Angry Gary and Angry Larry the Leopard Slugs
Investigation
“Does your car work” Vivian asked the man.
“It should, doesn’t look like they touched it in the raid,” he replied.
“Good, go get a room for the night and I will meet up with you in the morning. I’ll have a phone for you and should have a line on household goods,” she said then as an afterthought, “you have money right?”
“I’m good on funds, my VA disability gets me by,” he answered.
“Okay good, I’ll see you back here in the morning then, say nine am?” she asked.
“Sure, that works. I’ll see you in the morning,” he said as they shook hands then Vivian turned to walk back to her car.
The man watched her walk to her car and climb inside before walking back in the front door of the house where he stood in the entry room and looked around him at his belongings piled in the corner and debris scattered around the room.
Gary chewed on the mouth fulls of myco and listened to them talk. They parted and he watched her drive off and him enter the house. He sat pondering and chewing, wondering the house. His curiosity was getting the better of him and he was becoming sure that he would find something good in one of those piles. The notion had struck him suddenly as he pictured the inside of the house that he had seen while in it. Something about the pile in the living room had caught his attention then and he knew he had a chance once the man left for the night.
Lost in his thoughts, chewing away, and staring at the house he had his back turned to the side of the log and did not hear the rustling of the grass. The sudden touch against his keel snapped him back to and his eyes quickly rotated on their stalks to look behind him where he came eye to eye with the snake. Its tongue was flicking in and out of its mouth and just the tips were flicking against Gary.
“Don’t move!” he yelled in his mind in hopes of keeping his body still. “Don’t you dare move!” he continued.
The snake stared at him from less than a slug length away as it’s tongue flicked and he sat rock still. His mouth was part open on a frozen chew and his lower tentacles were frozen in air. After what felt like an eternity to him the snake turned its head away from him and the end of the log and began to slither away. Its body sliding by in a slow and long procession. The tail slipped from the grass by the log and as it neared him the tip of it swung over and tapped him on the mantle.
Gary jumped at the touch but kept himself still as the snake disappeared into the taller grasses nearby. As its tail vanished from sight he heard the man stomping out of the house and slamming the front door behind him. He stalked off to his car, climbed inside and slammed that door as well. The car exploded to life in a billow of smoke and after dropping it into gear he sped out of the yard and down the road. Gary watched the smoke cloud hover as the car sped off then it began to dissipate and the house came back into his view.
Hearing the sound of the car’s engine disappear he began to slug his way towards the house, following the same path he had taken before. He gradually made his way to the foot of the patio before pausing, then climbed the edge of the concrete. Cresting the edge of the patio he could see the front door was not completely closed, when the man had slammed it it had not latched and that left a crack more than wide enough for him to get through. He felt elated that the door had not latched and slugged steadily towards it.
Knowing the man was gone he did not bother to follow the edges, instead he felt bold enough to go down the middle of the patio. He reached the door and stopped to look back behind him. He could see the entire yard from the spot but the only movement he saw was the blowing of leaves in the wind. He turned back and slugged through the crack in the door.
Larry couldn’t get back to his nook fast enough. After the snake he was not wanting to venture outside for a while, especially now that he had the wifi password. He slugged past Gary’s hole and soon was at his nook where he excited went inside and directly to his pda. He giggled a little as he entered the password into the available wifi signal. The screen flickered a moment then it was reconnected and suddenly the screen flooded with notifications. He watched the screen scroll for over a minute before it stopped and sat blinking at him.
“Holy crap that’s a lot,” he thought as he scrolled to the top.
In the initial notifications he found some that he had missed prior. One was a message from Slugleaks, “Thank you Larslug42 for this! This could mean more than any of us know or could imagine!” He sat and read the message again letting it sink in. He HAD done something amazing. He felt the wave of NEED THE EMOTION building in him then went to the other message. The second that he missed was from the Slug News Network, “Larslug42, if you are willing we want an interview. Contact us at [email protected].” As he read it he felt himself recoil at the thought. There was no way he would ever do an interview, the last thing he wanted was to be on tv.
