NaNoWriMo Day 22

Angry Gary and Angry Larry the Leopard Slugs
Connections

Tendra dragged the hunk of aloe into Gary’s hole and as she entered his tentacle raised a bit as he tried to see who was there. She dropped the aloe next to his body and then said, “how are you doing?”
The pain in his body had subsided since she had laid the lichen on him but his body was still so weak that he could not manage the effort needed to eat. The wounds were healing slowly but they still weeped and stung anytime he made any movement. All he could do was moan in response.
She listened to his moan and watched his tentacle drop down again then she reached up and began to pull the lichen from over him. She moved it to the side then she took a large bite from the end of the aloe and chewed it a couple of times. Holding it in her mouth she moved up over Gary and began to spit it out on top of his wounds. Gary stirred and his body began to shift in response to the sharp pain as the aloe hit his wounds.
Mouthful after mouthful she chewed then spit, working to cover all of his wounds. He stopped fidgeting as she nearly had him covered and his tentacle raised halfway, his eye opening and trying to focus on her. He felt his mouth trying to work and as he took a deep breathe he sighed, “thank you”.
Tendra moved back a bit and looked back at him and she saw his tentacle raised which gave her a little lift in her heart. “Just rest, you’ll be better soon,” she said as she moved back to the lichen. She pulled it over him and tugged at the edges to make them fall over him covering the newly applied aloe.
Gary felt the lichen fall over him and he let himself fall back asleep. Tendra watched him loll back to sleep and then quietly left his hole.

