Free The Army Comes Calling by Darrell Maloney Page A

run through a pasture?”
         John smiled.
         “Well, first of all, animals don’t wear shoes. If I could put myself in their hooves, I’d likely say that if I was born into the mine, that would be the only world I knew. I wouldn’t even know that sunshine or fresh grass even existed. So how could I possibly miss it?”
         He noticed a distinct look of sadness that had come over Sarah’s face.
         “Look, honey. You’re a real sweetheart, and it’s admirable that you’re looking out for the animals’ well being. And I don’t mean to make light of your argument. But the sad fact is, these aren’t pets. They’re food. And their whole purpose for being is to provide us nourishment in the future. We can’t do that if we return them all to the compound and then the Army comes back and confiscates them.”
         David added his two cents.
         “When I was just out of high school, I worked for a company that grew hogs for slaughter. They had four huge barns, each one as big as a football field. The pigs were born in the barn and grew up in a tiny pen, until they were fat enough to slaughter. Then they were herded through a narrow chute eighty yards to the slaughterhouse next door.
         “Those eighty yards were the only sunshine those hogs ever saw in their whole lives. And they only saw it because they were on their way to die.
         “My point is that the meat industry has always been rather brutal. When we went to a restaurant and ordered a burger or a steak, we never saw the harsh reality of the industry that provided them for us. Maybe we just chose not to. Maybe it was easier to look the other way, than to acknowledge that livestock animals weren’t treated very well.”
         Bryan added, “And remember al those animals we raised and ate during the six and a half years before we broke out of the mine. Very few of them ever saw the light of day. They were born there, raised there, and eaten there, and none of them knew any better. Never once, when I was slaughtering a pig or a chicken, did they look at me and say, ‘Gee, I wish I had lived long enough to see the sunshine.’”
         Bryan’s joke fell flat, as they frequently did. The room was momentarily silent, and Sarah shot daggers at him. So did her best friends, Hannah and Sami.
         Hannah came to her aid.
         “Oh, don’t be a putz, Bryan. All Sarah is saying is that the animals give us their all… quite literally… so that we can get nourishment from them. The least we can do is give them something in return.”
         “That’s just it, Hannah. We do. From the time they’re born, we give them nourishment. We give them safety from predators and protection from the weather. We give them water to drink, and companionship, and the chance to find a mate and to further their species. We provide their nourishment, and when the time comes, they do the same for us. And not one of them is smart enough to know that they’re not being treated like kings.”
         Sarah lost her argument. The room fell silent once again and she sat back down to sulk. She resolved to try, in her own way, to be nice to the animals in the mine. Whether to pacify her own guilt for losing her argument, or to maintain her grasp on humanity, she’d find a way somehow to let the animals know they were appreciated.
         She looked at John and shrugged, conceding the fight. John felt bad for her, but took her shrug as a sign to move on.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 14
     
         “What’s involved in all of this, John? I mean, you said it would require us to help out. But if the livestock’s already over there, what else is there to do that we’re not already doing?”
         “Well, when we put half the herds back over there we just put enough feed to last them for a few weeks. The first thing we’ll need to do is load