A day at the farm.
Soaring through the air, the magnificent dragon came banking down above the village. The inhabitants ran for cover, screaming as they feared for their lives. The magnificent beast gave out a tremendous cry as it unleashed it's breath over the village leaving behind chaos in its wake. It lifted its tremendous wings and turned to launch another strike. Its bright orange and black scales glistened in the sun as it came charging in again. Then out of the blue a large boot dropped onto this great impressive beast and pinned it to the ground. It lay crushed and oozing mushy liquid out of its interior, fluttering its colorful wings for a last time before it became motionless. "Mirae, how dare you? I was playing with it. Why did you do that?" Mirae just laughed and ran off nonchalantly towards the back of the line. "Common, Arum. Everyone is going. Don't make us wait for you." he called back as he left her staring at the object of her fantasy. It was unrecoverable but she stood up, clearly upset and stormed towards a teacher. "Teacher, he killed my butterfly. He just crushed it with his foot" "Not now, Arum. Get in line. We have to go" came the abrupt reply.
The students all lined up and then started marching in a straight line through the farm gates and along a path leading towards a man in a white coat waiting at the entrance of a large building. As they walked past the pastures they gestured and gasped at the odd creatures grazing in the fields. "Wow, I have never seen one before" declared Mirae. Other students shook their heads in agreement. Some just stared at the creatures. "Keep in line, kids." called the teacher "Don't enter the pastures. They can still harm you." Some of the hybrids, as they are commonly called came closer to the footpath to observe the students walking past. They seemed to approach curiously and then scatter back as their curiosity shifted towards fear. "They are not used to strangers." The man in the coat explained "Welcome to the Well-being Meat Farm. I will be your guide for today. Call me, Tim. Follow me please. Let's gather over here. I'll tell you a little more about the hybrids." The kids gathered around the man as he chatted to the teachers. He then hopped over a small split rail fence, got hold of a hybrid and dragged it towards the group by its front strap. The hybrid did not offer much resistance as it came trotting behind. Its thin hydraulic legs almost stumbled as it tried to keep up but it quickly recovered. It came to an immediate halt and released some compressed air as it shrunk slightly into its stationary mode. The hybrid looked a little like a giant wheelbarrow but covered in chrome and with four long legs instead of a wheel. Inside the bucket was a large transparent plastic bag. Through the bag a large mushroom like bulk could be seen. It looked kind of like a bread that has just come out of the oven. The bulbous crust was covered in a thin layer of light furry hair. The color was a distinctly fleshy pink and it seemed to be covered with a slimy transparent liquid. It made Arum squirm. It was not a pleasant look. A metallic flexible neck extended from the front of the bucket and into something slightly resembling a face. It was more of a collection of cameras and sensors but there was a slight anthropomorphic quality to it. It seemed to display a real animal like curiosity as it extended its neck to observe all the little children standing in front of it. The man in the coat pointed to the shiny chrome parts and explained their function. Most of this information was lost on the little kids still staring and giggling at this curiosity but the teachers seemed to appreciate the explanation.
The man demonstrated the stability of the hydraulic system by giving the hybrid a hard boot to the outer shell. The hybrid stumbled back and almost dropped to the ground but then quickly recovered and returned to its original position. The bucket barely moved though. The legs were able to absorb most of the force and stabilized the content. The man in the coat said that was the point of the hydraulic legs and metallic outer shell. "We want the body, the fleshy bit inside to be kept intact and as free of any ruptures to produce a quality product. If the body had to rupture it would render the product unusable as it could be exposed to dangerous pathogens." the man explained. "Don't worry, the body contains no nervous system so it cannot feel anything. This is a perfectly humane, ethical and pain free way of producing meat for human consumption." The teachers clapped with glee and the students followed suit, not really comprehending the complexity of the sentiment expressed. "The hybrid has an artificial intelligence controlling its movement, its consumption of nutrients, it's interaction with other beings. It even regulates and stores the excess gasses that accumulates after digestion so that it can be used in an environmentally friendly way by other processes including but not limited to combustion to fuel its own operating systems. The hybrids also make use of solar energy panels located on the rim of the outer shell and this flap that folds over the body of the hybrid." he demonstrated. "So the meat production is an organic process that is started in a test tube and transferred to the outer shell which acts as its brain and the vehicle for the rest of the body's development. The body part can be removed for processing and the vehicle can be reused for the next product. Can you see how the hybrids still consume grass, just like herbivores in the past. But with this process, the control of the grazing is one hundred present in the hands of the artificial intelligence." The man pointed to the hybrids outer shell. From the undercarriage of the hybrid three flexible tubes popped out and started to prod the grass below. The ends of the tubes seemed to contain incisor like blades that cut the grass at a certain length and sucked it up into the lower compartment of the outer shell. The man explained that from the lower compartment it will be processed into a digestible liquid that will be used as fuel to grow more meat. This process was supposed to be kept totally separate to the actual body of the hybrid, the meat part. Hence, there was no need for any organic organs. The product was a completely protein and saturated fat based meat indistinguishable from organically grown meat from animals such as bovines or swine.
"Come on kids, you can touch the hybrid but just be very gentle as not to tear the polyethylene cover." The braver boys lined up to have a touch of the metal outer shell and stroke the plastic cover separating the meat product from the outside air. "It feels icky" shrieked Mirae as the teachers laughed overhead. The man let some of the boys kick the hybrid in its side to demonstrate its stability again. They really seemed to enjoy that part. "Sir, sir, why are they called hybrids?" a little precocious girl next to Arum tried to ask. The man looked a bit uncomfortable with this question as he thought a little about the answer. "Well, um, they are the crossover between animal and machine, aren't they?" the answer spilled out quite curtly. The man looked surprisingly irked by this simple question. The teachers flexed their eyes at the little girl to communicate to her not to ask such impertinent questions. After an awkward silence the man suddenly burst out in a broad smile as he asked the students to follow him into the factory for a demonstration of how the hybrids are put together and how the meat is extracted. He darted through the foyer doors and the teachers and students picked up their steps to keep up with him.
