It was late afternoon. Umar was dead. And he had been taken to the morgue.
Mezmer [Shane], Gazala [Richard] and Cooper [Ian] were at the Saint Croix church. Miriam and Wonton were with them, but they both collapsed, marmalading.
Most of the pieces of Toulouse had been recovered. He had basically been physically ripped to pieces, and the largest piece was his head. There were suction cup marks, as if from a large tentacle, on his skin on several bits.
Umar had been killed by gunfire (a la Wonton). His body was in the morgue fridge. There was nothing unusual about it.
Mezmer went to the Bibliotheque Nationale de Tunisie library and did some research on Umar's medallion. He lucked out and identified it as a Goluz. This was an occult item used to help control a summoned demon. The blood it contained had to match the type of the summoned demon. The treatise he found was rather scathing of the efficacy.
The party returned to the Calomnie de Tunis building, and to their apartment for the night. Inspector Heroux had assigned two armed gendarmes in the street, in case the "bear" returned.
They tucked up the two marmaladers, Wonton and Miriam, in the bunkroom of their apartment.
As they were dozing off to sleep, the normal Tunis night-time electricity brown-out started around 10pm, and the rooftop generator switched on as normal ... and purred quietly as it powered the building and the printing presses below.
Cooper jerked wide awake. "Quiet?! Since when is that generator quiet?!"
He got up, and woke every one. They all crept out into the warm autumn night air armed with torches, and poked around the generator and diesel engine. Under the rain cover it was coated in slime. The slime had worked its way into the main bearing on the drive-shaft between the diesel engine and the generator, and it was running beautifully smooth and quiet.
Cooper investigated closer. There was something flapping around next to the shaft. He pulled it out. It was a dried husk of a tentacle as if from a giant octopus, suckers and all.
Mezmer retrieved the Goluz medallion from his bag and gingerly put it around his neck. The back of his neck prickled, and the backs of the necks of all those near. Then, suddenly, there was a roar from the cemetery across the road. A roar like an angry bear or lion.
They all rushed downstairs and out onto the road. The two gendarmes had heard the roar too, and they had their rifles out, and were walking around white-faced.
Cooper ducked down the side alley next to the building, Rue de Chekli, and lay down with his (stolen) rifle out.
The rest of the group hurried down the road to the Citroen, and bundled into it. Mario took the wheel with Mezmer (still wearing the Goluz) in the passenger seat. In the back squashed in Fleur, Gazala and Jacob. Bernard perched on the running board.
There was something large moving in the cemetery across the road. It was moving in the direction of the Citroen. There were no lights in the cemetery, and the street lights were off during the brown-out, so there wasn't much light. But he took a shot anyway. This got the gendarmes firing too. The creature was roaring.
Mario drove as fast as he dared in the darkened Tunis streets. Mezmer shouted directions. Bernard, on the running board, was scanning behind, and he could see this large shape following them, like a large canvas bag, the size of a truck, or an elephant, glistening like wet leather. It didn't have any legs and sort of slithered. But it wasn't slow by any means, and there was no question that it was following them; presumably the Goluz.
They got out of the central city, and the roads became straighter. Here Mario could go faster, and thus stop the creature from gaining.
They decided to head to the quarry. This was an hour's trip out of town. The roads were straight enough that Mario could keep the creature at a safe distance. Bernard kept a weather-eye out behind and shouted to the others.
When they reached the quarry, it had changed since three nights ago when they were last here. Concrete blocks and large rocks had been deliberately placed to block the road, a good hundred metres from the gate. They assumed that this was in response to their break-in. So, they left the car and hurried to the quarry gates on foot.
There were active guards around, who challenged them immediately. The guards were all armed now, because "Quelqu’un a volé notre dynamite il y a trois nuits" (some dynamite was stolen three nights ago). But with a bit of fast-talking and dropping the right names (that is: Inspector Heroux) they managed to convince that guards that the party was on the same team as the guards, and ... that there was a large group of "dangerous insurgents" following.
"Les dangereux insurgés se cachent dans une tente," said Bernard. "La tente est comme une armure portative." (The insurgents are all hiding in a tent; like portable armour.)
The quarry guard station had a telephone, so the head guard was happy to telephone the police, quoted Heroux's name and said that there was an imminent heavily-armed attack on the quarry. The gendarmes and soldiers would be a good hour away, but at least help would come eventually.
The guards lent Mario and Mezmer a rifle each. Everyone took positions around the gate.
Fleur and Jacob set up an infirmary near the guard-house.
There was a loud angry roar in the distance. The guards nervously fingered their guns: "Insurgents in an armoured tent, huh?"
The shape approached the gate. All the guards fired. So did Mario. The shape bellowed, like a tiger, a bear or a lion. Now that the creature was closer, even in the poor light, everyone could see the glistening waving tentacles, multiple eyes, mouths. Half the guards screamed hysterically and ran away. The other half just fired and fired and fired their rifles, and then just kept pulling their triggers even after all the ammo was gone. Mario bravely stayed put and fired too.
But the thing wasn't interested in the guards, it broke straight through the wire-netting border fence, and headed towards Mezmer. Mezmer wasn't exactly sure what to do, so, with rising bile, bravely stood his ground and held on tightly to the Goluz. He formed strong commanding thoughts in his mind "go to the shed. Go to the shed. Go to the shed." The shed being the explosives bunker.
The glistening sack of flesh paused, then, miracle of miracles headed to the bunker. It went straight through the armoured door, smashing it, and took out half the wall as well.
Gazala and Bernard each had a stick of dynamite with a short fuse to a detonator. As per plan, they lit their fuses and hurled the sticks in through the broken door behind the creature. Bernard's fell short, but Gazala's one tumbled inside, straight and true. They both ducked.
 |
| Dynamite |
There was a mighty explosion as half of a tonne of dynamite exploded. The concrete block bunker was utterly destroyed and all that there was left was a five metre smoking crater. All around, it rained down pieces of concrete, wood, corrugated iron, and pieces of flesh, tentacles, and skin.
Bernard was caught in the blast and flattened [to -3]. Mario was over by the gate, but the concussive blast caught him too. Gazala was flung like a ragdoll backwards, but she was still up, ears ringing. She limped over to the fallen Bernard, staunched his bleeding and saved his life.
Mezmer made a bonfire out of the wooden pieces of the hut, and the rest of the group, and the guards who were brave enough gathered up the pieces of flesh and burned them.
When the gendarmes arrived, there we no traces left the creature.
Several of the guards were gibbering wrecks. The braver ones just talked about insurgents and terrorists. That was the narrative that the party encouraged: a bunch of terrorists hiding under an armoured tent. It didn't explain the slime, mais l’histoire était assez bonne pour les gendarmes.
Good work, team!
ReplyDelete