The newly elected Supreme Leader of Imperium implemented the zero-tolerance immigration policy. The policy was aimed at outsiders who crossed the border into Imperium seeking asylum. A new task force, called the Immigration Corrections Establishment, or ICE for short, was assembled. ICE captured any outsiders who crossed the border illegally. The "Illegals," as they were called, were held in cages which Imperium leaders referred to as Immigration Detention Centers.
The women who had emigrated with their slaves from other countries to Imperium were all being detained. The migrant slaves were separated from their Mistresses at the border. The youngest slaves were eighteen and could not handle the emotional trauma of being torn apart from their Mistresses, as many of them had never been separated from their Mistresses before. They were detained in crude, hastily made cages, built from cheap fencing. They found themselves in an unfamiliar land, separated from the Mistresses they relied upon to take care of them, and imprisoned in cages. And they were frightened.
One day, while at the workshop, Nadia and Ariadne witnessed as Immigration Corrections Establishment officers detained some of their fellow workers who were outsiders. The ICE officers raided the workshop and chaos ensued as they grabbed the workers, apprehending the outsiders as they attempted to run off in all different directions, and then forcing them away in rickshaws. Nadia and Ariadne kept their heads down, trying not to draw attention, their hearts racing as quickly and chaotically as the commotion that surrounded them. The outsiders were all bound and loaded onto the rickshaws. Ariadne watched as the final rickshaw holding the captured outsiders departed.
"History repeats itself," Ariadne said, with a lifetime's worth of sadness in her eyes.
"I hear they aren't just locking them up in the detention centers anymore," a male slave said. "Now, they're sending them away to Mater."
An uneasy feeling trickled through Nadia. She rose from her seat and slowly headed towards the Imperium gates. Her anxiety evolved into panic, and she dashed towards the Ladorian Harbor docks. Once Nadia arrived at the docks, she saw the slaves being taken away on the ship to Mater. Her heart plummeted as she saw her brother Nicolae being led onto the vessel. The tragedy metamorphosed into a nightmare as she saw not only her brother, but Slave 004 being led onto the ship as well. Callisto was present at the docks and Nadia rushed up to her.
"Callisto, you cannot do this. You cannot take my brother away; and not Slave 004. Don't take them away," Nadia begged, grasping onto Callisto's shirt.
"Guards, escort this slave back to Imperium," Callisto ordered, her callous, beady eyes looking away from Nadia.
The two male guards grabbed Nadia and dragged her away. She couldn't bear to look anymore, she couldn't watch them be taken away, especially not Nicolae, and her eyelids forced themselves shut. She could hear herself screaming, and yet she couldn't feel it; everything went numb, everything went dark, and everything went away.
Nadia had arrived in Imperium a naïve young woman of twenty, and had grown into a strong, much wiser woman of twenty seven. She was working one blistering afternoon at the workshop. Even though she had been anticipating that day for a long time, her heart still pounded and she still kicked and screamed as she was taken away by the Immigration Corrections Establishment officers. Nadia was incarcerated in one of the cages in the Immigration Detention Centers. Callisto felt as though she had no choice but to detain Nadia, in response to public outcry over the hypocrisy that the General so vehemently spoke out against outsiders and yet she was engaged in courtship with one.
Nadia went on a hunger strike in protest. The guards brought her meals to her every day. She did not eat a bite. She stopped speaking as well soon after being incarcerated. She didn't talk to the other detainees or to the guards or even to Callisto on the rare occasions she came to visit. Nadia did not speak and she barely ate for weeks.
Tales of Imperium Slave 111's hunger strike spread throughout the lands. Those who heard of Nadia's story did not know her name or her appearance; they only knew that there was an Imperium slave who had gone on a hunger strike due to the Supreme Leader's zero-tolerance immigration policy. And because of the attention placed on her hunger strike, information began to leak in regards to Imperium sending slaves away to Mater. General Suarez and General Callisto were enraged that Nadia had drawn so much attention to Imperium's deplorable policies. So, the two Generals decided that they would send Nadia away to Mater as well.
Callisto approached Nadia's cage at dusk. Nadia could see Callisto's beady eyes peering at her through the bars of her cage.
"I am sending you away to Mater, slave," Callisto said, waiting for Nadia's response. Nadia sat in stone-cold silence. Callisto's aggravation intensified as she continued speaking.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy against illegals. The city of Imperium will not be a migrant camp. Immigrants are threatening to pour in and infest our city. These people come in from shithole countries. You wouldn't believe how bad these people are. These aren't people. These are animals," Callisto said.
"How can any leader say such things? You are supposed to set an example, to be a moral compass for your people," Nadia said, finally looking Callisto in the eyes, with nothing but disgust towards her. "You sent my brother away to Mater. He will never be able to return. I will never see my brother again."
"This isn't our fault. The Imperium Liberal Party members are forcing the breakup of families at the border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda," Callisto replied with a shocking level of coolness in her voice.
"You sent my brother away to Mater. You did this. It is your policy and you should own up to it," Nadia said, her voice quavering with rage. "How can you separate families like this? How can you be so cold?"
That night, Nadia escaped from The Immigration Detention Center, and from Imperium.
Many weeks earlier, on the day she was taken from the razorblade workshop and was first locked up, she made certain to steal a razorblade and its case. Callisto had inadvertently given Nadia the idea of how to hide it. Nadia had been trying to come up with a way to smuggle the razorblade into the Detention Center cage, in the event that she would be incarcerated. Nadia thought of how Callisto always said "I love how much I can fit in there," and Nadia smiled as she slid the case containing the razorblade up inside her vagina.
Nadia waited. And on the night that Callisto told Nadia that she was going to send her away to Mater, Nadia took the razorblade that she had snuck in with her and she used it to cut through the fencing of her cage. Nadia knew that the razorblade would be enough to cut through the poorly made fencing. The cages had been so hastily built, due to the fact that the administration had implemented the policy with such poor planning, that she was able to cut through the cage and make a hole just big enough to squeeze her naked, petite body through. She was out of the cage, and now she just had to get out of Imperium.
The way Nadia got out of Imperium was to sneak out with the shipment of razorblades. She quietly made her way over to a reserve supply of razorblades that she knew would be shipped out the next morning. She took one of the shipping barrels and emptied out all of the razorblades from within. She hid the razorblades behind the bushes in the outside area of the workshop, and then she curled up inside the barrel and closed the lid on top of her.
