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Chapter 1 of “Iron”
The Madd Castle Express

The plan was supposed to be easy. Supposed to be. So easy, in fact, that a trained monkey could have figured out the routine in minutes. But since I had incompetent accomplices to work with, I had to make the best of the hand I was dealt. The plan was simple: an average, run-of-the-mill bank heist in the inner city. The method was even simpler: all we had to do was disable the alarms that filled the bank and make our way right into the vault, after cracking the simple code of 0-0-0, of course. Unfortunately, as many of my get-rich-quick schemes have turned out in the past, we were caught midway. It was always something dumb: a missed guard to watch out for, faulty tools, a stupid parrot. This time, it was the old ‘I did everything except disable the most important alarm’ excuse. My partners in crime disabled all but one alarm. I don’t know how they forgot to disable it seeing that that particular alarm was the alarm on the door. We opened the door and an alarm blared. I immediately knew it was over. When the Guard arrived, sirens blaring on top of their watch cars and their guns drawn, I could only stare at my team in amazement and swear. We couldn’t run now. The Guard had the whole place surrounded. It would be strike three for all four of us, and that meant we got to go off on an all-expense paid vacation to Madd Castle.

From what I heard on the street, when you arrive at the Castle, you rarely leave. Your daily routine is simple: you live, work, and die there for the next 40 to 50 years of your life. If you live beyond that, they exterminate you. Since Grey City has only one correctional center, it can only hold so many criminals. As it gets filled there is less and less room to house its delinquents. To relieve this stress, the new warden recently decided to instate a simple extermination process: If you’re good and quiet, you live. If you’re rowdy and bad, you obviously die. Fortunately, for some infrequent criminal offenders, like my crew and I, there is a second option: experimentation. Experimentation in the Castle isn’t that bad from what I hear from the other inmates and ex-cons. They just prod you with needles, injecting you with “harmless” toxins that they plan to use on Grey City’s new line of Guard humanoids. After a few years of poking, prodding, ingesting and attaching, you’re let free and you can roam the streets again. No harm done, right?

Unfortunately, being transferred to the Castle is far more sickening than I had imagined. The first step in your transfer to your vacation home is that you depart from the Guard headquarters in an old, rusted black school bus labeled “Madd Castle Express” in white lettering on both sides. It’s a very dry humor, something that I never cared much for. The windows, custom made for the bus’s special purpose of carrying its criminal passengers to possibly their final living quarters, are covered with crosshatched wires so the glass would not break if any daring criminal decides to make a jump for it out of the small windows. Getting onto the bus you get an overwhelming sick feeling, which does not only come from the noxious fumes being emitted from the exhaust pipe. It’s a sad feeling to know that you’re days of thieving are over and your nights of wondering about what tomorrow will bring have officially begun. As the bus began to leave the pick-up lot behind the Guard headquarters, I couldn’t help but wonder what is going to happen to me at the Castle when I arrive. Earlier the Madd Castle Express had already deported my accomplices and now I was the last one of us left at Guard HQ. Now it was my turn to go and join them with the last group of new inmates.

Fortunately for us, the Express was unusually late returning back to HQ to pick up its new passengers. In the mean time, the Guards led us back into their warehouse and suited us in our new jumpsuits, Madd Castle standard issue. Each jumpsuit was form fitting and a dull steel gray with dual white stripes down the left side of the jumpsuit. Personally I didn’t mind the gray color or the oddly placed white stripe, but it was the tightness that bothered me. I could barely move, let alone breathe in the suffocating suit. It hugged my sides and hindered movement. Like me, many other male Castle-bound deportees complained about the tightness below the waist. When the head Guard caught wind of our complaining, he merely barked at us to shut up you filthy dogs and that the jumpsuit’s tightness is to prevent the bringing in of contraband into the Castle. He added in a less hostile tone that we would receive looser jumpsuits when we arrive at the Castle. I groaned. Great. Another costume change.
Taking us outside to the lot behind the warehouse after we finished dressing, the Guards realized that the Express still had not returned from the Castle. The Guards where obviously frustrated although they were trained to show little emotion as they leaned against the outer wall of the warehouse. To relieve their frustration, the Guards decided to line us up in the blazing afternoon sun. As we stood there in line waiting for the Express and our gray Madd Castle standardized jumpsuits becoming unbearably hotter as they absorbed the sun’s heat, some of the rookie Guards began cracking jokes. One could tell that they were rookies because of their young faces, new buzz cuts and lack of battle scars.

