Milk

Catherine woke up in the dark. Her head throbbed. The last thing she could remember, she and her daughter were playing in their front yard. That felt like a hundred years ago. “OLIVIA!!!” She screamed until her throat was raw. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness she could see three dirty walls and row of slimy iron bars in front of her. She was a prisoner.

She clawed at the walls until her fingers were bleeding. Finally, she collapsed in the corner, exhausted. She had so many questions. Catherine clutched the heart-shaped locket hanging around her neck, which contained Olivia’s picture. Olivia had a matching necklace with Catherine’s picture in it. She closed her eyes, morbidly lulled to sleep by the sobs of other women in other cages, likely with their hearts aching for their own lost children.

Suddenly, she woke up to some human-shaped form unlocking and entering her cell. He did look human, but wrong somehow. His eyes were too wide and his arms and legs were too long, which caused him to lumber about awkwardly. “Something in a man suit,” she thought. Without a word, he positioned himself behind her. He mumbled something Catherine couldn’t understand in a voice that sounded more frog than a human. He then kicked her in the back, prompting her to move forward. Catherine turned around to plead with him, but when she looked into his eyes she saw nothing as he kicked her again. She was sobbing so hard she was unable to get to her feet. Then she felt an electric pain shooting from her back and down her leg. He kicked her again and gestured towards the door. Catherine stood, shaky on her feet, and lurched forward.

Catherine passed through the dim corridors, being pushed forward by the electric prod the creature-in-a-man-suit was carrying. She did as she was directed, not wanting to experience the pain of the prod again. Each time she tried to slow down or look around the prod would jab her in the back. What she did see was horrifying. There were scratch marks clawed into the walls and a river of dried blood on the floor. The constant hum of women’s cries could be heard echoing through the hallways. She stuffed the locket into her

Finally, they stopped at a bare room with a lone examination chair in the middle. On top of the chair was a single paper medical gown. Catherine began to remove her clothes, doing her best to hide the locket. The figure then pushed Catherine towards the examination chair. As Catherine got closer to the chair she could see claw marks on the armrests and dried blood on the seat. She sat down and the humanoid pulled out the stirrups and strapped in her feet, along with her hands and torso. Catherine remained motionless, paralyzed with fear. The creature left the room and shut the door. As soon as she heard the latch of the door, Catherine began to struggle and pull with all of her might to get out of the chair. Then she froze. She decided that she would not be able to find Olivia if she was dead, so she decided she would try to cooperate in order to find her daughter.

The door slammed open and Catherine’s thoughts were interrupted. Another humanoid creature entered the room. He lumbered to the counter at the far end of the wall and grabbed a long plastic glove and a long metal tube. Catherine’s heart quickened as she sat in the chair motionless. The figure then lifted her gown and shoved his gloved appendage inside of her, then the metal tube. Catherine gritted her teeth and dug her fingernails into the arm rests of the chair.

In and out of consciousness, Catherine lost track of how long she had been strapped in the chair. Finally, the door opened. Two humanoids came in, warbling their odd language. They saw the fear in Catherine’s eyes and let out laughs which sounded more like croaks. The lumbered over and released the straps. They yelled and prodded and laughed as they pushed her through the blood-stained hallways. She was then taken to a large metal building lined with small cages full of women. Catherine tried to turn back but was met with an electric shock that brought her to her knees.

They walked up and down the rows of cages until they found an empty one. One humanoid kicked and the other hit Catherine in the back with the prod until she crawled into the cage. The floor was concrete and covered in waste. She didn’t want to lay down in it, but since the cage was barely large enough for her to fit into it, she had no choice. She crawled into the cage of filth and lay the side of her face in the mud and feces and thought of her daughter, hoping she was not suffering as she was.

Days turned into weeks and Catherine began to notice her breasts and belly beginning to swell. Unbeknownst to her, she was being fed a combination of antibiotics and hormones to speed up her pregnancy and to keep her alive in such filthy conditions. She still called for her daughter until she was hoarse every day, but she was just one voice of a thousand mothers calling for their children. Sometimes, Catherine thought she heard Olivia calling back, but she thought it was her imagination.

Laying in filth with no room to move and mourning Olivia was Catherine’s life. It seemed endless. Until one day, they came and dragged Catherine’s pregnant body into a large, circular shaped room with cages around the entire perimeter. They kicked, pushed, and prodded her into one of the chambers, which left her just enough room to stand. One of the creatures appeared in front of her and applied industrial breast pumps to Catherine and flicked a switch. Catherine winced at the painful suction of the pumps, but was only met with expressions of amusement from her captors as they hobbled away.

