Asylum ((Finished) Story) Part 3 -- (Author) dogboy

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Author: dogboy
Timestamp: Oct 27, 2020 at 6:24 PM
Content: Asylum (Finished Story) Part 3

dogboy


A New Day

Mary looked haggard and for the first time, Barty noticed. In fact, he noticed a lot of things. He was aware his diaper needed changing and then he thought of his wife Alicia. “I have a wife.”

He almost said it out loud but he caught himself. He needed time to figure this out. He remembered last night and that was a start. He was aware of his room and surroundings and he was very aware of how he and Alicia were dressed. For some strange reason he didn’t mind. He kind of liked the idea of being a toddler and for the moment, he laid himself back down and let nature take its course, wetting his diaper. It felt right but there was something off. Why was his wife dressed like a toddler?

He was surprised when she sat up and said, “Babba. Alithy want babba?”

He struggled with his thoughts. There were too many of them; thoughts of being very young, infantile thoughts of eating simple food, drinking from a sippy cup and wearing and using diapers but now there was something else: Bobby. There were the other memories of being an adult and working for a big company where he wrote programs and then he knew everything. Bobby was right. He had to undo all of this and that solution resided down in the basement.

This day was like all the other days ever since he arrived at Moorehaven. They ate, they had playtime but mostly they stayed in their rooms, often unattended as the caregivers were in their rooms watching television. The once parents and their gifted children seemed so complacent and as he thought about it, mindless. He had to change that. He had taken a small plastic knife from the cafeteria and tonight he would be on a speaker poking mission. It was a simple plan and easy to execute. That night as everyone slept, Barty walked the halls. Moorehaven seemed quiet tonight except for one voice that he thought he heard coming from the East Wing.

“That’s it Barty. Fight back.”

It was done. The virtual assistants still had their flashing lights. They still took orders, mostly turning on and off the lights but they could no longer talk. They could no longer sing their lullabies. There was one more thing to do.

Barty remembered the green liquid CE X and he guessed they must be still under its influence, but what about the staff, especially the downstairs staff, the ones with the nice apartments? He needed to pay the cafeteria a visit.

It was dark at three in the morning but there was a little light which shone through the many tall institutional windows. The cafeteria seemed very different at night. He guessed it was because it was empty of people but that wasn’t entirely true. There were the others and he could feel their presence.

“They put something in our food so we wouldn’t act out.” It was Bobby and Barty was glad to see him again. He felt protective of Bobby, like Bobby was his own son and then he remembered his children, Mike and Monica. What were they doing he wondered and he thought he knew. They were the next generation who would reprogram the world. He suddenly missed them and he wondered, did they miss him and their mother? He had to do something, something that would get his wife and parents back into their right minds. And it wasn’t just his family.

The institutional refrigerators and freezers stood like stainless steel coffins in the dark of the night. Their coldness seemed to reach out into the room and all that was Moorehaven. Barty opened the door and wasn’t surprised when he saw the food labeled: Toddlers and Counselors. There was a second refrigerator and that food was labeled Professional Staff.

“Let’s switch Toddlers and Staff,” and he had to laugh. Tomorrow was the beginning of a new day.

Barty felt good and he realized, he hadn’t felt good or happy in a long time. In fact, he hadn’t felt anything since Moorehaven and he guessed the others were still in that state of nothingness but he also guessed that it was about to change. What he couldn’t realize was a lot was about to change because the operation room was no longer hearing the virtual assistant singing it’s lullabies at night. In fact, the v. a. machines weren’t saying anything and so they sent out a report, one that went to Nurse Florence. She was coming to Moorehaven like a late October hurricane.

There was a slow awakening on floors two through five. The adult babies had been without CE X for several days; several days removed from the baby prattle of their virtual assistant, the old and routine slowly changing into a new day. They were slightly aware of their surroundings, slightly aware of language and thought and slightly aware that there was shouting coming from the first floor. Nurse Florence had arrived.

Nurse Florence stomped down the stairs and first addressed the basement staff.

“What is this about the virtual assistants!” She had told herself on the flight that she wouldn’t shout. That would be unprofessional but she wouldn’t be nice or polite either. She sure as hell would raise her voice however.

“Why aren’t they working?” She sized up each and every technology staff member and secretly enjoyed their discomfort.

“Why wasn’t I told immediately?” She was saving her threats for others however and so she turned on her heal and headed back to the first floor. There she questioned the professional staff in much the same way, casting blame back on them for their mismanagement and of course the staff blamed the counselors.

“And who trained them,” she countered. “Perhaps you’d like to join them?” and again she reveled in not only their discomfort, but their fear.

