Free Inseminoid by Larry Miller Page B

move!”
    “Yeah, me too.” He leaned across the creature and felt along where the major arteries might be in a human arm for anything resembling a pulse. “Nothing,” he said, as much to himself as to Sandy. “Not a damn thing to indicate whether it’s alive or dead. By our standards if something doesn’t breathe, it should be dead, right? But there’s no perceptible heartbeat, no pulse—yet it moves!”
    “But you can’t look at it that way. We have no way of knowing how it’s survived all these years in that glass case.”
    “I know, I know. I’m just overwhelmed. Fascinated. There! It moved again!”
    Suddenly the creature produced a low rumbling noise. Instinctively the doctor and his assistant moved back.
    “Is it trying to say something?” Sandy asked, trembling slightly.
    “Could be.”
    A chill ran down Sandy’s back. “I think he is trying to tell us something.”
    Karl switched on the overhead light and moved closer. A moment went by. Then he said quietly, “Watch its eyes. They’re spinning like a ball-bearing on a rollerskate. It’s almost as if the eyes aren’t attached to anything on the other side of the socket.”
    The creature turned its head and seemed to focus on the doorway.
    Karl glanced in that direction and then back to the Being tied to the slab. “There’s something over there that’s caught it’s attention.” Slowly he began rolling the slab in what appeared to be the creature’s line of vision. As they approached his desk the thing let go with its loudest sound yet, its eyes starting to move erratically.
    Karl stopped short. “It’s agitated. Something’s got it worked up. What is it, damn it?” He cursed and looked around the room.
    “Maybe it wants some breakfast,” Sandy remarked innocently.
    “Breakfast—the food! Sausages, eggs and toast! Sandy, you’re a doll. That could be it.”
    “But I was only kidding,” she insisted.
    “Yes, but that doesn’t mean you’re very far off-base. Let’s put it to the test. Hand me the plate.”
    Sandy did as she was told.
    Karl’s hands shook, not out of fear of the creature but because he suspected he might be on the threshold of something great. He steadied his hand and took the sausage from the plate. He was so excited he could barely feel the rubbery meat between his fingers. He moved the sausage slowly to the slab and the creature began to tremble. For the very first time, it opened its mouth to reveal three sets of short pointed razor-sharp teeth. A thin reptilian tongue darted from side to side.
    “Oh Karl, don’t get too close,” Sandy warned, eyes wide.
    But he heard none of his assistant’s words. Transfixed by the creature before him, he held the sausage only a few inches from the Being. Suddenly a yellow liquid squirted from its mouth on to his hand.
    Sandy gagged and looked away.
    “Easy,” Karl whispered, “easy. You really want to eat, don’t you. Really hungry, eh? There you go.” He dropped the meat into the creature’s mouth.
    It sucked it in greedily and easily ground it to nothing. Instantly, it began to pull at its bonds.
    “Sandy, the rest of it! Give me the rest of it!”
    She handed him the plate and watched as the creature devoured it all.
    “More!” Karl demanded. “Get Holly down here. And the professor. Mitch will want to see this. Hurry, Sandy! Oh my God, will you look at him chomp away!”
    “I’m on my way.”
    The doctor circled the slab holding the creature. He studied it closely for any change that might be occurring. But the Being had calmed considerably since it ingested the food, its first meal for what must have been a long, long time. Its eyes had ceased rolling and it no longer pulled against its bonds. The yellow liquid was now little more than a trickle. About every thirty seconds it groaned but that sound had none of the intensity that accompanied its feeding.
    Karl was exhilarated. His heart pounded rapidly and he could almost feel his blood flowing through