Read The Platform for Free Online

Jem.”
                  I end up guarding the main entrance while the
three of them take the dead away. I am thinking of Jem and I shake my head,
waiting for the bastards to try again. It isn’t long. I hear the main wheel
begin to turn and I crouch in the dark, trigger ready, holding my breath. The
door slowly opens, the wind immediately rips down the corridor in a long scream
before blasting everywhere with its acid taste and sting to the eyes. I pause,
unseen, cautiously watching them as they enter, not even knowing I am there.
Until I open up with the machine gun. Fire spews from the barrel, bucking hot
in my hands, and I carve into them. They have no time to react, instead they
jerk and dance like severed string puppets, erupting into slivers of flesh and
gluts of blood as they scream, too late. There are three of them; in seconds
they are sliced from life into the long dark roadway of death. They clatter and
fall inside, jamming the door open, and I see on the deck a couple of figures
running, and throw a few shots their way – more in hope than anything else. I
drag the dead inside, and doubt they will bother trying this way again. So it
will be stalemate for a while, I guess. No problem.

 
                                                                            *

 
                  I curse the fact they killed Illen as I hack
the meat to the bone and carve it free. I have no idea how to cook – and
certainly not a stew; instead, I just toss pieces into a skillet and fry them
up.           It’s from the arm, and I
didn’t bother to remove the hairs; instead, I just watch them blacken and curl
in the pan. Why I ended up with this, I don’t know. I am sweating and
struggling, trying not to burn the flesh to ashes as I stir it around. Probably
because I got out of moving the bodies. I am cooking Juken, having been so
pleased to hear of his demise. I started with the arms as that seemed the
easiest place to cut.
                 “How’s it going?” Cora comes into the
kitchen.
                 “I don’t know,” I say.
                 “You need to turn the heat down a
little,” she says.
                  “Didn’t know you could cook,” I reply.
                 “I can’t. But can see it’s burning,”
she retorts.
                  I shrug and turn the heat down. The meat stops
sticking to the pan at least. It smells okay once the smoke dies away and I
keep turning it over, watching the muscle and skin brown, the blood boiling in
the oil.
                  “How do you know when it’s done?” she asks
over my shoulder.
                 “I don’t, I just guess.” It looks
hot, sort of cooked, and with one of the large knives I hack off a stringy-looking
piece and taste it. It’s not bad, I think. Not as good as Illen’s stew, but
when you are hungry, anything is better than nothing, I tell myself. Except for
Helst, that is. I don’t know how he keeps going, at least if he is weaker,
perhaps he will not be so dangerous to me.
                  “…I suppose.” Cora has been speaking and I
didn’t notice.
                  “What?”
                  “I said we attack them tonight, I suppose.”
                  “Yes, well, they won’t try here again, so we
have to.”
                 “Why can’t we just stay here and wait
for them? They will want food sooner or later.”
                  “Yeah, but they have the control room. If
they’re smart, they will be working on how to power down the web on our side,
maybe look for a way to override the lower supply doors –anything. We have to
finish them.” I start carving out portions of food, initially five, before remembering
that Jem isn’t here anymore and Helst won’t eat. Again, I silently curse