Chapter One: Be Careful What You Wish For Julie Jo “JJ” Johansson looked up from her personal tablet and glanced at the company computer screen in front of her. It still said, “Standby for Transcription.” “Do you think there is any worse job than this?” she asked Marcie Dumont, the only other person in the room despite the fact that there were several dozen transcription stations. “This isn’t that bad,” Marcie answered. “...

Chapter Three: Departure JJ woke up around 6:30 when she heard another loud "thump" against the door to the room. She called out, “Who’s there?” but there was no response. Instead, a sheet of paper slid under the door. There was enough clearance that whoever pushed the paper beneath the door was able to propel it halfway across the room where it landed, face up, near the end of the bed. At the top of the page, in very lar...

Chapter Four: The Trip to the Ranch The bus was not what JJ expected. In fact, the bus was not what any of the recruits expected. There were no seats– at least not in the traditional sense. Instead, there were ten rows of large bicycle saddles– at least that is what they looked like. There were four in each row, mounted on poles about two feet high. In front of each row of saddles a long bar hung crossways at ceiling leve...

Chapter Five: Processing In As Sarge walked up onto to the small porch of the processing shed, he shouted, “About face!” After a moment of confusion on the part of a couple of the recruits, he added, “That means turn around and face the other way.” It was obvious one recruit was still unsure of which way to turn, so he shouted angrily, “That means turn around and look at me!” All of the recruits were now facing the proces...