On a warm summer afternoon I sat with a small group of people in the lobby of a plastics factory waiting for my number to be called, I looked at my ticket and the number six was neatly printed in cursive.
The girl sitting next to me leaned over and asked: "What number are you?"
"I'm number six," I showed her my ticket, "what number are you?"
"The Butcher?" She scrunched her face and showed me her ticket; the words The Butcher were indeed written neatly on the front.
"That's not a number."
"I know... I'm worried I have the wrong ticket, I'm going to go ask the receptionist."
"Maybe you should." I agreed.
As she stood up the receptionist called through a loudspeaker, "The doctor is ready for the candlestick maker; please use the first door on your right."
The girl sat back down as a young man walked through the door, "Maybe I should wait a minute." She looked at me confused.
A few minutes passed and the receptionist called out again, "The doctor is ready for the baker... the baker please use the second door on your right." A lady got up and went through the door.
The girl sitting next to me started to relax as her number no longer seemed out of place, and mine suddenly did.
I was trying to hide my nervousness while I waited for the interview; it was for a paid researcher job in a sex study, the gig was supposed to last for three months and the advertisement I answered spoke of mysterious bonuses and promised unbelievable compensation.
The whole thing seemed a little sketchy from the start, but the pay was so ridiculous that I couldn't resist giving it a shot. I thought they would probably just have me rate porn in a cheap motel room or ask me a bunch of questions or something like that.
"Number six? The doctor will see you now... number six, please use the first door on your left."
I got up and waved to the butcher as I walked through the door, she smiled and waved back.
The office was ultra-modern, everything had a slick futuristic look to it and as soon as I stepped in I was greeted by a lovely doctor.
"So you're our new number six?" She said as I sat down on the table.
"Um... I'm hoping to be." I answered not sure if this was a job interview or a doctor's visit.
She unceremoniously stuck a little machine in my ear and asked: "What is the largest amount of ejaculate you have produced in a single day?"
"Oh... well, I don't know how much in volume, but last year with my ex-girlfriend I had like eight or nine orgasms in one day." I was exaggerating about that number... and the girlfriend.
"That's pretty good," The doctor smiled, "do the words... Bubble toy city mean anything to you?"
"No... what is it? I can research it if it's important."
"Nope, don't bother, it's not important." She smiled.
She spent hours and hours running tests and asking me questions while I filled out endless paperwork.
Some of the tests were rather invasive and when the doctor asked me if I knew my anal cavity depth I started to question my theory of just having to rate porn in some dingy motel room.
"Um... I don't know," I wasn't sure the answer they were looking for, "I guess it's like, the normal depth?" I said with an upward inflection.
The doctor looked at me suspiciously and not happy with my answer.
The rest of the questions were equally bizarre but eventually I passed all of the tests and she asked when I can start the job.
"Oh, I thought I already started." I joked.
The doctor laughed and said she would have to put me under anesthesia for the last round of tests before I can start.
"Ok." I happily agreed.
I laid down on the table and she slipped a mask over my mouth, "Ok, now please count to ten," she said with a smile as I was already drifting off.
"One... tw..." I don't even think I made it to two.
Anesthesia is a strange thing, it's not like sleeping, there are no dreams and it's probably the closest thing to time travel you will ever experience, one minute you're here, and the next you wake up in a completely different location... which is exactly what happened here.
After being out for what seemed like just seconds, I was startled awake by a deafening silence, I found myself in a strange bed and was completely naked, in what seemed to be some type of weird plastic prison cell.
I started to panic as I looked at my bizarre surroundings and untangled myself from the blankets.
The whole room was made up of what seemed to be a thick but seamless crystal clear plastic, I could see right through the wall and into the next cell, and beyond that was another cell exactly like the first two, and beyond that another, for miles off into the distance like two mirrors facing each other, hundreds of identical transparent prison cells off into infinity.
The place was sparsely furnished with a table, a couch, a bed, a sink and a toilet that were all molded in vacuum formed plastic, everything was rounded and seemed to be just flowing from the floors and walls.
The whole room and everything in it was a crystal clear and completely transparent, even the mattress and the blanket, it was made of some type of cushiony clear plastic that felt kind of like cheap cotton.
I looked down at my naked body through the clear blanket, I could see right through the bed, and through the floor, and through the bed in the cell below mine, and beyond that to the next, I looked up and could see the same, bed after bed, in cell after cell as far as the eye can see.
