Joe had heard that this new high-tech, highly automated factory had just opened in town. He wanted to be a mechanical engineer so this piqued his interest. What disappointed him though was the use that all this cutting-edge technology was being put to. Apparently, it was being used for reconditioning old dolls!
He still wanted to see it all in action but enquiries proved fruitless. They didn’t allow visitors. They said that they would have to take so many safety measures and fill out all sorts of health and safety forms and risk assessments that it wasn’t worth their while.
When the school holidays came, he was really bored. Working on a supermarket checkout wasn’t much of a diversion for someone interested in going to university to do mechanical engineering.
One night he thought about breaking into the factory to have a look. There wasn’t much in the way of security at the perimeter. Who would want to break into a doll factory anyway? He circled the building and noticed a small window at the back that looked like it wasn’t fully closed.
He found a stick that he could insert in the gap and flick off the window handle so it opened. He looked in. Perfect! It was a window in the toilets. He could get in there without being seen by any security guard that might be around. So he climbed in.
He carefully peeked out the door of the toilets and saw no lights on anywhere. The factory looked entirely shut down, deserted and locked up for the night.
The first area he came to had boxes of old dolls of all sorts and sizes. They were all battered and worn-out. There were various machines, some of which he thought he recognised. Some looked like scanners. He could identify some 3-D printers. It could just as easily have been a car factory with all sorts of mechanical arms around the place to presumably do the more high-precision work.
At the other end of that section were other boxes, clearly of reconditioned dolls. Again, it looked like the machinery could be programmed to handle all sorts and sizes. Some of the dolls were almost the size of a child - they looked really creepy! He had to be impressed, though, that they all looked to be in pristine condition.
Further on, he found another box. These were not spanking-new-looking dolls. They appeared to be old, but better cared for. The box was marked “Pre-loved”. Yuck! That term made him sick. The dolls in that box mostly had fancy costumes and looked like they were probably display dolls rather than played-with.
Joe moved to the end of the production line to get a closer look. There was a sudden blip – just like the blip from a checkout when it reads a bar code – a sound he was all too familiar with, so it didn’t alarm him. Then two beams of laser light flipped up and down in front of him and behind him. That was more worrying.
Before he had time to react, he was lifted up in the air. Two metal curved prongs had slipped under his arms and raised him up. Then he was shunted across over the production line. His legs swung back and forth as he was helplessly suspended in mid-air. Mechanical arms appeared and grabbed him by the ankles and wrists, holding him firmly in position. Again, beams of light flicked up and down in front of him and behind him, though a bit more slowly this time. This wasn’t good. Lights started coming on all around the factory. He looked around desperately, not sure whether he wanted to see someone or not. He didn’t want to be caught breaking in but it did look like he was in a bit of a predicament.
A screen flickered into life and a message appeared: “3D map complete”. Suddenly more mechanical arms appeared with what seemed to be scissors and blades. Joe was startled and froze, thinking that he was about to be cut to pieces.
The scissors and blades whirred millimetres from his skin and in an extraordinary few seconds all his clothes were cut off him without even nicking his skin. He looked down to see himself completely naked! He was really impressed at the unprecedented accuracy of the machinery but less impressed with the pile of shredded clothes on the ground beneath him. It looked like this break in was a bad idea after all.
He was shunted further to the left with his wrists and ankles still firmly grasped. The screen now showed “Random outfit selection complete”. He could see machines automatically cutting materials and stitching fabrics. The whole factory had come to life with no sign of anyone around except for his entirely naked self.
Topic: Doll Factory (Read 1227 times)
