D A Novel (George Right) - By George Right Page 0,64
safety bars pressing them to the seats...
"So this is where those who disappear come!" thought shocked Mike... and immediately called himself an idiot. The carnival had arrived in town just a few days ago–how the hell could there be skeletons and rust?! Stage set, everything here is only trickery!
As if in reply to his thought, something began clanging above. The young people jerked up their heads and saw how from the high ceiling of the vault, unwinding on the fly, right upon them heavy chains with hooks on the ends were falling. It seemed that these hooks would fall directly on their heads, but they flew sideways–two at the left and two at the right–and hollowly tinkled against the car boards. And then... then suddenly from under the car bottom an ugly hand leaned out–covered with scars and lacking phalanxes of two fingers (probably, there was a hatch below which had opened absolutely silently)–and began to fasten the hooks to steel loops under the bottom which Mike and Jane hadn't even noticed when they were taking seats in the car. As soon as the last hook took its place, the chains stretched and jerkily dragged the car up. Having come off the floor, it began to rock back and forth, which was only promoted by the uneven movement of the chains. Halfway up, the mechanism got even more out of sync; the left chains began to pull faster than the right ones, tilting the car more and more to one side; Jane who appeared above screamed in fear again, grabbing Mike's hand. The young man looked down and understood that they were rocking right over the stake sticking out below. If the safety bar which held them were to suddenly open...
But the safety bar didn't open. Chains dragged the car upward, into the blackness of the open hatch–and there, at last, leveled and then, having carried the car slightly forward, settled it on the rails. The hooks clanked, detaching. The car rode again through darkness–but not to the exit (the deceptive burning letters weren't seen any more) but to the next victim.
It was again a woman or a girl–it was impossible to say more definitely. She stood, held by braided rubber restraints on a plane slightly slanted back (to Mike's mind came the term "exhibition mount"), spread like a laboratory frog. Comparing to her, the guy who was skinned alive could consider himself lucky. She had no face any more. It was cut off completely, to the bone–while flesh on each side of the head was left untouched; the bared skull in this meat frame looked especially terrible. But worst of all was the fact it was a skull of an alive person. The balls of lidless eyes, all in blood streaks of the burst vessels, randomly moved in bone eye-sockets, vainly trying to avoid the beam of a spotlight striking directly into them; through a hole on the place of her former nose frequent breath was heard; the bottom jaw powerlessly drooped, however, when the car approached, it twitched–the unfortunate being tried to say something, but the remains of her chewing muscles were not enough for this purpose. Her tongue still moved in the mouth, but neither Mike nor Jane could understand the lowing-howling sounds... Her body had been treated the same as her head: all frontal flesh was cut off. In the bright light of the spotlight it was clearly visible through the ribs how her heart was beating and her lungs were inflating and deflating. All abdominal organs were also exhibited; they didn't fall out–probably, due to the back-slanted position of the body. Arms and legs had undergone the same vivisection; the scraped-out white bones glistened in the surrounding of yellowish fat layers and crimson muscles...
Mike saw how some thickening was slowly moving in her intestines, and convulsively bent over a board in a spasm of vomiting. The car jerked and rolled further, without giving him time to finish. The young man tightly shut his eyes and promised himself again, now even more definitely, not to open them until they get outside.
And he honestly kept the promise even when from the right a disgusting smell of burned meat stank (the terrible heartrending groans couldn't muffle the hissing of fat dripping in fire, and Mike felt close heat by his cheek) as well as when on the left children–four or five simultaneously–began to squeal stridently. But when Jane cried "No! No! Stop!" he nevertheless opened his eyes.