NaNoWriMo Day 14

Angry Gary and Angry Larry the Leopard Slugs

Censorship
Tendra and Gary excitedly burst into Larry’s nook surprising him awake from his slumber against the wall. His tentacles jumped up and his eyes burst open and he muttered, “what’s the hell?”
“Larry! Did you hear!” Gary yelled, his voice booming in the silent nook.
“Hear what?” he said sleepily.
“You didn’t hear the helicopter and all the vehicles? They took the man! They think he wrote your slime!” Gary yelled at Larry.
Larry looked at Gary then at Tendra who was nodding in agreement then asked, “Helicopter?”
Gary’s tentacles drooped and he shook them side to side. “Seriously how could you not hear that happen. It shook the ground when the helicopter landed.”
“I was asleep, sorry. What happened?” Larry asked still bleary with sleep.
“Larry!” Tendra said as she moved forward and thumped him with her mantle. Moving back a bit she stared at him and said forcefully, “they think your post was done by the man!”
“Wait, so they took him thinking he posted my post?” he asked still confused.
“Yeahhh!” Gary droned at him. “Apparently they used the ip address to track it here but they thought it was him. No one would think a slug was posting that. Plus how would they find you?”
“I still don’t believe that my post has caused this. There’s no way. When I went to sleep there were no views on it at all,” Larry said.
“Well it blew up while you slept I guess. We were watching the news when they broke the story then all of a sudden this helicopter lands and men with guns jumped out of vehicles. They hauled the man out and drove off with him. The others searched the house but more will be back. They’re looking for your pda.” Gary’s voice raised as he quickly spoke.
“My pda? Why would they want my pda? This still doesn’t make sense to me,” Larry said shaking his tentacles stubbornly.
“What aren’t you getting? You posted your slime then someone screen capped it an posted it which then blew up. You’ve leaked the biggest document in our history to the world,” Gary said pointedly.
“Larry, just go look at your pda,” Tendra said motioning to the blinking screen.
Larry slowly went to the pda and tapped at the screen and notifications streamed across the screen. He had comments and messages like he had never seen before. Even in the Angry Gary videos he didn’t get this much response. As he began to scroll through the messages he kept seeing congratulations and thank you. The masses were overjoyed to have the detailed report and they were expressing it in his feed.
“See?” Tendra said.
“Okay, I get it,” Larry said as he looked up at Gary and Tendra. “What now?” he asked.
Gary and Tendra exchanged a glance then Gary said, “don’t let them find your pda for starters.”
“I’m hungry and want to see what happened,” Larry said. “Let’s go see how the house looks.”
“Put your pda somewhere, don’t just leave that thing out anymore,” Gary said sternly.
Larry slid his pda out of sight then turned around and looked at Gary and Tendra and said, “okay?”
“Yeah that’s fine, let’s go,” Gary said slightly annoyed.
The three left Larry’s nook and once outside they found a scene of people and vehicles around. The sound of voices surrounded them and they shrunk back at the commotion.
“What’s going on?” Larry yelled over the noise.
“Looks like they’re raiding the house now,” Gary called back.
Tendra motioned to Gary and Larry and they followed as she headed off towards the viewing bush. They stopped to eat on a pile of decaying leaves before stopping at the base of the bush. Once they all were together Gary looked at the others and said, “let’s stay out of sight, there’s too many people around. Don’t get caught and don’t draw attention.”
“Of course. Really need to be said? I for one am not looking to get caught, not sure bout you two,” Larry said with a smirk.
“Whatever, let’s go,” Gary replied.
They climbed the branches in a line and made sure to stay to the inside away from view. As they made it to the viewing spot they tried to stay under cover of leaves the best they could. The three slugs were huddled together now able to see the melee going on around them.
In the house a stream of people were going in and out of the front door and in the room with the television they could see people opening boxes and emptying the contents on the floor, pulling books off shelves and flipping through them and then dangling them in the air to try and shake anything from their pages. Boxes were carried out the front door and put into waiting vehicles, all unmarked cars with federal license plates.
In front of the house stood a group of reporters all with their backs to the house and staring into a camera.
“Yes, we’re here in front of the house as the raid is taking place. We have attempted to get answers from the agents here but none have been willing to talk. It would appear that there is a large amount of evidence being removed from the home. We understand the subject has been taken into custody and they are currently working to determine how the report was posted. Back to the studio.”
“No, we haven’t heard any reports of any other people involved and the authorities believe it is a lone individual.”
Larry stared at Gary as he listened, his heart beating heavy he asked, “what have I done?”
