Part 3: Factory Fowls
"What is taking so long? this should not have taken more than a minute!" a voice called within the crowd of men. "they're just non-benders! out of my way!"
A towering figure shoved through the crowd, he had a shaved head and big lips, his clothing was skin tight where it showed his muscles on both his legs and arms and even abs. His clothing consisted of only a very dark green hoodie that looks like a shirt but its sleeves ended at shoulder length, armor padding on both of his arms and shoulders, knee padding over his brown colored pants, but he did not wear shoes the only thing covering his feet was bandage wrapping. He was the least armored of the group but with his stature he is one to be intimidated by.
"Finally, take them to the cars."
He spoke in a chastised tone, as he saw Butaka laying in front of his family wiping the blood of his face and Kiri finishing putting out the fire to caress Roy; Roy's injury was fatal and it caught his eye. The man stopped and walked up to Roy passing his father on the way.
"HEY! You Get Away From Him!"
Butaka screamed as he was picked up by the guards and held back, Butaka was writhing with sorrow. Kiri held him tight when the man kneeled in front of them and leaned forward. The man had an extremely good poker face and said "let me take a look" as he glanced at Roys shoulder. Kiri was reluctant and did not allow him.
"Don't worry im a doctor"
the man said in a moderate tone and offering his hand forward. Kiri felt a type of relief and slowly showed Roy to him.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing Santo? We have to!-"
One of the men yelled out but was interrupted by another as they came to cover his mouth. Santo looked over Roys shoulder then at his severely burned arm. He put both hands on Roy one on his shoulder and the other to the side of his neck. Then he jerked Roys shoulder in place, but it was no good.
"Its far beyond repair. his shoulder is shattered and his arm is burned to the muscle."
The man answered as he stood up and threw Roy back at Kiri to hold.
"We need to go."
The man said to the crowd and left for the cars. Roy and his family got up and were escorted to the cars. They moved as one until one of the men grabbed Roy away from Kiri's arms and shoved to the side with Butaka and the other non-benders.
"Pleeeeasse! No..."
Kiri pleaded as guards held her at bay to she her son get lifted into another vehicle. The vehicles were carried all the non-benders in one direction and the guards and leader in another. Seeing that Roy did not join his family his ride was with the guards and the leader where he later woke up during the drive.
"Gahhh! what the... where am i?"
Roy shouted then lowered his voice as he held onto his arm. In front of him sat the leader again, He was drinking from his container and then finished.
"Pahhh.. I see your awake comrade."
The leader said in a kind gesture. Roy looked puzzled as he backed up in his seat only bumping into one of the guards that gave him the stink eye.
"I dont know you how am i your comrade?"
Roy spoke in a lazy tone as he focused on his wounds
"Dont worry we will treat you later, but for now you are my comrade"
"again im not you comrade!"
"these people, i may not know them but they are my comrades"
He said when he pointed to each person in the car.
"You see, we are alike we are both benders so.. we are comrades"
Roy was annoyed by how bad the leaders grammar was and later asked
"Who are you?, who are these people?, where are you taking me?"
"Apologises; my name is Zilter, and for who we are that i cannot tell, but we are going to a factory to get you workin"
Zilter stopped to take another drink
"why do you drink so much?" Roy asked
He stopped drinking and answered
"Pahhh... it keeps me awake, want some comrade?"
Roy waved his hand in disinterest, then he laid his head against one of the windows and worried about his parents, later, falling asleep.
The cars came to a screeching halt which woke Roy up and as soon as he did one of the men tugged him out of the car. There it was a monstrous factory that had smog blowing out of it like there was no tomorrow. The building was made of pure metal and had paint peeling right off of it. There were no windows but many door ways that lead in and out of the factory that had guards at patrol. The stench of burning rubber and smog filled the air.
"Lets go.."
the man pushed Roy forward and then meeting Zilter. Roy looked up and he saw a resemblance between the sign the men wore and the sign that was one the factory, only this time the factory had two of the points.
"whats with the arrow sign"
Roy questioned
"none of your concern"
Zilter answered while disappointed that his containers were empty.
"I need more fuel, my comrades will take you inside to get to know the place."
Zilter said when he walked towards another doorway. The men shoved Roy finally into the factory.
It was horrid, Roys eyes widened with fear as he saw people working under such bad circumstances, the factory consisted of both men and women that looked like they were in there 40s. On the way
Roy saw shelters with nothing but a toilet and a pillow. "they live here?" Roy asked to himself. He saw the men working on powering batteries with lightening and bending metal to make armor, though it seemed that only 4 people were on the assembly line of metal benders compared to the population of waterbenders and firebenders.
