What the fuck?
Grayson stood with his face practically pressed to the glass and watched as Big Blue suddenly shook itself before grabbing its tail and tearing off a few chunks. Then, as he watched, Big Blue smacked Little Blue aside to tear some pieces of beef, which ended up pressed to the flesh removed from Big Blue’s tail.
“Look at you trying to grow your family,” Grayson murmured. Interesting but annoying. He needed Big Blue to eat and grow, but instead, the fucker seemed intent on building a mini army.
How to force the alien to eat?
“Tower, can you dump a bucket of chimp blood in the chamber?” Since people appeared to be the alien meal of choice, why not make his next offering too irresistible to ignore? Since it likely wasn’t feasible for Tower to get the people variety, the simian version seemed like the next best thing.
No bucket appeared. However, a sheet of fluid red suddenly poured from the ceiling, drenching Big Blue’s left side and splashing the floor.
A nasty and sinuous tongue emerged to cleanse the blood from the flesh, swiping every inch of its soiled body until nothing remained. But Big Blue didn’t stop there. It dropped to the floor and began licking the blood, even growling at Little Blue, who decided it liked the taste of monkey blood more than beef.
Grayson practically saw Blue grow an inch right after. Definitely seemed a bit bulkier.
“Hey, Tower, I don’t suppose you have more?”
Tower did. It produced a tub full of the fluid, and Grayson grimaced as the aliens dove into the blood bath, splashing and submerging, having a grand old time.
With them busy, he exited into the main lab and requested a cot. Seemed like a good time to grab a few winks. He slept about two hours, and when he checked on the aliens, Big and Little Blue had grown. So had the chunks torn off earlier. Mini One and Two pounded on the glass.
Two more tubs of blood later—along with a pair of shorter naps—and Grayson had a waist-high alien, a knee-high one, a pair of ankle biters, and a half-dozen chunks sitting on meat mattresses in a far corner.
“Oh my.”
Grayson whirled upon hearing Leila, the door having opened on silent hinges.
“Morning.” He couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her, and her lips curved in reply.
“A good morning to you, as well. I see you were busy overnight.”
“Found out monkey blood really makes them grow.”
“Because it’s the closest there is to human. Smart.”
He almost puffed out his chest. “Thanks. What do you think? Is Big Blue sizeable enough to test the water?”
“I think so. But how will we separate Blue out from the others? Tower can’t see it.” She chewed her lower lip.
A dilemma for sure that had them both staring as the many aliens ran around attacking the glass, desperate to escape.
Asterion arrived exclaiming, “How did Blue get so big? And why are there so many of them now?”
“Grayson discovered simian blood accelerates their growth.” Leila gave him all the credit. “But now we need to separate them so we can run a test. Tower, would you mind filling the chamber with sleeping gas?”
She no sooner asked than the glassed enclosure filled with a light gray swirling smoke. When it dissipated, while the little aliens moved sluggishly, Big and Little Blue appeared more rabid than ever.
“How come it didn’t work?” Grayson asked.
“Likely because Blue developed a resistance from the last time we dosed and passed it on to the others.” Leila’s lips turned down.
An idea hit—a dumb one—and Grayson glanced at Asterion. “How do you feel about getting possibly bitten for a good cause?”
The minotaur cocked his head. “What do you need me to do?”
“We need to separate Big Blue from the others so we can test the water on it, and it seems like we’ll have to do so manually.”
“Why not spray them all?” Asterion offered a simpler solution.
