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Put Them to Good Use

Summary:

The bodies of executed prisoners are loaded into carts and taken away to be disposed of in a way that the corpses can be useful.

Notes:

Written for Tribble Month 2022.

This piece is a sequel to my poetic work Miasma, though was actually completed beforehand. However, I had started working on Miasma and had had the concept before this piece came into being.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

            A group of soldiers dragged the dead bodies of prisoners out of an execution chamber and dumped them into wheeled carts. Once all the bodies were in the carts, their lids were closed and the soldiers wheeled the carts away from the execution area and down the prison halls. The soldiers arrived at an elevator that went down to the prison’s mechanical rooms. The commanding officer of the group swiped his key card and entered a code. The large elevator doors opened and the soldiers entered along with the carts. Once everyone and everything was in the elevator, the commanding officer once more swiped his key card and entered a code. The elevator closed its doors and descended.

            The elevator arrived at the level of the prison furnace room and the soldiers exited with the carts. The carts were wheeled over next to the furnaces and opened up. The soldiers began taking the bodies out of the cart and placing them on a metal slide which slid the prisoner corpses down into the furnaces where they became fuel for the machines. This was done, not only to dispose of the bodies, but also as a way to save on other fuel resources.

            “If those people couldn’t be useful in life, then they can at least be useful in death,” was the motto. That was apparently the vision of the nation’s Grand Leader when he had these types of prisons constructed and he made sure the motto was repeated by those tasked with running these prisons. Everything had to be run like a well-oiled machine. This was the Leader’s command and he expected everyone to follow it through.

Notes:

If you're interested in reading the 'prequel' poem Miasma, you can find it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42517200

Involves dark subject matter and contains some graphic imagery.

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