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The sound of the alarm reached Toby as if it were submerged in an ocean during a thunderstorm. He could tell he was lying flat, and he was able to wiggle his fingers and toes. The effort of it left him even weaker, ready to give up the fight and remain motionless.
The stress ball hit him hard enough to snap his eyes open, although its squishy texture ensured that his only pain stemmed from being forced awake.
“Get up.” Chloe clapped her hands over Toby’s head. “You’ll be late again.”
He heard the deep groan fill the room before he realised that it was coming from his own mouth. He stretched in a dramatic motion, only to be hit by another soft projectile.
“Up,” Chloe repeated. “Christ, Toby, am I your girlfriend or your mother?”
“Okay, okay.” Toby sat up. “Would rather not blur the line between those two things, babe.”
Chloe flung another cushion in his direction. She grumbled loud enough to make her point clear, but Toby could always tell when she was trying not to laugh.
“Another morning in Paradise,” he yawned, pulling himself out of bed.
“I’m not sure I would have agreed to move here if I knew you’d be making that joke every single day.”
“What point is there in moving to a suburb named Paradise if you can’t make that joke every single day?” Toby grinned, finally finding the motivation to climb out of bed. He grabbed Chloe around the waist, leaning closer as she turned away to hide her smile. “Did you hear about the new parking lot at the interchange? Excellent paving job. Someone should-”
“Should write to Joni Mitchell,” Chloe finished the joke for him. “As I said. You’re so predictable.”
“Being predictable is a good thing,” Toby insisted. “You’d know straight away if I was replaced by a clone.”
Chloe picked up a bath towel and flung it in his direction. “Clones. You’re going to be making up nonsense about clones now, are you?” She sighed. “First you try to tell me that you failed your uni placement because you were attacked by emus-”
“That was true!” Toby jumped to reply. “I’m telling you, again, that story was true, just it was pretty hard to get footage given-”
“Stop,” Chloe laughed. “I’ve heard it too many times. You’re so full of it.”
Toby held back his argument and bent over to pick up the towel. He yawned as Chloe gave him a gentle shove towards the bathroom.
“Are you right to walk to work today?” She pushed past him. “I’d like to take the car, if that’s okay with you.”
“Yeah, should be fine,” he muttered. “Long as it doesn’t rain.”
“It better not.” Chloe jangled the keys in her hand. “We’re trying this new method of waterproofing, and rain would be just what we don’t need today.”
“Yeah, cool.” Toby yawned again. “Good stuff.”
“Management shipped in this new type of spray-on rubber coating,” she muttered. “I’ll be picking it up on the way.”
“Sounds delicious.”
“Toby.” Chloe sighed.
“What?” he argued, pulling her in for a kiss before she opened the front door. “I’m listening.”
She stared at him, doing her best to appear stern. Toby retaliated with an innocent shrug, shifting into a silly face he knew would always make Chloe laugh.
“I’ll just tell you again tonight.” She shook her head. “Hurry up and get ready for work.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Toby waved. “Have fun. Love you.”
Chloe checked the contents of her purse, counting the coins before blowing him a kiss and heading out the door. Toby stretched as he turned around, fighting the temptation to go back to bed. Forcing one foot in front of the other, he stumbled into the bathroom. As the engine of the ute kicked into gear, he peeked out of the small, frosted window to watch Chloe drive away. Checking the time on his phone, he sighed and started running the shower.
***
Walking up the Linear Park trail, Toby hummed under his breath without realising he was doing it. Ever since he’d realised that the name of his workplace fit perfectly to the tune of ‘Highway to Hell’, the song had become an unbreakable part of his commute. As soon as the words ‘Highbury Hotel’ landed in his brain, the tune began, whether he liked it or not.
Toby walked through the park knowing that he was about to be hit by constant chatter, bland music, and endless ringing pokie machines. With that in mind, he walked without headphones. Immersed in the serenity of rushing water and birdsong, he could almost forget the busy peak-hour roads that surrounded the trail. It was rare that he admitted how much he valued those few quiet moments, but he often took a pause just before the trail ended.