“Well, what are you waiting for!” and her exasperated expression made it clear that she thought they were imbeciles.

“Ring the damn bell,” and with that she pushed a staff member aside and pounded the button herself sending off the jarring alarm to signal the caregivers in no uncertain terms that hellfire was about to rain down on them.

In truth, she had been getting daily reports from the tech staff because the virtual assistants heard everything and that included all that was said and done by the caregivers. Most of them had adopted Mary’s technique of treating the adult babies as their own little babies, gently talking to them like they were babies. Nurse Florence had heard all the sweet enticements.

“Oh sweet baby, eat your yummy supper for mommy or daddy,” whoever it was.

She also heard, “Oh, little baby’s wet. Does she need her wittle diapie changed? Here’s a cute little diapie. Roll over baby and help mommy,” or daddy, whoever it was, but it was never Mert. There it was more shut up and lie down. I haven’t got all day and there were several others like Mert. That, according to Nurse Flora, was how this experiment should have been run because it was an experiment on complete control and domination.

The caregivers lined up just as they had the first day but this was not like that day. This was a day that would be about disobedience. They had not followed the rules and they knew so much more now than when they first arrived. They now knew what could happen to them for disobeying those rules because they saw it in their special clientele.

Mary was the first to speak. “Miss Florence, what we were doing, it was working,” but before she could continue Nurse Florence yelled, “Shut up you stupid bitch!” Well she thought: she had just broken her own rule. It looked to her that yelling was back on the table and that’s exactly what she did and again, her eyes told the story. Vengeance was also on the table and it would start with Mary.

Nurse Florence directed the professional staff to increase Mary’s food and drink content. That would get more CE X into her; the same amount the adult babies were receiving. She also directed the tech staff to send the same baby lullabies to Mary’s virtual assistant once all the v. a. machines were replaced with new ones. Nurse Florence felt good inside, her accomplishments growing in her mental resume. This was so much fun and she was going to push the Moorehaven agenda to its limits taking the adult toddlers back to an almost infant state. There would be no playtime as they would be three month olds, at least in their stupid minds. This was her plan but she didn’t know about Barty.

October

It was close to Halloween and the caregivers were planning on having a big party with their charge. It was Mary’s idea and she was excited about planning it and getting the other caregivers to go along with her idea. They had bought some Halloween decorations and had decorated the playroom. The 31st would be coming soon and she wanted everyone to get in the spirit. There were posters and cardboard cutouts of ghosts, bats and all the assorted monsters that are Halloween. Several of the caregivers had carved out pumpkins and put candles in them. They enjoyed it so much that they kept buying pumpkins and candles when they were taken to the store by the professional staff. There must have been over a hundred jack-o-lanterns in the play room and then came the fake spider webs, rubber spiders and cloth sheeted ghosts which hung from the ceiling.

At first the adult babies didn’t know what to make of the decorations and some were scared but Mary made them all feel at ease.

“Oh look my little sweet babies. Look, these can’t hurt you, see,” and she would touch one of the ghosts or spiders and show them that they were just another toy. The toddlers seemed to love their new arrivals, ghosts and goblins, something to amuse and delight a child’s mind.

Nurse Florence had decided to stay for a week and leave the first of November. She took a room from one of the professional staff members, forcing that member to double up with another staff member. Florence guessed that the staff hated her but she didn’t care. They meant nothing to her. She didn’t hesitate to tell the staff to get rid of the Halloween decorations. There would be no fun at Moorehaven: not ever. The staff however was growing weary of the rules. They were growing weary of everything that was Moorehaven and they too were having dreams: very bad dreams. They were all too aware of what happened to the special children and they knew they could be next, but the staff decided on waiting a day or two to take the Halloween decoration down. What could it hurt, they asked themselves.

“You’ve got to do something.” It was Bobby, trying to get Barty’s attention.

“Wake up Barty and help us.”

Barty was suddenly aware of the hand touching him, nudging him to waken.

“Change it. Change the machines.” Bobby didn’t know about coding but he knew the machines in the Central basement were new and that they had something to do with the strange happenings at Moorehaven.

Barty sat up and tried to hold Bobby’s hand and to his surprise, he could.

“Bobby, I can touch you. I can feel you.”

“Yes. We’re becoming real in your world. You’ve got to help us. Free us and free your people. Can you do that?”

Barty wanted to hold him; hold him safe from whatever was coming.

“I’ll do what I can. Do you want to come with me and watch?”

It was three in the morning, just like before. They padded their way down to the basement, both diapered and dressed in footed jammies.

“Look Bobby. Yours zippers in the back like mine,” and they both laughed softly. Funny that we share the same thing, Barty thought to himself.

