Beast Machine (13 page)

Gora slowly made her way to
the Beast Machine, but gathered a few pillows and blankets to cover
Hitbear with as she passed by the slumbering bear.

“
How much time is left on
her arrival?” asked Gora. She yawned again; this caused her whole
body to shake.

“
It appears to be merely
minutes!” cheeped Owlbert happily. He clicked his beak.

Click-click, click,
click-click.

Taken aback, Gora asked,
“How long have you been working on this?!” She walked over to the
control panel. Everything seemed to be in order. The data screen
was lacking certain aspects to the modern world, but it didn’t seem
to be anything major as Gora moved on to check the cooling
station.

The vials of static
animals, now only five remaining, were properly placed in the
cooling station and the purple liquid was safely placed back in its
locked cabinet. Gora didn’t even realize that Owlbert had to have
unlocked the cooling station and cabinet to retrieve the
ingredients for the Beast Machine.

Owlbert clicked his talons
a few times before stating, “At least zehn hours, Gora! Ist bin
greeeat fun! I tinkered with your equations to speed up zee
process. It has bin so long since I’ve done experiment!” A smile
stretched across the bird’s face. His feather mustache jostled up
and down.

“
What about Harriet’s
picture? Where did you know where to look for?” Gora put her hair
up in her typical messy bun. It was so messy that it looked like
she put ample time into the process to make it so messy. Her right
cheek was red from lying on it for the past ten hours.

“
Ist not that hard to find,
honestly. Du keep, um, very clean lab, Frau Gora. Many scientists
lack zee cleaning function in their brain, myself included. I
always made mess, even using just chalk und maths.”

Gora slowly spun around,
looking at her lab. There were broken glass beakers and vials in a
corner, the ceiling was discolored from years of experiments,
ripped paper of various quality strewn throughout the lab,
cockroaches that had become domesticated roamed without fear and
the floor resembled that of a pizza parlor after six consecutive
weeks of birthday parties. It was a mess.

Gora, however, didn’t pay
any mind to where Owlbert got a legitimate photograph of Harriet
Tubman. She was just happy about the small compliment he gave
her.

“
Thank you, Owlbert.” She
smiled and patted him gently on the back. He stretched his wings
and yawned.

“
I must get back to mein
perch und rest! Ist no good if I am tired! Sleep ist zee most
important resource vee humans, er, part-humans have!” He nodded at
Gora and made his way to Hitbear and nuzzled up close to the brown
bear. The cuddling beasts made Gora’s heart warm.

In the final minutes before
Tubman’s arrival, Gora brushed dust and random filth from her hair
and sleep from her eyes. Despite her ruffled clothes from sleeping
in them, Gora appeared ready to welcome her third creation into the
world, into her world. Gora even wore a smile, albeit a strained
smile.

The timer on the Beast
Machine went off. Gora braced herself for Tubman to appear from the
Beast Machine and be ready to help.

The machine shook violently
and the door flung open. Out bounced a hare that went straight for
Gora. Gora took this as a sign of warmness, a sign of happiness
from Tubman for being revived again, yet it was a sign of
discontent.

“
Welco-,“ stated Gora as
she was kicked in the mouth by the hare. The hare bounced off
Gora’s head in the process. Blood dripped out of Gora’s mouth, down
onto her shirt.

“
Stop! It’s okay!” Gora
shouted as she grabbed at her mouth. “I’m your friend; we are your
friends!”

Gora outstretched her other
arm toward the hare, presumably Tubman. Tubman was standing atop
the control panel for the Beast Machine. Luckily, the creation
process needed a cooling down period before any other beast could
be made, so any buttons Tubman accidently pushed did
nothing.

Tubman the hare bounced,
hopped and skipped throughout the lab knocking down vials, books
and leftover snacks. The disgusting lab was somehow becoming
messier and the cockroaches were scared into hiding by the loud
noises Tubman was making.

“
What is this place? What
am I?” questioned Tubman loudly as she continued her confused
destruction of the lab. “I died! I know I passed! What is this
mess!? Take me back to the Promised Land! This ain’t
right!”

