Chapter 4
The following morning Dib woke up groggily, his head ached from the solid pillow he was supplied and his legs were sore from the rocky surface of his bed. It took him a few moments to realize he was not in his home any longer but in the factory. He couldn't tell if it was either morning or night since there were no windows, none in the halls either. But there was a clock so he found out he had woken up too early, unless the factory started their work at 5 in the morning. Then came from the door a knock.
Dib rushed from out under the covers and towards the wooden door, opening it seconds later.
"Yes?" he croaked in a broken voice.
"Good morning. Get cleaned up and meet us out here by 5:30. Get going, kid." A straight-faced worker informed him.
Dib woke up at that statement. "5:30? How can I do that?"
"That's not our problem son. Just be out here." The worker turned around and left for the other room.
When Dib looked at the clock he saw that it was already 5:05. The worker had wasted the precious moments he had to get ready on time. He wasn't going to waste anymore just standing there so he headed into the bathroom and undressed for a shower. Another knock came to the door and he shouted over the steamy and loud water that he was in the shower. The door opened and without a second thought the worker came into the bathroom, and addressed Dib.
"Are you crazy?! Do you people know anything about privacy?" Dib folded his towel around himself and wiped away his drooping scythe from his face.
"We're all humans here. You need to learn how to be more mature with things. You have 15 more minutes, you'd better hurry up." The worker looked Dib up and down then stormed out of the bathroom, slamming both the doors shut.
Dib stared blankly at the bathroom door, disturbed and surprised at the visit. He was now paranoid of taking a shower in the facility, especially if people were going to walk in on him. It was violating and awkward to look at someone in the eye when you were pouring the soap on a washcloth.
Shrugging the experience away as much as he could he continued with his shower and finished a minute later, rushing himself out of his limits to keep within the time he was given.
He got dressed into the button-up lab coat, black boots, gloves, and goggles. The goggles were tinted a gray hue, the lab coat was wrinkled obviously from being folded so many times, and the boots and gloves barely fit his feet and arms. They were twice the size of them and were very uncomfortable. He wondered what the gloves were for. Was he going to be curing the meat? If he was he might vomit. He had no idea what was in those weeniers. It could be pig guts and fish liver for all he knew. He enjoyed eating them but had no intentions of making them. He hoped they would assign him to a machine of some sort.
He finished getting ready at 5:15 and rushed out into the hall to see the whole rest of the group ready and wide awake. Some of them were chatting vigorously and others were drinking coffee. He felt like the last person to make it out of the locker room at gym class. Meekly, he walked over to the worker and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Excuse me ma'am I"- Dib was cut short when his hand was grabbed roughly and twisted sideways. He cried out in surprise and pain.
"Don't you know the rules boy? No physical touch with the opposite gender." She growled in his face, still holding his hand captive.
"I'm sorry, and no, no-one has gone over the rules with me. I'm new here." Dib explained.
"I've heard that story thousands of times before, you don't think I would know that, shorty?" the worker, released him. Dib rubbed his wrist in discomfort.
"Go over there to get your nametag and get your blood taken." She pointed to a slender male who was waiting by a door, needle in hand.
Dib blinked and walked over to the man, "She said for me to come to you." He pointed back at the female worker.
"Of course. Sit down in that chair over there and let's get started. Shall we?" the man gestured to a mint-green chair in the small room, right next to a desk filled with tubes of blood. In big letters were the words, worker samples. He felt a pit in his stomach as his felt the pinch of the needle enter his skin and suck up the blood in the vein the doctor had chosen. Or at least Dib thought he was a doctor.
After taking his blood the doctor inserted the tube inside a computer and suddenly a full profile and picture of Dib popped up on the screen. "Can you verify your name for me?"
"Dib Membrane." He responded.
"Okay. Here's your nametag." A gold-plated disk was handed to him with his first name in black lettering.
Dib pinned the tag to the fold on his lab coat and walked back over to where the rest of the group was. He sat down on one of the empty lounge chairs in the hallway until a whistle blared through the air, interrupting everyone's conversations.
"Okay, men and women let's file out!" Amanda shouted and marched beside Dib, trying to talk to him, "Dib. Psst. Dib. It's me, Amanda."
"Amanda?" Dib smiled, "Boy am I happy to see you!"
"Good to see you too, kid. You ready for your first day on the job?" she asked.
"I'm pretty ready. Just, when am I going to get to see Dad and Gaz?" he asked, curious.
"I already checked for them. They never made it here. The workers said that they both escaped before they could get here. Your Dad and sister are out there somewhere, just not here." Amanda smiled to Dib.
"So, now I'm stuck here for two weeks with no-one but myself?" Dib groaned.
"You never know, you might meet someone new." Amanda winked.
Dib stopped walking at stared at Amanda, what did she mean by that wink.
He didn't get much time to ponder on it as they arrived at their destination. They were on a ledge hovering above a large pot of meat. The steam rising from it blew past Dib's face making him feel extremely hot under the thick material of his lab coat. He pulled on his goggles over his eyes to protect them from tearing up. It made the experience much more bearable.
Dib was the only quiet one amongst the anxious and excited crowd. The whole group loved WIN Meat Corporation. They only hope that they would be allowed to see the great leader of the factory. As he waited, Dib looked around at took in everything. For one, it was sweltering hot in there added with all the body warmth of the crowd. It had the vaguest scent that was putrid and smelled very strongly as soon as he entered the building.
Suddenly an alarm blared as the gears stop churning and the packaging ceased. Everyone straightened up and wondered silently why everything was shutting off. Then appeared a small podium on top of the small ledge before them. One wrong step and whoever was going to stand up there would be done for. A small hooded figure walked up to the podium and lifted the hood; revealing dirty, matted black hair. Dib could have sworn he saw that hair style before.
He paid his attention back to the being and noticed that upon his eyes were huge, smeared goggles. They also wore a lab coat that was stained almost everywhere with... sauce? On his short fingers were black gloves and on his feet; enormous, industrial-sized boots with equally large buckles that weren't even strapped. This person was obviously a hard worker. But the way he always had a crooked smile and the dark hood he wore told a whole other store.
"Good evening," came a familiar voice to Dib, "Ladies and gentlemen alike."
Dib could have sworn he heard that voice before, but it was lost on his mind.
"Welcome to the WIN Meat Company Factory. For the rest of your miserable days you will work here, diligently. Those who don't pertain to this rule will be dealt with. Anyways, it was decided a month ago that we were running out of workers due to... difficulties." the short man twitched. It was then when Dib noticed his pale, sickly green flesh. He was getting closer to remembering the owner of the voice.
"Your group has volunteered as capable workers in their place. Under one condition; you need to learn how to man the machine in more ways than one." he chuckled.
The WINner stepped down from his podium and faced the crowd personally, "Through these following 14 days you will learn how to operate our machinery the right way and handle the very job you are assigned. Some of these jobs require a strong gut but I know my loyal WIN lovers will cooperate."
The crowd nodded, minus Dib who continued to stare at the WINner strangely. He still listened however and wondered what he meant by 'a strong gut'. Maybe the meat smelled?
"With that said my fellow loyal co-workers will hand you your folder that explains the job you will be working on for these weeks. I hope you will see that everyone here is very important to the process of making these delicious weeniers. Now, without further ado, I will leave you to your posts. Thank you and I will see you at closing time."
With those final words the WINner left behind the closed black curtain.
Everyone breathed for the first time after seeing the important figure then chattered loudly about how excited they were to see him face-to-face. All Dib could think of was where had he heard that voice before.