To get to the Highbury Hotel, Toby had no other option but to turn onto Lower North-East Road as it snaked up the hill. Towards the end, the path offered a pristine view of the Hope Valley Reservoir, but it was tainted by the inescapable sounds of traffic. Trying to block out the busy engines and blaring horns, Toby turned away from the road to look down at the reservoir. With a deep sigh, he breathed in the last morsel of peace that he would find until he finished his shift.
“I’m at the Highbury Ho-”
Toby’s off-key singing was cut off as his feet slipped in a patch of mud. He grabbed the fence to steady himself, and groaned as he saw the fresh brown-green stain splashed onto his pants.
“Bloody laundry day again,” he muttered. “Suburban groundhog day.”
In a wave of frustration, he aimed a steel-toed kick at the mud. Despite not being hit, the moss beneath the puddle lurched out of the way, a bright green bubble popping as if it were angry. Toby stopped in his tracks, staring at the ground until his vision blurred enough for him to convince himself that he’d imagined it.
***
Still humming, Toby strode through the pub’s entrance and pushed his way behind the bar.
“Staff only, sorry mate.” Alex shook his head with a smirk.
“Yeah, think you’re funny, hey.”
“Funnier than you.” Alex shrugged, throwing a polishing cloth in Toby’s direction. “Not that that’s any kind of challenge.”
Toby made a face, but caught the cloth without any further comment. He took a deep breath, walking through the first steps of his work routine.
“I hit that running track around the reservoir this morning,” Alex flexed. “Valley of Hope, indeed. I’ll be marathon-ready in no time.”
“Whatever you reckon,” Toby laughed. “You’re jogging in Hope Valley, but you’re living in Dream Valley with that attitude.”
“Yeah, okay,” Alex scoffed. “How’s that teaching degree going? Finished yet?”
Toby looked over his shoulder to see one of the pub’s most regular customers sidling up to the bar. Grateful for the distraction, he stepped forward and grabbed a pint glass.
“Pint of pale?” he offered, spinning the glass in his hand. “Nice day for it.”
“That’s the one.” Jimmy smacked a bank note onto the counter. “How’s that degree of yours coming along? Teaching, wasn’t it?”
Alex burst into laughter behind him. He focused on pouring the beer.
“Good on you.” Jimmy raised his glass without noticing that Toby hadn’t answered him. “God, hell of a thing, that, isn’t it?”
Toby swivelled around to the TV behind the bar. A helicopter camera panned across the Hope Valley Reservoir before the scene cut to an image of a young woman. It was the type of picture that was always used for missing persons reports, showing her happy and smiling with a small dog in her arms.
“She might still be alive,” Jimmy frowned. “No-one’s found a body yet.”
“Yeah, wow,” Alex whistled. “That’s rough. Right near here too, by the looks.”
“Yup.” Jimmy shook his head before taking a swig from his glass. “All the more reason for this, I suppose.”
Toby heard Alex mutter something under his breath, but the words blurred around his ears. He read over the monthly discounts until they became a meaningless mantra, a prayer to Jack Daniels, the patron saint of piss-ups. The thought made him laugh, and it was just enough to free his mind from speculations about missing persons. Repeating the mantra under his breath, Toby returned his focus to work.
***
The buses had stopped running by the time Toby’s shift finished, but he was more than happy to walk. He counted his steps down Lower North-East Road until it led him to the Torrens, and with it, the entrance to Linear Park. The quiet air was even fresher on the walk home. Scented with river water and eucalyptus, it overpowered the lingering bar smell that clung to his clothes. In daylight hours, he shared the path with joggers and dog-walkers, but after dark, he had the place to himself.
As his thoughts slowed, Toby found it hard to forget the face of the woman who’d gone missing. The conversation with Jimmy and Alex played back to him on a loop, retelling details he wished he hadn’t heard. He took a deep breath and picked up a pebble, tossing it into the air a few times before he sent it out towards the river. It bounced twice before it sank, dropping below the surface with a stout, satisfying plop.
