Chapter 23

“All rise, the Honorable Judge Maren Wilson presiding.”

“Be seated. Bailiff, our first case, please.”

“This is Shane David Miller vs. Charleston Meat Packing, Inc, for loss of income from a selectee.”

“I see. Counsel for the plaintiff, do you have any preliminary motions?”

“We wish to file a motion on behalf of the family freezing the assets of Charleston Meats, Your Honor, pending resolution of this case. We feel that—”

“Yes, I read the brief. Counsel for the defense, any preliminary motions on behalf of your client?” The judge turned and took the paperwork from her bailiff on the plaintiff’s motion, glanced at it, and set it aside on her bench.

“We have two motions. One to suppress the freezing of our client’s assets, and another to dismiss the case in its entirety with prejudice.”

“I see. As to your first, motion granted. On your second, what’s your reasoning?”

“In order for the plaintiff to win in a jury trial, they need to show that they were harmed by the actions of the defendant, my client. This is complicated by the fact that the woman in question, Carla Ann Miller, who is the wife and mother of the plaintiff’s family, was legally selected and processed according to all applicable state and federal laws. When she was selected, her legal status changed to that of a selectee, and she had no legal rights to protections under the constitution, and any and all applicable state and federal laws as well,” the lawyer for Charleston Meat Packing Inc was being very careful and specific, knowing that this case could, if decided in favor of the plaintiff, set precedent in that every person who lost someone to the PCA and PMB could sue for damages and derail the entire PCA and the state laws underneath it.

“Additionally, the PCA treaty and the federal laws, and the state-level PMB laws, contain provisions that address this specific situation, and disallow any finding of loss to the survivors in civil proceedings. We are saddened by the loss that the family has suffered, but an external audit and investigation by outside authorities has determined that Carla Ann Miller was termed properly. The monetary compensation that accompanies selection, termination, and processing, while small, is considered the only recoverable amount. Shane David Miller cashed the check. Under the PCA, the PMB, and several applicable state and federal laws in other categories of the legal code, that is sufficient for acceptance of the situation as is, and under other law, severs any civil responsibility at every level from recovery.”

The judge considered the statements by the attorneys as she looked over at the grieving husband and father. She felt for the man, having lost his life companion of fifteen years, and having three daughters under the age of ten that he now had to raise on his own, unless one of the many women out there who wished to marry and try to have a boy with Shane Miller, came along. But the law was clear, and the Justice Department had provided guidance on how to handle cases filed against human slaughterhouse operators who were on the correct side of the laws in both civil and criminal courts. More than that, she agreed with the PCA and PMB. The coming famine had to be, at a minimum, blunted, if not avoided entirely.

“Defendant’s motion to dismiss this case with prejudice granted. The laws establish both civil and criminal liability protections for the legal operations of a human slaughterhouse, including situations such as this. And while the loss of the wife and mother of the family is unfortunate, that loss must be weighed against the needs of our nation.”

Zara Dickerson, the plaintiff’s lawyer, sighed internally. She knew this was going to be the outcome, but she understood Shane’s need to try. She would have done the same thing in his situation. Now all that was left was for the young lawyer to try to help him get over the loss. A glance at Shane reinforced the thoughts going through her head. He was handsome, and muscular, and a devoted father. She thought of a few ideas she could employ, especially since she was single and wanting a husband, and he was a hunk. Still, it would have to be handled cautiously. Ethics rules were not to be taken lightly.

The case wrapped up, and Zara found herself commiserating with Shane at a local restaurant near her law office at her suggestion.

“Ms. Brenda Honor Halcyon and Ms. Joyce Dana Halcyon?”

The two women in the customs and immigration line at Heathrow Airport in London, England, looked up at the four men in police uniforms that suddenly surrounded them.

“Yes?” the older of the two women said.

“Come with us, please.”

Apprehension warred with fear inside the two sisters as they followed the large men into a side room.

“Brenda Halcyon, we have contacted your State Department, and received information about you. Your application to enter the U.K. is denied on the grounds that you have falsified information on your entry form. Therefore, you are detained. Joyce Halcyon, you are also detained for assisting your older sister in this endeavor.”

“What?! What are you talking about? What information?” Brenda demanded in a remarkably realistic display. Too bad it was all a lie.

“You are a runaway from your country’s Population Control Act laws. You falsified your form when you stated that your legal status allowed you to enter our country without restrictions. The form clearly stated that being a selectee under orders to report for processing disqualified you from entering the U.K.”

“So? Your country isn’t part of that that barbaric treaty. We are safe here, even if you put us in your prison.”

“I’m afraid you are under a misapprehension, madam. The PCA treaty was ratified six months ago. We are fully compliant with the laws as presented by the PCA treaty, including what to do with international runaways.”

The blood ran from Brenda’s face as she realized that she wasn’t going to escape after all.

