Prologue: After ravaging the planet Earth with war after war, mankind finally threw off the shackles of its warlike tendencies. Seeing that the world governments would never be able to co-exist, a large consortium of multinational corporations decided to take power. These included robotics firms, arms dealers, computer manufacturers, and more. In short, the companies that kept the world ticking. Joining forces, they became the most powerful entity in the history of the human race, and they crushed the individual governments.

At first, the result was complete anarchy. Riots, looting, violence and vandalism were the order of the day, as the populace protested against the curtailing of their “democratic freedom”. Using the might of their private militias, The Consortium put down all resistance and pacified the world. At first, the people were cowed by fear, but as the years passed they began to enjoy their prosperity and the ideas of “privacy” and “personal freedom” faded away until they were only whispered by people in dark corners, where they were sure they wouldn’t be overheard.

In order to enforce this golden age of peace, The Consortium instigated a harsh penal code. Their slogan was “Crime Will Cost You”. A system of corporal punishment, public humiliation and indentured servitude was instigated. All punishments would be as public as possible to deter others from crime. This system was implemented from the bottom up, with corporal punishment regimens being reintroduced to schools around the world. If parents refused to discipline their children properly, they themselves would be punished. All companies would have their own punishment areas for recalcitrant employees, and in the middle of each town or village would be a punishment square. Attendance of punishments were mandatory for everyone within each area, not matter how old or young. In this way, crime became relatively rare, as no one wanted to be whipped in front of their neighbours.

The year is 2097, 40 years after The Consortium pacified the world and imposed their new world order. Poverty is essentially extinct, and crime is at an all-time low. There has not been a murder for over fifteen years. In this era of peace and prosperity, technological advances have come thick and fast.

Our story begins in the town of Newmarket, in the East of England, where Dean, an office clerk, is returning home from work. At 29, Dean is 6 feet tall, slightly muscled but heavily overweight. No matter what he does, he cannot shift the gut and “man-boobs” he has developed. As a result his self-esteem has plummeted, and he has sunk into depression, no longer interested in sex with his wife, and just going through the motions of daily life.

As he opens the front door, he hears a strange noise coming from the living room. Taking off his shoes and depositing them on the rack next to the door, he walks through, his socked feet making no noise on the tiled floor. As he passes through the open doorway into the living room, he stops stock still, mouth agape, he drops his suitcase with a bang. There on the sofa is his wife, Michelle. She is naked, legs spread wide, glistening with sweat as she is pounded by an equally naked and sweating man. Dean recognises Will, his best friend since school.

At the bang of the suitcase hitting the floor, Michelle looks over, eyes wide, and gasps as she sees Dean standing there, red faced with shock and anger. Will glances round, sees Dean, laughs and carries on pounding. Suddenly both he and Michelle convulse and cry out as their orgasms hit them. Dean sees thick cum dribbling out around Will’s thrusting penis, as Michelle writhes and moans.

Still in shock, Dean feels a red mist descending and he grabs a pair of scissors from the sideboard. Rushing forwards, he plunges the scissors deep into the neck of his best friend. Blood shoots out and he continues to stab and stab, barely conscious of what he’s doing. A few minutes later, he comes back to himself, sitting on the living floor, covered in blood. He looks up just as two police officers rush into the room, and take in the scene - the shrieking, naked woman with a bloodied naked corpse on top of her, and a dazed, blood covered man holding a pair of scissors. Immediately, one pulls a stun gun and fires. Dean feels electrifying pain course through him as he loses consciousness.

The next few days pass in a blur for Dean. He is in an orange jumpsuit, thrown in to a small cell and fed unappetising meals and regular intervals. People come and go. Michelle comes, screaming at him for ruining her life. A state appointed lawyer comes, offers absolutely no useful advice and then departs. He is shackled hand and foot and hauled into a Consortium courtroom. There are no juries any more, just a panel of three judges. The criminal justice system is swift and merciless. Dean pleads guilty to the murder of William Smith, on the advice of his lawyer. He knows there is no way he can fight the case, and if he did, he would face the death penalty. This way he would get off lighter – or so the lawyer said.

It takes the judges a long time to decide what to do with him. He cannot be sentenced to death, as the law states that this is only for those who waste the court’s time by fighting the charges. However, the law is very versatile when it comes to alternative punishments. “Nothing that will main or seriously injure the perpetrator” is essentially the only restriction they have. Normally, the courts deal with theft, assault or rape. Thieves are usually publicly whipped, people convicted of assault get likewise whipped, as well as being indentured to the victim for a period of time. Rapists were the only one where the injury stipulation was waived – they were publicly castrated and put in the stocks in punishment square for a week.

Eventually, the judges called Dean back in, and announced their decision; “Given the seriousness of this crime, and the fact that an example must be made to prevent similar occurrences given the length of time this world has been without a murder, we feel it is incumbent upon us to make a public example out of the offender, to provide an abject lesson to the world’s population, and so that some good may come of this act of mindless violence. The victim has no family, so there is no one to indenture the criminal to. Therefore, it is this court’s decision that the offender will become indentured to the state, indefinitely. Given that he has robbed someone of their life, he will spend the rest of his being punished for it. He will endure public whippings, time in the stocks and community whippings – whereby the people of the community will be able to wield the instrument of his punishment. He will be taken around the world to every community to remind the world of the punishments that await murderers.”

As the sentence was read out, Dean felt his knees buckle and he sank to the floor of the dock, sobbing.

The judge continued “You will be taken from here to a temporary detention facility, prepped and then taken to the punishment square of Newmarket, where you will be tied to the whipping post and endure 20 lashes of the whip. You will then be placed in stocks and left for three days and nights. During that time, you will be available to the community for punishment. Provided they do not break the injury statute, they are free to punish you in whatever way they see fit.”

Dean’s head was spinning, and as he felt the bailiffs grasp his arms to lead him out, he lost his grip on his consciousness and sank into blackness.

He awoke, two days later, in a bare white cell. He was completely naked, and hairless over his whole body, except his head hair which had been cropped short. He knew from the slight stinging all over that they had used lasers on him which would ensure the hair never grew back.