Beast Machine

by Brad McKinniss

  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.

  “Thank you for your cooperation,” said Chelsey with a digital smile. “You were most hopeful.” She stood close to an electrical outlet and placed her finger inside. Her body disappeared into the outlet.

  Chapter 41

  Lion Becomes Lamb

  Chairman Obelis stood in front of a mirror.

  He did not speak but he mimicked hand movements that he would make during a speech. His hands rose to his head. His eyes peered around waiting for a reaction from the nonexistent crowd. He cleared his throat and adjusted his tie.

  “Damn thing is so tight,” said Chairman Obelis. The black tie was loosened and he returned to mimicking a speech into his mirror.

  A faint knock came from behind him. Ka-tunk. Chairman Obelis didn’t budge from his spot in front of the mirror.

  “Sir,” said Jeffrey quietly. “Are you ready to head to the women’s shelter to make your victory speech?”

  “It’s not really a true victory speech,” said Chairman Obelis. He turned around to face Jeffrey. “Though, I’d have slaughtered both of them.” He smirked and playfully walked over to Jeffrey. They embraced. “I apologize for how harsh I’ve been during this process.” He leaned in and kissed Jeffrey softly. “When we make the run for president I’ll do my best to not be harsh toward you. But that’ll be a whole new world of anxiety.”

  Jeffrey’s pants tightened and he blushed, “Thank you, sir. I’d appreciate that.” He gulped quickly. “When will you be ready?”

  “In a few minutes, Jeffrey,” said Chairman Obelis. He smiled at Jeffrey, straightened his tie, and returned to the mirror.

  “Sounds good,” said Jeffrey. “When will we be dealing with that bear Thane captured a few nights ago?” Jeffrey leaned against the doorframe. “What about the woman that killed Silva? What will we do about her?”

  Still facing the mirror, Chairman Obelis said, “We should send her a gift basket – she took out Silva for us.” Jeffrey laughed awkwardly. “Now we don’t have that blood on our hands, technically. Though, I would’ve just had Thane do it anyway. He never liked Silva.”

  “So what do you think of it all?”

  “All of what?”

  “This woman invading the mine,” said Jeffrey. He paused. “She clearly wanted something in there. Does she know about the Carda Implant? Is she working for The Flagship?”

  Chairman Obelis left his position in front of the mirror again and came to Jeffrey’s side. He placed his hand on Jeffrey’s shoulder. “We have nothing to worry about with this woman and her little miscreants. She was way too sloppy to be part of The Flagship.” He leaned against the other side of the doorframe. “I have no idea where she came from and what she wanted – other than to obviously kill Silva. She’s going to want her furry friend back, that’s a guarantee.” He looked up to see a spider web in the corner of the doorframe. He swatted the web down gently. The web stayed intact despite being removed from its corner. Chairman Obelis dropped the web on the floor. “Thane did mention to me over the phone that the bear is more man than bear, but I’m not sure what he means by that. I’ll just have to check for myself after I make this speech.”

  “Sure,” said Jeffrey. “What about McCarthy?”

  “Just make sure he’s at ease before we leave,” said Chairman Obelis. “I’m going to put my full suit on now. I’ll meet you at the car.”

  “Okay,” said Jeffrey leaving the room.

  “Oh, and Jeffrey.”

  “Yes?”

  “Lock McCarthy’s door after you check up on him. We don’t need him wandering around the house all by his lonesome. There’s still much… he doesn’t need to know that we know.”

  “Understood,” said Jeffrey. “Oh, sir.” Jeffrey returned to the doorway. “I nearly forgot to give you this letter sent from Washington.” He pulled a letter from a pocket in his suit jacket.

  Chairman Obelis grabbed the letter from Jeffrey, and the two parted. The letter was tossed in a ceramic bowl full of letters that Chairman Obelis had received from Washington since he announced his campaign. He felt no need to open a single one.

  Chairman Obelis stepped toward his mirror once again. He began to put his suit on – the same suit and tie combination he wore during the Bella Vista debacle. He quite liked it. The jacket was just so perfect fitting and the pants had this special fabric that warded off nearly any sort of substance that could cause a stain. Throw in the flashy purple tie and it was a snazzy outfit.

  Before placing his purple tie around his collar, an object on a nearby chair caught his eye. It was the notebook his father had given him many years ago. “What is this doing out?” he said. He approached the notebook, opened it, and sat down in a chair. His fingers flipped through the first initial pages, all of which held lengthy descriptions of all known permanent members of The Flagship, sans Malthus.

