Beast Machine (18 page)

“
And?” asked
Hitbear.

“
And it said in all capital
letters ‘DOCTOR SPOTILA ONLY.’ The letters were in a bright yellow
that hurt my eyes. It was excessively bright.”

Gora rubbed her chin
gently. “He’s in there. He’s got to be.” She turned toward the
building with a grimace. “He’s doing an immoral test tonight,
that’s why he doesn’t want too much security here tonight – in case
one of the guards caught him in the act.”

“
Let’s get the fuck in
there, now. I want to test this new paw out!” stated Hitbear
gleefully. He moved the metal paw and clicked the new claws
together.
Clink, clink, clink
went Hitbear’s claws. “Damn, I expected some
sparks to fly from clinking these together.”

“
Absolutely. Let’s take
down this fucker,” nodded Tubman in agreement with the bear. She
did a rigid back-flip in excitement.

“
Fine. Owlbert, stay here
and be our lookout,” ordered Gora.

Owlbert nodded and flew up
a nearby tree to find a perfectly sized branch to hold his
abnormally high weight for an owl. He began to do vocal exercises
to really sell that he was an owl perched in a tree.
Whoo, whoo, whoo!
His
faint
whoo, whoo, whoo
’s could be heard until the group entered the research
facility.

“
Where’s this door?” asked
Gora. Each member stretched out their body parts in preparation of
escaping and for any unforeseen grappling that may happen beyond
the secret door.

“
Follow me, quickly and –
most importantly – silently,” said Tubman. She hopped with an
unstable grace down the hall, while Gora jumped on Hitbear’s back.
Hitbear tiptoed slowly on his back paws, following the enigmatic
hopping Tubman closely. He was surprisingly adept at sneaking
through the hall for being a several hundred pound creature. Even
more impressive was that he had only been this creature for a
handful of weeks.

“
You ever watch
Yogi Bear
, Hitbear?” asked
Gora, not realizing Hitbear’s human self had never watched modern
cartoons and cartoons were not uploaded into the Beast Machine
creation process. “You could probably steal a few pic-a-nic
baskets, eh?” She giggled quietly to herself.

“
What’s a Yogi?” replied
the befuddled Hitbear.

Gora covered her face in
embarrassment with one hand and screamed internally.

The inside of the research
facility was lacking in opulence in comparison to the brilliant
outside decor. Black and white ceiling panels were found throughout
the building and the floor would randomly switch between tile and
carpet – the tile was a ghastly tope color and the carpet was an
underwhelming puke green-yellow. The carpet wasn’t stained or
ruined, but would likely give a person the heebie-jeebies if they
touched the carpet.

“
The good Dr. Spotila must
not have hired the same people that did the outside?” asked
Hitbear. “It’s worse looking than a concentra-,” Hitbear smartly
cut himself off before feeling the wrath of Gora once again. She
did not hear Hitbear as she was still embarrassed from her previous
remark.

The doors of each room were
black with no windows. Each door had a piece of lined paper taped
to it with whatever was to take place in the room.

Iguana Eye
Tests

Alligator Dental
Procedures

Boa Constrictor Massage
Therapy

Gila Monster Plastic
Surgery

Scale
Transplant

Turtle Interior
Design

The building was as bizarre
inside as it was beautifully arrogant on the outside.

After several twists and
turns on the first floor, “Here it is,” Tubman pointed to the door
as Hitbear, with Gora still holding tightly on his back, trailed
behind deftly. The door’s letters were bright yellow and stung the
eyes, just like Tubman had told them.

Gora hopped off the back of
her mount.

“
Did you try to open it?”
said Gora.

“
No, why would I?” said
Tubman.

“
I’ll do it,” said Hitbear.
“I’ll open it up with my brute strength!” Hitbear put his non-metal
paw on the handle. “OH SHIT, OW OW OW!” He fell to the ground and
started to writhe, causing a loud thumping noise to permeate
through the empty building.
THUMP, THUMP,
THUMP
echoed down the hall through the
building
.

Gora and Tubman shrieked
loudly and ran to Hitbear’s side.

“
Are you okay?” the two
worrisome companions said in unison to their downed
friend.

Hitbear stopped writhing
and grinned.

“
Haha!” said Hitbear. “You
guys fell for it!” Hitbear fell on his back loudly and started to
roll around, again making a loud thumping noise.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP
echoed
down the hall.

“
Unbelievable,” said Gora
as she rolled her eyes and then kicked Hitbear in his side. (“Ow!”
said Hitbear.) “Stop fucking around. Tubman, open the damn
door.”

“
Fine,” said Tubman meekly.
“Here it goes.”

Tubman opened the door
gently. The trio prepared themselves for anything to be behind the
door, but, instead of security or lizardmen, the group was greeted
by metal stairs leading down into a darkness that didn’t seem to
lead anywhere but
down
.

“
Jesus Christ, a dark
basement?” sighed Gora. “Why this? I’d rather have Hitbear fight
some gigantic lizard-being that spits venom.”

Tubman turned a nearby
switch on and the stairs to the basement lit up – somewhat. The
lights didn’t burn very bright. Even with the dim lights, the
stairs didn’t look like they led anywhere kosher.

“
Oh,” gasped Gora.
“Thanks!”

The trio made their way
down the stairs slowly, again, preparing for anything to jump out
at them. No one in the group thought to bring a flashlight for a
night mission, so they were forced to continue down the mostly dark
stairway.

Since Hitbear had already
announced their arrival with his gag, the three walked down the
stairs without a care of noise.
THUNK
,
THUNK,
THUNK
went Hitbear’s feet down the
stairs;
PIT-PAT, PIT-PAT, PIT-PAT
went Tubman’s feet;
TINK,
TINK, TINK
went Gora’s feet. The sounds
echoed up, down and around the extraordinarily long and exhausting
stairwell.

