Cattle

When you eat your MacDonalds burger, you don't think twice about the meat in it, except that maybe it's a little dry. You never think that it used to be alive. I bet you would be thinking about it if you were the cow that was going to be one.
Ever heard the expression "like lambs to the slaughter...."

Cassie woke up, her head throbbing. THe first thing she could register was the smell, like that of rotting flesh and faeces mixed together. It was foul and invaded her senses like a fog, obscuring all else momentarily. It made her wretch.
Slowly, she regained some control over her self and her senses, desperately trying, and failing, to block out the smell. Cassie resigned herslef to merely putting the smell as far to the back of her mind as possible.
She was lying on a damp floor, it was cold against her bare skin. Bare Skin? she thought. She opened her eyes, only to be confronted with darkness, bleak and foreboding.
Carefully she felt around her, and all she could feel was cold, damp concrete. slowly she reached out further, and felt her hand submurge into somthing warm and slimey. The smell she had tryed to block out suddenly came back at her in full force, hitting her like a hammer to the head. She wretched and the calm she had before now shattered into a blind panic. She stood quickly, and felt a sharp pain in her right leg, and fell agian.
Cassie gingerly felt for the part that hurt. She touched her heel, and winced. her tendon had been slit to prevent her from running.
Instantly she knew where she was, and she screamed.


The food was delicious, home grown always was. Talon ate it up quickly, and marvelled at his wife's cooking. No matter what ingredients he added, he could never get it quite right, Annie, however, always got it perfect.
"Darlin', that was delicious" he draweled, his southern accent elogating each word. Annie loved the way he spoke, she loved everything about him. Well, not everything.
A shrill cry pierced the comfrortable quiet like a knife. Talon sighed.
"One of the new'uns hun, I gotta go sort it," he said quietly. He stood, and leaned across to his beautiful wife, and whispered in her ear. She shuddered.
All Annie's thoughts of leaving him were dashed by those words whispered in her ear.
"Tonight I'll make you sing."


Cassie's screams echoed hollow in the dark, her throat hourse from her crys. She crawled along the floor, searching for the edge of the room.
White light illumminated the room, blinding her. Her eyes adjusted slowly. At first, all she saw was white light, then shapes formed. in the corner furthest from her, gray shapes huddled. Their forms focused slowly, and she saw what she feared. This has to be a dream she thought.
The figures were other humans, clad in dull gray shirts that fell to their knees. She tryed to speak, but her voice betrayed her. She looked down at herself, and saw she wore the same. Her heel had been stitched up, but in her frantic scramblings, some had torn, and now bright red blood flowed freely to the floor, the only colour in the otherwise gray room.
Looking around herself, she saw what contained her. Metal bars surrounded her, like a pig pen. Through the bars, she could see more humans huddled together, sexless in this place, uniform gray clothing, and all with their heads shaved.
Why had they not said anything, why had they not spoken? Her silent question was answered when one opened its mouth soundlessly.
They had no tounges.
Cassie heard a bang, and looked round to the sourse of the noise. Her captor stood on the other side of the bars with something in his hands. It looked like a bat.
Cassie cowered away from him.
He was the stuff of nightmares for those who were free. His features were far worse than anything she could have imagined. No one had seen one of their kind and lived to tell the tale in her lifetime.
The man looked so human, and that was the scariest of all. How could someone who looked so much like her and her people be so different, how could they do this to them?
Cassie whimpered as he opened the cage door. Claws wrapped around the thick steal, and Cassie could not throw the image in her head of those claws around her neck. Unconciously, she put her hand to the throat.
The thing raised the bat above his head and brought it down hard. Cassie fell once more into blissfull unconciousness.