"Hurry up Arum." called her teacher from the doorway. "Keep up, please girl. We don't want you getting lost again." Arum stood face to face, or face to console, face to interactive sensor panel. Whatever it was called it seem to stare at Arum and Arum stared straight back. She turned her head one side to express curiosity and the hybrid followed suit, mimicking her facial behavior, the turning of her head. She stepped back a bit and the hybrid did the same. She braved up and walked forwards towards the split rail fence holding out her little hand to stroke it on the head. The hybrid didn't like this forward motion and jumped back like a little calf and dashed off towards the other hybrids. The other hybrids also startled by the newly arriving member scattered a bit and then continued grazing peacefully while keeping a rather suspicious eye in the direction of the little girl. She dropped her shoulders and sighed a bit and then skipped towards the entrance of the building.
Inside the building she found herself alone. There were some adults in white coats and masks walking about and a security guard at a desk but no one even noticed her presence. In the corner of her eye she saw one of her classmates disappearing down a long passageway. She scuttled after her classmates and arrived just as an adult worker was closing a large secure door behind some students in hard hats. "Where is your hardhat and coat girl?" she inquired. She faced a blank and panting stare. "Over there my girl, grab a hard hat and coat that fits. Do you see the letters above the coats? Those are the sizes. I think an XS would fit you perfectly." Arum tried to reach the hard hats but failed. "Here let me help." said the lady. "Okay, now hurry along. Catch up to the rest of the group." Arum scampered towards the others down a glassed passageway overlooking the factory floor. She didn't even notice what was going on below her until she arrived back at her group. The man from before was explaining how the hybrids are harvested. She didn't quite understand this term. Don't you harvest fruits and vegetables? She looked down below and saw a man with a long scythe like instrument waiting for a hybrid to arrive on a conveyor belt. Another worker walked the hybrid off the conveyor belt and onto another platform. The man pressed some buttons on a side panel and the head of the hybrid contracted back into its shell. The worker went about checking the hybrid from head to toe and then used a pneumatic drill to remove long pins in the side of the outer shell. As he removed the pins some liquid came gushing out of the holes left behind. It was a mix of red and clear transparent liquid that ran down the platform towards a gutter and down a vertical down spout into the floor. The worker also removed various tubes from inside the bucket. These tubes he attached to other tubes and it seemed as if he was extracting other kinds of liquids from out of the hybrid. The colors of these liquids varied from light yellow to dark red, even blackish liquids. The worker watched as all the tubes started to clear and then pressed another button on the side of the hybrid.
The polyethylene cover seemed to cave in as it surrendered the gasses within. There was a foul smell in the air. So strong was this smell that it started to trigger Arum's gag reflex. Then the worker with the great scythe like instrument stepped closer. He unzipped the polyethylene cover and exposed the meat within. After removing the cover all together he stood over the hybrid on the platform and started to slice away the meat from the sides of the bucket that contained it. It was a concise and automated process as if he had performed that task all his life without even thinking twice about it. Now a lot more dark liquid gushed out the bottom of the shell. The students turned their heads away in horror as the teachers kept nodding their heads riveted by the explanation of the guide in front of them. The guide explained that this process is usually performed by machines but occasionally it has to be done by hand when the hybrids have failed a certain size and uniformity test. Then the worker below pulled down a hydraulic grasping mechanism from above him and set it into the bucket. It clamped the detached body part and raised it into the air, the liquid still streaming out from various tubes and orifices below. The worker let it hang for a bit as he used a hose to wash away some of the more stubborn bits out of the outer shell and down the platform towards the gutter. The worker then guided the hydraulic grip towards another conveyor belt and released the very large chunk of pinkish flesh upon it. He bashed a button with the side of his fist and the conveyor started to move the meat towards a separate room. The empty shell continued on another conveyor belt towards a washing mechanism and then past a sign saying "Embryonic room". The guide at the top gestured to the children to follow him as he entered the room where the meat was being processed for human consumption.
From this room they could see the meat being inspected again and sent through some kind of slicing machine that seemed to trim the hard leathery and hairy outer layer off and presented a nicer looking more recognizable beef or pork like product. It also removed all the tubes at the bottom of the meat product and gave it a nice clean sprinkle of water. It was a very large chunk of meat, perhaps four times larger than the entire carcass of a fully grown adult pig, the guide noted. It was also, not only completely boneless, but free of any organ meats, cartilage, arteries, sinew and the fat content has been steadily controlled by the artificial intelligence to provide us with the most incredible tasting and heart healthy meat product available on the market today. The guide also boasted that the meat had been scientifically engineered in the lab and tested in controlled groups to be the best tasting meat money can buy. The guide pointed out how the large chunk of meat was further sliced into smaller parts and then distributed in various containers according to the shape needed. He said from there it will be packed and transported all around the country and abroad. This particular product will be further smoked to give it a ham like taste. "Oh how delicious" cried out one of the students. "Why don't we go and sample some of that ham in the cafeteria?" the guide inquired to rapturous applause and glee. "Follow me down to the basement kids."
