Author's Note: Please comment and vote. I really want to know what you guys think of this story

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After leaving Mikko's house Brodhi ran home. He hadn't expected his brother to really go along with Shai's plan. He had to let all of the tension in his body go and running was to release it. He also wanted to be home as quickly as he possibly could be. He wanted to be in his familiar house with his mother and Lynn.

The cold trickle of sweat running down his back felt refreshing in the sweltering heat. He cursed Mikko for living so far away from the City as his feet pounded against the ground.

When his house came into view, Brodhi started to push himself even harder. His knees ached and his lungs started to burn. He flew up the stairs and ran into his house.

"Brodhi!" he heard Lynn scream as the door closed behind him. Her voice came from upstairs and he ran up. His mind started to spin. He suspected that Lynn may have gone into labour. She still had a few more weeks, but it was still a possibility.

"What's wrong?" he shouted as he came to their room. He looked in and saw that it was empty.

"Come quick!" she heard her scream again.

He ran down the hallway checking every room quickly as he passed them. He finally saw her in the bathroom. She was on her hands and knees and her belly was blocking his view. He ran over and got down on his knees to see that Darla was lying on the ground.

His mother's body was lied down on the cracked tiles of the cold bathroom floor. Blood was trickling down her chin and neck with a mixture of saliva. Lynn was sobbing heavily beside him. Her red curls matched the colour ringed around her eyes and they stuck to her face with tears. Brodhi reached down and pressed his fingers up against her neck looking for a pulse. He felt nothing; only the tears that had begun to run down his cheek.

"It was awful," Lynn sobbed. "I came into the bathroom and she was on the floor. Her body was jerkin' and I couldn't stop it. Spit was foamin' out of her mouth. It was disgusting."

Brodhi threw his arm around Lynn and she pushed her face into his neck so she didn't have to look at her body anymore. Brodhi began to cry too. He knew he should go back to Mikko's and tell Jasper, but he had made his decision. He preferred to go with Shai and her ridiculous plan instead of taking care of his mother. To him, Shai was more important. If Brodhi didn't have to take them to Mikko's he would have been here. He could have spent those last moments with his mother. He may have even been able to save her life. He defiantly could have saved Lynn from seeing Darla like that.

He slowly got up off the ground and pulled Lynn up with him. Her face was still pressed into his neck; her tears were moistening his shirt. Shuffling his feet slowly, he guided Lynn out of the bathroom and down the hall to their room. He pulled her curls away and she pulled her face out of his neck.

"Go back to sleep," he told her. "I'll take care of the kids today. Don't go into the bathroom or let any of the kids in."

"I can't sleep, Brodhi," she sobbed. "I know she is in the bathroom like that."

"Just lie down for now. You need rest."

Lynn just nodded her head and lied down on their bed. Brodhi threw the blankets over Lynn and kissed her forehead. He hurried down the stairs when he heard someone knocking on the door. The kids started to arrive and when they asked about Darla, Brodhi told them she was upstairs resting.

The whistle blew and Ren rolled out of bed like she normally did. She had noticed that Todd had gotten quicker at doing this too. He spent all of yesterday following and watching her. He tried talking to her a few times, but she just ignored him and kept on working.

A few screams ran throughout the warehouse and both Ren and Todd shuffled into the stream of Rats leaving the warehouse. Ren went to turn so that she could go to the barn to milk a cow, but another Rat was shoved into her and she went tumbling down to the ground. She tried to scramble to get back up onto her feet, but she was so hungry that her head was spinning and she'd fall back down. She felt her heartbeat quicken, as she couldn't get up.

"Hey!" she heard an Officer yell out. "Get up!"

Ren managed to steady herself on her hands and knees, but her head was still spinning. The Officer closest to her was continuing to shout. The rest of the Rats were still leaving the warehouse and going to their stations.

"I said get up!" the Officer shouted again. He drew back his leg and kicked Ren hard in the stomach. She screamed as the pain exploded in her stomach and she toppled over onto her side. "Why are you not listening to me?"

He drew back his foot and kicked her again. She screamed out again and held out her hands to stop any other blows the Officer may give.

"Get up! Get up! Get up!" he continued to scream at her.

She tried to roll over onto her stomach, but she felt hands on her arms pulling her up onto her feet. The person was behind her, so she couldn't see them. She closed her eyes for a second and opened them to a world that wasn't spinning as much. The pain was intense in her abdomen. Turning her head, she saw that it was Todd holding her up. The Officer in front of her was an older one. His face was starting to sag and his lips were pressed into a tight line.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked spitting at them. Ren fought with her tongue to get the words out, but with her heart racing she was having trouble to even make a sound.

"I'm just helpin' her up," Todd replied.

"She's weak and was on the ground. You're not here to rest. You're here to work!" he shouted at them. The last of the Rats had left the warehouse and were heading towards their stations. This left Ren and Todd standing alone in front of the warehouse with the Officer in front of them and another standing beside them.

"Send them to the Butcher," the Officer beside them said.

Ren felt her heart slam itself against her ribcage. The Butcher is the worst station to be at, but what really panicked her is that they may not be sent to the Butcher to work. She was expecting the Officer to pull out his gun and shot them or guide them over to where they hang Rats they catch stealing from the Brenners.

"Good idea," the Officer that kicked Ren agreed. He pushed Ren's head down to an uncomfortable angle so that he could see her number burned in the back of her neck. After he was done he did the same thing to Todd. "Go. And you have duty in the barn for a week."

