Gorracula: a Tale of Science

By Yorgo Douramacos

Gorracula: a Tale of Science is a creature feature horror story set in a small university town in the early 1960s. A researcher unleashes a killer gorilla on a small town but the real horror may be man's own nature. In this fast paced story of scientific rivalry, rock and roll, higher education, and drive in movies it's never clear where the true beast is hiding.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Yorgo Douramacos
• Release date: Dec 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223401865

Yorgo Douramacos

Yorgo Douramacos is Millenial stereotype living with his wife and their cat in Indiana. He has two college degrees and the debt load to prove it. He is obsessed with photography and history and he works hard to build his life around a media diet most would consider a form of penance.

Book preview

1

The gorilla craved human flesh. Sweat pooled at the base of its spine as it crept toward the furthest car facing the drive-in movie screen. It desired the scent of terror stricken bodies, the waft of panicked humans. The thought made its breath shallow.

The North Park Drive-In sat three miles from town. The lights and noise carried across farm fields drawing coyotes and raccoons to where food scraps piled up in cans under the stars at night. Moonlight glinted off the gorilla’s shiny black fur while silver lights danced upon the movie screen. Students from the nearby university indulged their desires behind car doors. Clumsy hands found ready flesh. Illicit gasping bled between the screams on screen. Cars rocked slightly. The gorilla crept closer.

As the action on screen reached its peak, howling sirens and flashing lights in flickering black and white, the gorilla charged upon its prey. The thump and scud of rent metal and the terror of naked bodies, bitten and losing blood. The young couple were swiftly silenced and dragged into the trees.

No other car was parked nearby. Their vehicle sat empty, awkwardly leaning with its door torn off. The movie played to its end and everyone drove through the exit, unbothered by anything at the edges of their night. The bad movie, salty popcorn, and smell of sweat in their cars, but watching them leave was a beast with flesh in its teeth and blood in its fur. It grumbled satisfaction and skulked away towards town.

2

ONE WEEK EARLIER:

Hampton’s Pub near campus was usually a quiet place to spend a Friday night. Tonight though it was packed. Most weekends Professor Lester Pleasance would try to find a girl there to take to see his gorilla. Given the large crowd tonight he liked his odds.

Lester was not handsome. He had the slight frame and narrow shoulders of a lifelong academic. He was pale and freckled and his glasses were thick. Their black frames made him seem even paler than he was. But his scientific eye had long ago noticed that it was not always the brawny chest and perfect hair that attracted women. It was actually the confidence which that feature-set bred in a man.

He would weather the first few giggles and feints of disinterest and had come to know the moment, persisting like a man who knows his worth. Make eye contact and ask questions about her and her interests. Hint at your intentions but hold back. Desperation is bred by lack of confidence and it stinks to the opposite sex.

Most nights he would get there, that moment of interest and implicit trust, and then he would ask, Would you like to see my gorilla? Usually they said yes. He would bring them into the biology building, past the classrooms and down stairs onto the main research floor. He would unlock the pebbled glass door with his name on it and let them see the beast behind the plexiglass in his large and imposing laboratory. If they were impressed he’d push it further, enter the cage and risk looking small by comparison to demonstrate their rapport. It had worked repeatedly over the months of his project and he had made love more in the last year than his entire life previously.

His serum had shown results. Not the drastic headline grabbing kind but accelerated learning, clear evidence of comprehension and problem solving skills. It made for an easy moment, when a young lady saw the animal playing both sides of a chess board. Lester could place a gentle hand on the small of her back. She’d be amazed and slightly disoriented and here was the man who had done it. Word had gotten around and now a girl might seek him out. The Gorilla Professor had become known and he was not above trading notoriety for romantic attention.

Tonight the pub was hosting a concert, which lowered Lester’s chances. He entered and saw all eyes trained on the stage waiting for a band to go on. There wouldn’t be much chance for intimate talking tonight.

Hey, Professor! A voice came from his right. He turned around in time to be slammed in the head by what felt like a Volkswagen with knuckles.

Lester hit the floor and the world went black for an instant. He came-to reeling slightly, seeing only the feet and knees of people who had watched him fall. He grabbed his glasses which now had a crack down the middle of the right lens. Someone picked him up roughly and he put his glasses on to see the person across from him winding up to strike again.

A set of arms intervened from behind and possibly saved Lester’s life.

Frank, what the hell are you doing! I oughta have you arrested.

