Chapter 57: Hidden Cruelty
After a reasonable night’s sleep, Demarcus, Polly, and Gilly were all feeling a bit better. They had a variety of fruit for breakfast as well as plenty of water from the clean water source they had found. Demarcus wanted to ask Polly about Delford but did not know how to broach the topic. Instead, Gilly jumped in and asked about him. Polly explained what had happened. Gilly was shocked, but Demarcus was not surprised. They all knew that the biggest threat to them now was the enforcers.
‘Do you both feel well enough to continue today?’ asked Demarcus.
‘Yeah, I’m good to go,’ replied Polly.
Gilly just nodded.
They gathered up a few more fruits and continued through the Southern Agriculture Zone. It was not long before they encountered a group of Sapiods, who were picking and collecting fruit.
‘Oh, best to keep away from them,’ said Gilly.
‘Have you had a bad run-in with a Sapiod before?’ asked Demarcus.
‘Absolutely not,’ replied Gilly indignantly. ‘I wouldn’t go near those things.’
‘Demarcus, don’t tell me you have forgotten your history,’ said Polly.
‘I’m aware of the history we were taught, but I’m no longer convinced it’s accurate,’ replied Demarcus.
‘Those types of thoughts are going to get you in trouble,’ said Polly sternly.
‘You saw the wasteland,’ said Demarcus. ‘It was a lie. We have not been poisoned. The black ash was actually made from altered rubbish.’
‘We could be poisoned,’ said Polly. ‘We just haven’t felt the effects yet. The black stuff might be an attempt to detoxify the wasteland so that it isn’t a wasteland anymore.’
‘When the black ash ended, life began. That is no coincidence,’ replied Demarcus. ‘Anyway, I collected plenty of samples. We will be able to find out more about this stuff. I also have photographs of the building, the company logo, and the sprinklers.’
‘Wow, you are such an amazing investigator,’ said Polly sarcastically.
The three continued walking, and they made sure they kept a distance from the Sapiods.
‘I haven’t seen any Sapes yet,’ said Demarcus.
‘They would be kept separate from all this fruit,’ said Polly. ‘I’m sure we will see some soon.’
They passed another group of Sapiods, who were collecting different types of fruit. Gilly remained nervous, and they kept away from them again.
‘I really want to take a closer look at some of these Sapiods,’ said Demarcus.
‘If you do, we’ll leave you behind,’ said Polly angrily.
‘Maybe we should stop for lunch,’ suggested Demarcus.
They walked a little further until they reached a pleasant spot to eat. Gilly and Demarcus started eating the fruit. Polly just sat and watched.
‘I want to thank you for saving my life,’ said Gilly to Demarcus.
‘We’re a team. We look after each other,’ replied Demarcus.
‘Unless you decide to take a detour to satisfy one of your many curiosities,’ said Polly.
‘The detour might end up saving our lives,’ said Demarcus.
‘It didn’t save Delford’s life,’ said Polly as she began to tear up.
‘I’m sorry about that,’ said Demarcus.
‘Really, I see no regret or remorse from you,’ said Polly.
‘I feel terrible, but I’m not to blame,’ replied Demarcus.
‘If we had never gone to that stupid place over those stupid rocks, we would have reached the Southern Agriculture Zone hours earlier,’ said Polly angrily. ‘That would have meant we would not have encountered the enforcers. Delford would not have been killed, and Gilly would not have almost died.’
Demarcus bowed his head. Polly gazed at him for a few seconds.
‘I do not blame you,’ she said. ‘I wish I did, and I wish it was that simple.’
Polly took a deep breath. She closed her eyes for a few seconds. Then she leaned forward towards Demarcus. ‘You and Delford disagreed about a lot of things in those final days. Each time, I took your side. Each time, he felt compelled to go against his own judgement. He did so because of me. If I had supported him and not you, he would be alive today.’
Demarcus felt terrible, but he knew that if they had supported Delford’s decisions, they would have never made it off the train. For now, he decided it was better to remain silent.
After a long lunch, the three of them got up to continue their walk to the next region. Polly walked over to Demarcus to give him a hug. ‘We’ll stick together until the end,’ she said to him.
