The warm week was nice in Perfection. Nancy was at her pottery wheel creating the graboid ware. Grady had helped out there again. He got a manufacturer who could reproduce on a bigger scale. They only needed the originals to duplicate. Nancy would provide that. She would also make a few sets to be sold at a higher price. Grady was helping her with the branding. Since she was the main supplier, he wanted her to be a high dollar designer. He already had duplicated her coffee mugs with Fred's head at the bottom, and many other items.
Her hands were forming the clay into a plate. She was on the sixth dinner plate for the twelfth plate serving set. She paused to look around her. Nothing. She pushed her peddle to get the wheel turning again. Some small shadow raced across the window area. She left off the peddle, jerked her head to see what it was. She narrowed her eyes to see better. She something move again.
"Ah, little spider," she smiled. "Came in for the warmth, huh?" She looked back out the window. She tilted her head. "Has that cactus always been there?" She couldn't remember seeing a saguaro cactus but she also hadn't been really paying attention to the outside area. She shrugged her shoulders and went back to the pottery wheel.
At Chang's, Jodi was on the phone with Tyler about the situation they were in. Burt has been exhausting every plan they could think of. These graboids were way smarter than any Burt has been around. It was hard trying to kill them since the three never stuck around long enough to take any bait. Tyler was thinking about calling in backup, Wes.
Jodi explained to Tyler that may not be a good idea. Burt was getting to be territorial on his hunting of monsters. Before Burt heard about these three graboids, Jodi was trying to get Burt back to doing his survival videos since he still needed a steady source of income. Burt didn't want to give away all his secrets. It was starting to feel like dealing with a toddler.
Tyler agreed. He let Jodi go to try again on plan letter whichever. Jodi was going through mail.
Larry was sorting through reviews on his blog when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. He looked up to see something moving outside. Larry blinked. He stood up to get closer to the window. He blinked again.
"Hey, why is the cactus running?" He looked back and forth, his finger pointing to where he was staring. He tilted his head.
"Larry, I don't think I can take another dad joke," Jodi didn't look up.
"No," Larry glanced back at her briefly. "Why are the cactuses running?" He pointed to them.
"The cactus running?" Jodi sat up. She saw that he was still at the window. Her curiosity got the better of her. She meandered over, trying to see past Larry. He was taking up the whole window view. "What do you mea-oh my God!"
Saguaro cactuses were moving across the ground like they came out of a cartoon show. Three of them were inching their way across the land while two others had their root systems almost like legs, teetering across the ground. The five would pause, then go again.
"We-we need to call the scientists," Jodi nodded her head. This was unbelievable. She darted away to get to the CB radio.
"Burt said not to call Rose and Wes unless necessary," Larry called out to her.
"Rose and Wes probably have a mess on their hands if these things are running about," Jodi picked up the radio. "I'm getting ahold of Casey and Roger, the ones who are supposed to deal with any Mixmaster outside of the lab."
Casey and Roger were dealing with these running cactus as one would expect a couple of scientists would. Casey was watching the cactus move on its own while Roger was creating a suit with lots of padding.
Casey glanced back to Roger. "You think you will be padded enough not to get hurt by one?"
"Let's hope they can't shoot out needles like porcupines but I'm not going to take that chance," Roger was now in the process of duct taping the padding onto himself. He brought out a mask. "Okay now, tape on the oven mitts." It was the last thing for him. Casey went around a few times, making it snug but not tight. She had scissors and a knife ready to undo him when he was ready.
Casey looked at the seismograph. "No, graboid in sight, you are good."
Roger nodded. This was one of the chances they got. He didn't know if the cactus could sense around them enough but they didn't want to take the chance. Roger ran out of the facility towards the cactus. The cactus hesitated allowing him to tackle it like a football player. The cactus roots tried to scramble about, flaying around.
"Woo!" Casey clapped. She opened the doors. They were going to put the cactus in the glass lab area. It was a recent upgrade they had.
Roger tied it down on the table. The root system still flinging around, trying to attach itself and move. Once it couldn't move anymore it kept trying with the root system. Roger got out of the room, closing the glass door.
"Ha, that was an experience," Roger sat down on the nearest chair. Casey was examining it from the glass wall. "Can you?"
"Oh yeah," Casey came back to him. "We should get different breeds, if there are any. I am going to examine this one. It doesn't seem like it can fling the needles. I will need to get juice from them, like getting a DNA sample." She cut the tape off the mitts. Next was the torso area.
"That's good," Roger caught his breath. "Any word from our fellow colleagues on this?"
Casey shook her head. "No. No replies at all. Jodi did call. She said that they are all over the valley. I asked if she could try to round them up."
"Maybe they will have better luck then we do," Roger took off the padding. "Any word from Burt and Tyler?"