"I Wont!"
Roy looked to the left and saw one of the factory men standing against one of the guards.
"Hell, where is my family! you promised!"
"they are in care don't worry just continue yo-"
"NO! its been 2 weeks let me see them now!"
The man rushed towards the guard with his firebending. He thrusted his hands forward only to miss, the blaze hit nothing evaporating into the air, the man swung his leg and the bluish fire ran across the guards chest. The guard quickly grabbed his foot forcing the blaze to be put out then with multiple strikes to the leg and arm the mans whole right side of his body seemed motionless. The man backed up and ran for the guard, this time jumping up into the air and throwing an axe kick from his last working leg that went up and over his head. In an instant the guard poked under his knee and it made the mans leg go from cascading downward to flinging into the air where the powerful fire let out a roar. The guard wrapped his arm around the mans knee and grabbed him by the chest.
"Every day with this? huh?"
the guard spoke and threw the man down on the floor. The man shook his head and just laid down knowing his faith. 5 of the guards had surrounded the man
"Fire! now!"
just then as Roy watched eagerly one of the guards blocked his sight and shoved him forward through one of the shelters and locked the door. Roy sat down against a wall and thought about the man
"they execute the workers? and one of the guards knows how to chi block?"
"I've read about this once, they hit power points in the body that block any type of bending and disables the body part. so thats how they keep these benders at work i better not-" Roy flinched and then held his broken arm.
"Aww man, What is this place? and how did they get these workers? something about families? best to just keep quiet"
Roy waited in his cellar for 6 and a half hours till the door was opened.
"Get up. time to get into your sector."
A large fat man that towered over Roy had said. Then he grabbed Roy by the good arm and threw him out. there waited Zilter and another serious looking man that had his arms crossed stood. Zilter looked at the man.
"Ay, come on ease up we have a new comrade"
Zilter said in a sympathized tone as he shoved the man by his shoulder. The man loosened his arms.
"Good, an earth bender get him to work"
"ummm, sir i think we should care for his arm dont you? i mean so he can be more productive"
Zilter asked as his voice was careful not to anger him.
"Fine, take him to the infirmary"
Then one of the guards, Zilter, and Roy headed down a doorway. On the way Roy saw more workers a sign said "sector 2" and there he saw fire benders also in an assembly line fashion standing, but they burned all types of metals to the point where they can be bended by the non-bender workers using hammers. Passing through "sector 6" he saw about only 3 men sitting down and metal bending incoming items and next to them where about a dozen of people hammering away at the material. One man that sat looked towards Roy, he had only one eye open and his lower lip stitched up, the man shook his head left to right, raised his hand and left the sector. Finally reaching the room that spelled "sector O"
"phew, that was a long walk no wonder they call it sector O, its Out-of-the-way"
Zilter spoke and drank from his container. They stepped in and saw a majority of dark skin toned people that helped heal the workers. The sound of coughing, spitting, and nasal inhales made the room sound like a theater.
"Ay!, comrade! support of here!"
Zilter called, then a dark toned women speed walked over and said
"Yes? how may i be of assistance?"
"Heal my good friend here, his arm seems to be in no shape"
he exclaimed as he patted Roy on his back. The women looked at the guard next to them with her eyes only and slightly nodded.
"Sir, your container must be getting empty let us go get more"
"How bout you get more"
Zilter handed his container over
"I umm sir"
"Oh, who am i kidding my jug maybe full but the more the merrier! come comrade let us thither to yonder"
He started skipping in place and pushed the guard to follow. Roy looked back to see the nurse grab a container and a pin. She walked up to Roy and kneeled
"here is something for the pain" she poked Roys arm and right before blood splatted she bended the liquid from the container through the pin poke and into Roy.
"Thats amazing"
Roy said as he grabbed and added pressure to his arm.
"Its, nothing much let me ease down those burn markers" she whipped out some water and laid it on his arm, the water started to glow and made a humming sound. "Dear, these are third degree burns; it wont be a problem it will heal over 3 months thats as if you keep checking here"
She spoke in a loud tone so that the guards at stand by heard. She kept on healing his wounds and moved up to his shoulder.
"sorry, but its for the best"
She put a hand on his shoulder and jerked it further forward and it made a loud crack noise.
"Gahhhhh!"
Roy leaned forward and held his arm. one of the guards came around and saw
"Take her now!"
