you better have a strong stomach. It can be a bloody horrible sight.’
‘A bit like my ex-wife.’
A quick bark of a laugh burst through Talbot’s nose. ‘Yes, I have one of those myself.
Axe
-wife, I call her.’
‘I love your wit, John. There could be a part in this movie for you, if you’re interested. Wouldn’t be much, of course.’
‘You’re kidding? Me in a movie? Bloody hell!’
‘How did you know the title of the movie?’
‘What? Oh! Now you’re winding me up. Come on. Over beside those two doors.’
The two enormous steel doors opened automatically, and a shiver touched Karl despite the freezing temperature already mounting throughout the building.
The noise of skull-rattling machinery was suddenly everywhere . Karl could feel its strength tremble beneath him. It made him uncertain.
‘No point in standing there if you want to see inside,’ said Talbot, a rubbery smile on his face. ‘They won’t bite – at least not yet.’
Tentatively, Karl entered, immediately feeling as if an invisible hand had slammed against his stomach. The place was massive and seemed to have no boundaries. It was breathtakingly horrible , like the Sistine Chapel bloodied by barbarians. Its dank coldness reeked with tension and void of all things human. The enormous floor was littered with sawdust chips speckled red with bloody imperfections. There was a sense of danger about the place; a sense that someone was going to be killed before the day was complete.
To Karl’s left, gangs of sad-looking cows were being herded up a metal gangplank affair, led by a bizarre-looking creature.
‘Is that a goat?’ quizzed Karl, pointing at the scruffy animalwith a head crowned by blonde curly locks.
Talbot nodded gleefully. ‘That’s old Martin, the Judas Goat. He keeps the cows calm, as if on a picnic. Unbeknown to them, they’re following him obediently up the ramp to their doom. They haven’t a clue what’s waiting for them.’
To Karl’s amazement and horror, old Martin suddenly slipped into a tiny hideout, leaving the cows alone and looking bewildered . Karl could have sworn the old goat was grinning from ear to ear just as it made its exit.
‘The cows can usually smell a trap, but like all good traps, they can’t escape it. After the trap comes that…’ said Talbot, pointing at the far wall.
Suddenly, from behind hidden panelling, a group of young women appeared, stun guns in hands. Seconds later, they placed the stun guns behind each cow’s head and pulled the trigger, releasing a plunging bolt directly into the unfortunate creatures’ brains. The pneumatic hissing of the stun guns was everywhere, sounding like a million disturbed snakes.
‘Ten thousand volts of pure kick applied to the head renders each animal unconscious,’ continued Talbot. ‘The stun gun prevents adrenaline from entering the animal’s bloodstream, ruining the tenderness and beauty of the meat.’
‘
Dear Lord
…’ muttered Karl, feeling the violence of the act recoiling in his stomach.
‘Don’t worry too much, Karl. It’s all humanely done. They hardly feel a thing.’ Talbot winked. ‘At least that’s what we tell the public and the media.’
Without warning, each cow went keeling over in a thunderous thud, as if on ice, shit, piss and blood rocketing from all natural cavities. Legs broke. Necks snapped. Eyes popped from their enclosures.
Fuck the night
…thought Karl, turning quickly away from the horrendous scene.
‘Come on, Karl. Down this way, into the butchering arena, where the real kings reign.’
Seconds later, Karl entered the arena and almost immediately his nostrils began flooding with a stomach-churning smell of salty iron. The same stinking stench from outside the building was coming at him with force, but more powerful, more tangible in its taste of freshly slaughtered meat.
Air. Need some fucking air
, thought Karl, trying desperately to hold control of breath and stomach.
Blood-splattered
Dean Koontz
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