Beast Machine (25 page)

“
No, thank you all for
listening and supporting my run for Governor of Arkansas!” said
Southwyck. “I won’t let you down!”

The crowd continued to
cheer loudly until Southwyck backed away from his podium and sat
firmly down on his chair near Steenburgen and Chairman Obelis. He
still waved and pointed at people in the crowd as he
sat.

Steenburgen paid no mind to
Southwyck, who was still suckling on her cat embroidered canteen
filled with an unknown liquid, until Southwyck had plopped down
next to her. Steenburgen glared out the side of her eye at
Southwyck as he smiled from ear to ear. She knew after that opening
statement she didn’t stand a chance against a former state-hero
like Southwyck, regardless of his scummy past; she just wanted to
appear better than the non-party affiliated newcomer.

It was moments until
Chairman Obelis would begin his opening statement to the crowd in
the crammed Bella Vista gymnasium and his uneasiness began to
proliferate through his mind. “Do these people even deserve to have
a better life? Will these people even understand the opportunity I
will be giving them?” he thought.

He glared out into the
crowd.

“
With the Carda implant, it
won’t matter whether they realize the opportunity or not. Life will
move forward for them,” he thought. “For the better.”

“
Mr. Huxley Obelis, it is
your turn for an opening statement,” said the announcer.
“Godspeed.” The crowd quieted and their interest piqued. The crowd
knew they were going to vote for Southwyck all along, but they were
so interested in hearing what a billionaire had to tell them.
Billionaires, aside from of the Teltons from mega retailer Tel-Mart
Plus, were unheard of in Arkansas.

“
Last but not least, I
suppose?” joked Chairman Obelis. A few chuckles and pity laughs
were given to Chairman Obelis. The white-haired man snorted
loudly.

“
Like the other two
candidates, I owe a great deal of thanks to the city of Bella
Vista, its citizens and the entire state of Arkansas. I was not
born in this wonderful state but I was raised and grew as a man
here.”

Southwyck quietly pulled
out a flask from his suit jacket and took a heavy swig. He felt
like it would be a good time to zone out and visualize what the
ladies at the brothel were going to stick in his orifices later
that night. He giggled to himself.

“
If you are like me, you
want to keep this beautiful state, beautiful!” exclaimed Chairman
Obelis. “But how are we going to keep this state beautiful? By
lowering the taxes?” The crowd cheered. “By preaching about love
and charity?” The crowd kept cheering. “By enforcing Biblical law?”
The crowd rose to their feet and cheered loudly like they did for
Southwyck. No “pig sooie” chants thankfully.

“
Quiet down, again,
please,” droned the announcer. He was ready for this night to be
over.

Southwyck briefly looked up
to see the crowd cheering. He figured it was a hallucination and
went back to zoning out about his orifices.

“
This beautiful state will
become a wasteland if you continue with those plans,” shouted
Chairman Obelis into the microphone, causing a slight buzzing
noise. The crowd fell silent. “Lowering taxes will destroy this
state. The job creators do not give a lick about you. The job
creators,” Chairman Obelis pantomimed air quotes, “want to use you
and your children as slave labor for the present and future. You
will be slaves if you elect a man like Southwyck.” Chairman Obelis
pointed toward Southwyck. Southwyck didn’t hear what Chairman
Obelis said and he didn’t care.

The crowd sat down in
befuddlement and mild anger. “What does he mean slave labor?”
thought the crowd out loud. “We aren’t slaves. What’s he
mean?”

“
We need taxes to help pay
for infrastructure: think roads, bridges, trains. We need taxes to
help pay for your children’s education, to pay for your healthcare,
to pay for Arkansas to be great again!”

The crowd began to grow
angry. “How dare he think about taxes in a good light!”said members
of the crowd. “We’ve always been told taxes are bad!” “Yeah! Taxes
are bullshit!” Louder and louder mutterings could be heard from the
crowd.

