{Author's Note: I never put notes like this up. However, I'm doing that now. I don't know how you'd take this, but advise you take it as a warning still. If you comment on this book, do that discreetly. If you stay in a place with laws that goes against the content of my book, please stop here, and close the page. I won't be the reason why you're publicly executed. I don't expect much from y'all, but for you to just read, and not say a fucking thing. Once again, this work is depraved, read at your own discretion.
Colorful pieces of fabric float on the ocean's surface under the yellow light of dawn. They follow the trail of a fishing boat, whose loud diesel engine roars with a painful buzz as the old vessel slowly makes its way towards the high seas.
On the boat's deck, two figures dressed in orange foul weather jackets yell and argue with one another as they work in circles around their latest catch hanging under the hook of the boat's main gantry.
"I'm not going to lie to the Boss!" one of the figures, a thin woman with braided hair, yells out loud. Her voice strained not so much due to anger, but for having to compensate for the engine noise, "She's going to be even more pissed by the lie than by what you did!"
She bends to collect more pieces of cloth from the floor, which she rolls into a ball and throws overboard. She then takes a step sideways and, with her Bowie knife, slices the clothes of the next pre-teen boy hanging by the wrists under the gantry. His head is covered with a sack of golden fabric tied around his neck that balloons each time he lets out another muffled complaint against his mouth gag.
"For the last time, I did nothing!" the second figure, a muscular woman with a buzz cut, yells back as she cuts the shoelaces of another captured boy, his head also covered with a golden sack "If anything I saved our asses! Imagine what would have happened if they uploaded the video!"
She removes the dirty tennis shoe from the boy's foot and throws it overboard, causing the owner to let out another round of muffled yells. His murmurs join the chorus of muted complaints by the other four boys also struggling behind him.
The woman with braids growls in frustration as she finishes slicing the hole-riddled t-shirt of the next boy, leaving him wearing only his white undies. He squirms and tries to fight back throwing blind kicks in the air which the woman easily dodges. He eventually stops once he, like the rest of the kids, is forced to support his weight on his tiptoes. His arms are pulled taught by zip ties holding his wrists together, connected to a web of ropes and hooks radiating from under the gantry.
"You dumb-ass! That's exactly my point!" the woman with braids yells, throwing the remains of the boy's shirt off the boat, "A grainy video taken by some kids without context is much more likely to be ignored by police than triggering an effing Amber alert just as we depart!"
"For fuck's sake! What was I supposed to do!? Shoot him!?" the muscular woman thunders, throwing the boy's other shoe far out to the ocean. The five kids shut up immediately, recoiling in fear.
The woman with braids shakes her head in disappointment, slices the boy's undies and throws them away. She turns his now nude, hairless body around to make sure he's completely free from clothing, and moves sideways to undress the next one.
"If that meant preventing the Feds from knowing when and where our boat departed, then YES! Shoot the darn drone!" she motions with her knife at the dilapidated vessel around them, "This ain't no hydrofoil! We ain't smuggling nanos inside pineapples anymore! The only reason we can operate out in the open like this is for no one to think there's anything remarkable about THIS boat!" she taps her forehead with a finger, then points at the sky, "There's still some satellites up there you know!? Imagine what would the Boss DO once they start pointing their cameras at us!"
The muscular woman rolls her eyes and turns around, the trembling boy she just finished undressing. She confirms he's completely naked and moves on to the next one.
"Please! Spare me the lecture! No Amber alerts were triggered, their parents probably haven't even noticed they're gone yet! We'll be fine!" she yells with an emphasis on 'fine', then waves her hand around, dismissing the topic, "You're overreacting as always! The Boss may hate lies, but she hates when people waste her time even more! Nothing happened, so there's nothing to report."
The woman with braids raises her arms in exasperation, giving up on their discussion. Her partner smirks and motions at the squirming group of pubescent boys in various stages of undress between them.
"But hey! Look at the bright side! We finally got five! Now you'll get that darn bonus you wanted so much…!"
The other woman sighs and shakes her head as she starts to undress the next preteen, one that hasn't fought against his restraints like the rest and just hangs motionless by the wrists. She cuts his white t-shirt with a faded NASA logo on the front into ribbons and discovers that that's all it took to leave him completely nude. She smiles and takes a step back.
"Hey look! This one had nothing underneath!"
"Ha-ha, another one!?" The muscular woman says with a laugh "I love this latest fashion trend. Makes our jobs so much easier!"
She steps in front of the last boy yet to be undressed, one that squirms and fights a bit harder than the rest. She holds him steady with one hand while with the other she presses her knife on the edge of his green hoodie.
