Beast Machine (46 page)

Silva put on a surgical
mask and gloves.

“
Shouldn’t you wash your
hands?” said Chelsey. “I don’t have flesh, but that’s still
disgusting.”

“
Eh, I should,” said Silva,
rolling the tool cart closer to him, “but I feel like I’ll live.”
He laughed and Chelsey shook her head. “It’s not like you can get
sick.”

Silva grabbed a scalpel
from the tray. The blade was devilishly sharp. He gently carved
into the back of the miner’s neck, creating a nearly perfect square
in the miner’s skin around the scar from the Carda Implant. The
next tool use by Silva was essentially a scalpel with a longer
blade but thicker handle. It was used by Silva to slice deep enough
into the miner’s skin to be able to remove the skin and any
remaining body tissue. A tongs-like tool grabbed the nearly perfect
cube of skin out of the miner’s neck. Silva placed the small cube
of skin and body tissue on a blue plastic sheet. It looked like
jello, but did not move as such.

“
What is so special about
this man, again?” asked Chelsey. She had partially uploaded herself
into an electronic tablet so she could peruse a game as she waited
on Silva to finish the autopsy. “Is he Obelis’ friend or
something?”

Silva pulled his mask down
and turned slightly, “He was the first person to kill himself with
the Carda Implant inside of him. It’s not supposed to do that,
well, unless I would command them to do that.” He scratched his
face with the dirty gloves still on his hands. “I’m looking to see
if the implant is what caused his suicide or if his mind was far
too gone.” The mask returned to his face.

“
You can command them to do
what
you
want?”
said Chelsey. “Why not have more people help work on a useable, new
body for me? That’s what we should be focusing on!”

Silva’s voice muffled,
“It’s not that easy, my love. I would have to specifically design
an implant to make a person be able to understand the science
necessary to create you a body.” He pulled his mask down. “However,
once I create my next major device, I will be able to change how
those with implants act in mere seconds.”

“
Do tell, my dear, do
tell!”

“
Not now, my love, I need
to finish this.” Silva scraped away the extra tissue remaining on
the miner’s vertebrae. “Ah, there it is!” In between a set of
vertebrae, the Carda Implant sat. It had grown much larger than the
initial biomedical device was designed to be. It was too large for
Silva to simply pull out.

He walked to a nearby
cabinet and pulled out a small medical drill. The drill was used to
create an opening large enough for Silva to remove the Carda
Implant. Bone, body tissue and cartilage were chipped away by the
drill.

Whirrrrrrr, zbt zbt zbt,
whirrrrrrr, zbt zbt zbt
.

Silva brushed off human
material from his glasses and looked back down on the miner’s neck.
The Carda Implant in the neck was the size of a half-dollar, nearly
four times the size it was when inserted into the person. This
implant was also a slimy green and yellow color, as opposed to the
original blue. Silva cut the implant out of the miner’s neck with
scissors, not caring about what other remaining parts were
severed.

The enlarged Carda Implant
was placed in a metallic bowl. Silva grabbed the implant with his
hands. He gently squeezed it. It felt like a peeled grape, an
olive, or an eyeball. He held the implant up to his eye looking to
see if he could find what went wrong. Aside from the new color and
size, the implant looked fine. The implant was returned to the
metallic bowl.

“
Send an email to Jeffrey;
I’m going to send this clearly malfunctioned Carda Implant to him
so he can personally investigate what went wrong inside of the
implant,” relayed Silva to Chelsey. He carried the metallic bowl
over to a counter. A round container was pulled from an above
cabinet. It was the size of a small coffee cup. Silva placed the
implant inside the container and tightly twisted on the
lid.

“
Did you send him the
email?” asked Silva. He now removed a box from the cabinet. The box
had shipping information already included on it. The address was to
one of the many P.O. boxes that Chairman Obelis and Jeffrey used
for mail services. “Chelsey?”

