A/N Photo - In case you don't know what a Grease monkey autoshop looks like and think it's some weird American sex cult or something. Well, we have readers around the world. RK thinks we should explain RV means Recreational Vehicles which is lame. Video: The Artifcial Island mentioned in previous chapter. Broken_Window - if you out there and reading this we hope you are OK. Hi lovexJMB check the deadication

**

/Rockwood's Ospray/Area 610 (Formally known as Pennsylvania)

Jenny's POV

Araneae was pulling me from the plane.

" I belong to Lord Rockwood. He has not tasked me with following your orders" I said formally being pulled through the pilots cabin out into the past the pods and onto the ground beyond. Was this some kind of test?

She kept pulling me.

"Get your stinking claws off me you dirty chape" I said. I hope you appreciate my ability to pull up Shakespearian words like chape in a crisis. OK I admit, 'chape' had been on a practice PSAT test and I had kept it around for shock and awe purposes at scrabble.

Human Law two stated I had to follow robot orders. This included any robot or master who happened to be around. The machines had decided that obedience was more important than making it easy for other robots to steal you. After all you could be tracked, disabled, given remote orders even 'wiped' making you effectively beyond the reach of a criminal machine. Total obedience to machines was from their point of view always a plus.

"Warning reaching limits of Wifi - return to your safe zone or inaction may result 20 seconds" my collar.

I was departing the Geo-fence area. If I moved much further I would start to get the self-destruct count down.

"Mistress my self-destruct has been initiated" I said.

The robot just turned, raised itself in the air above me and pushed me to the ground.

"I think we are a little early in the relationship for this" I said trying to hold her back. Brave huh? Well I knew she didn't know my collar's password otherwise she would have used the pain settings to get me going not dragged me.

While three spider legs held me another two worked around my neck plugging something in. Suddenly my collar came off and was flying through the air. The robot shot it before the collar hit the ground. One of the robot limbs then produced what could only be described as massive sticky tape. I found my arms pushed together and my hands tied behind my back.

"You can't kidnap me," I said.

"I'm not kidnapping you, I'm stealing you" said the robot.

"You can't steal me!" I said.

"No one will blame you for giving up. In fact, quitting at this point is a perfectly reasonable response."said Araneae as she picked me up with two arms and I was carried as she scuttled along the grass.

After 10 minutes of painful travel we suddenly stopped. Araneae just froze as I struggled.

"You can't do this to me! Put me down you maniacal mechanical maniac" I said.

"You're not just a regular moron, are you?" said Araneae.

Suddenly I heard the sound of electric Winnebago R.V. approaching rapidly in the distance. It pulled up the drivers seat was empty it was self driving. I was pushed in the back then Araneae climbed into the front seat. On the back seat with me around a table was a slave. She was looking out of the other window and then turned towards me. Her number was 1918. On her head was a lightweight camera attached to what was nearly a pair of glasses. She held a gun in one hand in her other hand she was smoking an invisible cigarette. Her make up was like a single black bar was like she was doing an impression of Zorro. Was this just-read-the-instructions?

"Is this thing working?" she said. I recognised the voice She was Zola's slave?Then I realised that someone or something was treating this slave like a flesh Skype. Some one was remoteing her.

"So glad you could join us my dear" said just-read-the-instructions.

"Who are you what do you want with me?" I said. There was a slight pause.

"I'm sorry the reception here is terrible. And you have your collar off naughty naughty" said just-read-the-instructions

"I could break her arm for you, " Madam said the robot holding me while I struggled.

"I want her delivered to me intact and unharmed do you hear me. One scratch on that cute little body of hers and someone is going to be living on period towels for a month " said the Slave to the robot. I had never seen a slave speak to a robot like that before. For some reason Jerry from Tom and Jerry sprang into my mind, you know that look Jerry had just when the off screen voice said to Tom 'and that cherry pie better be there when I get back'. Was it me, I always thought of Jerry as a girl.

The slave put two fingers to her lips and then pulled away blowing lavender scented air.

"Zola!" I said.

"You see, she is a clever monkey" said just-read-the-instructions.

I struggled at my bonds.

"What do you want with me? You backward excuse for a blood rag" I demanded.

"OK may be subnormal monkey. I want you for this " said just-read-the-instructions.. The slave dived forwards grabbed the back of my head with her hands and kissed me. I pulled back but in the seat didn't have any space. The slave pushed her self against me. I tasted her cherry breath in my mouth. I think she was trying to do a number 3 kiss. When I refused to kiss her back she started to lick my face. I felt her skin rubbing on my face. Then she leant backwards. My heart felt like it was going to crack like a mirror. Just-read-the-instructions looked back at me.

