2.a.xiv
The slime
trail led to a hidden access panel in the corner of the far wall. It wasn’t difficult to locate the secret switch
as The Greed’s residue was splattered all over a concealed lever built into the
paneling.
“Ah, god. You touch it,” Tanya said.
Mr. Jones
rolled his eyes and shook his head in way that parents and teachers often
reserved for children. He pulled the lever
and immediately wished he’d insisted that Tanya do it. The slime was not only unpleasant to the
touch, but it felt like diseased water and cold sludge in his mind.
The panel
opened onto a dimly lit corridor. Naked
light-bulbs burned a sickly-brown dot-to-dot trail down the narrow hallway;
patches of The Greed’s slime pooled randomly on the floor reflecting the dirty
light.
Mr. Jones
snapped the secret lever off the wall and then he and Tanya slipped inside,
shutting the panel behind them. They
raced after The Greed in a cautious rush.
The corridor
twisted and turned, dropped down steps, climbed ladders, and connected to other
corridors through elevators, doors, and even a rusty, overzealously-greased
escalator before it finally dead ended at a concrete wall.
“Great. What happened? Did we take a wrong turn?” Tanya said.
“No, there’s a
puddle of goo right here on the floor.
Maybe he slipped down a drain or something.”
“There’s no
drain in this floor,” Tanya said. And
then a big plop of boogery gunk dripped from the ceiling and onto her
shoulder. “Oh that better not be–” she
started but another wad of nastiness wriggled down the nape of her neck.
Tanya
squirmed, jumped to the side and shouted, “Hell no! Is that–”
“Afraid so,”
Mr. Jones said. There was a small, wet
length of cord dangling from the ceiling.
He tugged on it and an attic-like doorway opened up. A ladder unfolded into the chamber. They climbed up the steps into a small office
where they found a pool of slime at the base of small desk. From there a set of wet footprints led toward
the door, fading near the exit.
“The Greed’s
found another host,” Mr. Jones said. “We need to find it.”
“Hey, we need
to find a bathroom first so I can wash this nasty stuff off my neck. Where are we anyway?”
Mr. Jones
leafed through some papers on the desk.
“Looks like
some sort of fabric or crafting store.
Tanya grabbed
one of the papers
“Jolene’s. Yeah, big chain store. Arts and crafts and sewing things.”
“The Greed
would take root in the greediest person it could find. Could be a manager or a district rep who keeps
an office here.”
The two
followed the disappearing set of footprints out onto the sales floor.