“
You also can’t preach
about ‘Love & Charity’ without an actual plan! Love &
Charity will do us no good as a worthless platitude. We need solid
education, strong infrastructure, life-saving healthcare! Taxing
the rich will bring us to the upper echelons of all U.S. states!
Hell, it could set the example for the other states in the Union!
We would legitimately become a force to be reckoned with on the
world stage!”

The crowd began to boo
loudly.
BOOOOO!
Jeffrey worried that Chairman Obelis was losing the crowd for
good.
BOOOOO!

“
And that biblical
nonsense? It’s just nonsense. How does trying to outlaw criticism
seem patriotic to any of you?”
BOOOOO!
“It isn’t and you people
aren’t. Biblical law would allow those in power to dictate what you
do and how you do it. Use your own brain for once!”
BOOOOO!

Chairs, cell phones,
lipstick, and even a dirty diaper began to fly at Chairman Obelis.
Southwyck – finally coherent again – and Steenburgen laughed
together at the third party representative blowing it in front of
them.
BOOOOO!

Jeffrey and the
white-haired man quickly exited the gymnasium to avoid being pelted
by the crowd.
BOOOO!
Chairman Obelis boldly kept speaking at the podium. The
announcer had given up and briskly stepped out of the
gymnasium.

“
If you don’t want to help
your damn selves, I’ll have to force you!” shouted Chairman Obelis
as more shoes, chairs, purses, hats, even pocket knives were thrown
at him.

Chapter 24

A Lesson In
Science

Gora was in a better frame
of mind before beginning the second mission of revenge. She hated
the blood, the gore, the senseless lizard-love-making – hated it
all, but she loved knowing that Spotila was dead. She loved knowing
he will never call her vile, putrid names. She loved knowing that
he will never harm another reptile. She loved knowing that she was
the one that helped create a being that killed Spotila.

“
So, what’s the deal with
this next one?” asked Hitbear. He was chewing on an unsliced loaf
of bread. “Did she try to bomb England?” He laughed
alone.

“
No,” said Gora sternly.
“Doctor Bridget Borehole was one of the first to spread rumors of
my falsified deceit toward Silva. I became furious when she began
to spread sick lies about me, especially since she never tried to
verify the rumors. She always wanted to be the first one to bite on
a story and spread it to the masses. She didn’t give a flying fuck
if the rumors were true or not, as long as it made someone else
look like shit.” Gora was staring blankly into space,
concentrating. She wanted to see Borehole dead much more than
Spotila. “She never cared about science, just the popularity that
came with it – in the science associations and communities that is,
since science still is widely seen as ‘nerdy’ for some reason. It’s
gaining traction in the mainstream now, I guess.”

“
Ah,” said Tubman. “No one
likes people making situations worse than they already are. What
else do we not like about this Dr. Borehole, Gora?” Tubman wasn’t
one to complain about seeking revenge, but she was starting to
think Gora was being thin-skinned and disliked these other
scientists for exceptionally petty reasons.

“
Worst part about her:
she’s a climate change denier,” said Gora.

“
A what?” asked the three
beasts together. The puzzled beasts gave looks to one another and
then all landed their eyes on Gora.

“
Come again?” asked
Hitbear.

“
Seriously?” asked Gora.
“Did none of that information I had added to you actually make it
to your brains?” Gora flared her nose and brushed her eyebrows
furiously. “Ugh, I guess you all are from a different time; a time
before we gave a shit about the environment. All three of you were
alive during some of the most polluted decades of
humanity.”

“
I thought the Earth just
refreshed itself every so often?” asked Hitbear. “How can humans be
harming the environment in any significant way? Sure, humans can
cause certain animals or plants to go extinct, but that’s it. There
seriously can’t be an issue with the climate on Earth. It’s natural
for it to change every so often, we, er, humans don’t control
that.”

“
Ja, do tell Frau!” said
Owlbert cheerfully. Owlbert already knew the main cause of harming
the environment was pollution from humans: automobiles, aircraft,
factories, garbage, deforestation and so on. He didn’t know
exactly
how the pollution
harmed the environment, though. His forte as a human was dealing
with mathematics and physics! He also dabbled in humor.