“
Please, Tubman, please
stay calm. There is nothing to fear here, we are your friends. I am
your…your creator!” said Gora as she slowly walked towards Tubman.
Gora tried to apprehend the hare, but was too slow. Tubman bounced
away.

“
My creator? You are not
God. You are not my creator!” Tubman jumped atop a bookshelf out of
Gora’s grasp. Gora spit out blood that had been accumulating in her
mouth.

“
You are…you are not your
original self, but rather a new Harriet Tubman. It would be easier
to explain to you if you just came down from there! Please, I will
not harm you.”

“
There’s no way I am coming
down there to you. I will not be an experiment!”

Gora and Tubman shouted at
each other for several more minutes. Neither had noticed the rather
large brown bear inching towards the bookshelf Tubman sat upon.
Hitbear broke the bookshelf in half with one strike of his
paw.
CRAACK!
Tubman
began to tumble down towards Gora, both were screaming
frantically.

Gora missed Tubman and
Tubman landed roughly on her head.
THUD.

“
Hitbear! What the fuck! I
was handling the situation! God damn it,” yelled Gora furiously.
“Now she’s hurt and I said I wouldn’t harm her!”

“
She’s fine,” growled
Hitbear. “Let her rest and when she wakes we’ll explain everything
to her. She was too shocked to handle this reality.”

Gora knew Hitbear was
right, but she was still pissed at him. “Tubman was just scared and
confused about what was happening to her, what was happening around
her,” thought Gora.

“
Fine,” said Gora. She
gently picked up Tubman and brought her to a tiny mattress. “Sleep
tight, Tubman. Once you wake we will explain everything to
you.”

Gora placed straps over
Tubman to keep her in place, in case she awakened in a frenzy
again. She didn’t want to risk another injury to Tubman.

Gora rubbed Tubman’s soft
head and made sure Tubman’s ears were not pinned down. Gora was
befuddled as to why Tubman was so erratic and the other two came
out of the Beast Machine with a general idea of what was happening
to them.

“
Owlbert?” called Gora.
“What exactly did you add to the Beast Machine when creating
Tubman? Did you follow the same procedures as I did?”

Owlbert, still awakening
from the commotion, yawned, “Vell, I, um, did zee same thing as du,
Frau Gora! Except, I maybe didn’t use ein real picture und I put
info on zee back? I couldn’t type vell on ein touch
screen!”

“
Fuck. She’s already here,
so I guess I don’t need real photos for it to work… But, what did
you add…” questioned Gora quietly. Her mouth was agape in
disbelief.

“
I… I… I… added ein
scripture from zee Bible on zee back of her picture,” replied
Owlbert. “I am unsure of vich passages I used, but they vere gut
passages!”

“
You did what?”

“
He added scripture from
the Bible,” said Hitbear. “Didn’t you hear him?”

“
Yes,” replied Gora,
growing angrier at Hitbear and Owlbert. Gora gave a slight growl
toward Hitbear. Her focus returned to Owlbert, “Why did you do
this?”

“
Vell,” began Owlbert, “I
read up on Frau Tubman und figured it be best to get all of her
wunderbar personality? I read she vas highly religious, Christian
specifically!”

Gora sighed, “Owlbert, I
know you’re a genius, or were one before, but you know you
shouldn’t mess with a perfected formula! Fuck!”

“
That still doesn’t explain
why she went nuts?” asked Hitbear.

“
With the addition of the
picture, you get the personality of that person already – but you
must add in and adjust certain aspects of the human part without
going overboard,” stated Gora. “The Beast Machine is intelligent
enough to add the personality to the creation by recognizing the
facial features on the picture, so what Owlbert did was he gave her
an ‘overdose’ on information. It’s nothing we can’t overcome, but
she will be on edge and highly questionable on our motives. She can
be convinced to stay on our side, though.”

“
So the extra religious
babble had nothing to do with it?”

“
No, I don’t believe so.
Owlbert could have written the roster of the 1990 World Series
Champions on her picture, or a blueberry muffin recipe, and it
would have sent her into a fit of confusion like we just witnessed.
Information overload.” Gora glared disappointingly at Owlbert then
shook her head.

