No Use to Society

James awoke from unconsciousness with a start, the icy cold water of the shower above him drenching his head, shoulders and body in a freezing numbness of misery. As his mind reeled into consciousness, the dazed view of his bare reception room came into focus and he recognised that he was in the cinder block animal area. The area where he had personally processed twenty two illegal immigrants into naked animals. Where he had taken young, virile men with a future full of hope, and transformed them into helpless naked beasts. It was a bare processing room, cold and dank.

With a growing realisation that all was not well, he looked down to notice that he was wearing only a t-shirt, his small white briefs and thick woollen socks. His warm outdoor clothing and boots were strewn in front of him, across the floor. The flimsy t-shirt clung to his body as the icy water drenched his torso in water, and he felt his genitals shrinking in the cold. His hands were locked in manacles above him, chained to one of his processing eyelets in the wall. With a hazy fog of growing comprehension, James shook his head and groaned in pain. His torso ached with pain from the electric shock that he had received, and now he remembered that moment of pain. When he had been zapped with the electric cattle prod. And then, nothing. He had woken up here. Someone had chained him like this. His stomach lurched as he thought that one of the slave animals may have done this to him. He was maybe at the mercy of one of the animals that he had created. Or maybe even all of them.

James shivered in the icy spray of cold water, trying to shake his head free of the shower that he had used so many times before, when he had introduced formerly free men to their slavery. To their new lives. And as he shook his head, he noticed Matt to his left. Strung up just like he was, semi dressed and shaking uncontrollably in the cold. Further evidence that he was now a prisoner, seemingly at the hands of his animals.

Across the room, Dan was seated inside the small administrative office, from which James ran the business. Dan was looking for evidence of Nate, and what exactly was going on in this processing plant. He had fired up the computer and was looking at its contents. Orders for the farm’s vegetables, the apparently innocent business accounts and profits on spreadsheets. Profits gained from slavery. At first glance, all appeared to be the normal accounts of a farming business. And yet Dan discovered contact numbers from abroad. Contacts in France and Belgium where immigrants could be tracked and brought to the UK. Dan scratched his head and tried to understand James’s business. Was he importing slaves into the country ? There was undoubtedly a sinister immigration scam that was taking place here. As a second year Law student at university in London, Dan had completed a unit on immigration law, and was aware of the many scams in everyday Britain. He knew that smugglers could earn major money. Whether smugglers in goods or in human trafficing.

Dan sat back in the chair, hands behind his head, and contemplated the situation. He looked across the reception area to where his two semi-clad prisoners were shivering under the icy cold shower. And he contemplated the situation. Dan’s gaze switched to the shabby surroundings of this tiny office. In one corner of the unkempt office, a pile of clothing was stacked in a heap. Jeans, shirts, socks and underwear. Some trendy footwear and coats. No doubt the former clothing of free men as they were stripped naked and transformed into animals. The last pieces of clothing that they would ever wear before they were made into naked pieces of flesh to be abused and denied the basic rights of free men.

Above the clothes, a shelf containing jewellery. Rings and watches. Wallets. Mobile phones, no doubt with the numbers of loved ones stored inside. Now switched off forever in the same way that their lives had been switched off.

And passports. Passports from across eastern Europe and the middle east. Foreign passports. Dan flicked to some of the passport photos. Young, handsome guys with spirit. Full of life. Staring back at him in a way that belied the truth. The truth that they were now naked animals locked inside the bare cell, no hope of ever being released. These were real guys, real human beings. The small pile of personal belongings were tokens of a former life. They had come to England in search of a better life. To improve their opportunities in life. And now they were merely animals. Beasts of burden, reduced to animals and given no life at all as slaves of the evil James.

Dan shook his head in amazement and placed the passports back on the shelf. Turning away from the shelf, his eye caught the attention of a familiar item on the shelf. He moved his fingers towards it and grasped it in his fingers. The familiar gold necklace, with the gold insignia “Nate” on it. He recognised his friend’s necklace. Did this confirm that Nate had undergone the same transformation ? That his friend Nate had become a naked animal as well ? Dan grimaced, his mind reeling in shock at the realisation that James was indeed responsible for Nate’s disappearance. He clutched the necklace tight in his fist and stood up, moving out of the office and towards the two prisoners chained to the wall.

When he turned the icy water off, the only sound in the room was the echo of Dan’s boots as he moved in front of the prisoners and the steady drip of water from the two shocked older men’s bodies. James and Matt’s socked feet stood in a puddle of icy water and they shook the water from their eyes. As Matt shivered intensely, James focused his eyes in on Dan and recognised his captor for the first time. Hesitating in confusion, James ventured an opening remark,

“Dan. Mate. It’s James. Can you get me down?”