Everyone shifted out of the room, handed back their hard hats and coats and started going down a passageway towards an escalator. Arum hanged behind for a bit. She watched as another bulk of meat came though the side of the room and though the processing machine. She watched as the off cuts, the leathery hairy bits were discarded to one side onto a bucket of other discarded parts. It was so heaped that some it it came sliding off the side and onto the floor. Curious how pink this meat looked. She always associated grass eating plants like bovine with darker red meat. What makes this meat so pink in color? It was such a quick process to slice and partition the meat and send them towards separate packaging areas on the factory floor. There were so few workers on the floor. Most of the process was fully automated with only the occasional human oversight. She suddenly wanted to ask the guide a question. She turned around only to find herself alone in a long passage. She wanted to know how this all starts. Is there a little baby that grows within the belly of the mechanical parts of the machine. She didn't quite understand but there was no one to answer her. She looked at the passageway from side to side. Two options, which way did they go. "I'll go left." she stated aloud. She went though the doors to an open area where different workers in lab coats were scrambling about all too engrossed in their work to notice the tiny little girl in the over-sized hard hat and white coat walking between them. Now there are three doors ahead of me, she thought to herself. "I'll go left again" she exclaimed. No one noticed. She went through the door and down a flight of stairs and back into another passage way. She then started to feel less brave and slightly panicky. A group of white coats walked by her and towards a very secure looking door at the other end of the passage. Arum tried to follow them and grab one of the workers attention.
She tugged on the back of the coat of the worker at the back of the group but they were too busy arguing about who would be taking a certain shift that they all failed to notice the little girl tagging along behind them. They all swiped their cards and bent towards a sensor to scan their eyes and entered the room. Arum walked in through the doors. Had she been slightly taller she might have triggered a security beam but it just so happens that again no one noticed her entering the room. The white coats climbed into their personal protective suits and scattered towards their own individual stations in the adjacent lab. Arum stood staring at the sight in front of her. She just gasped. Then suddenly the doorway behind her opened up and a large trolley containing voluminous content covered in a large blue plastic tarp came rushing towards her. She had no time to escape from in front of it so she hastily jumped onto the front of the trolley and hid between a slight opening in the tarp. Just her eye was exposed to the outside as the trolley weaved between the workers in their protective gear towards other similar looking trolleys at the other end of the lab. As she passed by the lab workers she noticed a lot of test tubes being shaken and disturbed by various machinery. She went past a section where more developed embryos were being kept in large jars. The embryos were too small to be defined as a specific kind of animal. To Arum some looked quite human but others definitely looked more primitive. The lab workers were injecting or extracting something from some of these embryos. She didn't quite understand what was going on in here but the room was filled with strange oddities in various stages of growth. The trolley came to a rest next to a similar looking trolley. Arum started to catch her breath back. She was definitely scared but also very curious about where she was. She was petrified to move or make a sound however. She noticed the trolley she had climbed into shudder a little every now and then. The trolley in front of her was doing the same. Her eyes were still adjusting to the relative darkness inside the tarp when she noticed something move in the corner of her eye.
She found herself face to face again with a creature but this time it was no machine. There was a very large brown eye staring right into hers. She noticed with fear a creature of some sort right up close to her face. It was a large creature. The face of this creature was also filled with fear as it hardly blinked at Arum keeping its large eyes fixed on the little girl. It seemed to be like nothing she has seen before, a rather hairy pinkish creature with some human features. She wasn't quite sure but to her the shape of the eye sockets and nose and mouth was very human like. But it seems to have large protruding and floppy ears. It also had what seemed to be horns growing out of an over sized head. The horns appeared to be cut off at the base. It had a long animal like body hanging from a harness attached to the top of a metal framework. This creature had cloven hooves rather than fingers, resembling those of a cow or pig. It even seemed to have a short tail with a clump of hair at the end of it. The legs were all tied together with plastic cable ties. It was covered in a perforated plastic bag. Arum watched as it opened its mouth as if to cry out for help but it had no tongue with which to make any identifiable utterance. It was more like a soft moan or grunt as it began to shudder again. She heard one of the lab workers approaching, cursing out "What the hell is up with you now? Fucking stupid cunt". He lifted the tarp to expose the creature from under it. Arum had disappeared behind it into a hidden little corner between two other similar looking creatures. They in turn also began to shudder and grunt. The lab worker got extremely agitated at this and punched the first creature hard on the nose. "Shut up, you stupid beast. Will you?" he roared. "You just moved yourself to the top of the list for extraction, you dumb cow. If you kept quiet I would have spared you until tomorrow. Common boy, here we go." The lab worker grabbed a hook attached to a chain hanging above and attached it to the harness of the first creature. He removed the tarp fully around the creature and then used a remote controlled device to lift the creature carefully up off the metal frame and into the air. It hung suspended in the air, shaking and panting in the perforated bag for a good five minutes before it started to get tired and calm down.
The lab worker transported the creature in the air and then lowered upon a steel operating table. Other lab workers helped to strap in the incredibly large frame of the creature to the operating table. They removed the plastic covering and proceeded to inject the creature with something. It must have been a sedative as it seemed to relax the panicked creature. " A9007 ready for extraction, doctor" one of the assistants reported. "Please, turn A9007 more onto its side." the doctor calmly instructed. Arum took the opportunity to move off the trolley and behind some large tanks containing larger than life embryos suspended in a dark blue transparent liquid. She witnessed the doctor maneuvering some kind of mechanical arm towards the creature strapped on the table. The creature was now wearing a breathing apparatus breathing very calmly snoring lightly. Its eyes were now fixed shut. The doctor used the arm to drive a large needle into the back of the creature's spine near the neck area. A clear liquid was extracted from the creature. The arm was removed and the assistants went about patching up the intrusion to the back of the neck area, removing the straps and placing the creature back into a plastic covering to return it to its temporary home under the tarp.