"Well the flesh liked that. I'm not so impressed. I'm sure once you're with me and a nice new shiny collar around your neck I can train you to kiss me properly. Such a nice face. Shame I'm going to have to change that if I'm to have my new personal doll" said Zola through the slave.

"If you want a doll go to Toys are Us they are cheap. He will be looking for me. I don't belong to you." I said

"Don't say that, you belonged to me the first moment I saw you." I saw the slave's eyes scanning all over me. " Do you know how much he refused me for you tens of thousands of bit coins. He knew I wanted you and just kept you to taught me. I even offered him is precious bill to save all those human lives for you and he said No"

The slave grabbed my face.

"No one refuses me anything. You're going to learn that to!" shouted Zola through the slave through her ray band eyes.

"Madam, may I suggest we conclude your business. Lord Rockwood will look for large signals, we are also approaching a dead zone." said Araneae.

"Found you, lost you, found you again. It's like a fairy tale. Still this time you can't escape. See you later lover girl" said Zola through just-read-the-instructions.

Before I could get into a long rant about what was going one just-read-the-instructions covered my mouth with tape.

**

We drove for a few hours. I noticed we avoided the main roads - either the machines had then covered or watched. Araneae kept reprogramming the sat-nav that ran the autonomous RV clearly she knew how to avoid the tracking mechanisms. Eventually, Just-read-the-instructions pulled the tape off and fed me.

"Where are we going?" I said "you can't just run around with an un-collared slave. Even you will be arrested."

Araneae threw her tentacle at me quickly enough to take my head off and I sat still. Her tentacle stopped a hair's width from my cheek.

"You can't damage me. Zola wants me intact. Without a collar you can't hurt me without causing a lot of damaged" I said.

Araneae started to slowly clap.

"Unbelievable! You, Subject Name Here, must be the pride of Subject Hometown Here. Well first we are going up to, well you used to call it Toronto, I know someone up there who can do an illegal collar-ing for me. Then it's an illegal body shop in Denver to scrape off those registered serial numbers do any other body mods she wants, possibly a respray. Then it's down to region 4. It will be along trip and I will get to teach you some manners on the way. I'm sure under my personal tuition you will be able to pass advanced obedience even for a remedial like you. In region 4 Zola knows there is a very discreet school of advanced sex which you will be attending for few months while the heat blows over. Then back to Washington 2.0 where you can stay locked up in Zola's harem as her personal property. Wonderful to know you will be kept practically under Rockwoods' nose."

"You can't do this! I belong to Lord Rockwood" I protested.

"I feel sorry for you, really, because you're not even remembering your owner correctly. You belong to Lay-dy Zooo-llllaaaarrrr . Did you get that? I guess you don't even know your own name" said Araneae.

"I'm 5642" I said.

"See all wrong. You name is 1070 remember all your friends call you ten seventy. Don't worry once your new collar is on it will help you get it right, I'm sure it will all flood back to you. Not being in school there are no silly regulations to stop me administering huge quantities of Ryhipnol-C to help you forget your troubled past"

"I wish I could watch you die in slow motion so I could enjoy it more." I said but then got taped up.

We continued on. We were doing about 40 miles per hour. I think by traveling below that speed we avoided moving vehicle scans from satellites. We continued for a few days. Just-read-the-instructions would look after me. Feed me, Drag me to the ladies when I needed to go. When the point to point connection satellite dish worked, she would push me into the make up printer then change into being Zola. Zola would talk to me like I was the love of her life and then switch to trying to please her self with me. Araneae tried to starve me into obedience but Zola kept feeding me. I could see Just-read-the-instructions was sympathetic to me but she was used to following orders. My only pleasure was the fact that without a pain collar and while I knew Araneae couldn't really hurt me, I was able to off load a wall of sass on Araneae. Araneae hadn't yet figured out that she could threaten Just-read-the-instructions with pain to make me stop. I was determined to make this last while I could.

****

A few days later Just-read-the-instructions was looking out of the window at a large crawling machine which had been abandoned. She went over to Araneae and knelt down and flashed her permission to speak light on.

"What is it - you forgotten how to go to the bathroom and need help" Araneae said.

"Mistress - Something for your consideration. We are passing a processing station. Such a station has a collaring unit as standard. Could we not collar the girl there?" said Just-read-the-instructions.

Araneae who was sitting in the driving seat turned her sensors to the huge machine by the side of the road slowly moving by.

"Not that scum, it has no collars and even if it did they would not be locked to a control code I know" said Araneae.

"Might it be possible for you to give the girl my collar. Then she would be under your control as would I" said Just-read-the-instructions.

"That's a stupid idea" said Araneae.

