The Feeding Season

by Stoyan Stoyanov

Thirteen turned away with a disgusted look, when the fetid stench reached her. Then she quickly covered her face with part of her cover and with a hesitant look, she peered through the open door.

  “How did you do that?!” said Bars surprised.

  “I don't know! It just opened,” replied Thirteen, who didn't dare move.

  Beside the disgusting smell, bright light poured through the door. Once the Mechanic's eyes got used to it, she succeeded in looking around the open space in front of her to make sure that there wasn't anything dangerous.

  “I'm going in!” she stated decisively and went through the door.

  Without thinking about, Bars followed her, but when he neared the door, it closed with a bang in front of him. Surprised, he jumped back just before the solid metal door would have smashed him.

  “Hey! What happened?” yelled Bars annoyed. “Did you close it?”

  The huge barrier stood immobile before him. While he was wondering what to do, the door once again opened unexpectedly, and Thirteen was there standing on the doorstep.

  “Actually, I am opening it.” she said and grinned. “Come on, get in here quickly!”

  “Are you sure it won't smash me? It barely missed me last time!”

  “Get in here now, I said!” urged Thirteen. “The door opens automatically for a human. That's why we didn't succeed in passing through it the first time, because both of us were wearing metal suits.”

  “Well, doesn’t that beat all?” said Bars a little stunned and quickly entered the room.

  “Well, yeah. The owner of the Consummator was a human after all, just like us,” replied Thirteen and the door closed again, once she had moved away from it.

  “Speaking of the owner, do you have any idea where he is?” questioned Bars.

  “He should be here somewhere. I smell him!”

  The room into which they entered was amazing because of its size and contents. Even though there was a lot of dust and filth that had built up over the centuries, it was clear that someone had lived there. In contrast to the rooms in the Fortress, where the boys lived crammed together in tight spaces, this place was spacious. Metal columns covered in all kinds of decorations supported the high ceiling, from which hung beautiful lamps. They lighted up every corner of the room. On the walls were hung frames, whose paintings had been marred by the passing of time, geographical maps with unclear lines and portraits with blurry silhouettes. The rotting furniture suggested an unparalleled luxury even in its present desperate condition.

  “What is that?” asked Bars.

  While they walked around, speechless in their amazement, they found an opening to another room, in which hung several pieces of cloth.

  “Are those clothes? There are so many?!” Thirteen was dizzy from the stifling air, and that's why she was so amazed, once she realizedit’s not a hallucination and that what she was seeing was completely real. “How is it possible for only one person to wear so many clothes?!”

  “And here's a whole bunch of shoes!” chimed in Bars upon finding a new section of the giant closet.

  Some of them were just thrown on the floor while others were still in the boxes. The shoes filled the whole area. Thirteen quickly reached for a pair, but upon trying them on, they just fell apart in her hands. For a long time they wandered around the large wardrobe and thanks only to Bars sense of direction were they able to get out of there without getting lost.

  When their search of the area brought them to a new, unexplored part of the room, the Mechanic suddenly stopped.

  “Oh! It really stinks!” Thirteen didn't dare continue on, and tried whatever she could to limit the air from flowing into her respiratory system. “I can't go in there!”

  The disgusted girl wrapped herself up in her covers and took several steps back, while Bars decisively went forward, protected from the horrible stench in his wretched Shell. His curiosity led him to a new side room, whose door was cracked open, with a weak light blinking inside. Several streams of unknown fluids poured out of the door, forming big puddles, which then seeped through the grates on the floor that were blocked with trash.

  “What's this disgusting stuff?“ wondered Bars out loud and then he opened the door wider so he could get through it.

  Once he had waded inside, he realized that it was for food storage. A great number of shelves were lined with all kinds of boxes, packages and metal cans. The cooling system had obviously not been working for a long time. As a result of the high humidity in the room, the metal cans were rusted and spoiled food seeped from them, which had dried in large mounds on the floor.

