Well, I sorted this lil fella out quicker than I previously expected, and I thought I should upload it now, just to make it more interesting for anyone that might happen to stumble across these here lands. Oh yeah, if you want to see a better sample of my writing, please go to my only other story that I've put on the net, it's called 'Spiralling Hayward', and I really need some sort of outside voice to judge it. My head is going to explode with what friends and family that have read it said about it (Seriously, you should have read what I almost put here instead of this). Please just read it and tell me it's crap, as long as some stranger has read it and tells me, I'm happy. Especially if they burst this balloon that was once my head.

Anywho, on with the story!

When they got back from working the next day, a girl they'd never seen before was sat on Rudi's bed. Another bed had been place in the middle. The girl had blonde hair cascading down her back to her shoulder blades, no visible injuries, and a soft, superior face.

"Hi! I'm Grace! What are your names?" The girl smiled at them, showing a mouth full of perfectly straight and sparkling white teeth.

Jenny stopped and looked at her. Rudi stayed still, standing in the doorway. "That's not your bed. That's Rudi's."

Grace raised her eyebrows at the two of them. "Well, Ricky says I can choose any bed I wish to. I like this one, it has the best light. I need light to help my beauty sleep." She wrinkled her nose at them. "Which I can see neither of you take advantage of. By the way, you really need to clean this place up, maybe a little paint, wallpaper. And scents. Ricky always makes sure my room is nice. And, please wash that dirt and sweat off you before you enter my room."

Jenny stepped towards her, threateningly. "Look, kid. I don't know where you came from, and I'm not that pleased already, seeing as this room is hardly big enough for two beds, let alone three. That's Rudi's bed. Not yours. And, if you want to fight for it, so be it. You'd never last a day here, anyway." She was shaking with anger. "We don't really have a choice about how our room is, but we don't want some little snob making it any worse for us. Now get up."

Grace smirked. "What will you do if I don't? I might have to get Ricky, he won't be pleased if someone's been mean to his little princess."

Jenny raised her fist, bringing it back to punch her. Before she could Rudi grabbed her, pulling her arms to her sides. Jenny looked at Rudi, and flounced off to her bed, where she sat and glared at Grace.

Grace smirked at Rudi. "What're you gonna do then? You're not strong, if you need that thing," Grace looked at Jenny "To fight your battles for you."

Rudi blinked slowly at Grace, her face expressionless and calm. She pointed at Grace, then gestured to the middle bed, then pointed to herself, and gestured to the window.

"What? She doesn't even talk?"

"No. She's worked here longer than anyone else, though, so I wouldn't ignore her. If anyone else finds out you're trying to take her bed, they'll all try to get at you. You're lucky she's a pacifist." Jenny hadn't taken her eyes off of Grace. "If she wasn't, you'd be broken like a rag doll by now."

"And why's that?"

"You haven't seen her at work yet. She needs to meditate; the men all work her like a Boxer down there, but she never slacks. If she doesn't get peace time before dinner, she'd surely explode."

"You do all speak strangely here. I mean, do you even know where the term 'worked like a Boxer comes from'?" Grace laughed. "And work? I cannot imagine either of you working, who would take interest in you? Anyway, I thought I was taking a break from work."

Jenny looked at Rudi. "Rudi probably knows where the term comes from." She then raised her eyebrows at Grace. "Well, I can't imagine you working, and since when does work need you to be interesting?"

"Since forever, duh."

"Forever, how? How does being interesting help you clean and grease the machines, turn the manual wheels, and do all that other stuff?"

If they hadn't been so tired, Jenny and Rudi would have laughed at the expression on Grace's face. Her eyes widened, her mouth dropped into a neat little 'o', and she stopped, dead still, for a moment or two, fixated in horror. "You don't mean that kind of work? But- I'm not cut out for that! It'll ruin my nails and my perfect posture! No! Ricky would never allow it! He loves me too much!" She got up and collapsed on the middle bed. They didn't hear another word out of her until the dinner bell started ringing.


"Dinner? What's on the menu? I'm on a low-carb diet, my figure and complexion go haywire if I'm not." She followed Rudi and Jenny out of the room.

"Smells pretty much like what it did yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and so on." Jenny rolled her eyes at Rudi as she spoke, getting into the line behind Rudi, at the front.

"I can't smell anything other than grease and sweat. What are we actually having?" Grace followed them.

"A sort of lumpy grey oaty treat. It's called gruel, and, if we're lucky, we'll get a dash of cod liver oil." Jenny clapped her hands in mock-excitement, and then pushed Grace away. "Newbies go to the back of the line."

Once they had got downstairs and taken the small bowl of gruel that was supposed to fill their stomachs through the night, Rudi sat at her usual table. Jenny and a group of other girls followed her. She ate her gruel slowly, taking small spoonfuls of the food from the other girls as they offered her their bowls (it was seen as rude to ignore them, and Rudi did need food). Grace came over and sat herself at one of the seats near Rudi; ignoring the looks the other girls gave her.