The door to the server room was locked but Bobby pointed at the door handle and the door opened.

“Well that looked easy, huh Bobby,” and Bobby smiled. Barty could see his smile now and when he looked around, Barty could see a lot more. The others were appearing one after another.

“Who are they Bobby,” but he knew. They were all those who had inhabited Moorehaven so many years ago; patients who had lived and died at Moorehaven and he thought, and Bobby too.

Barty sat at the main console and brought up the main program. They hadn’t changed the password but it had been a short time since he and others like him had been reduced to babies. Barty had been made brilliant by CE X. Programming and coding was child’s play to him, something that he never gave any thought until this moment. Now he understood why he was special. He started changing the programming, infantile thoughts going to one group of people and coping and growing skills to others. Food and drink allocations were changing and more importantly, it was all going out into the world because the world was now one country, The Institution.

The others were growing in numbers, congregating around Barty. “Thank you baby Barty,” they said and Barty liked that. He still liked being baby Barty and he didn’t think that would change, not with what he continued to code. The world had become peaceful and he wasn’t going to change that. In fact, he was going to make it better; so much better and he laughed to himself.

He had time to reflect and as he typed, he turned to Bobby. He could see him so clearly. Bobby’s hair was long and he had bed head, tussled hair from being left in bed for so long: an abandoned and neglected child.

“How did you die, Bobby, if it’s okay for me to ask.”

Bobby thought for a minute. It had been so long ago and he had been in the fog of death until Moorehaven awakened.

“I knew what they were doing to me; to me and the others. They’d do it at three in the morning when no one was awake. The shocking and drugs only lasted so long but being in diapers and being called a little baby lasted forever. They always called us that and the orderlies and staff made fun of us. They said it was our treatment but I think they just got pleasure from it. Sooner or later, we would rebel; tell them to stop treating us like babies. I’d rip my diaper off and pee on the wall. The orderlies would have to clean it up. That was my only revenge.”

“So what would happen after you did that.”

They’d take me down to the basement, you know, where I took you, and they put the thing on my head and inject me and zap, I’d be a dummy, mindless and for a month or two I’d think I was a baby.”

“So what happened?”

“One day I got them really mad when I threw my wet diaper at an orderly. They came for me and down the elevator we went, me screaming and the orderly grabbing me. He hit my head into the elevator wall really hard. They strapped me into the chair and turned the knob all the way up. Then they left. When they came back several hours later, they took me to the morgue. Hey Barty, did I show you the morgue?”

Barty stopped typing and ever so slowly, managed to get his arms around Bobby. He slowly pulled the child toward him and again, so softly hugged him. In a short time he was starting to pass through Bobby and he let go.

“I’m so sorry Bobby. I’m almost done here and then we’ll see what happens. If I’m successful things will change. Bobby, you asked for my help but how will this help you?”

“It’s all about timing, Barty. I told you something’s coming. It’s coming because you guys came and woke up Moorehaven. What happened here was evil but sometimes evil is repaid. You’ll see.”

“What’s coming, Bobby?”

“Justice,” and with that, Bobby and the others faded into the night.

There was one more thing Barty had to do. He had control of the internet and he could communicate with the outside world. Again he thought of his brilliant children. There would be justice, he thought.

The Awakening

It was the 31st and there was hell to pay. Nurse Florence looked in on her staff as the children were having dinner, yum yums as Mary would phrase it, and what she found would not do. It wouldn’t do at all because the decorations where still there. Worse, everyone seemed to be having fun. The staff looked on as caregivers played with their charges, feeding them with such loving attention, saying “Isn’t this wonderful. Open up, here comes your yummy for your tummy.” The babies however were acting a little different, almost as if they were quite aware that they were being treated as babies.

They looked at each other and for a brief moment, thought they were all back in the school cafeteria, eating crab legs and drinking the strange green mixed drinks but here they were eating what appeared to be baby food and drinking from sippy cups. In a way it all seemed to make sense, like they were supposed to be a baby or something resembling babyhood.

Alicia looked at Bartholomew and said, “Hello honey. You’re dressed like a baby.”

Barty had to laugh because now, everyone was recognizing old friends and acquaintances. What they also noticed for the first time was the big screen on the far wall with all the lights and shapes only this time, the code had changed just as the food had changed. Babies were turning into adults and the counselors and staff were changing into something else. Nurse Florence stood in the doorway looking aghast. Had her staff lost their mind, she wondered but as she tried to assemble in her mind what she was going to say, the words wouldn’t come. She wanted to be mad. She wanted to tear into them, punish them in some horrible green CE X way, turning them into mindless drooling infants, but that’s not what came out of her mouth. The change in diet and her charming virtual assistant was seeing to that. She was now under the influence of the big LED screen and it was telling Nurse Florence that there would be some changes starting with her. She wanted to scream and yell but what came out was baby talk. She fell to her knees and collapsed.