His eyes slowly opened as he began to wake up, his body leaning against the wall where it stopped in his exhaustion. As he gradually came out of the sleep fog he saw the constant blink of the pda across his nook. He stared at the blinking as his mind cleared and he began to remember the conversation he heard. His mind began to run through the various things that he wanted to look up when back at the pda and he felt a bit of excitement beginning to grow.
He began to move towards it when the sudden pang of hunger hit him and he looked around the nook for something to eat. He went to the wall and took a bite of the fungus growing there and chewed, his thoughts unable to find a stable footing. He kept hopping from one point to another in their conversation and he was trying to decide where to start looking. He had so many options floating in his head he had been mindlessly taking bite after bite when he became aware that he was getting quite full feeling. He snapped back to and stared at the wall and the large cavity that he had eaten out of the fungus.
“Damn it, that’s going to take a while to grow back,” he admonished himself as he finished chewing his last mouthful.
Turning back to his pda he began tapping through notifications, skimming down the list for anything more than upvotes, likes, and reslimes. He found a reply to his original slimer that started this whole ordeal in motion.
“We support what you have done and want to help you in any way we can to root out the evil that is infesting the world today. -WSJT-“
He read the reply multiple times trying to make sense of it all. Who is the WSJT and why would they want to help him? All he did was expose the list of names so what would they want to do exactly? He stared at the message for a little while then kept scrolling slowly as his mind rolled over the message.
Near the bottom was another message that had been sent only 15 minutes before. He opened it and his eyes widened as he read, “Article you might find interesting - ‘Military Times’”. The “Military Times” was a link and he opened it which lead to a news article titled, “Backwater CEO Pince under OSI investigation”. Larry stopped as he read the headline and his mind rushed back through the conversation he remembered what the man said about being on the investigation. He quickly tabbed back to see who had sent him the link and he found “[email protected]” and he drooped in annoyance.
He returned to the article and began to read through it. It was a simple standard military report that listed the OSI investigations for the week. He read down the lengthy list and there was an entry for “Backwater- Pince”. He read across the line and he stopped in sudden surprise, there was the man’s name listed as lead investigator. He read the line over and over, ingraining in his mind. This was the corroboration he needed, the man’s story was true and Larry felt his heart stop as he suddenly realized that he had inadvertently brought the man back onto Backwater’s radar. By his slimer being tracked to the man’s ip address and Pince being all over the Bollinger emails, they must have thought he was trying to get them after all these years.
Larry felt himself deflating as the realization flooded his body. The feeling of frustration building in him made him suddenly scream out. His outburst bounced off the walls of his nook and quickly dissipated, leaving him again in his own silence and thoughts.
“Just so stupid,” he mumbled to himself, “you should have known better dummy.”
He slid the pda away in annoyance and sat stewing about the raid. His guilt was building as he continued to run the events through his head. He felt himself gaining a sudden conviction to do something as recompense. He knew he needed to do something but he had no idea what he could possibly do. His mind floated in a void between guilty and empowered as the two sides fought for control. He felt himself leaning towards the action side, at least then he wouldn’t be making himself depressed. If he could just do something to help the man then maybe the guilt wouldn’t be so bad.
Quickly glancing around his nook he decided to go see how Gary was doing and slugged out the entrance. He went to Gary’s hole and went in without a word, expecting him to be still comatose, but as he entered he found Gary awake, his tentacles mostly raised finally.
“You’re awake!” Larry said loudly then catching himself followed more quietly, “how are you feeling? And better?”
Gary saw him enter and replied, “I’m awake and can eat, that’s a start.”
Larry slugged in next to him and tapped his sides with his tentacles to make sure that he really was moving.
Gary looked at him funny for a moment then said, “thanks for getting me out of there. I wouldn’t have made it you didn’t come get me. How did you find me?”
“You said you wanted to go in the house and I was wondering what was so important that you had to go in so I followed your trail,” he answered.
“But how did you know the ants took me?” Gary asked.
“I was climbing the mound and saw your slime spots where you rolled down to the bottom. I found your pool of slime then saw a trail of it lead off into the ants. I followed the ants to the kitchen and found you,” he replied.
Gary still had the lichen draped over him as he slowly moved around his hole. He went to the wall and took a big bite of fungus and swallowed before saying, “it was a rat.”
Larry stared at him his eyes wide, not sure he heard him correctly. “A rat?” he asked slowly.
Turning back to Larry he said, “yeah. I went in the mound and I was looking around a tunnel when this huge rat attacked me. It bit me and clawed my back then when I balled up it kicked me out the entrance. I don’t remember much after that.”
“I found you in the kitchen surrounded by cockroaches and ants, next to a pile of mostly devoured bread. You were really messed up looking,” Larry said.
“How did you get me out of there? That’s a long ways,” Gary asked.
“Mucus,” he replied.
Gary stared at him then asked, “mucus?”
“I wrapped you up in it then towed you on my slime trail. It worked pretty well until we got off the patio into the dirt,” Larry said.
“I have a vague sensation of hanging in the air but I don’t remember you towing me back here at all. Again thank you for saving my life,” Gary gushed.
“I’m just happy I found you and that the man hadn’t come home yet so we could get out the door. If I hadn’t gotten curious what you were up to I don’t think you would have made it,” Larry replied.
“I know and I really didn’t think anything bad was going to happen, it just sort of did,” Gary said sheepishly.
“Like I said, you’re lucky I got curious. It looks like you are feeling a lot better,” he said.
“The wounds still sting a little but they are healing pretty fast now with the stuff Tendra put on. I’m still sore and my foot is swollen but my head is no longer mush,” Gary said.
“You’ve missed some stuff while you’ve been out,” Larry said with a raised eye.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Gary replied quickly.
“Yeah, I think I might be the reason the house got raided. It seems the man was the lead investigator at one point of Backwater CEO Pince who is a known human trafficker. He is all of over the Bollinger emails and his company was the one doing mercenary work in the gulf war. My slimer got traced to his ip address and I think they thought he was the one who released the list of names,” Larry spilled rapidly.
Gary stared at him and blinked, listening to him talk, not quite grasping everything he was saying. He heard Bollinger and Backwater but one of it really made sense to him. He blinked a few more times after Larry finished talking then stopped and looked back at Larry.
“I didn’t really follow that. You think it’s all your fault?” Gary said confused.
“I know it is. I know I need to do something to make amends as well,” Larry said trying to summon conviction in his voice.
“You want to do what?” Gary said even more confused.
“I want to figure out a way to help him somehow, do something to pay back a little for getting his house raided. It wasn’t his fault, it was mine, and I want to do something. I feel too damned guilty right now,” Larry confessed.
Gary stared at him in disbelief as it sank in. “I don’t know what to say, this is all so crazy to me. You want to do something for the man? What could you possibly do for him?” he asked.
“I don’t know yet, I’m trying to figure that part out still,” Larry replied.
Gradually they both became aware of a rumbling and then it quickly became more intense and soon the sound of a large truck’s air brakes exhausting as it came to a stop. They stared at each other then Larry looked to the entrance of the hole and back at Gary who noticed the look and nodded. Larry slugged out of the hole quickly to go see what had pulled up to the house.
He slugged out of Gary’s hole and found himself looking at the side of a large moving van looming. Out the back of it three men were unloading furniture and hauling it up to he house one by one. He sat and watched the movement for a while then went back in to tell Gary.
“It’s new furniture for the man. Vivian had them bring it for him. That makes me feel a little better I guess,” Larry said as he entered.
“”You can’t beat yourself up over this, you had no idea it would become what it has,” Gary offered.
“It doesn’t change the fact though. I’m going to go watch them move stuff in, you keep getting better. I’ll be back to see you later,” Larry said as he slugged out of the hole.
Gary watched him leave and then going back to the fungus on the wall continued to take mouthfuls and silently chew as the lichen lay draped over his aloe covered body.