Beast Machine (48 page)

“
Screw it, let’s just get
on this one,” Gora ran up to the elevator second from the left. She
pushed a button to the left of the elevator.
Bee-oop.
“It better have enough room
for all of us.”

The elevator arrived
immediately and opened to an elongated room only a few feet across,
yet fifteen feet long. The group piled in quickly. Gora, Owlbert,
and Tubman made it into the elevator without issue, but Hitbear
needed to turn himself sideways to fit into the
elevator.

“
Hmm,” said Gora,
scratching her face. “Which do we want? There’s buttons for several
floors on this panel. Where would Silva be?”

Owlbert and Tubman huddled
around the panel with Gora, as Hitbear tried to get comfortable in
the strangely shaped elevator. His burly shoulders and massive
furbody kept hitting the sides of the elevator. He pushed, twisted,
and bent all over the place as his friends pored over the panel of
buttons.

-----

“
Did you hear that?” asked
Silva.

“
Hear what? I don’t really
have ears you know,” replied Chelsey, though she did have ears by
way of the many speakers in the facility. She was still invested
heavily in her tablet game. It entertained her how she could
actually be in the game! “At least not ears like yours… What do you
think it was?”

“
It was a loud pounding,”
said Silva, he was in the midst of returning the deceased miner’s
corpse back in cold storage. “Thane is doing maintenance, but I’ve
never heard a noise like that before.”

“
Hmm, interesting,” replied
Chelsey lazily.

Silva shook his head and
pushed the gurney out of the surgical room to the storage room
freezer. The lights flickered but Silva paid no mind as he shoved
the gurney into the freezer and shut the door. He removed his
gloves, tossed them aside then brushed his hands.

“
Nearly time to go home,
dear!” chimed Silva. He began to hum happily as he reentered the
surgical room.

“
Hmm, interesting,” replied
Chelsey.

“
Come on, you can’t be
consumed by some video game!” He shook his head and then put his
hands behind his head. “You get too obsessive of things! Just like
with working out and that muscle contraption!”

“
Oh, shush,” replied
Chelsey, still playing her game. “It’s not like there’s much else I
can do! You haven’t created a new body for me. I’m electricity, or
light, or whatever bullshit you said I am. Just some complicated
programming.”

“
I’m trying my best to get
to that!” yelled Silva. He rubbed his nose briskly. “I have to
finish work on all the new applications for the Carda Implant then
I can begin making you a new body.” He sat next to his blue-lighted
lover. Half her body was in the middle of the tablet screen
smacking fruit back at an okapi, while the other half was projected
onto a chair. Silva’s arm instinctively went around her shoulder
but fell through her body. His hands moved to his lap.

“
Listen,” he said quietly.
“I’ll begin working on your new body on the side tomorrow. I can’t
really do much, anyhow, until I know what’s wrong with that
big-dicked miner’s Carda Implant.”

Chelsey sighed and then
left the fruit throwing game to give her a full body once again. “I
know you’re trying,” she said sadly. “It’s just aggravating not
being able to touch you. Not being able to feel your skin against
my skin. It’s all I’ve wanted to do since I was brought back to
this world.” The pair looked at each other in the eyes. “I want to
kiss you so bad.”

“
I will allocate my time
better in an effort to making you a body,” said Silva, lost in
Chelsey’s blue-lit eyes. “I swear it.” They both leaned in
close.

BA-DUSH.

A door leading to one of
the hallways was knocked open.

“
What the fuck?” said
Silva. He stood up quickly and stepped toward the door.

A hairy pair of large feet
entered the room. “Am I interrupting something?” asked Hitbear. He
made a fist with his natural paw and slammed it into his metal
paw.

“
Who the hell are you?”
asked Silva backing away from the door. “How are you
talking?”

“
What’s the deal with your
shitty haircut?” asked Chelsey, sitting still in her chair knowing
she couldn’t be hurt.