They reached an open section of land.
‘This would be a good place for Sapes,’ said Demarcus.
‘Maybe they rotate them around,’ said Polly.
They walked at the edge of the open section of the land. They wanted to be able to take cover in case an enforcer team came along.
At the end of the open section was a very large building. As they got closer, they could see how enormous it was. It was so long, they could not see where it ended. Demarcus looked over to Polly. She shook her head. They walked along the side of the building. They could see several driverless trucks going in and out of the building.
‘This could be a way in,’ said Demarcus.
‘Oh, please, no,’ said Polly.
‘Something big is going on in here,’ said Demarcus. ‘We are not in the same sort of danger as we were in the wastelands.’
Polly looked at Gilly. ‘We’ve already come this far,’ said Gilly.
‘Fine,’ said Polly. ‘When the next truck leaves, we sneak in.’
‘Thank you, Polly,’ said Demarcus.
They waited for the next truck to leave. Then they quickly entered as the rolling door was closing. There were several trucks inside. They were being loaded with something. Demarcus was looking around for cameras. There was one pointed towards the entrance. He was hoping it was turned off or that it was not being monitored.
They made an effort to not be caught on any other cameras in the building or even by any of the trucks. As they got closer to the trucks, they noticed an incredibly strong, foul smell. Gilly began to feel very ill.
‘Is it alright if I wait back over there?’ she asked. ‘I can’t handle the smell.’
Demarcus reassured her that they would not be long.
Demarcus and Polly entered another part of the building. This was the largest part of the building. They both stood on a slightly raised platform. From here, they could see most of the huge room.
What they saw next was shocking. There was an extremely long conveyor belt. The conveyor belt zigzagged from one end of the room to the other. It ended near the entrance of the truck bay area. On the conveyor belt were Sapes. Very strong magnetic bracelets or clamps around their legs were holding them down. They could barely reach the food and water troughs that ran parallel to the conveyor belt. There were giant automated sprays. It appeared they would occasionally spray them down to clean them or wash away their faeces.
Demarcus and Polly could see that the Sapes further back were smaller and younger. Demarcus climbed down from the platform to the floor level of the conveyor belt. He looked at the nearest row of Sapes. They were in very bad condition. The tight magnetic clamps had shattered their ankles. He tried to tug on one of them, but they would not move. It appeared the clamps had expanded to their maximum size.
Demarcus went under the rows of the conveyor belt until he reached the seventh or eighth row. The Sapes were much smaller. They had the same clamps on their legs. They were tight, but unlike the ones he encountered in the first row, they were not fully expanded. He tried to loosen them but could not. Demarcus tried to figure out how the mechanism worked but was unable to do so.
Demarcus continued to go under the rows of the conveyor belt until he reached the opposite side of the room and building. Polly had climbed off the platform. She was making her way to join Demarcus on the other side of the room. Demarcus was not far from the beginning of the conveyor belt. The Sapes were only babies. They still had the same magnetic clamps on their legs. Demarcus was hoping they would be looser, but they remained tight. They appeared to be on the smallest setting size possible.
Demarcus continued to the beginning of the conveyor belt. There was a large flap. Demarcus crawled through the flap. The conveyor belt continued on the other side and led into another large room. In this room, there were thousands more Sapes. They were not on the conveyor belt but instead raised above it by a huge machine. They were pregnant. It appeared the Sapes would give birth, and their babies would drop on the conveyor belt below them. The clamps on the conveyor belt were open.
Demarcus stood back. Now, he understood that these Sapes spent their entire lives in this building, clamped to a conveyor belt. This place was the most grotesque horror factory he could ever imagine.
Several metres from where he was standing, a Sape was giving birth. He ran over to her. The baby slowly came out of her mother. Then, eventually, the baby dropped down to the conveyor belt below. The fall snapped the umbilical cord. The clamps on the conveyor belt grabbed the babies’ legs, clamping them in place and forcing the baby to the top edge of the conveyor belt, where she would have access to food in the next room. The mother Sape was automatically pulled from the line. Then, she was added to a different line. Another pregnant Sape was automatically inserted in her place.
