The White of a Cow's Eye

"Stavano!" Renee gasped. "Paris told us he was dead. Shit Mick!"

Mick scoffed. "Bender is pulling himself, ?nee. Course Stavano is dead."

Ray nodded. "You can visit him if you like. He is in his office, although, I would warn against that. After all, weren't you the one's who knocked his wife over in a hit and..?"

"We gotta get out of here, Mick." Renee's tone was full of panic, but Mick remained calm and confident.

"Your job has expired." Ray told them.

Mick nodded. "No, Ray, you have expired!" And with that, he thrust Ray onto the conveyer belt and started its motor. Ray managed to leap out of the way of the solid metal wringers, but Mick grappled with him, forcing his head onto the belt. Renee squealed with excitement and horror as Ray's head neared the press. She had not moved from her position, strangely satisfied to sift the intestines from the large water tank while her lover fought to end Ray's life in a most gruesome manner. But Ray held on. He brought his knee up into Mick's groin, which forced him back. Ray gathered himself and leapt, tripping at the last instant. He fell forward; his head tumbling into Mick's stomach. Mick fell backwards against the old sifting machine's console panel. Amazingly, the old device started; the lights on the panel came on briefly before exploding in a cascade of sparks. It was enough to disengage the claw from its mooring and it fell, claws outstretched like some hellish demon, down upon Renee. Its half ton weight pummelled her backwards into the large steel water tank which was full of intestines, and pinned her underneath a metre of the slimy entrails. Mick did not go to her aid. He knew no one could have survived that, so he threw himself at Ray with all the anger and strength that he had. It only worked to Ray's advantage. He used Mick's sudden assault to lever the man over his shoulder, and onto the mincing machine's conveyor belt. There was nothing Ray could do as Mick toppled headfirst into the toothless maw of the wringer. By the time Ray managed to turn the machine off, Mick had become a pile of something resembling low grade hamburger mince.

Shit, Ray gasped. My first day as Foreman and all. He jumped as he heard a voice say;

"That's my boy."

"Mr. Stavano!"

Stavano smiled. There was a gun in his hand that made Ray hesitate. It was pointing at him. Stavano gasped and put it away in his coat pocket. "Beat me to it, my boy."

"I...I.. didn't mean to do it...I"

"Bullshit, Ray. I no listen. You save me the trouble. I feel okay now. My wife thanks you. I tell her to bake a chocolate cake for you, eh?" Stavano said.

Ray said chocolate cake was his weakness.

"Anyway, we tidy up later. It's lunch time."

Lunch time, Ray thought. As if he could eat lunch after the carnage that he had just participated in.

"What you eat?"

"Huh?"

"For lunch. What you eat?"

Food? Ray thought. Food? How could he think of food, when the image that filled his mind was that of Mick's pulverised features dribbling through a set of heavy industrial rollers?

"Pizza!" Stavano said. "What about pepperoni pizza? Is my favourite!"

Ray said he preferred the barbecue meat lover's supreme. So they agreed on a large fifty -fifty.