In the dark, Toby wasn’t expecting to see the ripple that followed. The bright green colour grabbed his attention, glowing as it bubbled to the surface. The water frothed and popped, gurgling loud enough that he could hear it from the path. Acting against the internal voice that was screaming at him to run, he crept closer. The oozing green substance pulsed like a lava lamp, and he couldn’t help but watch as it spread across the water’s surface. The dripping goo swayed back and forth until it shot forward with a sudden lurch, gripping the banks with a force that crushed the weeds.
Toby jumped, then ducked behind a bush when he heard the low rumble of an engine. He was glad for the cover of overgrown grass when he saw the matte black SUV. It crawled along the path at the pace of a cat approaching prey, and Toby crouched as low to the ground as he could. He fumbled his phone out of his pocket and fought back a curse when he discovered that it was flat.
Focused on staying motionless, he watched as the car stopped at the river’s edge. Two men climbed out, though he could barely make them out. They moved as if they had spent their whole lives training to appear invisible, wearing long gloves and masks that covered their faces. Toby squinted to follow their movements as one of them scraped a patch of neon-green moss into a black container and jammed it shut. In one swift motion, the man ducked aside while his partner pulled out a spray nozzle and blasted it towards the river. The water’s surface exploded with grey foam, and spread until the bubbling green substance was covered.
Toby held his breath and pulled his shirt over his face. The lingering bar smell wasn’t pleasant, but it was far preferable to the burning chemical odour that was wafting up from the water. Staying hunched down, he looked at the protective equipment both men were wearing and thanked his lucky stars that he was crouched upwind.
When the full width of the Torrens had been sprayed, the two men climbed back into the car. Toby watched, not willing to move a muscle, until they drove back down the path without turning on the headlights.
***
As he closed the door behind him, Toby let out a breath so loud that he almost spooked himself. Still shaking, he checked to make sure the lock was secure before he peeked out the window. The street was populated only with parked cars and mailboxes, but after what he had just seen, everything looked suspicious.
“What time do you call this?”
Chloe’s voice hit him like a dart thrown into his back.
“Babe.” Toby clutched his chest before spinning around and sweeping her into a hug. “You scared me.”
“I scared you?” Chloe snapped, pushing him away. “How do you think I felt, waiting for you this late into the night? I called the Highbury and everything, they said you left to walk home ages ago. With your phone off and everything, what was I meant to think?!”
“Sorry. Sorry, babe.” He rubbed his eyes. “I didn’t turn it off, the battery died.”
“And the rest?!”
“Look, just . . . I don’t know. I don’t know how to describe it,” he muttered, glancing back towards the window. “Something weird happened. Very weird, full-strength weird. I saw something over by the Torrens, I can’t figure it out, but it was definitely . . . off.”
“Whatever.” Chloe rolled her eyes. “I’m going to bed, now that I know you’re still alive.”
Toby nodded, knowing that there would be no benefit to arguing with her. The bedroom door slammed shut and he collapsed onto the couch. It wasn’t until he pulled his shoes off that he saw the dirt and mud splashed all over him. Hoping a shower would settle his mind, he dragged himself towards the bathroom.
If anything, the water woke him up, every drop pelting him with images of black SUVs and oozing green slime. The images clawed at his brain, and he knew that sleep wasn’t on the cards for him yet. After drying himself off, he sat down at the kitchen table with a sheet of paper and a pen. He still had no idea what he’d seen, but he wanted to make sure he remembered every detail.
“What are you doing?” Chloe stared down at him.
Toby blinked through hazy vision and noticed sunlight streaming through the window. He didn’t remember falling asleep, but could feel the red marks that the surface of the table had left on his face.
“What is that?” Chloe frowned as she crossed the room. “Did you stay up all night . . . drawing?”
Toby rubbed his face as he straightened up. Vague and groggy, he attempted to sort the papers that were spread out in front of him.
“Here. Come look.” He gestured with both hands. “This is what I saw last night. This is the reason it took me so long to walk home.”
Chloe narrowed her eyes as she peered down at the mess of papers.
“There was this green stuff, all oozing through the river.” Toby shuffled through handwritten scribbles that bordered on illegible. “These guys, these secret agent looking guys, they turned up in a black SUV and sprayed it all with foam.”