“Have fun at your new vacation home,” One said all the while wearing a look of contempt. Unfortunately, I could only ignore them. Lashing out would result in a massive tazing from a Guard. If that weren’t a consequence and if I weren’t in this stupid jumpsuit, I would have slugged him by now. Behind me other criminals grumbled profanities.

“I hate Guards,” A voice said further back. “They’re arrogant and corrupt,”

“Yeah,” Agreed another. “Look at ‘em in their black uniforms and their clean armor. Its disgusting,” Mumbling, he added, “I’d like to see them fight without their iron arms. They’d be helpless without them,” The iron arm the guy was talking about was another standard for Grey City Guards. Along with their black uniforms, each new humanoid Guard was fitted with iron arms to maximize their performance in their field. Unlike the humanoids, it was made illegal to fit humans with iron arms. Their humanoid counterparts only needed the arms because of a growth defect brought on in early development. Like clones, Grey City Guard humanoids lacked a stable bone structure. Unlike clones, however, Guard humanoids were able to maintain a stable enough structure without dropping to mush after a few weeks or so. To counteract this major problem, each humanoid Guard is fitted with reinforced, bone-strengthening body armor and arms of iron to keep them in fighting shape.

Hearing one of the criminal’s comments, one of the novice Guards made his way over to the line. With his armor and iron arms gleaming in the sun, he slowly passed every criminal, looking for the perpetrator that insulted him and his comrades.

“Who did it?” He shouted. “Which one of you lowlifes has the gall to mock the Grey City Guard?” I rolled my eyes. It was a usual thing in every Guard precinct that I’ve been taken to: every time a person would insult the Guard, one of the rookies would become defensive and would try to act tough. I often wondered if it were a new genetic addition to the new line of Guard humanoids to make them prouder. If it were, somebody should shoot the scientist that thought of that idea.
“Well?” He shouted again. “I don’t have all day here!” For a few minutes he rambled on about how great the Grey City Guard was and how we wouldn’t hate the Guard if we weren’t hardened, disgusting criminals. As he continued his tirade down the line, he happened to stop beside me. “You! Criminal!” He said looking at me. “What’s your name?”

I kept my eyes forward. Looking at this wannabe Guard would make me laugh. He was the weakest Guard I had ever seen. His pale, smooth skin gleamed in the sunlight and his brown-haired buzz cut was all too clean. “Marcel,” I said struggling to hold back a laugh. “Marcel of North Grey City.” Believe it or not, my composure was diminishing.
He sneered at me. Out the corner of my eye, I saw his blue eyes stare right at the side of my forehead and his armor and his new iron arms shining in the sun. He folded his arms and spat on the ground. “Okay then, Marcel,” He said in a tough-sounding way. “Were you the dog that made that wisecrack about our arms and armor?”
I shook my head slightly and looked forward at the back of the head of the convict in front of me. “No, sir,” I said. Using the word ‘sir’ on these humanoids really made me sick. They weren’t even humans. They were humanlike. But in this situation I didn’t have a choice. They were in control.

The novice Guard flexed his metallic fingers. As they hit the palm of his hand, they made a faint clinking sound. “Well, Marcel of North Grey City,” He said as he polished his fingers on the sleeve of his right arm. “Although you say that you didn’t insult us, I’ve decided to use you as an example for the person who did,” Switching to polishing the left arm, he quickly rubbed those fingers on his right sleeve. Grumbling, he said, “I’m going to show you criminals that messing with the Guard is the wrong thing to do,” He stopped polishing his arms and looked at me with a sadistic smile. “If that’s okay with you, that is,”
I said nothing. I simply stared ahead and hoped that I wouldn’t have to pummel this Guard in front of the rest of his squadron.

“Step out of line, Marcel of North Grey City,” The Guard ordered. “I’m going to mess you up as an example,” I winced. Stepping out of line would be a little difficult in this suit. As I attempted to step out of line, I noticed the head Guard leaning against the wall behind the rookie raise an eyebrow.

“Stand down, soldier,” Cautioned the head Guard. “Throwing one iron-fisted punch to these convicts could put you in a serious mess with the Grey City officials. You could be Liquefied,” Liquefaction was similar to human death. When and out-of-control humanoid began killing humans, liquefaction was their death penalty. It consisted of an injection into their artificial blood stream. Injected with paralyzing and acidic toxins, the unfortunate humanoid victim of liquefaction could only watch as their whole body became more destabilized and sink into a puddle of skin. Over the years, Grey City has only had to do the liquefaction process on humanoids seven times. I was somewhat hoping that this would be the eighth.

