Metal Organism Designed only for Cuddling

MODOC: Part 20 - First Blood

           Other spears struck out at every other living thing in the room. Perry's men, hardened soldiers and veterans all, used to dealing with the strangeness that comes with chimera, dodged the attacks and came up into a shooting stance, each waiting for something to shoot at. Only Mikael, seemed too shocked to move but his companion, Brayel, knocked him to the floor at the last second. Brayel, a bit older than Perry, was not quite as fast at getting himself out of the way and was speared through his shoulder. More massive, he was slowly being dragged back toward the wall. He bit down on his scream as he reached for a large commando knife and began to saw away at the woody material. Mikael jumped up to help and took out a small woodaxe to help.

           They Mikael was able to free him at the last second and the two of the scrambled away from the wall, as it began to crumble inward. Brayel was bleeding badly, and the two could barely escape the falling debris. The strangely behaved group that had not hid when the firefight started, moved out into the center of the room and each ran toward a tentacle and held on.  Any tentacle that was grabbed stopped retreating from the room and struggled wildly to escape.

           Then It tore down the wall.

           Imagine a giant boulder, easily fifteen to twenty feet high, that sprouted tentacles made of wood, covered with strange moss-like waving cilia and radiating intense heat. It had a smell of burning metal with a strong chemical acrid overtone that brought tears to your eyes as the wind blew snow and its smoke into the room. All of Perry's men and the remaining androids opened fire onto this unbelievable thing standing in the doorway.

           Perry had begun to back up into the room heading toward Mikael and Brayel, but never taking his eyes off of the creature. Stran, one of the younger men, reached into his coat and pulled out a hand grenade. Slinging his rifle over his shoulder, he moved back and prepared to pull the pin.

           "No, Stran." Perry shouted, "This close, that may kill us too. Everyone fall back, get under cover."

           MODOC turned and ran after Justin who disappeared deeper into the factory. He could hear Justin moving through the factory and for a second MODOC realized that Justin was running ahead of the young woman he was with. How was that possible?

           MODOC ran on silent paws as he streaked into the factory innards. It was poorly lit, using only the barest of LED illumination along the walls. The central region of this work area was the final preparation and extruding of Humo-Xn into its pre-cooked and hardened form. The mixing machine was where Justin and Naomi were standing near. Behind MODOC one of the other strangely behaving people shuffled into the factory and while it took MODOC a few seconds to realize where Justin was, this person targeted instantly and move toward him.

           MODOC slowed down to watch as the stranger approached Justin. Once the person passed MODOC he became aware of a terrible and inhuman stench. The man, in his early fifties, promptly upon reach Justin, climbed over the edge of the mixer and threw himself in. There was a momentary scream and Naomi cringed and fell back onto the stairs.

           Justin began waving his hands about and making strange noises. He held his hand over the bowl and bled into it. He pulled his hand back and the bowl stopped spinning. The mixing arm, a huge three ton apparatus was pulled into the bowl with the sound of metal tearing and ripping, its groans louder than any equipment in the room.

           "Max, remember that diagnostic you were doing?"

           "Of course."