Chapter 12

Kara had walked through the front door of the slaughterhouse full of anxiety and fear, as evidenced by her shaking hands and faltering steps. A shiver that simply would not go away, even though it was close to eighty degrees and sunny outside. The pleasure of yesterday’s experience with Craig was somewhere in her mind and ahe tried to hold onto it with all her strength, but given what she was facing in the building, it was a very difficult thing.

The room her faltering pace took her to at the front of the building was brightly lit, with tile flooring and walls, but no furniture to speak of was visible, with the exception of a reception desk in front of the back wall. She had no idea what to do. She looked around as she clutched the paperwork tightly in her fists that she had printed out. It was her instructions, her volunteer letter, and the official statement saying she was no longer a human, and shortly would no longer be alive. Her vision pulsed with a strange beat and a slightly reddish glow.

She had said goodbye to her parents and her sisters at home, all of whom were crying as they desperately tried to think of any last moment idea that could save her, but the laws were clear. This was the way it was to be, and nothing would change a thing. She’d taken a ride service to get here and—

“Can I help you?” The male voice startled her, and she jumped as her head turned to the sound.

A man in his mid-thirties was standing there by the tall reception desk at the wall opposite the outside door. He was of average height, not overweight, and wore a coverall with a name tag that read “Giles” sown onto the left breast. She shook slightly as she tried to force herself forward. Then, taking a deep breath, she walked towards him, and held out her paperwork and her driver’s license, which he took.

“Ah. Let’s see.” He took the papers from her, set the license on the top of the reception desk, and started looking through it. Then he picked up her license and compared it to her face.

He tapped a button behind the desk and red lights on several cameras pointed at her lit up to indicate they were recording.

“Please state your name, your social security number, the date of your selection notice, and your selection number.”

It took Kara two times to get all the information out, but eventually he was satisfied that she was the right one.

“Come with me, please.” It wasn’t a request.

The man’s voice was not unpleasant, but was instead calm and gentle, as if he understood what she was going through and was trying to minimize her stress and discomfort. It was definitely not helping, though.

He took her by the arm and pulled her past the desk, and through a door she hadn’t noticed before.

“CUT!” Rang out Gilda’s voice.

“Okay, Amanda, are you doing alright?” Gilda had Amanda off in a private room next to the set where they could talk.

“Yes. I am looking forward to this all being over. I didn’t sleep again last night. The nightmares were worse. They were full of dead and horribly mutated women screaming at me about how I had betrayed them and led them to their deaths, only to get away at the last moment. I was called Judas, Benedict, all kinds of horrible things. It was awful. I just want to get things done and see what’s awaiting me on the other side.”

Gilda had no idea what to say to her, and she was profoundly grateful when there was a knock on the door and Sharra opened it and stepped in a moment later.

Sharra reached over and pulled Amanda into a hug.

“I have no words that will make this better, sweetie. You will always be in my thoughts every day from now on.”

“Thank you, Sharra. You and Gilda have meant the world to me. I am honored that I have been able to work with you both. Remember your promises to me. Later this afternoon, both of you must have some of me. Remember me fondly. And know that I will be at peace on the other side.”

Tears came to Sharra and Gilda at Amanda’s words.

“Oh, stop it, you two. Everything will be alright. I love you both. Remember that.” She smiled at them, drawing strength from their love of her in return.

“Is everything ready?” The question seemed to ring through the small room, and a deep, ringing silence followed it.

Gilda looked at her tablet. They had finished everything that they needed to in terms of voice-overs, re-shoots, and the like. The only thing left to film of Amanda was her death and what comes after.

“Things are ready for your final scene. Before we go, I have to talk to you about something.” There was a strange tone in Gilda’s voice as she spoke.

Amanda turned to the woman she viewed as a mother figure, and waited, a serene smile on her face.

“I have talked it over with everyone in the know on this. Everyone is okay with you surviving this. If you tell Markus that you want to survive, he will use a prop blade instead, and everything will be done via CG and special effects. You don’t have to go through with this if you change your mind.”

Amanda started to speak up, a stricken look on her face, but Gilda simply wrapped her arms around the younger woman and held her.

Sharra spoke up then. “The choice is entirely yours. We are prepared for you to do either. We know that you have thought this through, but we still want you to have an out. The jet is standing by, and if you opt not to, you will be taken to a place where a plastic surgeon team will alter your appearance and you will be granted a new identity and be placed in witness protection. No one will know that you survived.

