Oink

I hurry into the med barn to start my shift while trying to be as discreet as possible. Who am I kidding? It’d be impossible to avoid my own mentor for an entire shift. Panacea is one of the most astute people I’ve ever known. Nothing gets past her, especially not when it has to do with me.

“What’s the wrong Chinatsu? You look concerned.”

Panacea! I hesitantly turn around to see her standing behind me.

“I’m not concerned. Why would I be? Hahaha.” I laugh nervously.

“Something’s off. You’ve been my apprentice for five years now. You think I wouldn’t notice?”

“Notice what?”

She repositions her glasses and glares straight into my eyes. Her face only inches away.

“You’ve split ends. You haven’t cut your hair in months. Time to trim”

Phew. I take a sigh of relief. I start preparing for the patients to come by wiping down the beds, chairs, equipment, etc. I need to get my notes and tools back before they fall into the wrong hands; if they haven’t already. Who could it have been? No one in the coop has shown any symptoms or pain in the past few weeks. It could have been stolen for a harvester, or worse; a brownred.

The brownreds are General Romano’s human army he sends when another ranch’s ruler becomes a threat. He will have them combat each other, their own species, to see who the better fighters are so he could strategize. I think he does it for his own amusement. They’re always in need of severe medical care from broken bones to bruised ribcages. They usually have the shortest life expectancies, and not due to being killed by opposing forces, or by the harsh conditions outside the ranch, but by euthanization since the majority of their value is based on their physical capabilities on the battlefield, which is quicker to go with age before knowledge-based skills. Their ability to face death is what keeps them alive.

They’ve also been known to cut deals with other soldiers from enemy ranches by selling them pharmaceuticals exclusive to Romano’s ranch. They’re the reason each vet has to carry their toolkit on themselves at all times. We used to all store our kits here in the med barn, but last year it was raided by rogue brownreds selling to General Pol’s ranch when they were short on supplies.

“Wait a second! There’s something else wrong…” Panacea interjected.

I’m done for.

“What is it?” I ask with the most innocent voice.

“Your toolkit and notes. Where are they?

“I must have forgotten them. They’re probably underneath my bed back at the coop.”

“Well go back and get it; quickly.”

“I have all my notes memorized. And I’m sure I can just borrow a toolkit from one of the other vets. It would be such a waste of time for me to walk all the back over there haha.”

“You’re wasting time now by being lazy and having this conversation with me. This is just like you Chinatsu! After all these years I thought you would have learned to hold yourself accountable. You’re going to make me look bad. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to cover for you, but maybe it should be the last. Maybe another vet should’ve been your mentor cause I clearly haven’t made an impact.”

I’m taken aback by her sudden outburst. How long has she felt like this?

“Of course you have Panacea. More than you know.”

She looked at me forgivingly for just a second.

With my mother gone, Panacea was the closest thing I have to a parent.

“You know the ranchers don’t like to fund us any more than they have to. And out of all the days! All brownred, harvester, and even mammalian appointments have been postponed for the day. A fever has come over General Romano’s son. He declared our entire unit be on standby to care for him until he’s well again.”

“Why would a Meishan shoat need over a hundred humans in the vicinity just for a fever?”

“You know how the General is. I think if any parent had his power and influence, they would do the same thing for their child.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Try not to dwell on it, dear. It doesn’t serve anyone.”

She was right.

“Then how long do we have to prepare until-“

Slam!

The doors of the unit bust open and two breeding technicians come rushing in holding the shoat as if he was made of glass. They set him down on one of the fresh beds I’d just wiped down. The boy hardly looks affected. He’ll definitely make it through, I can tell by just one glimpse at him. Why are the two humans overreacting? They should know just as well as I do that that shoat is going to be fine, yet they’re shivering in fear. You would have thought they were the ones with the fever. That’s when I see a large, shadowy figure approach the doorway the techs just entered from.

“General Romano!” Panacea bows.

I’ve never seen him up close before. He doesn’t like to associate with his humans very often. I’ve heard stories that the other Generals from the enemy ranches are much kinder and compassionate to their humans. Their humans are allowed to live in the same buildings as the mammalians. They share meals with them. I can never imagine the double-chinned, potbellied, bowler hat-wearing menace in front of me ever doing such things. We’re beneath him and always will be.

“What’s with the dramatic entrance?” I ask with a smirk.

Panacea stares at me wide-eyed in fear.

I shrink back realizing how awful I am at biting my tongue.

Romano slowly walks into the room tapping his gold, engraved cane onto the freshly polished wooden floors with each step without saying a word.

“I apologize, General, this is the first time my apprentice has been in the presence of a mammalian of your ranking.”

