Not well

You and Chloe are led into the pet shop by Rozy. From what you can understand Anjie is at school and this is a weekday. Being brought back to the place you were prisoner before being sold as a pet was not a pleasant experience. Rozy had mainly brought you here out of necessity as she did not want to leave you at home alone and needed your help picking food and "toys" you would like. However, it was obvious from the first step that this was a mistake.

Chloe gasped "Oh, My goodness," she said in a shocked tone.

You just turned away and tried not to vomit. Stacked on a shelf were dead and vacuum-packed people. The first one you could see was Arron, your short time friend. His naked body gutted down the middle and sealed in plastic. Above him on the packaging in the translated alien text read "Slime food".

"Oh, No!" Rozy commented disapprovingly. She immediately turned us away from the harrowing sight bending down and using her huge lower arms lift us up and covered our eyes with the top pair. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I did not know." She whispered to us. "What is the meaning of this!" She shouted out, I assumed towards the shop assistant.

"What can I do for you, Miss?" You hear the patronising voice of the grey alien shopkeeper.

"Well, I find it utterly disgusting that you would have human corpses displayed like this as the first thing you see as you enter the shop. You have really upset my human pets." Rozy complained.

"Mam, I hate to inform you that Humans are no longer considered suitable pets. Those sold as such will still be considered so but no more can be sold or sourced. Since our stock couldn't be returned to the wild they were reclassified as livestock. And thus I have all right to display them as I see fit. Human slime food is all the rage at the moment as it is limited stock. So I have displayed my batch in prime position. However, this does mean that our stock of human food and toys are now half price while stocks last." The alien shopkeeper explained.

"How did this happen and what will happen to my pets?" Rozy asked. You and Chloe were too traumatised to say anything and would be ignored anyway.

"Your pets will be fine and all others sold before yesterday will be too. Some animal rights activists argued that humans were to be considered intelligent and be allowed to join the galactic population. Some say they should even have an ambassador in the galactic council. They were luckily unsuccessful with that campaign but some ambassador looking for re-election made a compromise. Humans are to be considered unevolved life until the point they work out how to leave their star system. Once that requirement is met then a new ruling will be made on their intelligence and their status as, livestock, pet or Populus will be re-examined."

So what does that mean?" Rozy asked clutching us tight as if someone was about to take us away.

"All humans sold will continue in the role they were sold for and any offspring will automatically be assigned that role as well. Since my stock had not been assigned a role I was free to choose what to do with them and Slime food was the most profitable option. I will be no longer selling human food after I have sold what I have but you will be able to source it elsewhere. Since there have been problems with captive breeding, the politicians hope that the population will die out allowing the problem to solve itself." the alien shopkeeper explained.

Rozy carried us to where the human products were being displayed with big 50% off labels on. "I am so sorry, I didn't realise your intelligence was going to be a problem, I thought it would be nice to have a pet that was easy to train plus Anjie loved you. Since everything is 50% off you can both choose two treats and two toys." Rozy explained as she put us down. She seemed to be treating us more like people now or at least like children.

You found a set of Chronical of Narnia books, a bottle of pleasure jell, a real packet of liquorice allsorts and full English flavoured "breakfast cereal". Chloe chose a first aid book, a two-sided strap on (you wonder what she had planned), a bottle of rose wine and Bollonese flavoured wet food in pouches. Rozy picked up a few extra bags of long life generic mixed flavours kibble and some tins of mixed wet food. "Might as well stock up, it will have to last until we find a supplier. I am not coming here again." She remarked. She took your stuff to the counter and just before paying picked up a handful of human pregnancy tests from the bargain basket by the counter. It seemed like they were real pregnancy tests from Earth, just repackaged as novelty items.

You closed your eyes and followed Rozy's directions though the leed on the way out. Sneaking one last glance at the gutted and packed Arron on your way out.

"I am going to have nightmares for weeks." Chloe remarked.