<strong>CANDY, Dog cages</strong><br/><br/><em>Silence. Finally, silence.<br/><br/>An unmarked collection van, a day early.<br/>Two uniformed men.<br/>Blackness.<br/><br/>Dimmed shadows, muffled noises.<br/>A hypodermic needle, searing, temporary pain.<br/>More blackness.<br/><br/>Wood, straw. A crate.<br/>Something in my mouth. Hard, round, plastic. Uncomfortable.<br/>Never fully awake, never fully asleep. Always drifting restlessly.<br/>Splintering wood. Pounding heat. Fresh air.<br/>Light.<br/><br/>More needles, blinding lamps, stifled laughter.<br/>Unconsciousness.<br/><br/>Semi-consciousness. More laughter. Movement.<br/>Darkness, metal, more noise. Then, silence.<br/>Finally, silence.</em><br/><br/><strong><em>Consciousness!</em></strong><br/><br/>I awoke with a start, letting out a gasp, much like that of a drowning person's, dragged up to the life sustaining oxygenated surface. It was the first time I'd felt truly awake since... well, I had no idea. Up until now my perception of time and reality had been distorted somehow, and now... well, right now I felt awake, and had to assume that I really was back from whatever state I'd been in. What had happened to me? All I had to work this out were some vague, fragile memories that offered me little insight. For now, I had to find out where I was. The past could wait- the present could not. I looked about me cautiously into the darkness, my eyes not yet properly adjusted.<br/><br/>Bars. Thin metal bars in front of me, and to my side. A cage. I was in a cage! Panic began to creep in, poisoning my body. Animals were caged- but I could think, animals couldn't. I could reason, animals cou- I cried out suddenly in horror, my eyes having slid slowly down to my hands, my brain attempting to disprove a theory that it so desperately wanted to prove wrong. Locks. Mittens. Animal mittens. As terror began to flow and mix in with my panic, I turned my body- oh God, my naked body- around to my feet. It was not just my feet that looked back at me.<br/><br/>Leg binders, neatly secured, clamped about my feet and ankles. Binders I'd seen, albeit rarely, on animals who insisted on trying to climb up on work surfaces. I could think.. reason.. feel emotion... Jesus Christ, I could feel fear and panic, animals didn't... animals didn't.. didn't... they were animals for God's sake! I was a human, a human God damn it! Why was I here, caged, in these animal devices? My shell shocked brain desperately lunged for any possible answer it would reach. There must have been a mistake... I must have been picked up accidentally, and somehow avoided a lobotomy, though how I didn't know. Clinical error? Vet mess-up? However it had happened, I was lucky- I was still sane. I wasn't beyond rescuing. I had to call someone, someone to get me out of here. Swallowing a large volume of spit, I started to bang on the front of the cage with my mittens, yelling out loudly. All around me were dumb animals, apparently sleeping. A few stirred, but what did it matter?<br/><br/><strong>"Hey, HEY, someone's made a mistake!" </strong>I called out, wincing slightly at an ache forming in my breasts. Probably bruised from my mistaken handling. I ignored it.<br/><br/><strong>"Hey, I'm not an animal, one of your squads picked me up by accident!" </strong><br/><br/>My mittens kept rattling the bars, a few more of the animals moving. I ignored them, though part of me realised how lucky I'd been, even as I sat, caged and clad in animal devices, a collar rattling around my neck. If this had been an open pound, like the ones I'd seen in California, I could have been attacked and raped by some of the other dogs, unable to see me as anything other than just another bitch to be taken. I shuddered at the horrific thought, continuing to yell and shake the cage.