  Malthus was hard to be found by nearly anyone it seemed, or he only was found when he wanted to be found. Chairman Obelis’ father only wrote ‘Dangerous, cunnin
g and the key to end all of this,’ on Malthus’ description page. Chairman Obelis scoffed at the description.

  Chairman Obelis kept flipping slowly through the pages. There were pages full of conspiracy theories with flimsy evidence tying back to the existence of The Flagship, pages dissecting the suspected population control ideology of The Flagship, pages guessing the preferred diets of each member, and other nonsensical information that was useless to Chairman Obelis since there was scant information to back up the claims.

  The first several chapters of the notebook were merely confirmation that his father had lost his mind obsessing over this group. He finally came to the latter half of the notebook where the data was more pertinent. The page was titled ‘Master Plan’ and held several bullet points. A check mark of blue or red ink was found at the end of more than a third of the bullet pointed statements. His eyes wandered down to the bottom of the page.

  The fifth to last bullet point read ‘Reach a position of political power.’ Chairman Obelis pulled a red pen out of his pocket and marked a sloppy checkmark at the end. He read the next bullet statement aloud: “Slowly readjust the power structure; force all loathsome creatures out of the shadows.”

  -----

  Chairman Obelis stood in front of a sizable crowd on a warm but strangely humid day in Little Rock. He was ready to declare himself the winner of the Arkansas gubernatorial race. Both Southwyck and Steenburgen had bowed out of the race, albeit for different reasons.

  Southwyck was told to give up by his donors after all of those same donors pulled their funds from his campaign. “We cannot morally support a moronic drunkard that does not have the best interests of the state of Arkansas in mind. We regret even giving Ryan Southwyck a chance to run for the honorable Republican Party,” wrote the group callously in a short memo sent across all Arkansan airwaves.

  Steenburgen had to drop out of the race because of health issues. Her diabetes had become so fierce that she had to lose her left foot. She swore she would try to run again when the opportunity arose but everyone knew she wouldn’t be running anywhere any time soon.

  With no one stepping up to the plate to face Chairman Obelis, he would be winning the race by default. He would have won the race regardless, with help from the Carda Implant and his populist ideals, but it sat well with Chairman Obelis knowing he won months before the scheduled election.

  Chairman Obelis stepped up to the lectern to begin his speech. There were twelve different microphones situated in front of him to record his every sound. He scanned the crowd quickly. The crowd was growing larger by the second and everyone wore a purple shirt with Huxley Obelis across the chest. There were many children with purple hats that read Huxley Obelis and a handful of elderly citizens with Huxley Obelis signs on the back of their wheelchairs.

  “Hello!” said Chairman Obelis. The crowd cheered wildly and then clapped in unison for a solid twenty seconds. It was almost a robotic applause. “I want to thank you all for being here today. I wouldn’t be in this position today if you all weren’t overwhelmingly in support of me and the great things I have in store for Arkansas!” The crowd cheered again and devolved into the robotic applause for a few seconds.

  “Before I begin my victory speech, I just want to say that, despite me running away with this election, Ryan Southwyck and Felicia Steenburgen gave one helluva an effort during their short-lived campaigns. Neither of them were quite ready for something like this, this important public servant task that I so dearly desire, but I want to honor their effort and determination by donating a large sum of my personal wealth to a charity of their choice, as well as the Women’s Center of Little Rock right behind me!” The crowd didn’t cheer wildly but clapped robotically for a few seconds again. “I must say, however, it will be good to no longer be forced to be around those two ever again. Goodbye Ryan Southwyck and goodbye Felicia Steenburgen! No more poorly structured debates!” It was out of character for Chairman Obelis to act so arrogantly in public but it helped him blow off some steam after being thrown into poorly organized debates against two dolts for several weeks.

  The crowd snapped out of their strange trance and began to laugh. They cheered wildly once more, this time with no robotic applause.

  “From here on out, my mission will be to make Arkansas as prosperous, healthy, and ideal for every single Arkansan. It won’t be an overnight fix or even a single year fix – it’s going to be tough – but we, Arkansans, are a tough bunch. We can handle struggle and delay gratification for an even better Arkansas!” The crowd returned to clapping robotically in sync. “I don’t want to just strengthen one demographic or one social class or one town over the other. I want to strengthen the pockets, lungs, and minds of every single one of you. There is nothing I want more than to see us set the example across this entire continent and eventually the world.”

  Robotic clapping ensued. Chairman Obelis had paid no mind to the clapping, but Jeffrey found it peculiar. Not peculiar enough to worry him, however.