Cassie woke to course fingers on her face. slowly she opened her eyes. Human faces looked down at her, their eyes full of pain and sorrow. Cassie slowly raised her hand to her head. It came away with blood on it.
She raised herself up slowly, the other humans moving away from her as she did so. Cassie was greatfull. These humans scared her. They were bred here, at this farm, this much she was sure of. No one was this meak without living their lives caged in the dark.
For the first time since arriving at this place, Cassie registered their appearence. All of them were young, a little younger than her 19 years.
Inwardly, she cryed, this was the age that they were culled at. It must bee why she was there. If farmers couldn't meet their quota, they hunted for the remaining. Cassie felt panic bubbling to the surface once more, but this time she pushed it back down. Her friends might be here to, her family. She tryed to remember where she was when she was caught, but it was all a blur.
She needed to get out, she needed to escape, she would not stay here and die in the slaughter house. Steadying herself against the bars, Cassie stood up. Her legs wobbled, but she managed to stay standing. Slowly, she edged around the cage, trying to find away out.
An idea struck her. She looked up. The cage did not reach the ceiling. They had obviously assumed when building this place that none of the 'cattle' would think of attempting to climb it.
Cassie grabbed the bars and pulled herself up. She tryed putting weight on her right foot and fell, the pain was intense. Gritting her teeth, Cassie got up and tryed again. This time, she put as little strain on her right foot as possible. It seemed to take hours, but finally, Cassie reached the top and swung herself over. Forgetting the pain in her ankle, she put weight on her right foot, and fell hard to the floor, it was a good 10ft drop, and knocked her back into a daze.
She rose slowly, and grinned at her success. She was free!
Cassie turned to the cage door and looked back in. The other captives were huddled together in the centre of the pen, looking up at her. Cassie went to open the door, and heard a noise. She spun round. Nothing. She sighed in relief and turned back to the door.
Cassie looked over the door for a latch. She found one. Funbling with it, she finally got it open, and pulled the heavy door open slowly. Cassie beckoned to the captives within.
"Come with me," she whispered, "you're free."
They just looked at her, not comprehending a word of what she said. Cassie repeated herself and beckoned again with her hands. The children within cowered back against the cage bars.
Cassie turned away sadly and limped towards the exit.


The others had no desire to follow her to freedom, perhaps because they held no concept of the word, or perhaps they were more afraid of what lay beyond the doors than behind the bars. Cassie could not help them either way, if she were to survive even this one night, she must do it alone.
Outside, it was pitch black, the only light being that of the farmhouse but metres away, and she had no desire to go near there. She turned away from the light, and limped into the darkness blindly.


Talon returned to his home, warm and comforting, and the embrace of his lovely wife, Annie.
"Sorry darlin', you know how it is."
Annie looked up at him, her clear blue eyes full of love for him, and full of sorrow for his choice of profession.
"I'm doin' this for us," his told her, as he put a comforting arm around her shoulders, hugging her close to him.
"I know baby, but... Such cruelty, is it really needed?"
"They're not people, my love, they're not like us."
"But the new one," she said quietly, "the new one's different, she feels, her scream-"
"Was nothing," he finished, "merely a dogs howl to the other bitches in the pack. I will hear no more of this." He turned away from her, taking his arm back.
Without the comfort of him, Annie felt cold, inside and out. She walked towards the window and looked out at the barn, sighing. If only she thought, before she saw something, something that shouldn't have been there.
"Talon!" She called.
"Darlin', I told you, I'm not-"
"No hun," she interrupted, "the barn, one of thems escaping!"
"Damn," he exclaimed as he walked towards the door, "Annie, get the gun."


Cassie's eyes had almost adjusted to the near total darkness that surrounded her, and she could just make out the treeline, and her freedom.
She smiled to herself and sped up, so close.
There was a noise behind her, a door banging. She turned to see the siluette of a man in the light of the farmhouse, holding what looked like a gun.
Cassie turned and ran. She could here the foot falls of the man behind her. Panic took over, and ignoring the intense pain in her ankle, she ran faster, closer and closer the forest became, she could just about taste it on her tounge, the fresh crisp taste of freedom. There was a shout behind her, followed by a loud bang. Cassie fell. What little vision she had began to blur, and her ears filled with static noice, punctuated with shouts and moaning, my moans she thought absently, as she drifted back into unconsiousness for the third time that night.

Cassie woke to pain, intense and total. She moved her arm slowly, and it collided with metal grating. As her senses slowly returned to her, she felt movement all around her, she was moving.
Cassie opened her eyes and was assulted by images too blurred to make out. She closed her eyes again, trying to clear her head. Once more she opened them, and managed to make out small details at a time. She was in a small cage, and there were others next to hers, each containing one human. The space was tiny, barely enough room for someone to crouch down in.
Just above her head, there was a window, if you could call it that, more of a slit in the wall. She lifted her head, ingnoring the pain she felt splintering through her back. Grass, vehicles, trees, all whurled past her. Cassie knew where she was, In the lorry, she thought, on the way to... No don't think about that. I can get out of this.
The lorry stopped. This is it, she thought, This is my chance!
The doors at the back of the lorry opened, and bright light blinded her. Silluetted in the light were four figures. As her eyes adjusted she saw what the figures were, they were dressed in white rubber, stained with blood.

They were her executioners.