I’m sitting in the transport cage waiting for the client to arrive. They had called and announced that they were on their way but had gotten stuck in traffic. I was thinking of Ramsi’s warning and had tried my mom and dad at least once but it had gone directly to voicemail as it has been for the last six months.
The cage rattled and I knew that I was being transferred hand. It had been soundproofed and I had left the mic of the suit off just so I didn’t have to deal with the insults the clerks had to hurl at me. The cage was bobbing as the person had walked and without warning, I was somersaulting through the air before slamming down into the bottom of the cage. “What the fuck!” I screamed to no one particular. I was regaining my bearings when the lid came off the cage and the mic instantly snapped on in the suit.
“So, you’re the employee who killed my friend eh? My name is Jasper it’s going to be a pleasure getting to know you.” The hatred in her voice dripped like venom.
“My name is Stephanie, how may I be of service?” I asked trying to keep myself neutral.
“Just wait until we’re home sweetie. Okay?” Jasper said before putting the lid back on the cage.
The ride to her house was nauseating. She never strapped the transport box down so it bounced around the car like a volleyball on the court. I was being constantly thrown around inside the box and by the time we had arrived in Jasper’s garage I had bruises that made last nights gang beating look minor. Jasper picked up the cage and took me inside. She dropped the cage roughly on the counter and it split open on the side detecting that we were where we needed to be.
“So, Stephanie was it? May I call you Steph?” she asked.
“You can call me whatever you like ma’am” I responded, “And what am I to call you?”
“Jasper is fine. Steph it is then. You have some big shoes to fill. I looked over your chart, no experience, six months of training, minimum serum, minimum suit, max weight 120lbs. did you lose weight before they sent you out? Of course, you did, they would’ve never sent you out so small. Jesus, I would almost feel bad for you if I didn’t already know that you killed somebody with the same rating as what you’re at now. So that being said,” Jasper picked me up and carried me into a living room. I recognized the overnight station sitting on the armrest of the couch, other than the room was void of furniture. Jasper walked up to the couch and motioned to drop me into the center of a well-worn cushion. I activated the jets and shot towards the ceiling before I felt death grip crush me in the middle.
“That was almost comical, she tried running to actually. I’ve been practicing can you tell?” Jasper asked. She was squeezing hard enough that my ribs ached and I could barely wheeze out a yes.
“Good. Now, be good. Takes what coming to you. This is going to be light compared to what I have planned for tomorrow.”
I simply nodded and Jasper set me down onto the couch cushion. I looked up and saw her jean-covered ass, almost 8 times my size, slowly sink down onto me. I knew it was a bad idea but I hit the straight emergency thrust and was out from under her in a flash. I had the flight assist on which kept me from running into things and pointed toward the high ceiling of the house. My heart was pounding in my ears and just before I struck the ceiling a flash of blue lightning crossed my vision and momentum slammed me into the solid wood ceiling. I heard a crack from my shoulder before I plummeted. I struck the floor and blinding white pain filled my vision as every nerve up and down my spine sung with pain. I knew before I even tried to move that I had shattered something. I couldn’t feel my arms and everything below the knees was white hot so probably a lot of somethings.
“Well, that worked out well didn’t it?” Jasper asked as she stood over me.
“Yeah,” I said. I realized that the noise was trapped in the suit so I just slowly shook my head no.
“Glad you think so. Since you’re down there, I might as well do today what I had planned for day two.” She lifted her leg slowly and brought her sneaker down on top of me. I could see grit and gravel engrained in the bottom of it and tried to block the footage out of my mind of me doing the same thing to countless others. The suit groaned softly as her foot began to slowly push down on me and in a flash, it lifted up again.
Jasper used her other leg to jump and then landed all of her weight on top of me. I barely had time to squeak before she landed on me with a force 10 times her weight. My pelvis and legs broke simultaneously with a sickening crunch. She lifted her shoe slightly and brought the heel down on the soft of my stomach and then stepped down. My spine creaked against her as the deadweight of the suit offered nothing to keep her off. She lifted her foot again and brought it down on my chest. The back of her shoe was tucked under my chin so I could only see up her leg to the ass-cheek she almost sat on me with. She pressed down, I tried to keep my lungs inflated, but the searing pain ripping through my chest caused me to release. The air rushed out of my lungs and fogged up the display with a red mist. I tried to breathe in my ribs hitched and as she pressed down they continued to bow outwards despite my struggles. She shifted slightly on top of me and the ribs on my right side crunched into me, shredding my skin and lungs and the outside of the suit. I couldn’t breathe, I could feel blood and bile filling the suit but with her on top of me, and no muscles to do anything I could see the end of the road in front of me.
She stepped forward crushing my already battered hips with a sickening crunch. An arc of lightning struck me in the chest and my heart seized with a pain so blinding I thought I would pass out. The defibrillator in the suit shocked me a second time and the pain subsided. The nanobots whirred to life and my vision fogged with painkillers before I blacked out.