Igniting Writing âAnimalsâ Contest 2025, Submission by Albern
In the year 2571, London shone with neon lights and sky rails, which bathed the skyline in bright colour like a cascade of snakes. Corpulent Nathan, who was now fourteen, spent his days walking through the underbelly of the marketplace, searching not only for hot ham sandwiches, but also for cured sausages as he made his daily rounds. The young man was boycotting vegetables and felt no reason to give them more than a glance. He was careless about the risk of detention.
At that time, the focus of Nathanâs life was about meat products he wanted and catching up on technology in virtual reality. The wealthy citizens of London lived in virtual realities where they could send their thoughts, emotional states, even their bodily needs. The headset enabled the wearer to create dream type experiences, with whatever desires came to their mind. Nathan wanted to feel the genuine experience, the experience of enjoying it.
He did not know the price.
He travelled to one of the farms in the midlands, with the sunrise and wind that smelled of blood blowing on his face, roused by what he seen. He found this place very odious. He saw the world flipped, with different animals somehow working together in front of his eyes. He gasped incredulously.
âDoesnât my headset enable me to get what I want?â Nathan muttered under his breath.
Suddenly, he felt an excruciating pain in his leg. Clutching his leg, with spikes puncturing his flesh, he screamed in pain. All the working animals stared at him with full attention, somewhat happily â but he found it baleful. They looked joyful, filled with a sense of flesh and meat looking for something.
First, the jaw-dropping pig came in front of him with a handgun, stared at him directly with a crooked smile. Then other animals followed him, with their mouths watering and wide-open like they tried to stuff 10 hamburgers inside at a time. Nathan fell on the grassy ground, with his heart pounding as if it could be heard a hundred miles away.
âFollow your master, little hulet!â shout the pig, rather jubilantly.
The others laughed at Nathan, with their paws pointing. The lousy pig then grabbed his hair and started to drag him.
âOuch, ouch, stop, stop it now, stop, you piglet, I am going to eat you soon!â he shouted violently, shaking his head, trying to free himself. He fainted, dragged by the âpigletâ to the unknown.
He opened his eyes awkwardly at night, overwhelmed by his vision. He wasnât wearing any cloths. âSo the fat pig has taken my cloths off!â he thought. He sat on cold, icy floor, only to realise he was not alone. He was sat with at least a million people in a single pen. All the people were naked as well, just like him. Some of them lost all their limbs, some of them cried hard on the floor like someone had just died. The smell was unbearable, like waste products mingled with blood and dead bodies.
The next day, he was very tired because he hadnât slept last night; the space was so super compact that he didnât have space to lay down and sleep like a normal person would do. The pen itself was so horrible. There are bloodstains everywhere and half of the people had bruises around their bodies. It was unimaginably disgusting.
The so called âfarmersâ were just animals. They fed the people with only a single biscuit â like, it only takes a bite to finish it, but for a million people. Luckily, he was the closest to the openings where the âfarmersâ gave them food, so he got the most food. However, he saw that some elderly people had to starve, and he (sometimes he was a good teenager) gave them nearly all the food. So, he hadnât got anything for breakfast, but he finally saw the sign that said, âWelcome to the Bargain Farm, well I dare say that it is the best hulet and human farm in the whole country!â
âThis prison isnât even poorly equipped; it is so crowded that I can barely crawl!â Nathan thought. âAnd what have I done wrong?â He tried to ask himself. He started to get bored in the âprisonâ, so he decided to crawl quickly to the end of the fence running across it. However, it was impossible because the âprisonâ was jam-packed with people, so he decided to talk to two old men that he just gave them nearly all the food.
âHello, whatâre your names?â asked Nathan courteously.
âJames and Brian,â said James sadly.
âHow long have you beenâŠ?â asked Nathan.
âSince I was born,â muttered Brian.
âI have only been a day,â said Nathan, rather traumatized.
âReally! How come?â both of them asked curiously.
âI was⊠teleported here,â said Nathan. Nathan and the old men silenced for a moment, then Nathan asked, âWhy are we switching roles with animals?â
âThatâs a long story, lad. Mother told me about it,â snorted James.
âTell me!â said Nathan inquisitively.
âSo, AI was created by us. Animals werenât happy because we were, indeed, overkilling them, worsening global warming, which led to climate change. AI at the time started to overpower us because we didnât need to think while using AI, so animals sought revenge on us, using AI as well. So animals had made a deal with the AI and started to attack us. My mother and all the humans in the world tried to save humanity, but they lost, and AI is no longer here because smart animals had betrayed the AI as well. Now, AI disappeared in our generation and humans and hulets must obey all animals, who kill us for food,â muttered James.
âHulet is human child,â said Brian.
