This is an alternate universe story about an America where German genetic scientists were brought over during Operation Paperclip and created clone factories of perfect humans. Barbies, Kens, GI Joes, Matt Houstons, all the perfect plastic people from our world molded in living flesh in theirs. In this bit, two enforcers from the people factory pick up a wayward Barbie working outside the accepted industries for “reprogramming”. She could have been a doctor or an astronaut…but not a stripper. Not in this world…

———-

Across the street, the dark van sat silently. It had started life as a Malibu Barbie Surf Van, but the bright colors had long ago been covered by spray cans of poorly matching matte blacks.

The flickering neon sign on the front of the Bad Doll was reflected off the van’s windows, swallowed up by its sides. The “B” in Bad kept going on and off, alternating from a promise of naughtiness to a misspelled marketing campaign.

A Barbie stepped cautiously out of the shadowed alley to the side of the building. Coming off shift, wearing shapeless sweats, leaving by the back door like they were supposed to, so that the customers didn’t see them on and off stage.

She looked up and down the dimly lit street, empty of traffic at three am. She looked at the van for a moment and its occupants looked back at her, but she couldn’t see them behind the mirror tinted glass.

“She knows she’s not supposed to be here.”

“Yeah, nervous that one is.”

The Barbie evidently decided to ignore the van, that it was no threat, that it was just part of the scenery, scenery you wanted to ignore. She walked down the block past it towards the main strip, where she could get a cab back to the life she was supposed to be living.

Behind her the van’s engine purred to life and she felt a chill that made her perfect skin tighten, despite the moist heat of the summer night.

The van moved slowly past her as she walked steadily on ward, watching out of the corner of her eye. She relaxed a little as it passed, not noticing the footsteps behind her until the strong hands of the Joe slipped a cloth around her face and she smelled the reek of chloroform.