As she was ferried out of the Germ Cult, she had no idea where she was being carried off to now. She couldn’t smell anything, she couldn’t see anything. All she could hear were cries of, “We got her! We got her!” mixed in with incomprehensible noises ringing out all around her. They handled her roughly, switching from one pair of hands to another, never letting her stay still. Even if she could move, she could hardly escape from their grasp without better knowledge of her surroundings. And accomplishing that under these circumstances wasn’t possible. Even when they finally stopped moving, they set her down on a rickety chair with one leg shorter than the others. (Or one leg taller than the others.) Throughout the whole ordeal, her head covering never came off.
“What’re you going to do to me?” Despite the rumours and hearsay, her knowledge of these Poachers was sketchy at best.
“Oh it’s very simple. You’ve got a brand-new mixed species baby in your belly. When it’s born, we’ll take it off your hands and eat it.”
“Eat it?”
“Don’t sound so shocked. There are all kinds of creatures out there that are coveted delicacies.”
“They taste good when flavoured with pickled seasonings”
“And wash down well with a lightly aged wine.”
“The amazing thing is that for something that looks so awful, they taste so good!”
“If need be, we’ll pull your baby out while its still clutching onto your intestines.”
“We need to eat the flesh of our enemies in order to grow stronger!”
“It’s only fair. They eat us as much as we eat them.”
“Who are we to argue?”
That was all the incentive she needed. “You want to eat it? Go ahead! You can have it for all I care, in which I don’t!”
The hostile crowd surrounding her were suddenly confused. “Aren’t - don’t you care about life?”
“Don’t mistake me for one of those every-lifers! I want nothing to do with them! They held me against my will for who knows how long! If anything, I’m grateful for you showing up when you did, saving me from them!”
The frustration she’d been bottling up all this time just came venting out of her. After holding everything up for so long, it was a welcome relief to expose her true beliefs to those who weren’t sympathetic.
“Simmer it over a low heat! Fry it up in vegetable oil! Cut it up in tiny pieces and save none for me!”
Amidst her ranting and raving, an unobtrusive woman within the group looked disgusted at the ineffective intimidation techniques taking place. “Get out, all of you! Can’t you see you’re upsetting the poor young woman?”
Once everybody left the room without argument, the Girl’s straps were undone. The once-rickety chair suddenly leveled out, staying stable. Her hood was removed, and she saw the face of her savior. Apart from her fritzy hair and static expression, the outspoken woman looked utterly unassuming.
“My apologies. They’re a bunch of insensitive jerks. They don’t understand the fine subtlety of raising a child such as yours.” She sniffed the air. “I can tell from the smell that the gestation’s coming along nicely. You shouldn’t have too much trouble with delivery come transit.”
“Sounds like you’ve had experience.”
“You have no idea.” She leaned down to the Girl’s stomach. “May I?”
“Go ahead.”
She held an open palm, listening closely. “It’s making little squelching noises. That’s normal in this kind of situation. You were haphazardly relocated from one haven to another without warning. And then these men went to the indignity of capturing you without explaining anything. We haven’t eaten anything good in a long time, and we’re starting to get hungry.”
“And my baby’s the best source of nourishment around.”
While the room looked empty, the conversation taking place wasn’t being left ignored. The crowd that had left were observing the proceedings through the reflection of a one-way picture.
“Are you sure about this?”
“It’s fine. This current girl’s made of tougher stuff than the others. She needs proper breaking down from our expert.”
“I hope so. It won’t be long before they find us.”
“No worries. She can make anybody nervous.”
The Woman with Fritzy Hair turned around and shouted, “That’s not true!”, making everybody hiding behind the picture jump back.
“What?”, the Girl asked, wondering why this Woman was snapping at the wall. What did the wall ever do to her?
“I wasn’t talking to you. Now, it’s important that you relax. It won’t help us if you wind up being too stressed, as it could severely harm the taste of the baby.”
“What??”
“It’s common knowledge that ONEs don’t absorb nutrients like we do. Rather, they feed off our emotions, particularly the strong ones. And the intensity of the emotion affects the taste of the flesh. And the best source of those emotions come from dramas, real or artificial.”
What???
“The most common source of heightened emotions coming from Schools and Factories is basic comfort food. Quick and easy to make. Practically no effort or thought has to be put into those. Just lock a bunch of people in a cramped environment with a strict power structure and a limited reward system, and you’ll get all kinds of predictable repetitive events.”
What????
“But other ONEs have a more demanding palate, and want a combination of multiple conflicting emotions in the mix. If they’re feeling deprived, they’ll create unique situations that’ll cause a far wider range of emotions than usual. Under these circumstances, people will have no choice but to feel upset when there’s no need for them to.”
WHAT?!!? Then - did that mean... the baby was intentionally making this smell just so she’d feel sick and keep feeding it?! Nourishing on her misery in order to stay alive? All the suffering she’d done, everything she’d endured since leaving home - it was nothing more than feeding this emotional parasite living inside her all this time?
And now she was locked up here with this crazy Woman who shouted at the walls.
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