This year I am working on a story called Bob vs. The Alien Slug Monsters. Instead of an outline I have a basic list of plot points I want to cover between meeting Bob and sending him off to fight the king of the slugs. There is more of a cast of characters than an actual outline, so we will see how the story develops. And with that intro we continue with Bob Versus the Alien Slug Monsters…
Day 19: “I thought I saw something moving in the trees,’ Bob said.
“I thought I saw something moving in the trees,’ Bob said. He peered into the woods even as he put the car in park. With the lower ground and heavy tree cover he didn’t feel as exposed. Waiting didn’t feel like a trap. He studied the forest that was once the parking lot of the local grocery chain, Jerrods.
Nothing seemed to be moving now.
“Do you think it was a person or an animal?” Eddie asked. He and Enid were looking out of the window as well. Eddie’s voice was hushed as though he didn’t want whatever might be in the woods to hear him.
“I don’t know,” Bob said. “I just saw movement.”
“Could be coyotes,” Enid said. “We’ve heard them and they have been after poor Genghis.”
“Could be,” Eddie said.
Eddie looked at the small dog. “You’d be about the right size for a quick snack,” he told the dog.
“Oh you stop that,” Enid said. “The Kahn is no one’s snack.” The two of them bickered. It relieved some of the tension and Bob left them to it as he looked back out of the window.
He caught another flash of movement and narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think it’s Coyotes,” Bob said.
“What is it?”
“It looks like Herman Jenkins,” Bob said.
“Herman?” Enid said. “My friend from the retirement center?”
Bob pointed out of the window and Enid lifted her glasses to her eyes. A man stepped out from behind a tree. He was wearing baggy pants, a pair of old work boots and a sport coat over what looked like an undershirt. His white hair was standing up making him looked slightly shocked and his eyes were magnified behind the lenses of his thick glasses. Bob had seen him when he visited Enid a few times. He looked less disheveled then, but still identifiable.
“Roll down your window,” Eind said she pulled her glasses off and fluffed her hair a little as Bob pressed the button to lower the window.
“Herman is that you?” Enid called through the open window.
“Enid,” he called back. He shuffled forward navigating his way through the trees. “Keep your voice down someone might hear you,” he yelled loudly as he moved forward.
“Take your own advice old man, they can year you all the way into town,” Enid yelled back.
“They can not,” he told her.
“Probably can,” Enid said. “And what are you doing out here in the woods anyway?”
“I’m here on recon and to get back up,” Herman yelled. “It’s a stealth mission.”
Eddie snorted in the back seat and Bob fought not to roll his eyes. Herman was not the person he would have chosen for a stealth mission.
“Stealth mission,” Enid yelled back. She seemed to find it unlikely as well.
“Maybe you could stop yelling then and let him get the last few meters in stealthily,” Eddie suggested. Enid looked at him and huffed. She seemed to take the point and stopped yelling at Herman. Herman seemed relieved not to have to keep up the conversation as he picked his way through the brush and trees.
Ten til Midnight 