He tried to scan the remaining notifications and found it get easier as he scrolled. The important words popped out at him and he quickly found himself at the message, the last one before the wifi was killed. He read it again but it had lost it’s scare powers, it didn’t hit him like it had before. The man was let out and there is no way to find him in his nook. He kept scrolling and scanning the notifications which by this point were mostly just reslimes. Near the bottom of the list he came upon an image that was a screen capture of his slime that was then put out on another social media.
“Is that the one?” he thought, “are they the ones who know who I am? How do they now about Slimer?”
The rest of the notifications were all sharing that screen captured post. He sat and stared at the post, the names obscured so as not to be read, and wondered how he could find the person who posted it. His mind focused as he stared at the image and tried to identify the site that it was posted to. He opened a tab and tapped in “social media sites” and when the search results came up he opened the images tab. He scrolled the page of images searching for the match and midway down, there it was.
“We-We? What the hell is that?” he blurted out.
Opening the site he scrolled through the recents page and nearly half the posts were reposts of the one with his slime. All of them showed the obscured images and none showed the name of the account. He scrolled through going back in time as he went every one was the same and he found even wikileaks had reposted it in the mix. Finally he remembered he could search and tapped in “proof” in the search bar and hit the search button. A list of posts filled the screen and he scrolled quickly through them not seeing what he wanted. He entered the full thing of “Here is the proof” and tried again. The same list popped up and he sighed in frustration.
Shoving the pda aside he sat and thought, letting his mind wander over the various posts and what the past days had entailed. He felt himself tiring after the day’s scare and now the lack of answers and rapidly slumped into sleep.
Gary rounded the door frame and moved into the room. He could faintly see his trail along the edge by the wall and as he looked around he saw movement all around. The cockroaches were out enforce and were making quick work of a stale piece of bread on the floor. Ants were walking their line around over and under the debris scattered across the floor. He took note of the spiders that scurried along the base of the walls and then started into the room. Again not worrying about being hidden he slugged through the middle of the room towards the living room door.
Part away across the floor he found a piece of a candy bar that had been nibbled on by various insects. He tried a nibble of it himself and finding it tasty gnawed on it for a little bit, getting some in his mouth before continuing towards the doorway. As he reached the threshold he paused and looked around the room then turned and looked behind him at the front door. He noted the crack was still there then turned and continued into the living room.
The pile sat across the room from the doorway and the remnants of the couch were strewn about between him and it. Gary looked intently at the mess for a reasonable looking path through but saw nothing apparent. He decided to give it a try anyway and started off towards the pile. He shortly got to the edge of the debris field and began to squeeze between the pieces of shredded leather. At one point he comes to a pile of leather that has no other way around than over which forces him to climb over the curled edge and atop the debris.
“Damn, this is better,” he thought as he moved across the leather.
Atop the field of leather he was quickly at the pile in the corner where he sat and stared at it from the base. He could see opening all over it and in various places along the bottom. Little of the pile was distinguishable after the multiple searches so he knew it didn’t much matter where he entered. About a foot off the floor was a substantial hole that looked easy enough to get to and he started up the pile. The various bits and pieces shifted as his weight transferred from one thing to another. His sticky foot able to hold onto multiple pieces of debris at a time he let the rear one go as he grabbed the next one in front, the piece behind him sliding down the pile.
Slowly he inched his way up to the opening and as he got to the edge the piece of paper that he was on began to slide with him on it. He climbed to the edge of the now moving paper and stuck his foot out, catching the underlying piece of cardboard, stopping their motion. He worked his foot up onto the cardboard and slowly shifted himself onto it, letting the paper fall below. He crested the edge of the opening and turned to look back and down at what he had just scaled.
Gary felt a sense of pride and satisfaction at how far he had come and spent a few moments looking around the room, just taking it all in. He turned and began to make his way into the dark and cavernous opening.
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