Eating, part two.
Barry, sat at his place, picked up his piece of glass.
Garner said:
“In case of capture you will convince them that you need to shave. You will tell them that a piece of glass can't be held as a weapon, and so it's innocuous”
Barry looked at his dead rat. It was cold and stiff in his hand.
The small dead creature still had the freeze of the refrigerated cell upon it.
Barry asked himself who could possibly be the official US-army-rats supplier.
And rats of the worst species: big black sewer rats with shining black fur, but pink tails.
The idea of eating that small beast was enough to make him feel sick.
The idea that that he was going to live eating things like that for two months really made regurgitation rise up in his throat.
“Good cooking is necessary for hygienic reasons, but if we take the body parts containing urine and faeces, there's no need for it any more. So we are now going to skin our rat, and take all of these body parts apart, the intestine in particular. Pick up your piece of glass and make a straight, longitudinal cut over the animal's belly, from the neck to the groin. And prepare to drink a small amount of blood”
At the moment, Barry thought it was a joke. He looked around in search of support, but no one returned his gaze. On the contrary, most had just started cutting their rats.
Garner, in the meantime, was continuing his lesson.
“No matter how undernourished you might be, always remember to avoid drinking too much blood at a time, because it causes vomit. There's no such risk with rats, because they are small animals, but with rabbits or anything else the risk is real. Your stomach can just digest small amounts of it at the time, which is the reason you won't be able to keep it down. So remember to always drink small amounts of it”
Barry looked at Messner, the medic of his team.
Messner had started already, but Barry preferred to turn away from him. Messner had already been field-surgeon assistant in Vietnam, so he was already used to all kinds of dreadfulness.
Fuck.
Barry looked again at his rat with his piece of glass in his hand and, in the end he found the inner strength to start the cut.
He put the glass tip under the rat's neck.
He started pushing the tip, while making the glass slide down at the same time. The rat's fur opened up almost by itself, and immediately unveiled the beast’s entrails, red and slimy.
Barry tilted his head back from the rat on the table, and assumed a disgusted facial expression.
Garner explained 'how to get inside with the finger tips', with the purpose of fully disembowelling the animal..
After the cut, Barry took the skin away.
It was thin and slimy on one side, and furry on the other. The rats' face slipped off its head like a glove.
The skin got stuck a little while, before being torn away.
Barry was now as white as a sheet, and it wasn't over yet.
The others had all already put their animals on one side and their skins on the other.
Garner said:
“Fine. Now that you have stripped the skin off your rat and the fur is far away, the animal is hygienic.
Now you have to pierce the heart and drink a few drops of blood”
The recruits executed it. Barry finished peeling the skin off his animal in a hurry, than he pierced his rat too.
Some sounds of swallowing up started coming from here and there in the room, as if they were sniffing it with their noses.
The rat's blood was cold and nauseating.
The taste of the iron flooded Barry's mouth.
The boy discovered that the rat's blood tasted just like any other blood, and just this idea made him even sicker.
“Everything crawling, flying, swimming or on four legs can be eaten”
Barry was struck by an acid retch.
“Don't exaggerate. As I already said, a sip is enough to ingest a huge amount of iron”
Barry puked on the floor.
The vomit came up from his throat in painful strokes, partly coming out the wrong way and forcing him into coughing.
That puke had the taste of rat’s blood, and Barry knew that it was going to stay down in his throat for a very, very long time.
Coletta, who was sat beside him, laughed at him
All of the recruits group was smiling, but those smiles were somewhat fake: most of them were on the verge of puking too.
And witnessing that show wasn't of any help to them.
Garner continued talking as if nothing had happened.
“Everything other animals eat can be eaten. Everything you intend to try, keep it five minutes in your mouth: if after that wait, a disgusting taste appears, it's a dangerous sign. Otherwise, swallow it. Above all, stay away from anything containing a milky liquid”.