Angered that he would not be able to fight me and show his loyalty to the Guard, the disgruntled novice swore and went back over to his squadron. I didn’t know if I should be relieved or saddened. I hate humanoids and Guards. Fighting them both in one body would have been heaven for me.

The head Guard glanced over at me. “Back in line, convict,” He ordered. “Back in line wait with the other dogs,” I hesitated. Moving back into the line would be quite difficult in this hot and from-fitting jumpsuit. I already felt constricted. Moving back into the line would take minutes. Instead, I thought about reasoning with the head Guard. He was human after all, so he should understand my problem. Then again, I am a thief and a ‘dog’. It was worth a try, though.
I gave him a faint smile. “Can I just wait here until the Express comes? It’s…a little tight below the waist, if you know what I mean, and I fear that moving in this horribly constricting jumpsuit will crush my…er,” I stopped. I didn’t need to say more. The other convicts had already began to snicker. I was always the funny one. It just came naturally. Besides, I like messing with the Guard. It was my other pleasure besides petty theft.

Not picking up on the joke, the head Guard became red with fury. Swooping over to me, he was now inches from my face. Unlike the humanoid Guards, the human Guards did not wear armor, only the standard Grey City black uniform. On top of the human Guard’s head sat a cap that, in silver stitching, said ‘Grey City Guard. Bathed in honor’. His face was round and pudgy. It was quite usual to see rotund head Guards in Grey City. The humanoid Guards did the work and the human head Guards got all the credit. The whole system was quite corrupt.

The head guard’s face became almost as read as a tomato. “Get back in line!” He yelled. I winced. Any louder and I was sure he could have awakened the dead. “Now!” He ordered me again. Fortunately for fatso, I actually respect human Guards. I slowly inched my way back into the line, my lower waist constricting with every step.
Hours later, with the sun starting to set and the sky becoming a wild mix of pink, yellow, and red, the other future inmates of Madd Castle and myself were becoming frustrated and sluggish. We had been waiting there in line a whole afternoon. As a result, some of the convict conversation had recently changed its focus to actually arriving at Madd Castle. It was hot standing in the sun all afternoon and going to an air-conditioned facility seemed like a beckoning haven to us.

“Where is that stupid bus?” One man grumbled ahead of me. “It’s hot and this suit is killin’ me,”
“Just think of the air conditioning, man,” Replied a second calmly. “The sun’s going down and I don’t think the Express will be much longer,” I chuckled to myself. It just seemed funny that the men here who possibly have no hope at escaping the walls of Madd Castle have more of a hope that they’ll get air-conditioning. For all we know the Guards could have the Express parked outside of their headquarters, waiting for us to pass out from heat exhaustion. They hated criminals and toying with them was one way that they could get back at us. The other way was killing us on the spot if we were caught.
From behind the warehouse, the straining sound of an overworked engine pierced the silence of the early evening. Following the silence there was a faint smell of diesel exhaust. Seconds later a black, rusted bus appeared from around the corner of the warehouse and made a wide turn into the back lot: the Madd Castle Express.

The Guards that had been previously leaning against the warehouse wall and making jokes about us all afternoon now arose from their posts to chain us together in handcuffs. Metallic handcuffs clamped each man’s wrists and a long, shining chain connected him to the convict in front and behind him as if linking them all to the same inescapable fate. They were quite heavy, and many of the weaker men held their arms at their sides. Now that we were chained, six Guards lined up on each side of the line and watched us carefully as we stepped onto the bus to make sure that they had not missed any contraband that any criminal could be possessing.

Passing the rookie Guard that pulled me out of line, I could only smile. He looked down at me with disgust. He knew that I had won this round. Ironically, it was a hollow triumph seeing that I was going to prison and he was still free and not Liquefied.

“See ya, rookie,” I said with a triumphant, but fake smile. “Maybe next time,” The novice merely grunted as his blue eyes passed over me to the next man in line.

By the time all of the criminals got onto the bus and our handcuffs were taken off, the sun had begun to dip below the warehouse. Darkness was creeping in and the sky was now becoming awash in a darker hue of blue and purple. Still streaked with the fiery colors of the evening, the colors of darkness slowly passed over the sky as they battled for nightly supremacy against the dazzling evening sky.

Passing through Grey City’s busy streets, I stole a final glance at the skyline that I hoped that I would see again soon. The great, gray skyscrapers of Grey City poked up from the ground like grass in a field. I sighed as we passed out of Grey City limits, the sign ‘Now leaving Grey City’ speeding by as the clanking Madd Castle Express made its way into the wasteland outside.