Free Awares by Piers Anthony Page B

kiss the monster. It squirted more liquid on her head. She screamed anew as her fur, skin, and face dissolved, then the bone of her skull. When the pulsing matter of her brain was exposed, the Maggot put its snout to it and sucked it in, slowly hollowing out her head.
    Before long Kess stopped screaming. Her vocal apparatus had dissolved. But she was still hurting; I could tell by the helpless quivering of her body. Not until most of the brain was gone did I know that she had found the relief of death. Beloved!! I repeated, stunned by grief and desolation.
    At which point the Maggot stopped eating. “Dead meat is less tasty,” the Oumic remarked.
    Now I walked forward. Was it my turn to be eaten? Why not; I had nothing left to live for. But the Maggot settled back on its fat posterior, squeezing out fecal pudding, ignoring me. I reached down, grabbed hold of Kess's remaining torso, heaved it up on my shoulder, and walked out of the chamber. I went to a large hopper and dumped the body in. There was a grinding sound as it disappeared into that mechanical maw. It was being rendered into meat for canning.
    The Oumic took me on a tour of the slaughterhouse, showing me how the naked people were marched inside, ascended a ramp, and dived into the open orifice of a larger meat grinder. They didn't even scream; apparently that was merely for the enjoyment of the Maggot during its repast. The rate of reduction seemed to be about one per second, and the line was continuous. This was only one of many grinders, and one of many slaughterhouses. Giant pipes conducted the slurry to the canning section where it was rendered into barrels of paste. These barrels were loaded onto the cars of the rail facility, which then were sent to the spaceport.
    It required a lot of meat to feed the full Maggot force. The life of our entire planet was being efficiently converted to that sustenance.
    At the conclusion of my involuntary tour, I paused at a dispenser of small cans. I took one and opened it. I tried to balk, but the Oumic had possession of my willpower. “Yes, it's fresh; your sister may be part of the mix. You need to eat, as you have work to do.”
    I ate, though my gut retched. I had no power of resistance.
    “You are an intelligent, trained, experienced executive,” the Oumic informed me. “You will learn the details of instituting, constructing, and staffing a slaughterhouse. For this chore your life is spared, for perhaps a year of conscious functioning.”
    “I'd rather die!” I retorted, now able to speak.
    “So would we all. But we have no choice. The Maggots govern, and they are hungry.”
    “Why should I learn this, when my world is already doomed?”
    “You will direct this operation on the next world.”
    I was dully surprised. “Then what of you?”
    “My term is expiring. Within months my body will be canned, and my mind will cease. You will continue on your own.”
    “Yet you continue to do their dreadful business!”
    “As will you.” I could not question his certainty.
    He trained me, and in due course his mind faded from mine and I knew he had been canned. He had not seemed like a bad sort, considering. All of us simply obeyed the will of the Maggots.
    In due course my planet was exhausted. It was nothing but a layer of shit surrounding islands of slaughterhouses. All the original life, animals, insects, plants, bacteria were gone; only feces-eating entities remained. I was packed into a spaceship and put in stasis, for how long I do not know. Later I was revived and my mind was sent to occupy that of one of the selected denizens of the next planet slated for reduction. This one. I observed for several months, learning the local details so I could perform my assignment effectively when the time came. Once that was done, I would be canned.
    There was just one bright spot. In that time I came to know you, Elasa, and to love you.
    You see, you have two aspects I require, apart from your animation, beauty, and