Slugtectives 2 - Day 42 : 886 words

“I’m not going back in that tunnel without a light,” Gary said quickly. “I need to be able to see whatever it is I am shooting at, otherwise it’s useless.”
“I hope you have one that will work because I don’t have any,” Larry replied with a shake of his tentacles.
Gary stared down into the hole and the legs were still skittering in and out of the light, their bodies just out of sight. He looked to Larry and shook his tentacles. “I really don’t want to go back in there but maybe I can get a shot at them from up here?”
“You might go down the side again and I bet you’ll have a cleaner shot. They aren’t climbing he walls into the lights so just stay in it,” Larry offered.
Gary eyed the wall of the hole then looked to Larry and said, “I hate you.”
Larry laughed at him then said, “just go down a bit, you’ll be fine. I want to see this thing fire a few times.”
Gary shook his tentacles again and slowly began to make his way over the edge. His foot stuck to the wall and he slowly went a couple body lengths below the edge and stopped. He looked back up to see Larry staring down at him watching closely then he turned to the centipede swarm and he found he could see the much better. He rolled the laser from side to side then locked it into the most comfortable spot. He looked back with one eye and tried to gage the right separation for his tentacles so he didn’t shot one of them off.
“What are you doing?” Larry asked from above.
“Shut up, I’m trying to figure this out,” Gary called back.
“We don’t have all day, let’s go,” Larry prodded.
Gary settled himself and after spreading his tentacles took aim at the largest mass of centipedes he could make out. He tried to feel the line of the laser against his mantle and make mental notes of exactly where it was. He wanted to make sure he could fine tune it as time went on. After a moment he felt calm enough and he pressed in on the laser button and a blast of light fired at the centipedes.
“Hell yeah!” Larry yelled from above.
The laser hit the centipede pile and they suddenly burst into intense movement, scattering about the tunnel and out into the light. A few that ran into the light had visible wounds from the laser and were missing legs. One was dragging a few of its legs with it as it ran for its life. Gary watched the melee below him and looked back up to Larry who was excitedly bouncing around on the edge above. “How bout that?” he asked.
“That was outstanding. When you get your aim dialed in this thing is going to be dangerous. You’ll be dangerous. All the vermin in the yard better be ware,” Larry said with a smile.
“Want another shot?” Gary asked with a smile of his own.
“You know you don’t have to ask that,” Larry replied.
Turning his focus back into the tunnels Gary tried to find another pile of the centipedes and he found he had to move a little closer to one side to see in the tunnel better. As he got to the edge of the light on the tunnel wall he was just able to make out a writhing mass down the tunnel a bit. He steadied himself and took aim then fired another shot which hit the mass and caused it to explode apart. Suddenly down the tunnel came running a stream of long legged spiders, many missing limbs from the shot.
Gary saw the sudden stream and turned as fast as he could to the surface and slugged for all he was worth. He crested the edge and kept going away from the hole. Larry watched his sudden movements but it didn’t dawn on him what was going on until he saw the spiders hit the light and begin to climb the walls of the hole to the surface. He turned as fast as he could and followed Gary away from the sudden explosion of spiders from the hole.
The spiders erupted from the hole and spread out around it in a spray of legs. They were more startled than anything and were running from the sudden burning heat of the laser but to Gary and Larry it was a stampede of spiders. They kept slugging as fast as they could back towards their holes and did not stop until they had reached the base of Larry’s rock.
“Holy crap that was intense. I’m still shaking from it. You damn well better have gotten some killer video with that thing,” Gary said motioning to the camera.
“I sure hope so cuz that was crazy. I’ll check it out and let you know later. I think I need a nap after all that,” Larry said.
“You? I need to sleep for a day after that. I’ll see you later, I’m going to go crash for a long while,” Gary said then turned and began to head for his hole.
“See you later,” Larry said then turned and slugged into his nook.