Cuddly Holocaust

by Carlton Mellick III

  “They’re pretty dumb-looking on a panda chick,” the clown said.

  Through the windows, Julie noticed a bunch of cabbage patch dolls in white bio-hazard suits loading plastic boxes onto a forklift.

  “My eyes are sensitive,” Julie said.

  “Even indoors?” Velvet asked.

  “Especially indoors,” Julie said, dismissing the conversation. She was more interested in what was happening in the rooms behind the glass.

  Julie wondered where the prisoners were. The room to the left should have been where the adults entered, but there was only a bunch of machines and workers loading boxes.

  Velvet laughed. “Yeah, those doctors are always fucking that up. I’ve had to get my eyes replaced three times.”

  Then Julie saw one of the workers digging inside a vat of intestines. There were several vats; some were filled with meat, others with organs. She stopped and examined the workers more carefully. She had to be sure what she was seeing was true.

  “Too bad the parts are becoming so rare,” Velvet said, looking through the window into the same room as Julie. “Once all the humans are gone we’ll be stuck with the body parts we’ve got.”

  This place wasn’t a prison camp. It was a slaughterhouse. All the people who had entered the factory on the conveyor belts were loaded into the machine. Then they were cut apart, disassembled for parts to be used as organs for plushies and dolls.

  “You should have had them construct you with pig parts,” said one of the clowns. “They don’t run out of pig parts.”

  Julie couldn’t take her eyes off of the machinery. She couldn’t move as it all sank in. Her parents were not being held prisoner in this building. They had been processed like cattle, stripped of their meat and organs. They had probably been executed years ago.

  “Pig parts?” Velvet cried. “That’s disgusting.”

  Then Julie heard the screams. They were very faint through the soundproof glass, but she could hear them. It was the sound of human beings as they were dissected alive.

  “Whatcha looking at?” the clown said behind Julie. While the others continued down the hallway, this clown stayed with her, interested in her behavior.

  Julie heard the screams of children behind her. Through the window on the other side of the hallway was where they had taken the young ones. She closed her eyes as she realized what she had done. Riley and the blind girl were in there. Julie had personally fed them to the machines.

  “You listening to me, panda?” the clown asked. He poked her in the side.

  Ignoring the irritating clown, Julie turned around to see what was happening to the children. She stepped toward the window. The machines were different on this side. They weren’t dissecting the children, they were doing something else to them.

  “They’re turning them into toys,” the clown said to Julie, smiling and pointing inside.

  The children were hanging from meat hooks as they went down the assembly line, thrashing and screaming. They were bright red, hairless, and muscular. It took Julie a moment to realize that their skin had been removed.

  “It’s fun, isn’t it?” the clown said.

  She frantically went from window to window, searching for Riley. But the children all looked the same without their skin. She recognized the blind girl up ahead, the one with the empty holes for eyes. A worker stopped the line and examined the girl. Then he shook his head and pulled a lever.

  “That one’s defective,” said the clown.

  The girl was dropped from the hook and landed into a grinder. Julie covered her mouth as she saw the girl disappear into the jaws of the machine. Within an instant, right before her eyes, the child became nothing but a red mist in the air.

  “Did you see that?” the clown cried.

  Then he laughed at the top of his lungs.

  She found Riley in the back. He was shaking and breathing rapidly, but he did not cry. He stared at Julie with a panicked expression on his face. He didn’t know where he was going or what was happening to him.

  “You really look stupid in those goggles, panda,” the clown said, staring Julie in the face. “It’s really starting to annoy me.”

  The children further down the line were being sliced up. Parts of their limbs were removed. They were being reconstructed so that they could fit inside of plastic encasings, to be sold as toys for the citizens of this toy society.

  “You should take them off,” said the panda.

  Julie did nothing to stop him as the clown removed the goggles from her head. He immediately noticed something was wrong with her eyes when he saw them. Tears were falling from them, moistening her pink human skin.

  “What the hell…” said the clown. “You’re a—”

  Without taking her eyes off of the screaming skinned children, Julie pulled out her sidearm and blew the clown’s brains out the side of his head.

  The others heard the gunshot, but didn’t quite understand what had happened until Julie came at them firing her weapon.

  “She’s a human,” one of them cried.

  Velvet turned around and looked at Julie with disbelief. But before the bunny could react in any way, she was knocked over by the clowns drawing their weapons. She landed right on her pregnant belly and squealed in agony.

  Julie shot each of the clowns in the chest and face before they could get off a single round.

  “A human’s loose,” one of the guards at the entrance yelled. “We’ve got a human loose.”

  The guard sounded the alarm as Julie shot him in the back of the head. The other guard fired his submachine gun, but he couldn’t control his weapon. The bullets went over Julie’s shoulder and shattered the windows, killing an assembly line worker. Julie emptied her weapon into the cabbage patch doll’s chubby guts. Then she dropped her weapon and drew her remaining handgun.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Velvet said, yelling at Julie over the blaring alarm. She was on the floor, cradling her pregnant stomach. She was the only soldier left alive in the hall. “How the fuck is it possible? How can you be a fucking human?”

