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 22: Now it was dark and silent.
Now it was dark and silent. The main building showed no movement. All the lights were off and the doors appeared locked. From where they stood, Bob could see the employee parking lot behind the building. It appeared to be empty.
“That certainly seems odd,” Bob said. The others looked at him and he pointed to the lot. “Shouldn’t there be someone there twenty-four seven?” he asked.
He remembered when his Aunt Margaret lived in he community. Someone was always on call and he couldn’t remember a time when he saw the parking lot that empty.
“There is a gap in staffing,” Herman said. They leave around eight at night and then the morning shift doesn’t arrive until about five or six in the morning. They don’t have anyone staying overnight, but they have emergency call buttons in each house if something happens in the night.”
Bob nodded. Margaret had never been one for late nights and by the time she moved her, he would take her out for a four in the afternoon dinner and have her back before six. He knew by eight she would be in bed with a book and likely drift off sometime while reading it. He hadn’t been here after eight and certainly not before five am.
“Did anyone try pressing the call buttons?” Bob asked.
Herman nodded. “All of us did actually. When no one showed up, we all took turns pressing the buttons in case one of us had batteries that weren’t working.”
Bob thought of the button he remembered from Margaret’s house. Isn’t it wired into the electric?” he asked. He vaguely remembered the conversation with the people running it. The emergency buttons were tied to the electric but the community had it’s own back up generator in case anything happened.
“Oh yeah,” Herman said. “I didn’t think of that, but it is. I think we just all thought of batteries when the buttons stopped working.”
“But everyone has power?” he asked.
“They do,” Herman said. “Least they had it when I left.”
Herman angled his course towards one of the houses and took out his keys. As he unlocked his door, Bob listened. He didn’t hear the sound of a generator. There had been a storm one year when Margaret lived her and when he checked on her the generator had been loud. ‘So the generators aren’t running.” He said.
“We had power too,” Enid reminded him.
“We did,” Bob nodded. “So whatever is happening took out the radio but not the electric.”
“But we aren’t on Centerville’s grid,” Eddie said. “We are on the counties.”
“That’s right,” Bob said nodding. “We are, do you know about Golden Meadows,” he asked.
“County as well,” Herman said as he opened his door. “Makes it easier or cheaper for reasons no one bothered to explain.”
“I think it is because we ae located near the country sub station but the main power from Centerville comes all the way from the other side of town,” Eddie said.
Bob looked at him and Eddie shrugged. “What? “ he said. “I know stuff.”
“About power grids?” Enid asked. “Are you planning to blow up more than the bridge?”
Herman switched his lights on. “Power works,” he said before Eddie could once again protest his innocence about the bridge. Bob looked over and saw several faces peering out at their little group from different windows.
Ten til Midnight 