“Toby.” Chloe placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are you . . . okay?”
“Yeah, fine,” Toby muttered. “I managed to hide, so they didn’t see me.”
“That’s not what I meant, babe.”
Toby’s eyes were sore, and he was dizzy from lack of sleep, but he picked himself up to look square at Chloe. “I know this sounds crazy,” he ranted. “But you know I’m telling the truth right now. Surely you do.”
“I can see that you think you’re telling the truth.” She looked him up and down, shaking her head with visible concern. “Are you sure you’re okay? This is weird, babe.”
“I know. It’s weird. It is.” Toby rubbed his eyes again. “I don’t know how to explain it, I don’t know what it was. But that’s what I saw.”
Chloe stared at him for a moment longer before pulling him into a hug. She stroked the back of his head, a loving gesture to soothe her frazzled boyfriend. “Maybe you should take the night off work,” she spoke in a gentle tone. “You need to get some rest. Sleep. Take care of yourself.”
“Would do me good, for sure.” Toby stood up and stretched his legs. “But I can’t, not today. We’re already short-staffed, and there’s footy on.”
Chloe shook her head, keeping a close eye on Toby as he tripped over his feet. “Well that’s your decision, then, isn’t it?” She sighed. “Just, please take care of yourself. I worry about you sometimes.”
Toby nodded, failing to stifle a yawn. His mind was full of muffled chaos, leaving him without anything coherent to say. In place of words, he settled for a tight hug and a kiss on the forehead. Chloe kissed him back before picking up her bag and walking out the door. As Toby heard the ute’s engine start, he turned over his notes so he couldn’t see them.
***
Toby hated spending a bus fare for such a short ride, but the idea of walking to work had never been so unappealing. He was still red-eyed and bleary from lack of sleep, and pulled his hood over his eyes as the bus lurched past Linear Park. When he slunk through the doors of the Highbury Hotel, it was the first time in months that he hadn’t been humming his signature tune.
“Hey, there’s the bastard.” Alex smirked. “Get up to no good last night, did you?”
“What?” Toby frowned.
“Your missus called after you left.” Alex winked. “She didn’t sound thrilled, mate.”
“Ah. Right. Yeah,” Toby grumbled. “Yeah, nah, it’s all good. Just walked the long way home and my phone died. She got worried.”
“Sure thing,” Alex laughed. “Whatever you reckon.”
Toby was in no mood to play along with Alex’s light-hearted banter. He grabbed an apron and a dish cloth, checking his phone before he put it away. When he saw a message from Chloe, he opened it as fast as he could.
Here . . . this would explain what you saw last night! There’s always a logical explanation xoxo
Toby clicked the link, immediately recognising the location from the preview image.
“What’s up?” Alex craned his neck to see over Toby’s shoulder.
“Algae, by the looks.” Toby frowned. “In the reservoir at Hope Valley. They’re calling it an outbreak.” He skimmed the rest of the article, his eyes bouncing over descriptions that sounded wrong in a way he couldn’t articulate.
“Algae,” Alex scoffed. “Fascinating stuff. Another missing person reported this morning, and you’re keeping up to date with the latest in moss and plants. Glad you don’t write the news.”
“You don’t write the news, you report the news. You’re not supposed to make it up,” Toby snapped, shoving the phone back into his pocket. “Wait—another missing person? What, locally?”
“Very.” Alex nodded. His grin vanished as the words left his mouth, and he wiped his face to cover the change in demeanour. “Last seen near the picnic area at Hope Valley. Chilling stuff, if you ask me.”
“Yeah, okay. Shit.” Toby shuddered.
“Yeah,” Alex repeated, his expression growing more sombre with every word. “Gotta say, I swear I recognised him from the picture. Must be good odds that he’s had a drink here at some point.”
Toby turned his attention to wiping down an already spotless counter. Threads of various thoughts dangled next to each other in his head, but weren’t quite connecting. Something was bothering him on a deep level, and he couldn’t quite attribute it to the news alone. When he saw a familiar face approaching the bar, he jumped at the chance to distract himself.
