Loadstar 118/118.d81/sr.momma 2

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 13KB | 506 lines

Chapter 2: Face to Face

    Dr. Jackson reentered,  "We can
begin immediately.  Tonight we'll
prep Gerty.  By tomorrow, she'll be
gestating peacefully."

    Clair stood,  "May we see her
now?  After all, she's doing us a big
favor -- and she has no say in it."

    Dr. Jackson cleared his throat,
"Are you sure you want to?  She has
the stench of a dozen horses."

    "Don't you keep her clean?"

    "When she allows us.  She gets
her best scrubbings while sedated,
but we can't drug her everyday.
She's already built up an astounding
tolerance to most approved sedatives
we have at our disposal."

    "Then she's a regular lab animal?
 In and out of tests?"

    "Yes."

    "What a terrible life."  Clair
held herself as if cold.

    Dr. Jackson touched her.  "Don't
concern yourself.  Gerty is a rather
large beast.  Carrying two human
children to eight months will barely
stretch her belly."

    They were standing in the
doorway.

    Silence.

    "Well?"  Craig asked.

    "Yes?"

    "We'd like to see Gertrude
sometime before we check into our
hotel."

    The friendly smile disappeared
from the doctor's face.  He spoke
plainly, as if what he had to say was
the law,  "I'll have to warn you to
keep your hands on the rail.  Never
touch the bars.  Gertrude's faster
than you'd think."

    "You speak as if she's out to get
us."

    "She is.  She's quite mad.
That's how we got her from the zoo.
Too smart and too violent.  She
killed other apes, and wanted people.
 No zoo will take her.  No open air
zoo anyhow."

    He led them to an elevator and
pressed "basement 3".

    "All of our medical facilities --
and Gertrude, are underground,"  He
made an important face.  "Security."
The doors closed.  "We have two
sub-levels.  Of course she's on the
bottom."

    "Of course."



    He opened a heavy door, then
another even heavier door.  The
walls, floors and ceilings were
concrete now.  No windows.  Very
damp.  No ventilation seemed evident.
 Yet another heavy door awaited them.
 The doctor's silence bred portent.

    The doctor punched in a code.
This door was huge and electric.
Slowly, torturously it opened for
them.  He turned,  "This place isn't
a viewing area.  It's Gertrude's
home, and my lab.  You are not as
safe here as you would be in a zoo.
She can get to you if you aren't
careful.  Remember: if she were only
half your weight, she'd still have a
strength advantage.  Be careful."

    "My back's against the wall,
Doc."

    "So is mine,"  Clair added.  They
made faces to each other.



    Her area was murky and colorless,
spanning the entire wing of the
basement.  They walked past a
seemingly endless row of steel bars.
The corridor was sectioned off with a
row of bars that went off into
blackness, leaving a five foot wide
corridor to walk through.  The bars
seemed too close.

    Gertrude wasn't immediately
visible but her odor was
overpowering.  Along with the smell
of rotting feces and urine, there was
fur and musk.  A television
illuminated her cage, but she was
nowhere to be seen.

    "Careful.  Backs against the
walls.  Bodies erect.  Holding on to
the rail will do you no good if she
gets a grip on you.  I have the
x-rays to prove it."

    "You mean she's --"

    "Shhh!  Here she comes!"



    She lumbered into view, silently,
calmly, rising above them to hang on
the bars.  Her eyes settled down upon
them, brooding.  Her attention seemed
to gravitate to Clair.  Slowly she
centered herself in front of the tiny
woman.  Gertrude was larger than the
two of them had suspected, an obese
gorilla.  Massive shoulders and
girth.  She stared down at them with
black eyes that seemed to show no
ill-intent.  If anything, she
appeared, apathetic.

    "This is Gertrude.  Pardon the
stench.  We hose down her place every
day with this fire hose."  He pointed
to the wall unit.  "You're a bit
early for today's water-blasting."

    "What about the television?  Who
moves it?"

    "It's waterproof.  Gertrude would
burst an artery screaming if we ever
turned it off."

