June 4th, 2080
"We're on easy street / and it feels so sweet
Cuz the world is but a treat / when you're on easy street
And we're breaking out the good champagne ..."
The song stops. It repeats itself in Belle's mind, easy street and it feels so sweet. She fears that it will always sing in her head for the short amount of time they might let her live.
Cuz the world is but a treat ...it repeats in her head.
"Stop the fucking music!" She screams, shaking her head.
"Oh hun, we did stop the music. But we can't stop what's in your head," the woman says.
"Just kill me."
"Later," the woman says.
"Now! Kill me now!" Belle demands, she screams it. The hand cuffs tighten the harder she pulls her wrists from them.
The woman pulls a chair up to the table.
"Do you want to tell me what you know?" She asks, she doesn't bother hiding her smirk. She knows what comes after this question.
"No, no I don't know anything." Belle knows everything the woman wants to know. And they both know that.
The woman has long straight hair pulled into a pony tail, her face looks young with gentle features. But her eyes. Her eyes look like they belong to a hungry animal. Maybe a dog's angry desperate eyes? The woman turns the music on again. The speaker in the corner of the room starts to pulse.
"We're sitting pretty on a gravy train / and when we sing every sweet refrain repeats/ right here on easy street..."
"Belle, I wonder how many times we've played this up-beat song for you. I think it's been about a couple long days without silence...right?"
"It's our moment in the sun / And it's only just begun
It's time to have a little fun / we're inviting you to come..."
"I learned this music trick from an old TV show from the twenty-tens...a show about zombies. Have you seen it?" The woman pauses the music so that Belle can hear her speak. She hovers over Belle, who is strapped to the table. She feels so vulnerable; the woman notices this.
"Zombies like to bite," she says. "They like to eat you alive. Disturbing, I know."
Belle knows where this is going, she knows it will be painful. She knows that there is only one way that she'll be able to stop it.
The woman plays the song again.
"And see why you should be on easy street / yeah we got a front row seat
Oh, to a life that can't be beat / right here on easy street..."
She reaches into her drawstring bag. The things inside are metal and clank together as she rummages.
The speaker plays the instrumental part of the song. A trumpet, drums. The beat goes up and down as if its being played by an excited marching band.
The woman pulls up a metal tool from the drawstring bag. She smiles at Belle. The tool looks like a tong. A sharp tong. It is the size of her hand and small jagged edges are carved into the tip of the tool, like teeth.
"What did I say a moment ago?" She asks Belle, she rests the tool on her bare stomach. Belle shakes from the cold air in the room, not from fear. She is good at hiding her fear from this woman. Belle wishes that she could at least have her clothes back. It's the small torments that Belle can't take her focus from.
"Something about zombies," Belle says, finishing with a gulp.
"Ah yes, zombies. I'm going to show you what it feels like to be eaten alive." The woman drags the tool across Belle's stomach, the cold metal sends a shiver down her spine. "Unless you would like to tell me where the rest of the Girl Gang is...?"
"I don't know," Belle says, meeting the woman's wicked eyes.
"We both know you are lying, Belle."
The woman holds the tool straight up and down, aiming for Belle's abdomen. The sharp teeth already start to dig into her skin. It is cold but her blood warms the metal as they make contact.
"It's our moment in the sun / And it's only just begun
It's time to have a little fun / we're inviting you to come
And see why you should be / on easy street..."
"Where are the bitches?" The woman asks, holding the sharp tool in Belle's skin.
"I don't know," Belle says through clenched teeth.
"Yeah, we got a front row seat / Oh, to a life that can't be beat / Right here on easy street..."
The woman clenches the sharp tongs, making them pinch Belle's skin. Belle dares to look down at her stomach, blood drips off her sides and stain the wooden table. The blood pools in the crevasses of the wood. The woman notices the pain in Belle's face and pinches the tongs deeper into her skin.
"Cuz the world is but a treat when you're on easy street / Cuz the world is but a treat when you're on easy street."
The song ends, a subtle relief fills Belle, only to have that replaced my the sound of the song starting over again.
"Where are the other bitches?" The woman asks again. Belle says nothing. She is tired of answering. The woman gladly pinches Belle's skin until Belle was sure she would start to rip it off. This really does feel like getting eaten alive.
The woman suddenly removes the bloody tongs from Belle's skin. She shoves it into her drawstring bag, then pulls out a small box. She opens it, taking out a needle and thread.
"And we're breaking out the good champagne / we're sitting pretty on the gravy train..."
The woman wipes away the oozing blood from Belle's stomach with a filthy rag. She threads the needle. She hums lightly to the rhythm of the song. Slowly, very slowly, she pushes the needle through Belle's skin around the distorted cut. Stitching it up so that she won't bleed to death.
"And when we sing every sweet refrain repeats / right here on easy street..."
YOU ARE READING
Earth Can't Hold Us All
Science FictionSome decades from where we are now, our world and our society raise to its peak of success. We have the best medical facilities and cures for the common and uncommon sicknesses and diseases. America's future president keeps the country distant from...