He moved in on my girl and I’m gonna kick his teeth in is what I’m doin’!

The man who’d helped was the owner of the bar, a friend of Lester’s named Herbert Hampton or just Herb to his friends.

You got a lotta nerve wanting to play a show here and then thinking you can just attack my regulars. Get out! No show tonight, it’s off, you’re done!

The crowd became irate.

Are you serious? You’re going to burn down this whole thing because of him? He pointed at Lester and the ire of the crowd bounced from Herb to Lester.

I don’t need your crowd. Crawl back into the sewer you damn rats!

Frank stood up on a table and shouted to his audience, Alright folks, Herb here hates your music and your money! Come to our place and we’ll be playing our show anyway out of our garage. Rock and Roll lives!

The crowd roared and started breaking glasses and bottles on the floor. A gunshot went off behind the bar. The bartender had pulled out a shotgun and fired it into the ceiling. The crowd went silent.

Leave nicely or Rock and Roll may live, but you won't!

The crowd grumbled but filed out until it was just Lester, Herb, the bartender, and a few other regulars and university types.

Good idea with the gun, Norman. But that hole in my ceiling is coming out of your pay.

Whatever. Next time you’ll probably be bailing me out of jail. I told you it was a bad idea, hosting some guitar band.

Well, you were right. And you, Lester... I told you that taste in younger women was no good.

Might I suggest it was the quantity that did me in. I was bound to offend someone eventually. I should have foreseen it but when an approach returns positive results it’s hard to know when to stop.

I think that time is now.

Lester rubbed the side of his head which throbbed and ached. I think I know it.

That was quite the little melodrama, professor. A woman’s voice came from the far end of the bar.

Lester looked over and, seeing double from the blow to the head, compounded further by the crack in his glasses, could just barely make out the form of Professor Catherine Moss from the English department. He knew her on sight but they had never spoken. She was lithe and graceful. Her hair was shock white and cascaded down her back even though she could hardly have been more than forty-five years old. If Lester was honest all of his romantic experiments with grad students, gratifying as they had been, had been in pursuit of the confidence he might need to approach a woman like Catherine.

Lester walked over to her, mustering all the lessons he had learned about confidence and self presentation and, with a crack in his glasses and a slightly swelling head, he opened his mouth and made a squeaking noise like a scooting chair in a silent library.

He blushed and Catherine smiled, Would you like to buy me a drink?

Yes, sorry. I’m... a little shaken I think.

They sat and talked for a long while as the waitress and Herb cleaned up from all the commotion. The bartender replaced their drinks twice as she told him about all the plays she’d directed since joining the faculty. She had a taste for reinterpreting the classics. If she did not get at least five angry letters in the weeks after a production she counted it a failure and knew to raise the stakes next time.

He told her the basics about his work with the gorilla.

What’s his name?

Octavius.

Ahh, like the Roman Emperor? Primus inter Pares.

Exactly, the first among equals is what I am hoping for.

Sounds very noble.

Tell me something, were you here tonight to watch this concert?

I was. I am fascinated by the democratization of the performative impulse symbolized by rock and roll. It’s such a simple form, nearly anyone can do it. It has the potential to lift the lowliest to stardom. The young man that punched you in the head, he’s an auto mechanic. Not even a shop owner. Just a mechanic and yet he can draw out a larger, more passionate crowd than any state level politician.

Seems potentially dangerous if tonight is any indication.

Sure, but liberation is always dangerous. Otherwise it would just be the status quo.

They sat quietly for a moment looking at one another and wondering what more there was to say. Lester suddenly felt like the moment was right to say something compelling, charming, erudite, original. He adjusted his glasses and leaned forward. Would you like to see my gorilla?

3

Lily Salinger was a twenty-three year old grad student working in Lester’s lab. She hurriedly crossed items off her to-do list hoping to make it for part of the concert. She let Octavius back in from his exercise ground which opened out onto a penned-in area behind the building. His enclosure was cleaned and ready for him. She had gotten him fresh water and food. He would be set for the night.

He was highly intelligent and well aware of their routine. He noticed that she was rushing, not engaging with him in conversation and playing like normal.

I’m sorry big guy, I’m a little distracted. It’s just... the band is back in town.

Octavius looked at her quizzically.

Oh, you know which one. I’ve talked about them a hundred times, The Frankenstein Connection. They’re the only rock band that matters.

He lifted his chin in a