OF MEAT AND BONES - EPISODE ONE
John Abraham Martin
©John Abraham Martin
To my wife, Laura, and my family, for their love and support despite all the awful things life brings.
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AquAdvances Technologies™ advertising commercial
A subsidiary of the HorizonAdvances Technologies™ Group
September 1993
1
In the near-perfect darkness of a tunnel with smooth, wet walls, a group of men and women moved forward. Despite their limited field of vision, they were able to make out the silhouette of the person next to them, an adult with grimy, shining skin wearing the same white underwear.
After making progress for a matter of seconds but with difficulty because a heap of a jelly-like substance made the ground slippery, everyone stopped. A series of yellow lights along the walls went on and in perfect alignment showed the direction to take. At a standstill inside the tunnel where some people almost fell, the group could see what was nearly blinding them and forcing them to put their hands over their face.
Suddenly, resounding in the structure like a divine call, a robotic voice imitating a human voice rang out.
— You walk. You follow light.
In the tunnel where no one dared to advance any further, each person looked at the person next to them for the go-ahead when once again orders from the grave spurted out, but this time louder.
— You walk! You follow light!
And then ended with a crackling, threatening, — Now!
And while they still knew nothing about why they were being held, a small part of the group started moving, gingerly. Inching their way among their companions, they walked along the passageway in Indian file and left behind those who refused to obey and resume the pilgrimage.
As the detachment of the obedient members of the group proceeded, you could begin to hear a buzzing sound, as quiet as a murmur. Swept up in a sudden wave of panic, those closest to the thing shoved those ahead of them and managed to carve out a path to run away.
As a black man with a build like an athlete watched as his companions were bolting all around him, he in turn discovered the danger. Farther down the tunnel and moving toward him in rhythm with the lights that now looked like strobe lighting, he could make out the workings of a mechanical device with multiple gear wheels. Speaking to those who weren't already scared, he shouted in a serious and monotone voice.
"Run. If you want to live, run!"
Just like after a gunshot signaling the start of a race, the man and the other stragglers took off in the direction indicated by the strip of light. Inside the cramped passageway, the device of death was now dangerously closer to the slowest ones in the group and at the head of the line, a young woman with long, blond hair slipped and crumpled to the ground. It was a violent fall and in an instant, as she tried to get up, her companions trampled her. Outrun and despite her calls for help, the woman watched those who, without even looking back, had left her behind and abandoned her. A red-headed woman with emerald-green eyes was the only one who heeded her cries. The redhead did an about-face in the tunnel and could make her out a few yards behind her. She had hurt her ankle. She tried to stand up but slipped and inevitably fell again on the sticky ground.
Mustering as much courage as she could, the redhead went to the aid of the stranger on the ground, who was now crawling to get as far away from the danger as possible. The redhead risked her own life as she nearly fell several times before she made it to the woman's side. Now close to the steel monster, she could clearly see its sophisticated chrome workings and the way they fit together made them look like a real flesh-grinding device. Without waiting a second longer, she crouched down, grabbed the blond, and pulled her to a standing position. Both women were barely standing when one collapsed, causing the other to fall, too.
They fell hard. But with some crazy sense of hope, the redhead stood up. With one hand, she grabbed the blond's forearm to pull her up, but it was too late. The instrument of death was at work. Screaming atrociously but still not louder than the racket of the device, the woman who had become its victim started to disappear as her legs were crushed in a horrifying gushing of blood. Despite the danger of the situation, the woman who was trying to save the other used her other hand to get a better grip on the woman's forearm. But when the breaking point came, she let go and fell backwards. Her head crashed against the wall in the tunnel. It was as though she had no more strength at all. She was lying face down with her nose in the jelly-like substance on the ground. When she finally regained her spirits and managed to look up, she watched, helplessly, the last instants of her companion. Painted almost from head to toe in her own blood, she had her arms stretched out, seemingly still hoping for some impossible miracle. The rib cage of the woman grabbed by the dreadful meat grinder was crushed with a hideous crackling sound. Then her head burst like an overly ripe fruit.
The redhead, stunned, was transfixed by the horrific sight. The remains of the unknown woman disappeared totally. Faced with the imposing device of death that continued to move forward in the tunnel, the redhead was resigned to the fact that she would die. She was on her knees amid the clamor inside the tunnel and would owe her salvation to the black man who heard screams and turned back. He pulled her up, a bit roughly, so that they could both flee. The pair had a hard time of it but managed to reach the end of the strip of light and enter a small chamber. As soon as they stepped into the chamber a panel slammed shut.
