I wake early in the morning to the sound of the bells going off. First shift has just gotten back. I crawl from my worm bed to be greeted by the green light that never stops shinning here, in this god awful place. Only the poorest o9f the poor come to work here. All of the people on my team of grads are men. Women normally chose to be time pleasers, where they are safe at all times, and never cold and wet. Only the women with the purest souls come here. I would rather risk my life here than die an unpure woman. I place my refigure symbols around my neck, and whisper my prayers as I put on my has-mat suet. “May the gods take my soul if I die today.” I say it over and over. I look and see a new boy on my team. He looks at me. “Hi, I’m ...”
“I know,” I say cutting him off, “A word of advice, stay close by the gates and never speak the names of the lost, it only provokes them.” I say gravely. He nodes and understands. Our team leader unlocks the gate and we walk in, and duck under the caution tape. It too glows green, everything here does.
We separate and take positions. As I walk I catalog everything in my quadrant. Nothing can leave this place, not even the workers; we only get to leave in boxes. This is an off limits place. Has been for decades, and so it has been forgotten by all who don’t work here, grading its secrets. I walk down the rows of widely staked objects.
Tables, chairs, desks, and cabinets staked every which way. Files long forgotten in there still locked filing cabinets. Then I see it, two glowing beady eyes from between a stack of chairs. I hear the howl, its calling for the rest of them.
“Oh gods save me!” I cry! I look wildly around for something to fight them off with. Nothing. I see one leap out and the world slows down. It’s a woman, well sort of. It is women ish. Tall and curvy, covered in scales. Bright green eyes and awful fangs. A victim of the militaries experiment gone wrong. I hear a high pitched scream that turns my blood cold and know that it’s my own. I turn and run and the things are right behind me. I have to reach the gate. My shift is almost over if I can make it I will live. I run faster than I have ever run before. Closer and closer I can see the gate. I run just as it is closed. Why? We have three minutes left the warning blast is just now being fired. “Open the gate! Open the gate!” I franticly scream. I hit it full speed and am nearly knocked out.
“I’m sorry,” my commander says.
“Open the gate there right behind me.” I am sobbing
“They have to eat. They’re our solders now. And you’re their meal. We’ll get your bones tomorrow and give you a proper funeral.” He said this like it was some sort of honor and not a horror.
“But I’m your team mate!” I sob.
“You’re just a girl; you are the only girl on this job ever! You should have never come.”
I can’t believe this, oh gods help me. I see them closing in. I start to climb the fences. I climb like mad women. Finding any way to get out. One grabs my foot and I kick it off. I’m at the top I jump over, safe. Then I see the gun. The general is pointing a gun at me. “You should have been eaten. Now my solders will go hungry, and some one else will die.”
“T-This is wrong. “ I stammer. He doesn’t care.
The last words I hear are a mix of my own pray and my boss saying “you should have never come.”
“Oh gods take my soul. Any who will take it, it is yours! Oh gods save me! Iceses goddess of weather hears your child, Otar god of the world save me! Niea goddess of mothers and love spare your humble child. Yura god of the afterlife stay with me in this time of need. Oh gods save-” the gun goes off. And I see my body tossed over I am dead and looking down from heaven the gates open and the gods and goddesses welcome there ever faithful child home.