She stops.
"Oh geez, I love this hoodie! And it's so large too! I bet my oldest would be able to wear it, she would look SO cute in it!" says the muscular woman with a big smile as she stretches the fabric, admiring the artwork on the front of the hoodie "Girl… the Boss should allow us to bring cameras during these missions again, I need to take a picture of this. You know how much my daughter loves these old Nintendo games…"
The woman with braids walks around the struggling boys to look at the hoodie. She raises an eyebrow and nods approvingly, then pats the back of her partner.
"Yeah, she'll be able to wear it when visiting you in jail!" she laughs, the muscular woman rolls her eyes "Come on, stop worrying about finding your girl the 'perfect' birthday gift and just buy her whatever the bots suggest. They know her better than you anyway..." she slides her Bowie knife back into its sheath "We should hurry anyway, we still got to check them for implants and tracking devices, and I have a feeling these drones' assholes are tight!" she slaps the butt of the closest nude boy who squirms "Now where the hell I left the Vaseline...?"
She looks around the deck scratching her head, then goes below deck leaving the muscular woman alone with the tied group of boys.
She stares for another minute at the magnificent image on the boy's hoodie as if trying to memorize it, then lets out a pained sigh and presses her knife on the fabric again.
She stops, turns the struggling boy around so he's standing facing away from her, and starts slicing the soft cloth, causing even more muffled yells by the boy who flinches and fights against his restraints as he's forcibly undressed, to no avail.
The muscular woman rolls the green ribbons into a ball and throws it overboard with an aching expression. Thankfully for her, just like the boy with the white NASA shirt, this last one wasn't wearing anything below as well and now stands fully nude facing away from her.
She stores her knife, takes a breath, and puts her hands around his smooth body to turn him back around.
"At least you didn't wear any more cool stuff undern... SHIT!!!"
She jumps back, eyes bulging. Stares in frozen shock at the naked kid. Her face slowly transitions from confusion to horrific understanding.
"G-guys!?" she yells, "We have a problem!!!"
The diesel engine gurgles and hisses and comes to a full stop. The old fishing boat rocks back and forth in near silence, swayed gently by the warm morning breeze.
The cabin's door flings open, two women dressed in blue foul weather jackets step out. They join the first two dressed in orange on the deck.
The four adults stand silent in a semicircle around the five nude preteens still struggling against their restraints, their immature bodies shining from a sheen of sweat by their prolonged efforts and raising temperature.
"Okay, now the Boss is going to be pissed..." the woman with braids murmurs.
The four women put their hands on their heads and their mouths, in disbelief at the size of the mess they got into. One by one they exchange panicked looks, a silent conversation of stares and raised eyebrows follows.
The muscular woman finally steps in front of the group and takes command of the situation.
"We still got water jugs?"
"Uh? N-no…" says one of the women in blue "We used the last one when we dropped the anchor."
"Shit…" hisses the muscular woman. She presses her hands on her head trying to think "Okay, we'll have to improvise," she points at one of the women in blue "Turn us around back to land. And when the mothership calls to ask why we're changing course, tell them we got solid intel from these drones about the location of more like them and we're going to investigate… Yes, I know it's a flimsy excuse! Just stall them as much as you can!" she points at the other woman in blue "Go to the mess hall and bring ALL the plastic trash you can find," lastly, she points at the woman with braids "Bring rope and duct tape, anything to tie them together!"
The women glance at each other and nod, already figuring out what the plan is. They turn on their heels to get started but then the muscular woman taps her forehead when she remembers something.
"Shit, wait! Before you go!" they stop in their tracks "Do any of you brought a screen? Glasses? Phone? Anything that we can use to play the video the Boss always used? You know the one I mean, from before The Incredible Hunk showed up and became the Boss's pet and changed the whole procedure."
The women exchange looks and shake their heads, but then the woman with braids squeaks and taps her pockets in a rush. She produces an old iPhone 15 from one of them.
The muscular woman drops her shoulders in relief and grabs the tiny device. The women in blue stare in shock at the woman with braids.
"I-I confiscated it from the latest batch." she explains raising her palms "I was going to throw it away. I swear!"
The muscular woman turns the phone around and presses buttons until the screen turns on, she nods to her crewmates. They nod back and scramble around the boat to get going, running with the characteristic panic of employees trying to save their asses.
"Oh God, I hope this works..." the muscular woman murmurs as she types on the smartphone with clumsy finger taps, unfamiliar with the tiny keyboard.
Once the video starts to download, she glances back at the nude kids and groans in despair. It's still there, it's still happening.
The boat's engine coughs and gurgles, coming back to life.