Boy meat Girl

TM

Jeremy wiped the sweat off his brow as he leaned on the shovel, his breath short gasps for air. It was always difficult digging them up but this was the worst one yet. He stifled a groan, his protesting muscles as they slammed the shovel into the dirt again, it wasn’t as if it was resisting it was just so wet that it was like trying to dig in porridge. A familiar clunk of wood on metal rang threw the air, muffled by the constant fall of slurry into the pit.
Falling too his knees Jeremy began to scoop handfuls of the sludge out of the way until he was able to scrabble at the latch on the side. It clicked open easily, do this a couple of hundred times and it becomes second nature. He dug into his thick jacket’s pocket and pulled out a dirty handkerchief. It looked as if it had been dropped in the street and trodden on by some incontinent horses and smelt pretty much the same. Still, it smelt better than what waited within that box he mused as he tied the rotten cloth around his mouth and nose.
He broke the seal and coughed loudly, you could never get used to this. The fetid air drifted into his nostrils even through the rain and the cloth. He grabbed the bag from beside the pit and picked up the young girl’s feet. He noted how peaceful she looked as he began to slide her into the bag. She must be no older than 16, no older than him he thought. Everyone Mr. Cropley had sent him after was around this age and always a girl. He smiled and patted her cheek gently she vanished from view into the sack.

He picked her up with difficulty and placed her at the edge of the pit carefully, he still had respect for the dead even if he dug them up for a job. Some people in the same job were very disrespectful. Meat they called the bodies, nothing but dead meat for selling.
He shut the coffin with a kick and gripped onto the edge of the pit, sliding slightly in the sodden dirt as he attempted to pull himself out of the hole. He cursed loudly as he fell back and caught his head on the edge of the casket, stars spinning in front of his eyes. Blinking them away he heard the sound of people stumbling about in the church. He cursed again, jumping out of the pit in a second. Fear can do amazing things to you.

He left the shovel down the pit as he began to kick the dirt into the empty darkness, filling it in as best he could before grabbing the sack with the body in it and dashing away with loud yells following him. He darted out of the cemetery, hearing the sound of quick footsteps behind him. Not now he groaned to himself not on me last one. He promised me no more diggin’ after tonight. Said he had what he needs. His feet flapped ungainly as he panted across the streets, taking dark alleys and toppling the odd woodpile to block the way. He had to slow them down, he was carrying a full-grown girl and that dash had tired him. The alleys were damp and smoky; fog was hanging low. He dashed among the red brick houses until he saw the familiar glow of Mr. Cropley’s windows. Pulling the sack up higher he dashed across the street, only taking time to read, “Arthur Cropley, Doctor” on the door before starting to knock as hard he could with his knee.
The door opened in a flash and a pair of mighty hands grabbed Jeremy round the collar and pulled him into the warmth of the room. Jeremy stumbled and almost dropped the body. “Stupid boy, don’t get yourself caught I told you” Cropley growled, grabbing the sack from his hands and dropping it on the floor unceremoniously.
Jeremy winced “Bugger orf” he groaned, rubbing his neck “I got you your lot. Where’s me pay?”

Cropley just grinned; a grin that made Jeremy nervous. He shifted slightly, Mr. Cropley couldn’t throw him out on his ear incase he squealed. Jeremy suddenly felt very frightened. He was thin and young, stronger than some boys his age but Cropley could pin him with one hand. He looked up at the giant of a man, just over six foot with muscles that made you think of him sawing your leg off without needing anyone else to hold you down. Jeremy gulped but Mr. Cropley just kept smiling. Without a word Cropley picked up the sack with the girl inside and retreated into his back room. Jeremy slumped down, nothing to do but wait. He stared at where Cropley had disappeared too; he was a mad old coot. He’d lost his wife, Florence, and daughter, Mary, to the plague and had become a doctor after that to try and find a cure. One thing that unnerved people is that he never really said a cure for what since the plague had been dealt with six months after they’d died. It was around that time Mr. Cropley had started asking Jeremy for bodies as well, always-clean ones that hadn’t died of anything nasty. Jeremy leant back and let out a tired sigh, he remembered Mary. She was nice, kind… she had kissed him once at Christmas. With a smile on his lips at the memory of the kiss he drifted off. Actually it was more like the sand man had been getting impatient and hit him with a tree branch but it was sleep nonetheless.