“Jimmy.” He clapped his hands. “Warm out there, is it?”
“Yeah, just a bit.” Jimmy wiped the sweat off his brow, pouring himself a glass of water from the jug at the end of the bar. “Decided to get a bit of exercise, for a change. Forgot how bloody steep some of these streets are.”
“You’re not wrong,” Toby whistled. “Pint of pale should fix you up, yeah?”
“My thoughts exactly.” Jimmy grinned. He downed the water in a single gulp before sliding the glass back to Toby.
“Might be a good game tonight.” Toby breezed through his standard small talk as he swapped pint for payment.
“Might be.” Jimmy shrugged. “That would all depend on whether you support-”
In an instant, the man froze. His beer dropped to the floor, the plastic glass spinning in a puddle of foam. Toby stood, watching in helpless shock as Jimmy’s eyes bulged, green veins splitting through his pupils. A sickening gurgle escaped his throat before he collapsed.
“Call triple zero,” Alex barked, rushing to Jimmy’s side. “Now!”
With shaking hands, Toby grabbed for the phone next to the register. His vision was spinning from the sight of Jimmy’s swollen veins. As he called for the ambulance, his voice sounded foreign and muddled in his own ears. His focus was trapped on the green tinge of Jimmy’s veins, and the frozen expression on his face. Trying to find anything that could help him look away, he grabbed for the plastic water glass on the counter. Still talking to the emergency services operator, he watched as a green substance spread through a crack in the plastic. Without pausing to think about it, he plucked the glass from the counter, wrapped it in a towel, and slid it into his bag.
***
“Oh my God, babe.” Chloe pulled Toby into a hug as soon as he walked through the door. “Are you OK? Have you heard any more about what happened?”
Toby let himself be comforted for a moment while he composed himself, running through the words in his head before he said them out loud.
“The ambos got there pretty quick, but it was already too late,” he sighed. “Whatever killed him, it killed him fast.”
“Probably a heart attack.” Chloe led Toby to the couch. “Seems like the most likely cause to me.”
“Nah.” Toby ruffled up his hair. “Nah, they said it didn’t look like that. It was weird. He went all . . . green.”
“Try not to think about it,” Chloe replied. She kept one hand on his shoulder, reaching for the remote control with the other. The TV flickered into life to reveal a screen full of names and faces. They varied in ages, genders, and settings, but there was one that captured Toby’s attention in an instant. It was the woman from the other day’s news report, presented in the same smiling picture. From there, he didn’t need the captions to know that all those other faces belonged to people that had met the same fate, whatever that fate might have been. Without saying a word, Chloe changed the channel. The screen switched to a pop culture round-up, featuring grainy footage of an old kids’ gameshow. A minor celebrity laughed as he described the experience of being covered with bright, green slime for the benefit of family entertainment.
“Oh. Wait.” Toby sat up and reached for his bag. “There was something I noticed.”
Chloe watched in silence as Toby dug through crumpled papers and loose change. It wasn’t long before he found the plastic glass, still contained in the folds of a dish towel. He unwrapped it one small piece at a time, as if he were pulling away a mummy’s bandages.
“Toby,” Chloe piped up. “What are you—”
She stopped mid-sentence when she saw the glass. The green substance had been little more than a speck when Toby first spotted it, but since then, it had spread. A little slimy blob wavered back and forth inside the plastic, growing before their eyes. Toby yelped at the sight of it, but kept the glass in his hand and pulled a lighter from his pocket. Thinking fast, he torched the crack that had allowed the green ooze to slip inside the pane, melting it shut. As the plastic burned and blistered, the slime shrunk away from the heat and stopped moving. With a shaking hand, Toby placed it down onto the coffee table.
“Jimmy drank from that,” he declared. “Water, a big old gulp of it. His veins went just that shade of green, I knew there was something not right about it.”
Chloe gripped the arm of the couch, her mouth hanging open. She looked pale and sick as she stared at the plastic glass, shaking her head without saying a word.
“This is it, I guarantee you.” Toby jumped to his feet. “This is the stuff I saw at Linear Park. Bet it’s the stuff in Hope Valley as well. Algae, my arse.”
