They are the people who keep Organisations going, they step in, step up, or just help out how they can. A vast Army of ordinary people, old, young, able bodied or doing what they can when they can. If they are lucky, they get 'petrol money'. -- Knitnan
It was a nondescript interrogation room, but something about it told Lorraine that this particular interview room was underground. The taste of the air. The way the air conditioning sounded. The way the room felt. It all told Lorraine that she was far away from any mortal means of detecting. Any minute now, someone would tell her that she could scream all she liked, and that no-one would hear her.
A man in armani sat backwards in the steel chair opposite her. His large belly lapped either side. He had two burly guards, even here. Even with Lorraine in chains. "Don't even bother trying to call for help," said the very famous man in a very high position of power. "Nobody who can hear you cares." Well. At least he didn't drop the old cliché. "You can scream all you like, it won't do you any good."
Lorraine refused to give him the satisfaction. "This is just the most recent in the long line of your mistakes, sir," she said. "The Legion of the Invisible has protocols for anyone in a leader position going missing."
The very important man scoffed. "Legion of the Invisible. I don't see no Legion of the Invisible." Even his bodyguard got a pained expression at that one. "Here's how it goes. You tell me everything you and your little band of terrorists has planned, and you might get to live. Tell us nothing and you die. Your body is never found. It's easy to make someone like you vanish. Nobody would ever notice that you're gone."
"That's what you think," singsonged Lorraine. "And as for our plans... you just accelerated them. Vanished, dead, detained... it doesn't make a difference. The plans are already underway."
"And what have you got planned?" sneered the very important man.
Lorraine smiled. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."
They tortured her, of course. And she did, eventually scream when they found something that hurt more than her PCOS attacks. And they did end her life, quite by accident, in the end. The very important man spoke a rare truth when he said that her body would never be found. It never was.
But by then, it was far, far too late.
The morning after Lorraine was taken, an automated post appeared on her social media site. She was not there to delay it for another twenty-four hours. And, all around the country, a lot of people were not there, either. People who weren't noticed. People who did things that weren't noticed.
Every volunteer and intern in the nation had an excuse. A wildcat illness. A family emergency. They just needed a break. Candy-stripers were no longer taking up mundane, menial tasks in hospitals or care centres. People who took the litter off of highways were not there to do so. The firefighters and the cleaners and the ambulance drivers... didn't.
All across the nation that had been ruined by the very important man, volunteers and unpaid workers everywhere failed to show up. Many never bothered to ring in.
Some parts of the country noticed inside of mere hours. Others didn't notice until the mess began to mount up. All of a sudden, the nation that ran on the unpaid work of millions... no longer worked at all. Those in power noticed that there were no longer interns to deliver their coffee. There were no longer volunteers who emptied their wastebaskets. There were no longer people who picked up after them.
They all came against the very important man, complained to him. Expected him to fix it. But he had never known how to fix a single thing in his entire life. He tried to blame people, but they were all out seeking paid work in a nation with not enough of that to go around. Some were making their own industries, struggling against the laws written to stop them, but they insisted on being paid by the hour before they lifted a finger for anyone else but themselves.
Chaos reigned supreme. All because some people who did what everyone needed wanted to be paid what they were worth.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / innovatedcaptures]
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