VI: Butcher House
Lola
The man waves his hand, and a loud thunderous crash erupts in my ears, followed by people whispering in fear. I see numerous people in a much larger cave with no way out. The Bully Trials initiators are standing on a cliff to the right of the cave. They look down at us, waiting for us to shut up, but that's not coming their way. I look farther up and see large light-brown stalagmites everywhere on the cave ceiling, sharp and pointing down at us. They are even above the initiators. Hundred bucks that they will make it drop. I can hear slight water dripping from above if I focus hard enough on the audience talking in the background. Water droplets gather at the tip before dropping down on someone else's head–an old man with white hair and brown eyes, old enough to be a great-great grandpa. He looks up as his lips press into a straight line. The water droplets must have been annoying him for a long time. He can just move to the walls by shoving or excusing people aside.
A distorted demonic hiss brings our attention to the older woman. Everyone immediately falls silent. She stops once she sees all of us are looking at her and her cult buddies. "We are not here to welcome you. Let's give you a quick tutorial of the rules and send you on your way to the first round. Some of you have been waiting for too long for your own patience, not that we care," starts the man. He looks at the woman and tells her, "Drea, you go first."
The tarantula bitch walks closer to the edge. I hope that she jumps off, yet I know she won't. The height might sprain her ankle, and she may have regeneration. "First rule, no cheating. Second rule, no outside help. Third rule, surviving a round doesn't mean you're safe. Fourth rule, fighting with us doesn't do any good. We're not going to tolerate any nuisance. We won't care when we strap you down on a table surrounded by a pond of acid while we force-feed you slimy pregnant cockroaches and let them hatch inside your digestive tract. If you think your stomach acid will dissolve the cockroaches, we CAN adjust to that accor..."...That is the most gross-related tangent I ever heard in this life. Dreantula has no filter. She continues, "Before I let myself enjoy feeding off disgust, we will send you to the first round. The first round is simple: survive for some time. By the way, we don't reveal where you are going." A smirk rises on her face. "We will watch."
"So-" I try to ask them if our torment is their pleasure, but Heather slaps my mouth shut. She gives me a look that this is the time not to say anything. I thought it was Jacelyn because she always has an annoyed expression whenever I talk as if she is waiting for me to be silent before she can speak.
Dreantula and the rest of her dead gang look at us from the commotion. Everyone else stares at us, warning us not to piss them off. Pissed on or pissed off, they are going to be jackasses. The difference is that one thing might kill us faster. The vampiric blonde guy raises his hand, ready to wave it. The smaller girl enters something at the last second, "Before all of you, one more thing..." Her eyes move to us as she states, "There can be only one winner. Good luck."
The man waves his hand, and the cave walls melt like goo. My entire world transforms into a tight factory space with cemented walls, and vents spewing out chill air, right next to a steel door with frost on the other side. Lights are flickering on and off in this place– poorly facilitated. A contestant walks up to it and immediately backs away, allowing my friends to peek at the horrors inside. There are preserved human bodies strapped up by the hands. Their skin has been removed, revealing the dry and frozen muscle underneath. The first awful thing that comes to my mind is that we are in a human butcher-house. But who are the butchers? And where are they?
"Jaymie just had to spoil the moment that all of us can get out of this alive," Jacelyn fusses.
Jaymie... What was that girl Jaymie?! What the absolute fuck?!
"How did you know it was her?" Heather asks Jacelyn.
I hear one of the contestants shout, "Big deal" in the most apathetic way possible behind us. I bet they will die first. Get me out of here a lot quickly that way. I watch other contestants split into the two narrow hallways that have white paint breaking up. The one ahead of me appears to be lighter than the corridor on the right of us. There is no way that people will go inside the human freezer to survive. Pretty sure, we will die of hypothermia.
I take my first steps closer to the narrow hallway as I hear Jacelyn and Heather talking. "She doesn't look like the girl from school," Heather comments.
"She looks younger and degraded," Jacelyn replies. "She must have done something... Did something to Ash as well."
I stop and turn to look at the chatting girls. Laura and Maddie haven't moved yet either. I give them a disheartening glare and demand in my serious cheerleading voice which I've rarely used: "People are moving! Let's go!"
