Speaker 1: Fast Food Horror is an abby normal production written and
created by me E J. Miller.
Speaker 2: Welcome listeners to Fast Food Horror. This is season three,
Episode one. Our first tale, penned by E. J. Miller,
is titled Next.
Speaker 1: I'm Next. They're coming from me Next. I'm not sure
how much time I have left, but I am next.
I'm going to use my last few minutes, my last
few breaths to to well, to confess and ask for
forgiveness since what has been happening these past few years
was is my fault. I was a Level one auditor
in the Division of Revenue and Taxation. Basically, I was
a government accountant and a number cruncher among hundreds and
hundreds of number crunchers, all competing to move up the
food chain. The higher one moves up, the more comfortable
and dare I say luxurious, the government living accommodations were,
as compared to the rest of the population. The more
power and standing when accumulated, which transferred to your children
and family. By extension, it afforded you in yours a
certain status and privilege that the general citizenry did not have.
Everyone in the division, or as everyone calls it, the
DRT realized we were operating right up to the margin
and dare I say sliding towards a deficit. The costs
the providing for the citizenry and the money being brought
in were almost at a one for one. If anything
out of the ordinary happened, if an emergency arose at
drew out a storm, a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake
higher than a level four on the Richter scale, or
sweeping force fire or wildfire, the government might not be
able to provide, and dare I say drastic measures would
be enacted. We were constantly looking for ways to cut
the budget. Where could we trim unnecessary expenditures, even though
quite honestly, we were operating on a shoe string budget
for at least providing for the general citizenry, And where
can we find new income that didn't involve taxation, because
quite honestly, we had already taxed everything our people's had.
There was no more blood to squeeze from that stone.
And that's when the idea came to me. There was
really nothing left to cut. Taxation wasn't an option. We
were having issue finding a new product, or finding one
we could steal and make cheaper to offer to the
rest of the world to make money at it, we
needed to really re evaluate the assets we had. I
was watching a movie at the recreation and entertainment area
in my development. It was one of those old movies
from back when my parents were young, before well, when
things were different. The movie took place in a prison,
and what caught my attention was during the course of
the day, the prison made use of the inmates by
having them make license plates the cheapest labor you could
find with the useful product, thousands upon thousands of the
cheapest workers you could find. They worked on road projects,
building projects, they did laundry, and even worked in the kitchens.
We had prisons with ample amount of prisoners that were
being housed at a manageable yet high cost. I suggested
to the Minister of my division that we could offset
the cost of their housing by doing the same having
them performed the in house labor and services required to
operate the prison under strict supervision maintenance, laundry, cooking, contracting
out their services to private companies, or even bordering entries
to perform farming or other labor intensive activities. To my surprise,
they liked the idea. They moved forward with the first phase,
making the prison almost self sufficient within months, eliminating paid
staff with inmates who began performing all the general labor tasks.
I suggested adding a guard here or there per shift.
As the prison population was spread out from their cell
blocks throughout the day. I was rewarded as the cost
of the prisons was greatly reduced and found myself and
my family upgraded to a more comfortable living quarters, complete
with its own bathroom, no longer sharing a communal lavatory.
Six months in, they started approaching private businesses and contracted
out the inmates as suggested, to work on farms and
road crews in all manner of labor intensive jobs. On
the chief. This not only increased the output of the
national farms, which in turn gave us a surplus of product,
giving our citizenry more to eat and something we could export. This,
along with the contracts to the private business, meant that
the prison workforce was now turning a profit. A year
and a half in, my family and I were given
our own private home to live in, with our own
kitchen and a car so we could travel about freely.
My children were taken from the public education centers and
placed in the elite private schools, and I was made
a minister in the DRT. After three years of success
along this path, it was decided to take it to
the next step, the next phase, and we approached the
surrounding countries and city states about contracting out our most
successful product. Contracts and agreements were signed, and our prisoners
were set to work building roads and bridges, constructing irragas,
and all sorts of other municipal projects of our bordering neighbors.
Our state media outlets sung the praises of our projects
our inmates were completing, both locally and worldwide. They outlined
the great impact it was having for all, and the
prosperity it was garnering. It was something we should all celebrate,
and all the citizenry concurred. It was a source of
pride for all the greater good unless you were an inmate.
Of course, as the years passed, you can imagine we
went from barely operating and providing for the citizenry to
being dare I say, almost prosperous. For the first time
in many, many decades. We had a surplus of goods.