The survivor of the murderous tunnel found herself safe and sound in a quiet, near-dark space. She put one knee on the ground and then burst into tears. Her breathing was halting. She collapsed to the ground and curled up in a ball. Despite the lack of light, she could see that her arms were covered with a mixture of coagulated blood and the jelly-like substance from the vile tunnel floor. It was only after she had spent a few seconds scraping to remove the ugly scabs that she was interrupted by the man who saved her. He had stayed next to her and now placed a friendly hand on her shoulder and it startled her.
"You all right?" he asked. "Are you hurt?"
The young woman with emerald-green eyes finally looked up and despite the dim light, she saw the stranger's face, with clear features that resembled an antique sculpture. The man leaned over the woman he had saved from certain death and helped her get up. In still quite an emotional state, she had barely been standing when she felt her legs give out from under her. In a knight-in-shining-armor reaction, he caught her and whispered in her ear.
"You could have been killed. There won't always be someone there to rescue you."
She now looked straight at the stranger who had saved her and answered without hesitating.
"I know. But I had to try to do something."
He certainly didn't expect such self-confidence from a woman who looked so fragile. For a moment, he said nothing, then finally answered back, almost in a whisper.
"I understand. But not when you risk putting yourself in danger."
The redhe
ad replied with a slight smirk and then stepped out of his hold. Now fully standing on her own, she took the initiative to end the kind of strange moment when two people are staring at each other.
"Thank you for coming back for me. My name is Julia."
"Mine is Julius."
After that exchange that had something storybook about it, the pair finally took a look at the space the entire group of individuals was confined to — a room measuring a few yards square. Now that they all had adjusted to the low light in the space, everyone could see that from the ground to the ceiling, the structure was a surface dotted with slits that were too small to fit your hand through but that let air circulate. With no way out, the space was like a box that you put holes in to let an animal inside be able to breathe.
While some people tried to pull apart the spaces formed in the walls and thus breaking the silence that had become uncomfortable, you could hear rustling. Inside the room, the captives turned their head to find out where the sound was coming from and covered their eyes when a strong light burst through the near-darkness, blinding them all. The blazing beam of light that rose in the air came and scrutinized each individual, but no one could see the mechanism that was operating it. The group of strangers, overcome and squinting madly, tried to keep the beam of light in view. Like with an x-ray, it showed the bones, muscles, and the organs of each person it lit.
The module went from one person to the next and then stopped abruptly at one prisoner. Focusing with its eye, it dazzled the individual and everyone turned instinctively toward the person designated. When that person realized he was the chosen target, he stammered.
"What? What do you want from me? Why... Why do you have the light on me? Why me?
Feeling the threat now moving toward him, the man stepped back and immediately came in contact with one of the walls of the room. Shrinking further away, he ended up backed into a corner.
Demonstrating a cowardice that kept them rallied together, the other prisoners got as far away from the pariah as they could. Julia seemed to be the only one concerned about his fate and when she started to get closer to help him, Julius took a firm hold of her elbow, to stop her. He pulled her toward him, their eyes met, and motioning “no” with his head, he tried to dissuade her.
"But we have to do something," she said to him in a low voice.
"You already risked your life and I risked mine saving yours. Are you really trying to get killed here? Like this?"
Reacting instantly to Julius' sudden cowardice, Julia said firmly.
"I don't know him and I don't know you, either. But he's one of us. We have to do something. We should all do something. If you're too much of a coward, let me handle it."
At the other end of the room, the impressive light focused insistently on the chest of the man it had targeted. The ray of light showed the young man's insides and his heart beating very fast. In desperation, he turned toward the prisoners who were closest. He threw himself at their feet and begged them, but they quickly escaped his grip and abandoned him. There he was alone again, facing the light that rose in the air and dominated him with its blinding beam. The pariah that he was curled up in a ball, ready for harsh punishment.
Julia tried to get out of Julius' grip, but he pulled her toward him.
"This isn't just about you. What if we do something and that thing comes after all of us? Have you thought about that? And who will help you if it attacks you?"
Continuing to look Julius straight in the eye and with her typical self-confidence, Julia spoke unequivocally.
"You! You'd help me. Otherwise, you'd have my death on your conscience. Now let me go!"
Struck by her determination, Julius gave up. He let go of Julia and she made her way through the others back to the man threatened by the light. She placed her body between the beam of light and the victim in its sight. She wanted the charade to stop.
"You don't have to act like that," she said, looking the powerful beam straight in the eye. "There's certainly something we can do, isn't there? At least tell us what's happening. Tell us what you want. But, please, leave him alone. Leave us alone!"
The light hovering above that glowed squarely on Julia stayed there for a moment, staring at her with its blinding beam. Then it disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared. The room was quiet again.
By being plunged back into darkness, Julia and all the prisoners had trouble distinguishing anything. Because of the module's brightness, its image stayed for an instant on their visual lens. In the near-darkness, all you could hear were the groans of the young man lying on the ground. Julia, who was next to him, felt her way closer and with one hand helped him stand up.