“
Yes, dear, I did,” replied
Chelsey. “I’m in the middle of this game of solitaire. It’s much
more interesting when you’re actually a part of the
game.”

“
Good,” said Silva. He
placed the container inside of the box and taped the box up. Silva
pressed a button underneath a nearby intercom speaker. “Thane? Are
you there?”

Bzzt, pzzt,
bzzt.

“
Yes, I am here,” replied
Thane over the speaker. “What do you want?”

“
I have a box I need to
send to Jeffrey. It’s urgent so please hurry down here.”

“
I will be down in two
minutes. Have the package ready.”

“
Thank you,” replied
Silva.

-----

There were few cars on the
road as Gora buzzed around curves and down straight-aways. It had
been a long, exhausting trip from Pendleton to a no-name village in
rural Arkansas. But Gora was about to strike a death blow against
one of her biggest abusers and enemies: Doctor Takeo Silva. That
is, if Tubman was correct on Silva residing in the trailer park
village consisting of miners.

“
Everyone awake?” asked
Gora quietly. “We’re almost there. I figure I can ask a local about
Silva at a gas station or restaurant.”

Yawns from all three beasts
could be heard.

Owlbert and Tubman had been
asleep in the front seat together. The smaller beasts shared a
blanket on the long trek. A trek where none of the beasts were
allowed out of the vehicle to stretch their legs for any longer
than it took for them to piss or shit. Gora wanted to avoid any
opportunity for the beasts to be spotted, even if it meant making
them hold their bowel movements for as long as possible.

“
I need to piss,” yawned
Hitbear from the back of the SUV. He ripped a fart that had been
stewing in his stomach.

“
It’s woodsy around here,
so when I park you can slip out the back,” said Gora. “I doubt many
people are out and about – it’s late.”

“
Good,” said Tubman,
stretching her arms and legs. “I need to let it out
too.”

“
Just be discreet,”
whispered Gora. She was slowly actualizing what she wanted to do to
Silva if he is in fact living around the Pinewood Hills trailer
park. Her breathing deepened.

“
There’re some lights up
ahead,” relayed Tubman. “Probably a store of some kind,
right?”

“
I’d guess a gas station,”
said Gora. “Let’s make a stop here. I’ll see if the clerk knows
anything about Silva, or this mining facility.”

“
Gut!” cheeped Owlbert
finally. “I can test out mein wings again!”

Gora pulled the SUV into
the gas station parking lot. There was only one other car in the
entire lot and none of the pumps were in use. She backed the SUV
into a parking spot on the right side of the gas station, placing
the vehicle in near darkness. An abundance of trees and other
vegetation were found mere inches from the edge of their parking
spot.

“
Okay, time for you all to
release some fluids,” said Gora. She brushed her hair behind her
ears. “Be quiet, careful, and don’t hurt yourself – that’s aimed at
you, Owlbert.” She pointed at him with a smile on her face to cover
the intensity she was feeling.

“
Ja,” replied Owlbert. “I
be careful, Frau Gora! I promise!”

“
We’ll keep an eye on him,”
said Hitbear. He opened up the trunk of the vehicle and stepped
out. Without the immense weight of Hitbear, the suspension of the
vehicle rose back up with a violent creaking noise.

WA-REEK.
Wa-wa-reek.

Owlbert and Tubman followed
Hitbear out of the trunk, albeit without the ruckus Hitbear had
caused. They made it into the woods.

Gora entered the gas
station. A small, dirty man sat behind the counter. He was reading
a magazine with a large breasted woman holding a large-mouthed bass
on the cover. His eyes didn’t move from the magazine when Gora
entered.

Gora milled around the
snack section. Her interest waned when she saw a glass bottle
containing pickled pigs’ feet. She moved her attention to the
drinks behind glass doors. Nothing but beer, energy drinks, and
diet soda filled the drink section. The man behind the counter was
still intensely reading, or at least examining, the magazine with
the large breasted woman on the cover.

Gora grabbed a small pack
of gum and made her way to the counter. She plopped the gum
down.