"No, but the graboid incident is still going on in Utah," Casey frowned. "It's just us. We will deal with it the best we can."
Back in Perfection, Larry and Jodi were trying their best to wrangle the cactus but it wasn't working. The cactus kept escaping from them. They had thrown blankets on it. It ran far enough that the blanket slid off. A burlap bag didn't work either.
"Out of the way!" A familiar voice called out. The two heard the sounds of hoofbeats galloping towards them. They jumped out the way to see Rosalita swinging her lasso. She let it go. It looped around the cactus. She pulled the slack tight and started looping it around her horn. She turned the horse in the opposite direction, pulling the cactus behind her.
Harlowe was behind on his horse, galloping. Once he saw her having it roped. "Woah!" He muttered. His horse sat down on the back end, sliding in the sand into a stop, while he slid off in one motion, running towards the cactus. He brought out a machete, slashing off the roots from the cactus.
"Wooh!" Harlowe undid the rope around the cactus so Rosalita can form another loop. He walked back to his horse that was waiting for him.
"Wow," Jodi was in awe.
Larry clapped. "That was awesome! Is that how you two been tackling them this whole time?"
Rosalita moved her horse around to be next to them. She was coiling the rope back up as the horse was walking. "Yep. I am getting pretty good at being a header." The two were confused about that word. "Its in rodeo, team ropers. One heads, while the other heels. Harlowe and I make a pretty good team. We won some money in a jackpot last year."
Harlowe, back on his horse, moved in closer to them too. "We had the cactus roped but it kept moving around. The easiest way we found to stop it was cutting off the roots from the cactus body. We have a ton stacked in a pile; we're going to load it in the back of the truck to bring to the scientists."
"Lots of different ones too," Rosalita nodded. "Not just these but barrel, ball, fishhook, eagle claws to name a few. So weird. I wonder what other stuff is going to come out of there. Why just cactus though? None of the sagebrush moved, just cactus."
"Who knows?" Harlowe shrugged his shoulders. "Strange things come out of that place. It's only going to get stranger from here." The other three nodded. "Let's do this, since both of us can rope, Rosalita and I will drag them over here, you two can cut the root system. It has to be where the roots and the plant meet, otherwise it still moves around. Lots of trial and error on that one."
The plan was then enacted. They had a tall pile of cactus. The whole variety as Rosalita informed. It took them a few hours to get it done. The group rested. The horses were ground tied in the shade with warm water to drink, as cold water would cause them to colic when they're this worked up. Horses do have the ability to warm up the water they drink but they didn't want to chance it. Jodi grabbed some apples, carrots, and potatoes for the two.
Rosalita came out with some licorice. She ate one and then gave one to her horse.
"Can horses actually have that?" Jodi was confused while it was eating away at the red rope candy.
"Yep, it's made from wheat flour and such," Rosalita took another bite. "He would try to snag a bite every time I had one, so those are his treats on special, special occasions." She kissed his muzzle. He tried to grab the one in her hand. "No. I have this one for you." She offered the horse another one.
At the lab, the men in the foyer were taking out all the walls. It was an assembly line of them moving the walls into the semitrailer. It was getting fuller with each hour. Andrew had planned out that the semi would leave at a midpoint. The semi would drop the load off, pick up an empty trailer, and head back. Their semis would then haul that full load back to their headquarters.
He got word from his sister, that she was packing up shop as well. She would bring her side back to headquarters. The cement boxes were being built to continue to house more graboids. She needed more to continue to sell to the black market. She would continue her efforts to keep the monster hunter where she was at, until Andrew had everything from the lab in semi-trailers.
The large movement in the lab had its ripple effect. This was what Rose worried about. Too much at once and the environment will start to become unstable. The cactuses were the first ripple. Casey viewed these affected cactuses against cactus unaffected under the microscope. The difference in the two plant cells were concerning. Roger tried to get ahold of Wes and Rose.
The cactuses had been affected by Mixmaster, unlike normal circumstances, if Mixmaster could ever be normal, it was always a new creature type. Shrimp genetically transformed into its ancestor, the plantimal which was the most dangerous, and so forth. This was similar to the plantimal, as it could spread easily, however, the host were cactuses. Not any other plant. It must have to deal with the cactus genetic makeup. Like ligand gated channels or one of the cells gated systems, it must have been the only plant that had receptors for that Mixmaster creature. It must also be so sensitive as to whatever was going on over there, as it had escaped.
Rose's work consisted of swabbing for bacterial and cell growth on all surfaces, extraction of Mixmaster creatures, and documenting the ecological impact Mixmaster has made inside the lab. Her presence, even with the addition of Wes, didn't do much of a threat. The things that escaped from there, really escaped, but the microbial creature under that microscope suggests that Rose had finally made a big enough impact to scare out even microbes.
