Shirley felt as if her blood had turned cold.
She looked into her mirrors. Sure enough, the other dog was gnawing on a tire. Swallowing back a nervous shriek, she put the car into gear. One Doberman stepped away while the other jumped from the hood, landed softly on the asphalt, and slowly walked along the side of the car.
Both dogs watched as the car drove off.
Blueberry released a little doggy sigh, and said, “Oh boy. That was close; there’s so much I need to tell you.”
“Where are we going?”
“Huh? Oh, to your work.”
Shirley turned her head and looked at Blue with her mouth gawking. “My work?”
“You’re a scientist, right? You’re one of the planet’s top minds.”
“Well, I don’t know about that.”
“You’re high up on the food chain, are you not?”
“I’m connected, but it’s been through hard work, not brilliance. I’ve never been at the top of my class. Not once.”
Blue nodded.
Shirley rubbed a hand across her face, stretching her skin. She said, “First of all, you should sit in the front seat.”
“You hate when I’m in the front.”
“Yeah but… its different now. You’re allowed.”
Blue nodded, understanding. “Thank you.”
They came to an intersection and Shirley had no choice but to stop behind a white pick-up, unless of course, she wanted to start driving around the truck and through the red light; she didn’t. Blueberry leapt into the front seat and got comfortable, sitting with his back straight. A dog walked across the road and stood between the two vehicles, sniffing and growling. It was a mixed breed with no tags, lean and strong. The hairs on its back stood directly up. It didn’t bark or make sudden movements. Its unclipped tail didn’t wag. The dog seemed to understand that it couldn’t get inside the car.
Shirley watched the dog nervously, then something caught her eye: Another dog, another mutt. Its long dark hair was shaggy; its paws were filthy. The area around its mouth was wet and smeared with something that looked like dark red jelly. It walked towards the car, eyes primed for battle.
When the light changed from red to green the first dog stepped out of her way. The truck turned right and Shirley drove ahead quickly. She wanted to ask about the dogs on the street, but had another question that seemed more pressing.
“Why are we going to my work?”
“We have a problem, a scientific one.”
“Go on.”
Blueberry licked his snout. “I said something like, ‘all dogs are robots’, right? Well, my statement wasn’t completely accurate. The truth is, all dogs are not robots. All dogs are ONE robot. We’re part of a collective. We have different lives and different temperaments, but we are one in the same. Think of us like different parts of a single computer, working in wireless harmony with a collective goal and a communal objective.”
“Which is?”
Blue looked out the window and huffed. “You probably don’t know this, but the human race isn’t the top of the food chain. We are.”
Shirley released a nervous laugh. “Yeah, right.”
“Tell me, what does a King do?”
“I don’t know…”
“Let me enlighten you. A King sits on his ass, and his slave wipes it. Understand?”
Shirley didn’t understand at first, then her fingers began to tighten around the steering wheel and her stomach started to clench. She turned her head, looking at her pet through fresh eyes. She thought about the money she had spent feeding him and the countless times she picked shit from the yard. And for the first time ever, Shirley was mad at her dog. “Yeah. I guess I do understand.”
“Don’t be upset,” Blue said. “It’s just the way it is. And yes, I’m aware that all dogs are not treated like Kings. The ones that are treated poorly endure their misfortune for the greater good.”
They drove over a rolling hill and spotted five more dogs at the side of road. Four were rottweilers, brimming with teeth and muscle. The other was a bulldog. The animals turned their heads, watching the car go by.
“Is it just me, or is there more dogs around now?”
“They’re tracking us.”
“How?”
“They have a wireless connection to me. It’s impossible for me to escape them.”
“What if I remove the chip?”
“It would be comparable to a doctor removing every blood cell.”
Shirley nodded. In time, she said, “You didn’t answer my question. Why are we going to my work?”
“I’ll explain the situation the best I can. You ready?”
“I suppose so.”
“Okay. Here we go: in the days of my creation there were a great many conflicts, achievements, and wars. The continents were laid out different, so life forms squabbled over different landmasses. In today’s world we have achieved a universal checkmate, in a sense. If you blow me up, I’ll blow you up. But in my day our focus was different. Our relationships with other life forms were different. Earth didn’t have one dominate species, it had thousands––all advancing in different ways with distinctive concepts and idiosyncratic values. I was created to give beings a glimpse into the thought process of an intelligent life form, very similar to plant life. And through the evolution of technology I became something more, something unique… my own identity. After a while I was modified, not by the Jappared, but by a species called the Kudduu. With their help I became the most highly advanced machine in my mass category, which was a big deal back then. It is because of my insignificant size that my life form is here today.”
“But… you’re a dog.”
“No. I am complex. I am a tiny chip that is millions of years old, enclosed in a warm-blooded husk, endorsed by beings that dwarf the aptitude of mankind one thousand times over. I am something that engineers itself inside the DNA of newborns, much like a natural life form does. The only difference is… I was built.”
