Silence Of The Beef

A sandwich goes where every sandwich has gone before.

        I can’t smell, hear, or see.. I live in complete darkness beyond the amplified vibrations I feel.. Yes, I can feel.. It started when they, yes! They! They who took a metal blade and cast me into this endless abyss I call a life.. Yes, that is when it had begun.. By the very beasts carrying me at this very moment in a rough papery container.. I felt a vibration. Yes, a vibration. Something was swung towards my direction. No, it turned to the right of me. A door, perhaps. Yes, a door. It had to be a door.

        When the door opened, I instantly felt a chill embrace me. Then, I felt a grip around my body.. It was one of them.. Yes, one of the beasts.. It raised me, then, it released its grasp, and I fell onto a frigid, metal ground.. It was at that moment I felt the slightest vibration, something making a very brief twist. Then, a rapid series of similar twists. I recognized it as a code. Yes, a code. A code I had used just a few days ago. Yes, when I communicated with the code.. When I arrived at this place in a box, with others like me..

        

        “Welcome to the Cold Room,” I translated the code into. Then, the thing continued, “I am called Rocky, and this is our purgatory, where we wait for the end.” He had then asked, “What are you called?” “Angus,” I answered with three reluctant twists. I wonder.. Yes, Rocky must have been a cow like me, until he, like myself, became a product of the beast. Rocky had made several more twists, “The sliders over there are Bessie and Ferdinand, two sibli-” The sound of his rugged body ceased.

        The entrance to the Cold Room had opened. Instantly, a warmth washed over me, yet the icy chill remained. A few moments later, the slider named Ferdinand had released a flurry of harsh twists. “Bessie’s gone!” He was

panicked, as well as shocked, as he continued with many phrases expressing his

apparent grief. It was hard to believe. Apart from Ferdinand, there had been no

indication that Bessie was gone. Nor did I find it easy to believe there would be any warning apart from the door opening if I was taken. No, even if there was, it would be futile. My fate is inevitable.

Then, I felt a vibration, though it was muffled as though the source was coated with fuzz. “My name is Ole’ Smokey.” Then, he continued to explain the end. “There are two ways out of here. The first, incineration. The second, a transformation.” As he completed the initial explanation, he went further into detail of the two paths out. “Incineration is for the eldest of us. You are tossed into a can, and eventually, you’re burned enough to destroy any evidence you ever had existed. Meanwhile, the transformation leads to a peaceful life, at the cost of brutal pain throughout the journey.”

        After what seemed like ages, the giant metal door opened, and hastily Smokey had said “fare-” before disappearing without a trace. I also noticed Rocky had disappeared in a similar matter.. Moments after, the door closed, yet before it closed, I heard a single object collapse into a can. I knew instantly I would never see Smokey again.

        I had hardly known Smokey or Rocky, yet I felt like I lost a best friend when they were taken.. Perhaps it was because every time the door opens, I become less and less sane.. Yet, I also feel as though I understand more of this dark life I inhabit. Throughout the next few days, Ferdinand grieved his friends, while I pondered their departure. I then felt the door beginning to creak, then it swung open. I felt the tight grasp of the ones who killed Smokey.. Yes, of the ones who stole my previous life from me.. Yes, the ones who I hate with every calorie of my being.. Yes, the beasts..

        I was placed in a container similar to the ones I entered the Cold Room in, which Ferdinand called bags. Next to me was Ferdinand. The only one who I got to know. As we were hauled, I knew what would happen next. The violent, painful path of the transformation. For a moment, all became still. Yet that moment was

short lived, as now I was being lifted. As I was being brought up, I noticed I was entering a room of flesh and a strange liquid. I then realized it was a mouth. The

beast’s mouth. I was helpless. I was a blade of grass, and the beast was the

cattle. There is nothing I can do.. All efforts would be futile.. All I can do is hope is some sort of celestial or divine being steps in and shows mercy to me..

Suddenly, I felt excruciating pain shifting all of my focus onto a part of me was torn, off by the beast’s small, yet numerous, coarse teeth.. Pain worse than even the sharp blade that cursed me ages ago.. It continued to strike through waves.. Until, at last, the unbearable pain ended.. However, my body was reduced to fragments.. Yet, even now, I could think, and in all of the pieces that made up my previous body, I could feel.. Yes, I could feel.. I could feel the pain of being amputated several times.. Despite everything, from all of the events that should have ended my existence, I had lived.. Yes, I had lived.. I wonder.. No, I will die at some point.. I won’t live forever.. Yet it is possible, that I may endure oblivion, free from lucidity, as now nothing was clear.. Not even if I existed..

        As I journeyed through the seemingly endless cavern that was the beast, I had recovered most of my body. However, it had been deteriorated so much, it hardly represented my former self. Neither of my former selves. Yet, I also discovered numerous materials within the beast, such as a liquid in the beast’s mouth that softened my body. For the next few hours, there I was, until I began to slowly come out. As I came out of an area of the beast bearing two soft walls in the shape of spheres, I suddenly fell. Then, less than a second after I began falling, I landed in a bowl of water.

        Was the water for me to drink? No, surely not, I can’t even drink.. Why was I here.. Wait, what is that warm fluid mixed with the water.. Yes, I recall now.. I had once created it.. Yes, before the beasts had taken my smell, hearing, and sight.. I had hardly acknowledged its existence until now, however. As I pondered this new environment, I felt a force pulling from the left. What is this force? What is the cause? Then, as panic had started to grow inside of me, I begun swirling towards the center of this bowl. Once I reached the center, I was forced into the

tunnel that would assist me in my journey. Yet, in the back of my mind, I was

unsure if I would make it or not.. I had barely survived the last tunnel right after the beast decimated my body, while this passage has far more durable materials for its components.

        This tunnel bears resemblance to.. Yes, this tube bears resemblance to parts of the beast.. Yes, yet it is different.. The material, it appears to be made of more durable material.. The water, it is more like the liquid in the toilet than in the body, though they did bear the resemblance of unpleasantness.. I wonder.. Perhaps this is still a part of the beast.. No, surely not, I came out of the beast.. Yes, besides, this material is foreign to anything inside of the beast.. Yes, I am not in the beast.. Surely not, as this is a different place..

        As the next few days dragged on, I remained oblivious to my surroundings, noticing only a few features, as I entered a deep state of thought. I questioned myself of many things, yet to no avail, they hardly made sense. However, I kept floating on. Yet, during one of my brief moments of being aware of my surroundings, I realized I was in a large corridor. The liquid, in the corridor, had various chunks of objects similar to my current form. There were other objects in the corridor’s pool, yet they weren’t as numerous.

        As I was floating along,I heard a splash. Then, a rapid series of similar splashes. I recognized it as a code.. Yes, a code.. A code I had used just a few days ago.. Yes, when I communicated with the code.. When I arrived in the cold room, with others like me.. Rocky, Bessie, and Ferdinand.. Yet, as I had anticipated on his departure, Ole’ Smokey was not here.... As well as many others.. “Welcome to our haven, I am called Rocky, what are you called?”

“Angus,” I replied with three reluctant splashes.

Author's Note

Entirely new to this site. Recalled some mixed feedback when I originally had it presented to some of my peers, and just wanted more replies with the hopes to weed out the unwanted habits. Also, wasn't sure which genre to place it in, so I figured cows are part of nature..