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 77: Either way, he could see that each of the soap bubbles held something inside.
Either way, he could see that each of the soap bubbles held something inside. He could also see that they were moving. Bob stared at them for a long time, slowly realizing what they were.
‘Slug eggs,’ he thought. As he watched they grew slightly larger. He wondered how long it would take for the eggs to hatch and become a new slug army.
‘Not long if they are going this much in the time I’ve been watching.’
A cold feeling filled him. Bob looked and tried to quell his internal panic of millions more slugs arriving. He let his gaze flit around the room as he tried to calm himself. Each collection of eggs was attached to a rack of some sort. The rack looked like nothing he had seen in the bowling alley before.
‘Maybe it came with the slugs,’ he thought. He wondered if they had a slug queen somewhere laying the eggs or if the eggs were brought like cargo. He didn’t know, but he was certain that the eggs were why the slug king did not have any problems letting all of his soldiers die trying to perfect the art of wearing humans.
‘He has more than enough replacements.’
Bob leaned in a little trying to guess how many eggs and by extension slugs there were. The bag containing the salt swung forward a little hitting him in the hip. He nodded to himself and eased back from the vent. At the moment the slug eggs were unguarded. He couldn’t leave them here to grow and inflate the slug ranks.
Bob eased himself slowly down off of the step ladder. Knowing that once he took down the eggs he would probably need to run and hide, he collapse the step ladder and carefully moved it back to storage. He closed and locked the storage door. Once he finished with the eggs he would do his best to lose himself in the machinery and hide. He wanted no sign this corridor was used.
Bob Moved back to the door. His palms were sweaty but he knew he couldn’t leave the eggs. He used the key to unlock the door. He slipped the key back in his pocket and before he could talk himself out of it, Bob opened the door. The door opened into the corridor which was a good thing as there was a rack of eggs placed right in front of it. Bob took a deep breath, filled each of his hands with salt and threw a handful at the rack of eggs in front of him.
There was no sound. The eggs shriveled like grapes being turned into raisins. Except they didn’t stop at the wrinkly phase. They shriveled and turned to powder. The powder fell to the floor tiles soundlessly. The bulk of the powder was white, but there was a hollow dry bit that was once the slug.
‘At least they don’t scream,’ he thought. Not knowing if the slugs had some other way to communicate with the adults, Bob quickly moved into the room. The powder was gritty under his feet but made no real sound. He moved around the room, quickly dispensing handfuls of salt on every cluster of eggs, shriveling them all up and turning them to dust. The only sound was the sound of his own heartbeat as it pounded in his ears. Bob moved as fast as he could and when nothing remained on any of the racks, he looked underneath them to see if any were hidden under the pool table. There was an open case under each and Bob quickly poured salt over the contents. When nothing remained, Bob went back out of the door. Once in the hallway, he closed and locked the door, slipping the key once again in his pocket. Having no desire to be around when his attack was noticed, Bob moved deep into the machinery corridor, heading into the hidden spaces.
Once enclosed by machinery once again, Bob felt a little better. After all the machinery once hid him from bullies. There was a learned comfort in the space. Bob paused once he was hidden and caught his breath, steadying himself. Expecting to be caught at any moment, Bob’s heart was racing. Now, through with the slug egg slaughter he could breathe again.
Bob felt his body relax into a less harried state. He doubted full calm would be his for a while, but he could breathe again.
Ten til Midnight 