“
Ugh, okay,” said Gora. She
cracked her knuckles.
Crunch-ch-ch
. “I’ll do my best to
explain this simply enough.”

“
This’ll be good,” said
Hitbear. He firmly held the belief that the Earth’s climate was
fine when he was a human, that Earth’s climate is fine now that he
is a bear and that Earth’s climate will be fine forever until the
sun explodes.

Gora grabbed a previously
unseen chalkboard and wheeled it to the center area of the lab. The
beasts sat down in front of Gora. Each beast wore a look of wanting
eager, except Hitbear. He worn the look of a haughty know-it-all,
per usual.

“
So, do you all know how
the Earth is heated?” asked Gora.

“
By the Sun, duh,” said
Hitbear confidently. He crossed his arms and looked at the other
two beasts as if he were the smartest one there. “This isn’t
kindergarten!” His arrogance rose.

“
That is only partially
correct,” said Gora. “There is an entire process that sums up how
the Earth is heated with the process beginning with the
Sun.”

“
Well, technically I’m
correc-,” began Hitbear.

Tubman interrupted him,
“Shut up, Hitbear. I want to learn how it’s all done.” Tubman, a
common sensed and smart woman in her past life, never truly got the
chance to expand upon and shape her intelligence because of her
race. She wanted to hone in on knowledge now that she had the
opportunity to do so. Tubman often felt like an outsider among the
group, though was never sure why she felt that way. She may have
been the smallest of the group, yet didn’t let her stature limit
her abilities.

Hitbear scowled at Tubman
and then began to physically pout as Gora continued to explain
manmade climate change.

“
Thank you, Tubman,” said
Gora. “The process
does
begin with the Sun. The Sun sends
rays
of light towards Earth and every
which way from its spot in the solar system. We know these
electromagnetic radiated rays simply as
sunlight
.” Tubman and Owlbert nodded
approvingly at this revelation, Hitbear kept pouting. “Those same
rays from the sun enter through the Earth’s atmosphere and as the
rays make their way through the Earth’s atmospheric zones, they are
weakened. If they weren’t weakened by the atmosphere, those same
rays would fry all living creatures on this planet.”

“
By God!” said Tubman.
“That would be awful!”

“
Ja, ja,” spoke Owlbert,
“zee vorld vould be scorched quicker than ein wiener-schnitzel in
ein atomic blast!” Owlbert and Tubman looked at one another with
shocked looks and nodded in agreement.

“
Somewhat, yes, Owlbert,”
said Gora. “Let’s not get into that, though.” Gora drew a sun on
the left part of the chalkboard and accompanied the sun with arrows
representing the rays the sun emits. The arrows shot outward in
every which way from the sun, as Gora had told the
beasts.

On the left part of the
chalkboard, she drew a circle with the world ‘Earth’ inside the
circle. She then drew a handful of circles around the main Earth
circle.

“
Why are you drawing those
circles around the Earth?” asked Tubman.

“
These are the atmospheric
zones,” replied Gora, still drawing. “There are five total zones
that make up the entirety of the atmosphere. Starting from the
ground up, the five zones, or layers, are known as:
the troposphere, the stratosphere,
the mesosphere, the thermosphere, and
the exosphere.” Gora wrote troposphere, stratosphere,
mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere next to their
respective circles on the chalkboard. Her handwriting was less than
elegant but still legible. “They’re actually closer to the Earth
than this, but for lesson’s sake this will do.”

“
All five make up the
atmosphere, huh?” said Tubman. Tubman looked at the chalkboard
firmly and tried to make sense of it all the best she
could.

“
Don’t began contemplating
about this sparse amount of information just yet, Tubman,” said
Gora. Tubman looked at Gora and broke out of her short
concentration. “This lesson isn’t over yet!” Gora laughed
slightly.