There Catherine stood night and day, forced to urinate and defecate where she stood in her cage, while her belly grew and her breasts swelled. The pumping never ended, even when she had open sores and pus around her nipples, they still pumped her milk. Still, Catherine could not help but find some joy in the life growing inside of her. With every movement and kick, she began to love her baby. She hummed her baby to sleep while rubbing her belly every night. There, even in that cage, Catherine and her baby formed an unbreakable bond.

A few months later, Catherine was standing in her milking cage when suddenly she felt water trickle down her legs. Her baby was coming. When one of the humanoids saw, they took her out of the milking room and tossed her into a small cell. She thought about how different this was from Olivia’s birth, surrounded by nurses and doctors to care for her. This time, she was alone in a filthy room.

After hours of painful labor and childbirth, Catherine gave birth to a baby boy. She cried as she looked into his eyes and he into hers, the love between them undeniable. Just as she was bringing her baby to her breast to nurse, the cell door opened and two humanoids came in with a wheelbarrow. They leaned in to snatch her baby. Catherine clutched him closer and used her body to block their way. They raised their prods and Catherine curled into a ball and held her baby in her arms to protect him. She began to feel blows from every direction. Still, Catherine clutched her baby. Then they began to use the electric end of the prods, sending lightning bolts of pain throughout Catherine’s body. Eventually, Catherine had no strength left. Covered in bruises and sores, bleeding and exhausted from giving birth, she lay helpless on the floor as they grabbed her newborn baby boy and tossed him into the wheelbarrow. He cried for his mother and she cried for him. Then he was gone.

Catherine lay on the filthy floor and sobbed, clutching her empty belly. Soon, the cell door opened and she was again pushed into the room with the examination chair. She cried and pleaded, but was beaten into submission. Catherine was again forcibly inseminated, had her milk pumped, gave birth, and had her baby stolen, only to have the whole agonizing process begin again. Now, she could not even find joy in the pregnancies, because she knew her babies would be taken from her.

Years passed. Catherine stood in a cage having her breast milk pumped, pregnant, with urine and feces running down her legs and tears falling down her cheeks. The only thing that remained of her past life was the heart-shaped locket that she had managed to keep hidden all this time. She wondered if Olivia still had hers and hoped she was somewhere safe. Catherine clutched the locket and canned the room. There were hundreds of women. All covered in filth while pumping the milk that was being made for babies they would never be allowed to keep.

Catherine saw the glint of something shiny out of the corner of her eye, and there she was. Olivia, twisting her locket in her hands to catch her mother’s attention. Catherine had a surge of joy finally seeing her daughter after all of this time. Her joy was quickly replaced by the deepest sorrow she had ever felt. She looked at her daughter, now a teenager, filthy, pregnant, having her milk pumped. Between sobs, Catherine mouthed the words “I’m sorry, I love you, I’m sorry,” to her daughter. Olivia responded, “it’s okay. I love you mom. I love you.”

It wasn’t long before Catherine’s body began to give out from the repeated pregnancies and lack of medical care. Her milk production had decreased and she was barely able to stand. Olivia watched as her mother’s health declined, helpless.

One day the humanoids came to Catherine’s milking cage, ripped the pumping machinery off of her and pulled her out of the cage. She fell to the ground. They croaked a laugh and began to try to kick her to her feet. When that didn’t work, they brought over the high-powered hose and sprayed her in the face. Catherine choked on the water and vomited. Finally, they brought over a wagon and tossed her into it, her body limp. Olivia watched in horror and screamed for her mother, knowing this was the last time she would see her.

Catherine was then dumped into a trailer. The floor was covered with waste and the heat made the stench even more powerful. There were other women in the trailer as well, some able to stand, but most of them crumpled on the filthy floor. Catherine lay where they dumped her, too weak to move. They drove for days with no food or water. Some of the women died before they reached their destination, and the other women rode with the decaying bodies of their fellow prisoners.

When the truck stopped, the smell of blood was overwhelming and screams could be heard inside the building. The women all looked at each other with wide eyes, terrified. They were herded into a chute that led into the building. There was no more confusion. They all knew what was going to happen. Then, as if to confirm their fears, a row of bodies emerged from the other end of the building hanging upside with their throats slit, some still alive. Catherine grabbed the hand of the woman next to her and squeezed hard and felt a squeeze back. She thought of Olivia, who would eventually suffer the same fate. Catherine wept, knowing she failed to protect her babies. Then it was her turn to enter the darkness.