Arum tried to move quietly behind all the embryonic tanks back towards the entrance of the lab. As she came to the end of the tanks she noticed another little station. There was a lab assistant taking swabs from paper cups and placing the swabs into vials. The lab assistant stood up and placed some of the tubes into a refrigerator like device. A thick cold fog came bellowing out of the door as she opened it. She could see rack after rack of these tubular containers neatly stacked next to each other each with their little labels perfectly displayed on them. On the table in front of Arum she noticed a tray of paper cups and tubes. She could make out some of the labels on the cups. She did not recognize the code but under the code someone had scribbled the name of her school and classroom number. She could make out the names of her classmates. There was Mirae's cup, her teacher's cup. Almost all of her classmates' names were there too but not Arum's. What does this all mean she wondered. Just then the assistant walking back from the refrigerator spotted Arum. She froze looking curiously at the little girl still in the hard hat and white coat. Arum stared back at her. The assistant calmly raised her hand and beckoned the little girl towards her. Arum did not move. The assistant reached for her phone on the desk. That is when Arum noticed another one of those trolleys coming through the door quite close to her. She decided to run. The assistant yelled out to her colleagues "Intruder, intruder. Stop the little girl." The other lab workers rushed towards the little girl. Arum ran towards the trolley coming through the entrance. The trolley now stood blocking the doors from closing as the assistant pushing from behind tried to peer past the side to see what was going on. "Grab her you fool!" shouted one of the assistants. But as the man pushing the trolley tried to locate her she went diving in between the opening in the tarp and between all the creatures inside. The workers pulled off the tarp to expose about ten similar creatures hanging on a metal frame and shaking with panic in the perforated bags. Arum darted underneath the creatures and out the other end leaving behind the hard hat and little coat. While the workers looked between the hanging bags Arum had already managed to escape past the last worker and was running down the passage towards the door at the end.
An alarm was now sounded. The little girl found a stairway and proceeded up it until she saw the door at the top open and a security guard come hurtling down the stairs. He did not see the little girl as she flew down the stairs further deeper into the labyrinth of this demonic complex. She felt like a lab rat stuck in a maze. Which way to go? Then she smelled a familiar smell. It smelled like smoked or cooked ham. She burst through a door at the end of the stairs and straddled into what appeared to be a test kitchen. She could see a lot of workers in coats again preparing food. They seemed to ignore the little girl as she ran through the kitchen towards another door and into the cafeteria. It was empty. She saw the security guard hot on her trail now. No time to waste. She jumped through a laundry shoot next to her, without considering where it might lead. She came sliding and screaming down a shoot and into a large dumpster containing white table cloths. The fall was soft but she was now covered in some food waste, smeared with the juices of meat and sauces. She hopped out of the dumpster and ran out into an underground parking lot. She ran between the parked cars looking for the exit and trying to hide from any security guards. She started to hear someone calling her name. She hid under a vehicle. The calls came closer and closer "Arum! Arum!" Suddenly two feet appeared right in front of her. She held her breath.
Then the person standing in front of her appeared to be talking on the phone to someone. "I know, I know, I'm so sorry. Can you give me five minutes please, then you can go. Her mother is going to kill me for this. Not again." She recognized the voice. Should she say something? Her fear subsided as she was suddenly overcome by bravery. "Teacher, I'm here. I want to go home!" "Oh my god! Arum! What happened to you. I was looking all over for you, my girl. Come, everyone is waiting for you. The bus is about to leave." she grabbed Arum by the hand and got hold of the head teacher on the phone. Arum just followed suit. "Where did you go, Arum? We were worried sick." "I got lost." Arum replied. "Are you mad at me?" "No my girl, I'm not mad at you. I was just very worried something happened to you. You know this is not the first time you got lost. I really have to keep a hawks eye on you." They got back to the bus. The students were hanging out of the windows of the bus, calling out to Arum as she approached. They hopped on the bus and the bus driver closed the hydraulic doors. The head teacher shouted at the bus driver "All accounted for" and the bus driver set the bus in motion. Arum peered behind her. In the corner of her eye she noticed several security guards rushing after the bus as it exited the farm grounds. They came so close to waving the bus down. They were followed by some lab workers. No one on the bus noticed this procession following them out of the farm. The teachers were too busy trying to get the rowdy students to stay in their seats. The bus driver too busy on the phone trying to explain to the principal why the bus will be back so late. Arum looked back one last time at the security guards. They were standing with their hands at their sides looking at the bus leaving them in a puff of smoke. The lab workers were flapping their arms like the wings of butterflies as they shouted profanities at the guards.
Arum turned her little head back towards the front of the bus. Her teacher came to sit next to her. Stroking her hair and shaking her head with a disquieting look of bewilderment. Arum looked up to her with large regretful eyes. "All is forgiven little girl, you must be starving. I saved you your ham sandwich. Aren't you hungry?". "I'm not hungry." she stated resolutely as she firmly pushed the sandwich away from her face. Are you sure? It's been a long time since you ate anything." "I'm sure. I'll never eat meat again" "Oh, Arum. What is the matter? You saw this process is perfectly humane, perfectly ethical and healthy for us too. Besides, it was the best ham sandwich I ever tasted." "You really think it was ham?" Arum questioned her teacher. She looked at Arum as her little shoulders sunk back in the chair. They sat in silence for a bit, the teacher trying to comprehend what the little girl meant.
