3
Doc-adbury comes back later with another Meat Man helper in a white coat. They all wear white coats I think because they can't grow nice black shells like mine. Doc-adbury looks very pleased and has a bag full of stuff around his arm.
He says something about Intelligence Testing and Precedents and We're Going To Make You Solve Puzzles Now, All Right? And I listen to him because there's nothing else to do because I'm still all locked up. I've never been bored before but Mother has so I know what it is and I think maybe I am now.
Are you talking to it? says the other one and he is very angry. You realize what that is, right? It's not an animal. It's a murderous, extremely aggressive bioweapon!
I don't know what a lot of those words mean but they sound like they're pointed at me and I hiss hiss hiss at Meat Man Number Two because I want him to shut up. Then Doc-adbury makes his eyes roll around in his head and pulls out three big cups from his bag and puts them on a little table he drags out from the corner.
I've been watching her combat test results. She is an excellent tracker he says and puts a little ball of meat under one of the cups. It smells real juicy and my mouth drips because I want it. I didn't eat the food they gave me before so I'm hungry. This is called Prime Rib and guess what Forty Four if you tell me which cup it's in you get to have it.
Then he mixes them all up and tells me to look at where the ball is and I don't know why this is a test because it's right there. Little Mouth goes out and tries to get the meat but isn't long enough. Doc-adbury slaps his hands together and makes a Ha Ha Ha.
See? Look at that!
He picks up the cup and takes the meat and tosses it but because I was looking at him it just hits me in the head and falls plap onto the floor. Then he picks it up again.
I swear if you try to hand-feed that thing I'm going to report you for security and ethics violation says the other Meat Man. I don't know what a Protocol is or a Vi-Oh-Lay-Shun but he's real mad now, even madder than before. Doc-adbury chuffs weird and then tosses me the meat again and this time I catch it and it tastes real good and sweet.
That's good he says good girl.
Then he turns to Other Meat Man and tells him make sure to track brainwaves during these exercises. I'm recording them remotely but we need multiple sources for confirmation of—
Distracted by meat. Don't care what he says about me now. Feels like it's the first good thing I've tasted in my whole life other than my cocoon which was very young and squishy. Belly says eat and so I eat and then the meat is gone and I want more.
When I'm done he holds up another chunk of meat and says You'll get more if you cooperate. Co-wop-her-ate. Heard that word before but only once. Think it means Do What I Want. Then he says We'll be back in a minute and the both of them leave and I am alone again.
Alone. Drip drip drip goes the ceiling and drip drip drip goes my hungry mouth.
I miss Mother. Nobody to do things for without her. Also she would help us polish our shells sometimes which was nice and she sang songs that went whoosh into our heads and kept us all together and so we never had to wonder or think or be afraid. Now I am bored and angry and afraid and I don't like it because I don't know what to do. Thinking is hard and means lots to worry about. Wish Mother would sing a song to me.
Doc-adbury comes back with a different helper and now they have a big board with lots of spinning things on it which they put on the table.
This is a tricky one says Doc-adbury and his hands are holding another smaller board with paper on it. You'll be presented with two buttons, Forty Four. Both will do very different things to get you to your food. Now we are testing your ability to Prioritize and Understand Cause-and-Effect.
Fascinating says the New Helper. Look at the intensity of her focus...
Just feels right to give her the lowdown, says Doc-adbury and does a Ha Ha Ha. Then he turns back to me. This is my intern. Say hello Forty-Four.
Myintern does a thing where she turns her mouth up and then they both walk out of the room and shut the door behind them and stand outside the glass window. I hear a ka-chunk and my cage lets go of me with its metal mouth and then I can move again. Stretch my legs and arms. Stretch stretch stretch. Can finally scratch at my head. When you're locked up you get real itchy real fast.
She's not going for the window, says Myintern and her voice is all breathy. All of the other specimens went straight for the window, no matter what.
None of the other specimens are Forty-Four, says Doc-adbury.
They probably think I can't hear them but I do. Ha Ha Ha. My dome hears very good. The Forty-Four on my head stops itching and so I look at the stuff they put in the room. It's two round red things. Why did they put these in here. They're not Food or Gun or Knife or anything. Just big red circles.
I sit by one and poke it with my tail to see what happens and if it'll maybe explode. Sometimes Meat Man Things explode. It doesn't. I hear a noise though and something moves in the ceiling. There is a pipe that comes out that smells like meat. It's small like the air tunnels the Meat Men put in their nests.
She touched the button, Myintern says and she gets very close to the glass window. She actually touched the button.
