"Maybe we can just call him?" Rosalita shrugged her shoulders. "Or ask him when he comes back into town. So how did the monster hunting go, catch anything?" She looked over to them as they sat down.
"No, but according to Jodi the thing will never come back it got scared off by something else," Burt glance to Rose then back to them. Everyone besides Burt and Wes gazed at Rose for some kind of answer. Wes gave Burt a wry look. Burt looked to his food. Wes shook his head.
"Really, you scared it away?" Rosalita was shocked. "What kind of gun were you toting?"
"I didn't have a gun," Rose answered with a flat tone.
"Then it must have been your intimidation level, cause honey we all know you can be scary at times," Rosalita took a big bite off her fork and kept going. "If you need someone to talk to, I got you girl!" Rosalita liked Rose. She knew she was a tough independent woman like her. She doesn't need protection and can handle things on her own. "I can be very intimidating too, especially when you don't even notice you are."
"Thank you," Rose appreciated the comment. "I'll keep that in mind."
The group continued to eat. A couple times they stayed still when El Blanco would come through on his daily rounds.
A couple days later, Rosalita's brother, Roberto, had finally made it to town. He took a tour which didn't take too long. He strode along with the other tourists. The tourists had just come back from a Graboid Safari trip. They didn't get to see much but did feel the ground shake as
El Blanco passed by when they were stopped.
"I didn't know the earth could move like that," one tourist was fanning themselves. They lowered their voice to speak to their friend next to them. "I wonder if it's the same when they mate?" The two started to laugh at their own joke.
Larry came in to interrupt them. "Actually graboids are hermaphrodites. They produce on their own and do not have to mate. So the ground would not actually shake in that way. Just so you know." He left them with embarrassed looks on their faces as he went up to Jodi who was busy at the moment with customers. He waited until she was done.
"Larry, how was visiting your mom?" Jodi asked once she got a break.
"Good, oh I got some new stuff in that I think you would appreciate," Larry had some boxes piled next to the register. "We can dig into when you have some free time. Not now with the customers. I don't want to step on your toes again. You may not like it."
"O-kay," Jodi nodded trying to not to get anxious about what he has in store for her.
Roberto was looking around the shop and found some trinkets that he thought was amusing. He waited in line to buy them. After going through the line and waiting for the rest of the tourists to clear out. He took his time to go back to his sister's place.
What all of Perfection didn't notice was two of the tourists were the same ones from Las Vegas. They weren't wearing suits anymore. The two had taken some wrist seimos and went scouting for El Blanco.
Rosalita was heading back into the house when she spotted a familiar vehicle coming to a stop. She stared wide eyed at her brother as he stepped out with a smile.
"No, no, no, NO!" Rosalita stood her ground. "You get right back in and leave!" She pointed him away. "I have a safe place here." She watched as her brother came up to her.
"Is that any way to treat your brother?" He embraced her as she tried to shove him away. He whispered into her ear. "Some of the brothers have let me know that they are hearing rumors of those guys are snooping around here."
Rosalita stared into his eyes when they parted. He nodded to her. "I knew it! Do they know?"
Roberto started to calm her down. "No. They have no clue. That's why I came, to check up on you. It's getting bad out there. I heard that there were two encounters already with that group. Now, it's going to be a third."
"Let's go inside," Rosalita grabbed him by his arm and pulled him into the house. "How much do you know? Tell me everything."
Rose had gotten back down into the lab. Wes followed behind her. The lobby was given a thorough search over. Rose moved on from the lobby and its closet to the hall and first room. It was locked. Rose sighed as she took out tools to pick the lock.
Wes was on lookout while he glanced back at her. "Scientist knows how to pick locks. Cute."
Rose shook her head as she opened the door. "It's funny that they kept this locked. The place was blown up but they kept a locked door. Then again. It won't be the last. Let's see what fun things are hidden behind door number one."
"Ah-I don't think you can count this as fun," Wes put on the night vision goggles. Their light was restricted around them. They didn't want to hinder the habitat. He saw creatures scurry around at the end of the hall. His fingers flinched for his gun.