“The President has said he would prefer this option for you, and that if you take it, you will never have to work a day in your life again. It will be setup as a military spouse survivor’s pension, and because of you ‘losing your husband in military action’, it will come with a lifetime deferment from being selected. There will be opportunities for you to volunteer in any capacity in any place in the country, and no one will be the wiser. Even your vocal cords will be altered to change your voice, and you will not be identifiable in any way.”

Sharra paused to let Amanda process what she said, then continued.

“There is a Doctor of Psychology, one of the best in the world in dealing with severe psychological trauma and who has worked for the various law enforcement agencies, who is planning on retiring from government service with a full pension. She has agreed to be your live-in therapist if you choose to go that way, who will keep your secret and be there always for you. She wanted us to let you know that she would walk that path with you every step of the way for the rest of her life, if you wanted. You would never go through it alone. Both of you would be setup with new identities as mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, in case anyone needs to know why your DNA doesn’t match, and moved to a new location together.”

Amanda tried to stop herself from shaking as the words impacted in her mind. After a week of accepting and almost looking forward to her demise, this was overwhelming. What was happening inside her? Could she survive this?

“What about the neighborhood meal? What about the rest of the shooting?”

“We have obtained ... a replacement ... selectee from the German government. If you choose to not move forward, she will take your place.” Germany had previously also passed their laws in secret some time ago, and had fone public and started their program four months ago. “It was done entirely in secret, and no one will be able to connect it to you. The doner is your same height and weight, and looks remarkably similar to you from a distance after we colored her hair and got her some colored contacts, a lucky coincidence. The rest of her appearance will be altered in post production where needed.”

She stared at Sharra in shock as her mind reeled. Could she walk away from this? Could she survive? Could she live with herself if she lived, even without her family (what there was left of it), friends, her career, her life as she had built it?

“Think about it. Please? Just think about it. Markus will do whatever you choose, but I, both of us, we want you to live, even if we never see you again.”

Kara stepped forward towards the specially built tiled ten- by ten-foot corner, dread washing over her as she faced her mortality at last. Each step seemed to be heavier, and her feet dragged as she tried to make herself get through this and into the last moment of her young life.

Standing at the basket provided, she slowly undressed, unable to take her eyes off the corner. The tile, the two full walls, the water sprayer handle and hose and the drain in the recessed floor, the hoist above with the two loops of cord at the end of the two-foot-long crossbar, the shelving mostly hidden by the two half-walls that probably were where the knives were located ... the knives ... the knives...

She froze for a moment as the thought of the knives that would end her life in a few more moments. What were they like? Big? Huge? Small? Were they bloodstained, dark, and evil-looking, like something out of a horror movie? What kind of blades did they have? Were they sharp? Would she feel anything? The man who had greeted her at the front of the building had said she wouldn’t feel anything, that they use an electro-shock to the brain to knock her out for as much as three minutes, and that she would be killed while she was unconscious. He promised her that she would feel absolutely no pain. That thought let her get herself in motion again, and she finished undressing, setting everything she had left in the world in the basket.

“Alright?” he said as he grasped her arm gently.

She nodded.

She let herself be led into the corner, where she stepped through the opening where the two half-walls met, and down onto where the floor was lower.

“Take a moment and take a deep breath. Relax. Think about something calm and peaceful. Then, nod when you are ready. You will fall asleep and be gone before anything else registers.” His voice was quiet and calm, perfect to be the last sound a person would ever hear.

She nodded and tried to stand still for three seconds in spite of her continued shivering (why was she so cold?), then–

“CUT!”

Gilda’s voice cut through the set, ending everything.

“Hold where you are while we review footage, please. Amanda, talk with Markus, please.”

The strangeness of the statement didn’t register with the only four other people on set as they went about doing whatever they needed to make sure that the cameras and microphones were setup properly, giving Amanda and Markus a chance to talk in privacy.

“Amanda, I think you should not go through with it. Don’t do it. Please. It will be alright. I know what you have been going through. You will survive. I am prepared for whichever choice you make, but I would greatly prefer that you not actually die today.”

“How will that work?” she asked quietly.

“If you say so, I will use a much weaker stunner with a strobe light built into it. When you feel the charge, you will pretend to collapse, and I will catch you and lower you to the floor, just as if it were the real deal. At that point we will stop the scene and bring in your replacement. I will then stun her for real and arrange her on the floor. The cameras will start up again at that point, and I will hoist her up by her feet and administer the coup-des-gras and process her in your place. CG and FX will do everything else. Please don’t do this. You are too important to the world, no matter what you are doing. We need people like you in the world, even if you are just volunteering in Alaska feeding caribou. You deserve to live, to enjoy life.”