“You don’t—you don’t think—” Chloe’s voice wavered. “You don’t think this has anything to do with those missing people, do you?”
Toby turned around to look at her. He didn’t say anything, but he could feel the expression on his own face, and he knew what it was telling her. Chloe cast her eyes to the floor, holding one hand over her mouth. Toby took a deep breath and picked up his bag.
“Whatever this is.” He straightened his back. “I’m going to figure it out.”
“Babe.” Chloe jumped up beside him. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yeah. I am.” Toby nodded. “Someone’s gotta do it. Better me than someone who doesn’t give a shit.”
Chloe gripped Toby’s shoulders, looking him square in the eye. After a moment of contemplation, she sighed, kissed him, and turned her attention back to the green substance in the plastic glass. “OK,” she conceded. “I’m going to take a closer look at this. Please be safe. And please, keep your phone turned on.”
Toby nodded again, tightened the straps on his bag, and walked out the door.
***
Toby measured his pace in careful steps as he walked along the Torrens. Moving too fast held the risk of missing something crucial, but he also didn’t want to take too long. He checked his phone to make sure it still had plenty of charge, and noted the time in the process.
“Hmm,” he vocalised. The sound echoed through the trees and over the river, breaking the overwhelming quiet. Hearing the way a single syllable bounced back to his own ears, Toby realised what was making him so uncomfortable. The trail wasn’t just quiet, it was completely silent. There was neither human nor animal to be heard, no birdsong, no buzzing insects, not even a scratching scurry of the critters that hid in the bushes.
For some reason, this observation was more terrifying than any other that Toby had made so far. He picked up his pace and ran, puffing and panting until he arrived at Lower North-East Road.
“Come on,” he urged himself. “Figure it out. Do something.”
His mind continued to spin as he walked up the hill to the Hope Valley Reservoir fence. This was the spot where he usually paused to appreciate the view, but tonight, it was blocked by a tall, plastic barrier.
“Hope Valley Reservoir Reserve is closed until further notice due to algae outbreak,” Toby read aloud. “We apologise for any inconvenience.”
He took a step back to assess the barrier. It was tall enough to block the view, but didn’t look like it would be too hard to scale. “Come on, come on,” Toby muttered to himself. “Now or never. Do it.”
Fixing his sight on the top of the barrier, he took a running leap and pulled himself over the top.
He had seen the drop behind the fence enough times to be ready for it. Still, his landing was far from elegant, and sent him rolling into scratchy bark and twigs. When he looked up, he forgot all about his bruises. The entire reservoir was bubbling green, oozing up onto the banks. On the other side, the dam wall was cracking under slime that looked heavy enough to hammer away at it with every gust of wind.
“Right. Okay,” Toby muttered under his breath. “That’s not ideal.” Creeping around the reservoir’s edge, he stayed as close to the fence as he could. He kept his eyes on the slime, looking away only to watch where he was putting his feet. It didn’t take him long to observe that the pulsating green ooze was moving without any visible force being applied to it. The wind blew one way, and the slime pushed back against it, green tendrils slapping like whips onto nearby trees.
Toby jumped backwards when a stray splash of green was flung in his direction. It threw him off balance, and he stumbled into a pile of branches that snapped under his feet. In an instant, the entire reservoir went still.
Toby’s mind raced as he stared at the thick, green substance that had suddenly frozen in place. The slime was positioned in awkward shapes, heaped into piles and towers that couldn’t have occurred by any natural process. Before Toby could even begin to figure out what was going on, every single shape lurched in his direction. This was followed by a second lurch, and then a third, until it became obvious that the entire reservoir was aware of his presence. Without stopping to think, Toby turned on his heel and ran.
Hope Valley Reservoir Reserve had been surrounded on all sides by the same plastic barriers, blocking every fence and gate. Reminding himself that he had already cleared the barrier once, Toby picked a spot and powered towards it.
Behind him, the slime squelched along the path and crunched branches in its wake. When he was close enough, he held his breath and jumped, managing to grip the plastic with aching fingers.