The room had metal file cabinets that each had a lock on them. Rose tried one but it was locked. She picked the lock and opened it. Only to find nothing. She figured each of these were hollow, but she could not assume. The only way to know the truth is to see if it was true.
As she was through the twentieth lock, she heard Wes's footsteps shuffle. She stopped to look over to him. He was in a defensive stance. She rolled her eyes and kept at the lock. The file opened to reveal some documents that were left there. Rose took them into her satchel and proceeded on.
"Can you hurry this up?" Wes called over to her. "There seems to be a group of somethings forming at the end of the hallway."
"What kind of animals do they look like?" Rose was three fourths of the way done. She had found more scattered papers.
"An armadillo looking thing with-is that an ant eater tongue?" He described in disgust. The creatures mouth opened up to show teeth similar of that from an angler fish. The creatures huddled together in a pack formation going after its prey. "Angler fish teeth."
Rose was thinking as she kept going. Armadillo, defense and burrows. Ant eater, excellent sense of smell, high tolerance of fluctuations in body temperatures; the tongue itself has thousands of tiny hooks which hold insects with large amounts of saliva. Anglerfish teeth, basically a cage for prey when the fish is sucked in.
"Any other notable items I should know?" Rose called as she was near the last one.
"They are in formation to attack me as their prey," Wes took out his gun and pointed it at the closest creature that was coming towards him.
"Need more details," she yanked it open.
"V shape formation," Wes looked around him. "Don't see others trying to sneak their way in to catch me off guard."
"Last one," she yanked it open to see more scattered papers. She grabbed them to put in her satchel. There were no other drawers to open. Rose headed in front of Wes with an animal net gun.
"What are you doing?" He grabbed her after she fired the gun. The net flung out over the creatures as Rose was thrusted behind Wes.
"Look, I caught them," she turned his head to them.
"And you get to carry them back," Wes put his gun away.
"Gladly," she pushed past him to gather the creatures up in the net. The creatures were scrambling to get out. They noticed her coming and were backing away while screeching. Rose tightened the net to make sure none of them escaped. "You want to watch them or go get the cages we set out?"
"I'll go," Wes didn't want to stay with these creatures. He came back with cages in hand. The two of them were transferring them.
The thugs that were in Perfection had been scoping the Perfection out. They looked in the same spots the last thugs had looked at. They had gotten nothing. Instead they decided to set up camp. They parked on a rock.
"How long are we going to wait for that thing?" One of them asked while tapping his wrist seismo.
"I know it killed the others," the other one was looking through binoculars. "We need to find that key."
"Max, Dolores, Kinney," the first one hung his head.
"This the spot where the worm does his business so all we have to do is wait and dig," the second one looked over to the mounds that had been sifted through.
"What if someone already found it?" the first one wondered out loud.
"Then we will have to find them and get it from them," the other one pondered it as well. "There are ten people here. One of them is bound to have it if it's not here."
"Who do you think? That paranoid gun toting man, the playboy mechanic, Mrs. Rogers, dragon lady, the Trekkie, Tonto and Pocahontas, the fed, or the little mermaid and her assistant?" The first listed them off one by one.
"My best bet is on the paranoid guy, nothing can get out of his sight," the second one nodded. "You?"
"Ah I think the playboy or the little mermaid," he leaned on the car. "He has the tours and she is a scientist for this area."
The two kept waiting. Rose and Wes had the creatures in the cages and were back in the lab.
Wes looked at the creatures locked up in the cages. They hissed and screeched at him while others flung out their tongues. He fell on his rump as they did that.
"Don't tease them too much," Rose warned him as she looked through the papers she gathered. "If they are anteaters, then there must be some kind of insect they eat. Looking at their jaws it must be a giant insect of some sort or several smaller ones at one time."
"Are you going to dissect one?" He turned to look at her.
"No," Selena scanned the documents. "That's not my job."
"Are you saying that headquarters dissects them?" Wes looked back to the creatures. He felt a bit sad for them.
"I don't know," Rose sighed. She knew what he was asking. "They never allow me in. I'm just field work."
