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Necromachinarum
The Factory

The Factory

The sadistic machinery and floors stained with dried blood was not what I was expecting upon entering this place. Have I been here before? No of course not. Surely not. The curiosity was infecting me like a plague. I had to see if anything here functioned. A faint buzzing came from the pale yellow lights. Haunting creaks and sobbing drips echoed through the vast empty space. I noticed a sort of narrow moat that followed the track. I made sure to step carefully so my foot wouldn't get caught in it. I carefully ascended the steps leading me to the top of the platform where the device stood. It was much different then what I have seen. Perched atop a pedestal of meat and metal was a square console with red buttons, a lever, lights and a knob sticking out to the right side that moved around. Below the console was another keyhole. Extending the needle, I inserted it and turned my wrist. A bright green light flashed on the very top of the console. The buttons glowed. Looks like it works. Now I need to figure it out.

I pulled the lever first. The crane shuddered. Dust fell from it's surface. A circular door in the floor opened up with a grating sound. Rising up from below was a steel cart with a handle attached to it's own rail that met up with the floor's main rail at an intersection. Huh? I then grabbed the knob as if out of muscle memory and gently moved it down. The crane arm began to lower. Was... This for the pods housing the flesh sacks? I lurched the crane arm over to one of the pods, automatically adjusting itself. Pressing the top button a small green light blinked. The crane's beefy claw opened wide like a set of jaws about to digest a full meal. Moving it ever so slightly, it was perched right over the pod. I then pressed the lower button and the claw clasped down onto the pod. Oh? I gingerly backed the crane up, now holding onto this pod and brought it over towards where I stood. I then lowered the crane until the pod was over the rail cart. I was beginning to make sense of how this functioned. Pressing the upper button once more, the claw opened up to drop the pod into the cart perfectly intact. Suddenly a set of curved bars raised up from the side of the cart to lock the pod down in place. So was that it? I let go of the console, sticking the needle into the keyhole and turned. The crane automatically ascended to return to it's original position. The console went dormant. Now I stood in a puzzled state. Below me on the ground floor was this strange pod inside of a rail cart.

No other choice now but to see this through. I stepped down from the platform to walk over to the rail cart. The sack of pale flesh throbbed. Muffled groans from inside sent a shiver down my spine. My thin fingers grasped the handle as I started pushing it. The tunnel closest to me was off to the right so I swiveled the cart around and went in that direction. But, before I would proceed over I stopped in front of one of these machines with the sharp claws. A little console on the side must've meant that it was operated at a safe distance away from the claws. I walked over to the console. It only had a single button and lever. Pressing the button activated the machine. Flipping the lever up made the machine operate as it lurched forward and dug it's claws into the flesh sack. Pulling the lever made the claws rise. The sack tore clean off, with bits and pieces falling to the floor. The claw then clamped down to shred the freshly-removed flesh sack. I could not believe what I was seeing strapped into that pod. A pulsating, bleeding mound of grotesque flesh with three arms and a single leg all attached in various spots. It was even more pale then the cocoon that housed it. Poking out of the flesh was a pudgy face. It's eyes were gray. Soulless. The nose was deformed. And it's mouth just hung open. The groans made sense now. This 'thing' did not at all resemble me nor us. Just a miserable, ugly pile of flesh. What even is this creature? What was it's purpose? Let's find out...

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I pushed the cart onward into the tunnel. The track would curve to the left slightly. Ahead of me was a new area. Another piece of machinery condensed into this pocket of the tunnel. A steel cradle inside a shell with a glass door left wide open. It almost resembled the pod I had emerged from. There was also a single door leading deeper into the factory mere feet away. I noticed a console that sat behind some iron railing on a much lower platform conjoined to this rather odd machine. The narrow moat from the previous area followed here and opened up much wider underneath the cradle machine. Leaving the cart on the designated circle where the rail had ended with the deformed flesh monstrosity, I made my way to the console. A single button accompanied by a switch. Like the claw machine, the button activated it. The motor powering it hummed. Now for the switch. The cradle popped out from it's shell connected to a steel arm. It encapsulated the monstrosity with hooks piercing it's flesh. Streams of blood tricked down onto the floor. With the monstrosity scooped up into the cradle, it retracted back into it's shell. The groans grew more eerie and painful. Like it was trying to scream but was incapable of doing so. Well... I guess I'll flip the switch again. The glass door closed down onto the shell. The motor began to growl and what sounded like whirling blades screeched from inside the shell. Guts and innards spewed all inside the shell, coating the glass in blood. It ran for a moment then ceased. The muffled groaning inside the shell had stopped. The moat began to fill with the fresh blood of the mutilated monstrosity. I watched the blood travel down the narrow path all the way into the main area. Then... The glass door opened up. Going to inspect it, I saw that inside remained a mess of meat. No guts to speak of. So the monstrosity was completely stripped of it's organs and blood, reduced to a pile of fresh meat. But, now what? I did gaze to that door nearby. I was starting to put together some idea of how this factory worked. But questions remained. What was the purpose? Why eviscerate living creatures? Just what are the monstrosities? I don't know. I don't know. I needed to proceed.

The hallway was lengthy. Ever so slightly curving upwards. Pipes were lined along the walls. Steam fizzled out of a few spots. Must be from all the rust. Lying on it's side was a small cart. This hall must connect to that other tunnel in the main area. I came to an arch in the wall and turned the corner. I found myself on a long platform. A few carts sat near one-another with one split off from the rest. A corpse lied beneath it. It looked as if it was pushing it before collapsing. Peculiar. What really caught my eye were the two massive doors hitched with rods connected to steel boxes on the ceiling. This entire area was a docking bay. I had come to this conclusion when I noticed the jalopy in front of one of the bay doors. This factory... Sickened me. I wanted to leave and nothing stopped me from vaulting over the safety rail onto the concrete and leaving the vicinity.