"Arum, there is something else, the guide asked us all to take a pill after our meal. It is just to prevent the transfer of any dangerous pathogens we might have picked up while exposed to the meat production side of things. Please, take the little tablet. We all had to take it." She dropped a little pill into the hand of the little girl and held out a little paper cup filled with water. On the cup Arum noticed the code and under it the name of her school and then her name. She smacked the little cup out of the hand of the teacher. The water cascaded all over her teacher and the students sitting in front of them. They turned around burning their little eyes into the girl. The teacher looked furious. But little Arum did not flinch. She looked straight back at the teacher and held out her little hand, as if to return something to her. The teacher held out her hand and the little girl dropped a little vial, a little tubular container into her hand. The teacher looked at the tube. She noticed the swab inside and she looked at the label on the tube. It was her own name. "What is this, Arum?" she looked curiously at the little girl. The little girl just turned her little head towards the window and stared at a little moth struggling to escape through the invisible glass barrier.
The students all lined up and then started marching in a straight line through the farm gates and along a path leading towards a man in a white coat waiting at the entrance of a large building. As they walked past the pastures they gestured and gasped at the odd creatures grazing in the fields. "Wow, I have never seen one before" declared Mirae. Other students shook their heads in agreement. Some just stared at the creatures. "Keep in line, kids." called the teacher "Don't enter the pastures. They can still harm you." Some of the hybrids, as they are commonly called came closer to the footpath to observe the students walking past. They seemed to approach curiously and then scatter back as their curiosity shifted towards fear. "They are not used to strangers." The man in the coat explained "Welcome to the Well-being Meat Farm. I will be your guide for today. Call me, Tim. Follow me please. Let's gather over here. I'll tell you a little more about the hybrids." The kids gathered around the man as he chatted to the teachers. He then hopped over a small split rail fence, got hold of a hybrid and dragged it towards the group by its front strap. The hybrid did not offer much resistance as it came trotting behind. Its thin hydraulic legs almost stumbled as it tried to keep up but it quickly recovered. It came to an immediate halt and released some compressed air as it shrunk slightly into its stationary mode. The hybrid looked a little like a giant wheelbarrow but covered in chrome and with four long legs instead of a wheel. Inside the bucket was a large transparent plastic bag. Through the bag a large mushroom like bulk could be seen. It looked kind of like a bread that has just come out of the oven. The bulbous crust was covered in a thin layer of light furry hair. The color was a distinctly fleshy pink and it seemed to be covered with a slimy transparent liquid. It made Arum squirm. It was not a pleasant look. A metallic flexible neck extended from the front of the bucket and into something slightly resembling a face. It was more of a collection of cameras and sensors but there was a slight anthropomorphic quality to it. It seemed to display a real animal like curiosity as it extended its neck to observe all the little children standing in front of it. The man in the coat pointed to the shiny chrome parts and explained their function. Most of this information was lost on the little kids still staring and giggling at this curiosity but the teachers seemed to appreciate the explanation.
The man demonstrated the stability of the hydraulic system by giving the hybrid a hard boot to the outer shell. The hybrid stumbled back and almost dropped to the ground but then quickly recovered and returned to its original position. The bucket barely moved though. The legs were able to absorb most of the force and stabilized the content. The man in the coat said that was the point of the hydraulic legs and metallic outer shell. "We want the body, the fleshy bit inside to be kept intact and as free of any ruptures to produce a quality product. If the body had to rupture it would render the product unusable as it could be exposed to dangerous pathogens." the man explained. "Don't worry, the body contains no nervous system so it cannot feel anything. This is a perfectly humane, ethical and pain free way of producing meat for human consumption." The teachers clapped with glee and the students followed suit, not really comprehending the complexity of the sentiment expressed. "The hybrid has an artificial intelligence controlling its movement, its consumption of nutrients, it's interaction with other beings. It even regulates and stores the excess gasses that accumulates after digestion so that it can be used in an environmentally friendly way by other processes including but not limited to combustion to fuel its own operating systems. The hybrids also make use of solar energy panels located on the rim of the outer shell and this flap that folds over the body of the hybrid." he demonstrated. "So the meat production is an organic process that is started in a test tube and transferred to the outer shell which acts as its brain and the vehicle for the rest of the body's development. The body part can be removed for processing and the vehicle can be reused for the next product. Can you see how the hybrids still consume grass, just like herbivores in the past. But with this process, the control of the grazing is one hundred present in the hands of the artificial intelligence." The man pointed to the hybrids outer shell. From the undercarriage of the hybrid three flexible tubes popped out and started to prod the grass below. The ends of the tubes seemed to contain incisor like blades that cut the grass at a certain length and sucked it up into the lower compartment of the outer shell. The man explained that from the lower compartment it will be processed into a digestible liquid that will be used as fuel to grow more meat. This process was supposed to be kept totally separate to the actual body of the hybrid, the meat part. Hence, there was no need for any organic organs. The product was a completely protein and saturated fat based meat indistinguishable from organically grown meat from animals such as bovines or swine.
"Come on kids, you can touch the hybrid but just be very gentle as not to tear the polyethylene cover." The braver boys lined up to have a touch of the metal outer shell and stroke the plastic cover separating the meat product from the outside air. "It feels icky" shrieked Mirae as the teachers laughed overhead. The man let some of the boys kick the hybrid in its side to demonstrate its stability again. They really seemed to enjoy that part. "Sir, sir, why are they called hybrids?" a little precocious girl next to Arum tried to ask. The man looked a bit uncomfortable with this question as he thought a little about the answer. "Well, um, they are the crossover between animal and machine, aren't they?" the answer spilled out quite curtly. The man looked surprisingly irked by this simple question. The teachers flexed their eyes at the little girl to communicate to her not to ask such impertinent questions. After an awkward silence the man suddenly burst out in a broad smile as he asked the students to follow him into the factory for a demonstration of how the hybrids are put together and how the meat is extracted. He darted through the foyer doors and the teachers and students picked up their steps to keep up with him.