He steps to me as Panacea watches in terror. He eyes me up and down, his moist snout nearly touching my cheek. I can feel his hot breath as he breathes heavily, sounding as if he’s struggling to carry his own weight. He grunts and turns his back to me.

“Do we share the same anatomy?”

“Excuse me?” I can’t hide how caught off guard I am by his question.

“In the old-world, you humans would call each other ‘long pig’ when you’d devour one another; like some joke. It’s recorded in outdated travelogues of islands that no longer exist. They said your… meat and skin were most alike ours compared to any other mammalian. But tell me, does that make you a mammalian?”

“… No …?”

“You don’t sound sure.”

“No sir.”

“Do you know what tail docking was?”

I shake my head no, afraid to speak any more than I already have.

“When your Neanderthal ancestors confined mine in overcapacity concrete slats, the psychological effects of those conditions led us swine to bite each other’s tails off; cannibalism. Despite your loose tongue, you seem like an intelligent human. What would be your solution in this situation?”

I looked to Panacea for an answer. However, she kept her eyes to the floor as she remained in her bowing position.

“Um, not confine them?”

“They tried every solution, except that; housing them in dirt lots with more space, tails were trimmed with side-cutting pliers on the first day of life when the piglets were perceived to experience minimal pain. They took note that the pigs with their tails intact suffered from gnarly wounds afflicted from their own species. Still, the cannibalism continued. For centuries, this occurrence was still poorly understood and unpredictable to humans. Yet, we were still left in their care because we had no choice in the matter. By a twist of fate, a change of destiny, now we do.”

He turned to face me once more.

“You have no choice in this matter. Unlearn your arrogant human ways. How can you expect to understand completely the workings of a body you’ve never even lived in? Maybe in the next life, you’ll experience what it’s like to be one of us, only you may not remember to regret this life.”

He turns and begins walking towards the exit. He’s almost gone Chinatsu, I think to myself, just be quiet and do your job!

“If we humans are so unqualified to care for the mammalians, why don’t your own species study medicine and practice on yourselves?”

He pauses mid-step, turning his head to the side to speak one last time.

“If my son dies, you die. I trust it won’t have to come to that.”

He then steps out the door as slowly as he came in, hooking the doorknob with his cane to shut it; leaving me, Panacea, the two breeding technicians paralyzed in disbelief. A few seconds of silence pass.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” Panacea screams in my face.

“I was thinking why this is even our responsibility!”

“I know how much the word ‘responsibility' terrifies you Chinatsu!”

“That’s not what I mean!” I take a deep breath and continue, “Aren’t Ricci’s parents the designated vets for the Romano family? Shouldn’t they be the ones taking care of this mammalian?”

“It isn’t our place to question.”

I scoff and take a closer look into the shoat’s deep-set little eyes. His eyes almost seem… human. I put my hand to his head and neck. No fever.

“He doesn’t even have a fever. Are we just supposed to wait a few days and pretend we healed him of something he isn’t even suffering from? Are you sure it isn’t the General who has the fever? Or is he just delusional? I’m going down to the triage to treat patients who actually need it.”

As I head towards the exit, I feel Panacea’s hand grip my wrist firmly.

“No, you’re not. You’re staying right here where I can keep my eyes on you!”

I begrudgingly sit on the stool by the baby’s bedside and stare, waiting to see some sign that would prove me wrong. I may still be an apprentice, but I’m not crazy.

Panacea and the techs talk amongst each other and start running countless tests on the shoat. Growing bored I stare out the window watching all the workers actually doing useful work, it seems like hours pass when all of a sudden…

Rio!

I see her approach the cellar doors behind a brownreds building. Before entering, she checks her surroundings left and right to see if anyone is watching her. I am. You’re losing your touch Rio. She then leaps and disappears into the basement’s darkness.

I hop up out of my chair and make a break for the exit in an effort to catch up with her before I lose track of her… again. That’s when Panacea jumps in my path directly in front of me with the most disapproving expression you can imagine.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing? You’ve been sitting around all day. Why don’t you make yourself useful and-“

“You told me earlier to go back to my coop and find my toolkit, remember?”

She contemplates, and then realizes I’m right.

“Fine. Head straight there, find your kit, then come straight back. Can you manage to listen to me for once?”

Before she finishes her sentence, I am halfway out of the exit.

“I’ll do my best I promise!” I shout as I dart out onto the field.

I can’t believe I managed to escape!

I begin to slow my pace as to not draw any more attention to myself as I approach the cellar doors. I look to both sides of me to see if anyone is watching. There’s no one from what I can see, but as I stated earlier – the mammalians are always watching. I fearfully open the doors as fast as humanly possible. I hop down and pull the doors behind me.

As I swipe the dirt and mud that splattered onto me from the leap off of my uniform, I look up. I see Rio along with numerous others staring at me. No one says a word.