  Julie didn’t reply. She followed after Riley as he was pulled down the line.

  “Answer me, bitch,” Velvet said as Julie jumped over her and the dead clowns.

  Julie ran along the wall, searching for a door. She tried not to let it affect her when Riley’s hands and feet were removed by the machines. She reached the end of the hall, but there still wasn’t a door in sight. The entrance had to have been on another side of the building. She couldn’t get to him.

  The only way in would be through one of the shattered windows, but it was too late to go back. Reinforcements were already entering the facility. Julie fired at the doorway, scaring the soldiers back out of the room. The guards were at three of the four exits. The only way out of there was to go in the other direction, away from Riley.

  “I’m sorry,” Julie yelled through the window. She put her fluffy paw on the glass.

  The boy was just a sack of meat on the hook. He looked her in the eyes. Though he couldn’t hear her, he knew what she was saying. He nodded. It was a nod that told her to leave him there. Julie shook her head. He nodded again. With his eyes, he told her to forget about him.

  “It’s not over,” she said. “I made a promise.”

  The boy just shook his head and looked away from her. She had to leave him. There was nothing that could be done.

  Julie grabbed a machine gun from one of the clown soldiers and took off running. Her tears created a trail down the corridor, deeper into the facility.

  A bullet whizzed past her face. When Julie turned around she saw Velvet on her feet, pointing her sniper rifle down the hallway.

  As she loaded another round into the chamber, the bunny yelled, “You’re fucking dead, human.”

  Julie pushed open the door and slipped out of the room before the rabbit could get off another shot.

  The girl in the panda suit tore through the factory, shooting down everyone in her path. Sh
e had no plan other than killing every toy she could find on her way out of there.

  The office floor of the factory was a sea of cubicles. It wasn’t difficult for Julie to go down the aisle, executing the plushy workers one by one as they hid under their desks, crying and pleading for mercy.

  A bullet hit her in the side of the face and knocked her to the ground. It just grazed her, tearing through panda fur and the flesh on her cheek. She didn’t have to look to know it was Velvet who fired at her.

  “I shot one of my own kind to save you,” the rabbit yelled.

  Julie ducked behind a work station and reloaded her weapon.

  “Let me go, Velvet,” Julie said. “I’d prefer not to shoot a pregnant woman, but I’ll do it if I have to.”

  A bullet hole erupted in the desk above Julie’s head.

  “Like you could ever outshoot me,” Velvet said.

  Julie raised her machine gun and fired blindly at the sound of Velvet’s voice.

  “In your condition?” Julie asked. “You can’t move fast enough to dodge my bullets.”

  Julie stood up to fire again and found herself staring down the barrel of Velvet’s sniper rifle.

  The bunny smirked at her. “My condition’s never slowed me down before.”

  Julie didn’t drop her weapon. There was no point being taken prisoner.

  “I was really starting to like you, bitch,” Velvet said, tightening her finger around the trigger. “Then you had to go and fuck it up by being a human. A piece of shit fucking human…”

  As Velvet pulled the trigger on the rifle, the sound of the gunshot thundered through Julie’s heart. But the bullet didn’t hit her. It went over her shoulder into the back wall.

  The bunny’s eyes were shaking. Her mouth dropped open. Then she dropped her rifle and grabbed her stomach.

  Julie raised her machine gun and pointed it at the plushy as she dropped to the ground. Something was obviously wrong with her pregnancy. It was the perfect opportunity to execute the rabbit or at least make an escape, but Julie hesitated to do either one.

  “What’s happening?” Julie asked.

  Although she showed concern, she didn’t take her gun off of the rabbit.

  “The baby,” Velvet cried. “It’s coming.”

  Julie looked around. Everyone in the building had either fled or lay lifeless on the floor. The bunny obviously needed help. She needed it fast. But Julie had no other choice. She had to leave her to her own fate.

  After running halfway down the aisle of cubicles, Julie found herself stopping in her tracks. The bunny’s screams echoed through her mind. Although Julie had just murdered dozens of plushies within the past twenty minutes, she still felt the need to help this one. She had to save the baby’s life.

  “What the hell am I doing?” Julie said to herself as she ran back to the crying pregnant stuffed animal.

  Despite her condition, Velvet was trying to aim her sniper rifle at the panda coming toward her. Julie just grabbed it out of her hands and tossed it aside.

  “You don’t want to shoot me, Velvet,” Julie said, staring the bunny in the eyes. “How would I be able to deliver your baby with a bullet in my chest?”

  Then she smiled at Velvet, but the bunny was in too much pain and shock to smile back.

  The guards returned with reinforcements and blocked off all exits around the building.

  Julie always thought that if she had to die, the best way for her to go out would be on a killing spree through smart-toy society. But she never dreamed she would end up stopping in the middle of it in order to deliver a plushy’s baby.

  “Why don’t you just get out of here?” Velvet yelled at her between breaths.

  “Just breathe,” Julie said, peeking out from between her legs. “I see the head.”

  A couple of guards broke through the door and Julie stood up, firing the machine gun at them. Their corpses fell to the floor.

  “You bitch,” Velvet said. “Did you have to kill them?”