While Casey was diving into this wonder, Roger was assisted by the rest of the town to document, take samples, and properly place all the cactuses in bags. It was a long process.
Nancy had been on the phone with Twitchell giving him the details of what all happened. She didn't know about it as she was too busy with her pottery. When she heard the group cheering, she went outside to see all the commotion. They informed her of everything that happened. As the rest went with Roger, she had to inform Twitchell.
Twitchell would be there the next day to see what had happened. As Nancy listened to him say goodbye, she heard the semi drive past her home. She watched it go by through the window.
"That's odd," Nancy hung up the phone. She headed out to the Market. Jodi and Larry cooked up a meal for everyone. She went in to see all of them enjoying their meals. "Did you hear the semi go by?"
"Yeah?" Jodi nodded. She could see the concerned look on Nancy's face. "Is everything alright?"
"No word from Rose and Wes, still?" Nancy came over to them.
Jodi shook her head. The two glanced to the rest of the group. They shook their heads too.
"I wonder what's going on," Nancy grabbed a plate. "They must have gotten something as the semi left. That usually means creatures, but no word from them."
"Well, what's more odd was that the semi has been there for a whole day," Larry added. The group looked to him. He looked around to them. "What? It has. It came late last night. It usually gets in and gets out for them. This time it took roughly 24 hours."
"Most of the creatures we have encountered are nocturnal," Casey chimed in. "Well, ones that Rose has collected. I get to see her information once she puts in the system. She documents what she finds and then it gets sent to me so that if I find it out in the wild around me, then I know its for sure Mixmaster. They must have found something big or eventful enough that the semi needed to stay longer."
"She also would have informed us," Roger noted. "She doesn't care much about government rules. If she has to break them, she does."
"Unless she thought we could handle these things on our own," Rosalita put down her glass. "Cactuses running around isn't really a big issue for her. Now if they were throwing poison needles at us, then maybe."
The group agreed on that thought. Rose would inform them if there was something more deadly. They would just have to wait on her to see what was all going on. It did make them worry a bit. Jodi informed them how Burt and Tyler were doing. It was hard for them as well. Three smart graboids that could do tasks that Burt has never seen before. It would be a while before those two were coming back. The group knew that they had to protect Perfection on their own. They just hoped that this was it.
Early that morning, before the sun was out, some of them heard the semi rolling back through the town. Larry sat up, flicked on a light, grabbed his notepad and pen. He looked over to the clock and jotted down the time. He put them back down, flicked off the light switch, and went back to bed.
Over in Utah, Burt came up with a plan that would get at least one of the graboids. He had it marked out where the graboids would retreat to whenever it encountered one of Burt's supposed traps. He had Tyler split off from him to keep watch on the three graboids while he dug several traps for them.
After he was done, Burt met back up with Tyler. "How are they?"
"Still the same," Tyler informed him. "Trying to lure people outside by using their tentacles to hit against the doors. Man, are they smart or what?!"
"Each of them having a learning curve that's different from the last," Burt was getting exhausted from this fight. "I have placed out all my traps, now its time for them to take the first bait. Burt got out a worm charmer and his little RC tank. He set both down on the ground, headed back on the boulder he was at, and waited for them.
The wormer charmer pounded into the ground while Tyler was maneuvering the RC tank around it. The noise brought the three graboids to them. Burt watched with his binoculars'. "That's right. Come over here. See what we have this time."
The graboids came over. All three breached enough for their beaks to come out. The tentacles slithered out, grabbing onto the worm charmer and lifting it up out of the ground. It unclasped it, letting it fall. Another tentacle had grabbed the tank and flipped it on its side. The three graboids, gathered their tentacles, and slid back down into the ground. They moved away from the area with such speed. Burt picked his binoculars back up. He watched them go back to one of the marked areas. Burt grabbed a long remote. His body knew how to flick the buttons and toggles without looking. He flicked the last toggle which was red.
BOOM!
The ground rumbled in that area. It raised up enough that some pieces of orange looking debris came flying out.
"HA!" Burt cheered. "STILL AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FOOD CHAIN!"
Tyler looked at the seismos. "Only one down but that's not bad."
"Not bad at all," Burt placed down the binoculars. "Keep a watch on your surroundings. Just like El Blanco, they can probably remember us as their enemy. We will need to be extra vigilant from now on. I probably didn't get the leader but at least I got one of them. One down, two to go."
The two gathered up their things, got into the Jeep and headed out for their next plan. It was similar to the other plan but it couldn't be done in the same location with the same things. These graboids get smarter. Burt just had to keep outsmarting them.