3 guards appeared and one bended a chain around her. as they left she looked back and whispered "good luck" as a single tear dropped from her face. Roy sat there giving her a mean look then later put on a puzzled face.
"she seemed nice why did she make my arm worst" Roy thought.
He sat down and looks at his shoulder that went past his chin forward then he stared at the burns that left holes in his skin then finally to his hand where it laid dead. Roy looked up and closed his eyes he started to reminisce about the times in his village. He thought of the times he held a rock and played catch with his dad and He chuckled. He continued to laugh and imitated hand gestures that he made to his parents. Then, suddenly he actually felt something in his right arm he quickly open his eyes and saw his fingers moving freely all but his thumb. Roy was thrilled and played with his hand while it laid down.
"Well we- BURP! looks like ummm you have a working fingers"
Zilter came back drunk and wobbling around with a guard that too looked the same
"Haha! you go now t-BURP! 6 sector"
Zilter shooed Roy away and took his seat. Roy followed a guard to the sector and from a distance you could here the echo of Zilter
"look at me feet!... wonder if i gots the toe jam..."
Roy laughed as the guard tugged him hard to shut him up. "Sector 6" it read as they came to the sector; the same serious man stood there this time with a mask that made him look like a ninja and had goggles strapped to his head, he had dark blue and brown clothing that made him look buff with all the padding ,on his back was the same sign but looked like it was in blue fire. He turned to Roy
"heh, pathetic cant even heal a simple wound; schedule him for a transportation to Santo"
"sir, Santo will be only available 3 months from now and it would be in a jail."
"does not matter we will take good care of him and he will be up and running before you know it now make the time! it is rare that we find an earthbender"
"yes"
The man grabbed a white dirty brown stained cloth and wrapped it around Roys shoulder to support Roys arm
"cant leave a body part waiting to be chopped off"
he then pointed to himself
"Rasento"
then left from Roys sight. A guard guided him through the line.
"since you are an earthbender this will be your station"
The man showed the line of 3 metalbenders who were busy working.
"But i dont know how to Metal bend" Roy explained
"Well we will have to teach that one arm how to, This is Karta"
One of the men facing away from them turned around and glanced at Roy and quickly offered his hand over.
"Welcome, ill take it from here; ive been through the normal procedure dont worry"
He spoken with what looked like a fake smile as sweat dripped from his brows and forehead, the guard nodded and stepped away. Karta first watched to see the guard leave and then he came up close to Roy speaking in a faint voice.
"Looks like you really took a number huh? man look at that arm and shoulder can you still bend?"
"Yeah, i think so; but first of all where am i and how do i get out and who a-"
Karta shoved his hand towards Roys mouth to quiet him.
"shhh this place has guards every where and new devices around a few workers, they call it a whistler its suppose to record any sounds or conversations that maybe a threat"
"See that man over there"
Karta pointed north at a man that had a metal ring around his neck with two dials on it.
"he has a whistler on him because he was one of the few men that tried to revolt against this factory"
"now listen to me, noone knows just what this place is or what we are making but i have been keeping an open eye and ear out; it seems this place is a type of storage/production factory for a group called the something "titles"
He continued to speak to Roy in a calm tone
" As to how to get out we dont know yet, you see this place is crawling with chi-blockers and other benders that would wipe us down in seconds; now we have heard that some workers have mysteriously vanished, maybe they were able to escape or maybe they were executed but im not taking the chance"
Karta looked around and walked away from Roy. Roy stood there confused to why he struck up a conversation just to leave in mid sentence. Roy went in the opposite direction and took a good look around the huge place; it dripped of various fluids, smoke and the sounds of clanging and volts still continued in the air, and hard working workers sweated up a storm. In a distance Roy saw a very happy man just running back and forth with materials in his hands and a smile on his face and it looked like everytime he took a step he left blood on the floor that later he wiped up.
"There you are, where did you go?"
"Well you left so i assu-"
"ok, no problem but i only left so that it wont be obvious that we were talking about something important. this place has a strict policy about having long conversations in a sense that it might lead to people planning and running over the place; ill teach you metal bending from here to there but it will take a while so for now just work with Etroo in hammering the materials.
"ay, Etroo! over here!"
then the same happy man came running towards them with excitement.
"Ello! there how may i serve yeah sonny?"
up close the man looked to be in his late 60s and has so much energy for such an old man.
"Roy this is Etroo a close friend of mine from before all of this happened"
"Nice to meet you i guess"
"You guess? you guess what? my age?! well ill bet you guessed wrong seeing that im 61, Hmm let me guess your 15 huh? youngster"
"nope..."
