Schatzi Von Jiftofen (Part 4)

I throw up in my mouth a little bit.

"Excuse me?"

"I zaid zat Furs are ze Master Race." He steeples his fingers (and the little doggie toes on his paw hand) in front of his nose. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Half an hour after a guard took my clothes away, they came back. They were full of holes, but clean. Cleaner than before I put them on this afternoon. They were even still warm from the dryer, in fact. If I can say anything for these guys, they're efficient.

After I had my tie back on, the captain of the ship, the Fuhrer, began explaining to me his mission in life.

"Human beings are lazy, ugly, und uncontrollable!" he was shouting, slamming his doggie paw on his desk. "Zey are weak! Zey cannot hear, zmell, or do anysing as efficiently or as perfectly as ve can!"

"So... you decided to base your movement on one of humanity's worst crimes?"

"Ze Nazis of Vorld Var Two vere misguided, but zey vere efficient in vhat zey did. Und remember, it vas instituted by human beings," His lips parted in a smile. It would have been cute if he was a regular dog instead of some freak in jack boots, "Ve are zuperior to humans in every vay."

"Ve vill not fail."

"Ugh," I said.

"You zeem to be havink zome trouble acczepting zis, Chassit. You yourself are not a human being. You, too, are zuperior," He stands and walks around his desk. His hands (well, hand and paw) land on my shoulders, "Dat is vhy ve suck you out, Chassit. To help us."

"In your dreams," I said and shook his hands (well, hand and paw) off of me. "I've sworn to protect those weak, and probably inherently evil beings, not wipe them out."

"Dat's vhat I was afraid of hearing..." At that moment, the door to his office opened. "Take him to ze Transformation Chamber."

I didn't put up a fight. If I did, he could level Vincennes. I had half a dozen guards around me, all of them pointing those little ugly submachine guns at me. I let them take me away down several unimpressive corridors in the ship. Nobody rushed me. Jiftofen walked in front of me with his hands behind his back. Nobody said anything.

The more we walked, the dimmer the lights in the ship got, and I had a feeling that we were a long way from the office where Jiftofen laid his cards on the table. At the end of the hallway we were in was a door marked with a biohazard symbol. Around the door was that all-too-familiar black black and yellow striped pattern that I always associate with trouble. Jiftofen himself opened the door and I was ushered inside.

The room was round. Perfectly round. The walls were lined with control panels and blinking lights. There were no windows and the only lights in the room were around the edges, leaving the center of the room in darkness except for at the center.

In the center of the room was a round bay of lights shining down on a steel container with one glass window in the door. It reminded me of those tiny submarines they explored the Titanic with, or maybe a rocket ship in an old science fiction movie. It was about seven feet tall and the door in the front was open. The insides of the steel container was lined with tiny holes.

I was looking at a one-man gas chamber.

"You look vorried, Chassit," Jiftofen said. He wasn't looking at me, but his grip tightened on his riding crop. I could almost smell the excitement coming from him, thick and acrid like BO.

"You zee, every living human has an animal locked inzide of him. Zis device, of my own design, releazes dat animal, und transforms him into," he turned to look at me finally and swept his doggie paw down his torso as if he was selling a new washing machine to me, "one of us."

"Into ze chamber!" he barked, and a rough hand fell on my neck.

Again, I didn't put up a fight. I was forced inside and the door was closed. I barely had any room to move.

I would have put up a fight if I'd heard the next words Jiftofen said before the door was locked.

"Alzo, zere is a mild sedative in ze gas ve'll be transforming you with," he smiled at me through that tiny window, "It vorks as a mind control agent."

And with those words, a mildly reddish smoke began leaking out of the holes in the walls.

I held my breath and once again wondered what I'd gotten myself into.