I look at her and back to the Button and back to her. I poke it again. A big sound comes from the pipe and then an even bigger deer leg falls onto the ground but it's rotten so I don't eat it and I give Myintern a Hiss because she gave me bad meat. They always give me bad meat unless I do just what they want so I must have done something wrong. Meat Men are full of tricks. Maybe the other Button will do something else.
I push it and another ker-chunk happens and then there's another pipe that comes down closer to me and out plops another big meat chunk. I'm about to eat the meat except with it there's a poof of gas smoke that makes me dizzy and I spin around for a while. When it's gone I shake my head to get my brain back all good and awake and I eat the meat all up before they can take it away.
It's displaying preference, says Doc-adbury. Even though the appearance of the choice cut triggered unpleasant stimuli, it's still choosing that over the rotted meat.
He does a scribble scribble on his paper.
Incredible… says Myintern. Previous encounters indicated they ate blindly and without concern for quality. Do you think it Blah Blah Blah Blah. The meat juice dribbles with my mouth juice and makes a little puddle which I wipe away with my feet. Then I take the bad meat and I put my tail through it and throw it at the window.
Is that a threat display? Myintern does a scribble scribble, too.
The scribble scribble sound is annoying and so I hiss at them until they stop. I'm still hungry. Push the Button ker-chunk! More food and more gas. I scramble away until the gas is gone and then gobble the meat. And again and again and again. But now there's too much gas in the room because I pressed the Button so many times so I'm dizzy and my head hurts and my breathing is bad. I feel sick sick sick. Where is the air tunnel? I know they've gotta have one. Gotta gotta. Wouldn't kill me. I'm important.
I feel my way on the wall and the ceiling and go around the pipes and the Tubes on my back sniff sniff sniff. Clean air is in the corners but I can't get it. Maybe the pipe where the rot-meat came from has more.
What is it doing?
Searching for an escape route, probably.
Shh. Watch.
I go into the rot-meat-pipe. It's not very big so my tail hangs out and flops around. At the top there's a big slatted circle. I push my face to it and slurp up the good air.
Then the whole world goes white.
—
I wake up. The room is different again. This time there is a big long glass thing on the wall. I see another worker inside.
Go up to glass. Sibling? Scratch scratch scratch. It scratches too. Breathes when I breathe. Not right. Has no smell, makes no noise.
Something on its head.
I sit for a minute and look. Outside I hear Myintern scribble. I think, This is another Meat Man Trick. This is me. The head-thing must be my Forty-Four which itches. And that spot on my dome is the Monitor Doc-adbury put on me. I look real close in the glass and try to get it off but it's in a spot where my hands can't reach. Just barely.
It's very ugly. I hiss at it.
Doc-adbury says Good girl Forty-Four amazing job and then meat comes out of the ceiling again. I don't want it. Might make me sleep like the pipe did. I go running at the window and hit it with my whole everything but it doesn't crack. Then I hit it with my head, and my tail. Myintern and Doc-adbury jump back but nothing happens so I stop. Don't want to waste my energy.
There's nothing else to do in here but look at the glass and the window and the Meat Men and I don't want to do any of those things. I'm bored. I'm Bored! I make a lot of loud noise. Scrape scrape scrape at the floor. Jump to the ceiling and scrape scrape scrape there too.
Maybe I should eat the meat after all. Would be nice to feel something in Little Mouth and pretend I am not so bored. I've never really made pretend before. Pretend is when you make pictures in your brain like thinking about where a mouse ran off to or what kind of baby will hatch from a cocoon. Don't have to pretend much in Nest and that is how I like it.
I walk over real slow and Doc-adbury watches me all careful. Look at the way she moves. I take the meat in Little Mouth and rip it up into tiny pieces. Feels good to tear meat. It comes off easy. I don't eat it yet. Doc-adbury does some scribbles. It's annoying. I look at him and Hiss Hiss Hiss.
They said a word when they were moving me to the fighting room before and I think about it now. It is a word called Pay-Shense. Have Pay-Shense, Forty-Four, Hold Tight, they said, and so I hold the meat tight to me while I rip it up and look at the Meat Men to see what they think of it and if they know this is what I want to do to them. Their eyes are small and squishy and watch my dome and mouth and hands. My tail twitches because I am very Nurr-Vuss and Aj-Ih-Tate-Ihd. They will not stop staring at me.
Oh, fuck you too, Forty-Four, says Myintern and does a quiet Ha Ha Ha with a cough at the end.
Language says Doc-adbury. She's impressionable.
Fuckyootoo. Impreshunabull.