“What happens after I have all the surgeries? You know about that, right?” He nodded. “What if I am needed to ever get back to my old identity for some reason?”

“Sharra will take a DNA/RNA/mRNA sample from you, have it sent to be locked up in a high-security evidence locker, probably where they keep the UFO alien bodies, and should you ever need to return, the surgeries will be reversed by nanites, which will be used to begin with to alter your appearance in the first place, and you will be back to who you are now.”

Amanda smiled slightly at the alien reference. Her thoughts whirled as she thought about things, and clarity slowly came to her. Then she turned to him, and said—

From behind her back, the audience could see as Kara nodded, and the stunner in the butcher’s gloved right hand moved to the back of her neck below where her hair was done up in a bun. There was a flash of light and a “SNAP”, and Kara dropped as if her puppet strings were cut.

The butcher quickly set the stunner back on the shelf with one hand while he caught her with his other arm across her body. He lowered her gently to the floor and quickly turned and tapped a button. The crossbar on the lift lowered to within a foot of the floor while he turned the body over. Then he looped the cords around the ankles, slid the collars down the cords to make sure the body couldn’t fall out of the lift, and touched a button.

The lift pulled the body up by the feet, and the people watching in the theatre held their breaths as it stopped.

A gasp went up from several people in the theatre as the butcher picked up a knife. His hand turned, and he grasped hair on the back of the head of the hanging girl, turning her motionless head and body and the front of her neck towards the fully tiled corner of the wall.

Then his right hand reached from where he stood on the left to her other side, and a short slash caused blood to spray out. Another slash on the other side, and more blood sprayed.

Screams and cries were heard in the theatre as Gilda and Sharra watched from the projection booth. More screams were heard when “Giles” the butcher in the film opened the leg arteries and the ones in the wrists.

By the time the blood stopped flowing, people had mostly recovered, but not all. Some people were crying, and others simply watched in shocked, horrified fascination.

By the time the body was lowered to the cart and taken to the butchering table, a kind of hush had descended over the people watching. Sharra thought it compared to watching a bad accident in slow motion.

Screams started up once again when the body was being skinned and butchered. Major cuts of meat were removed and placed on trays, where they were taken to the prep tables. Smaller, single-serving cuts of meat were then laid out back on trays once more. The chef then seasoned the meat, getting it ready for cooking. The camera view followed the meat from the body as it was carried out to the waiting grills outside of the butchering room, where crowds were gathered for the community picnic that was underway. People were sitting at picnic tables under large catering tents, while kids were playing in the field nearby.

The meat pieces from Kara’s body were set on the grill to cook, along with other items being cooked nearby, including corn on the cob. Buns were set out and other preparations were made, and everyone began to turn towards the grilling area as the smell of what was cooking slowly wafted through the area.

When the first of the cuts of meat were done and ready to be served, a man stood up on the seat of the picnic table, where the food was being set out buffet-style, and spoke up.

“May I have your attention, please? Everyone? Come closer, I have a couple of things to say before we begin. Thank you.”

“First of all, I want to welcome everyone here to the first cookout this neighborhood has seen in more years than I can count. I hope we are able to do more of this in the future, as long as food supplies allow it.

“You all know the food shortages we have been facing in this nation for decades now. Hopefully, that will slowly change now because of these new laws that have been passed. And while it may seem like this whole thing is distasteful and horrific, we need to accept that difficult times call for what may be unpalatable solutions. As we face nothing less than the survival of our race, we call on everyone to embrace this, and move on, survive, and look to when this world will be a better place for all, when we might be able to emerge from the darkness in which we now will walk.

“You all know that you will become cannibals today. You know that humanity is heading down this path, and why. This is not something we wish to do, or would choose to do, but it is necessary. There is not enough food to go on as things were before. Therefore, some must be selected so that the rest of us can continue onwards. Let’s just accept that and move on. This is about survival: the survival of humanity.

“Finally, I want to share some information and a final last message from Kara, the provider of what we will be consuming today. She wanted everyone to know that, if you didn’t know this already, she volunteered for this. Her mother was selected, but because her mother was needed to take care of her father and her sisters, she chose this so that the rest of her family doesn’t fall into ruin. She willingly made, literally, the ultimate sacrifice so that her family could survive, and hopefully thrive, in the months and years to come.

“And for that sacrifice, her family has been granted a five-year exemption from selection. This means that, because of her mother’s age, her mother will be permanently excluded from selection. And because of her sisters’ medical conditions and the fact that they are unable to have children, they are permanently excluded.

