Clover pulled into a driveway expecting to drop off a package quickly and move onto their next delivery. The driveway winded back and forth a little as Clover found themselves scanning the grassy patches on each side of the drive. The smell of manure began to assault their nose.
Clover’s memories of their dad milking the cows far ahead in the old barn took over. Their dad wanted them to be just like him, take care of the cows, run the farm, and protect the family. Clover shook their head back and forth and looked back over at the barn where they saw nothing but beds of hay.
About a half a mile through the driveway, Clover saw pens of goats and chickens, sheds with red paint splattered on them, and contraptions shaped like horseshoes and large teeth. Clover began tapping their fingers aggressively against the steering wheel, and their left leg bounced uncontrollably. They continued to drive up the driveway, feeling the redness and sweat coming out of their cheeks. Maybe, I’ll be home early today. Think positive thoughts, Clover.
When they finally arrived at the house and parked, an elderly man stood outside, grinning. He was very thin and pale with white hair and a long beard like Santa Clause. His lips curled into a cunning grin that ranged from ear to ear.
“Hi, sir. I’ve got your package for you,” Clover said warmly in their customer service voice.
“Well, hello little lady,” the man said as he grabbed the package from their hands. “You know, it’s so great to have such pretty young women deliver to me so far from the big cities.”
They smiled. “Have a great day, sir. Thank you for ordering from us.” They began to turn around to leave, but he grabbed their wrist and pulled them back around. Clover noticed the veins in his biceps and found themselves puzzled.
“Is something wrong, sir?” Clover asked.
“Not at all.” The man smiled even larger.
They tried to keep their composure in order to leave, but they felt their knuckles curling and uncurling. “Well, please let go of me so I can continue my route.”
“No.”
“Okay, you need to fucking let go.” They tried to rip their arm away, but it was no use. The old man’s grip tightened around them. They extended their leg abruptly and swung it, but they missed the old man’s knee by half of an inch.
“Ooh, a feisty one,” the man said, dropping his small package from his left hand to grab them by both their wrists. He kept Clover’s wrists close to one another as if his palms were his handcuffs for them. He dragged them into his house while they screamed for help. They tried to pull themselves closer to bite the man, but he kept shoving them back down. His house was miles away from the next ones; no one would hear them. I knew I was right to hate the countryside.
As they continued to flail and kick, he dragged them to his staircase where he pushed them down violently, bruising up and down their legs. He had let go; this was their chance. There’s gotta be a window down here. They searched for less than a minute, but his loud footsteps were booming throughout the basement as he walked down the stairs.
“Oh, honey. There are no windows down here. Rookies always think they can get out.” He laughed.
“What do you want?!” Clover yelled.
“Oh, it’s not what I want. It’s what they want.”
“WHAT?! What who wants?!”
“Jesus fuck, would you relax?!” He exclaimed as he wound up his arm, slowly forming a fist. It collided with their face; they screamed and fell over. He inched closer and began kicking them.
Clover awoke to a blurry ceiling they didn’t recognize. They groaned and scratched their eyes, slowly moving their fingers down to their nose and lips. The feeling of dried skin lurked on their hands; they looked down at their legs and saw the purple bruises. Clover shook their head and slapped their own face just enough to wake them and looked down at their watch. Twelve hours had passed.
“Hey!” A raspy voice said.
“Huh? Who’s there?” Clover asked.
“To your left.”
They looked to their left and saw a woman who looked around fifty years old in her own cage. She was full of dirt; she was bone skinny and had supremely dark circles under her eyes. Her arm only went to her elbow, but it was obvious that the removal of her body part was not done professionally. “Oh, my God. What the hell happened to your arm?”
“They fucking ate it, bitch. You got anything on you? It would be great to not feel the pain.”
“I had a pain reliever in my van but I’m sure that crazy, old man has gotten rid of it already.”
“Fucking pain reliever? No, I need pain kill- Wait, did you say you had a van here?”
“Yeah, why?”
“He usually kidnaps us from the side of the street, dating apps, and the ones who just got out of psych without a place to go. Those things must be craving younger, healthier meat, so he resorted to delivery people.”
“What things?! That’s how you lost your arm? Something ate it?!” Their mind began to stir. This has got to be some sort of sick dream. They could not think about anything except how to escape. Their heart rate pumped as fast as the turnover at the delivery service. The pumping was loud enough to overstimulate them, but this was no time for a meltdown.