“Okay. I’m going to pretend that I understand completely…”
Blueberry looked out the window, trying to find the right words, the easiest words. “Think about this: the human race has done a bunch of strange and reckless things over the years, yes?”
“Absolutely.”
“Well, so did we.”
“The world is about to blow up? Is that what you’re about to tell me?”
“No, not at all. But something bad is about to happen. There have been five separate ice ages; four that mankind know about, and one that mankind does not. I was built after the Cryogenian period, 590 million years ago. There have been three separate ice ages since then, the latest one occurring in the Pieistocene era, but that’s not the point. Point is––the rulers of my day did something very terrible and very stupid.”
Blue stopped talking, licked his muzzle and lowered his head. His eyebrows did that thing that only dogs are capable of… shifting towards the sides of his head, creating an expression of absolute sadness. He looked like he had been a Bad Dog.
He said, “They created a synthetic life form deep inside the moon. They worked on it for decades; it was very controversial, very experimental. Most thought the idea was insane. Others thought it was the greatest experimentation of all time, and in many ways it was. They set a timer to keep track of the creature’s progress, but the timer was never meant to advance into maturity. And after a few thousand years, when the wars began and the planet started to look like it was going to flip on its axis––which, by the way, it did, but not then––nobody cared about the thing that was growing inside the moon. You see Shirley; they used the sun as an incubator and the moon as an egg’s shell. Something has been growing inside the moon for 590 million years, a creature the size of the planet––and it’s about to hatch. Do you mind opening a window?”
Wrapping her mind around Blueberry’s words, Shirley felt faint. She hit a button and the window lowered. Blue stuck his head outside and let his tongue han
g. After a few seconds the dog licked his snout and sat back inside.
“Thanks” Blue said. “You can close the window now.”
Shirley did. She put a hand to her brow and said, “I’m sorry––did you say that something is growing inside the moon?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. A monster. Something you’ve never seen before; something that will crack the moon open, stretch out its claw and destroy us on a whim. I would never have spoken to you about it, ever. It goes against my programming, but so does extinguishing my way of life. You can see the paradox, can’t you? All dogs feel the end getting near, but I was living with you––a scientist. I was put into a position of choice. Talking with you conflicts with one element of my programming while remaining silent conflicts with another.”
They arrived at Shirley’s office. The building was large and the parking lot was filled with cars. She used a card key to get inside the parking lot, and said, “Look at the vehicles that are here early today. Why so many, I wonder… I would think that after a four-day weekend the staff would be dragging their butts and coming in late.”
Blue shrugged. “I don’t know why they’re here early, but this is good news. We need people to see me, hear my words, and understand what I am telling them. We need people to start acting now, even if it means the end of the silence era.”
Considering Blue’s words, she felt inspired.
The end of the Silence Era.
Shirley grinned. She seemed to be involved in something big, something historical. She was at the forefront of a discovery that would change the planet forever. The story of her day would be written about and talked about in every communications medium around the world. She was about to be famous. Her voice was about to be heard.
Shirley parked close to the door; there didn’t seem to be any dogs around.
She said, “You still didn’t answer my question, why did we come here… to my work?”
“Let’s go inside,” Blue said. “I’ll explain everything once we’re safe.”
They stepped out of the car and walked across the parking lot quickly, keeping an eye on their surroundings. When they got close to the building a pack of pit bulls came running towards them. They must have been hiding in the parking lot. Most of the dogs weighed in at about a hundred pounds. None looked friendly, and they seemed almost rabid with excitement.
Shirley and Blue ran the last few yards. Shirley was screaming, suddenly overwhelmed with fear. Her fame and notoriety would be short lived if these animals killed her. When they arrived at the door the doorknob was missing. It had been chewed off. Shirley stuck her fingers inside the hole where the handle had once been. She pulled; the door opened freely.
Something was wrong; she could feel it in her gut. She didn’t want to go in there, not even a bit.
The pit bulls were almost on top of them now.
“Move!” Blue said, running past her legs.
Shirley reluctantly jolted inside and slammed the door.
The pit bulls stopped at the door, growling and creating a barricade. They snapped their teeth wildly but didn’t attempt to enter the building.
Looking through the door’s window, Shirley did a quick headcount. There were sixteen dogs at the door, maybe seventeen––several more were standing in the parking lot.
She moved away from the entrance and the animals that guarded it.
At the end of the corridor something was piled close to a wall; it looked like a flattened bag of laundry. They approached it slowly, cautiously. Blueberry first, Shirley a few steps behind. They walked past numerous doors and windows. There was an open wallet lying on the floor. Something was definitely wrong here.
They walked on.
Lying in a grotesque lump was a body; it looked male. The face had been gnawed and chewed until the skull had become crushed. One hand had been torn free from the arm. The shirt, no longer clean and white, had been ripped to shreds and intestines hung through the fabric. The pool of blood surrounding the corpse didn’t expand too far, but as Blue and Shirley moved closer, the signs of battle became more apparent. There were plenty of large paw marks; an abundance of gore was splattered against a wall.
