.
We walked out to the front counter and she pointed me towards a plastic bench in the corner that was heightened for sitting at the computer.
She shoved me toward the bench, “Sit,” I plopped down in rush and felt a crunch underneath me. There was an army of tiny models in standing on the counter, “These are the consorts who are either requested for the day or scheduled. If they have somebody request them then we put them in the case behind you. If they aren’t they’re over here. The ones who have a request always have a green halo on the suit. They’ll be sure to let you know if you mess it up. Most of them are pretty verbal, aren’t you?”
A ‘Yes ma’am’ sounded in unison as Ariel picked them up and sorted them into the containers. “The containers are soundproof, you can pull them out if a customer wants to converse one you can pull the case out and open the slot on the top. No matter what don’t take them out of the container and don’t let go of the container. Security arrives at 9 they’re here until close, but they watch the doors to make sure nobody tries to run off with one. They check I.D.’s at the door and keep it until the customer leaves. Collateral is required or you don’t enter the store. No exceptions. Most of the consorts watch movies or play games while they’re in the display case. They’re allowed to do so until selected or if they’re training.”
“So the one under me?” I asked.
“Is suffering, starring at your ass or the inside of your underwear. They have to be attentive the entire time, unless they pass out. They try to sleep, the monitor lets you know and you do something to wake them, and if you don’t the system gives them a small jolt. And it’s consort. You either call them by name or consort. Nothing else. Treat them with respect, even though they are small, their still human beings.” I shifted uncomfortably and sat on my right hand to take some of the pressure off of my hip. “Uh-uh,” Ariel pulled my arm out from under my hip, I felt another crunch, “None of that. You sit on him full weight, for two hours. Or you walk on him. Unless the monitor says he is suffocating, which he isn’t you don’t budge. Shifting is fine but as long as you return to normal. These tests are crucial. If you give him special treatment now and we rate him higher because he was under you a total of two hours throughout the day but he actually can’t stand that. He dies in the field. No nice treatment from now on. If I see it again, you’re taking him out and putting him in your boot, got it?”
“Yes. Sorry. Why is he so still?”
“Don’t apologize to me, you’d be the one who gets him killed. Imagine a car has been let down on top of you, but instead of a normal car, this one conforms to you. He can move a bit, but if they try to push you off or hold you off in any way, it lengthens the session. His movements are subtle, and like most things that small your butt doesn’t feel those fine movements. Imagine if it hands the nerve endings to feel it, you would never sit again.” Ariel smiled slightly. “The store opens at 8:30 five minutes before we open the door. After 8 it automatically unlocks. But before then as a security measure, you do it manually.”
I had tucked my hand under me as a nervous tick when Ariel came over to put the consorts into the case. “What did I tell you? Go take him out, bring him back up here.”
“Wha.?” I pulled my hand out and cringed at the crunch, “I’ll do better. I promise.”
“I only give warnings once, do it or I tie your hands together in your lap.” She looked at me coldly, her blue ice glowing like polar ice.
“Fine.”
<Mikal>
Abigail had knocked the wind out of me 3 different times. I was doing the breathing exercises and she was at the threshold of weight to cause pain but the sudden drops she kept doing, left me with a broken nose and bruised ribs. So far this was more annoying that anything. I was cursing to myself when she shifted and stood. I felt her walking and was super glad I hadn’t had time for breakfast this morning.
The light blinded me as she pulled me out of her boxers and I tried to asked her what the hell she was doing but both the outside and the inside mic were muted. I pointed to my ears and shook my head. Ariel was strict. Super glad I didn’t get her today I thought to myself.
We walled back up front and Ariel unmuted the outside mic. “Take your dominant shoe off.” “Fuck me,” I muttered to myself.
Abigail didn’t have a comeback as she struggled with the squelching boot with me in her hands. “Just drop him okay. You’re really testing my patience, it’s not even 9. We still have deliveries and cleaning, and you need to learn the computer system.” I fell from her hip and tried to curve but landed on my legs. I landed on my feet and my ankle gave out with a crunch. Abigail got the boot off and I could smell the wet sock and must inside the boot. This wasn’t going to be pleasant.
Ariel grabbed the boot out of her hands and picked me up. she looked at my ankle, “You, won’t be needing that for awhile, try to enjoy it in there,” She smelled the boot and made a face, “I’ve smelled worse, you won’t puke, but it won’t be pleasant.” She dropped me in the boot and gave it a firm shake so I fell flat into the boot. The inside of the boot smelled like wet dog. The fur that once lined the inside was stomped flat into the insole. the leg of the boot had clumps missing and guessing from the sag in the middle of the boot, I could say this pair had definitely seen better days. Ariel set the boot on the ground and motioned for Abigail to put it back on. I saw her face with a look of sympathy on it and then a purple worn sock blocked the top of the boot before blacking out the light completely.
Abigail’s heel landed directly on the head of the suit. the ball of her foot was on my legs. She had her foot on the ground but wasn’t putting weight on me. I heard Ariel ask her to follow her and Abigail hesitated. “You either walk on him normally, or you do jumping jacks for 45 minutes. Now, for fucks sakes, follow me.”
Abigail lifted the foot I was in off the ground and I slid back slightly. Her weight crushed into my chest and my head snapped to the side to try and keep out of the way. Who knew she was flat-footed.