"We're expected to eat this?" Grace saw all the other girls offering Rudi food, and wrinkled her nose. "No wonder they give it away, I wouldn't eat this for the world."

Jenny sniffed. "Everyone gives up a portion of their dinner and breakfast to Rudi or one of her close friends. It's customary, her being the oldest, strongest, and wisest. You wouldn't want to make an enemy of Rudi, or you'd have no friends."

Rudi gave Jenny a look, demanding in her mangled voice. "Plessm" Jenny nodded at Rudi, understanding.

"Why does everyone worship Rudi? She's not older than everyone here, she can only be around sixteen, and she doesn't look that strong."

Jenny looked at Rudi, who nodded before turning back to her food. "Rudi isn't exactly normal. She was made after the beginning of the decline of civilisation as an attempt to bring science back again, only around fifty years after the the founder of this factory had passed away. There are a lot of rumours and stories about her origin, but Rudi doesn't talk all that much, so we piece together what she has said.

"We think Rudi was the effect of cloning experiment, when scientists took homeless women from the street and tried to make her pregnant artificially with the DNA of many famous and great people, trying to make the perfect human. Only one woman got pregnant, but the scientists realised something was wrong, and tried to kill the unborn Rudi. Her mum ran away, still pregnant.

"The founder of this factory had passed away, his heir had looked after the factory for thirty years, then died unexpectedly of a heart attack. His wife had died and his one child had been kidnapped, leaving no one to look after the factory. It eventually fell into state hands, and was taken over by a committee, and run by usual human means."

"What has that got to do with Rudi?" Grace asked impatiently, absent-mindedly eating spoonfuls of her gruel as she listened.

"You'll see. Anyway, this was also the fall of civilisation, so much money had been put into trying to save the earth from global warming, the human race had barely enough energy or resources to return to normal, and life went back in time. The Wonka Factory Committee found that if they made live-in homes for their workers, they would get richer. They no longer got government funding as the people had decided the human race didn't need addictions to lead them astray, so they were looking for more ways to make money. People flocked in to work at the factory, as it meant free food and shelter, which other jobs lacked.

"After around twenty years of this, Rudi's mother fled to the factory for somewhere to stay, still pregnant. The WFC had no clue that she held, in her womb, the answer to their prayers and questions, and the future of the world. They allowed her to stay, making her sign a contract to say she would work a little, and when she had her child, it would work too, once the child was able to work. She signed, just glad to have somewhere to be.

"Rudi grew heavy in her mothers' womb, until she had to be cut out, for fear of killing the mother. When they took her out, Rudi already had the size and form of a five year old. Although Rudi appeared to be just like a five year old, she was incapable of anything other than blinking, sleeping, and eating. Day by day she grew, until she was a fully working thirteen year old.

"Of course, they questioned her mother, but decided to keep it a secret who she was, and had decided to keep 'caring' for the young marvel. They made her work, and found she was strong, quick, and smart- a little too smart for their liking. She asked too many questions, and got too many answers. She was repeatedly found looking through files at her information, or reading the over-seer's books.

"They beat her repeatedly, but to no avail. She stayed just as chatty, argumentative and rude as before. Eventually, after she had been working at the factory for two or three years, one of the over-seers decided to try and kill her. She was working the machine that used to produce meal-gums, and the over-seer had loosened the main bolts and screws. The machine toppled onto her, and either it damaged her vocal chords, or she was so traumatised by the experience that she couldn't speak properly after that.

"Once she lost her voice, she became the perfect worker. She was adept at most jobs they wanted her to do, but she didn't talk back or read documents. At least, she didn't get caught. The WFC realised that child workers were the best people to use, and began to get rid of most of their adult workers, and replace them with children, mainly girls, as girls were less driven, more obedient, and less rebellious. That's what has led us to where we are today."

"Wait at minute, you said she was about thirteen then. She's more like a sixteen year old now." Grace sat back, realising she had leant too close.

"Well, it has been hundreds of years. Even Rudi has to age a little over such a long time." An eighteen-year-old inner group girl said snidely, dumping a large portion of gruel from a younger girl's bowl onto hers.

"I thought she couldn't age. I mean, seeing as she's so old but has the body of a sixteen year old." Grace looked around. "Where is she, by the way?"

Jenny shrugged. "She always wanders off when people are telling her story. That's why it's always so hard to work out what the real truth is."

"Seems pretty detailed for a story you don't really know." Grace told her and turned her back.


Okay; just in case you're wondering, the phrase 'worked like a Boxer' is something I never heard said anywhere, it's just I reread Animal Farm recently (Okay, I admit, I reread it for school) and when I looked for something to say instead of 'worked like a dog', that sorta fitted. I could have said 'Worked like a Stachanovite' (I never remember that name properly) but it didn't have that ring to it.

Please review, or I may start with the Blackmail, and the Robberies, and the shooting, and the wah-wah-wah. I.E., I'll hold this story ransom and not say anything more until I get some reviews. Plus, there'll be cookies and the like involved!