The Genesis Machine

Chapter 7

It was not the fun part. In fact, it was about as far from fun as anyone could get. Six had us roll the bird over, which took both Three and I to lift and roll it. Then he straddled it and started making cuts here and there, having us hold the greasy skin and he peeled it back with his knife, whistling while he did. Pretty soon all of us were splattered with foul smelling blood.

Two and Eleven seemed to have no problems with sticking their hands into the stinking body cavity to help pull out giant handfuls of stringy intestines. Across from me, Three's expression mirrored the way I felt. His face twisted in disgust as Six pulled out a large shiny purple organ and held it up. "I think this is the liver. We need to find a way to cook all of this. There isn't much meat on this thing, but the organs and the bone marrow will have minerals we need to replenish since we've been sweating so much." He frowned. "I really have no idea how we're going to cook this. I suppose we could smoke it, but I don't know what we'd burn."

Three's expression of distaste didn't change as he glanced from the glistening intestines in Two's hands to Six's worried frown. "Why don't you just find a flat rock and let the sun cook it for you?" Six beamed. "Three, you're a genius. I could kiss you." He held out his bloodstained hands as if to embrace Three and then laughed as Three gagged and retreated from the shining pile of viscera.

Six shook his hands, scattering droplets of crimson across the pale sand and headed back towards the group. He soon had groups of people scattered across the nearby dunes, searching for suitable flat stones to dry the meat among the boulders and piles of rocks that rested in the shadows of some of the larger dunes.

As we had walked, these piles and rocky outcroppings had become more common, which Six said was a good sign. When Eleven attempted to ask Six why this was a good sign, the shorter man smiled slightly and said it was just a hunch.

Now, having dragged out a pile of flat stones from a rocky patch of ground, I was leaning my aching shoulders against the largest of the remaining boulders, hopelessly trying to fit my body into the meager shade offered by the large rocks. Both suns had arched to their highest point in the seemingly endless sky; the second sun, which had been lagging behind the first, had finally caught up, though it was rendered invisible next to the much brighter and larger star it followed.

"We should camp here for the night." Said Six, looking apraisingly at a cluster of rocky pillars that jutted up from the sand like the fingers of some massive, long buried being.

"Camp? Why not move on?" One snorted, his voice full of scorn. "We should keep going, there's plenty of daylight left."

"Exactly," explained Six. "And I want to use that daylight to finish drying the meat. Plus everyone could use the rest. We've all had quite a shock today and continuing to slog through the sand during the hottest part of the day will only put more strain on the group."

One apparently could think of no further arguments so he simply contented himself with an insolent stare and stalked back to the others. With an irritated sigh, Six turned to the pile of rocks everyone had brought him and began sorting through them, pulling out the largest and flattest of them and setting them in the sun. As he started arranging chunks of the greasy meat across their surfaces, Two walked up to him. 

"You'll need to keep an eye on him." She said, crouching next to him and reaching out to help arrange the meat evenly across the drying surfaces. "He could cause trouble for the group."

Six looked at her, seeming to size her up before he responded. "Yes. Yes he could. The same could be said for others, of course." He glanced towards Eleven as he said that, but simply shook his head when Two raised her eyebrow in a question.

"Hey Four? Will you come over here?" Six turned to me and raised his voice slightly. "We could use your help."

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The next hours were spent in agonizing boredom: Flies had appeared seemingly out of thin air to attack the raw meat and we were forced to take turns kneeling awkwardly, waving our arms to scatter the bloated insects while attempting to keep our shadows from blocking the sun's rays from reaching the meat. 

All of us were drenched in sweat as the suns began to drop towards the horizon, and many of us had large patches of red, peeling skin where the blistering light had scorched us. Two and One were in particularly bad shape, their faces were flushed and seemed to radiate heat and their breathing was labored. 

Six had made them cover their arms and faces with the jackets that others in the group hadn't needed, and had them go sit next to a rocky cluster where they could get at least some shade. It didn't help that their skin seemed to be the palest out of the entire group, and was clearly soaking up more of the blistering sunlight than anyone else's.

I waved my hand across the meat again, feeling no satisfaction this time as hordes of large black flies buzzed away in agitation, spiraling up into the shimmering desert air before settling on rocks and sand to begin creeping towards the drying chunks again. This was taking far too long: I poked one slice of bloody meat, causing a trickle of dark blood to ooze out. The outside of the meat was starting to dry, the dark color turning more of a grey-brown as the sun's heat scorched it.

As Six and I continued our monotonous task, we were surprised as suddenly the meat on one of the rocks sizzled loudly and then let out a loud pop and twitched slightly. I jumped back, startled, but Six reached forward and then yelped as another piece of meat hissed and cracked and hot grease splattered his hand. "Four, look! The stones are hot enough that the fat in the meat is melting. That means that some of these smaller pieces should be cooked soon."

I felt my mouth watering as Six carefully turned the pieces, exposing the uncooked side to the sun's rays. The smell of cooking meat was getting stronger, drawing some curious people away from their huddles to investigate the source.

Three sidled up to me, his olive toned skin shining with sweat. "You look terrible, Four. Go have a rest by some of those rocks. You should take advantage of any shade you can find." He smiled to take the rebuke out of his words. I knew he was right, I'd spent far too much time in the sun and my bare arms were showing the consequences of my poor judgement, the skin was already red and peeling.

Just as I reached the rocks, however, a shout drifted from the top of the dune nearest me. "Six! Two! You better come see this!" It was Eleven, standing at the top of the Dune, waving his arms at us.