  “These will not be hollow words, my friends – no, my family. I promise you we will all be much better off a year from now than we are today, and then a year from a year from now we will be even better off and so forth and so on because we, as humans, are the strongest beings that have ever graced this Earth. We must sacrifice certain things to help provide necessary services to those that cannot afford or attain them. We must sacrifice certain things to provide proper education for our young Arkansans. We must sacrifice certain things to make sure our roads, railways, highways, bridges, and water systems are top notch. We must sacrifice our very personal ideals and personal goals to make Arkansas a better place – the best place to live.” The crowd cheered wildly and clapped robotically. “I want to thank you for being here today and I cannot wait until I am officially your governor.” Chairman Obelis waved at the crowd, smiled, and then entered the women’s shelter. The applause lasted for several minutes, but Chairman Obelis and Jeffrey had slid out the backdoor of the women’s shelter. They left in their black SUV.

  Nothing was said on the ride home. Chairman Obelis sat in the backseat of the SUV and leaned the seat back. Eyes closed. Mind swirling.

  -----

  The pair arrived back at the house. Chairman Obelis slowly walked into his personal quarters and yawned. “I will be going to sleep early, Jeffrey,” said Chairman Obelis.”

  “Sir, it’s only 5:30,” replied Jeffrey. “Are you not feeling well? Should I call the doctor? Do you need tea or soup?”

  Chairman Obelis smiled and waved Jeffrey’s offers off, “No thank you, Jeffrey. I appreciate it, but I just want to be alone right now. It was a historic day for me and I want to relish in the moment alone.”

  “Okay,” said Jeffrey. “Good night, sir.” Chairman Obelis nodded at Jeffrey as Jeffrey shut the door.

  Chairman Obelis let out another yawn. He stretched out his body and neck to relieve any tension or strain. During the stretching he bumped the nearby table causing the table to rock. The latest letter in the ceramic bowl slid off the top of the pile and down to Chairman Obelis’ feet.

  He stared at the letter. It was addressed to one of his many PO boxes across the state. The letter was from ‘The Interior of Secrets.’ A sector of the government he had never heard of before. He grabbed another letter from the ceramic bowl. He ripped it open and looked at the address it was sent form. It was from ‘The Pentagon’ asking to support an initiative regarding terrorist cells in Haiti.

  Chairman Obelis tossed the letter and envelope to the ground. He pulled another letter from the ceramic bowl and opened it. This letter was from ‘The Department of Defense’ seeking states to buy used military equipment to give to local police departments. This letter was discarded as well. He pulled another letter from the ceramic bowl. This letter was from the ‘Smithsonian’ pleading for education initiatives to be made in the state of Arkansas. This letter was tossed down on the ground. He went through every single letter in the ceramic bowl, totaling over seventy letter
s. None of those letters were from ‘The Interior of Secrets.’

  His glare turned toward the letter from ‘The Interior of Secrets’ that still sat peacefully on the ground. He bent down and grabbed the letter. It wasn’t opened with a flurry like the other seventy some letters; rather, he gently pried open the envelope with his thumb. He removed the letter from the envelope.

  Dear Mr. Huxley Obelis,

  I would like to congratulate you on winning the gubernatorial race in Arkansas by default. It is no easy task for a person outside the traditional realm of politics to enter into the fray and succeed so quickly. Again, congratulations.

  I am writing you today because there is an overall problem with your platform and, frankly, your ideals. Your infectious charisma and access to nearly unlimited resources to actually accomplish your ideals is worrisome as well. Without getting into too much detail, I would like to ask you kindly to end any plans that you may have to enact your ideals. It would be disagreeing with federal protocol that I am in charge of and take quite seriously. I do not want to ruin a fledgling governor’s career so quickly. You seem to be a promising person and politician. It would be a shame for me to end it all for you. I am sure you value yourself over your constituents in a situation such as this.

  Please understand,

  Sylvester Heston

  Chapter 42

  Hiatus

  Gora hadn’t slept more than a few intermittent winks in the past 75 hours. She had driven the entirety of the 30 hour trip to Little Rock and the 25 hour drive on the way back to Pendleton – she sped most of the way back. Out of fear, out of regret, and out of adrenaline she sped.

  On one hand she was entirely satisfied that Doctor Takeo Silva was dead and that she was the cause of his death, so she can continue her mission to seek revenge on the other scientists on her list. But on the other hand, she had lost a lot in the process.

  In the past 75 hours, she had lost her first beast to a gigantic man that shot light out of his body, her second beast was still incapacitated from the light, and her third beast was suffering from a severe limp. All because she wanted to get revenge.