chapter 1: the bags

Loud rain thudded against Pauls windows as he woke up in the early morning. He dragged his flimsy body to the kitchen, where he’d generously receive a coffee from the machine.
Monday mornings, huh?
About an hour later Paul was on his way to work. He was a salesman for a company that traded with goods, supplying factories or farms with what they needed.
The rain hadn’t weakened during the drive to work, as if it was trying to make the office seem like a cozy retreat.

Like most mornings, he trudged through the building like a survivor in a zombie movie, searching desperately for something not dull, envious of the undead that found joy in the consumption of human flesh – two of his burlier coworkers standing in the employee lounge, chatting it up over a donut. He witnessed the kick both men got out of the tasty treats. But Paul just wasn’t a brains guy.

He arrived at his desk, putting an end to the whole zombie metaphor before a third, smaller coworker arrived to illustrate this weeks schedule.
“…Oh and a new product will be arriving today that has been assigned to you. Don’t remember what it is but you’ll be able to see from the sample shipment...”
Pauls ears perked up. A new product wasn’t exactly rare or exciting, but hey, it was something.
“…lastly, it’s sandras birthday today, so there’ll be some cake in the lounge.”
“I’m fine, thanks” A statement backed up by his petite frame, which had withstood years of an office job.

The rest of the day flowed rather normally, until he got the call for the sample shipment, starting Pauls descent down to the warehouse dock. What would the new product be? They were getting samples so nothing too large, perhaps tools? Maybe bottles of water?
Somewhat giddy, he made his way to the worker standing there for him, eyeing the innocuous brown sacks stacked up behind.
“Well, here it is” The guy looked down at his clipboard, checking off a box.
“What exactly is it?” Paul asked skeptically.
“I don’t know man but they sure sent a lot for just a sample size. It’s called “Nutrog”” He gave Paul a look like he was trying to be helpful but more importantly trying to get this job done and proceed with the next one.

It took Paul about twenty minutes to heave every sack up to the inventory room, something that the guys in the warehouse should have probably helped with. Breathing heavily, he slumped down on a chair and took a second to examine one of the sacks. Apart from the name, nothing much was present on the packaging, but he could tell from the ingredients that it was some kind of food product. Probably feed for farm animals.
But now his interest was piqued. He had to know more about it if he was going to sell it, right? He grabbed a boxcutter and began slicing open the sample sack carefully. The first thing to hit was the smell. Or better, the aroma. Wafting out of the bag was the inticing smell of freshly cooked beef… or was it bacon? It was so wonderful that even a non-foodie like Paul was swept away. The actual contents appeared to be brown chunks of meat- or a meat-like substance. Definitely a type of animal chow.

For a brief moment, Paul considered reaching into the sack to taste one of the chunks, surely something with such an enticing aroma would taste just as good on the tongue?
But no. He elected to stick to human food, as he always had.