Chapter 23

Manpower Planning and placement

Margaret convened the goat group (now becoming a herd) in the break room at six PM Thursday evening. There had been over one hundred and twenty were chopped today, with thirty additional interviews. Phil had been sent home to talk with their daughters. He was going to wait for Kimberly's call later. Kitty had been sent home with Sarah to take care of her cat and to take care of her home for a short time. Sarah was coming back tomorrow to finish her processing, but with the instructions to not close out any checkbooks or to close any of her relationships with Family Services. Carol was on a roll. Kimberly was sitting here as a newcomer getting adjusted to her short time status.

"Ok Carol. So how much lost revenue did you cost us today?" Margaret asked with a smile.

David looked at the group and saw Kimberly wondering how to take this.

"Carol, if you didn't cost us our license, you can do whatever you want. Anyone you can get out, you have my support to get them out and send them home." David said.

"Pulling your leg, Kiddo" Margaret said. "Anyone you can send home we put a ribbon around."

Kimberly listened to this discussion intently. These people believed that David and Margaret were trying to find a way out for them. I need to talk to Susan, she thought to herself.

"Well, I sent home one of the ones Nancy had fished out. And I have two remaining that may have either medical or social exemptions. I have no idea why they weren't dumped from the beginning." Carol said.

"Ok. So we assume that the two you have are going to be longer term then Kimberly. What is their story?"

"Cathy has a medical exemption. She can no longer breed, and is a cancer survivor. Possibly this is a hardship case. In any event, she is a Nurse Aide, so she will easily fit the intake prospect." Carol said.

Abby spoke up. "I think I met her in Cook County. Quiet kid. She was real good with people. Might work here. Don't know if she can cut or not."

"We didn't know if you could cut or not" Candy said. "But you were perverted pretty well."

"Don't remind me, bitch" Abby replied.

"Sarah has social values written all over her ass. She works with foster kids, cancer survivors and a whole host of other things. She couldn't get through to the MAB for an appeal. I think I can get a case for her."

"Carol, The question is can she work here while you are doing the legal stuff? These both look like Cindy to me. No offense redhead."

"None taken. I just worked out with the help of my friends." Cindy replied.

Margaret was taken aback with that. It was almost never that Cindy came back with a zinger or anything else. "Good for you, mouse that roars. Good for you."

"So, are these two another legal aid project?" Margaret continued.

"Well, if my projects succeed they leave. If they fail they turn out like the red headed slitter here and you get what you wanted, right?" Carol said with a calm grin.

"You know, I used to think I was in charge. Now I know better." Margaret said.

"So, what do we know about these two?" David asked. Feeling outnumbered again, he still felt he could assert some control over this lunatic bin.

"Kitty was an open volunteer by mistake. We had her change to select substitution for Sarah. We got that assignment made. Then you rejected the assignment, David."

"Ok. Thanks for telling me. What reason did I have?"

"You had a prime and weren't trading down?" Carol said.

"Ok Sounds like a smart business man to me. Who got her to go from open to specific replacement?" David asked

"She did that all on her own. From here, but it was with her own login." Carol said.

"Ok. Just in case I get any questions. And what did she try to trade for?"

"The cheerleader type." Carol said. Candy immediately laughed.

"What is that about?" Margaret asked.

"I said that Sarah was more cheerful and bubbly then I was. Great body, great skin, great hair, no plastic. The kind you want to kill just for being competition. And she is a nice person too." Candy said with a laugh.

"Is she able to swing a blade?" Margaret asked.

"I don't know about that yet," Carol said.

"We have to have a few more cutters. At least two to one for office only types." David said. "I realize that they are hard to find, but we need them if we are going to keep everyone safe in the boat."

"I know." Carol said, feeling admonished. "I really will keep my eyes open."

"I believe you will. I just don't want any of my people burned out." David said. "All of you mean too much to me. We have time and a larger pool to work with now. So do we interview Cathy and Sarah?" David asked.

"Oh my god, I forgot and left Cathy in holding. I guess I better go get her." Helen said with embarrassment.

"Someone better go with you. Pick one." David said.

"Abby?" Helen asked. "Do you want to come with me?"

Realizing the implications, Abby understood the responsibility. Medically trained, and perverted by the circumstance, Abby would be the model for the young nurse's aide. "Yea. I think so."

