Chapter 3

Left alone in a sea of unfamiliar faces Sarah waited anxiously among the thinning crowd until eventually her name was called, stepping forward she was momentarily blinded by the bright green light as it played across her face. She was still blinking when the big rubber doors opened and bertha tonelessly instructed her group to start their tour of the building.

Sarah hurried on behind her group as the doors closed behind them leaving them in a long hallway of undressed concrete that ended in another set of rubber doors, another robotic device trundled towards them along a track and stopped rotating what was obviously a camera to face them.

‘WELCOME TO THE TOUR, PLEASE FOLLOW THE REMOTE’ Bertha announced mechanically her voice echoing slightly in the bare hallway.

Most of the rest of her group seemed to be rough looking girls who laughed and swore as they followed the slow moving device down the hallway, one of them a particularly mean looking girl with a tattoo on the side of her neck glared at her for awhile before speaking.

‘You got on and set next to the fatty didn’t ya?’ she growled making the question sound like a threat, ‘why ain’t she on the tour like all the rest of us?’

‘I don’t know we really didn’t talk that much’ Sarah stammered intimidated.

The girl grunted sullenly and hurried forwards a few steps to catch up with the others leaving the worried young girl trailing along behind them.

The doors ahead opened into another plain concrete room, this one with a row of doors down the far wall and a gantry high overhead.

‘WELCOME TO THE PROCESSING STATION WHERE YOUR NEW JOB ROLES WILL BE ALLOCATED’ the computers dull feminine voice announced ‘PLEASE STEP INTO THE INDIVIDUAL PROCESSING STATIONS PROVIDED’

As the computer finished speaking the doors on the far side of the room opened revealing a row of dimly lit cubicles each with a large screen set in the far wall.

‘What does it mean processing?’ one of the girls demanded belligerently, ‘I thought we were here to do community service.’

‘THE PROCCESSING STATIONS HAVE BEEN PROVIDED FOR YOUR COMFORT, PLEASE ENTER AND CONTINUE THE TOUR.’

One by one the girls stepped into the little cubicles, the doors whirring closed mechanically behind them. Sarah nervously stepped inside her own station wondering if she was finally going to learn what her parents had gotten her into. The room was bare concrete without even a chair to sit on and the walls only went up about ten feet with the now familiar tracks and heavy cables dangling far overhead.

The screen on the wall opposite flashed into life and Cindy was surprised to see her own face displayed next to a line of mostly empty boxes.

‘WELCOME TO OLSEN’S FAMILY DAIRY SARAH’ Bertha announced her voice sounding much louder in the close confines of the booth ‘AS PART OF YOUR TOUR WE NEED TO PERFORM A MORE DETAILED SCAN, PLEASE STAND STILL.’

‘What the hell is going on?’ Sarah asked timidly as a new mechanical device whirred into view high above her lowering down long mechanical arms that reached down into the room. From the other booths she heard the sound of other girls probably asking similar questions but if bertha was answering any of them she couldn’t hear her.

The long arms dropped down until they surrounded her and began to rotate slowly as more green light tracked over her body, she watched in surprise as a three dimensional copy of her appeared on the screen although she was disturbed to note the computer had obviously somehow ignored her clothing as the image was entirely nude.

Another set of arms lowered even closer dropping down around her head and emitted a high pitched hum before suddenly reaching for her and Sarah only had enough time to gasp in surprise as the arms connected around her neck and locked for a brief moment before pulling away with a whir of mechanical gears leaving an unfamiliar weight around her throat.

Reaching up to touch her neck she discovered a thick metal collar had locked itself in place and despite her frantic tugging it refused to budge and inch.

‘YOU HAVE NOW BEEN SCANNED AND COLLARED, YOU ARE NOW THE PROPERTY OF THE OLSEN FAMILY DAIRY’ Bertha chimed in politely.

‘What the hell is going on!’ Sarah yelled, around her she could hear the angry and panicked enquiries of the rest of her group and the sound of someone slamming against one of the doors.

‘LIVESTOCK WILL RESTRAIN THEMSELVES, ATTEMPTS TO DAMAGE COMPANY PROPERTY WILL BE PUNISHED’ Bertha intoned ominously ‘PLEASE DISROBE AND PLACE ALL CLOTHING AND JEWELRY IN THE BOX PROVIDED’

A metal drawer slid out of the opposite wall as Bertha finished speaking

‘No look there has to be some mistake I’m supposed to be here for a job,’ Sarah shouted at the screen thoroughly afraid by now, ‘let me the hell out of here!’

‘PLEASE DISROBE AND PLACE ALL CLOTHING AND JEWELRY IN THE BOX PROVIDED’ Bertha repeated coldly ‘REFUSAL TO COOPERATE WILL BE PUNISHED’

At once the collar around her neck lit up in a moment of blazing pain, Sarah shrieked and heard the other girls yelling in agony too before the pain subsided.

‘PAIN WILL INCREASE IN STRENGTH AND DURATION WITH EACH PUNISHMENT’ Bertha informed her tonelessly the computers voice sounding utterly devoid of any emotion.

Slowly Sarah got undressed, pulling off her clothes and dumping them into the drawer, Bertha reminded her to remove her socks and shoes too and then silently pulled the box back into the wall leaving her cold and shivering on the bare concrete floor.

‘THE DOORS WILL NOW OPEN, YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO APPROACH THE REMOTE BEFORE PUNISHMENT BEGINS’ Bertha warned as the doors clanked open.

One by one the girls hurried out of their cubicles and gathered under the little remote, some of the girls like Sarah blushed furiously and silently tried to cover themselves but several others shouted loudly for help or screamed obscenities at the top of their lungs.

With a buzz to get their attention the remote began to trundle along the track and out of the room and the girls fell into step behind it, those who lagged too far behind soon discovering that their collars immediately punished dawdling. The little robot led them through another rubber doorway into a large room where the other groups were waiting, all as naked as they were and each clustered under an identical device.

Some girls just sat on the ground and sobbed while others called out to them asking questions or demanding answers as if they knew more than they did about what was going on. The groups were all spaced just far enough apart that they couldn’t mingle and the shrieks of those few unfortunates who tried quickly taught them that they were all effectively leashed to their robotic jailors.