"Hurry up Arum." called her teacher from the doorway. "Keep up, please girl. We don't want you getting lost again." Arum stood face to face, or face to console, face to interactive sensor panel. Whatever it was called it seem to stare at Arum and Arum stared straight back. She turned her head one side to express curiosity and the hybrid followed suit, mimicking her facial behavior, the turning of her head. She stepped back a bit and the hybrid did the same. She braved up and walked forwards towards the split rail fence holding out her little hand to stroke it on the head. The hybrid didn't like this forward motion and jumped back like a little calf and dashed off towards the other hybrids. The other hybrids also startled by the newly arriving member scattered a bit and then continued grazing peacefully while keeping a rather suspicious eye in the direction of the little girl. She dropped her shoulders and sighed a bit and then skipped towards the entrance of the building.
Inside the building she found herself alone. There were some adults in white coats and masks walking about and a security guard at a desk but no one even noticed her presence. In the corner of her eye she saw one of her classmates disappearing down a long passageway. She scuttled after her classmates and arrived just as an adult worker was closing a large secure door behind some students in hard hats. "Where is your hardhat and coat girl?" she inquired. She faced a blank and panting stare. "Over there my girl, grab a hard hat and coat that fits. Do you see the letters above the coats? Those are the sizes. I think an XS would fit you perfectly." Arum tried to reach the hard hats but failed. "Here let me help." said the lady. "Okay, now hurry along. Catch up to the rest of the group." Arum scampered towards the others down a glassed passageway overlooking the factory floor. She didn't even notice what was going on below her until she arrived back at her group. The man from before was explaining how the hybrids are harvested. She didn't quite understand this term. Don't you harvest fruits and vegetables? She looked down below and saw a man with a long scythe like instrument waiting for a hybrid to arrive on a conveyor belt. Another worker walked the hybrid off the conveyor belt and onto another platform. The man pressed some buttons on a side panel and the head of the hybrid contracted back into its shell. The worker went about checking the hybrid from head to toe and then used a pneumatic drill to remove long pins in the side of the outer shell. As he removed the pins some liquid came gushing out of the holes left behind. It was a mix of red and clear transparent liquid that ran down the platform towards a gutter and down a vertical down spout into the floor. The worker also removed various tubes from inside the bucket. These tubes he attached to other tubes and it seemed as if he was extracting other kinds of liquids from out of the hybrid. The colors of these liquids varied from light yellow to dark red, even blackish liquids. The worker watched as all the tubes started to clear and then pressed another button on the side of the hybrid.
The polyethylene cover seemed to cave in as it surrendered the gasses within. There was a foul smell in the air. So strong was this smell that it started to trigger Arum's gag reflex. Then the worker with the great scythe like instrument stepped closer. He unzipped the polyethylene cover and exposed the meat within. After removing the cover all together he stood over the hybrid on the platform and started to slice away the meat from the sides of the bucket that contained it. It was a concise and automated process as if he had performed that task all his life without even thinking twice about it. Now a lot more dark liquid gushed out the bottom of the shell. The students turned their heads away in horror as the teachers kept nodding their heads riveted by the explanation of the guide in front of them. The guide explained that this process is usually performed by machines but occasionally it has to be done by hand when the hybrids have failed a certain size and uniformity test. Then the worker below pulled down a hydraulic grasping mechanism from above him and set it into the bucket. It clamped the detached body part and raised it into the air, the liquid still streaming out from various tubes and orifices below. The worker let it hang for a bit as he used a hose to wash away some of the more stubborn bits out of the outer shell and down the platform towards the gutter. The worker then guided the hydraulic grip towards another conveyor belt and released the very large chunk of pinkish flesh upon it. He bashed a button with the side of his fist and the conveyor started to move the meat towards a separate room. The empty shell continued on another conveyor belt towards a washing mechanism and then past a sign saying "Embryonic room". The guide at the top gestured to the children to follow him as he entered the room where the meat was being processed for human consumption.
From this room they could see the meat being inspected again and sent through some kind of slicing machine that seemed to trim the hard leathery and hairy outer layer off and presented a nicer looking more recognizable beef or pork like product. It also removed all the tubes at the bottom of the meat product and gave it a nice clean sprinkle of water. It was a very large chunk of meat, perhaps four times larger than the entire carcass of a fully grown adult pig, the guide noted. It was also, not only completely boneless, but free of any organ meats, cartilage, arteries, sinew and the fat content has been steadily controlled by the artificial intelligence to provide us with the most incredible tasting and heart healthy meat product available on the market today. The guide also boasted that the meat had been scientifically engineered in the lab and tested in controlled groups to be the best tasting meat money can buy. The guide pointed out how the large chunk of meat was further sliced into smaller parts and then distributed in various containers according to the shape needed. He said from there it will be packed and transported all around the country and abroad. This particular product will be further smoked to give it a ham like taste. "Oh how delicious" cried out one of the students. "Why don't we go and sample some of that ham in the cafeteria?" the guide inquired to rapturous applause and glee. "Follow me down to the basement kids."
Everyone shifted out of the room, handed back their hard hats and coats and started going down a passageway towards an escalator. Arum hanged behind for a bit. She watched as another bulk of meat came though the side of the room and though the processing machine. She watched as the off cuts, the leathery hairy bits were discarded to one side onto a bucket of other discarded parts. It was so heaped that some it it came sliding off the side and onto the floor. Curious how pink this meat looked. She always associated grass eating plants like bovine with darker red meat. What makes this meat so pink in color? It was such a quick process to slice and partition the meat and send them towards separate packaging areas on the factory floor. There were so few workers on the floor. Most of the process was fully automated with only the occasional human oversight. She suddenly wanted to ask the guide a question. She turned around only to find herself alone in a long passage. She wanted to know how this all starts. Is there a little baby that grows within the belly of the mechanical parts of the machine. She didn't quite understand but there was no one to answer her. She looked at the passageway from side to side. Two options, which way did they go. "I'll go left." she stated aloud. She went though the doors to an open area where different workers in lab coats were scrambling about all too engrossed in their work to notice the tiny little girl in the over-sized hard hat and white coat walking between them. Now there are three doors ahead of me, she thought to herself. "I'll go left again" she exclaimed. No one noticed. She went through the door and down a flight of stairs and back into another passage way. She then started to feel less brave and slightly panicky. A group of white coats walked by her and towards a very secure looking door at the other end of the passage. Arum tried to follow them and grab one of the workers attention.