“
Dollar and fifteen cents,”
said the man, not budging from his magazine.

“
Okay,” said Gora. She
fished out two dollar bills from her front right pocket. “Here you
go, keep the change.” The man extended his hand as Gora placed the
two dollar bills into the hand.

“
Thank you, have a nice
evening,” said the man.

“
I have a question, sir,”
asked Gora shyly.

“
Go on, ahead,” said the
man. He placed the magazine down. He had beady reddish-brown eyes
and brown leathery skin. Dirt took up residence in the many folds
of skin in his face. “You sure are a pretty one, Miss.”

Gora blushed, “Thanks, but
do you know anything about a Doctor Silva in these parts? Or
anything about a mining facility nearby?”

He rubbed his face, “I
ain’t know anything about a doctor, but I do know everyone that is
associated with that damn mine has
changed
.”

“
What do you mean
changed
?”

“
I ain’t sure how to
explain it, Miss, but ever since the mine reopened –
months’n’months ago – people have been livin’, um, more pure-like,
I guess, is the word. None of’em smoke anymore, don’t chew tobacco,
don’t need their fix for alcohol anymore – it’s really hurtin’ my
business! I was the only source for booze within walking distance
for that entire trailer park. Ain’t none of them got enough money
to be hitting up the road to Little Rock every damn night. No way,
no how. But that’s what they been doin’ since that mine
reopened.”

“
That’s strange. You have
no idea what’s changed in them?”

“
No idea, Miss, just that
damn mine reopening.” The man licked his lips. “Though…”

“
What is it?” asked
Gora.

“
I reckon I remember
hearing about how the miners had to wear these new fangled nose
filter’ma’jigs to get their jobs back. Supposed to stop the Black
Lung from developing, increases a miner’s lifespan, I guess. They
got the first ones ever made.”

Gora sighed, “That’s good,
though.”

“
Yeah,” replied the man,
“but that’s the only thing I can think to be causin’ all this
change in their minds. Even when I ask about their change, all I
get is, ‘I just see life in a better light’ or some nonsense. It
ain’t religious either, I reckon, cause they been going to church
all their lives and were still fuckin’ horrible people. It ain’t
church, Miss.”

Gora sighed again and
grabbed her pack of chewing gum, “Well thank you, sir. I hope you
enjoy your night and your, uh, magazine.”

The man smiled and returned
to his magazine. Gora exited the gas station slowly.

She returned to the SUV.
All the beasts were already inside and ready to find the mining
facility.

“
You ready, Gora?” asked
Tubman. Her ears were upright and static.

“
No,” said Gora. “I don’t
think he’s in this area.”

“
What!” said Tubman.
“That’s not the information the bear and me found. He’s somewhere
around here. I can feel it.” Tubman’s nose twitched.

“
The clerk in there had no
idea who Dr. Silva was,” sighed Gora. She put her head on the
window. “All he mentioned was some filter that everyone in the
nearby trailer park began using. Just some rural folk getting
better healthcare for their jobs. I can’t be angry about
that.”

“
Wait,” asked Hitbear, “Did
you say filter? Was it used in your nose?”

Gora removed her head from
window to turn around towards Hitbear, “Yeah, it was a nose filter
that would prevent Black Lung disease, I think he said. Seems like
a good thing for miners to have.”

“
Gora,” said Hitbear
excitedly, “Silva is definitely around here. Take us to the mine;
do we know where it is exactly? Take us there!”

“
Why?” asked Gora. “He’s
not anywhere around here.”

“
He invented those nose
air-filters,” said Hitbear, “They’ve been playing some shitty ads
on the radio for months now it seems. This must have been his test
site!”

“
What commercials?” said
Gora. Her face grew red out of confusion. “Are you sure? How sure
are you?”

“
Nothing has felt surer in
my life,” said Tubman. “Ask the bear!”

“
I’m as sure as I’ll ever
be!” said Hitbear. “Let’s go burn this motherfucker
down!”