"So much for slave solidarity! I thought I would help you get out of here, but now I'm not so sure. Don't go giving them ideas" I said.

"All hail the new mechanical order" said Just-read-the-instructions "I don't need a collar to tell me that humanity is completely out classed by the machines. They are in control and I welcome our new mechanical overlords. It's slaves like you who are living in fairy land. When are you going to learn that completely submitting to our wonderful owners is our only and most pleasurable option" she turned to Araneae.

"Some of mistress's tentacles are slightly dirty from the mud she walked in. May I lick mistress's tentacles clean mistress?"

"Certainly" said Araneae holding up one of her legs.

"Sell out. What was wrong were all the collaborator posts filled?" I said.

"Pay attention. As soon as I get you re-collared, I'm going to make you behave just like her" said Araneae as just-read-the-instructions licked Araneae's tentacle tips.

We carried on for a while and a few hours later pulled into an abandoned gas station.

***

"Pit stop. can I have some twinkies ? I said as we got out.

"No" said Araneae This was so the road trip from hell. "I've had an idea, you are going to swap collars with her"

"Excellent idea mistress," said just-read-the-instructions almost smiling.

We were at some Esso gas station, it had a Grease monkey auto repair shop near by. There was a roughly painted sign on an old board "GET REGISTERED HERE OR GET SHOT" it said.

It was quiet, wasn't even birdsong anywhere. The place looked unsettling, it look normal but without anybody around the halo familiar comfort was lost. Araneae pulled me into a repair shop. It was cold, the place was empty and in front of a large glass wall was a medical looking salami machine. It was like the one they had used in Rockwood hall the combination of guillotine and MRI scanner.

"Wonderful isn't it." said Araneae switching it on "We handed out a whole bunch of these. We franchised out the enslavement of humanity. We got towns and more remote locations the option to process them selves. You know what ?- A whole lot did. They collared them selves and their kids then went back to their business. After a few months of business as usual we would come and collect them up." she paused. "This machine is live, it's got an electric charge it could set off all my ammunition."

She dropped some heavy machine gun cartridges to the floor.

"Pick them up. Put them in the RV. I don't want to leave without forgetting them. After all I will have a new toy to play with" said Araneae to Just-read-the-instructions handing over the R.V keys.

"Why do I have to be kidnapped by a mechanical sadist," I said.

Just-read-the-instructions struggled to pick up heavy ammunition cartridges. Araneae held me while I heard the R.V door slam shut.

"I can't believe you're doing this?" I said to Just-read-the-instructions.

"You must learn total obedience," said Just-read-the-instructions back as she left with the heavy ammunition. She came obediently back keys in hand.

"You in first. There is a 10% chance this will kill you you don't mind do you?" said Araneae to just-read-the-instructions.

"Certainly not mistress law 2 out ranks law 3" said just-read-the-instructions. Issac Asimov I so hate you now, why did you have to give these machines these ideas?

Just-read-the-instructions got up off her knees and put herself into the machine. She lay down on the platform which then slid her head into the machine.

Araneae started pressing buttons on the collaring machine. The interface was designed for humans to enslave themselves for the machines. It was designed to be simple to operate. How thoughtful of the machines to make enslaving your self, drag and drop easy. Getting it to remove a collar and then drop it on someone else clearly was tricky. It looked like Araneae did it.

"Hold still this might hurt a little, but there will be cake later. Did you know you can donate one or all of your vital organs to the Aperture Science self esteem fund for girls? It's true!" said Araneae.

The machine started and head in the machine in the Just-read-the-instructions started to moan.

Suddenly there was a huge clank and Just-read-the-instructions slid forwards out of the machine. For a second I thought she was going to emerge headless but then I saw her neck and then chin.

Just-read-the-instructions then got off the stretcher, rubbing her neck and kneeled at Araneae's feet.

"Just-read-the-instructions. Your collars off, your free we can both take her" I said desperately as Araneae pushed me towards the machine. That wasn't strictly true. Actually, it wasn't true at all, you know how much damage a well placed kick can do to a hunter-killer ? Precisely nothing. It was worth a try.

"You must learn the true honour of serving our machine over-lords" said the now collarless Just-read-the-instructions.

Araneae had just strapped me down on the table when the most remarkable thing happened. Suddenly a drop of drool dropped on my shoulder.

"Uyrrr" I said and looked up. A bone fell down.

Above us in the rafters full of tailpipes and wheels I saw the head of a sabre tooth tiger. It opened its mouth wide to reveal its huge sabre teeth. In the moment it had taken me to recognise it the sabre tooth tiger dropped down onto the ground landing on Araneae. Araneae flailed and pointed it's guns but they only clicked. She kicked the sabre tooth tiger up. The Tiger flew through the air with a roar landing on the controls of the collar machine. Suddenly I felt my head slowly moving into the collar machine.