"We will be back shortly." Helen said.

"New business?" Margaret asked.

"I have a couple. We have some need to do some improvements in process time. Elizabeth, your marketer talk is taking hold inside as well as outside." David said as he grinned at Margaret. "So I know better than to change the Term process much. Jimmy and Abby have had some talks, but I am leaving that to the people who do this professionally." David said with a smile.

"So, what can we do upstream or downstream to reduce time, effort or improve processes?" David continued.

"I may have a few ideas," Kimberly said. "I mean, I am an outsider, but I did notice a couple of things."

Margaret watched as the other women looked toward Kimberly for her input. This is how you get a seat on the boat, whether she knew it or not. Be a part of the process and you are not part of the meal.

"The greatest incidence of repetitive motion injuries came from the slaughterhouse industry in the 1960s. Repeat slashing on a production line were killers for wrists, elbows, arms and shoulders and back. They caused a lot of injury over time. While none of us will want to retire from this after thirty years, we do want to be healthy. So we have to find some ways to reduce the effort." Kimberly began.

Seeing David nodding in agreement, Kimberly continued. "The biggest single waste of effort is in decapitation and hand removal. None of the hands really deliver much in value as a product. And heads don't either. Hair can be removed with scalp at a specialty station for wigs and other things, and eyes are not much use any more since the improvements in eye re-growth. Cloning has taken most of the organ transplant business out of the box."

"Go on." David said.

"So, if we automate decapitation, through machine processes, we can lower repeat motion injury. For instance, I watched at the kill station. After bleed out, if you slid the carcass down the track a short distance, you could rigid mount a tree limb trimmer on the floor above a chute. Slide the carcass down with the neck in the trimmer and remove the head with no need to slice or cut. This would increase drain speed, reduce time to butcher, and leave skin removal simpler as well."

"For some people, you don't bother with the slitting, just pop them into the lopper and be done with it" Candy said with a grin.

"Who has pissed you off that much?" Margaret asked.

"Couple of those women from South Side of Chicago last week. I would have chopped those bitches with no problem or qualms." Candy replied.

"I imagine that the kill process is quicker that way. I don't think you would suffer long without your head." Kimberly continued.

"We already do that to some extent next door" David said. "Only we have personalized baskets for you and you sent them before we drop the blade."

Kimberly had read about that in the blogs. "I would like to look at that some time." She said to David.

"No problem. We will give you a tour. Margaret, while Kimberly is here, we will have to get her one of H&S's collars. I'll have Jack run this over tomorrow." David said. "And Kimberly, I want you to research the de-capper tools tomorrow, if you don't mind. We need to get those in place soon. Definitely we can put those in the budget for H&S, and I assume here too."

The discussion continued while Margaret went and brought in the remaining collar. She also brought in the e-mail copy that David had gotten from Donaldson at MAB regarding numbers and quota and storage. Thinking that this was good karma, she posted that on the bulletin board on her way back.

When Margaret was back, Helen, Abby and Cathy were also appearing at the break room.

Cathy was a little stressed. She had been left alone since getting here and she was getting hungry. I wonder if this is what they do to avoid having to clean us out later? She thought to herself. She didn't want to create a lot of fuss, but there was only so much she could do. Waiting was stressing her out.

When Abby and Helen came to the door, she was on pins and needles. What next?

"Cathy, I want to apologize for this. We are having a early supper and discussion, and I was wondering if you would like to come with us?" Helen asked.

"Last meal? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap."

"No problem. I would think something was wrong if you didn't. This was inexcusable but we will try to make it up to you. Would you mind following me?" Helen asked.

Leading the way to the door next to the turnstile, Helen remarked, "We are going to go through the processing room to the break room. I hope you don't mind, we haven't cleaned up completely."

Seeing what Helen had in her mind, Abby watched Cathy carefully. Going through the door was always a bit of a shock.

Through the door, but not the way she expected

Cathy was a little surprised at going through the other door. The turnstile appeared to be a more normal track here. She was shocked a little at the vision when she got there. There were a few hanging bodies on an overhead track, and two men were mopping up blood just inside of the room.

"Careful here" Abby said to her. "This tile gets slippery sometimes. That is why we wear these sandals."

