I squinted into the glare and asked again, “What’s that smell?”

It didn’t just smell like something had died and been rotting slowly. No, this was something much, much worse. It was the kind of smell that seeped into your skin, your hair, your soul.

The light bounced around for a moment, vaguely illuminating the edges of a large pit near the back of the truck. It looked like it had been dug in the middle of a deep, wide ravine. The sharp edges of the hole were about fifteen feet in diameter and the bottom was shrouded indarkness. I leaned forward, one hand on the truck, desperately trying to breathe through my mouth.

Junior joined me on the other side of the truck and finished the Old Grandad with a satisfied gasp. “Makes life worth living,” he breathed, indicating the bottle, and then tossed it into the darkness. It landed with a loud splash. “Sounds full,” he said.

“What is this?” I whispered.

“Our hot tub,” Junior whispered back and the flashlight found his grinning face, filled with deep, black hollows.

A low whine split the darkness. I looked up to find a large meat hook welded to a cable dangling in front of me. It hung from the thick steel arm that jutted out from the back of the truck. The cable was attached to the winch near the cab. Bert moved to the back of the truck, waving the flashlight in front of him. The mud in front of me and Junior suddenly leapt into sharp focus, and the light spilled into the pit.

Ten or twelve dead cows and several dead sheep floated lifelessly in the rancid rainwater.

“Told you it was full,” Junior said.

Some of the livestock had been there a long time. The water in the pit looked thick, like some sort of tomato and meat soup that had gone bad. “Holy shit,” I repeated to no one in particular.

“Me ‘n’ Bert like to come out here and soak in it. Makes our skin all soft and snuggly,” Junior said. “Toss me that hook, Bert.”

He grabbed the swinging hook and turned to me. “Get a fresh one, okay?”

I took a step backward. “What?”

“I can see two new ones down there. We only need one, although both would be fucking great.”

“Wait, hold on just a minute. You … you want me to go down there?”

“You catch on pretty quick for a fucking idiot.”

“You gotta be kidding,” I hissed. “No way. No.” My voice rose to a shout. “Ernst ain’t paying me enough for this shit!” I started to say somethingelse but caught a flash of Bert’s cast out of the corner of my eye, and suddenly a sharp explosion went off inside my skull. I collapsed into the mud.

The darkness was soft and quiet. It felt almost comfortable, but then I heard someone say, “Pussy.” I wanted to say something, to shout, scream, something, but nothing seemed to be working right. Something cold slapped my face and just as I realized it was mud, something tugged at the back of my shorts. I had a strange sensation of being lifted. My fingers brushed against something that felt vaguely familiar. Shoelaces. Shoelaces with knots tied in them. My own shoelaces. I figured out that I was somehow bent nearly double, suspended in midair by the back of my shorts.

I blinked furiously and shook my head. Synapses fired at random in my brain, misfiring and sparking in strange patterns. I kept shaking my head and, suddenly, my vision popped back into place, except that it was rolling back and forth as if something were wrong with the vertical control.

I realized I was looking at the pit as it slid to and fro underneath me. It’s just a dream, this is just a dream, I decided. Some sort of panic attack. I just gotta get control of myself. Everything’s gonna be okay. Everything’s just—

Something at the back of my shorts popped, and I dropped eight feet into the water.

Right before I hit, I could hear Junior and Bert laughing hysterically.

I landed on my side with a flat slapping sound, dropping into a space between two dead cows. It was almost warm, like a bath that’s been waiting a little too long. I fought my way to the surface of the rancid soup, gagging and thrashing. The greasy water was in my eyes, my ears, my nose, and even, oh, Jesus, my mouth.

It didn’t taste dead, like I expected, but horribly, horribly alive, as if I could actually feel the bacteria and viruses and germs and God knows whatever else in that toxic soup swim and flit about across my tongue. The panic tumor in my brain burst, sending adrenaline shooting throughout my body, and I kicked and flailed, feet and hands slamming against soft, rotting meat.

Fibrous chunks of flesh disintegrated under my fingers, floating away from the rolling carcasses. Shadows danced wildly across the cows, making them look as if they were surging around the pit, fighting not to drown.

“Oh God, oh fuck.” I gagged.

The meat hook sunk slowly into the liquid muck to my left.

“Let’s go! We don’t have all night!” Junior shouted hoarsely, cupping his hands over his mouth.

I thrust my chin toward the sky, anything to keep the thick water out of my mouth. My arms thrashed desperately at the hook, managing to wrap my fingers around the smooth, curved metal. I grabbed the cable with my other hand and pulled myself somewhat out of the water.

Things twisted and squirmed all around me. I felt something moving in my right nostril and forced myself to stick a finger in there and dig out whatever it was. I pried it out and caught a quick glimpse in the erratic light of a squirming maggot on the end of my finger.

“Let’s go!” Junior hissed.

I took several quick, shallow breaths, and flicked the maggot away into the darkness, then locked my lips together and rolled the nearest steer over. I gritted my teeth and sunk the hook into a meaty shoulder of the carcass.

“Get out of the way!” Junior shouted through his cupped hands.

I reluctantly let go of the cable and paddled backward. Bert reversed the winch and the generator began reeling the steel cable toward the back of the truck. The dead steer was slowly lifted out of the water, its neck hanging at an odd angle and its eyes staring blankly at me. Streams of dark water ran off the matted hair as the light followed it up.

I clung to a basketball-sized rock sunk in the wall and kicked away another carcass, rotten to the bone.

I looked up just in time to see the steer’s shoulder muscle split in half with a wet, ripping sound. The carcass dropped back into the pit, landing on me like a freight train and driving me under the surface. This time, panic took over completely. My world got as dark and muffled as a nightmare; I could hear only thick, liquid sounds and my own frantic heartbeat. I fought my way to the surface, twisting, clawing, and kicking at the water and the soft meat.

My hands found the rock again and I managed to pull my head out of the water.

Junior hollered through cupped hands, “I said a fresh one, dumbshit!”

Bert giggled and lowered the hook once again. Pushing away from the rock I grabbed the hook, then lifted my head and shoulders out of the water, kicking away some of the more rotten cows. There. There’s one.

I half kneeled on one of the carcasses and raised the hook above my head. Thick warm water trickled down my neck. Then I brought that sucker down with all the strength I had, sinking the hook, deep this time, into the neck of the dead steer.

I heard the winch begin to whine above me. The steel cable grew taut and began to lift the second steer out of the water. Junior followed the carcass with the flashlight. It spun slowly in midair, front legs jutting stiffly away from the body. I hung onto the rock in the pit wall, watching the splayed rear legs being pulled from the water. Then the light was gone completely, leaving me in total darkness.

“Get the light down here!” I shrieked. “Please!”

Junior hissed down into the pit, “Quiet! Quiet!” I heard the winch’s whine change pitch, then a dull thud as the steer landed in the back of the truck.