The Knife Machine.

Inside the hatchery

I woke up and it was dark although, somehow I could see. My throat felt dry and my mouth tasted oily and disgusting, like I had been eating batteries. I was in a room, a claustrophobic cuboid, barely big enough for me to fit in it. My face was aching around my forehead and the lower section of my spine felt like it had been torn and bitten to pieces by angry animals then sewn back together again. The walls were made out of dark navy metal substance which was cold to the touch.
A warm whiring surrounded me and after swooning in dizziness for a few minutes, I realised that I was moving in some kind of elevator, at a speed I could barely even feel. My jaw was hanging open and I was lying in a uncomfortable paralysed position. In a moment of sudden realisation and panic, I jumped up violently, without thinking, and hit my head hard on the roof of the elevator. A strong shooting pain shot from the top of my head and down the front of my snout ending with a lingering bruised sensation around my face. I had to lean in a very uncomfortable position so as not to hit my head again, eventually, I gave up this method and lied down with my back against the wall with rest of my body laying in front of me.
It was at this point I started to notice exactly what situation I was in with confused observations. My fur was dark bronze with a pure white streak ranging down from my neck, over my stomach and curving round the puffed fur at the tip of my tail. Spirals of red flickered down from my back and disappeared into the white streak. They unpredictably danced in twirling lines around my waist and to my paw before fading into the hazel splodges surrounding my paw pads, curving off into little tornadoes now and again.

My head was still aching from bumping it on the roof and my lower spine was too sore to move. The elevator was not a very comfortable area, and I had no idea where I was or how high or low I was. The first thing on my mind was getting out, didn't care where, just somewhere. To my satisfaction The pain in my spine was getting better, as if I had been sleeping in an awkward position for a long, long time. The light coming from my eyes was the only means of light in the compact room, casting a dim purple-pink on the close, metal walls. It wasn't natural. Yet, it felt ok, like it belonged there and was not a problem at all. The elevator had been moving for a good ten minutes and was showing no signs of stopping, the mechanical wiring staying strong and never changing. I was starting to be able to make out little voices and tunes in the repetitive noises. I really was starting to question where I was.
Although I practically couldn't remember a thing, the basics were all there. Who I was, what I was and what was out of place. At the moment, everything felt normal, even though I knew it wasn't.

I sat there in silence, the small, confined space did not bother me and heat of the room was all together bearable. Minutes passed and nothing in the room changed, everything repeated. That was until I heard a rattling robotic screech, it sounded angry and bossy, very raspy and dry, like some kind of lion with a very bad throat infection. It was distant, a harsh reminder that I wasn't going to be in this elevator forever and there was probably a place down below me, a place that I was heading to. It did not take me long to notice other noises among the repetitive whiring of the small elevator that I was in. Creaking, what seemed like other elevators whiring, animatronic coughs and barks coming from below me. The barks got closer and closer until they sounded just a few tens of meters below me.

There was an ear splitting crack of machinery and the elevator suddenly stopped.

It stood still for a few seconds, mechanics cried from below my feet, it was as if they were talking to each other. There was another screech as the elevator dropped, a great deal faster than it was going earlier, you could feel the speed. This only went on for a minute before, to my absolute dismay, the elevator made a very sudden stop sending my head hard into the roof. The soreness went much more further around my head causing me to let out a sharp yelp of pain. I fell bitterly to the floor, not knowing what to expect. I felt completely ignorant. A harsh bright like hit my eyes like razor blades as navy wall of the compartment opened, for a moment it just looked like a blinding light was being shined  straight into my eyes until it dimmed and darkness fell around my back.