Seeing hanging carcasses and bodies on tables being dismembered was a bit unsettling to Cathy. But her rotation in autopsy and surgery had prepared her for the sight of blood and the smell of it. Looking around she saw clean human carcasses and parts being treated casually but not abusively. And the bright light illuminated everything.

"Hi Helen. New goat?" a man asked as he was mopping blood toward a drain.

"Possibly Chris. Cathy, this is one of our team members, Chris."

"Glad to meet you." Cathy said offering her hand.

"Not right now. I need to clean up and get disinfected first. Going to the break room?"

"Yes. There is a Hen party for a while. We will see you guys later?" Helen asked.

"Sure thing. Save me some lasagna." Chris said.

At that time, Cathy's stomach growled.

"I think we better feed this woman," Abby said. "Or we will face a lawsuit for bad treatment. Or worse."

"I am starving." Cathy admitted.

Leaving processing and walking down the hall behind Helen, Cathy noted that there were several other men in uniforms who were washing up and cleaning up. I guess I am not being killed today, she thought to herself. What is going on?

Entering a room that looked like a combination kitchen and family room, Cathy smelled spices, tomato, peppers and host of other things that got her stomach going. And saw a group of nude women and only a single man.

"Welcome to dinner." Margaret said. "Sorry you were left alone so long but we wanted to talk with you before anything else happened."

"Sure. You can say anything you want if you feed me." Cathy replied. "That smells delicious."

"Get the girl a plate, Cindy, and sit here with us, Cathy" David said from his seat at one of the tables.

Cathy came and sat at the table with Margaret, Abby, Helen, and David.

"So, I take it that you have something special planned for me?" Cathy began.

David laughed. This woman had some brass. You needed that here. "We might. Mainly we wanted to talk to you for a few moments about what you see and think. Carol seems to think that you may have been sent here by mistake."

"I don't know about the mistake part. I do know that Chemo, Radiation and now this all sucks in a way. And being told I am dog food didn't improve my self esteem much." Cathy said.

"I can understand that. Especially when you have been told that it does not matter." David said. "But it matters to me."

"Why?" Cathy asked. "I don't mean to sound belligerent, but why do you care?"

"Fair question. I guess because I like to see myself as a little different. I like to see myself as treating people with the respect that they deserve, even if others don't."

"Well, that is what your press says. And I guess I was treated pretty good. Except being left in a room for five hours alone." Cathy said. "But on the other hand, I am still alive. And I would guess you are closing down for the night."

"You are right. Helen said you were pretty stable and we were wondering if you minded helping us with some labor problems over the next few days." David asked.

"What kind of labor problem?"

"The sort of thing you saw us doing today. Doing some Intake, documentation, working with people, taking them around. Helping them to get all of their affairs in order prior to termination. Not a lot different from what you did as a nurse's aide."

"So I get to stay alive by taking other people to die?" Cathy said, looking David directly in the eye.

"Something like that. In fact, exactly like that." David replied.

"What are the limitations on this offer?" Cathy asked.

"Well, I think they are limitations you can live with. No travel outside of business property. No guests without advanced permission. No pregnancy allowed. And no clothes." David said.

"Well, you know the medical side. I don't have many guests in my life. Cabin fever would get pretty bad after a while. Never been a clotheshorse. I guess uniform rental is pretty cheap." Cathy said with a sardonic grin. "What else?"

"This is a way station. Not a cancellation. You get to do some things while you are here, but you can't leave here outside of a package. And we were hoping you could take a more active role in the job responsibilities." David said.

"How active?" Cathy asked, already feeling she had the answer.

"All terminations here are done by women. Not men." David said quietly. "It is a process that was started by my wife and has been expanded on and delivered by the staff here. For a lot of good reasons, we prefer medical or other sympathetic persons to perform this, and you were one of those we felt would fit into our operations."

"You mean that all of the women here are killed by these women?" Cathy asked.

"Abby or me, or the two silly teenagers over there" Margaret said by way of answer.

"Abby, you were a Doc. How do you?" Cathy asked.

"Simple. Think of it as hospice. People come here to die. We treat them a lot better than they are treated at other places, we help close out the life and we do it without pain. And we deal with it like any other terminal patient. Only difference is we term them." Abby said.