There was a new song, a different kind of lullaby and with that, everyone was falling asleep; everyone except Barty. All he had to do was wait until it was three in the morning. He guessed that’s when the others would be coming; that and justice though what that would entail he couldn’t imagine.

He got up from where he was sitting and walked around the cafeteria. There was his childhood friend Bart along with his wife. Seated across from them were his parents. Mert was alongside Betty, asleep facedown in his plate, food squishing out the sides and onto the table. “Serves him right,” thought Bart.

He walked to the entrance of the cafeteria and looked down at the slumped Nurse Florence. He guessed his programming was working because she had wet her panties, her dress showing the signs of wetness. He wanted to kick her; kick her in the face again and again but he wasn’t that kind of person and besides, he had changed. There was a sense of childlike wonder that was now a permanent part of him. He guessed it was true for all the others and what he saw in the server room made him aware of how the world had changed all because of CE X.

He didn’t mind waiting because there was so much to explore. He loved the Halloween decorations and now that he could think through the green fog, he remembered past Halloweens spent both at home and at the special school. He felt young; very young in fact and the sensation his wet diaper gave him didn’t escape his attention. Living like this made perfect sense just as it had been making sense to the world.

The old clock on the wall was saying it was almost three. Soon the big LED screen would be accommodating the hour, something Barty had coded into the servers and not just for Moorehaven, but everywhere, the World Wide Web carrying hope and promise. Babies and staff alike were beginning to rouse, all part of the plan. For now, they would be aware of their surroundings and who they were though Barty had made sure that would change when the plan reached completion. Bobby had helped him with a few ideas as Bobby knew Moorehaven and what it could do to a person.

The littles were little no more and they demanded to know what had happened to them. Nelson had Mertz by the neck and he was pounding his head into the table. Others were yelling at their caregivers and caregivers were yelling at the senior staff. Questions turned into shouting, shouting into yelling and yelling into violence. What had been the quiet of the night, the single sound of the furnace and rushing air was now replaced by a tempest of screaming, yelling and shoving and this would have continued accept that it was all overridden by Nurse Florence who also was yelling, demanding complete attention and she turned to the chaotic group and gave them all her horrible icy menacing stare and this might have worked accept that Betty looked at her and shouted, “Looks like missy pissed her knickers” but even that was overshadowed by the most horrible plaintive wail which was coming from somewhere in the building, somewhere down a long and hidden hall, somewhere disused and ancient and it was being joined by a chorus of the suffering, both adults and children, the wailing of anguish.

Betty rushed Nurse Florence and had her by the hair, ready to drag her to who knows where when the lights flickered, flared and then when out plunging the room into darkness except that there was light, light emanating from a hundred grinning jack-o-lanterns and those were moving, rustling and plopping off their shelves and table tops, plopping with a squishing noise and now thumping toward the staff, surrounding all the occupants of the cafeteria.

Something was coming from the distant dark that was Moorehaven, from the undiscovered halls whose singular little rooms housed the mentally ill, the forgotten and tortured souls that was Moorehaven. The adults came from the West Wing and from the East Wing was the approaching laughter of children. It was not a happy laughter but one rooted in terrible mischief. The pumpkin light flared like a hundred burning stars and suddenly they were there, the ragged and tattered souls that were forgotten but here they were and a price would be paid. The sound of opening doors could be heard, doors that had remained hidden to hide the terrible secrets that were also Moorehaven, the misbegotten whose tortured brains were fried and destroyed.

The spirits of the ancient orderlies began to take form and fear was in those vacant and hallow eyes. The present looked on at the past, terrified and unable to move. The LED screen was flashing colors and shapes and the music had changed to something that almost resembled music but not quite. It demanded attention so that the living could witness what had happened at Moorehaven long ago and what they witnessed was terrible. The sound of the electro shock machines was echoing from both the East Wing and West Wing basements. The others were rioting, grabbing the dead; orderlies, nurses and doctors and taking them somewhere deep into the bowls of Moorehaven. They would receive the same treatment that they had given and when it was over, they turned their attention upon the living. Barty had helped them with whatever he did in the server room. Now they shared the common energy having passed through the servers, absorbing its energy and intention. Together the price of justice would be met.