Owlbert could feel the
shame shooting from Gora’s eyes. Sweat began dripping from his neck
down his feathery back. He looked away from Gora and then skittered
away back to his books to seek refuge and to find a safe space to
sleep.

“
Before you take another
rest, Hitbear,” said Gora, “do you have the plans ready for our
first mission?”

“
Against the scientist
named Doctor Spotila?” replied Hitbear. “Why, yes, it is complete.”
He smiled a toothy smile.

“
Wonderful,” replied Gora.
She nodded at Hitbear and turned her attention to the injured
Tubman.

Gora ran over back over to
Tubman and rubbed her head. Gora began to hum quietly while rubbing
Tubman’s furry head.

“
Everything is going to be
just fine, my dear,” whispered Gora into Tubman’s ears.

Tubman’s eyes slowly
opened.

She coughed, “Bullshit.”
Tubman began to wriggle and writhe until the straps holding her to
the bed became loose.

Chapter 14

The Device

“The first polls show you
losing to the republican candidate, sir,” Jeffrey obediently told
Chairman Obelis. “But you’re easily ahead of the democratic
candidate – appears she is not receiving
any
support from the DNC. She’s only
being helped by a friend and her mother. It’s sad.” Jeffrey wiped
his mouth with his black tie, a bad habit of his. “The apathy about
politics in Arkansas is staggering… We don’t even have to appoint a
lieutenant governor if we don’t want to; for fear that there
wouldn’t be enough candidates!”

“
It’s fine. We have plenty
of time to worry about polls and apathy,” replied Chairman Obelis
as he straightened his tie. “I haven’t even had my first public
appearance yet. Once the people of Arkansas get to know me like the
gracious people residing in Brazilian favelas know me, they’ll love
me.”

He grasped a cup of coffee
and sipped gently. The coffee swished around his mouth. His eyes
twitched.

“
What is this shit?” asked
Chairman Obelis. He stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes,
eventually spitting into a tissue.

“
I…I’m sorry, Chairman
Obelis. Is that not the coffee you wanted?” whimpered Jeffrey.
Jeffrey rubbed his arm ashamedly. “Why’s he yelling at me over some
measly coffee?” thought Jeffrey.

“
It’s not, but it’s fine
Jeffrey. It’s fine. It’s not a big deal, settle down!” Chairman
Obelis kept sipping the coffee to try to show Jeffrey things were
okay. Jeffrey stopped rubbing his arm but he began scratching
vigorously at the crown of his head. “Look I’m drinking it – I’m
drinking it!” Chairman Obelis hopped slightly in his chair to show
Jeffrey he was delighted with the coffee, much like a mother tries
to appease her young child during a fit.

Jeffrey kept scratching
vigorously at his head, but now began to shake tremendously, “I do
not like letting you down, sir!”

Chairman Obelis assured
Jeffrey, “Jeffrey, if I were truly mad at you, I would tell you.
You are one of the few people that I would give a straightforward
explanation as to why you angered me. You mean a lot to me and my
life’s mission. I apologize for my overreaction.” He rose from his
chair and hugged Jeffrey tightly.

Jeffrey’s shakes and
scratching subsided, and he stated, “Thank you, sir.” Jeffrey
peered delightfully as Chairman Obelis returned to his
chair.

“
Now, what’s the progress
on our humanity-changing-device that Doctor Silva is working on?”
Chairman Obelis forced himself to drink the dreck that Jeffrey made
him; forcing a smile after every disgusting sip.

“
It’s coming along
perfectly and Silva has devised a perfect plan to implant it into
the workers!”

“
Do tell!” Chairman Obelis
smiled and quickly spit some of the coffee back into his
cup.

Jeffrey walked a few feet
away from Chairman Obelis and opened a small red faux-leather
briefcase resting on a side table, Jeffrey bent over seductively
but Chairman Obelis paid no mind. He was more annoyed at the
travesty of a briefcase that Jeffery had used than paying attention
to the young man’s slutty advances. In the briefcase were two small
devices, each device had a special container.