Just a brief aside. I started writing this in 2024. This is a fantasy. To treat a person this way in real life would be morally wrong.
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My car sat in line in front of the border turnstile. With my air conditioning broken, I was boiling in the summer heat. I had a meeting with a client over the border, however, that I simply needed to attend. I sleepily let my foot off the brake and let my coupe slide forward one more car in the line, moving inexorably towards the land of the free.
Not that it had been that lately. I hardly believed any of the news about the regime that had been elected last year. Absolute free markets. A harsh judicial strictly interested in protecting capital interests. Enslavement for most crimes it deemed serious, such as drug trafficking, first degree battery, and grand theft. New slave training and distribution centers, slave stores, even slaves showing up on popular private sales websites and lists. Slaves of all colours and genders.
I thought back to my last night partying at a friend's mansion in West Van. I knew we had got up to some wild stuff, but I didn't remember very much before I passed out that night. Some grainy mental image popped up of a Russian girl with earrings, a dyed mullet, and a Hawaiian shirt getting something out in the back of the car while I drove her back to my apartment in upscale Kitsilano. My heart skipped a beat. Probably nothing.
I rolled up to the turnstile, the light on it was red. There was a flash of the camera, getting my license plate. I proceeded to the booth.
"Passport please."
"Of course."
"Purpose of your visit?"
"Business meeting in Seattle."
The border guard was a stocky man with tattoo sleeves. He peeked into the back seat.
"Okay, your car is a mess. I'm going to ask you to take the left lane when you enter, and we're gonna take a closer look."
"Sure."
Confidently, feeling dignified in my business suit and tie, I pulled into one of the parking lots by the Customs Center. Two security officers, their badges emblazoned with the logo of "Crossings Inc.", the private corporation that was contracted to control the border, eyed me as they approached.
"Can't see shit in that back seat, son. Tell you what, we're gonna grab a dog, if he don't bark, you can just go. Waste of our sweet time."
I nodded, and the other one went to grab a sniffer dog. I had been told to be as cooperative as possible when crossing the borders, most civil rights were just formalities now. I guess I felt tense, maybe a premonition. I kept trying to think back to the night before. The party had seemed innocent enough, there had been some characters though...
The dog barked.
"Unlock your vehice, right now!"
My heart fell out of the chest. The border guard opened the passenger door and rummaged in my back seat for a few minutes. In the side compartments, underneath. He reached down...
And pulled out a plastic Ziploc bag filled with white powder.
"GET OUT OF THE CAR! GET OUT OF THE CAR RIGHT NOW!"
The other officer had his gun out, pointed directly at me. Shaking, I opened the door, and stepped out.
"HANDS ON YOUR HEAD! NOW!"
He marched up to me, grabbed my wrists, and locked handcuffs on them. I began to protest, and in response he grabbed a gag from his belt, pulled my mouth open, and stuck it in my mouth, locking the strap on the back of my neck. It tasted rough and leathery. "New tool for disobedient fuckers."
"You're under arrest for drug trafficking and resisting arrest. Anything you say can and will be used against you. Per Crossings Inc. policy, you will be remanded to the courts for trial and sentencing. Do you understand?"
I tried to reply through the gag. The guard laughed, then grabbed me and walked me to the holding cell in my business suit. About an hour later, I was delivered to county jail. I won't bore you with the details, but I was in an orange jumpsuit when they locked my cell for the night.
With the reduction of so many layers in the judicial system, the trial was brief, occurring in a Seattle courthouse the very next day. My expensive lawyer, whom I had persuaded to rush down from Vancouver overnight, shrugged his shoulders multiple times throughout. He was not as aggressive as he might have been, but then again, even representing me carried its own risks. There was nothing he could do. It didn't matter that I was unaware of the baggie. It didn't matter that I was an upstanding citizen. It didn't matter that I didn't have intent.
"The defendant will rise."
I stood, shaking.
"I, the judge in this court, find you guilty of schedule one drug trafficking, and sentence you to be sold into slavery. The defendant will now strip."
I froze. My lawyer gave a wan smile and murmured "you'd better do what they say from now on."
A security officer approached me from either side, and I waved them off.
The courtroom was not packed, but contained a sheriff, the judge, my attorney, the district attorney, a few members of the public morality league. I hadn't even had a chance to reach my contacts, other than my lawyer. Justice in this new America moved quickly. I did, however, note a small news crew, with a well dressed reporter occasionally speaking to the cameras during gaps in the proceedings.
All eyes were on me, and I delicately removed my tie, my sport coat, my shirt. I have great pecs, but I hadn't ever considered that I would be showing them off to a bunch of legal eagles. Then I leaned down and removed my shoes, unbuckled my pants, removed them with my socks, and stood up hopefully. Maybe they would let me leave me semblance of dignity.
"The defendant will strip COMPLETELY."
Anxiously, I pulled down my boxer shorts. I now stood naked in front of the court, standing as straight and as confidently as I knew how. I felt the cool wind of the air conditioning, and shivered.
One of the guards commanded me to place my wrists behind me, crossed, and bow my head. With a click, a fitted metal collar was placed on my neck. I had been humiliated when they had measured my neck pre-trial, but not half as much as I felt now, naked and collared before a court. The metal was cold.
Cuffs were snapped on my wrists and leg irons placed on my ankles. I was no longer a person, just a recently sentenced slave. The two guards gripped my arms painfully, and I shook with anxiety. I tested the cuffs, and hung my head.
"I now pronounce you property of the Crossings Corporation, to be trained and sold as they see fit. This court is adjourned. May you suffer for the offense you have inflicted upon our god fearing nation.
The guard pulled the O ring on my collar roughly, clipping a chain leash to it. Equally roughly, he led me away with the other guard's hand on my cuffed wrist. It was official, I had been sentenced, and would now be sold and then trained as a slave. I could barely gasp for breath.
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