Chapter 4: Slavery, and the Old an's daughter
“Hey, whats going on here? Asked J-Pop, making her and Lolita’s presence known to the rest of the room.
“Ah good the young one is here, your timing couldn’t be better.” Said Durai his cheeky grin turning into a smile.
“What do you mean? Did I do something wrong?” She hastily asked.
“No I just want to ask you a few questions about...something.”
“Oh, OK.”
“What do you think about slavery?”
“I’m against it?” She said, questioning herself as she remembered that the Mallers have slaves.
“Good, I was hoping for that response.” Durai said with something that could be mistaken for joy.
“What?” Said nearly everyone in the room, damn near in unison.
“You 3 and you girl come with me.” Said Durai talking to J-Pop, Reaper, Lolita, and the former Slave women.
Durai lead them to the top of one of the guards watch towers, it was overlooking an area that was designated for the slaves to stay. Once they were there he simply waited for someone to ask the obvious question.
“Why did you bring us up here?” Asked Reaper although it was far more of a statement than anything. He was very familiar with this particular watch tower, after all he was up until recently the head enforcer of the slaves.
“J-Pop isn’t it?” Durai asked, ignoring Reaper.
“Yeah” She hastily responded.
“Would you consider someone a slave if they had a choice?”
“What kind of choice are we talking about here?” She said sternly
“The very simple choice of either being a slave or not being a slave.”
“Stop beating around the bush Durai we all know there’s more to what your saying then what your giving us, so lets just cut to it.” Said J-Pop, surprising everyone in earshot.
“Demanding yet respectful, I like that. The point I am making is that those people down there aren’t slaves. Do we call them that, yes but that is only because that’s what they have chosen to be...all those people down there men, women, children. They all had to choose 1 of 2 outcomes for themselves and possibly their loved ones. Choice 1, they become a Maller, one of us. And Choice 2, we provide them with everything needed to survive in exchange for them doing what we tell them too. Now I’m not 1 to lie, I made sure that each and every one of them was aware of dangers of being 1 of us, thus why we have slaves.”
“So your telling me that all those people down there could have chosen to live free, even with the dangers that come with that, yet they chose to be laborers and who knows what else in exchange for at the very least the thought of security and protection?”
“That is exactly what I’m telling you young one.”
“Before this goes any further i just need to know one thing, you don’t actually provide them with any sort of real protection or safety do you?”
“Other than the watch towers, which are really for our safety not theirs, and that barb wire we set up, which is really suppose to keep them in. No we don’t”
“Well that makes sense, please continue.”
“Actually I think I’ll turn this conversation over too Miss...?”
“What? Oh you want me to choose a nickname don’t you? Well...uh...hows Missy sound?”
“Missy?” Questioned Reaper.
“What is it taken? I haven’t seen very many women in the Mallers.”
“No it’s not...but Missy, really?”
“Pardon my interruption but I was in the middle of something...thank you. Now Missy when we found you back when we were still hold up in the Mall I gave you a choice didn’t I?” Said Durai.
“Well as I remember you were slightly more fond of me than other male survivors that you found.”
“What can I say, I’m a Philogynist. And besides that when I saw you shoot i knew you had a gift!”
“It’s not a gift! My dad owned Lock & Loaded, both my parents were gun nerds they taught me how to shoot big deal.”
“Hold up! Back up! What the fuck did you just say!?” Shouted Lolita.
“My parents were gun nuts?”
“NO! Before that!”
“My dad owned Locked & Loaded?”
