Wherewithat

Marthi Flaardvoorst hung around the fleischmeisterin cubicles of the 5th Hospitality Commune, trying to second-guess the wild dogs that ran with fresh entrails through the lavender garden.

He hadn't eaten irradiated food for over a week. His body was already developing the tell-tale sores and ulcers of an infected specimen. Flaardvoorst was getting beyond desperation. A number of times he had resorted to consuming the raw salad leaves and water that he had found wild in the outland areas.

The scar where he had cut out the chip from his upper arm was an open sore. It had never really healed. He had been working away at the flesh for days or even weeks. He couldn't remember as, without the chip, he had no real reference.

The slow degradation of his body without an irradiated diet was a painful and nauseating prospect, but the prospect of discovery and reintroduction was a more debilitating one.

He had heard of outrunners being reintroduced, but it was always anecdotal. No outrunners had ever met any of their reintroduced fellows. It stood to reason. The stories were not happy ones. Returnees were usually blanked. They would never recognise themselves. Someone once described it as reincarnation - you would never be aware of your former self. Flaardvoorst wasn't all that hot on reincarnation, but sort of understood enough to be very wary of capture.

The commotion of the wild dogs was both a blessing and a curse. The fleischmeisterin had grown accustomed to losing the unusable offal to the nocturnal visitors, which saved them from coming into direct contact with a likely source of infection. But the deadly fights over spoils occasionally brought the lights on in the waste area, which were likely to illuminate an outrunner.

Flaardvoorst kept close to the shining stainless steel bulk of the plant to avoid exposure should the lights come on and looked for an opportunity to seize a length of intestine or more prized organ, deemed unfit to irradiate. Under the raised sections of the plant, he was aware of the presence of other outrunners.

© Copyright Kevin Buckle 2012