Ren nodded her head and tried to get over to the Butcher quickly. The first few steps made her stumble, but then she got her balance and pulled Todd along behind her. He was new and she assumed he hadn't been to the Butcher yet.

"What's the Butcher?" he asked her.

It confirmed her suspicion. They hurried across the uneven ground to the large red barn that sat in the far back corner of the Brenner's property.

"B...b...bodi...ies," she tried to say. She glanced up to see Todd looking down at her with his eyebrows furrowed together. "D...d...dead b...bodies."

"Whose dead body?" he asked.

"R...r...r...r," she was struggling too much with the word so she put her hands up to her chest and pointed at herself.

"Rats?" he guessed.

She nodded her head as they came close to the barn. A terrible high-pitched noise came from the barn. Ren knew it was the grinder, she was punished a couple years ago and had to spend a week in the Butcher. Luckily, she hadn't returned to it since. Another high-pitched squeal came from the barn and Ren knew that those were the pigs. The terrible smell hit them and Ren covered her nose with her hand.

Todd followed her as Ren climbed the metal staircase on the back of the barn. The noises became louder and the smell became worse. She could barely hear the rusted out metal creak underneath her feet. When she got to the top she opened the rickety door.

The smell somehow managed to become even worse. Ren remembered the smell being bad and staying on you for weeks, but she didn't remember it being this bad.

She walked out onto the old, rusty, metal platform that was hovering over the rest of the barn. The tiny holes in the metal allowed Ren to see the pigs underneath her. Their pale pink skin was covered in a thick layer of mud and they squealed loudly. A large silver container sat in the corner of the barn. A group of four Rats were standing around it and Ren and Todd approached them. Ren tried to avoid at looking inside the container. She already knew that eight rows of blades were inside and stained with blood.

The Rat standing in front of it was large and he had his arms crossed across his chest. His brown uniform, the same as everyone else's, was splattered with dried blood. Despite looking only a couple years older than Todd, he had been working in the Butcher for a long time. Four men and one other woman stood in front of him. When Ren and Todd joined the group, the Rat nodded his head.

"That should be everyone," he said, his voice was barely audible over the squeals of the pigs below. He pointed to the woman and the man standing beside her. "You two are stripping them."

They nodded their heads and the Rat pointed to two other men.

"You are cleaning out the bottom of the container," he told them. They swore loud enough that Ren could hear it no problem and walked down the stairs that led to the bottom of the barn. The Rat Pointed at Ren, Todd and the remaining man who she recognized as Samson. "Bring them up."

Todd followed Ren and Samson as they walked around the container and down the metal staircase. It was narrow and Ren felt like it swayed under her feet. She held onto both of the railings to steady herself.

A chain fence separated the pigs from them. The dirt under their feet was splattered with blood. By the door sat a pile of bodies. They were every Rat that had either dropped from exhaustion, starvation or had been killed by an Officer in the last few days.

Samson grabbed one of the bodies. It was a frail little girl who could have only been eight-years-old. He threw her over his shoulder and turned around and started walking back up the stairs.

Ren started walking towards the pile of bodies. The smell of pigs over powered the smell of the dead. She was thankful for that.

Her body was jerked back when Todd grabbed her shoulder and spun her. His face was pale and his eyes were wide.

"Ren, what do they do with these bodies?" he asked her in disgust.

Before she could attempt to answer, the grinder was turned on. It was loud as the blades spun quickly inside. Todd turned his head to look at the grinder and then snapped his head back so he was looking at Ren.

"This is some kind of joke?" he yelled at her. She could barely hear him though. All she did was shake her head.

She walked over to the pile and felt the bile rise in the back of her throat. She grabbed the arms of a man lying beside the pile, like he had rolled off at one point. His eyes were already closed and it made it easier for her to do this. Todd bent down and picked up his legs. They heaved his body up off the ground.

Her arms ached and she grabbed underneath his arms to help her carry him. His head fell against her chest and she tried not to gag. Samson came down the stairs and went back over to the pile. Ren and Todd started to climb the stairs and carried the man to the top. Ren avoided looking into the pigpen, especially where the bottom of the grinder was.

They put the man's body down in front of the woman and the other man. The clothes of the little girl Samson carried up were folded and were going to be cleaned. Ren shuddered to think about the dead body that use to be in her clothes.

Samson came up with another body over his shoulder and lied it down beside the man Ren brought up. The woman started pulling their clothes off and Ren went back down the stairs before she had to watch one of them throw them down the grinder.

"This is sickening," she heard Todd say behind her.

"Don't think this is bad," Sampson replied. "Be happy you ain't cleanin' out the bottom of the container. Not only do you get swamped by pigs, but you have to stop the bottom of the grinder from cloggin'."

They spent the entire day moving bodies up and down the stairs. Ren's body ached terribly after the first hour and was glad to have Todd there to help her. Her arms were shaking as they got to the last of the bodies. Her muscles screamed out in pain as she lifted the bodies up off the ground. Most of them were frail, but they were still heavy.

She noticed that Todd's face was pale the entire time. When they were done and returned back to the warehouse she saw that he didn't eat any of his food. She stared at it after her bowl was empty and he handed it to her. She was hungry, so she didn't argue and ate it.

Todd sat at the end of his bed. His head was hanging down and he was picking at the skin around his nails. Ren put brought the bowls over to the cart and sat back down on her bed. Todd looked up at her with his bright blue eyes. He had a smirk on his lips.

"I have a plan."