“You thinking about escaping, fresh meat? Good luck with that,” she said.
“There’s got to be a way out of here,” Clover said.
“Just accept your death, kiddo.”
“No. I lived too long wanting to die; I won’t go out this easy.”
“You’re never getting out of here.”
“Wait a minute. Why aren’t you dead yet?”
“I will be by next week. I think he gets his kicks watching us suffer.”
“There’s got to be a way out of here,” Clover repeated.
The stairs began to creak, he was coming back downstairs. “There are multiple ways out, but if you don’t want to be here, just say so,” the man said.
“I don’t fucking want to be here!” Clover screamed.
“Okay,” the old man said as he walked closer to the cage that he had locked them in. Did I make a crucial mistake here? they thought. Just when they thought their heart rate couldn’t be any higher, it began to sound like the loudest noise in the room. He unlocked the cage and whispered, “Go” while smiling.
“You’ll regret it,” the lady in the cage said.
The van is right outside. I can get to it. They sprinted out of their cage and up the stairs. Their heart rate still escalated. As they sprinted, they checked their pockets for their keys and felt the curve of their favorite keychain. They made it outside, and the van was still there. Their heart rate began to slow down as they imagined driving away. As they got closer to the van, they noticed silhouettes of some sort of creature. At least four. They began to question their decision. Low growls started to rise. They were ten feet from the van when one emerged. The creature was tall and girthy with sharp teeth. They couldn’t make out the rest of the details in the dark.
I can make it to the van. Clover sprinted faster than they ever had. There were a few steps away from the handle when a creature approached. This is it; this is how I die. The creature sniffed Clover and walked away.
“Huh?” they said to themselves. They looked over to the house ever so slightly and to their benefit, the man was turned away. Clover snuck the three extra steps and got into the van. They gently shut the door and pulled their keys out of their pocket, but the keys never met the ignition. I can’t leave that woman behind.
Clover got out of the van, and again, the creatures were paying them no attention. I wonder what the hell is wrong with those things. They investigated the window of the house and didn’t see the old man. They jogged over to the front door and looked down at the welcome mat. The mat had a picture of a pasture with cows on it and read “Welcome to the Pucker Farm.” On the mat, Clover found the farmer’s keys that he had dropped. Before rushing into the house with their best act, they quickly picked them up and shoving them into their pocket.
“What the hell are those things?!” Clover yelled.
The man smirked. “I knew you would be back. You really thought I would just let you go?” He laughed, then grabbed their arm to pull them back downstairs. They didn’t fight. They had to be more strategic to escape.
“Are you going to answer me?!” They screamed.
“That’s none of your business, young lady. They do need some more food though, and you’re going to be it.”
Clover looked around the house, trying to find anything that could give them some sort of answer, help, or sign. Then, they saw it. The picture on the fridge of the old man with a woman. They were cuddled up together on a porch swing. “Who’s that?”
The old man looked behind him to the fridge, and Clover darted for the basement. Halfway down the stairs, Clover felt a kick to their back, and they fell back down the stairs.
“You think you can ask about my wife and take my livelihood. I don’t think so,” the old man grumbled.
Clover began to push themselves up from the floor, but the old man was already standing above them. He pushed them back down with his foot. “Where…is…. your…wife?” Clover muttered.
The old man pulled Clover up off the ground and pushed them back into their cage. “You best stop talkin’ ‘bout my wife.”
“Those things killed her, didn’t they?”
“You shut your damn mouth!”
“Why didn’t you just shoot them?”
“Oh, hun, I am one hundred times richer. One injection and a lifetime supply of the flesh of the inferior. They make one hundred times more milk with that human flesh. This is what Sheila would have wanted.”
“Of course. Rich people put profit over people, I should have known,” Clover said. Sexist, what a freaking surprise.
The old man snickered. His eyes illuminated with excitement. Your van has a tracker, Clover. Your bosses would never want you to have more than two days off. Jason will come. They will be looking for you by tomorrow. They want their van back. They thought.
“Well, young lady, red meat is their favorite kind.” He winked.
“That’s ironic.” They rolled their eyes.
“Why don’t you tell me your name, young lady? Mine’s Silas.”
