Monster Factory

Chapter 12

The machine grew louder and louder as black sand flowed through the clear plastic tubes running out of the ceiling.

I watched Clare, who had stopped slapping the plexiglass pod and was now staring at the floor. I couldn't see what she was looking at, but whatever it was, she wasn't a big fan. She screamed and climbed higher onto the pod wall, gripping the sides but it was no use. The level of black sand rose higher and higher, filling up the pod like a giant hour glass.

It didn't take long, maybe thirty, forty seconds until the black sand covered Clare completely.

She was buried.

I waited, breathless until a pale hand slapped weakly against the glass.

The room was still. Everyone's eyes were pinned to the glass pod filled to the top. And then another hand crashed against the inside of the pod, this one was bigger, stronger. And it wasn't just a slap. Whatever hit the inside of the pod was more like a punch and the entire machine shook for a few seconds afterward. The glass pod was actually cracked.

"What was that?" Ruby asked.

The machine slowed its hum, and the sand looked to be lowering. Faster and faster the pod emptied, only it wasn't emptying. It was assembling. The sand was creating something. It looked like. Well, like ...

"A monster," Ruby whispered.

Drifts of black sand whirled around the creature that had once been Clare Devon. Though it wore Clare's pink pajamas, it wasn't Clare. This thing was scaly, dark green and armored with shiny black dragon scales. Its wide dark green face was dominated by twin eyes that glowed with an eerie green light.

I knew now what the place was. Darius was stealing kids and transforming them into monster soldiers, using Dr. Devon's secret formula.

"What is that? Sand?"

Ruby shook her head, her ninja costume replaced with a white lab coat. She was smiling.

"It's coordinated nano technology."

"It's creepy," I told her.

"It's amazing."

"What happened to Clare?"

"She's still there, but the tiny little nanobots have formed a suit around her."

This place was a monster factory.

The monster formally known as Clare stood incredibly still inside the pod, her arms at her sides. Once the transformation was complete a soldier opened the pod door and stepped back.

Darius smiled and raised his right hand decorated with a large gold ring with a green cat's eye stone.

"Clare," Darius purred. "Do me a favor, and take Dr. Devon back to his lab."

Clare stepped out of the pod and leaped from the machine, landing a few feet from Dr. Devon.

"Clare," he whispered, defeated.

But if his daughter was listening, or understood, she gave no sign. She grabbed him by the elbow and marched him down one of the dark hallways.

"Finish up with this last bunch of kids," Darius told the soldier at the computer terminal, "and then lock this area down. We need to move the machine to the next location."

"Time to go, Milo," Ruby said.

And she was right. I had to move. This was too much. If I could get to the street, I could find a working phone somewhere and contact MOM and tell them what was going on here.

Out of the corner of my eye, the soldier rose out of his chair. He was coming for me.

"What are you waiting for?" Ruby asked.

I waited until the soldier was close enough I could smell his rotten coffee breath. As he reached for me I snapped my eyes open.

"Boo!" I said, and kicked him square in the nuts.

The big man went down in a wheezing heap, which gave me just enough time to roll off the cart and bolt into the darkness. I activated my hoody again and clicked the button on the cuff. The night vision mode kicked in. The inky dark tunnel began to glow a ghostly green. Everything was clear and as bright as day.

I was halfway down the tunnel, following Ruby, when I heard a bloodcurdling roar.

I did not look back.

Clare was coming for me.