Listening to this conversation Kimberly was shocked. These women were recruiting another killer. Feeling a little sick to her stomach, Kim walked over to the sink. Helen, sensing something was wrong, excused herself and walked over to where Kimberly was standing.

"Are you going to be Ok?" Helen asked Kimberly.

"It just hit me. One of these women is going to kill me."

"Me too, if I am lucky." Helen said. "Think about it. We are all dead people here. How we treat others and how we want to be treated is the most important thing to us. We don't want to suffer pain, and we don't want others to either. Some people have a few fantasies, and others just want to die. None of us are interested in long drawn out punishment. That is what is different."

"And that is what we have left?" Kimberly asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. At least we have that for each other and others." Helen said.

Cathy in the meantime was thinking on what she had learned. "I'm not sure I can do that," she said quietly.

"No one is." Abby said. "I didn't think I was either. But it's what we do. And we try to do it with respect and kindness. And I couldn't if I thought any other way." Abby said.

"Enough right now." David said. "Cathy, we have a bed for you for tonight. Tomorrow we will see what we have for you to do. I think interviews and documents and prep work will be good for you in the beginning and we will talk and see what you think and feel after the weekend. Is that fair?"

"Ok. I guess."

"So eat up, wench." Candy said, as she placed a plate and silverware in front of Cathy. "I know you have to be hungry."

"You have that right." Cathy said as she reached for her plate.

Legal Counsel from a Hangman

Kimberly filled a plate for herself and then went over to a table with Carol. "Can I talk with you for a moment?"

"Sure. What can I do for you?"

"You talked earlier about getting people exempted or otherwise dropped. And David didn't mind at all. But you are working here?"

"Yes. Like you I was expired almost a month ago. I am supposed to be in a package in the freezer section of a store right now. Or soup in a can. David and Margaret pulled me out of the stream to build the business into something else. And I am sort of sticking around to see how this works."

"So, what can you do?" Kimberly asked.

"For you? Not a thing. The biggest thing legally that could impact your case is improper notification. Which would buy you a week on the outside and you would be right back in a place like this." Carol said.

"Seriously? That is the only possibility?" Kim pressed.

"I am serious. Margaret was totally serious when she said that you were expired and that you would be termed Monday. David has found a way to get you a collar at M&S next week, and so that means you can count against their number, not ours. But in any case, without it, you are either dead here nicely or dead on a stick in front of the courthouse. Binary solution set."

"I can't believe this." Kimberly said. "What am I supposed to do?"

"What we have all done. Do the silly stuff on the questionnaire. We developed it, by the way. David tried to do it but until Helen and I got to it there was not much there. Figure out who you want to give your pets, kids and other things to and settle in for however long you have. And if you figure out details or other things to improve life here, we will all appreciate it."

"That is your advice?" Kimberly asked.

"Well, you could call all of the lawyers and get a second, third, or two hundredth opinion. But I doubt that they would be any different from mine. You are termed, honey. You are just like all the rest of us. You are past due and awaiting packaging. The only thing you have control over now is the date and probably the method. David and Margaret will try to accommodate you however they can."

"That's kind of hard to accept."

"It wasn't easy for me either. And just when I figured I was going out, I get shipped to here. Which is why I am still alive and having more fun than I thought I was going to." Carol replied.

"How so?"

"Kim, I was supposed to be dead. Husband left adrift, eaten for dinner by some dog or cat. Instead, I get here, and that man intercepts me and talks to me and Elizabeth and Nancy and talks us into sticking around and helping to develop a positive platform for women to end with. No more live stakes. No more live skewers. No more pain shows by Merle Hill. So we got fished out here."

"Like me?" Kim asked.

"Pretty much. Candy, Abby, Cindy and Margaret do the killing here. I guess that is what they are talking to Cathy about. The rest of us pretty much do escort and support for women going through processing. Keep things calm and prevent panic. Helen is den mother. Elizabeth sees her kids. So do I. My husband Jim comes over every weekend and brings his new lover who I helped get out of here, and Peter comes by every weekend as well. We have family time on Sunday, and Saturday night is an orgy. I guess you are invited if you want."

Thinking that it might be a good idea to cultivate a friend here, she asked Carol that question. "What do I tell Phil?"