Hitbear frowned, “Hey!
That’s just the way I was created! Lay off.” He then bellowed out a
large growl.
Ahhh-ruuuuuu!
“I hope you two didn’t have any plans for
tonight!”

Gora, Owlbert and Tubman
entered the room. They filed behind Hitbear, using him as a shield
incase of any projectiles. It was an inane endeavor by the
three.

“
Gora?” said Silva. “Is
that you? I haven’t seen you in
years!
”

“
Oh fuck off, Takeo,” said
Gora poking her head around Hitbear’s massive body. “Don’t act like
you’ve always been nice to me!”

Silva’s face scrunched up,
“What in the hell are you talking about?” He raised his hands and
looked around. “We were the closest of friends! Then you started to
slander my name…” He scratched his hand. “Something about me
stealing an invention from you?”

Gora stepped out from
behind Hitbear, “You stole the credit for my tree regeneration
serum!” Her face grew red, this time for the rage building inside
of her instead of her embarrassment or anxiety. “The company told
me another person had sent them it – which was impossible because I
was miles ahead of anyone else working on that! The only other
person that could have stolen it would be you, Takeo!” Gora’s voice
shook but remained strong.

“
What are you talking about
Gora?” said Silva loudly. “I sent the package like you asked me! I
didn’t tamper with your invention, why would I steal something from
a friend? Especially something that was not in my area of
expertise!” He scoffed.

“
Lies!” screeched Gora.
“Damned lies!” She removed her knife and charged at
Silva.

She lunged toward his
throat but missed as she was moving far too wildly.

Silva stepped to the side
with ease. “You’re really going to try to kill me over rumors?
Bah!” He laughed as he stepped out of the way from another attack
from Gora. The portly Silva was rather agile for his size. “You can
keep swinging that tiny blade at me all night.” He laughed. “Why
don’t you explain to me what these… these ugly creatures are,
instead?”

Gora stopped her flailing
of her knife and backed up toward her beasts. “Leave them out of
this, you monster!” Her hair had unfurled from her typical messy
bun and was strewn across her face.

Owlbert and Tubman gave
Silva a look of great contempt while Hitbear snorted loudly.
Hitbear spat a monstrous loogie at the unsuspecting Silva. The
loogie as it hit Silva right in the face.

“
Ack!” squealed
Silva.

“
Accept your death, fat
man,” growled Hitbear.

Gora lurched forward and
caught Silva on the cheek. He backed away clutching his cheek as
blood dripped through his fingers.

“
Blast, you got me,” said
Silva. “Chelsey!”

“
Yes?” replied Chelsey. She
had been sitting, bored, in her chair as Silva defended
himself.

“
Alert Thane, damn it!”
commanded Silva. The gash in his cheek grew larger. “What the hell
was on that blade? It burns!”

“
I already alerted Thane,”
said Chelsey calmly. “He should be here any moment now.” Her face
couldn’t show a full range of emotions but if it did her face would
be fully apathetic. She knew she was in no danger.

“
Wonderful!” said Silva. He
calmly walked to a drawer and grabbed gauze. “Why are you all just
standing there looking at me? Shouldn’t you be trying to attack me,
Gora?”

“
Ja, Gora finish him!”
screamed Owlbert.

“
Get that asshole!” cheered
on Tubman.

“
Fuck him up!” shouted
Hitbear. “Show him your mean side!”

Gora shook her head wildly,
“Erm, sorry.”

“
Why are you saying sorry,
now?” Silva was almost finished wrapping the gauze around his head,
stopping the bleeding from the gash on his cheek. His chubby face
became chubbier as the gauze was wrapped vertically around his
noggin. He struggled to speak but forced out, “You have become so
pathetic. What happened to the strong innovator I knew?”

“
You stole her from me!”
screamed Gora as she charged at Silva again.

Gora swung her knife at
Silva’s chest. He moved just in time, and countered with throwing
the excess gauze in Gora’s face. The gauze wrapped around her
shoulders and down her body causing her to stop charging at
Silva.

