The Monster Machine

One Last Job

Tova regained consciousness after a long time, but didn't want to open her eyes just yet. She noticed she felt cold. Really cold. She reached for the blanket to pull over her shoulders and turned over on the couch. She felt groggy and tried to go back to sleep. But she thought she was hearing noises coming from somewhere in the house. She finally opened her eyes and tried to focus. It sounded like it was coming from upstairs. Tova lifted her head and looked around. Argo was nowhere to be seen. And all the lights in the house were out. As her vision adjusted, she heard more sounds coming from upstairs. Tova yawned and slid off the couch. She stretched her arms and rubbed her eyes before she walked down the hallway and found a set of stairs leading upwards. She followed them, hearing the noises becoming louder.

At the top of the stairs, it led into another hallway. And at the very end of it, she saw Argo standing over something as three large monitors hung on the wall behind him. She couldn't see what they were displaying, but she thought she could hear Argo mumbling to himself. Tova felt a sense of unease as she approached him.

"Argo?" Tova called out to him quietly. Argo was startled by the sound of her voice and turned around.

"What are you doing?" Tova asked.

Argo stayed silent for a moment, eyeing Tova who slowly approached him.

"Oh, Tova. It's you..." he smiled faintly. "Did you sleep well?"

Tova was too nervous to answer him.

"I thought... you were going to take me to the safe place today?"

Argo turned back to look at the monitors.

"Yeah, yeah, of course. There's just one last thing I need to do. I could use your help with this actually."

Tova blinked, "What... exactly do you need help with?"

"Come over here and I'll show you."

Tova nervously approached him and looked over to what he was focused on. In front of both of them was the large balcony that leaned over the edge of the bottomless pit. But it seemed to be extended outwards into some sort of covered tunnel with lots of skinny pipes and wires that ran all throughout it.

"You see what this is? I built it myself. I'm always looking for spare parts, but most of the time I can only find them inside other machines. But it's really hard taking them apart without breaking them. So I built this to take everything apart for me, piece by piece. It lays out all the parts afterwards so I can pick what I need and save the rest for later." Argo explained. Tova stared into the tunnel of wires.

"Um... that sounds neat. But... what exactly do you need help with?"

"I just need your help with one small thing. You see, I'm too big to fit inside anymore, but there's a couple things inside that need to be repaired before I can start it up safely. You think you can crawl inside for me?"

"Um... sure?"

"Perfect." Argo then handed her a strange tool and stepped aside.

"Just go ahead and crawl in and I'll tell you what to do. I can see you on the monitors, so there's nothing to worry about."

Tova sighed nervously and looked at the tool in her hand, before kneeling down and crawling ontop of the conveyor belt and through the tunnel of wires. It wasn't as cramped as she thought, but she could tell that Argo wouldn't have been able to fit. Argo turned to his wall of monitors and pressed a couple buttons on a keypad on the wall.

"Okay, so if you go all the way in the back, there should be a long green wire. Do you see it?"

Tova crawled to the very back of the tunnel and rolled over on her back, looking up at all the mechanical pieces above her. She could see the many little wires and nudged them around with the tool until she spotted a long green wire.

"Yes, I see it!"

"Okay, go ahead and follow it until it stops."

Tova reached her finger through and lightly pulled on it, following it down until she found it threaded into a tiny control panel.

"Is there a little grey box that the wire connects to?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, go ahead and open it up."

Tova used the tool to pry open the little panel and found an assortment of wires within it.

"I need you to pull out the green wire and plug it into the bottom corner," Argo instructed.

Tova carefully pulled out the green wire from its plug and clicked it into place. She screwed the panel back on with the tool and waited for further instructions.

"Perfect! Now, do you see that little mechanical arm thing way over there?"

Tova looked up and did indeed spot the little mechanical arm thing over there. She crawled closer towards it.

"Can you just give that a tap and tell me if it's loose?"

Tova reached her arm up and poked the mechanical arm with the tool in various spots. It squeaked all around. Tova thought it was about to fall off any second.

"Yeah, it feels pretty loose."

"Okay, go to the end and tighten the bolt until it doesn't feel loose anymore."

Tova adjusted the tool in her hand, reaching towards the end of the arm and twisted the bolt until she couldn't twist it anymore. She poked it a few more times, confirming that it was tight enough.

"I think I got it!"

"Okay, great. There's one last thing. There should be a little red light in the corner, do you see it?"

Tova looked around for any red lights. She shuffled backwards, but was unable to find it.

"I don't see anything."

"It should be on your... left side. Look up."

Tova rolled on her side and looked up again. Within the mass of pipes and wires was a red light, blinking slowly.

"Yep, there you go! Go ahead and reach your hand up there."

Tova adjusted herself so she could reach up and move the little wires away with her fingers until she felt something smooth on her fingertips.