She tugged on the back of the coat of the worker at the back of the group but they were too busy arguing about who would be taking a certain shift that they all failed to notice the little girl tagging along behind them. They all swiped their cards and bent towards a sensor to scan their eyes and entered the room. Arum walked in through the doors. Had she been slightly taller she might have triggered a security beam but it just so happens that again no one noticed her entering the room. The white coats climbed into their personal protective suits and scattered towards their own individual stations in the adjacent lab. Arum stood staring at the sight in front of her. She just gasped. Then suddenly the doorway behind her opened up and a large trolley containing voluminous content covered in a large blue plastic tarp came rushing towards her. She had no time to escape from in front of it so she hastily jumped onto the front of the trolley and hid between a slight opening in the tarp. Just her eye was exposed to the outside as the trolley weaved between the workers in their protective gear towards other similar looking trolleys at the other end of the lab. As she passed by the lab workers she noticed a lot of test tubes being shaken and disturbed by various machinery. She went past a section where more developed embryos were being kept in large jars. The embryos were too small to be defined as a specific kind of animal. To Arum some looked quite human but others definitely looked more primitive. The lab workers were injecting or extracting something from some of these embryos. She didn't quite understand what was going on in here but the room was filled with strange oddities in various stages of growth. The trolley came to a rest next to a similar looking trolley. Arum started to catch her breath back. She was definitely scared but also very curious about where she was. She was petrified to move or make a sound however. She noticed the trolley she had climbed into shudder a little every now and then. The trolley in front of her was doing the same. Her eyes were still adjusting to the relative darkness inside the tarp when she noticed something move in the corner of her eye.
She found herself face to face again with a creature but this time it was no machine. There was a very large brown eye staring right into hers. She noticed with fear a creature of some sort right up close to her face. It was a large creature. The face of this creature was also filled with fear as it hardly blinked at Arum keeping its large eyes fixed on the little girl. It seemed to be like nothing she has seen before, a rather hairy pinkish creature with some human features. She wasn't quite sure but to her the shape of the eye sockets and nose and mouth was very human like. But it seems to have large protruding and floppy ears. It also had what seemed to be horns growing out of an over sized head. The horns appeared to be cut off at the base. It had a long animal like body hanging from a harness attached to the top of a metal framework. This creature had cloven hooves rather than fingers, resembling those of a cow or pig. It even seemed to have a short tail with a clump of hair at the end of it. The legs were all tied together with plastic cable ties. It was covered in a perforated plastic bag. Arum watched as it opened its mouth as if to cry out for help but it had no tongue with which to make any identifiable utterance. It was more like a soft moan or grunt as it began to shudder again. She heard one of the lab workers approaching, cursing out "What the hell is up with you now? Fucking stupid cunt". He lifted the tarp to expose the creature from under it. Arum had disappeared behind it into a hidden little corner between two other similar looking creatures. They in turn also began to shudder and grunt. The lab worker got extremely agitated at this and punched the first creature hard on the nose. "Shut up, you stupid beast. Will you?" he roared. "You just moved yourself to the top of the list for extraction, you dumb cow. If you kept quiet I would have spared you until tomorrow. Common boy, here we go." The lab worker grabbed a hook attached to a chain hanging above and attached it to the harness of the first creature. He removed the tarp fully around the creature and then used a remote controlled device to lift the creature carefully up off the metal frame and into the air. It hung suspended in the air, shaking and panting in the perforated bag for a good five minutes before it started to get tired and calm down.
The lab worker transported the creature in the air and then lowered upon a steel operating table. Other lab workers helped to strap in the incredibly large frame of the creature to the operating table. They removed the plastic covering and proceeded to inject the creature with something. It must have been a sedative as it seemed to relax the panicked creature. " A9007 ready for extraction, doctor" one of the assistants reported. "Please, turn A9007 more onto its side." the doctor calmly instructed. Arum took the opportunity to move off the trolley and behind some large tanks containing larger than life embryos suspended in a dark blue transparent liquid. She witnessed the doctor maneuvering some kind of mechanical arm towards the creature strapped on the table. The creature was now wearing a breathing apparatus breathing very calmly snoring lightly. Its eyes were now fixed shut. The doctor used the arm to drive a large needle into the back of the creature's spine near the neck area. A clear liquid was extracted from the creature. The arm was removed and the assistants went about patching up the intrusion to the back of the neck area, removing the straps and placing the creature back into a plastic covering to return it to its temporary home under the tarp.