  Another guard came in the room behind Julie and aimed his revolver at the panda’s head. When Velvet saw him coming, she grabbed her sniper rifle and put a hole between his eyes.

  “Did you have to kill him?” Julie asked, chuckling.

  “That asshole could have missed and hit my baby,” Velvet said. Then she continued her breathing pattern.

  Julie took the gun away from her again and this time tossed it further away.

  When the baby was born, Julie couldn’t believe what she saw. The baby wasn’t a bunny like her mother. It was human.

  “What is it?” Velvet asked, collapsing back with exhaustion.

  “It’s a girl…” Julie said. “A human girl?”

  “Give her to me,” the bunny said.

  Julie handed the baby to her mother.

  “How is that possible?” Julie asked.

  The bunny pulled down her shirt to reveal a large fuzzy purple breast. The nipple was that of a human’s. She pulled the baby to her breast and the infant began to feed.

  “There we go, my baby girl,” said the bunny.

  Julie backed away.

  “That’s a human baby,” Julie said. “Why did you give birth to a human baby?”

  The bunny just smiled at the infant in her arms and closed her eyes.

  “Thank you for this,” she said, smiling up at Julie. “You saved her.”

  Julie watched in horror. It was too much for her to take in, so much that she didn’t hear the footsteps coming up behind her. She just felt the pain as she was hit in the back of the head. Then everything went black.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Julie awoke in a hospital ward. Her face was in bandages. The bed she lay in was soft and clean compared to what she had been used to, but it smelled of ammonia and salt. Her clothes and weapons were missing. She was just panda fur and bandages beneath the blankets.

  A nurse with a plastic baby doll face entered the room and said, “Ah, you’re finally awake.”

  Three surgeons were operating on a doll man in the bed next to her. She saw the pulsating organs through the folds of his plastic skin. When the nurse arrived at her bedside, she pulled shut the curtain to block Julie’s view.

  “What’s going on?” Julie asked. “Where am I?”

  “You were in that horrible terrorist attack at the organ bank yesterday,” the nurse said. “Do you remember anything?”

  Julie just stared at her, trying to piece it all together.

  The nurse leaned in with her freakish baby face, examining Julie’s skull.

  “You were hit pretty hard,” she said. “Perhaps you’re suffering some memory loss.”

  “No, I remember most of it,” Julie said, trying to prevent her from examining too closely. Obviously there was some kind of mix-up.

  “You’re lucky you made it out,” the nurse said. “A lot of people died over there.”

  “Who did it?” Julie asked.

  “They say some dissidents from the clown army were responsible,” the nurse said. “We’ve probably got yet another civil war on our hands. Why can’t all the factions just live in peace with each other?”

  Julie couldn’t believe it was all blamed on the clown soldiers. She wondered if they really were part of a terrorist group and just happened to be there by coincidence. Or maybe it was some kind of cover-up. Perhaps the idea of a human killing so many people would put the citizens in too much of a panic.

  “How is Velvet?” she asked.

  “The bunny you came in with?” the nurse asked. “She’s doing fine. So is her baby. You can see her later if you like. She’ll still be staying with us for at least a few more days.”

  “I’d like to see her again,” Julie said. “Soon, if possible.”

  It had to have been Velvet who protected her true identity. As the only surviving witness, she must have given false information to the authorities. She must have made Julie out to be just another victim of the terrorists.

  “Oh, by the way,” the nurse sai
d. “Your husband should be back soon. He just stepped out to get some lunch.”

  “My husband?” Julie said.

  “He was worried sick about you, the poor dear,” said the nurse. “He stuck by your side ever since they first brought you in.”

  “My husband?” Julie said.

  She had no idea what the freakish doll was talking about. Who could she possibly think was her husband?

  Then she saw him standing in the doorway. A man-sized panda bear with a plump belly.

  “How’s it going, squirt?” the panda said.

  “Poro?” Julie asked.

  “The one and only,” he said.

  Then he winked at her with his bulging human eyeball.

  Julie could hardly say anything after she saw the panda. If she had any kind of weapon on her she would have killed him on the spot. Poro just pretended to be a caring loved one for a while until the room was empty and they were able to speak.

  “You sure grew up nicely, kiddo,” Poro told her, his giant black and white face peering down on her. “And I just love the new look.”

  He rubbed her fuzzy panda arm. She jerked him away. He smiled and kept his distance. She didn’t speak, so he did all the talking.

  “Sorry about that hit on the head,” he told her. “I got word that a Poro the Panda was on two sides of the city at the same time, so I followed your trail to the organ bank.”

  She didn’t recognize anything about him at all. Even his voice was different. It was deeper.

  “For some reason, I had a hunch it was you,” he continued. “But I couldn’t believe it until I saw you in the flesh. You sure went psycho out there didn’t you?”

  He chuckled and smacked his blubbery leg.

  “So you’re the one who knocked me out?” Julie said.

  All of her muscles were clenched at the same time.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I was worried you might have shot me otherwise. Your bunny friend told me everything she knew and I put the pieces together. I’m sorry you had to find out about your parents the way you did. A lot of us think it’s really cruel what they did to your kind.”