Just Ignore It

"Good bitch." The creature in front of me stood up and walked away, and I could hear a crowd of people thanking him as he dropped their food on the ground. 

A while later, the gate rattled again, and there was silence. 

"You need to eat that," said Ming Zhu as she pointed to the puddle in front of my cage. She was no longer licking it off of the ground but instead sticking her arm through the bars and scooping it up in her hand before bringing it to her mouth. 

When she saw me staring at her, she shrugged her shoulders. "They prefer us to lick it off the ground, but once they leave, we can do it this way."

"There is no way I can eat that," I replied, pointing to the now pink mixture of some type of grain, twigs, rocks, dirt, spit, and blood. It was a disease waiting to happen, and I would rather starve than have a single speck in my mouth.