Lost for words - chapter 2- the battery hens

Zephyr woke up, black and white stars blinking before his eyes.

He couldn't procces what had just happened, so decided to leave it for the moment. He found himself in a green perspex box, only just big enough for his legs to stretch out.

A green neon light shone right next to his head, letting of a highly uncomfortable heat. there didn't seem to be any groove in the box. It was if he had just matterialised in the box.

There was no door, or window and a tight feeling curled up in Zephyr's chest as his old clostraphobia returned.

Suddenly, a murmer of voices drifted through the walls, and an invisible groove was prized open. Zephyr lunged for the entrance only to be zapped sharply witth some sort of electric rod,

"Please sit still whilst you are proccessed through the inspecting machine. It wil be over shortly. Thankyou," an electronic voice buzzed from another invisible thing -this time a speaker- at the corner of his ear.

a pale face appeared in the door-way, huge periwinkle blue eyes and a small purple mouth,

"I think this one is still alive," the person squeeked to another hidden person,

"Good, he can go straight through," the hidden person spoke out. Zephyr felt the box being lifted up and started to really worry. Everything was passing as a blur, and Zephyr had a sudden flash of himself looking like a rabbit caught in headlights. he had a lot of these flashes, almost out of body experiances, so it was not a surprise, but even so, it startled him to see him self in such a state.

Through the door, he saw a great white modern box, with blue neon lights illuminating the sides. A gaping hole that a rolling carpet rolled into was blinking softly with a red light. He felt his box being placed on the rolling carpet, and the blinking light drew closer. He had another image, this time him being chopped up by a razor-sharp lazer. this one scared him even more than the last one,

"Please sit back comfortably, the Inspection and tagging proccess will commence," the speaker buzzed.

He was engulfed in darkness, and the lid of the perspex box came off. a hum of machinery filled his ears, and suddenly it started. pads of hard plastic and sensors were prodded into his back at all angled, some sort of stapler was punching plastic tags into his clothes, and a electronic razor cut some sort of mark into his hair.

Luckily, no lazors came and sliced him up, so when he finnaly emerged at the other end, he didn't feel too bad. but what he saw next certinally did.

Miles of rolling carpets stretched out in differnet path-ways, glass boxes dotted around in rows. things crawled in the boxes, animals or beasts, whatever they were, they all looked like sedated lions.

The image infront of him reminded him strongly of the documentry he had had seen the night before on Battery hens. Except that it was a million times larger. and the animals in the cages were not chickens. they were humans.