Category E

I didn’t think we got to have names.

Two human test subjects—Corcoran, a half-blind paraplegic, and Filigree, a clinical psychopath—coexist in a laboratory cell. They are sterilized, property of the state, and utilized for the benefit of higher-valued citizens. In their cell are two beds and two chairs. But then Millet arrives. Within thirty-six hours there will only be two again. In the meantime, they play Monopoly, try to figure out who is next door, eat what is given to them, and do their best not to kill each other.

This black comedy takes a wry and unsentimental look at the cavalier cruelties of animal science and asks how we place value on life.