I slid out of the blanket and stumbled to the clear plastic toilet in the corner of the room.
While I was aiming I noticed a girl through the water in the cell below mine sitting on the toilet, she smiled and waved as I was peeing.
"What have I gotten myself into?" I thought as I smiled and waved back.
There was the faint outline of a doorway on one of the walls that lead to a long corridor running the length of the cellblock; this seemed like the only access point in or out.
I ran my fingers around the outline of the doorway but with no doorknob or button, I didn't know how to open it.
A strange pneumatic tube sat in the corner, it ran from floor to ceiling and there was a cluster of brightly colored buttons next to it, these buttons were the only splash of color in the room.
I slid my hand along the smooth curves of the plastic bed and looked through the transparent floor at the girl in the cell below mine milling about, she was also completely naked.
I watched her fetch a book from a high cabinet and sit on the bed to read.
"What do they want me to do here?" I thought while I sat on the clear plastic couch, "I hope I don't have to stay in this thing the whole three months."
I knocked on the floor and the girl looked up at me and smiled, I gave a shrug and my best, "what's going on here?" look.
She laughed and bounced over to the other side of the room to rummage through a transparent plastic drawer under the sink.
When she returned she stood on her tippy toes and held up a little sign that read "Please wait for orientation, thank you for your patience Hypercore industries."
She smiled and waved again before giving me an OK symbol with her fingers and returning to her book.
"I wish I had a book," I said to nobody as I sat down to begin my three-month stay.
I sat on the transparent couch and looked up into the empty cell above, I could see the bottom of the upstairs couch, and through that I could see the next couch inside the next cell.
The room was completely silent and I felt very much on display and hoped the girl downstairs wasn't looking at my naked butt.
After quite a while of sitting and worrying, I heard a weird bubbly noise coming from the plastic in the outline of a door on the wall, it started to melt and become flexible and it parted down the middle like a fine silk curtain.
I stuck my head out to see what the commotion was and I saw two scientists, carrying a nude lifeless woman up the long hallway.
I ran back to bed and made a vain attempt to cover my naked body with a see-through blanket.
The scientists rushed into the room and gently placed the sleeping girl next to me on the bed.
One of them noticed the frightened look in my eye and smiled, "have you been through orientation yet?" She asked in a caring tone.
"No, I just woke up in here and I couldn't get the door open."
She smiled and said, "I know this is confusing for you, but I'm going to have to ask you to stay in this room and not ask questions, an orientation program will start shortly and it will answer all of your questions thoroughly."
She handed me a small sign and they both hurried out of the room as the door melted back into a wall.
The sign I was given was just like the one the girl downstairs showed me, it read, "Please wait for orientation, thank you for your patience Hypercore industries."
I looked at the naked woman sleeping beside me and thought about the paperwork I signed, and how I just skimmed most of it.
Some of those boxes I put a check mark in said things like, "Allow free access to every orifice, Yes/No," and the one that said, "Prototype machinery may be used for testing and harvesting purposes Yes/No."
This was worrisome... I thought they were just going to ask me some questions, or maybe have me jerk off into a cup every morning or something like that, I didn't even think of the possibility of being imprisoned in a no privacy plastic cellblock with a stranger.
While I waited for her to wake up I sat on the couch and twirled the little sign for a bit, it was the only thing in the entire room to occupy time, "I wonder if she has been through orientation yet, maybe she can tell me what's going on." I muttered as I stared out into the abyss of identical plastic cubes.
After some time of sign twirling and rethinking life decisions the girl on the bed started to wake up, she tossed around a little before sitting up and letting panic set in.
"WHERE AM I ... AND WHO ARE YOU!" She screamed in a completely justified way.
"Hi," I smiled and waved from the couch, "You're at Hypercore industries... did you sign up for the medical tester job... the one with the sex study?"
"Yes!" she looked around trying to process the strange room, and the honeycombs of other rooms just like it stretching off in the distance.
"Have you been through orientation yet?" The look on her face told me she had not.
"WHERE ARE MY CLOTHES?" She screamed as she looked through the weird transparent blanket.
"I don't know... mine are gone too."
"AND WHO SHAVED MY PUSSY?"
"I don't know... somebody shaved me too." I tried to say it in the most calming way a naked stranger can explain away a mystery shaving.
We sat in silence for a while as she took it all in.