“You’ve put the truth out there and they don’t like that,” Tendra responded quickly.
Larry looked at her and slowly he felt her words sink into his brain, his thoughts turning to defiance.
“You’re right,” he exclaimed, “I did get the truth out. I was questioning why I was so obsessed but now I can see. Look how hard they are fighting to find how the report was put out, they want it gone. Lots of powerful people don’t want their connection to Bollinger to become public.”
At that moment as he finished speaking a loud thumping boom happened and the ground shook which shook the bush. They all huddled closer and stared at each other in surprise.
“What the hell was that?” Larry asked.
“Who knows, but that was a big boom,” Gary said with a shudder.
Around the corner of the house drove a tanked vehicle with arms on it and cameras at all angles. It rolled forward trailing a bit of dust and smoke from the prior detonation.
“What the hell is that?” Tendra asked.
The bomb squad robot rolled forward on it tracks and drove to the side of a armored vehicle. Men followed with a tarp full of debris and dropped it next to the robot.
“What did they blow up?” Gary asked aloud.
The men returned with more debris and after tossing on the ground they loaded the robot into the vehicle. Barely audible from their vantage point they heard them saying, “that didn’t look like that much but wow, that was a thud. Yeah not sure what it was exactly but that’s we we have gizmo here.”
Larry looked at Gary and asked, “what did they find?”
Gary shrugged and continued to to watch the men in the house. They had finished in the other rooms and now were taking the television from the wall and hauled it out the front door. One agent went to the router and yanked it from the wall.
Larry gasped and his voice shaking said, “they took the wifi”.
Tendra and Gary exchange a glance and then looked back to Larry who was now beginning to mope, his tentacles drooping and his body sinking into the leaf below him.
“It’s okay Larry. Maybe we’ll find a way,” Tendra offered as her voice trailed off.
Gary was listening but had been watching the agents who had now finished in the house and were exiting in a stream. They carried boxes and bags heavy with items to the trunks of the vehicles scattered around the yard, in the background the reports yelling questions to the agents. The reporters all sat behind a caution tape barrier alternating between their back to and away from the house. He noticed a reporter who had slipped away from the group and had walked into the yard. They continued to walk towards the house and were heading directly for their perch.
“Shit!” Gary yelled.
Larry and Tendra looked up at him quickly then saw what he was looking at and they all moved under the leaves. The person walked right up to their bush and stood right against it looking in the window. They took pictures with their phone then began to video. Larry looked to Gary but he was staring at the person who was within inches of them.
“HEY! You don’t belong in here!” an agent yelled and the reporter turned quickly to leave. The bush rustled and shook as they began to run and the three had to hold on tight to keep from getting tossed off the leaves. As the swaying subsided the leaves settled again and they could just see the agent walking after the running reporter.
Tendra looked at Gary and Larry and said, “I think I’m good for today. This was all a bit too exciting and I just want to go find my hole and spend a week asleep”.
The agents had loaded up the last of the boxes and climbed into their vehicles to drive off. The last one to leave the yard lifted the tape but then let it fall back in place, giving the property a police line around it.
Tendra didn’t wait for Gary or Larry, she wanted to go so she wordlessly began climbing down the branches. Larry saw her start to leave and said to Gary, “let’s go, I’m hungry.”
They followed Tendra down the branches and away from the bush. The reporters had finished up their last on air segments and were loading into their vehicles as they got to their separating point.
“Thanks for an, interesting day. I had no clue any of this was going on and I probably would have been better off staying that way. But thanks anyway. I’m going to sleep,” Tendra said then turned and slugged to her hole.
Larry looked to Gary and said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do now, the wifi is gone and we don’t know the neighbors password.”
“Don’t worry about it now. Let’s try and figure it out tomorrow. I’m hungry so I’ll see you later,” Gary said then slugged to his nearby hole.
Larry sat and watched him go until he entered his hole then turned and slowly entered his nook. Inside his pda sat blinking with the messages that had loaded before the wifi was disconnected. He tapped the screen and scrolled through the messages but saw only simple replies. Then at the bottom of the list was a message that read, “We Know Who You Are”. Larry stared at the message in disbelief, the glow of the pda shining on him as he began to fall inward.
“Nnnnnhhhhhh,” was all he could get to come out of his throat as the terror began to build in him. “Who the hell is that and how would they know it’s him?” His thoughts screamed in his head.
Larry sat frozen as his body began to twitch uncontrollably from the fear. He looked slowly around him in the first check of a rising paranoia bout then as his heart began to race he felt himself begin to lose consciousness, the black spot filled his vision and suddenly his tentacles went limp and he lolled to the side.