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 42: Come Monday, the lack of contact was sure to be noticed.
Come Monday, the lack of contact was sure to be noticed. ‘Surely an entire town can’t go missing without someone noticing,’ Bob thought. Even if no one in town spoke to anyone outside of town in their personal life, businesses would have contacts out side Centerville. ‘And the city offices would have to talk to the county.’
Bob knew they had to work together on some things so he assumed there would be some sort of communication.
‘Someone will notice.’ He decided. ‘Maybe that is why the road and bridge were taken out. So that if anyone notices, they can’t come into town to investigate.’
It still left the question as to why the cottages would have been tidied, but Bob still had no answer for that.
He continued into town. Bob always thought of going into town as a quick run. He complained that with the bridge out he would have to drive further instead of just across the bridge, but he hadn’t quite anticipated the actual distance when on foot.
‘I wouldn’t have gone on foot this route if I had a choice,’ Bob thought. This road was usually far too busy for pedestrian traffic. Walking on it would be asking to be turned into road kill. ‘Fairly certain even the squirrels know to avoid it.’
As he walked, Bob realized he hadn’t seen any squirrels today. ‘Which is odd considering how much time I have been in the woods.’
He frowned and paused. Bob listened. He heard wind. It was a gentle breeze but is shifted through the tree tops causing the trees to creak and groan and the leaves to whisper. There was nothing he could hear scampering about in the woods. ‘No birds either,’ he thought.
He frowned. ‘There out to be birds,’ he thought. ‘Maybe I’m scaring them away.’
Birds were not something Bob knew much about. He thought he ought to hear them, or something in the woods. ‘Maybe everything runs from human presence,’ he thought.
He didn;’t know. ‘At least I can’t hear the disks.’
As he walked, the route Bob took descended into Centerville. He looked around as he walked. Nothing appeared to be moving. There were no cars, no people, nothing. He reached the edge of the woods without seeing any movement.
There was an open space between him and the nearest building. Once across it, Bob knew he would be shielded by many buildings and would have some shadows for concealment. Hearing nothing and seeing no movement, Bob took a deep breath and sprinted across the open space. He put a hand down to hold the bag with the salt and keep it from thumping into his leg as he ran. The distance was about the length of a soccer field.
As Bob ran he deliberately kept his thoughts from thinking about what would happen if he was caught. He didn’t look up. He didn’t look around. He just ran.
Bob made it to the other side of the open space and pressed his hand against the brick side of a building. He still felt slightly exposed so he skirted around the building so that instead of walking down the side walk he was in the alley behind it. The alleys were narrow and designed before cars were the norm. He didn’t know if the slugs would use them or if the disks they rode were too wide.
Ten til Midnight 