The Unveiled

Veiled Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Happens to everyone

"It's pretty perfect." Agnar said stretching after taking his last bite of pizza, he tossed his crust to the dog. "It's only about two hours away." He reached for her phone and she handed it to him. He seemed to be feeling better, though he still looked half dead. She'd awoken to find him slumped over her phone obsessively scrolling.

When he noticed she was awake he smiled and announced he had a hunt, but refused to say anymore till they went and got something to eat. He explained that their funds were low, but he didn't want to get any money out of the bank till they were on their way out of town. Not that he thought these things could trace atm transactions, but better safe than sorry. He pulled up the article and handed it to her. "Your first test, let's see if you can figure out what we're dealing with. I can't be certain of course until we get there, but I'm pretty sure I've figured it out.

Twenty acres of orchard dead, not the first in the area.

Farmer Edmund Rireroy says he called the sheriff's department early Saturday morning, because he wasn't sure who else to call.

"Thirty percent of the apple trees, dead overnight. They were healthy trees not a day before, we'd just finished harvesting them not two weeks ago." Mr. Rireroy told reporters. We talked to the sheriff's office who confirmed that there had been several other cases of rapid rotting vegetation, particularly in farms and orchards.

The environmental protection agency has been in the area taking samples and running tests. So far they've ruled out all the insect and fungal species that are known to cause crop failure like this, none at this rate though. The only clue they have found is a slimy mucus-like substance on some of the dead trees, but analysis hasn't produced very hopeful results.

She looked up in confusion when she'd finished reading. She knew this. "There's several species that cause decay in plants." He nodded, he knew that wasn't her answer just that she was thinking out loud. Then she remembered "The slime trail, a Doodslak?" He nodded and smiled.

"Very good, as far as I know it's the only species that feeds off the life force of plants, and leaves a slime trail." She made a face and he laughed a little. "They're not pretty." That was an understatement, a Doodslak was essentially a large slug, roughly the size of a cow. They weren't particularly aggressive, unless threatened, but their slime when fresh was fairly acidic and could burn flesh. They avoided detection by humans due to an ability to compress their body to fit in much smaller habitats than you would think they could.

"Okay." She said and nodded "When do we leave?" He thought about it a moment then turned back to her.

"Test two, you decide." She looked at him with confusion. How was this a test? The look on his face was serious so she thought. She looked at the clock on her phone.

"How long will it take us to get there?"

"If we were to start packing right now we could be there in about two and a half hours." She nodded. It was four fifty in the afternoon, in fall it got dark pretty early. If they left tonight, they'd get there about seven twenty, but it would be completely dark outside.

"We should wait till tomorrow." She said with a certain nod. "It would be after dark by the time we got there, and it's too dangerous for us to be out after dark with god knows what after us. It's best to wait till first light." He smiled.

"Very good, if this was something hurting people, I'd say risk it, because the sooner we got there the more lives we could save. But doodslaks aren't aggressive, so we'll wait till tomorrow." She smiled, she was happy to be getting something right for once. She turned as Buddy whined, he'd been feeling much better this afternoon, still somewhat sluggish, but she could get clear thoughts from him now. She turned.