The once babies clung to one another just as the caregivers clung to their own kind but not so the staff. They were falling to their knees. Some were sucking their thumbs. Others were wetting their pants. They were now surrounded by the jack-o-lanterns, a circle of grinning pumpkins to usher in the others. They dead drifted into the circle and descended upon the staff members, searching their sane and rational minds, using them as vessels to cast out all that had been wrong with them when they were alive, cast on and into the living. They were finally free from torment, free from being forever bound to the insane asylum.

Barty looked on and smiled. The change had been complete or almost complete. There were a few more elements to play out and then he remembered: Bobby.

He thought he knew where he would be. From the cafeteria, Barty went down one flight into the basement. He wasn’t surprised to see the hidden door open because that led to the old basement where the dreaded machines were. He could smell the ozone as vengeance and justice had been paid out.

Barty expected to see the others, hundreds of the dispossessed but there were only a few and they were disappearing.

“Bobby,” he tentatively called out, and then there he was. There was a light that surrounded the child, and he somehow looked different.

“Thank you Barty. We can go now. They’re waiting for me.”

“Will you be alright?”

“Better than alright, Barty. They’re waiting to take care of me, like someone should have when I was living. Everything’s a balance scale Barty. Those who suffer shall find peace and those who deny peace shall suffer. Thank you Barty. I never had anyone to love but now I do. I’ll see you later,” and with that, Bobby faded into the light, the light fading into itself until it was no more.

The old basement was quiet except for humming that was coming from one of the rooms with its terrible machine. Barty thought he better go and turn it off. When he entered the room he found something unexpected. There was Nurse Florence strapped in the machine, a rubber tongue suppressor in her mouth, the machine turned up to high. There was smoke drifting upward from her head. Barty quickly turned the machine off and watched the once living head of Nurse Florence flop downward.

“Hey bitch! Did I show you the morgue?” and with that, he left.

A World at Peace

The yellow school busses returned to Moorehaven to take the special children and their parents to their new homes. The world had changed but this time for the better. Barty had seen to that along with his gifted children and all the other children who had been at the final school cafeteria meeting when they had been separated. Barty had messaged the children and asked them to pass along the new coding to the mainframe at The Institute. When “Enter” was hit, there no longer was The Institute. The remarkable children had taken over that role, the same children who were furious that they were separated from their parents. It seems there was a balance scale, one where justice would eventually win.

Planned communities sprung up throughout the world, quaint houses along cul-de-sacs, sidewalks and trees along with clean air. There was a feeling of equality as everything was common and similar. People were as concerned about others as much as they were with themselves. They had a child’s sense of fair play because really, they were children. No one should have more or less than another. It just seemed to make sense. People went to work and came home to their families. They watched TV or played games just like they would have before the change, but there were some remarkable differences.

“So Barty, I made an extra casserole for your parents. Do you want to take it over to them?”

Barty only had to walk next door as this was a planned community, just like all the communities throughout the world. Friends and families lived next to each other, socialized with each other and enjoyed life in the way a child would. They laughed and played and went back to their respective homes when it was time.

“Do you want mommy to change your diaper, Barty?” Alicia asked.

“Only if I can change yours,” and together they laughed.

Barty took a drink from his sippy cup. It was mostly ginger ale but with a little bourbon. He liked being both big and little. There was a gentleness to life, something he made sure of when he changed the coding two years ago. He and Alicia both worked at home from their computers along with their remarkable children. There were still the occasional ads that popped up but now they advertised the most wonderful things like baby clothes for adults, the newest diapers and all that goes with being an adult baby.

After dinner, Barty went to his computer. He like almost everyone else was on a site called ADISC. It had been a little known site before CE X, catering to diaper lovers and adult babies but now, everyone was an adult baby. ADISC had replaced Facebook, Instagram, Twitter….everything.

He went to the forum: Moorehaven to see how Mary was doing. She was the new head administrator. She ran the staff that treated the patients, the mentally ill who two years earlier had been the staff that was so carefully selected by Nurse Florence. ADISC had added this forum as a support for those who dealt with mental illness which was ironic because before CE X and the change, ADISC’s regular membership was made up mostly of crazy people like someone called dogboy. Now those members blended in with everyone else. They didn’t seem to mind.

Barty typed in the same personal message he had typed before, asking Mary if there were any ghostly disturbances. Mary answered as always, “no thank God”.

“And the children?” he asked.

“Let him go, Barty.”

“I know. Thanks Mary.”

He said he’d be alright; more than alright, Barty thought to himself.

Barty walked into the living room and sat down with his wife, holding her hand. He was glad to be a family again even though his children were so much smarter than he and Alicia, as if they were the parents. Still, it was alright. In fact, everything was better than alright.