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 32: He walked over to the smaller sofa and sat down to catch his breath.
He walked over to the smaller sofa and sat down to catch his breath. Bob drew in deep breaths and tried to swallow his heart back down so that it returned to his chest instead of pounding in his throat. He listened to sounds coming through the door but heard none. If anyone saw him, they weren’t inclined to raise an alarm.
‘So if anyone is here it is probably a resident.” He didn’t know how many residents Golden Meadows currently had. He knew they didn’t have all that many little cottages. ‘And there were a lot of floating stretchers.’
As Bob’s heart slowed to normal speed and slipped back down into his chest he wondered if Enid and the others were still alive. As wave of guilt washed over him for leaving them. ‘But I was just going to inspect the road.’
He knew that he started forward when he saw the stretchers he just wasn’t quick enough to catch them, or sure what he could do if he did. ‘But I can come up with a plan now, before I go after them and if they are still alive maybe do…something.’
Bob slumped a little feeling deflated. That was where he knew any plan he had would fall apart. He wasn’t sure what the flying slug monsters were, where they came from or what they were doing. ‘If they were killing everyone, why take their bodies with them?’ he thought. ‘Especially Genghis?’
Bob swallowed hard and squared up his shoulders. ‘If they were taken then there is a good chance they are still alive,’ he decided.
‘So I need a plan.’
Bob stood and walked slowly back to the door. Nothing was moving, but he could see several doors were left open. In fact all of the doors he could see from Herman’s house were left open.
‘Check for anyone still here,’ he decided. ‘That is step one of the plan. Once I see if anyone is here, we work on a plan together.’ He may not have been able to stop the others from being taken, but he wasn’t going to leave anyone else behind.
Bob took a deep breath and before he could worry about being spotted, he left the relative safety of Herman’s house to run to the nearest house. The door was open and he stepped inside. The cottage was small enough that he could see all but the bathroom from where he stood in the doorway. The book case against the wall had been knocked down and books and broken knickknacks were scattered across the floor.
No one was in sight so he carefully picked his way across the floor to look in the bathroom. No one was hiding there.
‘One hose down,’ Bob told himself heading for the door. He tried not to think of whatever struggle knocked over the book case. ‘Lots more to check.’
Bob went to the door, peered out and checked that no one was moving. With the coast clear, he picked out the next nearest cottage and raced towards it. It too was disheveled but empty. Bob caught his breath, waited to see if anyone noticed and when no alarm sounded he raced to the next cottage and repeated his search.
His progress wasn’t speedy, but he was able to check off the cottages one by one. While he was saddened not to find anyone in any of them, Bob was also relieved not to find any dead bodies. He thought of the blasted security system and knew his search could have turned up a lot worse than empty cottages.
Still the empty cottages were disheartening. Bob worked his way towards the back of the property and saw that in one of the back cottages, something was laying on the ground half in and half out of the doorway.
Ten til Midnight 