Hitbear wanted to help
untangle her but was stopped by Tubman. Tubman looked at Hitbear
and merely shook her head. Hitbear sighed and stood back as he
watched his creator struggle to fight off Silva.

As Gora untangled herself
from the gauze, Silva said, “I didn’t steal anything from you!” He
grabbed a nearby scalpel. “You’re just misremembering it all!” He
tossed the scalpel at Gora with a miserable attempt of a throw.
“Damn it!”

Gora finally removed the
gauze from around her, “You’re in denial.” She spit out additional
gauze that had been in her mouth. “I’ll just finish this now; I’ve
taken far too long.” She made another charge at Silva. He had
nowhere to hide or anything to protect him, so he cowered as Gora
powered toward him.

“
Oh please, no!” he
squeaked out.

KA-CHUNK,
THWOMP!

A door from the opposite
side of the room shot open and off its hinges. It caused Gora to
stop her assault on Silva and look at what was entering the
room.

It was Thane.

“
Oh goody!” said Chelsey
excitedly. She motioned her hands to clap but no sound was emitted.
“I was wondering when you’d get here!”

Hitbear, along with the
other two beasts, was startled by Thane’s entrance, but the beasts
regained their composure quickly.

Hitbear sized up Thane.
“I’ll get this prick,” said Hitbear loudly. He stretched out his
body quickly and then started to run on all fours towards Thane.
Despite being underground, the room shook violently as Hitbear ran
towards Thane.

“
Finally, some fun,” said
Thane plainly, with a mild smile. Hitbear, at full speed, met a
flat-footed Thane head-on. A bright light flashed through the
already well-lit room, temporarily blinding everyone with
retinas.

“
So you thought you could
defeat me that easily?” Thane’s skin had turned so bright that he
was emitting heat. He was clutching Hitbear by the throat with a
single hand. “Stupid bear.” Thane flung Hitbear against the
wall.

“
Hitbear!” screamed
Gora.

“
Stop Silva, Gora,” said
Tubman, running toward Hitbear. “We’ll help him out!”

Gora nodded and turned her
attention toward Silva. “It ends now!”

“Please don’t!” said Silva.
“I didn’t do anything wrong… I needed the money from your
invention…” Silva got on his knees and began to plead for his life.
Gora approached him and placed her knife on his fat throat. “I did
what I did because my wife couldn’t control herself… I wasn’t
strong enough to stop her.” Tears fell from his eyes, down his
chubby gauzed-up face. Another flash of light shot through the
room. “Please, spare my life. I’ll do good, I’ll do
any-
urck
”

Gora slit his
throat.

Blood fell out of his fat
neck like sap from a tree. It was a slow and thick bleed from a
sizeable cut from his neck.

Gora spat at him and turned
around to help her beasts. What she saw confused and terrified
her.

Owlbert and Tubman were
down on the ground and Hitbear was nowhere to be found. She ran
over to Tubman and held her head up, “What happened?! Where is
Hitbear?!”

Tubman coughed and weakly
said, “That man… that man as bright as the sun took Hitbear.” She
coughed again, as Gora held her head still. “I saw the man drag
Hitbear out of the room and then everything went black.”

“
Thane took your friend,
and blinded the bird and the long-eared rat,” said Chelsey, still
sitting on her chair. “You better leave now – he’s purposefully
giving you three a chance to leave since you helped him
out.”

“
Helped him out?” said Gora
aloud. Gora swallowed loudly. She helped Tubman get to her feet.
“We aren’t leaving without Hitbear! Tell us where they
went!”

“
Thane will not be giving
you back the bear,” said Chelsey. She stood up from her chair. “I
will unlock the necessary doors and an elevator for you three to
escape, you must leave now.”

Gora gnashed her teeth
together. She didn’t want to leave Hitbear, but she had to think
about the other two. “I’ll grab Owlbert, let’s get out of here.”
Tubman nodded and walked with a noticeable limp to the doorway.
Gora followed closely while carrying an incapacitated Owlbert. Gora
turned around to see Chelsey.