The Machine

This is my first posting for others to comment on...please be gentle. ;-) -- She and a handful
of other prisoners were marched down "the row", as they'd come to call it, not saying a word.
She'd known her time was coming. Eventually "they" came for them all. Their captors. Their
overlords. So superior. They never so much as spoke to the prisoners. They possessed such
a casual indifference that it chilled her to the bone, though she didn't display the slightest hint
of weakness. To crack now accomplished nothing. According to rumor, somebody always
cracked, but where did such rumors originate? Nobody had ever returned. Likely the rumors
came out of the underlying fear that penetrated every aspect of prison life, like a scent that
gets into your clothes that is nearly impossible to get out. As she pondered this, an inmate
three positions up made a break for it. With startling efficiency the guard subdued and
removed her, hauling her off to her fate. This merely reinforced the resolve and the
composure, as to attempt escape merely expedited the process. Closer now. It's hard to
suppress the panic that threatens to well up and override her sense of control. Slowly, they
enter a vast room, in which they are herded into a small containment room, and like a death
knell, the door closes with a loud reverberating clang behind them. There is to be no escape
today. At this point, panic gives way to complete and utter defeat. This will be no close
shave. There will be no pardon. These are to be the last moments of her life, and what
dismal moments they are. The industrial gray paint. The heavy-duty containment fence. A
sense of terror threatens to arise anew as the process of putting inmates in "the machine"
begins. Even more mysterious than rumors of inmates cracking on the row was the scant
rumors about the machine. It was everything one could imagine of cruelty, terror, pain, and
ultimately death;all rumored to be far worse than even the most vivid imagination could
surmise. Inmates go in, remains come out. And screams. Everybody screams in the end. It's
in this nightmarish haze that she suddenly finds herself being taken by the guard. Her terror
is so absolute that she is utterly frozen. Her prior choice to maintain silence is no longer a
choice at all. The ability to speak is no longer hers to control. In this absolute loss, she
cannot imagine whispering, much less screaming. Everybody screams in the end. This
repetitive thought only serves to increase her terror ten-fold. She is still aware of everything.
In fact, the process is quite vivid, but from the outside, she is borderline catatonic. Not that
the guards care. She is taken across the threshold of the chamber door, and still sound will
not come. Now, a confusion sets in that only serves to amplify her feeling of horror. What,
exactly, is she looking at here? Already some of the other inmates are dangling from a great
steel shaft by leg irons, a fate which she is clearly destined for herself, but for what purpose?
Everybody screams in the end. She's on the verge of passing out from terror as they shackle
her, upside down, first one leg, then the other. In a cruel twist, the blood rushing to her head
serves to keep her conscious for whatever is to come. The shackles are snug, and not
wholly uncomfortable, but it's readily apparent that they were designed to hold on, and
whatever happens in here, they seem inordinately clean, given the rumors that circulate
about this place. On further inspection of her surroundings, it's all unusually clean. To what
purpose, she does not know, but the highly unusual nature of the place serves to boost her
heart rate still further. At some point she becomes aware that the chamber door is closing,
the guard has retreated, and every set of shackles is full. The second death knell tolls, and
she notices that the chamber door seals very well, almost becoming indistinguishable with
the walls of this place. The silence is deafening as the fear-induced paralysis continues
consuming the inmates. Outside the chamber, an engine rumbles to life. As if designed
specifically to wake coma patients, a loud clunk accompanied by a nausea-inducing shudder
that runs the entire length of the shaft breaks the strangle-hold of terror. Suddenly everybody
is talking at once. What's going on? What's happening? Almost imperceptibly at first, the
shaft begins to rotate. The chatter increases. What can this possibly mean? As the rotation
slowly increases, a horrifying realization begins to dawn in the minds of the inmates. Another
clunk, another sickening vibration, and a dramatic increase in speed. The talking is now
yelling as the sound of the engine increases and the shaft speed hits a point where the
inmates now maintain their position projecting outward from the core. One more clunk, one
more shudder, and another burst of speed. The screams begin, originating from their very
souls. Legs held firmly in place, the sheer velocity of their rotation is, they now fully know,
going to physically rip them apart. This is to be their end. One final clunk, one final shudder,
one final burst of speed, all unnoticed by those being subjected to it. Finally, nothingness.
The remains are summarily cleaned from the chamber, processed, and shipped out to the
food industry as "mechanically separated chicken".