"There should be something that feels like a switch. You won't be able to see it, but can you feel it?"

Tova waved her fingers around, trying to feel something until she eventually caressed something that stuck out from the smooth part.

"Yeah, I think I got it!"

"Okay, go ahead and switch it on!"

Tova pressed her fingers against the side until it flicked on. Bright lights suddenly flashed to life and she was blinded momentarily by the lights. She heard gears whir and the electricity hum as the entire tunnel was powered on. It startled her for a moment, but it seemed like everything was finally up and running.

"I got it! Everything looks good!"

"Fantastic! That's perfect- no, no, no, no! You stay right there!"

"What?"

"Tova, stay right there! Don't come out just yet!"

"Why not?"

Argo turned away from his screens and Tova could see him smirking from the other end of the tunnel.

"There's still one last thing I need to do."

Tova fliched as mechanical arms spun around the tunnel in a ring and she curled up into a ball, trying to avoid them.

"What?! What's happening? Why are-"

"Don't worry Tova, this will all be over soon. Just hold still and don't move..."

The metal arms reached out and tried to grab Tova. They began to poke and prod her into position as Tova squirmed and struggled. She tried to climb her way back towards the exit, but the metal arms prevented her from moving any further. They were trying to keep her pinned down.

"Hey! Stop! Make it stop! What are you doing?!"

But Argo wasn't listening to her. He fumbled around with the buttons and switches to control the arms and tried to restrain Tova. One of the arms grabbed her wrist and forced it down to the floor. Tova struggled to lift it up, but it was too strong. Another larger arm tried to grasp her neck, but she pushed it out of the way with her free arm. A different arm with a sharp point began poking Tova's sides with little electrical jolts, and Tova screamed in pain.

"Why are you doing this to me?! I thought you said you were going to help me?!"

"That's exactly he said to me!" Argo suddenly snapped.

"When you told me who your father was, I almost couldn't believe it! I never believed he could create something like you to do his dirty work, and yet here you are! When you told me who you were, I knew that this would be my chance!"

"Ah! What are you talking about, what does my father have to do with all this?! Ow, stop it!"

"When he asked for my help, I did everything he asked, but as soon as he was through with me, he threw me out like I was nothing! Everything I did to help, he gave me nothing in return! Not even a 'thank you'!"

Tova didn't understand what he was talking about. She could hardly listen to him with all the gears and mechanical arms shocking and poking her into place. She continued to struggle, but it was becoming hard to move at all. All she could think of was that she was the machine about to be torn apart!

"I scrounged around for every piece he needed, worked day and night until the equations were correct! You were right to leave him, Tova! That man thinks he can just treat everything like it's another one of his machines! But now that I have you, I'll show you who the real machine is! I'll show Isandro what a real machine can do!"

Tova screamed as the large mechanical arm forced itself around Tova's neck and forced her down. Another small ring of tools and instruments began to organize themselves around Tova's face and body. They began to analyze her and prepare to take her apart. Until Tova felt something cold underneath her foot. It was the tool that Argo had given her before. She reached out with her toes and pushed it back into her free hand. She fumbled with it in her fingers until she finally grasped it and started banging away at the pipes and wires.

"No! Stop it! What are you doing?!"

Tova smacked away the arms as hard as she could until she was able to pry the one off her throat and started bashing at the other arms that had her pinned down. The wheels began to glitch and spur out of control as Argo tried everything he could to get Tova restrained again. But nothing seemed to be working. Tova scooted backwards and began hitting everything in sight. Sparks flew and little bolts and screws popped and bounced on the floor. The skinny pipes began to c***k and hiss. One of Argo monitors cracked and the keyboard panel began flashing buttons and lights, sparking and glitching as the entire system went haywire.

Suddenly, Tova felt the whole floor move underneath her. She froze and looked around at everything that was happening. A wire burst, making Tova flinch as it began to spark out of control. Argo yelled at everything as it began to fall apart. Tova slid back all the way to the end of the tunnel as it began to lean and sway. She tried looking for something to hold onto, but everything was beginning to fall apart. The supports underneath the tunnel and the wooden beams keeping the house stable were starting to collapse! Tova screamed helplessly as the end of the tunnel began to break away. She yelped as she turned around and saw nothing but the deep, deep pit and she began to panic even more. There was nothing below her but a seemingly endless expanse.

With one final jolt, the tunnel broke off and began to plummet into the pit as Tova screamed and reached out for anything to grab onto, as gears and screws began to float all along with her hair that whipped in front of her face. As she began to fall, she recalled one of her dreams.

Her dreams of falling whilst surrounded by abstract objects accompanied by strange lights and sounds. But in those dreams, it felt like she was slowly flying backwards.

But this was real. This was happening. And this time, it was a deeper and certainly more darker plunge than she had ever dreamed before. Down she went.