Following my tradition of writing second chapters with naught but a ton of dialogue and character development, here's the second chapter, full of dialogue and character development. Hope you enjoy. Enough jabber-jawing, on with the story! I don't own Invader Zim or Tremors, or else I'd be living in Burt's bunker with Tak.
Dib stepped out of the beat up yellow taxi that he had to ride the entire 38 miles from Bixby, the nearest town. Dib stepped out of the relative comfort of the cab into the hot, searing sun. 38 miles from anything resembling humanity, hot sun, blowing dust…Dib was sure he hated Perfecting just going by the three seconds he was there. He sighed, and grabbed his large bag from the backseat. Tossing the driver some money, he closed the door. The taxi drove off, kicking up a cloud of dust. Dib looked around the town…if that's what you could call it. Several mobile homes, a couple run down houses, a large metal Quonset hut, and an old-west-style red general store was the only sign of habitation.
"Welcome to Perfection, son." A voice with a slight western drawl said. Dib turned to see a man in a ball cap, tee shirt and jeans walking from the metal building.
"Oh, uh…thanks." Dib replied.
"Tyler Reed." The man said, holding out a hand. Dib shook his hand.
"Dib Membrane." He said "I'm here to see the graboid."
"Well a' course." Tyler said with a smile. "Why else would ya come to Perfection? I run the graboid tour here." He looked around. "Um…you here with someone?"
"Um…no." Dib said matter-of-factly. He raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"No reason, other than the fact that…well, you're kinda young to be comin' out here by yourself. This ain't exactly some theme park, ya know?"
"Well, I'm not some little kid." Dib said, feeling a little insulted. "You see, I'm a paranormal investigator, here to do a serious investigation on graboids."
"Um..Okay, I guess." Tyler said. "As long as your parents know you're here, and you do what we say, alright?"
"Deal." Dib replied, just eager to begin his investigation into the 30 foot space worms. "So, Mr. Reed, you said you run the tour, right?" Dib asked as they walked toward the red store.
"Yup." The man replied. "And you can call me Tyler, son."
"So…Tyler," Dib asked, raising a pen and small notebook. "You've seen the graboid a few times then?" Tyler smiled.
"I guess you can say that." Tyler replied as they stepped upon the wooden walkway in front of the store. "I've seen that big ol' worm more than I'd like sometimes."
"How do you mean?" Dib asked. They stepped into the store. Dib looked around. The small store was stuffed with a capricious amount of graboid-related merchandise. Blow-up monsters, figurines, comic books, documentaries and tee shirts depicting graboids in all three states of metamorphose filled the walls and display counters. Dib imagined Perfection as another has-been paranormal town like Roswell or Salem; a town that had seen its share of mysterious phenomena in the past, and was now trying to squeeze every penny from adventure seekers as it could.
"Hey Jodi!" Tyler called. An Asian woman rose up from behind a display.
"Hey Tyler." The woman said with a smile. She looked at Dib. "Who's this?"
"Oh, this is Dib. He's here to do a report or somethin' on our supernatural monster."
"Um, it's not supernatural." Dib stated, not to be mistaken for some dumb kid. "That would mean the graboid is in the realm of the paranormal."
"Huh?" Tyler asked.
"See," Dib continued. "Graboids aren't really paranormal or supernatural because their existence is proven by science. I'm just investigating to prove whether or not the explanation about their origin is true."
"Okay…" Tyler said. "Where do you think they came from?"
"Well, I believe they may be extraterrestrial." Dib answered.
"Uhhh…" Tyler smiled. "Aliens?"
"Well actually, Tyler…" Jodi chimed in. "For a while after their discovery, that was a theory a lot of people had, including Earl Basset. It was Earl and Kate Reilly that proved they were Precambrian animals." Dib was jotting all of this down in his notepad.
"Any chance I can take the tour?" Dib asked. "I have money." He pulled out a fold of several twenties from his trench coat pocket. Tyler looked at Jodi and shrugged.
"Sure." He said. "I have an opening in my next tour. "It's gonna be about 4 hours if you're interested."
"Yeah, sure, okay." Dib said happily. He looked around. "But, uh…what can I do around here till then?"
"Well," Jodi replied, "You can see the town and…" Suddenly, a buzzing emanated from Tyler and Jodi's watches. "Be quiet, don't move!" She whispered loudly. A sudden rumbling filled the air, and the small store began to shake as if there was an earthquake. Dib looked around for a source of the shaking as it grew more violent. A high pitched, trumpeting roar sounded, and the shaking began to subside, until it finally stopped. Jodi continued as if nothing had happened. "…have a look around for yourself, maybe talk to some of the locals, you know?"
"Wait, wait, wait…" Dib interrupted. "What was that?"
"That was just El Blanco." Jodi said. Dib looked at Tyler.
"I was pretty confused myself at first." Tyler grinned. "You get used to it." Jodi handed Dib a watch looking device.
"You'll need one of these." She said. "It's a wrist seismo. If it goes off, stop what you're doing and freeze. It means El Blanco is near." Dib latched it on his wrist.
"Thanks." He said.
"Um…"Jodi continued. "That'll be a fifteen dollar rental charge." Dib raised an eyebrow, and handed fifteen bucks to the merchant. "And if you get a little warm in that coat, we have a selection of outdoor clothes."
"Okay." Dib replied. "I think I'll go have a look around now. I have important work to…" He was interrupted by the door flying open. A very angry-looking bald, heavyset man in a suit stomped in.
"Sometimes I wish that damned worm would turn belly-up so I could get reassigned somewhere where it's NOT 120 in the freakin' shade!" The stranger exclaimed.
"Hey Twitch." Tyler said, unfazed by the man's outburst.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, where the Hell's Gummer?" The man asked angrily.
"He's out checking on his gear or doin' recon or something." Tyler answered. "He'll be back in a bit." The man shook his head and looked around, noticing Dib for the first time.
"Who's the kid?" He asked.
"Oh," Tyler replied. "This is Dib…um."
"Membrane." Dib finished, holding out a hand in greeting. "And you're…"
"Uh huh." The man said. He took a black ID holder from his pocket and flashed a badge.
"W.D. Twitchell, Department of the Interior." He said curtly. "And why don't I see any parents? This isn't Disneyland or something."
"We know, Twitchell." Tyler said. "He's here with permission from his parents, and we're watching him."
"Make sure you do, Reed." Twitchell remarked.
"He's just here to do a report on El Blanco." Jodi said.
"Speaking of which," Dib said. "Umm…who should I talk to first?"
"Well Nancy lives just across the road, Dib." Jodi replied. "She's been in Perfection since the first graboid incident."
"Cool." Dib stated. He wrote a few things down in his notebook. He looked around at what he felt to be a fairly awkward situation involving a government agent, and decided it was time to go. "See ya." He said, and walked out.
Whew. It's taken me long enough to write this chapter, eh? Between being sick, working a craft booth at a local fair, taking care of my poultry farm, and a period of writer's block from hell, I thought I'd never get it finished. At least it's finally done. So, since it's taken me so bloody long to write, at least tell me what you think, eh? I'll try to get another chapter up soon. Winter is on the way, so there's not much to do around the ranch but annihilate cans with my collection of Cold War weapons, so I'll probably be writing more. So until next time, what loyal readers I have left, cheerio.