“Are you guys having a party?” I ask jokingly when I feel a thump over my head and see stars, then nothing.

After who knows how long, I become conscious and realize I’m tied to a chair with a cloth stuffed in my mouth. I try to cough it out but fail. My vision still fuzzy, I make out Rio’s face as she comes closer into view with her arms crossed. She snatches the cloth out of my mouth leaving a strange, earthy taste on my tongue.

“What’s going on?” I ask

“Why are you here Chinatsu?”

“Ricci told me you’ve been skipping meals. As a health professional-

“You’re still an apprentice.”

“As a friend then, I’m concerned.”

“You should’ve minded your own business. You have for the past five years anyway…”

She does hate me.

“You still haven’t explained to me what’s going on Rio.”

“Because I don’t owe you an explanation!”

She notices the tension between her acquaintances. Some appear to want to defend her; the others look like they want no part of this.

“Give us a minute.” She tells them.

The group disperses into another section of the basement. Before vanishing, a brownred with a fresh scar over his eye looks untrusting of the whole situation and tells her in his deep, raspy voice as he walks away.

“Deal with this before it gets out of hand Ri.”

He doesn’t take his eyes off me until he’s fully left the room.

“Why did you follow me?” She asks me.

“Well, we haven’t spoken… like, really spoken in a very long time. You look malnourished, I was getting worried and wanted to see if there was something I could do to help.”

“It’s too late for that.”

“Who are these people Rio?”

“You wanna help? Forget you ever saw me or them here. Don’t mention this to Tomo, Ricci, anybody. Me letting you go is already going to make them trust me less, so please, don’t make me regret it.”

I look around at the conditions of the room. Rotting wood from the floors to the ceiling, rusty tools with dried blood crusted on the edges, containers of expired food half-eaten on in the corner, and then I see it.

“My toolkit! What’s it doing here?”

She looks down and kicks it lightly behind a table no longer in my sight.

“Koshi needed his eye treated. He lost his third fight in a row with another brownred, and for some reason, your unit wasn’t treating anyone today, even for emergencies. He might’ve lost that eye if I hadn’t done something.”

Koshi must’ve been the brownred with the eye scar. No wonder he seemed protective of her, she seems to be protective of him as well. All because of the General’s not sick son, he had to suffer.

“It was you, you took it, but how? How did you manage to sneak into the med coop's feeding mill undetected and take my kit without me noticing?”

“I didn’t take it per se. It was someone in your unit; I won’t say who, but they’re helping us. They took it.”

“Why mine, specifically? To get back at me for something?”

“I’m told you have these wild nightmares that are really hard to wake you from. It was just convenient.”

“Yeah, it was… Can I go now?”

She sighed and walked behind me, unknotting the ropes binding me to the chair.

I sit up and try to gain my balance back. I walk over to the table and pick up my kit off from the floor.

“Do you still need this?”

“We’re gonna need a lot more than that. But go ahead, I’m sure you need it way more than the people here.”

I hate the tone in her voice, but I can’t return to the med barn without it if I want to survive Panacea’s wrath and keep my position as her apprentice.

“I’m sorry.” Is all I can say as I walk towards the cellar doors to leave.

“Before you go,” She says, “you really need to trim those split ends.”

Seriously?! I can’t believe she won’t give me an explanation as to what’s going on. When we were humanlets, we never kept any secrets from each other. What changed?

Oh right, Panacea making the decision to train a harvester as a veterinarian is unheard of. My life could’ve been completely different if she hadn’t. It could have been much worse, but maybe, Rio and I would have stayed friends. I’m still so grateful to Panacea and owe her so much. I need to get back to her A.S.A.P.

I listen out to make sure no one is waiting on the other side of the doors, and slowly push them upwards. Streaks of sun come in, and I peek around one last time before climbing out of the darkness. I shut the doors behind me and begin walking back towards the med barn.

I start to feel like everyone’s eyes are on me, like they know I know something strange is going on. But I don’t know what’s going on, at least not yet.

When I finally reach my unit in the med barn, I noticed the door is left slightly open. I push it in slowly, and then see the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

I see the two breeding techs, whose names I never even had the chance to ask, lying on the floor with chunks of their meat appearing to be bitten off. Some limbs, completely removed from their body. Then I see the General’s son on the floor not too far from their bodies with blood dripping from his snout as he oinks.

My jaw drops, when I hear footsteps approach from behind me.

It’s Panacea. Thank goodness she’s alive!

I fling myself into her arms and hug her tightly, sobbing. She sees my facial expression and asks, “What’s wrong now?”

Then she turns to see the same awful scene I saw. She gasps, dropping her clipboard, and dropping to her knees.

About the shoat being normal, I couldn’t have been more wrong.