"15 and a half"
"No..."
"15 and a quarter"
"not even close"
Karta let out a laugh that was rarely found around the factory.
"Hahah! man this is why im still alive my buddy Etroo knows how to give a good laugh to lighten things up, How old are you anyway Roy?"
"22.."
"22? Boy, with that little cute face you could be 12 for all i know" Etroo said in a gaiety tone
" i thought you said you thought i was 15"
"Well enough of the introductions you guys get to work, oh and dont be too hard on him Etroo even if he is a bender, Roy we will start in 20minutes"
Karta left the two of them to continued his work. Etroo pulled Roy over to what looked like a line of non-benders smashing larger types of burnt metals to form what looked like car parts and/or weapons.
"why is there so many people here to bend the metal manually why not just use the metal benders"
"Well you see sonny, we have a shortage of metal benders therefore they just order firebenders from "Sector 2" to burn the metals and here we beat the living hell out of them"
Etroo pushed Roy next to some workers and then he hopped away and came back to Roy giving him a tool.
"may i ask why you are so happy" Roy questioned Etroo
Etroo stopped and answered with a small grin on his face
"Heh, Sonny well times are tough now and even tougher in this factory, and seeing that my time in this world will be over soon i tend to look at the brighter things in life, Sonny if i die i want to die happy not cold and vengeful wouldn't you?"
a sudden pause came to Roys face, then Roy started to rub his head
"yeah, i guess your right"
"you guess? you guess again whats with you guessing sonny? maybe you should stop guessing and start knowing"
Etroo spoke in a surprisingly serious pitch but still kept his smile. Roy looked at Etroo very confused.
"Ok, so how do i do this?"
"You must bending in a curved direction, care not to burn yourself sonny"
"i know, this way?"
"good you know, so much for guessing huh sonny"
"pfft, well how about holding it in place?
"oh, you can just use the little gap in one of the tables to hold it in place"
Then Etroo grabbed the metal material and looked for a gap in between the metal tables they worked with and stuck it there with the burnt side of the metal sticking out.
"there you are, now hop to it"
They both worked for about 3 hours till they later heard from there friend Karta.
"Ey, hows a goin i can teach you now" Karta spoke with a huffing and puffing voice
"Man, i thought you said in 20 minutes, im freakin tired" Roy responded while scratching his chest.
"yeah? well get use to it your just doing non-bender work, benders work is much more difficult"
"Hes right you know? we may be sweating like pigs but the benders of this factory sweat blood and guts" Etroo said in a sarcastic tone
"why is that?"
"Etroo!"
"coming!sir"
Etroo was called from a distance and so he hopped away towards the voice.
"because most of the work revolves around benders, we get the jobs done easily, fast, and we can do more than one job; lucky for you your soon going to be doing the same"
Karta tried to catch his breathe while speaking to Roy
"hell, im getting a break for just teaching you, now then grab that metal cone"
He pointed to a small and very thin cylinder cone. Roy grabbed it and quickly gave it to Karta
"Here, its heavier than it looks"
"yes, i know first thing to learn about metal bending is to know how dense it is, to put density into consideration"
Karta spoke as he crushed the metal in his palm
"Metal bending is not that much the same as earth bending, Metal bending requires focus, more extreme force, and muscle flexibility and if you cant control that force.."
He then bent the metal into rubble in one fell swoop.
"It will not go the way you want it to, but if you focus closely to the object and flex your muscles you should be able to.."
Like pie, Karta bent the metal into the same shape with only 4 hand movements
"fix your problem, here you try to crush the cone, this is one of the easier metals to bend like earth the bigger the mass the more stubborn it is, so later on you will have to deal with harder metal to bend here in this factory but for now show me what you got"
He threw it to Roy and gave him a grin, Roy looked at the metal and focused He flexed his index finger and shoved the metal. Then the metal flew into Kartas hands
"Let me see that, well very good you dented the surface of it"
Karta said in a sarcastic tone then fixed the dent and threw it back at Roy
"But not good enough, you seemed to know the basics of how to bend it but you need to apply that plus ten times to what you think is needed"
"Sure, i hope this works"
Roy had another go at it this time as he added force the metal cone flew from his hands into the air up and around to Kartas hands.