He was woken just as abruptly the next morning, falling off his chair as Cropley yelled into his ear. “Wake up you lazy boy” Mr. Cropley sighed as he tugged Jeremy by the collar again and choked him.
Jeremy struggled to his feet and rubbed his neck “Wot?” he grumbled. Cropley just grinned widely and tugged at Jeremy “Got something to show you boy.”
Puzzled but intrigued Jeremy followed Mr. Cropley into the back room, he’d never been back here before. He’d seen innumerable people disappear back here, usually dead, but no one had ever said what was back there. The moment Jeremy did step into the room he knew why. He was surrounded on all sides by flashing bulbs and whirring machines. His jaw bounced off his chest. This single room must have been decades a head of the city, hell the country wasn’t this advanced. Mr. Cropley laughed as Jeremy gawped at the machines “Like my little hobby do you? I’ve been waiting for this day Jeremy, waiting a long time.” Jeremy spun round, since when did Mr. Cropley call him by his name? All he’d been called before was “boy”, “you” and “him”. Something was up.
Before Jeremy could ask to be excused Cropley was over by a machine, grabbing levers and toggles and pulling them in a dizzying pattern that Jeremy lost track of in seconds. He yelped as cold metal pressed down against the top of his head. He ducked back to see a metal table slowly lowering from the ceiling. Even though a cloth covered whatever was laying on it he could tell it was human. Though he had very little education about certain subjects he knew it was a girl as well. He frowned slightly, watching a trickle of liquid seep down the end of the table, was this what Mr. Cropley had wanted all those bodies for?

Jeremy’s eyes were wide with worry now; Cropley was acting stranger than usual. He gulped “M - Mr. Cropley… I think I should leave,” he stammered.
The moment those words left his lips Cropley’s arm snapped out a yanked a huge lever down, the door which Jeremy had been silently backing towards was blocked as thick metal bars shot across it. “Not now Jeremy, you haven’t seen the best bit yet.”

Jeremy shook his head slightly as a long metal rod began to lower from the ceiling, coming to rest inches from the prone body on the cold table. Cropley grinned toothily and walked over to the largest toggle, a large red one that obviously very important. Jeremy’s ears picked up the faint hum of engines though he had no idea what they were; to him they sounded like the drone of a million bees running over and over again.
Jeremy gulped as electricity crackled down the rod, sparking off it at odd angles to only come striking back into the metal. Jeremy followed the arching and shimmering electricity to the base where it stopped for a second, glowing brightly with it’s own unearthly light. Then with a sharp crack the bolt rent the air in two, slamming into the body underneath. It repeated this again and again, flinging the figure around like a doll.

Finally it stopped, Jeremy’s ears ringing from the cacophony of noise that had barraged him. Blinking several times to rid his eyes of the white balls of light that seemed to burn into them he heard a familiar voice. Only it couldn’t be…
“Daddy?” the whisper called from right in front of Jeremy.
He gulped loudly, his vision clearing as he gazed at the table in front of him. There, alive and awake, was Mary.
He stared at her as Mr. Cropley approached her side; she shifted slightly to see her father and Jeremy noticed large stitches all over her body. She was put together from different people. A wave of nausea rippled threw him like a wave on a slop bucket, this girl; this meat girl. He had helped make her. You shouldn’t mess with life and death. She smiled and held her father’s hand, turning her head slightly at the noise of Jeremy’s footsteps as he slowly backed away.
“Jeremy” she whispered, smiling gently as she recognized him.
Jeremy couldn’t take it any more; in a moment he shut down, falling to his knees out cold. Well he thought as he passed out at least she remembered you.