Free Specimen 313 by Jeff Strand Page B

rib cage, then bent down and gobbled up the lower half of the man's body.
    Dr. Prethorius laughed even louder. "Shoes and all! She ate him shoes and all! They all ridiculed me, but now it is I who will be administering the ridicule! And she hasn't even displayed her full potential! We'll see who's not a genius!"
    He laughed for a while longer and then left.
    Max twitched his leaves. How was he?
    Not bad. His beard was awful. It tasted like smoke.
    I liked the way you did that.
    Thank you. Jenny seemed genuinely pleased.
    Had you planned to do it exactly when the doctor told him he needed somebody who made a good fly?
    I didn't know what the doctor was going to say. It just felt like the right moment.
    It was.
    Thank you.
    Had you ever eaten any humans before?
    Not whole.
    So never live ones?
    Oh, I've eaten them alive. The doctor removed somebody's arms and legs and fed me his torso.
    Nice.
    He screamed a lot.
    That's understandable.
    Want to hear something weird?
    Of course.
    The doctor looked around to make sure nobody was watching---I guess we don't count---and then he bit off one of the toes.
    Seriously?
    Yeah. He spat it out quickly, though.
    He must not appreciate the finer things in life.
    Hey, Max?
    Yes?
    Thanks for being nice to me.
    No problem.
     
     
    "I said, walk over to the plant!" said Dr. Prethorius, jabbing the barrel of the revolver into the young woman's back. She sobbed and pleaded incoherently and fell to her knees.
    "Get up! I said, get up!"
    "Please!" she wailed.
    Dr. Prethorius kicked her. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Is that what you want? Get up and go see the plant!"
    "Please! I have a baby at home!"
    Dr. Prethorius kicked her again. "Get up! Get up! Get up! It's not that hard! Just get up and... you know what? Fine. Don't."
    He shot the woman in the back of the head. Her entire body went limp.
    Dr. Prethorius crouched down next to her. He stared at her for so long that Max thought he might have become one of those zombies he occasionally experimented with creating, but finally he sprang back to life. "Well, that was no good. Shouldn't have let that happen. Not scientific at all."
    He took her by the hands and dragged her along the path. He stopped in front of Jenny, regarded her for a moment, and then shrugged and looked back at Max. "You might as well have this one. Such a waste."
    Max happily opened his leaves. The doctor pulled the woman to her feet and held her so that her arm was right next to Max's leaves. He bit it off. The doctor repeated the process with the other arm, then let the woman's body fall to the ground again. "Maybe I'll grind up the rest of her and mix her into the soil," he said, stroking his chin. "I haven't used my meat grinder in a while. The gears might be rusty. I don't know how well it will do on a big-boned girl like her, but the worst that can happen is my meat grinder gets jammed, and that's really not such a big deal, now is it?"
    Dr. Prethorius walked away, leaving the armless corpse between Max and Jenny. Max wasn't disappointed that his meal had been cut short; after all, two arms was still a feast, even if he would have rather eaten her legs, given the choice. If the doctor ground her into fertilizer, then everybody could enjoy her, including the daffodils---Specimens 195 and 196---who had probably never tasted a drop of blood in their lives.
    But what did he mean by You might as well have this one ?
    Might as well?
    Max couldn't bend forward and snatch prey like Jenny, but he was far from obsolete, right? He could still bite arms off, or heads, or what ever parts the good doctor wanted bit off. Perhaps he couldn't bite somebody completely in half or swallow them whole, but why would you even need that skill?
    He was still one of the most vicious plants in the greenhouse. By far.
    Sorry you didn't get any, he told Jenny. He usually shares better.
    It's okay. I'm not that hungry .
    The pool of blood is getting close. You might be able to bend over and