The stairs began to twist
and lead the group in strange directions. The group traveled
further and further below the building. It was a workout merely
getting to the bottom floor!
THUNK
,
THUNK,
THUNK
went Hitbear’s feet down the
stairs;
PIT-PAT, PIT-PAT, PIT-PAT
went Tubman’s feet;
TINK,
TINK, TINK
went Gora’s feet.

“
Are we walking all the way
to Seattle or what?” asked Gora. Neither Hitbear nor Tubman replied
as they were growing irritated by the long journey down the metal
stairs.

Tubman’s eyes were losing
their concentration traipsing down the shadowy passage and Hitbear
began to moan about his bottom paws chaffing against the metal
stairs. Gora, though growing lethargic too, was mostly fine
plodding down the stairs.

“
I’m beginning to think
this leads us nowhere,” said Hitbear. “It would be a perfect
distraction for any leering eyes. Think about it…”

“
Shut up, bear,” said
Tubman, rubbing her eyes with her small rabbit paws. “Complaining
will only make this take longer.”

“
Ugh,” said Hitbear. He
knew she was right, but hated admitting as much.

Finally, the group neared
the end of the stairs and could see a poorly-lit hallway, albeit it
had better lighting than the stairway.

“
Stay quiet,” urged
Gora.

Once the group stepped foot
on the basement floor, their eyes were drawn to a closed door to
the left. A light shot brightly out of a circular window built into
a door that had green, yellow and black scales etched into it. The
group slowly stepped towards the door, avoiding the bright light
being emitted from the other side of the door. They settled against
a wall right next to the door.

A sudden
pat
,
pat
,
pat
could be heard. Then a strange
animalistic cry of terror mixed with pleasure.
Pat
,
pat
,
pat
.
URKKKK.
The sound kept occurring and
the cry of terror-pleasure grew louder and louder.
Pat, pat, pat
.
URKKKK.
“What the hell is
going on in that room?” thought Gora.

“
Stick your head up there,
Gora,” whispered Tubman. “He must be doing some illegal testing
causing a reptile to scream out in pain.”

Pat, pat, pat.
URKKK.

Gora slowly stepped towards
the door and raised her head to the window, her eyes peering
delicately into the room. She looked into the room for a handful of
seconds, but then she quickly ducked away from the window. Her face
went horribly gaunt and her eyes started to twitch
uncontrollably.

Pat, pat, pat.
URKKK.

“
Don’t look in there,” she
said slowly. “Jesus Christ, don’t look in there.” She put her hands
on her cheeks and let her mouth open slightly. Her eyes crossed and
kept twitching.

Hitbear and Tubman looked
at one another. Each furrowed their brow in puzzlement.

“
Did you see a ghost?”
asked Hitbear. “It can’t be that bad. I faintly remember seeing and
doing truly horrible things from my past life. Disgusting, inhumane
things to innocent beings. Nothing that man is doing in there can
be worse – I hope not, at least.”

Pat, pat, pat.
URKKK.

“
Don’t do it,” Gora said
grimly. “I think I may throwout.”

“
Throwout?” asked
Hitbear.

“
I mean throw-up. What I
just saw has made my mind a mess. How could someone do such a
thing?”

“
I’ll look. You’re
exaggerating,” stated Hitbear.

T The confident bear
lumbered over to the door slowly, passing a paralyzed Gora. He rose
his head up and peered through the circular window.
Pat, pat, pat. URKKK.
Hitbear began to chuckle quietly but couldn’t hold in the
laughter. His sense of humor found the scene to be worthy of
laughter.

“
Haha! That is not bad at
all,” exclaimed Hitbear. “It’s hilarious!” He commenced laughing
himself to tears. “How do you not find this humorous,
Gora?”

“
I have to see now,” Tubman
hopped over to Hitbear. “Lift me up, I’m curious.”

“
As you wish,” said the
still laugh-crying Hitbear as he gingerly lifted the hare. “What do
you think?”

“
My word,” gasped Tubman.
“What a vile person!”

Pat, pat, pat.
URKKK.

On the other side of the
door, the group saw a portly, elderly man with an unidentifiable
lizard the size of a cereal box. The man was dressed in a school
girl’s outfit – white shirt tied up and only covering his breasts,
and a plaid skirt – and was inserting himself inside the lizard.
The moans of pleasure were being made by the man, while the screams
of terror were being made by the lizard. A mixture that made the
horrible sound of
URKKKK
.

“
I think he’s got a snake
on one of his nipples too,” said Hitbear calmly, finally coming
down from his laughing fit.

“
Nah, I think that’s just a
tassel on there,” said Tubman.

“
How do you know what a
tassel is?”

“
Oh, I’ve got
stories.”

Tubman and Hitbear kept
watching the man assault the poor lizard, letting Gora get herself
together. The man squeezed his eyes tightly in bliss and started to
move his fingers in a circular motion on his tasseled nipples. Then
the man turned the lizard over, removed himself from the lizard and
licked the anus of the lizard.

Hitbear and Tubman grimaced
after the man went ass-to-mouth on the lizard. It finally got to be
too much, even for them.

“
Okay, Gora, so is this
sick fuck Dr. Spotila?” asked Tubman, quite disgusted with the
man.

“
Yes,” replied Gora. “Just
kill this fuck – I just can’t understand what he’s
doing.”

“
He’s fuckin’ that lizard
is what he’s doing, Gora!” said Tubman adamantly.

“
Deplorable.” Gora threw up
and began breathing heavily.
Splat
went her vomit on the basement’s floor. “What he’s
doing to those living creatures is abhorrent and it deserves a
bloody death.”

“
I think I can do that,”
smiled Hitbear. He smirked at his sharp set of claws, one
artificial and the other natural.