  “I found food!” yelled the Hunter. Then he chose a few of the cans that were in better condition and that still had some food left in them and returned to his friend.

  “What are you saying?” she met him expressing her intrigue.

  “Look!” said Bars with excitement and threw her two cans.

  “Ugh, disgusting!” said Thirteen as she jerked, upon catching the cans with her hands. The surface of the cans was covered completely in a stinky and sticky substance, which it would be hard to distinguish as food.

  “Try eating what's in the can. There's got to be something left in it...” said Bars and nimbly pierced his can with his feeding probe. Upon trying his first bite of the unknown food, his facial expression drastically changed. His mouth twisted in an amazing way, while he slowly said, “It's not bad! It's a little disgusting, but it's filling...”

  His traveling companion still hadn't found the courage to risk eating it and just stood their holding the can in her shaking hands, as far away from her crinkled nose as possible.

  “I'll wait and see what follows,” said Thirteen, who was amazed at Bars' stomach.

  “Eat and then we'll continue on!”

  “OK, OK!” she said giving in. Unfortunately, that was the only food, which would give her the strength she needed to reach the Fortress. “Help me open it.”

  Bars took the can in his suit's metal hands and made a few openings in it. The food began to pour out of it, making a hissing sound. Thirteen squeezed her eyes shut and took a few gulps, trying not to breath in the poisoned vapors. Then she tried to mumble a few cuss words, but the food was too sticky and she almost choked while trying to swallow. By the time she had emptied the second can of its strange contents, tears were running down here graying cheeks.

  “Don't you dare throw up. I don't want to have to go back in there to get more food,” stated Bars.

  Thirteen only shook her hand, trying to regain control of herself after the stressful experience. Finally the aching pain in her stomach caused by the long-term starvation quieted down. Then both of them were happy that they wouldn't have to stay any longer near the reeking storage room.

  “I hope we reach the Fortress before we have to eat that indescribable crud again!” said Thirteen talking for the first time after the horrifying experience.

  “That'll depend upon you,” laughed Bars. “You're the one, who claims, to be able to operate this deteriorating wonder.”

  “I'll do everything in my power to get us out of here!”

  “I know,” said Bars reassuringly.

  Then both of them continued on their search through the unknown compartments of the Consummator. Most of the finds they came across, were completely unfamiliar to them – all kinds of devices and machines, whose purpose and function could only be guessed at. Whoever the person was, who had lived here, amid all this luxury, he had had everything he needed and more than enough of it all. More than he could even have used throughout his whole lonely life, which had itself been dedicated to collecting, stealing, and consuming. And now the only living beings in the place were quickly searching for a way to get themselves out of it.

  “Look! It's here!” yelled Thirteen once she recognized the Consummator's control panel.

  On a little platform that was reached by some stairs was a larger than usual chair for a normal person. Just like many ot
her things in the interior of this place, it had also been ornately decorated and looked more like a throne, created for a mighty ruler. In it were the pitiful remains of the one, who had operated the Consummator centuries ago.

  “Hmm, he's been small!” said Bars surprised at the find.

  “OK, let's see...,” said Thirteen excited. Then she cleared the throne of the bones and dust and sat down upon it.

  The control panel was still working, even though it was covered in a dry layer of filth, which had to be cleaned off to begin with. Among the several buttons and levers were several screens, which gave off a weak light.

  “Can you make out anything?” asked Bars in awe.

  “I have to think! I need to remember what had been written in that old book...,” said Thirteen as she grabbed her head.

  The symbols, written on the control panel were foreign and indecipherable, except for the numbers 1 to 10. Everything in here was ancient and forgotten ages ago.

  In the Fortress Thirteen had been so unbelievably bored that she had ended up reading more books than all the boys had ever read combined together. Once she had read the Textbook several times and had almost completely memorized it, she started to read the rest of the encyclopedias that contained all the information on hand about the world outside the Fortress. After that she succeeded in reading several very old books, which she had found by chance, lost and abandoned many years ago. As she had read the fairy tales, written in those books, she had had no idea that one day she would have the chance to operate a legendary beast like the Consummator.