Knowing their name was not legally changed, they knew it would actually be safer to tell him the truth. “It’s Clover.”
“Hm, what a strange name.”
Stranger than Silas?
Silas walked away from the cages and toward the other side of the basement. They didn’t have a clear view of the entire basement, but they could see Silas locking boxes and digging through things. Clover maneuvered their body in different types of stretches, trying to catch a glimpse of what Silas was doing.
As they were looking around the basement, their eyes glazed past the old woman in the cage next to them and then right back to her. I came back for her, and I’m gonna get her out.
“Pssst,” they said.
She turned her head. “What?”
“Are you absolutely sure there’s no way out of here?” Clover whispered, showing just a bit of the keys out of the corner of their pocket.
“What the hell are we gonna do with your van keys?” she asked.
“They’re not—Never mind, just trust me, uh– what’s your name?” Clover asked.
“Cecilia.”
“Okay, Cecilia. Just distract him for me.”
Cecilia shrugged and let out a big grunt and sighed. Nothing from Silas. She tried again by tapping her fingers on the wall. He quickly turned around from his work in the corner to check if Cecilia and Clover were up to no good, but when he turned around, all he found was Cecilia looking pale and Clover silently glaring at him.
“What, Cecilia? Are you out of smokes again?” He asked.
Clover gave her a look to tell her to say yes, so he would go up the stairs and turn away from them. I really hope she isn’t too old to understand this look.
“Yes. Can I please have another one before you give me away to the cows? I haven’t been too much of a bother like this one.” Cecilia said, gesturing to Clover.
Silas set down the item he was polishing and shut it into a case. “Fair enough. I have plenty to spare anyhow.” Silas said. He turned around and headed for the staircase.
Once Silas was upstairs, they carefully found the correct key on the keyring and unlocked their cage and then Cecilia’s.
“What’s the plan now? You remember what happened when you tried to escape earlier today?” Cecilia asked.
Clover put a finger over their mouth and shushed Cecilia as they headed for the other side of the basement. Cecilia followed quickly behind. They opened every chest over there before finally finding the one behind a wall.
“Here it is.” Clover said as they grabbed it out of the chest to show Cecilia.
“Do you know how to use that?” Cecilia asked.
Clover nodded as they tried to remember the last afternoon with their dad. It wasn’t the same type, but Clover managed. They checked the magazine and the safety. It was already loaded too. They turned the safety off and gestured to Cecilia to stay put.
“I’m sorry, ladies. Someone came to visit. I’ve got your smokes, Cecilia.” Silas said as he got to the bottom of the staircase.
Illustration by Iuniki Dkhar
“I’m not a lady.” Clover said as they pulled the trigger and watched the bullet go straight into Silas’ chest. Silas’ grabbed his chest and tried to crawl at Clover, but Clover pulled the trigger again as he got closer. As Clover watched as he slowly fell to the ground, they felt the blood splattered on their skin.
“What now?” Cecilia asked.
“I say, we will stay here for a couple of days. Watch for patterns. Maybe, we’ll know when we can get out. Someone will come. I don’t know right now.” Clover said. “Let’s go upstairs. Maybe he had tea.”
“What about his body?” Cecilia asked.
“I said I don’t know!” Clover yelled. They noticed the reaction from Cecilia and tried to calm down. “Can we just have some tea?”
Cecilia nodded and the two of them headed up the stairs. I can’t believe I actually did that. What are we going to do with the body? As Cecilia and Clover reached the top of the stairs, a man was sitting at the table with a newspaper covering his face. Clover cleared their throat, and he brought the newspaper down.
Clover’s shoulders dropped. Relief overflowed within them; they dropped the gun on the floor. “Oh, my goodness. Jason, I am so glad you’re here. Did y’all track me through the van? This has been horrifying. That man is evil…. was evil. Can you get us out of here?” Clover asked.
“Clover, that milk makes us a lot of money…” Jason said.
“It comes from murder?!” Clover said.
Jason nodded as he slowly got up out of his seat to approach Clover and Cecilia. Jason was a bulky man. He inched closer and closer to the two of them until he was in their faces, reaching around them to grab them by their shirts. What is going on? He lifted them up abruptly and aggressively threw them back down the staircase to fall next to Silas’ dead body. “They must eat.” Jason shouted.