"So you want to work in headquarters?" Wes stood up.
"No," Rose tried to dismiss this subject.
"Oh, an adventurer," Wes teased. "You must have bland adventures with that attitude."
"It's not a trip to the zoo," Rose locked the glass doors behind him. "Headquarters only takes in those who can comply to their doings. Field workers, like me, may look grand and flashy but we refrained from stepping foot on the compound. It's similar to this lab we are working on."
"How bad are we talking here?" Wes didn't like the grim tone she was speaking in.
"Area 51 status," Rose confirmed.
Wes gave out a laugh. "You're not serious?" His weak smile turned grim when he saw how serious she looked. "Then all those creatures we are sending; do you get any reports back on them?"
"I have yet to hear anything more on their status," Rose looked away. She took out the leftovers.
"How are you so calm about this?" Wes didn't understand. He would be furious not to know how the rest of the research was going. They are all part of the team. If it wasn't for Rose's field work, they wouldn't have anything to base off of or the specimens that are now in their grasp. Even Burt and the rest of the town contributed. Then again, the Proudfoot Labs was the whole cause of this. Now, he understood where his dear old dad was coming from.
As the night settled on, the insects that had been in question started to swarm. The armadillo creatures got in formation to keep the insects at bay but since there wasn't enough of them due to the recent capture, a small swarm escaped around them as the rest fled back from the flicking of tongues.
This small swarm headed out of the facility. It headed out in single file to not be detected by other creatures. The swarm made its way out of the what would have been the main entrance. They headed towards a scent that had overpowered them. It was the scent of food. A food that had been plummeting due to high number of colonies. The insects were closing in on the mobile laboratory.
The armadillo creatures inside smelled the insects in the air. They began to screech and claw at the cages. Rose jumped straight up from her bed to see what was happening. This wasn't the usual screeching and clawing of animals that were frightened. These creatures were becoming aggressive and dangerous. She saw that the animals were becoming louder and more hostile. Wes woke up with a jolt. He moved his arm to feel that she wasn't there anymore. He grabbed his gun while heading out of bed. Wes glanced at the seismo to see that El Blanco was making his round towards them.
Rose opened the door, the wind blowing her hair around. The moon was bright enough that she didn't need a flashlight. She glanced back to the creatures as they were facing the same way as her. Their screeching increasing. She was glad that she took extra measures to keep them confined. Rose stared back out into the desert. Nothing. She then tried to step down, when Wes grabbed her from behind and hauled her away from the door. His back was up against glass when El Blanco moved underneath of them, rocking the trailer back and forth. The two were sitting down.
Wes sighed in relief as he rested his head against the glass. "Please tell me you are still under the octopus's effects."
"I wasn't thinking," Rose stared out the door. "Well, I was but not in that sort of sense. It's silent."
"Yeah, he won't be back for a while," Wes set his gun down. His arms were still wrapped around her.
"No, that's not what I meant," Rose looked behind them. "They're silent. Not moving. I wonder what had just happened." Wes let go of her as Rose turned to get on her knees. She stared at them through the glass. He looked with her as well. Rose looked back over to the desert.
"Maybe El Blanco scared them," Wes got up to close the door. He went back to her to help her up. Rose grasped his hand and got up.
"No, something else," Rose started to ponder.
"No, we are going back to sleep," Wes ordered her. "You still haven't fully recovered, and it's possible that a graboid scared them. You'll figure this out in the morning."
She still stood there not listening to him. She wondered if they could find any traces of what it was but with the night wind, the trail of it would be swept away. Along with the scent and all evidence that could provide whatever the culprit was.
Wes shook his head before he picked her up. She was flung over his shoulder like last time.
"Hey!" She came out of her trance.
"Oh, now you'll listen," Wes was annoyed. "We. Are. Going. To. Bed. That's an order."
"Keep the radio nearby," Rose spoke in defeat as she saw no warnings or movements from her computers as she was moved away. "There are no movements from my readings but something startled them. If I don't pick something up, then whatever it is, Burt may hear something."
