Monster Factory

Chapter 11

"Playing dead?" Ruby said. "That's your big plan?"

By turning my head slightly to the left, I could just see Ruby sitting on the edge of the pushcart, staring daggers at me. "We should have called for help, but no, you're right ... this is much better." Her voice held more than a little sarcasm.

I couldn't risk saying anything. But I wanted to. I really wanted to.

"I'm gonna take a look around," she said. "Try to stay alive until I get back, okay?"

I watched her hop off the pushcart and disappear straight through the metal elevator doors.

Ding!

The elevator arrived with a clunk and a wheeze, and the heavy double doors creaked open. With a grunt, the soldier pushed the cart onto the lift and hit the button for the basement.

We seemed to drop forever until finally the car landed with a thud that made the whole pushcart bounce. One of the kids stacked on the cart farted. And not just a squeaker, this one was loud and wet and smelled like burnt garbage. For a second I thought my hoody gas mask might be activated. Instead, I held my breath as the rotten mayonnaise smell made my eyes water until the elevator doors finally opened.

The soldier gasped as he pushed the cart into another long dark hallway. I guess he was holding his breath too. The hall was lit by a string of portable lights all daisy-chained together along the floor. I couldn't see much, and I wondered if Ruby had found anything interesting.

We ended up in a large room dominated by a strange machine at its centre. Four other hallways, including the one leading back to the elevator, branched off into the darkness of the factory.

Thick cables, pipes and wires snaked away from the central machine that looked like a weird carnival ride with a glass pods arranged around the outside of it. Soldiers carried the sleeping kids and loaded one into each of the glass pods. The glass doors of the pods were then locked on the outside by a metal latch.

All the pods were full except one. The door to that one hung open. The soldier who had pushed my cart all the way down here returned to my cart and grabbed my shoulder.

"Wait," a man's voice hissed, "not that one."

I didn't like his voice. It crawled into my ears like spiders and made my stomach do a little twist.

With a thump, the soldier dropped me back onto the cart and stepped aside.

The air around me grew colder, and I knew that Ruby had returned.

"Uh, oh," she said.

"What do you mean, uh oh?" I whispered.

"It's Darius Radish," she replied. "He told the guard to throw you back on the pile."

"What did you find?"

"I found a way out," she said. "The tunnel directly behind me leads to the sewer. You can get out through a manhole cover."

"Ruby, I can't leave until I know what's going on."

Just then another man's voice tore into the silence of the room. This one was different. Higher and whinier than Radish's. I couldn't see who it was, but he was getting closer and more and more irritated by the second.

"Stop pushing me!" the whiny man said. "I don't understand what I'm doing down here in the first place. I have important work to do! Do you even know who I am?"

I turned my head as slowly as I could and saw Dr. Stuart Devon, the kidnapped scientist, being pushed into the room by two burly soldiers.

"Darius," the scientist whined when he saw the tall man. "We both know I have work to do. What am I doing down here?"

I also got my first glimpse of Darius Radish. To be honest, he was much scarier in person.

The insanely tall man wearing an expensive black suit seemed to materialize out of the gloom. He wore his long, black hair slicked back and small round sunglasses, which did little to hide the burning red bonfires of his eyes.

"For three days you've given me nothing but excuses, Doctor," he said. "So I have found something that might help with your work, as you seem to need a little boost."

"What you're asking for ... it's not possible!" Dr. Devon said. "I really don't think you get that!"

"What you lack is the proper motivation," Darius said. His lips curled into a razor thin smile that revealed a mouthful of sharp, crooked teeth.

Dr. Devon looked confused.

Darius nodded to one of the soldiers, and he disappeared down one of the dark halls branching off of the main room.

"There really isn't a lot of time here, Darius," Dr. Devon said. "The serum will be irreversible in less than an hour."

Darius simply smiled his little smile and said nothing. A moment later, the soldier returned with a young girl in dirty pink pyjamas. Her hair was frizzy and her eyes were red from crying and lack of sleep.

Clare.

"Daddy!" she cried.

Dr. Devon slipped away from the soldiers holding him and bolted toward his daughter.

I didn't even see Darius move. But in an instant the Wendigo was in front of Dr. Devon. With one hand, he lifted the chubby little scientist off his feet. His fingers were incredibly long, as if he had an extra knuckle in there somewhere, long enough that the tips of his fingers and thumb met around the thick neck of the dangling scientist.

Dr. Devon's feet kicked uselessly, as he hung like a fish on a hook from the tall man's arm that never wavered, never grew tired.

"Do you see, Doctor?" Darius said. "I do, get it. And I will, get it. Do you understand?"

Darius let go of the doctor and he collapsed into a wheezing heap on the cement floor.

"Please," he said. "Don't make her one of those ... things. Time is running out. I won't be able to reverse the effects!"

"Then I suggest you find a way to give me what I want," Darius replied. "Tick tock, doctor."

With a nod from Darius, the soldier picked Clare up off her feet and carried her toward the pod machine in the centre of the room.

"Daddy!" she screamed. "Daddy! Help me! Please!"

Clare was tossed into the last open pod, and the soldier slammed the lid down, locking it with the metal latch.

Immediately Clare slapped her palms against the inside of the glass.

"Please, Darius." Dr. Devon begged. "I'll do whatever you want."

Darius Radish aimed his red eyes at the weeping doctor and said, "Oh, I know you will. And now you'll do it even faster."

Darius gave a signal to a soldier sitting at the computer terminal connected to the machine, and the man tapped the keyboard.

Two soldiers stood on either side of the weeping doctor, propping him up, and facing him toward the machine. Dr. Devon squeezed his eyes shut against the sight.

"Open your eyes, Doctor," Darius hissed. "You don't want to miss this."