Demarcus continued to follow the conveyor belt. It went to the end of the room, and then it turned. It ran straight along the inside of the outer wall. It looked like it joined in a large loop. Demarcus was back near where he started. He could see a huge machine ahead of him. The conveyor belt began to move again. The part of the conveyor belt leaving the machine was covered in blood.
Demarcus climbed the stairs on the machine. He entered it through a door. He could see the conveyor belt again. The Sape nearest the machine rolled into it on the conveyor belt. The machine scanned the Sape as she rolled in. A green light flashed. The Sape continued along the conveyor belt. Two large blades from the top came down and sliced the Sapes feet off just above the magnetic clamps. The Sape screamed in agony. The conveyor belt continued to roll along as another Sape entered the machine. More blades came down to chop the Sape into pieces. The Sape died instantly.
The machine seemed to identify body parts and pushed them through different outlets to where the trucks were located. Once the body parts were cleared, the magnetic clamps released the feet. They were pushed into another collection area. Demarcus watched three Sapes be slaughtered before he exited the machine.
He rushed down to the area next to the conveyor belt at the back of the building. Polly was there. She had taken the same route as Demarcus.
‘What’s down there?’ she asked.
‘It gets worse,’ said Demarcus. ‘This place is horrible.’
‘Is this how we get our food?’ asked Polly.
Demarcus nodded. ‘We need to do something,’ he said as he continued towards the other side of the building where the pregnant Sapes were kept.
Polly followed him. They crawled back into the giant conveyor belt room.
‘We need to remove these clamps,’ said Demarcus to Polly.
‘They won’t move. I tried just now,’ replied Polly.
‘So did I,’ said Demarcus. ‘These clamps move by themselves. Something must be triggering them.’
‘It could be time-based,’ said Polly.
‘Maybe, but that risks injury for any Sapes that grow faster,’ replied Demarcus.
‘I have an idea,’ said Polly. ‘Climb on the conveyor belt with me.’
‘Do you think they might be weight-based?’ asked Demarcus.
‘Unlikely, but it’s worth a try,’ she replied.
They climbed on the conveyor belt together over the young Sape. The magnetic clamps began to expand. They both grabbed the Sape, and pulled her free of the clamps.
‘We did it. We freed one of them,’ exclaimed Polly.
Polly and Demarcus continued along the conveyor belt, freeing one young Sape after the next. They kept going until their combined weight was insufficient to expand the clamp by enough to remove the Sape.
‘Now we need to get them out of here,’ said Demarcus.
‘It has to be the way we came in,’ replied Polly.
Demarcus and Polly guided the young Sapes across the floor and under the conveyor belts towards the platform that they climbed down.
Gilly was at the top of the platform. She was concerned because they had been gone so long.
‘We need your help lifting these Sapes onto the platform,’ said Demarcus.
Gilly agreed to help. The three of them together managed to lift all the rescued Sapes onto the platform. The last dozen were a struggle to lift as they had become quite heavy. Demarcus and Polly guided the Sapes into the truck exit bay.
‘We just need to wait for one of them to leave,’ said Demarcus.
‘We have definitely been caught on camera,’ said Polly.
‘We just have to hope nobody is watching right now,’ said Demarcus. ‘I’m counting on the complacency and laziness of the guards.’
They only had to wait fifteen minutes. An automated truck pulled out of the bay and headed towards the exit.
‘Let’s go,’ said Demarcus.
All three of them rushed the Sapes through the open exit as fast as they could. They got about halfway through before the exit closed. Gilly was on the outside with a group of Sapes and Demarcus and Polly were on the inside with the other group.
‘The next time it opens, we can get them all through,’ said Demarcus confidently.
Around forty-five minutes later, the exit opened again. This time it was for an arriving truck. The mad rush to get the Sapes out began again.
Meanwhile, at the security post, the activity had caught the attention of a guard. With the external camera, he saw Gilly and the Sapes on the outside of the building. Then, he checked the inside exit cameras. He caught the last of the group of Sapes leaving the building. He hit the alert button. This informed the enforcers in the nearest region of a security breach. A group of enforcers left their head office and headed straight to the Sape Meat Factory.
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