The Machine

The Machine

or METAL

by Roy Fortitude

•

Together, Phineas and Ferb stared at the machine. Confused, skeptical, but nonetheless with a certain awe, they remained silent, bathed in a soft glow from the LCD display that faced them at eye level, while the machine itself seemed to loom over them in the darkness. It was only about a foot taller than them at most; no reason to be intimidated by such a thing at all. Until they had read the description.

"I-it can't be serious," Ferb said, momentarily shaking the two out of their trance. Phineas leant in to look at the description on the front once again.

"Step right up, be amazed and know your fate: It is The Machine," he read, his deadpan delivery sucking all life from the text, clearly meant to be read out by something of a ringmaster. "The Machine is no joke. The Machine is no lie. The Machine is unquestionable, yadda yadda lots of really short sentences about The Machine."

In the reflection of the booth, Phineas saw his brother give him a look. One of those ones that needs no description, only requiring the knowledge that it is a look. He continued, uninterrupted.

"Just place your index finger into the hole below the screen. The Machine will do the rest for you. With a quick blood sample, you can know how you are going to die. But best of all, it's completely free!"

Despite their incredible space-brains, neither male could even begin to fathom how this would even be possible. Still, the way the machine was being presented, whoever put it together was being serious. Still, there was more text; Phineas read on.

"Multiple attempts will not return different results. The Machine is not wrong and The Machine cannot be tricked. Uh… Okay-The Machine represents a remarkable blah blah blah… No, that looks like it. Gather 'round, one and all. See your inevitable end, if you dare. Who is courageous enough to brave The Machine of Death? OoooOOooOOOoOoooh, really spooky."

Phineas leaned out and cast a sideways glance at Ferb. "So," he asked, "I don't know, do we do it, or something?"

Truthfully, neither of them had planned this for their evening. A late-afternoon trip to the movies to see Space Adventure II: Striking Empirical left them in an almost deserted mall. Nobody stuck around on a Sunday, anyway. All the stores had been starting to close before the movie had even started, and the rest of the small crowd that had gone to the movie as well quickly dispersed.

Somehow, between the movie theatre on the top floor and the underground car park, they'd come down a little side corridor to look at it. The kind that just has a couple of bathrooms and the service elevator…and in this case, the machine. Maybe it was that screen… In any case, they both felt it, itching away at their brains when it entered their periphery on their way past the corridor. Everything else was closed for the night, and even from a side-on view, they could see it wasn't some kind of vending machine.

Or maybe it was, now they knew what it was offering.

It just begged to be investigated. It would only take an extra minute; nothing to get the security guards' panties in a twist. Actually, where were those mall cops? They knew they had to have been staring at this thing for at least five minutes. Phineas' watch had beeped to signal that the hour had come a few minutes ago, which should mean the mall was closed. Yet no lights were seen from flashlights; just this machine's screen. No sounds of footsteps were heard either; just breathing, along with the almost inaudible humming, buzzing, whine of the display.

"Well, I guess we… I-maybe we should do it." Despite the lack of upward intonation towards the end, it was more of a question than a statement. Which would have helped if Ferb wasn't basically looking to Phineas for the exact same sort of guidance that Phineas was seeking from the former.

"Why not?" Ferb finally asked. Phineas turned over his shoulder to look at the slightly-older male. "It'll be a laugh; why not?" But despite his seemingly confident assertion of the situation, neither one made a move.

As they continued staring for God-knows-how-long at the machine, it seemed like the world was fading out. Not even the soft, blueish light that came with nighttime, that they had been in when they made their way over to the area. By now, it was just them. Them and the machine. 

Floating in a big, empty, inky, black…nothingness. 

They weren't even properly aware of it, not on a fully conscious level, anyway. Only deep down, in a lower level of their mind, they knew, they knew that they weren't in the mall anymore. Well, they were, obviously, but they also weren't. They were somewhere else, somewhere they couldn't define. Somewhere they knew they wouldn't be able to leave until one of them, or maybe both, had bitten the bullet and decided to put their finger in the machine.

And then they heard a jingle.

Ferb's mobile phone in his pocket started vibrating. Suddenly they were back in the mall. Ferb's hand slid into his shorts and pulled out the appliance. He took a glance at the screen and held it in front of Phineas' face. While a little close to make out the fine details, he gathered that it was a text from Isabella.

"Oh, right," he said, absent-mindedly, "Gotta turn mine back on." Pulling a little further away from Ferb's phone, he saw that his girlfriend was apparently waiting for him and getting a little nervous that he wasn't answering. "Jeez, we'd better get going." As he reached into his jeans to turn on his own phone, the two began walking out of the corridor and made their way towards the parking lot.