  “Yes! It's simple! A large part of the panel is for personal needs, like food, drink and other things, that you couldn't even imagine,” explained Thirteen, while Bars stood by her following her every move impatiently. “This here has to be for entering in the new coordinates, uh, yes....but before we do that, we need to stop the extraction process of the resources...hmm! Well, what the hell?! Let's try this!”

  After she pushed a few buttons, pulled two levers and turned a large black switch, something happened. Bars had no idea what they did, but by the vibrations, which he could feel even through his suit, he knew that something was happening. Thirteen's strained face was covered in sweat that dropped into the dust that covered the panel.

  The vibrations going through the whole Consummator continued for a whole hour, during which time both of them were waiting for all the drilling machines to shut down. Once everything had quieted down, different parts of the control panel activated.

  “Yes! Now I'm able to access the navigation console!” Thirteen slapped her hands together. The little screen shined invitingly waiting for the needed numbers to be entered. The Mechanics fingers quickly punched the buttons. Then she stopped for a second to look up at Bars. “Here we go!”

  Once Thirteen pushed the start button something amazing happened. The floor under their feet jumped unexpectedly and they heard a series of strange far-off noises.

  “We're definitely moving! Yes!” yelled Thirteen enthusiastically. “Hold on, Bars!”

  The huge hull of the Consummator once again lifted itself off the ground, which it had been lying upon for so many centuries. All the systems needed for the passage activated one after another, while tons of fiery smoke and ash erupted from the chimneys. Once it had reached full power, the solid structure tried to stand, while masses of earth that had collected on it for centuries, slid off of it. Then, some of the ancient limbs couldn't take the great strain and broke. The Consummator lost its balance and leaned frighteningly to one side, while giving off some horrible screeching roars.

  Bars and Thirteen jumped, when the emergency alarm sounded.

  “Hold me, Bars!” yelled the girl, while trying to hold on to the throne, which was constantly shaking.

  The quakes were so powerful, that even Bars had difficulty keeping his balance. Pieces of insulation broke off of the high ceiling and fell to the floor, only meters from them.

  “It's shaking a lot! Are we going to be able to get it to the Fortress like this?!” yelled Bars to be heard over the alarm.

  “Damn it! It's too heavy!” answered Thirteen. “We're staying right here, if we remain unbalanced!”

  “Talk louder!” screamed Bars as several pieces of the ceiling fell shattering on his Shell.

  “It's my fault!” Thirteen said, realizing that without her suit's loudspeaker, Bars had no way of hearing her. “I should have guessed... During this whole time, it's been drilling into the earth collecting so many resources, that now it's impossible for it to move!”

  The little Mechanic fell from the throne and limped over to hide under Bars' Shell, who had grabbed a strong hold of the metal railing of the platform. Everything was collapsing around them and several pieces of the ceiling had smashed half of the control panel.

  “Do something! Stop it, before it falls apart!” yelled Bars.

  “I can't! It's too late!” Thirteen grabbed her head.

  The Consummator did everything it could to get up, while the ground all around it cracked and sank. Some of the tall chimney stacks collapsed, and some of the weaker parts of the outer hull began to tear apart. When the gigantic machine had lost a critical number of legs, needed to move, it began to automatically remove and throw away its unnecessary parts in order to lighten itself. The hull sloughed off its additional armor and protective shielding, then tons of reserve fuel was ejected. That definitely helped and once the legs had succeeded in finding a firm footing upon the discarded parts, the Consummator stabilized.

  “Wow! Maybe, we'll succeed after all!” said Thirteen coughing from the dust that was falling from the holes in the ceiling.

  All the shaking had made Bars sick to his stomach, so now he was quiet trying to not to throw up inside his suit. The Consummator stepped firmly on the surface and a new kilometer high column of harmful gases erupted from it.

  The metal monster was ready for its new goal.

  Chapter 19