Unchained

Hugo

"Hulta," I gasped. I faintly remembered someone telling me something about it... to stay away from it. I was so lost in thought that I forgot I had a job to complete.

"Kodiak, you are missing your position at the filler." I groaned. The last thing I wanted to do right now is to work-- with people. People who were going to judge me for being crazy enough to come up with the idea that we had a life before we arrived here.

The thought of it was crazy, but somehow something felt real.

Maybe it only sounded crazy because we made it seem that way. Ideas have been shot down, scoffed at, but what if it was actually real?

But those people would never have the chance to prove themselves only because society wanted to be right, wanted them to fail.

I shook the thoughts that clouded my head and begged for them to be gone. My job was to prepare lunch. I took my place behind the filler machine and waited for my partner Hugo to arrive.

A heavy figure lumbered in, "Hey Kodiak! Ready to get a-slicin' and dicin'?"

"Yeah, why not," I replied taking the packages of fresh vegetables from him. I dumped a load of carrots into one tube, corn into the second, and beans into the third. The filler would clean them and dump them into trays and make their way to the slicer via conveyer belt. Hugo would slice the vegetables then slide the trays out onto the tables.

"Hugo!" I called, "Tell me when you're ready!"

"Ready, Partner!" he cried.

Slowly, but surely the machine started making the food as trays came and went. The machine sped up until it was filling seven trays at a time. That was the maximum amount of trays Hugo could handle. It only gave you a couple seconds to remove the trays before the sharp knives would come down again. I just had to make sure it didn't produce more than seven trays at a time.

It turned into a rhythm. It was like a pattern. It became so natural that I got lost in thought once again.

Maybe the Hulta plant means something? Is it fate or an accident? What could the Hulta plant do? Probably something mystifying and powerful, but very dangerous...

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" The scream snapped me back into reality. "STOP THE MACHINE!" My hand instinctively flew for the emergency stop button.

Scared to look, I turned towards Hugo. His hand was gone. I gaped and started hyperventilating. I made the machine go too fast for Hugo to keep up. 

Lying on the conveyer belt was his grotesque forearm dripping with blood. I tried to shake myself out of the frozen state I was in and press the clinic speaker button.

"Hello you have reached the clinic. What seems to be the problem?"

"Sli-slicer ch-ch-chop off a-arm," I peeped.

The line clicked dead. I somehow managed to get ahold of myself and ran over to Hugo. "Are you okay?"

The doors burst open as the clinic workers started taking Hugo out. "Yeah man! Relax, I'll be out of the clinic in a jiffy!"

In walked Aubrey glaring at me. I pretended not to notice and watched them take Hugo out.

"I'll recover from it!" he called waving with his good arm.

"He will never recover from it," Aubrey stated deadpanned.

"Hey, Kodiak! At least it didn't cost me an arm and a leg! Get it? GET IT?"  Hugo laughed maniacally, ever the optimist.

I gave him a large fake smile and a shakey thumbs up.

Aubrey stepped inside and saw where the bloody scene had taken place. "What the hell happened in here?!"

"Weeelllll," I started, "There was a murder wielding an axe." I nodded trying to believe what I was saying. "Yeah, he chopped off Hugo's arm."

She shoved me backwards, "I told you not to step out of line."

I stared at her unknowing what to say. She just scowled at me in return. "Bathroom and dish duty for a week. You can get started by cleaning this up." She stormed off.

Now it was just me and the mutilated arm.

Very weird chapter, I know. Hopefully you will understand why I included this later!

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~EverFaith03