"Fine," Jacelyn scoffs while the rest of the girls walk to me, "Jesus Christ."
All of us went through the corridor ahead. The players leave us behind. We turn left, and there are posters on the wall, showing the status of all demands and reports for the human meat industry. By their charts, they seem to be thriving more than expected– high demand and profit. I pray that my mom isn't associated in any way. We see many players appearing in their twenties hesitantly treading through the hallway. Every single one of us is silent, so if there are any loud noises, we will hear it a mile away. The vents are the loudest thing ever. Despite not being in the freezer, they are running this factory at cooler levels.
Stomping is heard above us. I stop and look up. Someone must be angered or the split between the ceiling and their floor is so thin that it is easily heard. "That must be the upper management," Laura assumes in a whisper. "My uncle works at a butcher-house. The ones that do management and marketing are usually on the second floor."
I roll my eyes and whisper back, "No one cares, Laura. Not every butcher house is the same style."
She gives me a butt-hurt look and looks down to avoid looking at me. She always does that when I tell her off. Maddie glares at me and says, "It could have been vital, Lola." Didn't she hear what I said? No. One. Cares.
We hear stomping nearby, but my ears pinpoint that they are on this floor now. The group ahead of us pays no attention while we silently stand here. My body shifts to flee the other way. My sudden movement makes the rest of the girls wary. "Lola, what are you doing?" Destiny asks.
"Shhhh!" I shush her and place my fingertip against my lips while looking at her. I whisper, "You hear that?"
A male player with light brown hair lets out a damned shriek. We look ahead as we hear something metal colliding on something as smooth as skin. The others freeze up in shock and fear while we watch the male contestant's side of his face get pummeled by a weapon. The stomping moves right, and the butcherers finally emerge into view– giant pigs in a butcher's outfit with sharp large lower fangs coming out, curling onto their face. It makes a low and distorted oink before ripping his blade from the dead man's face. Laura softly whimpers behind me.
The butcher pig looks at the intruders, and a distorted whiny pig sound roars from his throat before he starts going after the nearest players who are too scared to move. The ones behind the line, along with us, start screaming and running in the opposite direction. I hear the stomping behind us, along with an axe swinging.
"Fuckin' pigs," Heather utters while we run. "Of course, it's gotta be fuckin' pigs."
"A human slaughterhouse run by monstrous hogs," Maddie explains the obvious.
"Looks like they got tired of us turning them into pork chops and bacon," Jacelyn jokes flatly.
We run into an aisle with a few doors. I look to my right as I go by. I see a door with a plaque sign, reading the Security Room. I turn open the knob and find the room empty. I leave the door open to get all my friends inside before heading inside myself. I observe the knob as I slam it shut; there is no lock on it. Who designed this place? The best part is that the door opens outward of the room, so we can't block it with our bodies. It's unknown how strong these pigs are, but by their thick physique and their weapons, they must be strong. "Destiny, listen if you hear any of the pigs coming," I order.
Destiny hesitantly walks to the door, afraid of death. "Should I give you a sign? All I hear are the screams of the dying and the pigs' angry cries."
"Hold up two fingers and hold the door knob as quietly as you can."
Looking back at the other girls, Maddie is on the computer with Jacelyn and Heather watching. Laura is standing in the corner with her legs shaking. In fact, all of our hearts are pounding and limbs trembling, but she matches an earthquake. I hurry over to what Maddie is looking at. Before I can look at the screen, we hear stomping and screaming heading down our hallway. I wince at the door. Destiny holds up two fingers and holds the knob as tightly as possible. I hold my breath until the stomping has decreased in sound.
I turn back to Maddie as her eyes glue at the screen. She probably didn't look away when the hog crossed by. Even in the trials, she is still on electronics. She is watching the security cameras in the butcher-house. She clicks every second, checking how many cameras and rooms are there. She gets to surveillance of the prep area, where we see three bodies– two alive and chained by their wrists and ankles while on the table. A man and a woman crying for mercy. Thank God that the camera doesn't record sound. Another one is dead with a cut to the neck. We see a pig using another sharp utensil to remove the human's skin. Blood is everywhere on the table. Maddie shivers in disgust while Heather gags from behind us.