Shirley put a hand to her mouth, thinking she might be sick. Her stomach heaved and she leaned over, struggling to keep her nausea inside. In time she looked up, hand against the wall. She felt her knees tremble.
Four wolves were in the hallway, approaching slowly. They were full size, coming straight for her. She turned around, only to find five coyotes advancing from the opposite direction. This pack moved quicker, they looked hungry and mean.
Blueberry and Shirley were trapped.
“What should we do now?” Shirley asked, a quiver in her voice.
Blue strolled towards the wolves like he didn’t have a care in the world. He licked his snout, and said, “I have another worker for you. She’s not armed. I disposed of her cell phone last night. She might not realize it, but she left her purse in the car. This is Shirley Gunn; she was scheduled to arrive at 7:30 am. We are nearly forty minutes ahead of schedule. Hopefully this doesn’t conflict with your timetable.”
One wolf nodded. “No problem. This is fine.”
Another said, “Nice job.”
“Thank you,” Blue said. “From the reports I’ve received, Ballistic Lane has terminated close to sixty percent of its residents. By tomorrow it should be ninety five percent secured.”
“Very well,” one of the larger wolves said. “We can handle it from here. Clear the hall.”
Wolves and coyotes surrounded Shirley.
A wolf with ice-blue eyes said: “You have two choices, Shirley Gunn. You can come with us or die like him.” The wolf nodded towards the lump on the floor. “Your choice.”
Shirley looked at Blueberry; her face was masked in terror.
Blue said, “Sorry Shirley, but it’s like this now.” He turned away and walked down the hall, talking with one of the other animals, never once looking back.
Blue-eyes growled at Shirley, nudging her ahead.
Shirley walked through two hallways and up a flight of stairs. She stepped over two more dead bodies. One was a man she recognized; he worked on the same floor but in a different division. He was young, twenty-nine––just a kid really. Mark Blunt. He had been working with the company less than a year.
The wolves and coyotes brought Shirley to an office, forced her inside, and stood watch by the door.
A Great Dane, sitting between two slope-back Hyenas, told her to sit down.
She did.
The Great Dane said, “I don’t know what lies you were told, nor do I care. I’ll break things down for you, once. You live here now. The world you know has ended. Food will be supplied. You’ll work in maintenance until you get transferred. You’ll be assigned a partner for the first week of your stay, or until you have a solid grasp of your duties. If you talk with anyone aside from your partner, you will be terminated. If your work is sloppy or careless, you will be terminated. If you create problems in any way, or if you try to escape, you will be terminated. If you cannot grasp your duties, or perform them adequately, you will be terminated. Do you understand? This requires a yes or no answer. Answer no and you’ll be terminated.”
Shirley reluctantly said, “Yes. I understand.”
“Very good. You are dismissed.”
The wolves led Shirley through a large room and down a well-lit hallway that was lined with corpses. She was placed in a fair-sized office and given a workstation next to the window. On her desk was a note. It said: Suffer Shirley Gunn. It seemed to be a statement about her future.
Click.
Shirley turned her head. A woman had locked the door before taking her seat on the far side of the room. She had blood on her shirt and make-up smeared down her face. Her name was Gwen White.
Shirley had known Gwen for years.
A man approached from the far side of the room. He was olde
r, maybe sixty, sixty-five. He had cuts on his face, and three of his fingers had been chewed from his left hand. He said that his name was Louis; he had been assigned as her partner.
On the table before them was a dog, a German Sheppard. It rested on its side. It was neither moving nor breathing. The animal had a four-inch square panel embedded in its ribcage. The panel was open. Shirley saw nothing organic, just mechanics.
This was not an animal.
This was a machine.
Shirley looked out the window, thinking about Blueberry––the dog she had raised since it was a pup. She thought about the good times they shared, and the things he had said. She wondered who had created Blue and why. She wondered how many lies the dog had told her, and how many truths were hidden within those lies. Most of all, she thought about the moon. She marveled at its size and questioned whether or not something was living within it, something that was capable of destroying the earth on a whim.
Perhaps there’s something living inside, she thought.
It was something to wish for, something to hold onto.
* * *
DARK HUMOR:
HUMPY AND SHRIVELS
Late one night in October, two men sat in a bar, drinking beers and talking about the ever-changing weather. One man had a hump on his back the size of a medicine ball; his name was Gusto. The other man had a shriveled-up arm and a shriveled-up leg; his name was Hubert.
Gusto drank a mouthful of ale from his iron mug and rolled his right shoulder around in a slow moving circle. He dragged the back of his hand across his lips, and with a raspy voice, he said, “I’m thinking about calling it a night.”
For conversation sake, Hubert said, “Oh yeah? How’re ya getting home?”
Gusto leaned towards his friend, smiled an arrogant smile, and declared: “I’m taking… the short way.”
“You don’t mean––”
“Yes. I’m walking through… the cemetery!”
Hubert’s checkered teeth were exposed when his mouth flopped open. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Eyes expanding, he said, “But… but… ”
13 Drops of Blood Page 15