"He has seismos just like you, I highly doubt he will, since it was El Blanco," Wes put her down as gentle and slow as he could.
"Quick to deduce," Rose got under the covers.
"The radio is on and loud enough for both to hear," Wes put the safety back on his gun. He placed it next to the radio. "If something happens, we will then proceed but now just sleep."
"You're no fun at all," Rose murmured before falling asleep. "Can't even let me work."
The swarm headed towards the two gangsters sleeping in the car. It was the same scent they encountered earlier. Their antennas clicked together as they didn't hear any noise from their predators. This excited them as there was no obstacle to get some food. These insects devoured any rubber material. The campers didn't move in the slightest as the car's tires were being ingested. The insects didn't stop there. Gaskets, windshield wipers, and anything else rubber their feelers picked up they ate. When they were finished with the car they headed towards the town.
The swarm ate hoses, shoes, floor linings, old sport equipment, toys, engine belts, certain paints, masks, and any other rubber product. They ate until they were full. The town had started on Tyler's house first. The insects burrowed down deep into seclusion to rest during the daytime before eating again at night.
That morning. The two gangsters woke up. Something seemed off.
"Hey! Wake up!" The other gangster tried to wake him up. "Something's wrong."
"Huh!" He woke up and looked around. "You woke me up from a good dream. I was beating the piss out of Frank."
"We can do that when we get back," the other one got out of the car. He looked around and saw nothing unusual. He shrugged his shoulders before taking a morning leak. He looked around and saw that the car was on its rims. He stared in surprise. "Hey man! Our tires are missing!"
"Whatcha talking about?" The other yawned. He scooted out of the car to see what the other was talking about. "No way man! How we gonna get back?"
In Perfection, the rest had woken up to Tyler's shouts of surprise and anger.
Jodi, Nancy, and Larry came over to see what the commotion was.
"Everything all right?" Nancy asked with her radio clutched in her hand.
"Nothing's all right!" Tyler fumed. "Something or someone stole all of my parts, the hose is missing, all of my tires are gone. Even my boots are missing! Who in their right mind would do something like this?" He stopped and looked at Larry. "You ain't playing some kind of prank are you?!"
Larry put his hands up. "I was asleep the whole night. Besides what would I do with your stuff?"
Tyler sighed. The group searched around to see what all was missing. They contacted Burt about the situation. He was making his rounds while he came across the two campers without tires. He picked them up and brought them back to town. Burt was suspicious of these two but he still listened to their story.
He came into town and met up with all of them at Tyler's place. The two gangsters went to phone their friends to come pick them up. Burt looked around Tyler's place.
"One common thing amongst everything missing is it's something rubber related," Burt mused. "No word from the other two?"
"Nothing," Jodi shook her head.
Rose and Wes were looking around the trailer for any clues of what happened that night. They didn't find anything.
"Hopeless," Rose sighed in defeat. "Let me do my work. Do not interfere again."
"Command rejected," Wes was scanning the area with his binoculars. "Ever since the octopus' incident, your safety is in jeopardy. Without coherent thinking you were going to end up as graboid food."
"You have a point," Rose brushed her hands off.
"Rose come in over," Burt interrupted.
She unhooked the radio from Wes's pants. "Hey!"
"Rose here, over," she rolled her eyes at Wes's complaints.
"We have a situation here, over," Burt tried coax her.
"Oh look, they have a situation," Rose gloated. "What's the situation, over."
Burt looked to the others. They sensed the tension on the other side.
"Lover's quarrel?" Tyler shrugged his shoulders.
"We have lots of rubber missing, over," Burt didn't like the taste of the words he just spoke.
"What am I the local Sheriff," Rose rolled her eyes. "Take this up with Twitchell. If you anything else that is actually pertaining to the lab, discuss it with Mathews first. Over."
"Well that was a waste," Tyler crossed his arms.
"No, not really," Burt was thinking. "They must have a situation themselves. She's making us go to the other scientist first. This could be related. The two campers I picked up also had their tires missing. Let's go ask what Dr. Mathews thinks about this situation. Find any remnant of rubber. There could be a clue on them."