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 29: The alarm was loud but as he listened, Bob realized there was another sound.
The alarm was loud but as he listened, Bob realized there was another sound. It was a muffled buzzing sound like the drone of a bee, but louder. Occasionally the steady drone hiccupped adding two shriller notes to the otherwise monotone buzzing. He turned towards the Golden Meadows Retirement community again. He didn’t realize the emergency phone was as far from them as it was. He could make upt the entrance through the trees beyond the road but he couldn’t see any of the buildings.
As he listened, taking a step forward towards the alarm, Bob saw movement. He froze and ducked down instinctively. There were dark shapes flying towards the break in the trees where the alarm was sounding. Bob blinked and rubbed his eyes, unsure whether to believe them. The flying things were what was making the noise. He squinted, not for the first time wishing he had a pair of binoculars.
The flying things seemed to be the source of the sound he was hearing, beyond the alarm. He was certain Herman, Eddie or one of the others set that off. The flying things reminded him of the round plastic disks he used to go sledding on as a child. While he had seen old fashioned long sleds, he always had the round plastic disk. The flying things were about that size but seemed to be metal and have some sort of electronic gadgetry to them.
‘At least if the lights aren’t decorative,’ Bob thought. Sitting on top of the disks that were hovering about a foot off the ground were what appeared to be giant slugs. Bob rubbed his eyes. The slugs were about the size of a medium sized dog and had small arms that ended in three fingers. They were wearing shiny black jackets with what looked like some sort of military insignia on them. They had hat placed between their two waving eye stalks. Most of them also wore what looked like bandoliers. They also held items in their three fingered hands that Bob was pretty sure were weapons.
The slugs on their disks congregated by the entrance and then on a signal Bob couldn’t hear they all raced inside. There was the unmistakable sound of an explosion and the alarm stopped ringing. Bob crept forward. He didn’t know what he could do to help but he knew he couldn’t just stay in the woods. He moved forward, keeping low, his eyes periodically darting upwards in case one of the flying slugs decided to investigate.
Bob heard the sound of yelling and then all was silent. Bob froze trying to hear anything beyond his beating heard. He hadn’t heard gunfire, but perhaps the weapons of the slugs were silent. He only heard the explosion.
‘Maybe they are laser guns or something, those would be quiet, right?’ he thought uncertain who he was asking. There was movement at the entrance to the parking lot and Bob ducked lower freezing in place. The slugs came out. There were now floating boards moving with them. On the boards he could see people. They were laid out like they were on stretchers.
Ten til Midnight 