2.d.xxv
Tanya heard
the strange screaming but did not dare risk a look over her shoulder to see
what it was. A thudding sound, followed
by gasps of pain, confirmed her suspicions that another of The Greed’s human
fists had fallen to the floor.
“You touch me
with that twenty and it will kill the boy,” The Greed-boy said, his host body
still dribbling a nasty gel-paste where the charitable coins had lodged.
“Somehow I
doubt that,” said Tanya.
“You’ll have
to get close to me to use it,” said The Greed-boy. “You can’t pitch a bill like a coin.”
“That won’t
be–” Tanya started, but a foul smelling, wild-eyed teen snatched the twenty
from her hand as he screamed past her.
He looked down at the money as if confused by its sudden appearance in
his hand. When he looked back up he was
only a step away from The Greed-boy.
Both boyish
forms shrieked like girls and held their hands up in preparation for the
imminent collision. Only one had a
charitable twenty dollar bill in his hand.
There was a noise that sounded like a bug zapper, a dry belch, and an
M-80. Following this improbable noise
was a burst of brown light, reddish dust, and sticky tendrils, as if someone
set off charges in a rotten pumpkin full of iron rich dirt.
When the cloud
of debris settled, Tanya could see the two boys lying on the ground, covered in
dust and sticky strings. Three brownish
slug creatures the size of large sausages slowly inched away from the point of
impact. They looked like a mix of
gelatin and fibrous ground beef.
Mr. Jones
stepped forward with a freezer bag and captured the fleeing slug creatures. “Well, I guess these freezer bags of yours
were an appropriate size after all,” he said.
“I think we
need to get out of here, Jonsey. You
okay to walk?”
“I’m fine,”
said Mr. Jones. “In fact, I’m more than
that. Everything’s so clear now. I think… I think I’m Corporate Man
again. Let’s go get my necktie cape.”
