Prison.

(Knacker Wagon Chronicles - XII)

Rev flicked the photograph back onto the shelf. "Consider it your first personal effect. This was supposed to be his cot. It's yours now. He didn't even get it warmed up."
"What was his name?", asked Baye.
"Lucky Eddy." Rev replied. His thin lips stretched into a toothy grin. Baye was growing to hate that expression. Rev could really wig him out. What he hated more was the thought of Rev telling some future sop how 'Lucky Baye' kicked the bucket - his life reduced to satisfying the pleasures of a sadistic maniac.
"Anyhow, gotta run. Sarge has more interesting business for me to take care of. I'm done babysitting you. See if you can survive the rest of the day." Rev left Baye standing before the cot. Baye wasn't sure which would be more interesting to Rev, finding out Baye did indeed survive, or finding out he did not.

The day had been a long one. His legs felt weighted down by lead bricks. The cot was looking mighty inviting. Besides, a person needs to actually use something for his ghost to haunt it. He sat on the edge of the cot. It was stiff but not entirely uncomfortable. He swing his feet up and leaned backwards. He could feel his mind swimming with the onset of sleep.
"You the new guy?", a voice asked.
Through closed eyelids, Baye responded to the intrusive noise, "Yeah, genius, what gave it away?"
"Genius yourself, if you want to survive a while, you'll learn better to know what's around you." Baye opened his eyes and cocked his head to one side then the other. The voice was coming from his immediate right.
"What's it to ya?", Baye asked.
"I've been waiting for the 'new guy'. I wish you arrived a little later. Like never. I was just catching up on my beauty rest and now you've bothered to show up. Let's go, you got toilets to scrub." Baye held his tongue. Rather, in his sleepy state, he just couldn't think of a good rejoinder. "Catch." Baye received a brush and bottle of cleaning fluid. He was relieved it wasn't merely a toothbrush.
"Name's Lenny. I don't care who you are 'til tomorrow. First prove you're worth knowing." Apparently, Lenny didn't have quite the charm that Rev carried. Baye hopped off the cot and followed Lenny out a side door.

Given the dreary nature of the compound at-large, Baye was surprised to see the bathroom in near pristine condition. How odd, he thought, that such care would be taken at the lavatory. He hadn't seen a single woman around anywhere.
"Scrub the bowls good. Make them shine. You might be eating off of one tonight," Lenny said. Baye got to work. Lenny watched for a few moments but appeared distracted, like he was mulling something over in his mind. Baye pondered if he could surprise Lenny. One quick move, and he could throw Lenny off balance. A second move and Baye could have Lenny drowing in a bowl of toilet water. But that wouldn't be the stall in which Baye would want to eat.

"So, newbie, how do you like the scam?" Lenny asked.
"Scam?" replied Baye.
"Yeah, this prisonless scam."
"Uh, sure looks like a prison to me."
"No, no, no, man, you haven't figured anything out yet, have you?"
"Hmm, let's see, armed guards, sniper towers, concertina wire, barriers, and complete with prisoners like us, what's so hard to figure out?"
"You don't get it. We're not prisoners in that sense."
"But we are prisoners."
Lenny creased his eyebrows. "Oh yeah, we're prisoners; we're prisoners of the System. We're under the hand of the Man. We're under the Thumb of tyranny."
"Yeah, like I said...," said Baye.
"You think those towers are for us? You think those guards are staring us down? Follow the money, newbie. We pay for them. We've paid for the towers."
Baye was baffled. Maybe Lenny had been sniffing too much toilet cleaner. He let Lenny continue.
"This whole place... this is our protection. We need a refuge from the good society. If we didn't have camps like this, like Nowhere, here, we'd be gone in a heartbeat. Every time the good society got their undies tied in knots they'd look for an excuse. What better, than to blame everything on us, and then take their frustrations out on us in a most violent way."
Baye noticed the cleaning fluid was rather powerful.
"We're outlaws newbie. That means what's done to us is outside the law. No repercussions, at least from Justice that is. We're in constant danger, newbie." Baye was picking up on the idea that Lenny was a talker. That was good to know. Eventually Lenny might say something worthwhile. There might be a lot of manure to endure, but Lenny might be prone to revealing secrets.
"The Man finally figured out that less laws can mean more control. Strip away laws protecting us and we cower. We do the bidding of the Man without any law to say we must. But we must if we want to survive. We're the colonial Georgia. We're the settlers of Australia. We're the new penal colony. Only we're not in a new land, we're in camps like Nowhere. Then the Man has the gall to say we're not in prison. We may not be under lock and key but we're still prisoners. We're prisoners of the System."