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 51: Seeing no movement from anyone, Bob eased forward around the planter and towards the stretcher.
Seeing no movement from anyone, Bob eased forward around the planter and towards the stretcher. Bob took a deep breath. ‘Please don’t be dead,’ he thought. He touched the man’s shoulder. He was warm. That alone was a relief. Bob moved forward slightly so he could take the man’s pulse. He found it. The pulse was slow but steady as though he was in a deep sleep.
Bob shifted his hand back to the man’s shoulder as it felt less familiar. He shook his shoulder. The man moved with his actions, but didn’t wake. Bob shook harder. Again, the man didn’t wake. Whatever had him under wasn’t letting him up.
Bob pulled his hand back. ‘At least he isn’t dead. That has to be something, right?’
Bob moved away and started looking for familiar faces. There were many strangers, but he found the ones he knew in a cluster. They weren’t located too far from the edge of the parking lot.
‘Maybe this is the last lot the filled.’ He thought. Bob scanned the faces. He found Herman and Enid first. They were both laid flat and looked sound asleep. Held in Enid’s arms on top of her chest was Genghis. It looked as though Enid had been holding the small dog and they both froze when they were put to sleep. Bob shifted and saw that while Enid was perfectly still, occasionally Genghis’ leg would twitch as though he was having a nightmare.
‘You and me both, buddy,’ Bob thought.
Looking at Enid and the normally full of life Pomeranian lying so still and helpless was not something Bob wanted to dwell on. He shifted his sight and looked for more faces. He found Eddie. The man looked as asleep as the others. As he was only about ten years older than Bob, he was the youngest in the surrounding area.
‘They must have just lined them up as they brought them in,’ Bob thought. All of the people around Eddie were old enough to have been residents at Golden Meadows. As he continued to look, Bob realized he was looking for one face in particular. Lucille.
She was the one who put up the most fight. He didn’t realize how much he wanted to see her until he found her. She was at the very end of the row, as though she was the last to be brought in. Beyond, there was just empty space. Bob couldn’t help but move over to make sure she was alright. Despite taking down one of the slugs with her salt shaker collection, Bob could see no real signs of damage on the woman. There was a small tear in the sleeve of her blouse, but Bob saw no blood and when he shifted the cut cloth wide, he saw no damage to the skin below.
He didn’t realize he would be this relieved to find she was all right, but as he looked at Lucille and the others he felt a tight coil of tension inside himself ease. They were in some sort of induced sleep, but they were still alive. They didn’t die while he was in the woods.
Bob took a deep breath and then froze. He heard the whine of one of the slug’s disks and it wounded like it was approaching. He looked back towards the planters and darted for cover. He sunk deep into the shadows, but couldn’t help but position himself looking in the direction of the sound.
Ten til Midnight 