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 62: He thought of the salt he put on Enid and Lucille.
He thought of the salt he put on Enid and Lucille. Bob knew he put enough salt on the two women to take out a slug. He hoped that it would keep them safe. ‘Because any slug that touched them would get a dose of the salt.’ Bob thought of how the slug had to climb onto the person before entering them.
‘What if instead of a direct attack I put salt on the people to keep them safe from occupation. That could delay their plans and maybe kill any slugs who tried to enter them.’
It was more passive a plan, but Bob thought it had merit. ‘All of the buildings between here and the Bowl-a-rama are restaurants.’ Bob didn’t know how many of those restaurants he could sneak into but he knew he couldn’t stand by and do nothing. ‘And it is the best plan I have.’
He saw the door stopped glowing and slowly pushed the door open. The restaurant was silent. In the front he could see the large glass windows still glowing as the filaments replaced the glass. Bob felt his stomach rumble and decided seeing if he could get something to eat before starting his attack might be a good idea. Bob moved from the pantry to the fridge. He opened the walk in and found a wedge of cheese.
He picked it up and ate it feeling slightly guilty for the theft. He hoped it wasn’t expensive cheese as he left all of his cash at Lucille’s to pay for the sandwich he made. After eating the cheese Bob found a couple of rolls and ate them, washing it down with a bottle of water. He was hesitant to take anything else and as his belly was no longer rumbling, he left the fridge.
Bob moved through the empty restaurant quietly, keeping low so that nothing outside would sense movement. He looked through the window avoiding the glow from the repair work. Nothing else seemed to be moving. If the slugs were looking for their attackers, they took the search elsewhere.
Bob found the restaurant’s salt supply. He added it to his collection and moved to the back door. He listened quietly for a moment and heard no sound of any of the mechanized disks. He heard none of the grunting language the slugs seemed to use either. Still Bob took a fist full of salt in one hand as he slipped the lock and cracked the door open. There was no waiting slug on the other side of the door. The access road behind the row or restaurants was silent. Bob slipped out of the door and made sure it closed softly behind him.
The two dead and floating slug monsters were gone, no doubt taken by their comrades as the one destroyed at Lucille’s place had been. Bob took a second fist full of salt and moved cautiously down the ally to the corner of the building. He skirted the dumpster full of dead bodies and eased himself around it when he saw no movement.
Bob crept to the corner of the building, seeing the rows of people lying on their floating stretchers. He kept to the tree line as he left the security of the building’s shadows. Bob’s heart was pounding, but nothing else was moving. He slipped forward and emptied one handful of salt over the first person on a stretcher. He reached back into the bag for a new handful even as he moved to the second person in the row to cover them with the salt from his other hand. Slowly and cautiously, his eyes scanning the parking lot for movement, Bob moved down the row of stretchers.
Ten til Midnight 