I want to thank Gamblinluck and CurrentParameter again for all their help with the story. I realize some of these chapters are a little short on the word count, but that will change as the story progresses. Again, if you haven't read the other stories in the Slave Camp Universe, I strongly recommend them.
Chapter 4- Breaking the habit
The rest of the night passed relatively peacefully. Ellie woke several times during my shift, but aside from one incident of vomiting, there was not much trouble. Most of the times she woke for a few minutes, and I would either soothe her back to sleep or try to get her to drink some water. About midnight, she had her vomiting spell. It was mostly water, as she had not really eaten anything except that slave chow crap before going to the block. She was awake for a few minutes while I cleaned her up. She kept thanking me and apologizing to me for causing trouble. I told her it was no trouble and to rest. When she fell back to sleep, I took the bucket and went to clean it. I decided the third bathroom would be the best place to clean it, so as not to disturb the others. Sherry was asleep on the couch, and I saw Simon was sleeping sounding in the second bedroom. I decided to let them sleep for a while longer and returned to Ellie.
Seeing as how Ellie was sleeping peacefully, I pulled out my phone and started searching the internet for information about judicial slavery. Some stuff I knew already, the country had been falling apart. Liberals and conservatives had let their most extreme members take over their respective parties, and crime was out of control. The only thing both sides could even agree on was that criminals needed to be punished. So, bring in "judicial" slavery. To be fair, this was different than previous forms of slavery. You could not be born into it. No, this slavery was used to punish criminals. And punish them they did. Prisons were reserved only for those awaiting death sentences or who were deemed too dangerous to be released into the public. Not all crimes result in enslavement either. Minor crimes may result in only fines or at most a public whipping. But repeat offenders, or more serious crimes resulted in enslavement. Some slaves were awarded to their victims as restitution. In other cases, where there was no identified victim, such as drug dealing or multiple DUI's, slaves were sold at public auctions.
A common saying I saw throughout my readings was "Slaves have no civil rights, and few human rights". That was scary, but I was a little relieved to see there are limits on what could be done to a slave, not many limits, but some. First, all slaves were released on their sixty-fifth birthday. Those that had more to their sentence were usually sent to halfway houses. Secondly, a slave could not be abused. Unfortunately, "abuse" was a relative term. Physical punishment that would not be allowed to happen to free people, was perfectly legal with slaves. Beating with paddles, straps, canes, all were legal to do to slaves. Tattooing, branding, piercings and other markings being forced on a slave was legal. The overriding principle was that their bodies needed to still be intact at the end of their enslavement. Thirdly, prostituting slaves was illegal, but there were many ways around that. While it was illegal to set up a brothel with slaves, many bars would have slaves who were there to perform oral sex for customers who bought drinks. Patrons were paying for the drinks, not the sexual contact, that was just a bonus thrown in, like a two for one happy hour promotion. Someone may have a slave they would "share" with their buddies, who just happened to give them some money, that was legal. Some states, like Texas, had relaxed the rules greatly, so there was a lot of prostituting slaves, just framed differently. But there weren't many limitations after that.
Sex was closely tied into the idea of slavery. According to law, slaves, especially female slaves, were expected to perform sexually for their owners, in any way the owner commanded. Rape did not exist for slaves. Slaves were considered property, and you can't rape property. If someone "raped" another person's slave, the worst they would be charged with was violating another person's property. Think of it like an individual who takes someone's car for a joyride without permission of the owner. For many women who were enslaved, they were little more than sex toys.
My mother had been right about how much many businesses were able to profit from the establishment of slavery. Pharmaceutical companies were somehow able to miraculously make breakthroughs that had eluded them for years. Imagine that. Suddenly there was an implant developed that provided one-year vaccinations for all known STD's. Every slave got one of those before they were collared and were required by law to receive them every year. For the women, they all got a one-year birth control implant that was reimplanted every year, again by law.
Accounting firms set up specific departments to handle what was called "slave estates". Depending upon the verdict, the slave may have a large amount of their previously acquired wealth set into a form of trust that would be available when they were released. This was a very complex process developed to ensure that when, say a wealthy businessman was given a short-term enslavement for a minor crime, they did not lose everything they had earned in their lives. Still, much of what they had earned previously may be awarded to victims. If the slave was allowed to work, their social security would be held for them, and for a lucky few, their owners may allow them to have a portion of their earnings from their employment added to the slave estates. Most owners just took all the earnings for themselves.