"Did you really have to stare at the camera longer than the other cameras?" Heather fusses. "These are real people, not fictional characters on TV or online."
"Sorry," Maddie mutters as she switches cameras. She turns in the chair as she looks at us. "What should we do? I feel staying in here is a death warrant. There were so many hogs in the hallway we ran out of. There was a pig chasing a player down here just now."
"We need to hide somewhere else," I reply.
"The freezer?" Jacelyn suggests. "There are many bodies we can use as cover; they can overlook us."
"What the hell?!" My head snaps to her in such abhorrence. "You are disgusting."
"Judging by the cameras and what has been picked up, the pigs are slow and loud, but strong and are fast at close range," she also mentions.
"She is right," Maddie agrees. Her eyes trace to the wall nearest to the door. "Destiny," she points to a decoration on the wall, "can you gently rip that off the wall and give it to me please?"
Destiny moves from her post. Every time we hear stomping coming closer, we all stop moving and hope they don't stop and open the door while Destiny is away. Destiny rips the sheet off the wall and hands it to her. The sheet is a fire emergency plan like we see in classrooms. She hurries back to the door. She looks at it before saying, "We are here." She points to the small block of the map with a red X. Our goal is to hide somewhere far away like–" Her finger shifts to the largest room in the corner that says Shipping Room. She turns to the computer and clicks to go to the storage room camera "-- this one. The Shipping Room has so many boxes, both large and small, and in piles. The camera only shows three corners of the room. We can hide from its range and survive until the time is up."
"That is much better than the freezer," Laura comments. "We can freeze to death if we stay there for quite some time."
"Oh god! Don't kill me! Ahhhh–!" We hear a woman yell in anguish before she gets cut off. We hear splashes and gurgles of blood. All of us look up. Destiny clutches the door as heavy and eerie footsteps thump throughout the hallway. It sounds like multiple and heated. Luckily, they are going the opposite way we need to go. We must turn right, left, and right before reaching the door.
"Are there any hiding spots along the way, Mad?" Laura whispers. She is sitting on the floor, hugging her weary knees.
Maddie shakes her head. "No. We need to book it as fast and quiet as we can."
"Let's go then," I urge. "It's only a moment of time before they stop and check here."
"Great idea."
Laura gets up and hurries to the door. Destiny quickly opens it. There are no pigs as we scurry right down the corridor.
"Someone help me!" A cry is heard in the hallway behind us. "I don't want to be eaten!" It sounds like a guy, but I feel something is off. It sounds very raspy with a mild distortion. Destiny and Jacelyn are ahead of me with Heather and Laura behind me. Laura slows down and looks behind her, unsure to help someone in dire need. All of us halt as I roll my eyes at the stupidity of this girl.
I snatch her arm. "Let's go!" I urge as we start to run again.
"There is someone screaming for help," she says quietly.
"This isn't the time to be Little Miss Empathy and help someone. Helping someone in this situation will kill you or all of your friends. Do you want that?" I argue back while running forward.
"I understand I don't want my friends to be killed, but who knows if we survive better in numbers and working together."
"Those bitches on the cliff said that surviving won't guarantee safety, Laura! Mostly everyone is going to die, including you."
She replies, "Well, I am not going to die being a menace to everyone."
"Not saving a life does not mean you're a menace, Laura!" We turn to the left corridor, which is just walls.
"Will you two shut up back there?!" Heather snaps back. "We are trying to listen to the pigs' footsteps here."
"I suggest getting a wolf," Jacelyn remarks sarcastically.
"No, to hell with that! They will turn the wolf into a chicken wing!"
"Somebody! Don't leave me here!" We hear another shriek. Luckily, Laura ignores it. She winces next to me while holding my hand. Never in my entire life have I had to take care of a child in a supernatural atmosphere. If she keeps this up, she will die first or get everyone else around her killed. I tug on her hand closer as we barge into the Shipping Room. Maddie raises our hand for us to stop as she looks around. When no one is here, she looks at us with a nod. We run to the bottom right corner and see boxes excellently sealed with the goods of human flesh—no bloody leaks. We see large, thick metal beams running across the ceiling. Perfect.