Joyce turned to her sister in an attempt to distance herself from Brenda’s fate while Brenda was stood up and her hands were handcuffed behind her as she tried to be brave.

“You didn’t tell me you were selected! Why would you want me to go with you? Are you trying to get me killed and eaten along with you?” She demanded in hopes that it was believable.

“Joyce Halcyon, the American State Department sent us a file on you as well. In it, you are noted as having said publicly that if you or your sister was selected, both of you would do everything you could to avoid being eaten, having called the laws, and I quote, ‘barbaric and grotesque,’ and the threat of famine, ‘a bunch of baloney not backed up by any credible science.’ Therefore, you are subject to the same conditions and treatment as your sister for aiding and abetting a runaway.”

“What is going to happen?” Joyce asked somewhat fearfully.

“Well, the Home Secretary has ordered that you be made an example of. We have no desire to have every selectee from every country in the world that follows the PCA, which honestly is basically every single one of them now since Croatia signed last month, think that they can run to our country for safety. So, you both will be transported to Her Majesty’s Prison at Bronzefeld in Middlesex, where you will learn your fate.”

A day later, both Belinda and Joyce were ushered into a room at the prison, where they were ordered to strip completely in front of the guards, both male and female. After a physical altercation in which the two women were forcibly stripped and restrained, they were marched to the medical center of the prison.

“Which one of you is Brenda, and which is Joyce?”

The women were identified, and the female doctor picked up a permanent marker. She wrote a large B on Brenda’s forehead and her cheeks, as well as her back and hips. Then she did the same with the letter J on Joyce.

Before either woman could react, a hobble was fastened between each woman’s ankles, preventing them from walking away very fast. With their wrists restrained behind them, they had no chance of escaping what was coming next.

Each woman was bent forward over and secured to an exam table before they could react.

“What are you barbarians doing to us? Let us go! This is not right!” Brenda looked over to her left and saw that two of the female guards were holding vid cams.

“You are recording this?! You sick fuckers! Let us go! Let us—MMMGFF!!” Brenda’s voice went away as a pair of orderlies grabbed her head and shoulders and held her steady while an injection was made into her neck, paralyzing her vocal cords. Joyce was treated to the same thing, and both women sobbed silently as they waited for what was going to happen to them.

Brenda felt a hand on her low back, and she stiffened in fear. Then she felt two pairs of hands on her rear end, pulling her cheeks apart.

“Let’s see now...” A voice said as something warm, greasy, and pointed touched her anus. Then she gasped in pain as the fully erect penis was rammed forcibly into her. The man grunted as he pounded into her, sparing her not a bit of pain as she was sodomized. When the first man was finished, he pulled out, to her relief, but a stave of some kind was employed to bruise her buttocks for five strikes. Then another lubed erection was rammed into her, and it began again.

For the next half hour, but what seemed much longer, she was anally raped and then beaten while the next guard readied himself. At one point, she looked over and saw that her sister Joyce was in the same situation, and Brenda could see blood running down her sister’s legs from either the rapes or the beatings. The sight of her younger sister in such peril made her soul shrivel up inside.

The rapes were done, but the suffering was just beginning.

The medical center they were in also included a surgical center, and that was where they were led next.

Brenda’s hands were freed, but that was only so that her arms could be affixed to the outstretched panels attached to an operating platform upon which she was restrained.

She was strapped down across her body and legs at several positions, and she gasped as tourniquets were fastened around her arms above her wrists.

She rapidly shook her head from side to side, dreading what was coming next, but her voice had been taken from her, and she couldn’t say anything to beg and plead for her life.

A guard, one that had enjoyed raping her before, leaned over her, and looked into her terrified, tear-filled eyes.

“You knew you were selected, and you ran. You’ll get no sympathy from anyone here. Especially since you brought your younger sister into harm’s way with you. She will suffer exactly the same fate as you.”

The doctor came over and waved a bone saw over her face.

“We’ll take the hands, but unless you want to carry her, we will leave the feet and legs intact so she can walk to wherever we need her to go. Oh, and no pain meds or any other kind of meds. That will taint the meat. Can’t ruin the roasting plans.”

“That won’t be a problem, actually. She is due to be spitted and roasted,” which made Brenda gasp as her fate was made known to her at last.

The doctor shrugged and got two more tourniquets and fastened them around Brenda’s ankles.

“Guess we take all four then. This will be fun for you, Brenda.” She said with a wicked smile that promised anything but the aforementioned ‘fun’.

Brenda began to hyperventilate as the saw was moved into position, and she tried to scream as it cut off her hand at the wrist. Then the other was removed as well, and the agony in her arms overwhelmed her senses, and she lost consciousness. While she was out, her feet were removed as well, and all for appendages were tossed unceremoniously into the waste bin next to the processing table with a solid ‘thud’ that made Joyce flinch in horror.