One final slap to the face for someone being enslaved was the annulment clause. If a person was married, that marriage was automatically annulled upon enslavement. Lawyers had a field day setting up prenups and other contingency contracts.
But what caught my eye most in my readings was about the collars. Every slave had a collar. It was common to refer to enslavement as "being collared". These weren't just simple dog collars. These were metal collars, made from tungsten, about one and half inches wide, and next to impossible to remove without specialized equipment only available at designated government facilities. But they were more than just a symbol of enslavement. These collars were pretty advanced pieces of technology.
Inside of each collar were six small metal studs. These studs were there to provide the shocks my father talked about earlier. What was interesting is that there were many more levels of shock that my father had not mentioned. Starting at the most minimal was what was referred to as the first warning level, or level one. This produced nothing more than a slight buzzing, not unlike when you turn your cell phone to silent. Many owners used this level as a "call" for their slaves. Feeling the buzz meant to contact your owner immediately. The next level was the second warning level. This was probably the most used level of shock. It produced a mild shock, that would not incapacitate or hurt but would definitely get the slaves attention.
The third level is the one that my father told us about. This is where the collars started to get nasty. A third level shock would knock the slave unconscious for a couple of minutes. It was extremely painful and sometimes the slave would lose control of their bladder. This was mostly used as punishment. The fourth level of shock, or full shock, was even more intense. Often the slave would be unconscious for up to ten minutes, it was almost certain they would empty their bladder and possibly their bowels, and their bodies would ache for several days afterwards. This, in theory, was only supposed to be used in the most extreme cases, say like the slave was being violent and needed to be stopped immediately. Of course, it was at the owner's discretion, so it was often used by many for much more minor infractions. There was a fifth level, which I will describe in a minute.
The collars were also an advanced GPS system. Phone and smart watch apps could control all the functions of the collars. One could look at their phone and tell where each of their slaves were anywhere in the U.S. within ten yards. They automatically linked to any cell tower, Wi-Fi, or other internet device. Slaves could also press a small area on the collar, which would send a distress signal to their owner's cell phones, smartwatches, or any other device that was connected to the collar.
With all that technology, they required recharging regularly. And before someone says, "All a slave needs to do is wait for the charge to run out and then escape", well, in their infinite wisdom, the sick bastards who came up with all this thought of that too. See when the charge gets to low, or a slave starts to leave U.S. territory, the collar starts sending warnings at regular intervals. Starting with a series of the small buzzing (level one) given at regular intervals, then progressing through each stage after a period of time. Most slaves, recognize the danger and return to a safe place or charge their collar if they feel level one. If a slave ignored it, even after being knocked unconscious multiple times, there is a failsafe. The final step before a slave's collar completely loses its charge, or a slave is about to leave the U.S., is for the collar to discharge all its remaining energy in one final shock, level five. This shock is so powerful, it will result in one of two outcomes; completely frying the slave's nervous system, leaving them paralyzed for the rest of their life, or, more commonly, the slave will simply die from cardiac arrest. This is the life of a slave.
And now it was the life of Ellie and Simon.
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Sometime between three and four Simon quietly stepped up beside me.
"Is good, Master Claude? Take over now. Please sleep, Ms. Ellie safe."
I was too exhausted to even argue. I thanked him as I practically slept walked past Sherry, entered the third bedroom, and collapsed on the bed. I slept soundly until about eight, when I heard muffled voices coming from the main house. I figured it had to be Dad and Sherry arguing again. I stumbled out of the pool house, checking with Simon to see if he needed anything (he didn't), and entered the kitchen. Sherry was glaring at Dad, while Dad seemed to still be drunk, or had started drinking already.
"Dammit, Sherry! I bought those slaves to make life easier. I should just take her to the local market and see if I can unload her there..."
"No, Dad!" I screamed as I ran into the kitchen. "Please don't sell Ms. Deveaux! I will take care of her..." Sherry put her hands on my shoulders and pulled me behind her.