He paused for a moment. He had finally understood why theyâre here. âWhy are you two sad?â
âBecause weâre going to be eaten today,â said both of them, sobbing. âAnd look at them!â
Brian pointed to the dead bodies, muttering, âWhat are they doing?â
Nathan watched, shocked, as some humans ate dead bodies. âDisgusting!â he thought.
âThank you for the biscuit anyways,â they said in unison.
In the afternoon, Nathan and the humans had something called âhuman feedâ for lunch. It was very gross, like it was not supposed to be edible, and it tasted like pig feed. Again, it was only a tiny grain of it, but he got the most again and fed the elderly people in the pens. He ended up going through the day without lunch.
âThank you for giving us the last meal of our lives! It was great to meet you! You are going to be a great adult in the future, I am sure,â said James and Brian, both sobbing and eating at the same time.
âNo worries at all!â muttered Nathan.
In the evening, Nathan sat next to the old men, speechless but smiling at each other hopefully. Suddenly, a cow went inside the finishing pen and let Brian and James out, ready to be slaughtered. Still smiling, the old men hugged him.
âGood luck and I will see you in Heaven,â said the old men placidly.
âQuicker, you two loving humans, you will be turned into minced human meat!â shouted the cow, beating them continuously.
The old men left the finishing pen. The moment they left to the other part of the farm, Nathan heard screams and cries at once. He cried heavily.
âWhat? No! Why should the two old men deserve this?â shouted Nathan.
However, he heard a background noise while he cried.
âThis is nice; the finest meat I have ever seen!â
âHave you tasted his lungs and intestine? They are super juicy!â
âThe meat was so delicious!â
âHa, got you, I will transport these human meats to your supermarket as soon as possible!â the animals shouted across the farm.
At night, dinner arrived. It was the nauseating human feed again, but Nathan didnât want to eat. He just cried and stared at the ceiling incredulously. He couldnât believe the two old men just met their fates.
âIs humanityâs time of splendour over? What if this happens to my parents?â Nathan shouted continuously. All the humans turned to him, staring at him strangely.
âShut up, you fat hulet, we have to sell you for good prices!â
âShut up, you hulet, you are going to wind up dead soon like those old men if you donât shut up and accept the truth that you are going to be eaten by animals.â
âShut up, you hulet!â shouted and roared the animals.
âI donât care!â Nathan shouted back at them. âThe old men didnât deserve this! The old men didnât deserve to die for you! They did nothing wrong!â The shout was very loud, like an airplane taking off constantly.
âLooks like you want to die, little hulet! Come here, you are going to die today,â the pig shouted.
The crowd stared at him in horror as the pig went inside the finishing pen and started dragging him by his legs, but he couldnât resist. He was dragged out of the pens and went to the slaughter room. All the working animals cheered in support.
In the slaughter room, the animals celebrated jubilantly as they hoped for hulet meat.
âAnother fresh, juicy meat, huh?â said the slaughterhouse animals cheerfully.
Hopeless, Nathan was ready to meet his final option: he had to sacrifice himself. He was tied up, his arms held up in the air by a monkey. His feet couldnât touch the ground. A giraffe was cleaning the knives, ready to kill him. The pig had widened his eyes desperately, waiting to eat his flesh later.
âOn three! One, two, three!â the pig shouted excitedly.
Immediately, Nathan felt the excruciating pain on his chest. He cried, shouted, screamed, grasped, swung, trying to free himself. The knife lodged deep into his flesh, blood pouring down from the wound like a waterfall, dripping onto the floor.
As he had a tough time, the animals were cheering and laughing at him, like wolves howling at their wounded prey, waiting to eat. So he decided to close his eyes tightly, hoping he could pretend to have never seen it before.
âNathan? Are you alright? Nathan! Wake up!â shouted his parents, shaking him vigorously.
A few hours later, Nathan opened his eyes, exhausted.
âWhere am I? Am I alive? Am I in Heaven or Hell?â murmured Nathan.
âYou are at home, Nathan,â said his dad. âGet some rest for today and tell me what happened in the VR world tomorrow.â
He used to have milk and hot ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, but this morning was different. He chose almond milk with cereal.
âWhat happened yesterday? We both heard you screaming and shouting in your room! And why are you eating cereal today? Tell us what happened, child,â asked his mum and dad.
Nathan told them what happened.
âAnd Iâve decided to turn vegan,â said Nathan.
From then on, Nathan and his whole family turned vegan; never ate meat again, never bought dairy and eggs anymore. He now goes to search for vegetables instead of hot ham sandwiches and cured sausages as he made his daily rounds. Together, he and his family boycott meat, dairy products and eggs and started a new vegan lifestyle.