Nothing was said from the corridor until they reached the lot. Locating their car — not the world's most difficult task, as only it remained — Phineas spoke as if they had been discussing the machine all this time.

"I mean, it just seems weird." Ferb unlocked the doors.

"Why," Phineas opened his door and slid in, "would anyone actually want to use a machine like that?" Ferb slid into the driver's seat.

"Not like I'm saying it could work or anything," Ferb buckled his seatbelt, "but to know how you're gonna die? I mean, it just…"

Phineas trailed off, staring down with a look on his face that grew steadily somber and introspective by the second. A passage from a book he enjoyed had come to mind, in which two people were presented with the choice to do something simple that would almost-certainly result negatively, or to go insane, wondering what could have possibly happened had they done the thing.

Like whiplash, he looked to Ferb instantly. Staring him straight in the eyes, Ferb could see it. In his eyes, he saw a look that he had never seen in Phineas before. He never even thought he ever would see it in Phineas. He knew the look though. A look of purpose. True, unyielding purpose; the owner of that look knew exactly what they wanted — what they needed — to do, and would not stop until they achieved it.

In a flash, Phineas bolted out of the car and tore towards the mall entrance. Ferb tried to get after him as fast as possible, but lost a good five seconds from unbuckling his belt and shutting both doors.

"Phineas!" he heard echo behind him, but as he all-but flew up the escalators, it didn't matter to him. He knew he had to do this.

First floor… What would it be? Drowning? Car crash? Old Age?

Second floor… Gunshot? Burning? Falling?

Third floor…at last.

Still he didn't slow down. At full pelt, he turned corner after corner to get back there. Even though they'd only gone there once, by accident, he knew where to go. He just knew. He knew if he left here now, he'd not only regret it, but he'd have gone mad from the wondering. It would have consumed him. He knew it…somehow. Somehow he was sure that he'd never see it again. It would disappear after today and he'd never get the chance again to know.

Finally he found the corridor. Only ten metres away and even then, it was too far. He reached out his finger and almost jammed it into the hole on the front of the machine, momentarily forgetting the possibility that there were sharp needles or anything like that possibly inside it. When he had stilled, he felt a… a something take hold of his finger, presumably to keep the needle or whatever from missing its mark.

The LCD display changed from its consistent display of "THE MACHINE" to tell him, "ACTIVE. PLEASE WAIT…" Meanwhile, a noticeable hum poured out of the cabinet, while he felt what he could only guess was an alcohol pad rubbed over his finger to disinfect it. Not being able to see his finger made this a little discomforting. What, was it just going to chop it off or something? Not being able to see what was happening made it a little-

"Ow!" Phineas felt something of the aforementioned sharp variety jab into his finger. Almost immediately afterwards, he felt something being sprayed onto his finger, which was about the last thing he felt on it at all. The anaesthetic worked fantastically, reducing the pain to just about nothing. Finally, whatever was keeping his finger in place released him.

About this time, Ferb finally caught up. Phineas sank down to rest against the wall behind him, while Ferb walked up and assessed the situation. The two saw a small slip of paper fall down into a small circular tray near waist-height; the display briefly flashing "ENJOY THE REST OF YOUR DAYS." before returning to "THE MACHINE" again.

Phineas reached out to grab the slip, but Ferb snatched it up before he had the chance, clutching it in his closed fist. Phineas looked at him, his eyes now showing a look of longing, like he would feel pain if he couldn't know what was on the little piece of paper.

"Ferb…" he very nearly begged, "please, Ferb…" Phineas reached up to Ferb's fist, using it to pull himself up. Ferb was adamant about not opening his fist…but made no move to either object or keep him from doing so when Phineas tried to pry his fingers open. Soon the paper was in the hands of the one it was intended for. Phineas slowly turned it over to read the actual text, with Ferb unashamedly looking as well.

The paper was as no-frills, plain-as-day as it could get. A simple, white piece of paper; solid, black uppercase letters in Verdana font. In this case, the letters strung together to form one word.

METAL

"Wh…" Phineas started to say, but left it hang in the air. The two stood staring at the paper for nearly a full minute, in a replica of before when they gazed at the machine. Startling the both of them, Phineas crumpled it in a half-second, swift motion.

The two glanced at each other, before looking back at his now closed palms. He threw it over towards the machine like it was toxic. Taking one tentative step backwards, he looked again at Ferb. They both understood between each other. It had been done. It was time to go.

As if joined by a cord, Phineas and Ferb both turned at exactly the same time and ran. The one thing they understood between each other most of all, though, was that they didn't understand the machine. It, truly, scared them.

The Machine Of Death.