Running from Wolves | Sally Face

Chapter 6: False Meat

The cafeteria was especially busy today, but not from the excitement of good food. It was 'Bologna Day' the apparently most hated day of the week and it wasn't even a Monday.

I was sitting at the lunch table with the others, a rare event as the cafeteria was normally too overwhelming for me, opting for the courtyard instead. Sal, who had noticed my discomfort during a previous lunch period offered me a pair of headphones to help muffle the sound, understanding of my sensory issues.

Since then I've worn them each lunch period, the soft leather padding cushioning my ears and dampening the noise considerably to my great relief. And I was still able to hear conversations between my friends to boot.

The only downside was my olfactory senses were still working in overdrive. It was to the point that I started microdosing nausea pills just to get through the day.

Today though, was the absolute fucking worst.

The strong smell of milk, curdling til it was near butter and the strong accent of hay was enough to make me gag. But the combination with the bologna had me gripping the table so hard my knuckles were turning white.

There was something wrong with the bologna.

At first I chalked it up to it being processed mystery meat, no different from the shit sold at every supermarket's deli counter. But once the clattering of trays began, my friends each having one weeping sandwich placed onto theirs, I really started to notice the smell.

It was different from the normal bologna smell, almost sickeningly... Sweet. The meat was juicier than any bologna I've ever seen, staining the hard white bread a light pink as it bled through. Bleeding.

Yes it was bleeding. Diluted sure, but I knew blood when I saw it. This was a raw meat, un-prepped if last week's sick students were anything to go by. My rational brain knew there was something sickening about the way meat was prepared, but something darker in me churned in delight at the smell, nearly salivating from it.

Clenching my jaw until I heard a pop, I screwed my eyes shut, willing it away back towards its prison. I started my breathing techniques, refusing to focus on what I was smelling and more on the act of manually breathing. As I counted in my head a sharp clatter made me jolt, bringing me back to reality. Larry had slammed his tray down across from me in disgust.

"This shit is fucking disgusting." To illustrate his point he picked up the sandwich with two fingers, making a show of the meat slowly oozing out before landing onto the tray with a wet plop.

Ash covered her mouth with her hand, eyes watering. "Please tell me you guys think this smells weird too?"

After poking his sandwich with a fork Todd sighed "I thought last week's seemed a little off-putting but it seems to be worse this week." He leaned back, placing the fork on his tray before moving it away from himself.

"I heard some of the kids say it's made from goat meat." Larry added, his face scrunched in disgust.

Sal, who sat next to me across from Ash, had undone the bottom buckle of his mask, he had not touched the sandwich and instead was eating spoonfuls of applesauce. After a beat he spoke up, "Didn't some students call out sick last week the day after Bologna Day? Surely that can't be a coincidence."

I shook my head, "It's definitely not goat, for one goat is actually good. This shit is just... Raw." I held my sleeve to my nose, inhaling the body spray that seeped into the fabric instead of the putrid cafeteria stench.

Todd leaned his body forward, peeking past Ash to regard me, dark brown eyes meeting mine. "How exactly can you tell?" I rolled my lip between my teeth, then held out my hand to gesture for his tray. He slid it towards me and I moved it in front of me, the others looking curiously.