Faceless

Period 6: Canteen Food

"Oh dear! 476, you don't look good at all! You look so pale, like the corpse of a man that got the blood sucked out of his veins painfully! What happened!?" 006 bombarded me with words that were too energetic for my tired body. I had just gotten back from being fed with IV's and getting basic medical attention by other slaves.

"I did overtime... It was terrible work..." I replied. I didn't want to talk. That had been my original intentions, but I was exhausted. Every bone in my body ached and all I wanted to do was sleep. Don't even get me started on the mental fatigue, mental fatigue is way more intense and serious than people take it to be. How did 006 have all this energy when she had been working as long as me? I mean, she had been doing this for a year and I had only just started, but a 14 hour work day isn't the kind of thing you can just pounce from without rest so easily no matter how much experience you had. Obviously it was fake, everything about her cheerfulness was, how could you be happy in a place that tore your face off? But still... How did she have enough energy to fake it so well?

"Oh no... What kind of work? You weren't ordered to kill someone, were you?"

"I was... Eva Brookes was her name, she was a divine that went to the 4th floor. She looked about year 13. It's such a shame that she managed to live all that time just to get killed at the very end..."

"You had to kill someone on your first day!? That's awful! They're getting harsher by the second... It really is a shame, this would have been Eva's last year before graduating and being free from this hellhole forever! Ah... Really a shame..." I looked into 006's face, and while genuinely pitying the girl, she also seemed to have some kind of... insane and sadistic wishes about it, like she wanted to see it happen. Much like the way I felt after I watched her die.

"Ugh... I'm exhausted, but I have so much I want to talk about..." I complained.

"Don't worry, tomorrow is Saturday, work is easier because no Divines are here harassing you!".

Yeah.... At least I had that going for me...

The next 2 days were also quite tiring, but not as tiring as the first day. It got slightly easier as time went on, but I still had to keep sleeping in all my free time because of fatigue, and because of that I didn't get the chance to discuss escape plans with 006 or any people with a yellow badge. I got to have my first shower in a long time, it was very uncomfortable. The water was cold, the soap was gritty and it was a collective shower, I was showering in front of tons of other naked girls, and I felt uncomfortable being around all those people. It was worth it though, I really needed a shower. People underestimate how good it feels to be clean, I cried from happiness despite how terrible it was, because it was the best I had felt all week.

Eventually, Monday rolled around and I had to get insulted by all the divines again. One even spat in my face! That day I had been instructed to work in the school's canteen. It smelled and looked terrible, was it even real food? Everything about this school was so cheap, it was run down, the uniforms I could see where already shrinking and/or stretching, the food clearly disgusted everybody, and these are divines we are talking about! I'd understand if it was for the slaves, but they didn't even scrounge the extra pennies to give them a good school life! I felt bad serving this sludge to them.

The food that disgusted me the most though was the stew... and not just because the gravy was sloppy, discoloured and chunky, but because it was the only dish with meat in it. Many people glanced at it and heaved, we all knew exactly what it was, who it was made from. I wouldn't be surprised if Eva was in that stew, or maybe a bit of me. People avoided and were scared of the stew, and opted for vegetarian options. But we were all curious about it, that was obvious, I was too.

Some people caved to the temptation and took a small portion of stew, with a face that made it obvious that they knew they would regret it. Minutes later, the 3 people I saw eat it were rushing to a bin to throw up in. It stank. I couldn't blame them for vomiting knowing what they had just eaten.

Eventually, that torture was over, and I was out of the steamy, sweaty kitchen, and in my own bed again. It felt like a pile of bricks and the duvet did not insulate me and gave me a rash, but the bed was mine, and very comforting. Honestly, I was surprised they even bothered to give slaves a bed at all.