Jacelyn asks, "Should we hide around the boxes?"
I point while looking at her with disappointment, "The beams."
Jacelyn nods as she walks up to the box. Some boxes are large enough for one person to push us up. Fortunately, the larger packages are at the bottom of this massive pile of boxes. Since Jacelyn is the smallest of us, we push her up first to get her a head start. Maddie and Laura assist Heather and me up the boxes as we climb the beams. I don't look down until I am on top of the beams. The beams don't creak or budge down as Destiny, Jacelyn, Heather, and I spread out to fit each other. All we must do is lie flat to hide from the pigs if they come here.
"You go first," Laura tells Maddie from below.
Maddie prepares to climb the boxes until a hog's footsteps rock the floors. Maddie and Laura look at each other, knowing they're in immediate danger. I lie on my stomach against the beam, so I don't know what Maddie and Laura are doing to save themselves. Along with the stomping, I hear boxes being shoved around. "Get in! Get in!" Maddie quickly whispers to Laura before I hear the boxes move again.
The door slams open with a pig huffing aggressively. I hold my breath as we hear stomp around the room. If Maddie and Laura keep quiet, the pig won't rummage through the pile to find them. The two feet and a half wide beams give us some cover. I thought, Don't look up at an angle. I hope my mind isn't loud enough for the pig to hear or fate won't snitch on our location. The pig is not moving, but huffing and puffing is giving it away. It feels like minutes, but only ten seconds of it being idle. Just go away. I'm not here. Just go away.
The pig growls with its nostrils before turning away and heading out of the room, slamming the door behind it. I wait for a few moments before sitting back up. I listen to its footsteps go away at a distance. "That was intense," Jacelyn mutters.
"I thought the pig would never go away," Heather adds.
I look down at the bottom and see the boxes to the very far right, closest to the wall, shift as Laura pushes them out of the way. "Let's get back to climbing," I hear Laura say.
Their hike up to the beam is smooth this time with no pigs. Everything is much quieter. We will occasionally hear screams for help or the pigs roaring, but that is all at a distance, probably on the other side of the place. I think at this point of the round, people should hide. We duck and stay silent whenever we hear the monster come through and sit back up once they leave.
"Funny, we are still hiding in a room with a bunch of flesh but packaged," Jacelyn mutters.
"We don't need to know that!" Heather grimaces.
"I already know but don't want to be reminded," Laura tags along.
"We don't see their process in this one," I reply, rolling my eyes while looking away at her. I know that Jacelyn wants to be looked at, but I will not give it to her. Let that desire be where she trips unless she learns not to say what she thinks.
"I wonder what the pig vegans eat..." She also goes. Heather quietly laughs.
"This isn't the time to make jokes!" I bark at her. I am a few lines away from slapping her in the face.
"No. More. Eating. Humans," Heather says like she is practicing a school cheer; however, she is trying not to wake up her grandparents, so she doesn't get beaten. Heather quit enabling her, you douche-canoe.
"This place is imaginary to me– a fictional place and fictional world. Where are we on Earth when we see these kinds of creatures?" Laura asks. Oh my God. Shut up already. Their talking will muffle the stomping of the incoming pigs. I thought they would at least learn by now, but if they die, the step closer I am to winning the Bully Trials. They die by their sheer stupidity.
"Your mom," Jacelyn slips out of her mouth. I swing my arm to slap her face, but I pause, realizing that I might kill her, and that my friends will see me as a monster even though I am just trying to survive. The back of my hand is so close to touching the skin that she yelps. She regains before she snaps at me, "My God, Lola, I am trying to keep hopes up by humor because being a bunch of hopeless dimwits won't make us win. We will be a bunch of Ashes by round five or whatever."
"Make a better response then," I snarl. "That remark is middle school level. We are sophomores– think creatively."
She holds her comment before smirking. "We just did, you moron," she raises her brow while gesturing to Maddie. "Gears were being used. They can be a great asset in later rounds for problem-solving."
"While you are popping the ideas out of your ass like pills," I spat.
Her smile drops, letting go of her careless morality and points out, "You told Destiny to let guard the door and hold the knob if a hog was coming. You were the closest, yet you ordered Destiny to hold the door. What was that? Have your parents told you to do one chore in your life?"