We were able to export an import the citizenry was
even able to go to a six day work week,
and some even a five day work week, and the
privilege of those at the ministry level and higher, especially myself,
increased to keep up with the demand. Though, as our newest,
most successful export was doing so well, more laws were
enacted to increase the supply, more laws where imprisonment was
the punishment. I'm not talking about a mere thirty days
in a holding center, but years behind bars for in
fractions that would have been dealt with by a fine
or more expedient means. New prisons had to be built
along with the new laws, but it didn't matter. As
the prosperity of the country grew, so did the population
an ever increasing supply of the product. We just had
to learn how to catch more of them to satisfy
the demand. I have learned many lessons over my years
as a servant of the government, and especially as a
minister of the DRT. People are inherently greedy. More is
never another, especially to those who don't necessarily have to
do the work, but definitely want to remain in power
and enjoy the perks of that power. As my plan
was such a national success, the source of our national
pride and prosperity. Those of the People's National Council, the
overseers of our nation, requested I find a means, a
way to increase the output of our national product. I
can only imagine what perks and privilege such an answer
to the problem assigned would amass myself and my family,
the wealth, the status. I was blinded by what I
could attain should I find the answer without considering It
was also about this time that my father in law
became ill. He was already elderly and well no longer
of the workforce, not only because of his association with
myself and my title, but because of age. We were
informed by the People's Medical Services Center that he would
need a liver transplant and was put on a waiting list.
But due to his age, he was well down that list,
and due to the supply of such things, we had
to quickly come to the realization that we might have
to say goodbye, no matter my status, no matter my
power and privilege, unless the supply of such things could
dramatically increase. With some persuading in some favors, I was
able to move him up the list. Power does have
privilege and privilege is of power, but that didn't change
the supply of livers. Because I did love the old
man and my wife. I kept doing research and more
and more research to try and find an answer. But
no matter where I looked, I found that worldwide, the
plight of those waiting for organ transplants was quite long,
as was a time one stayed on the waiting list
until they either received such thing or expired due to it.
So many people world wide waiting and searching, hoping and waiting,
willing to pay anything, such a large demand. And that's
when it came to me what some would call a
dark idea, what many many people in other countries saw
as inhumane, but at the time what I saw as
merely a means to protect and insure my family's future
and to save my father in law. We had a
fairly large amount of criminals on death row. They would,
within weeks of being convicted, be shuffled from their mortal
coil and would no longer need those organs. I had
found the supply to the demand and a means to
increase the country's output, a new export of valuable, valuable
export to the world. If you had just the means
harvesting our products began immediately, and a new ministry outreach
program was begun, contacting those worldwide searching for such a
valuable commodity. No price seemed too high, and those in
search of such things paid what some would consider exorbitant costs.
They traveled to our country, made use of our people's
medical centers for the operation, and went home to their
countries with a new lease on life, or at least
it extended one. Millions upon millions of dollars streamed in
with each surgery, and after ten years of its installment,
became a ninety billion dollar export business for our great country.
And because of its success, I rose to a member
of the People's National Council. My rise was celebrated, and
for some time I was held in quite a high regard.
There seemed to be a never ending demand of our
product worldwide. No price too high, liver, kidney eyes, whatever
organ one might want or desire, one could have for
the right price. Here's how the process went. Every death
row inmate was given a complete physical, a screening, including
their family's health history, to ensure the best product for
our customer. When a customer contacted us, we found his
match and began the process. If the customer only needed eyes,
the eyes were taken and the inmate was left in
a peaceful, drug induced state. I'lbeit blind until the next
organ was required, for which he was a match, until
we could no longer keep the inmate alive by medical means,
in which case his family was informed that the death
sentence was carried out and their loved one was no
longer with us. So how did I get here? How
did I become next? As I told you, more is
never enough, especially when they want to hold on to
the power or gain more of it. I had ambitions
as I kept rising up the ranks, as I kept
amassing more and more power and privilege and wealth. As
observers saw me as a rising star on the People's
National Council, someone that was single handedly with his ideas
leading the country to heights never seen in some time.
I never considered that my success could also be a threat,
a threat to those who wanted to remain in power.
I won't bore you with the details, because I'm not
sure I have long enough to tell you about all
the trumped up charges that were made against myself and
my family. The fabricated emails that were made between myself
and other high ranking Council members, ministers, and various military
officials conspiring to overthrow the sitting Senior Master Council member,
up to and including his assassination. I was arrested, as
were every member of my family. The charge was treason,
and I was sentenced to death. And because of my
privilege and power and always ever increase in demand, I
found myself quickly at the head of the line. Next,
there were no cries of injustice from those across the world.
The media already had their story fed to them, like
good little dogs that they are by their master, so obedient,
there was no one coming to my rescue. The machine
I had built would continue to work, the product and
the demand never ceasing. I have become expendable, and because
of my threat to those higher up than I needed
to be eliminated. I wonder what they'll take first? Will
I feel any pain? I was always told the inmates
felt no pain? Or was that just a lie I
was fed? I wonder how long they'll keep me alive?
How many organs will they harvest until I expire, If
I'll be conscious or at least semi lucid. Over the
days or weeks or months, they keep me in my
drug induce stupor until I have no value at all.
Will they take my eyes first? Will they take a
kidney or two and just keep me on dialysis? Will
they take a lung or maybe both and keep me
on a ventilator. Will I still be conscious when they
take my heart, letting the machine do all the work.
The truth needs to be known. The truth needs to
be told. It's been going on for years, the dirty
secret of our success, what we've been doing to our
own in the name of prosperity, in the name of
greed and all for power. But even I it's architect,
was expendable in the end,