"Nice this time you did bend it but looks like you did not add the same amount of force all around"
he said as he saw four finger imprints in the metal
"ive notice that your thumb was not part of the dents thats why it flew out of your hands your thumb was loss and your fingers added the force therefore making your grip unstable"
Again Karta bent the metal into the perfect shape and gave it to Roy
"you learned fast, it took me 3 days to bend like you just did, now try again im sure you will get it"
Then Roy thought to himself for a moment, He went from have it in his hand to kneeling down and placing the metal on the floor with his hand around it. Karta looked pleased, then Roy bent the metal all at once into rubble. he picked it up and showed it to Karta
"was that acceptable?
"Haha!, smart kid seeing that you can only use one hand you adapted for your first time."
Karta took it from him and threw it into a scraps bin and started to walk away
"we will continue tomorrow, your fast kid"
"should i start metal working now?"
"dont get too cocky, that was just a scrap metal you have much more challenging stuff to bend, so ill see you around get a good rest"
Karta waved his hands away. Roy looked outside and saw it was already dark. He then started to walk all around the factory to see only a few men around 10 of them slowly walking or limping; he saw guards at bay fast asleep at there post and later he ran into Etroo bumping into him and forcing Etroo to fall on his back.
"Oh sorry Etroo did not see you there" Roy apologised as he offered to help him up
"Grahhh! My back! Sonny! go get someone now"
"What?! oh... ummm.." Roy quickly bolted to one direction towards the sleeping guards but then was tackled by a giggling man.
"Heheh! Sonny your a fast runner grahaha!"
"what? i thought? but your back"
"i maybe old but i aint that old just a little prank to get the giggles out, heheh"
"... really?"
Etroo helped him up to his feet while chuckling but then grabbed him close nose-to-nose
"but really at this time we all know where our cellars are and its bad to be up at this time"
Etroo told him in a dramatic voice
"since your new ill show you to your cellar, show me your back"
"what why?"
Etroo then just spun Roy around and looked at the back of his waist, there he found a stamp mark
"ok, 4T 789 sonny remember that"
"what? how did that get there?"
"they stamp it on all the workers to keep track of where the workers should be; they must of got you when you where not looking"
Roy was pushed by Etroo along a long hallway. just then a high pitched scream that sounded like from the time the village was burned down caught his attention, Roy halted making Etroo bump face first into his back. Roy kept hearing the scream in his head.
"did you hear that?"
while rubbing his nose "yeah sonny, thats why its no good to stay up this late come on i got to go to my cellar too."
Dramatic scene needs more detail bookmarked
Roy just keeps hearing the screams and starts the shake.
"why do they keep screaming? what the hell is happening?"
Roy slowly began to walk again while looking in the screams direction
"what are you talking about sonny? i dont hear anything anymore; you got to get some sleep your hearing things"
But it did not stop Roy kept hearing it.
"4T 789 here we are now get in you"
Etroo tried forcing him into the cellar, but Roy was reluctant to go in
"should we help? it just sounds so..."
"Sonny again i dont hear anything" Etroo said as he kept trying to shove him in
"Get some sleep this will all be clear in the morning, you worked too hard"
Finally Roy gave in and went in his cellar
" yeah i should, night"
"phew, your like a wall , night sonny"
He said as he closed the cellar door and mysteriously crouched down and ran swiftly away.
Roy held tight onto his arm and walked two steps forward, he then spun around leaned against the wall and sat down. He looked to the bed which had white sheets with dirty brown and red stains that made it seem that someone had been in his cellar not long ago. He then looked to the small toilet that looked like it was poorly metal bended into just a bowl with a hole in it, surprisingly it was cleaner that the others but it was more deformed and had a weird type of cloth hanging on the edge of it, it too had the same dirty brown and red stains on it. Roy felt uncomfortable sitting on the floor so he went to the bed. As he laid down the stench of the sheets and the bed clogged his nostrils.
" i cant sleep on this thing, id rather sleep on the floor"
Roy then did so and as he laid his head on the cold metal floor he thought about his parents.
"Both my parents are non-benders and yet they were not sent here like me. Why split us up? come to think of it they were the only ones who posed a threat unlike other villagers. Maybe they are using their skills... and what the hell did my dad do to make this happen "All these years of risking it" what does it mean? did he keep a secret from us? heh i wouldn't be surprised."
Just then he heard a thump outside, seeing that there where no windows or anything to look threw, he creeped up to the cellar door to peek through the crack under the door. There he saw what looked like two men's feet pass by and a body being dragged along the floor. Roy backed away from the door in shock, his eyes startled, forehead wrinkled, and legs uneasy.
"What the? I should go to sleep now..."
Roy relaxed and laid his head down and soon was knocked out asleep from all the work he had done.