    "What about Gertrude?"

    "She steps out of the way.  She
hates getting wet.  But we nail her
occasionally.  We have to threaten
her by taking away television
privileges in order to hose her
well."

    Clair's eyes were wide,  "I was
under the impression that female
gorillas weren't this large."

    "They aren't.  In fact male
gorillas aren't quite this large."
Dr. Jackson informed.  "Except when
they've gotten fat from the
artificial hormones given them, both
simian and human, compounded with the
best nutrition an ape ever enjoyed.
And believe me, Gerty loves to eat.
Her favorite food is Corn Flakes.
Her favorite vegetable is cabbage, by
the head.  Her favorite meat is beef,
well done, but I think she prefers
live crickets.  We grow them for
her."

    "Eeech and double eeech!"

    The doctor illuminated the
chamber by pressing a button on a
button-laden remote control unit.
Gertrude seemed even more fearsome
when viewed clearly.  Her eyes were
fixed on Clair's as if she somehow
distrusted her.  She pressed her face
against the bars, enjoying the
privilege denied the tiny humans.
Slowly eyes went down to the flat
horizontal bar that reinforced the
round vertical ones.  Her hairy
digits fumbled with the paint on the
bars.  A flake was removed and placed
into her mouth.

    Dr. Jackson was getting uneasy.
"Backs against the wall.  She's up to
something..."

    Craig chuckled.  "She looks
perfectly sedate to me."

    "Don't underestimate her.  She
may bring life to your child, but
she's as recalcitrant as an animal
can be.  She's only eating the paint
as a challenge to my authority.
Paint is defined as a bad thing to
eat, and she knows it.  When she's in
a mood like this, she's particularly
dangerous.  We should leave now.
Turn slowly."

    The three of them did an
about-face.

    When Clair turned, she stumbled
away from the wall.  Gertrude lunged
for her.  It seemed more like a tap
than anything else, but she was
suddenly bleeding.  She felt her own
warm blood oozing down her arm to
drip on the floor.

    Before she could react, Dr.
Jackson was shouting.  "Stay calm!
Don't nurse yourself!  Don't speak!
Stay against the wall.  Never move
away from it.  I'll treat the wound
outside."

    Craig was on guard, but remained
against the wall.  "Wound?  What
happened?"

    "Don't look!  Just go!  Now, if
you want to live!"

    Clair leaned to her side to
inspect her arm.  Gertrude was still
reaching for her, her eyes just as
placid.  Not even a snarl.  Clair was
swift enough to evade a second touch,
but was now shivering, losing
control, and, in her rush to get
away, moving away from the wall.

    "HAND ON THE RAIL!  STAY BEHIND
THE LINE!  NO PART OF YOUR BODY GOES
OVER!"  Dr. Jackson reminded.

    Gertrude huffed.

    "BAD GIRL!  BAD APE!"  Dr.
Jackson screamed.  "No TV for the
rest of the night!"  He removed a
remote control from his pocket, and
pressed power button.  Off went the
television.

    Gertrude quickly, deliberately
dashed over to the television, her
abundant flab freely moving beneath
her fur.  Defiantly she pressed the
power button.  On went the
television.

    "No!  No television tonight.  Bad
Gertrude!!"

    Off went the television.

    On it went again.

    Jackson pressed the TV/Video
button.  Since there was no video
input, the TV stayed on, but went
black.  Gertrude tried the on/off
button, but saw that even it couldn't
bring back a picture.  She mulled
around the set, not daring to vent
her frustration on it.  Confounded,
she glared at the trio on the other
side of the bars.

    In a second she was upon them,
her body crashing against the bars.
Certainly she must have injured
herself.  The impact would have
killed a human.  She bellowed and
growled once, trying to get a grip on
either of them.  After her vocal
outburst, she returned to her silent
mode.  Never before had Clair felt
such enmity.

    They scurried through the long
corridor, Gertrude following them
silently, never moving out of range
of Clair should she overstep the
well-defined bounds again.  Like a
giant spider, she followed them, her
ill will rad