Arum tried to move quietly behind all the embryonic tanks back towards the entrance of the lab. As she came to the end of the tanks she noticed another little station. There was a lab assistant taking swabs from paper cups and placing the swabs into vials. The lab assistant stood up and placed some of the tubes into a refrigerator like device. A thick cold fog came bellowing out of the door as she opened it. She could see rack after rack of these tubular containers neatly stacked next to each other each with their little labels perfectly displayed on them. On the table in front of Arum she noticed a tray of paper cups and tubes. She could make out some of the labels on the cups. She did not recognize the code but under the code someone had scribbled the name of her school and classroom number. She could make out the names of her classmates. There was Mirae's cup, her teacher's cup. Almost all of her classmates' names were there too but not Arum's. What does this all mean she wondered. Just then the assistant walking back from the refrigerator spotted Arum. She froze looking curiously at the little girl still in the hard hat and white coat. Arum stared back at her. The assistant calmly raised her hand and beckoned the little girl towards her. Arum did not move. The assistant reached for her phone on the desk. That is when Arum noticed another one of those trolleys coming through the door quite close to her. She decided to run. The assistant yelled out to her colleagues "Intruder, intruder. Stop the little girl." The other lab workers rushed towards the little girl. Arum ran towards the trolley coming through the entrance. The trolley now stood blocking the doors from closing as the assistant pushing from behind tried to peer past the side to see what was going on. "Grab her you fool!" shouted one of the assistants. But as the man pushing the trolley tried to locate her she went diving in between the opening in the tarp and between all the creatures inside. The workers pulled off the tarp to expose about ten similar creatures hanging on a metal frame and shaking with panic in the perforated bags. Arum darted underneath the creatures and out the other end leaving behind the hard hat and little coat. While the workers looked between the hanging bags Arum had already managed to escape past the last worker and was running down the passage towards the door at the end.
An alarm was now sounded. The little girl found a stairway and proceeded up it until she saw the door at the top open and a security guard come hurtling down the stairs. He did not see the little girl as she flew down the stairs further deeper into the labyrinth of this demonic complex. She felt like a lab rat stuck in a maze. Which way to go? Then she smelled a familiar smell. It smelled like smoked or cooked ham. She burst through a door at the end of the stairs and straddled into what appeared to be a test kitchen. She could see a lot of workers in coats again preparing food. They seemed to ignore the little girl as she ran through the kitchen towards another door and into the cafeteria. It was empty. She saw the security guard hot on her trail now. No time to waste. She jumped through a laundry shoot next to her, without considering where it might lead. She came sliding and screaming down a shoot and into a large dumpster containing white table cloths. The fall was soft but she was now covered in some food waste, smeared with the juices of meat and sauces. She hopped out of the dumpster and ran out into an underground parking lot. She ran between the parked cars looking for the exit and trying to hide from any security guards. She started to hear someone calling her name. She hid under a vehicle. The calls came closer and closer "Arum! Arum!" Suddenly two feet appeared right in front of her. She held her breath.
Then the person standing in front of her appeared to be talking on the phone to someone. "I know, I know, I'm so sorry. Can you give me five minutes please, then you can go. Her mother is going to kill me for this. Not again." She recognized the voice. Should she say something? Her fear subsided as she was suddenly overcome by bravery. "Teacher, I'm here. I want to go home!" "Oh my god! Arum! What happened to you. I was looking all over for you, my girl. Come, everyone is waiting for you. The bus is about to leave." she grabbed Arum by the hand and got hold of the head teacher on the phone. Arum just followed suit. "Where did you go, Arum? We were worried sick." "I got lost." Arum replied. "Are you mad at me?" "No my girl, I'm not mad at you. I was just very worried something happened to you. You know this is not the first time you got lost. I really have to keep a hawks eye on you." They got back to the bus. The students were hanging out of the windows of the bus, calling out to Arum as she approached. They hopped on the bus and the bus driver closed the hydraulic doors. The head teacher shouted at the bus driver "All accounted for" and the bus driver set the bus in motion. Arum peered behind her. In the corner of her eye she noticed several security guards rushing after the bus as it exited the farm grounds. They came so close to waving the bus down. They were followed by some lab workers. No one on the bus noticed this procession following them out of the farm. The teachers were too busy trying to get the rowdy students to stay in their seats. The bus driver too busy on the phone trying to explain to the principal why the bus will be back so late. Arum looked back one last time at the security guards. They were standing with their hands at their sides looking at the bus leaving them in a puff of smoke. The lab workers were flapping their arms like the wings of butterflies as they shouted profanities at the guards.
Arum turned her little head back towards the front of the bus. Her teacher came to sit next to her. Stroking her hair and shaking her head with a disquieting look of bewilderment. Arum looked up to her with large regretful eyes. "All is forgiven little girl, you must be starving. I saved you your ham sandwich. Aren't you hungry?". "I'm not hungry." she stated resolutely as she firmly pushed the sandwich away from her face. Are you sure? It's been a long time since you ate anything." "I'm sure. I'll never eat meat again" "Oh, Arum. What is the matter? You saw this process is perfectly humane, perfectly ethical and healthy for us too. Besides, it was the best ham sandwich I ever tasted." "You really think it was ham?" Arum questioned her teacher. She looked at Arum as her little shoulders sunk back in the chair. They sat in silence for a bit, the teacher trying to comprehend what the little girl meant.
"Arum, there is something else, the guide asked us all to take a pill after our meal. It is just to prevent the transfer of any dangerous pathogens we might have picked up while exposed to the meat production side of things. Please, take the little tablet. We all had to take it." She dropped a little pill into the hand of the little girl and held out a little paper cup filled with water. On the cup Arum noticed the code and under it the name of her school and then her name. She smacked the little cup out of the hand of the teacher. The water cascaded all over her teacher and the students sitting in front of them. They turned around burning their little eyes into the girl. The teacher looked furious. But little Arum did not flinch. She looked straight back at the teacher and held out her little hand, as if to return something to her. The teacher held out her hand and the little girl dropped a little vial, a little tubular container into her hand. The teacher looked at the tube. She noticed the swab inside and she looked at the label on the tube. It was her own name. "What is this, Arum?" she looked curiously at the little girl. The little girl just turned her little head towards the window and stared at a little moth struggling to escape through the invisible glass barrier.
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