Her heel slammed into my the side of head. I heard a sharp crack and noticed that the power core was 65%. Normal for an hour worth of being sat on, but. The next step she took the head of the suit cracked open …
<Abigail>
I could feel cracks in the suit as I walked on it. Because I had small feet Mikal had an inch of wiggle room but his head was pinned by my pace under my heel and every time I stepped down something in the suit snapped a little more. I was worried about him. I had walked back to the delivery door and the top of the basement doors at least twice lifting boxes of amenities for the models no consorts. I was carrying boxes and making a stack by the top of the door. Knowing that if I went down stairs what that’d be like for him.
Ariel stopped at the top of the stairway and looked at me. “Seriously.?”
“What? I know what stairs are like on the feet.”
“Have it your way. You’re going to carry these boxes one by one down to the bottom of the stairs. I’ll bring them to the top of the stairs but I’m not carrying anymore down. You go until all these boxes are unloaded. Come on, there’s like 50 of them.” I grabbed the first box off the top of the stack and started down the steps. Each step resounded in loud crunches emanating from my boot. I tried to ease up on it and lost my footing. I jumped and instinctively landed on the foot Mikal was in. a sickening crunch filled the boot and I froze with all of my weight on him. “See, that’s what happens when you try to protect him. Now move, he’s fine.”
“You sure?” I asked. the tablet was still sitting on the sales counter.
“Yes, now move your butt. You’re suffocating him by just standing there.” Ariel insisted.
“Okay, okay, I’m going”
<Consort Onboard Computer>
=Reboot. Initiated. Consort. Check.
+Fifteen fractures. Two rough breaks.
-Connecting to the tablet.
…
…….
=Interface malfunction.
-Activating damage core mode.
…
…..
=Interface malfunction.
=Heavy Impact pattern detected. Suit integrity 45% +coordinating resources to vital areas: head and chest protection areas. _*# Waking C@n$0r!.
<Mikal>
I wasn’t sure what was. The 80’000 volts to the chest or her weight slamming into me, but I knew why I was awake. A pliable consort was a dead consort. The suit had held her off of me for as long as it could from what I could tell, it had been doing so for about 35 minutes. “Come on Abigail, 25 more boxes. And we have customers waiting.” From the feel of it, she was taking the stairs two at a time. This set of steps seems 18 long and I was only counting 9 down and nine up.
Her foot slams into me with every step. 5 down 4 up. I count the steps. Her heel is still directly on my head and my legs are being pulverized by the step I.
I can’t feel anything below, the hip but I watch and cringe as each step fractures a bone. I try to pass out again but the suit has stuck me with enough adrenaline the only way I fall asleep is if my heart fails. And considering the only thing, it is still protecting is my ribs and head that isn’t happening.
She stumbles with a box on the 18th trip down and the suit integrity drops from 40% to 28%. The next step fractures my pelvis and I don’t recognize the scream that comes out of my throat. The suit flashes that it has administered the highest dosage of pain meds it can, which explains why everything has gone numb.
I try the controls to try and move out of the way when I feel water drip down onto me. I try to think where it might be coming from then I remember that her boots are still soaked on the inside. She’s pounding the water out of the matted material under me and since the air inlets for the suit on the back and sides.
The suit warns me of infrared healing as it tries to repair itself and my shattered pelvis, I watch my internal temp rise and even though I am numb I know what is coming.
One of the jets built into the internal cooling system sprays me with the water out of her boot. It tastes like mold, rot, sweat, leather, and rain. I splutter, trying to cough out the lung-full I got when it hits me with another round. I swallow it and instantly regret it.
I try to my head out from under her heel just as she swivels and turns my face up. She pounds up the step, vertigo and nausea from foul water and her foot slamming into me triggers the face plate to open as she lifted her foot in the air. I try to turn my head to the side but her swiveling on me burned out the neck servos she starts to go down the steps and the plates that had opened up crumple out of the way like tinfoil. Her heel slams my skull against the back of my head and I feel my nose break again. Four more steps.
Her heel slams into my skull hard enough I see stars. I know the only reason why my head isn’t a mush right now is because of the bioplastic-carbon fiber band that forces the suit skull to only flex far enough to fracture the skull, but not allows it to be crushed.
Three more steps. She slams into me. the suit registers that despite power conserving efforts that the shocks and the servos have failed. For the first time, I feel 197lbs slam into me. My lower ribs fissure with the next step and my pelvis snaps in two. The last step on the steps lands on directly on my skull. The skull of the suit flexes in that instant her weight cracks my head against the bottom insole. I can feel fractures in my skull and know that critical is only minutes way. But the suit informs me the estimated holding time in this state is 3hrs.
She bounds up the steps again. “Last box,” Ariel announces. I sigh in relief. Abigail turns around and pounds down the stairs again. Bouncing me in her boot only to slam me into the metal floor with her weight. My cheekbone snaps inward knocking my vision blurry and the next step fractures my jaw. The last step her weight comes down on my neck fracturing the two vertebrae and cutting my trachea against my Adam's apple. Mouth fills with gushes with another amount of blood manage to spit out of the side when her heel slams into my skull again.
She gets to the top of the stairs for the last time. “Go sit down. I looked at the tablet, the link with the suit is broken, happened when fell down the steps. Don’t take your shoe off, just get the weight off of him.” Ariel tells her. her foot slams into my fifteen more time. Each crunch in my ears getting a little louder as the material reaches its limit. She stops in front of the stool and then plops down onto the seat with relief.
Abigail uncrosses her legs and drops the leg I’m in. her heel slams into my skull which bounces off the tile floor with a resounding crack and my consciousness finally let's go.