“Kara made the ultimate sacrifice out of love and devotion to her family, and her community. She chose to do this so the rest of her family will live. Let that be an example of the highest accomplishment that anyone can do, that they would lay down their life for their fellow human beings. Remember her as you eat what she has provided today, as well as in the future if you are selected to be part of saving your family, your neighbors, and the rest of the citizens of our country.”

He paused at the solemn moment, then smiled out at everyone else.

“And on that note, let’s eat.”

The movie went on, showing girls and women getting selected at almost every age between eighteen and forty, and watched as an endless line of human females walked into slaughterhouses, where they were killed, butchered, and sent on out into the country in refrigerated semi-trailers to provide food for the rest of the nation.

The majority of these scenes, and especially the terminations and butchering, were the very best computer-generated special effects that Hollywood could produce. And the story went on as Kara’s voice passionately narrated the scenes and spoke about the concept of “new normal” as generations of people in that fictional world adjusted, adapted, and survived, and the horrors of the projected famine were avoided.

At the end, as people streamed out of the theatre from that showing and others waited to go in and see the next one, microphones setup captured the conversations that were happening. Reports were filed on what was recorded, and analyses were sent along through the proper channels.

Sharra was once again sitting in the Oval Office a month later, waiting for the meeting with the President to begin, when the last of the invitees came in and found places.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s get into it. Sharra, first, I want you to talk on what the people were saying when they were exiting the theaters.”

“Yes, Mr. President. Most of the talk was about the graphic nature of Kara’s death, and the horror, shock, and the general ickiness of the community meal afterwards, but there was quite a bit of discussion around the laws and how that was required to happen to the fictional people in the movie, and why it was happening, most of all.”

“Was there any disbelief? Did the movie do enough to lay out the threat of famine that was coming, and how they were trying to head it off?”

“It was a mixed bag, Madam Attorney General. Some of the brighter ones picked up on the fact that the government had the power to do almost anything necessary to save the most lives it could, even at the expense of the ones that were lost.

“The analogy of the limited number of seats in the lifeboats on a sinking ship didn’t fall on deaf ears. The general statement by the fictional Attorney General in the movie about ‘there was never going to be enough lifeboats in real life to save everyone in this situation, since the number of people on the ship was far more than it could ever expect to be saved’ had a lot of play.

“In that situation, most of the people seemed to be accepting that, given the limited scope of the situation in the movie, while not a good thing, not letting everyone onto the lifeboats was the best of all the bad options they had.”

“The debate amongst viewers, though, was fierce. It was a good idea to offer free food and drinks to anyone that wanted to stay around and talk about what they’d seen with other movie-goers. That let us capture a lot more complete conversations than we would ever have had access to.

“Did people draw the connection between the current situation the characters’ world were in and the coming famine in the movie?”

“Yes, for the most part, people figured that out. Wasn’t too much of a stretch, but it was part of the major message we were conveying.” Sharra added.

“What about the whole sacrifice? The volunteering?” the head of the FBI asked.

“That was met with a lot of ... I think the word is positivity, as she was making the same sacrifice that the rest of the population of their fictional country will be asked to make. She was viewed as a selfless, heroic person who saw that the toughest thing she could ever do was give herself up for her family, and in spite of the cost to herself, she did what she had to do to save them.

“About eighty percent of the people saw her that way. Only about fourteen percent saw it as foolish or pointless, with the other six percent having either irrelevant opinions on that, or no opinion at all. That is considerably higher than I would have expected, so I think overall the concepts we were sending out were clearly received. Not very well liked, but given that there were no good answers, the best of the bad solutions was, by default it seems, the only way to go.”

Conversation continued while they discussed the reports on theater goers, and additional reports filed on people that were later polled and questioned a few weeks after they saw the movie.

It was, as expected, a very controversial movie. Several religious groups picketed against it, but that only seemed to draw more crowds as a lot of people, especially women in the target demographic age, wanted to go see the movie that was making so many of their friends and family members feel so uncomfortable while also stirring up their fight or flight reflex in such an electrifying way. Many others saw it, as well, for different reasons.

Some wanted to see Amanda Mickelson’s only sex scene, to date. The hype on the Internet and the various discussion boards said that that scene was worth it by itself, but that the death scene was strange, and was so realistic that you’d swear it actually happened, with some more extremists swearing Amanda was actually dead. It wasn’t helping that no one seemed to be able to locate Amanda and figure out whether or not she had died in that scene.