"Have your parents ever told you to shut up once in your life?" I fire back, annoyed by her shenanigans. She will feed on pregnant cockroaches if Dreantula no longer tolerates her arguing. Jacelyn goes silent. Her eyes widen momentarily before her lips return to a thin line. She pathetically looks away from me.
She says in a somber tone, "I sometimes wonder what would happen if we could have just stolen a weapon to murder these hogs? Instead of hiding to be alive, we will be fighting."
"Well, how are you going to steal a weapon from a pig, genius?" I say brusque.
"Murdering to loot or finding one, I suppose," Jacelyn shrugs. Her legs dangling in the air from the beam we are currently holding.
"Don't be a hero," Heather warns while looking at Jacelyn. Jacelyn doesn't have eye contact with any of us.
"If we show that we fight together, more people will join or probably respect us. They seem all against us earlier," Laura notes. She is lying on her back. She probably wishes she had a ball to throw and catch.
"It's everyone for themselves in these games," I sternly say, "only one winner."
"...I know, but maybe the council or leaders would have a change of heart if we just tell the truth, be nice, live–"
"Oh my God," I growl as I massage my forehead. My eyes are squinting shut. "This is not the time to be goody good. We are all considered bad to them despite them not realizing they're bad themselves. They are obviously blinded by the sick and cruel hatred. They want us to suffer. Screw them."
I see the world melt away like it did while being teleported into this mess. We are back in the cave. Surprise. Surprise– many people are alive, but we stare at the old man from earlier is crying on the ground. His skin is removed, and his blood spilling out everywhere. His shoulder has an axe in it. He is not going to last very long. Out of all the shocked faces, this one player has a dead face. She watches him dying as if it is nothing to her. She stands next to us. The girl has light blonde hair and navy blue eyes. She wears a leather jacket and thick dark pants. I had never seen this girl before we teleported here both the first and second time. She must have been way in the back of the cave.
"Ninety-one of us left," she mumbles to herself. Damn, this girl can count in her head.
"Girl, why...I mean... are you okay?" Jacelyn asks. She must have noticed as well.
The woman turns to our group and replies softly, "Yeah, and what was your previous question before you changed it midway?"
Jacelyn replies straightforwardly, "Why aren't you scared like the rest of us?"
"I'm used to it," she mutters. "I work as a bounty hunter in Russia."
"Putin's assassin?" I blurt.
Her soft facial expressions turn cold as she looks at me, "No. I work in a desolate area– not a lot of people and not a lot of police, so we take matters into our own hands. On the other hand, a free world."
"How do you know English?" Jacelyn asks.
"Like I said, we take matters into our own hands, including languages." Her eyes assertively move back to Jacelyn.
"So if we ever cross Russian monsters, looks like we can go to you for translation," Jacelyn replies jokingly.
"Nadeyus' net," she goes (Надеюсь нет). Her voice still softly and fluently in a mild Russian accent, "meaning I hope not." Pick English or Russian. Don't just speak Russian and then speak English. She looks towards the deskinned elder who is now whimpering.
"Please, someone help me," he begs weakly, "end my pain." No one moves a muscle, not even the woman beside us. She watches his suffering calmly. Jacelyn moves right next to me to get closer to her.
"What is your name?" She asks.
"Marina," she replies.
"Beautiful name."
Marina smiles in delight like she never heard it in her life.
My brows raised, and so did alarms. Seriously?! Jacelyn goes around and befriends a woman that we never met in our lives. There are so many things not known about her. She was acting like an observant fool in the first round. Then, she tries to make friends with the huntress tracking the wanted. It must be her angelic facade she is putting on like a devil in an angel's disguise. In my group, I have two dumbasses– Laura and Jacelyn. They will probably be the first two to go. Heather is okay but hasn't contributed to the group in the trials thus far. I feel that Maddie has done well. She might be competition and harder to eliminate if I want to survive the trials. The overseers of this game might put me through hell if they decide to make the round to kill each other off. For now, I have plenty of shielding and friends to help me get by.
Maybe Marina might be another tool to use.