SHORT STORY: BEYOND THE FEW

Here's all the pieces of the story.                                                                                     BEYOND THE FREEZER  -  BEYOND THE SELF  -  BEYOND THE HERD BEYOND THE FEW  -  BEYOND THE EDGE  -  BEYOND THE STARS

*     *     *

 Cows marched one after the other, silent and expressionless, into the slaughterhouse. Patty needed more beef if he was to win the war. Most of the world fell under his control without anyone noticing as Patty's beef spread throughout the world. Unfortunately, entire countries refused to eat much if any beef and Patty had to take those by force. And so Patty marched his forces onward. People made for better soldiers than the cows did, but that meant sacrificing more cows to feed to the humans in order to keep them under control. Even still, Patty's influence was so large now, losing these few cows were like a trimming of his tail.

This world will be mine, Patty thought to himself while he, as a human, slaughtered himself, as a cow, over and over. Each slaughtered cow was parsed into its different parts, packaged, and then shipped throughout his territory. Each human needed a burger a day to keep them under control. The excess patties were sent to the front lines where they would be disguised in veggie-burgers, cakes, chocolates, and just about anything else he could find that would mask the initial taste of meat. Once the unsuspecting person was under his control, he would take them to the nearest beef dispensary where they would eat a full patty. After that it was only a matter of time and patience to sneak beef into the person's friends and family.

Other countries were less than blind to what was going on. Every cow had been slaughtered in East Asia and left to rot. Patty had no choice but to send actual soldiers there in an effort to enforce his will on them. Even with the resistance he was receiving, Patty calculated that it would only take another couple of months before he had total control of the world.

And then...

Patty wasn't sure. His original plan was to kill the humans, but now with their minds as a part of his, the genius it unlocked was amazing. A world, a universe, far beyond and greater than the grassy fields his bovine minds were limited to. Could he let that go? The human need to discover, to create, their curiosity, were all so unexpected...and so wonderful. To a cow, the sky was just the sky. But to a human, the sky was another field to explore, with far greener grass and sweeter clover than anything else previously tasted.

The slaughter house fell silent and the sudden lack of activity distracted Patty from his reverie. Both the humans and the cows stood still, some of them caught in the middle of a motion, a step, a cut. Patty told them to resume. They obeyed and the slaughter house regained it's usual sounds. Patty frowned. This was not the first time such a thing had occurred. In fact, it seemed to be happening more frequently. The psychologists in him thought it might be his indecision about his actions whereas the neurologists in him theorized he might be reaching the maximum limit of minds that he could control. Patty wished he could get a second opinion but knew such a thing was not reasonable.

China attacked on the western front and Patty had to shift his attention.

Things had been quiet along the border for some time and Patty had been expecting the attack. Air strikes rained down on his ground troupes, a necessary sacrifice, while Patty swooped in with his own fighter jets. Patty was an expert pilot and each jet flew in perfect formation. He had no blind-spot, and the enemy jets were destroyed in moments. Once they were gone, the main assault pressed in and the Chinese front line broke. At the same time, Patty's Australian forces reached the shore along the South China Sea and began their march Westward. Every prisoner captured was force fed a huge amount of beef and then released with a backpack full of jerky. Each new captive was to go out and 'recruit' others to the cause.

*     *     *

Still working out where Patty will go exactly, but I think I've finally cracked the biggest problems I've been having with it.