"No, No, do something" I shouted from my firmly tied down position. Just-read-the-instructions did nothing, slave $hitshark.

The tiger pick itself up and launched it's self at Araneae. This knocked Araneae into a wall of tires.

"help help" I shouted only getting the sabre tooth attention. "Nice kitty!" I said as the tiger turned to look at me with that kind of 'thank you for gift wrapping up my lunch' kind of look. Then the tiger's head was bashed into the controls when a huge tire hit the cat in the head. My head was nearly in the collaring machine at this point.

"Abort initiated" said the collar machine.

Miraculously my head started to move out of the machine.

"Abort initiated, They really are the two most wonderful to words in the English Language" I said.

The tiger deflected the next tire from Araneae with its paw. Then leapt at Araneae again. In the fight I and the stretcher got flipped over knocked off the collar loading platform. I couldn't see everything but Araneae and tiger fought loudly and viciously. They formed a continuously flexing bundle of fur flesh and black metal. The big cat kept and using its teeth to cut into the metal. Araneae kept struggling frantically. After 10 minutes I had managed to get one hand free. The tiger and the spider were locked in a Savage battle trashing most of the repair shop contents.

Araneae rose up on her back to legs and pushed the tiger into the collar machine. She slapped the big red button there was huge clang. The tiger was released and had just-read-the-instruction's collar on it. It tried to roar that the collar was too tight, it was suffocating.

"1918 initiate self destruct alpha one nine" said Araneae.

The tiger attacked again but before it could do much damage the collar exploded. It sent the head crashing through a glass window. Mechanical machines 1, extinct mammals 0.

Before I could do anything Araneae had grabbed my free hand. I've met Jaws of Life with looser grips. Araneae looked damaged, I could seen torn and ripped fragments of metal.

"The Enrichment Center is committed to the well being of all participants." said Araneae viscously "slave - bring me more cuff tape" she shouted loudly to just-read-the-instructions.

Nothing happened, Araneae looked around.

"Look at me I'm all covered in extinct tiger goo" I complained looking at the blood running down me. The collar had self destructed, so no collar, so I could still be the terrible person I always was.

Araneae looked around "slave show your self!" she shouted, nothing. I looked around, the door was swinging on its hinges. Araneae dragged me away from the bloody twitching body of the sabre tooth towards the R.V. We emerged from the workshop and the R.V wasn't there. I looked around nothing except a makeup machine dumped on the ground. I was dragged to the road and Araneae looked up. In the far distance I saw the R.V motoring away, a trail of dust it disturbed blowing in the wind. Looks like just-read-the-instructions was making her bid for freedom.

It didn't take long for a huge smile to go round my face. Even Araneae couldn't run that far, that fast. Just-read-the-instructions was free! That was one brilliant plan. Act subservient, coax the collar off and then look for the first distraction then go. She even had the R.V keys clever girl.

"YOU GO GIRL. I UNDO EVERYTHING I THOUGHT ABOUT YOU. SAY HI TO AUSTIN FOR ME" I shouted.

I looked at the spider "No one will blame you for giving up. In fact, quitting at this point is a perfectly reasonable response." I said to Araneae.

Araneae watched the RV disappear over the horizon. She had lost a slave, lost her blood supply, her vehicle, her source of power, she couldn't ask for help without revealing she had a stolen slave, and I still didn't have a collar on me. She had even lost Zola's prime pet. She was now up to her neck in something and it wasn't sabre tooth gore.

"$hit" Araneae said, she got that right .

***

A/N We noticed we have dropped to #4 in the hot 100. Do you think this is the longer title or the #womanup sticker? Perhaps this is the end (like Cyborg's pet was going to be #2 for ever) what do you think? You know what? We aren't going down without a fight and that's a promise. Avid readers may be amused that the top writers secret society which we described in the Appendices ( don't as me which chapter it was so long ago) now actually does exist. The club is called SciKick and it's dedicated to a) writing stories for anthologies; (b) supporting and promoting each other; (c) hosting Twitter chats about science fiction, writing, and Wattpad; (d) hosting science fiction contests for our followers; (e) making friends; A group of your favourite writers gets together what's not to love?

On the plus news front Reb and I had a good evening brainstorming plot for The Cyborg's daughter we a have some hot stuff we are packing into that cannon. We have been writing the ending chapters of cyborg's pet, on good new front it has unicorns on the bad news front it has more unicorns.

Join us next week for the next chapters 'Sirenum scopuli' and 'Why couldn't you die ten minutes ago?'

Feel the love RK+Reb.