"Are you OK?" she asked softly and reassuringly.
"Yes. Thanks." he answered while trying to stand up straight.
After that brief moment of calm, Julia, who was prepared to do whatever it took to save her fellow man, turned away from the young man to search for Julius in the crowd. But she had just barely managed to spot him when she heard a hollow sound — similar to a watermelon when it bursts. The noise had sickening overtones that caused many people to want to throw up. Then, instantly, there was blood that got all over Julia and covered her unusually pale skin. She was at once surprised and horrified as she felt the warm blood trickle along her skin. She had just seen the face of the prisoner she thought she had saved from certain death. Frozen with terror that made her grimace, she didn't understand right away why instead of his face, there was a gaping hole with flesh hanging out disgustingly. The other prisoners, gripped by the nightmarish sight, immediately took refuge in a corner of the room, as though they were afraid of getting infected with something mysteriously evil.
Then suddenly, lifted up by an invisible grip, the body of the young victim from head to toe was nothing but faint spasms and hideous gurgling. Now fear also gripped Julia and she moved away from the sight and joined her companions. After a final convulsion, the body crashed to the ground, again causing many in the crowd to scream.
The light of death appeared again from around the body, chased the darkness away, and used its strong beam to taunt the petrified crowd. Blinded yet again, everyone sought shelter in the shadow of the person next to them. Now deciding to turn away from the group of prisoners, the module eyed its victim. In addition to his face that was reduced to mush, there was a hole in the back of his skull the size of a golf ball and bright red blood was pouring out and draining into openings in the ground.
While no one had yet been able to make out the part of the module that made it move, the light turned slowly and was directed at the foot of the dead man. A fraction of an instant later, he was abruptly snatched to the other end of the room and then disappeared. Everyone was suddenly plunged back into darkness, like a clapper board marking the end of a nauseating take for a scene in a splatter film. They could hear that the opening in the wall to take possession of the corpse had closed shut. Disconcerted by what they just experienced and fearing the unrelenting thing would come back, the men and women in the group felt shattered with a kind of anguish that would not go away.
Julius stared at the wall where one among them disappeared and decided to do something. Julia, who saw him moving forward, nervously took a hold of his forearm, held him back, and stared at him. In spite of the near-darkness, Julius could tell that even Julia so was very afraid that you could see it on her face.
"And what if it comes back?" she said with a lump in her throat.
"If it does, we'll know more about what it wants," he whispered. "But don't worry. I won't expect you to come to my rescue."
Julia ignored Julius' ludicrous humor. She maintained eye contact with him for an instant and then let go of him. He stepped away from her, went over to the section of the wall where the body of one of their own had disappeared with no explanation. The rest of his companions, still huddled together in a corner of the room, watched him as he started walking alongside the traces of blood on the ground. When he got to the exact spot w
here the blood stopped, he crouched down to try and get a better look. Julius ran his fingers over the wall with its openings and slid his fingers through the slits as much as he could, looking for a system, whatever could be a way out. But this wall in the room, just like all the others, consisted of a removable mechanism that did not appear of have any gap in it.
After pausing briefly and exhaling deeply in irritation, Julius stood up and, to the surprise of everyone looking on, rammed his shoulder against the strange wall that was in his way. His reaction triggered in each of the prisoners a deep feeling of insecurity that only intensified as he rammed the obstacle repeatedly. Then, without taking a break, using his elbows and then his fists, he battered the structure, but it was useless. Nothing seemed to work.
Julius had small cuts on the tips of his fingers and was out of breath because of the effort he had made. He turned away from the wall, leaned against it, and slid down to the ground. With a faraway look in his eyes and after several, intense seconds of thought, he raised his head. Showing dejection as he sought something he could cling to, Julius looked at his companions one after the other and read their disappointment and total disbelief. His panning finally stopped when he met Julia's eyes. He looked straight at her, unperturbed. And in that mirror of the soul, she could decipher the full complexity of human emotion, that of a human being preparing for the worse.
That brief moment of calm was interrupted by a now recognizable rustling: an opening forming in one of the walls of the room. Through a tunnel identical to the one the group of men and women had already walked through, a steady flow of new prisoners rushed into the space that was already half full. The room quickly became almost too cramped to fit them all and the last person had barely crossed the threshold of the passageway when it slammed shut.
The calm that reigned inside the prison cell was frightening. No one yet dared say a word. They each realized that what had just been assembled was a homogeneous mixture of men and women in their 30s. These young adults looked like they were modelled after store window mannequins. You could see their muscles and their athletic build gave the whole scene a strange feeling of dictatorial perfection where the men were wearing identical white boxer shorts and the women, the same color panties and a matching band that covered their breasts.
Of Meat And Bones - Episode One Page 1