Dan’s eyes widened in mock surprise and he glared at James with cold eyes. “You’ve got some explaining to do James.”

James considered his options for a moment, his body shaking uncontrollably in the cold and his freezing bare legs struggling to hold his weight, chained against the wall.

“Look mate, this has nothing to do with me. I have only seen this today,” Matt whined at Dan, rattling the chains above his head. “I’ve not been involved in this at all. Please let me down. Let me go.”

“Shut up,” Dan sneered, staring at Matt in contempt before turning his attention back to James.

“Look Dan, we’re both men of the world. You’ve obviously seen what’s going on here. They are all illegal immigrants. It’s not like they are worth anything. There’s big profits to be made here son. Me and you. I can make you rich Dan.”

Dan walked closer to James and ran his fingers down the front of James’s soaked t-shirt. He stared into James’s eyes and a small smirk formed on his lips. “From where I am standing, it seems I hold all the aces James.”

Dan walked away, turning his back on James and into the office. Leaving the two slave owners chained to the wall. He listened as he heard Matt pleading with James to tell “him” that he was innocent. Pleading for his life and his freedom. Suddenly, Matt’s warmth at becoming a slave owner was being replaced with a distinct panic at himself losing his freedom and becoming a naked slave beast. Dan smiled inwardly and his mind raced as he considered where to go with this whole scenario. It was several minutes before he reappeared before the frightened two older men, chair and notebook in hand.

Deliberately, Dan sat down before James and opened his notebook. “Start talking James. I want the full story of where I can go from here. I want contacts and ideas. And if I think you are fucking me around, you will join your slaves. Both of you.”

He paused and let the impact of his statement hang in the air. Matt squirmed and Dan was pleased to see a tear run down his face. Dan continued “Now I don’t want any part of this in my country. So you better tell me how I can make a profit from this situation, and get those men out of the situation as well.” He glared at James and then at Matt. “Start talking.”

James paused and considered his options. It was Matt who broke the silence. “For fuck’s sake James, I don’t want to become an animal. Please. Tell him what he needs to know.”

Twenty minutes of note taking from Dan. Sitting silently and without response, as James outlined a tentative scenario for him. A contact in Belgium, his name and number on the office computer. A driver and lorry sent over especially from this contact. A powerful man who dealt in human flesh. A slave trader. They would load up the slaves and get them shipped over on the night ferry. Cash on delivery. 2000 Euros per slave. These slaves were prime beef. Good working beasts who had been trained into their slavery. It would be easy money. And Dan need do nothing.

Dan closed his notebook and picked up his chair, moving back into the office and checking the contact name was on the computer. He came back into the reception area and stood before James. He looked deep into James’s eyes and reached his hands out in front of him. Wordlessly, he grabbed James’s t-shirt and ripped it down the front so that his chest was exposed. Wordlessly, he pulled off James’s socks before finally pulling down his briefs.

James hung naked before Dan. For the first time in his life, James understood the shame of his slaves. He felt the shame and humiliation of appearing naked before another man. He hung his head as Dan kicked his clothing away. And he hissed in shock as Dan grabbed his balls within his fist.

“You didn’t mention Nate, James. You didn’t tell me what has happened to Nate.”

“Nathaniel ? What do you mean ? You know …… he has disappeared,” James whined.

Dan stared furiously into James’s eyes. “You had your chance,” he snarled. And with his other fist, he unfurled the necklace with Nate’s name in gold. James stared at the necklace and closed his eyes, unable to come up with a reason why he would hold Nate’s necklace in the office with the other remnants of former free men’s lives.

Matt sobbed on the wall next to James. “Please James. Please.”

Dan turned his back on James and crossed the room. He switched off the light and walked towards the door. As he reached the door, James shouted “Please, Dan, come back. I’ll tell you where he is.”

Dan turned around and looked at the naked James manacled to the wall. “Too late now James. I know where he is.”

And with a flick of the light switch he plunged the two men into pitch blackness. Without a backwards glance, he slammed the iron door shut behind him. A cold, oppressive blast of air brushed over the two slave traders’ bodies. Then, the cold darkness enveloped the frightened men. James whimpered and Matt shouted “No please. Don’t leave me like this. Please!”

It was in vain. They listened to the sound of Dan’s boots as he moved away from them, through the slave cells.