~*~..TraPPeD..~*~




I flinch under the shock of an electrode and my mind winds back to the days I spent dwelling among fiery heat and spitting oil, tormented by the sickening stench of death. My ears were constantly violated by the sounds of carcasses being fried for human consumption. An enthusiastic supporter of animals rights and a vegetarian, I unsuccessfully attempted indifference in my tiny box spending hours just staring at the peeling white paint in my surroundings. Hours just spent dreaming of all life living i harmony in the perfect world. Practise for now.

With the slide of a lock, the sound of seemingly eternal hatred, the warning of oncoming torture, that hot little hell of mine was shattered by the bark of the tyrant. She swung the door wide to enable her to heave her sweaty lump of a body inside. She ranged herself into position opposite me, hands on the flabby folds covering her hips, eyes peering loathingly from the beady cavities perched on her pig face.

She was raving now, like a mad scientist, I paid little attention. She ended her fiery explosion by a hard slap of her fat hand across my pale cheek. “Worthless.” She muttered and wobbled out, sliding the lock behind her.

I did not long then for freedom, outside I was as isolated as I was inside. Beyond my enclosure lay an almost deserted town in the harshness of rural Queensland. Deserted except for the cruel working men, their punching-bag wives and their foul-mouthed gutter-trash children. They bore little compassion and were merciless toward outsiders like myself. In my dislike there was empathy, for I too had harboured their false sense of security in familiarity. The security that led me to believe that I did ot exist alone and that I had worth.

I was bored, then human interaction was welcomed as relief for my loneliness. Desperate to find something to focus my attention toward, I turned and flung open the door to a cold room. I gazed at the blood-drenched chunks of meat encased in the sanitary plastic. My eyes brimmed with tears as I pondered the life that had been stolen. A life that ‘quite possibly’ I thought, ‘had family and friends’.

“Mooooooooooooooooooooooo . . . “

A low moan fell on my ears. My eyes widened as the cool mist on the floor gathered into shape before me. A transparent cow was floating in front of me. My heart almost ceased to beat in my chest, the beast projected an intense hatred toward the human ace.

Her mouth opened and her long tongue lolled out, it stretched toward my throat. I screamed, vainly, those beyond the door cared not for me. I felt the wet muscle squirm its way around my throat and constrict, crushing my windpipe and draining the life rom my body.

“Please, its them in debt to you, not me,” I screamed at her in my mind. I felt the tongue relax its fatal grasp and a stone cold emotion fill my head.

“Destroy them and you will be free.”

The cow faded into the menacing shadows and I stood alone in the coldroom.

Now I had always hated society’s cruelty, not as much as now - true, but as I raced from that coldroom I had a new found ambition to destroy this cancerous evil. I was thoroughly determined to rip the firmly embedded claws from the minds of the majority help the cow, its family and friends, prevent the human suffering that would occur in the inevitble dead cow revolution.

I smashed against my imprisioning lock relentlessly with some unidentified block of metal that I had found on the floor. The lock was rusted and old and gave easily under the pressure. I pushed open my door, a metaphor for my fears. I entered the great beyond, a sea of stone faces and an atmosphere of hate.

I moved free and methodically toward a glass box that clung to a nearby surface. I smashed the glass with my right fist, the shards splintering needles in my arm and pulled the emergency axe from its holder.

I brandished the axe high above my head and ran at them. My previously disregarded bleeding arm gave way and the axe dropped pathetically to the ground, my knees fell with it. I dragged my eyes upward as fear tore holes in my soul. My raised face was reeted with gap-toothed smiles that caused heart-renching terror.

They merged forward with outstretched arms. The biggest most ape of them all clasped me by the shoulders and hoisted me to my feet where he proceeded to blow rotten beer-soaked breath into my face.

“Tryin’ to murda us all?” he rasped through his tobacco eroded throat. He gave me a shake.

“The cow . . . “ I breathed, “You all must die, I must destroy you . . . a revolt against their indignity, your cruelty and torture.”

“Oh yeah?” With that sneer I was tossed into a corner, bones broken and vital organs damaged. My vegan body was soft from lack of calcium and iron.

I puffed incoherently through my thick barrier of pain, while the cruel faces leered menacingly. I dragged a couple of sentences from my lips.

“The cow in the freezer . . . I must kill or she’ll kill me”.

“Cow in the freezer?” The ape man responded in amazement. He trudged off in the direction of the cold room.

I leant back against the wall and watched my blood flow, contented now, the cow will finish them off. As I was beginning to close my eyes in satisfaction I sensed the approaching danger and snapped them open instantaneously. Above me towered the ape man , holding part of the cow encased in plastic.

“Open wide vegie, here’s your cow!” he hissed wrenching open my jaws and emptied the contents of the plastic package inside my mouth.

I tried to resist but as I stared at their faces, full of malicious intent I made the decision to fight for their acceptance. I chewed and swallowed without a grimace. The room exploded into raucous laughter, I think it was then that I passed out.
Through the darkness I sensed the incredible power. I struggled to pull myself from the groggy nothingness. I felt a weightlessness, I felt myself fly then I felt the cold. It seeped into my skin, ccooling my bleeding wounds. I felt so at peace, yet he incredible evil-powered force did not leave my side.

Through my closed eyelids, from my minds eye, I saw that powerful cow. There was a portion of flesh missing from her shoulder, it was in my stomach. My stomach moved then with chronic unrest whilst she stared at me with hatred and watched me die.

Whether it was the cold or my fatal injuried, my heart ceased to beat around an hour later.

I was taken to a dark, warm, moist and loving place. I cherish the time that I spent in utero, protected, loved and the one time that I have felt peace in my life.

Behind the bars in my little cage I shake as I relive those memories. I begin to wonder whatever happenned to that cow, I suppose she has been eaten now. I am thoughtful as I chew on some lettuce, whiskers twitching.

I’d rather still be working for mum, cooking in our family steakhouse. I have been born into the life of a lab rabbit and I am now experiencing first hand the cruelty humans are capable of.

The lock on my cage is beginning to slide open. Oh god! I want to die, but with my luck next time I may be an ugly cane toad, hunted by feral kids with hockey sticks.