“Come on, you bastard,” he hissed at himself. Red-faced and covered in dirt, he pulled himself all the way up and tumbled into a heap on the other side. He rolled over, fighting to catch his breath, and saw a green waterfall cascade over the barrier. Not wasting a second, Toby picked himself up and sprinted towards the road.
“Toby!”
The voice hit him like a hammer as he recognised it.
“Chloe?!” he gasped. “What the hell are you doing here?! It’s dangerous!”
“No shit!” she snapped. “That’s why I came!” She tugged on his arm, shoving him aside as a piece of the reservoir fence clattered to the ground where he’d been standing.
As he caught his breath, Toby realised that Chloe was setting up a hose with the biggest nozzle he’d ever seen. “Chloe!” He watched her run to attach the hose to something in the back of the ute. “Chloe, what the hell?!”
“I watched the green stuff in that cup,” she yelled as she adjusted the nozzle. “It was right inside the plastic, but it died after it was sealed up. Kept growing until it filled the space and suffocated itself.”
Toby stepped back, still clueless as to what Chloe was doing.
“If we can trap it in a secure enough space, it’ll do the same, no matter how much of it there is.” Chloe shouted. “We just have to make sure it’s contained, with no way to seep out.”
“And how do we do that?!” Toby yelled back.
“This is that spray-on rubber. The one we were using for waterproofing at work,” she explained, still adjusting the nozzle. “I don’t know if it’s going to work, but it might.”
Toby heard a click as Chloe made her final adjustment. With the aid of a sharp push from his girlfriend, he stumbled out of the way to let her lunge forward. A massive blast of black liquid exploded into the air, colliding with the slime as it flew up towards it. When the rubber started sticking, the slime pummelled harder against it. In a giant wave, the entirety of the green ooze lurched away from the reservoir to climb over the barrier. Piece by piece, it pulled itself together to defend against Chloe’s attack.
“It’s trying to fight.” Toby could only stare. “It knows what it’s doing.”
“And it’s shooting itself in the foot!” Chloe hollered. “Look!”
Doing his best to stay out of Chloe’s way, Toby watched as the entirety of the slime oozed into one singular entity.
“It thinks that’s gonna make it stronger.” Toby’s eyes bulged at the sight of it.
“And it’s making this easier for me,” Chloe cackled. “It can think, but it’s not that smart!”
“I know the type!” Toby cheered back.
With all the green ooze pouring into one spot, Chloe was able to coat its surface in liquid rubber. The black spray stuck to the slime in a way it couldn’t seem to escape. The rubber blistered on contact, which only made the slime fight back harder. It swung back and forth in desperate motions, allowing Chloe to hit it from every angle. Gradually, it shrunk and slowed until it fell to the ground, trapped in a heap by the rubber.
Jerking the hose along behind her, Chloe ran forward. She sprayed every inch of green, making sure that there was no gap that could allow the slime to escape. Even after the massive, gurgling pile had stopped moving, she sprayed until her tank was empty.
Encased in rubber, the slime pulsated, a crackling, electric fizz jolting against its prison. Its fight ended with a horrible bubbling wail, before it all fell silent. Chloe dropped the hose and fell to her knees, laughing like a maniac. Toby ran over and threw his arms around her, laughing along with her.
“Good job, babe.” He thumped her on the back. “Absolutely nailed it.”
“Yeah, thanks,” she cackled. “Someone had to do it, right?”
He pulled her close and kissed her, taking time to enjoy the moment before they both climbed to their feet. Together, they stared at the silent, black lump on the ground in front of them. It remained motionless, but Toby and Chloe stood there until sirens began to sound in the distance.
“Sounds like our cue to head out.” Toby looked over his shoulder towards the ute. “Hey, how much of that rubber stuff did you have? I’m amazed it all fit in the tray.”
“Yeah.” Chloe laughed again. “Some, uh, adjustments were required. We might be catching the bus for a while.”
As fire engines careened towards the reservoir gates, Toby and Chloe walked back down the hill to Paradise.
About the Author:
Sarah Jane Justice is a speculative fiction author living on Gaurna Land. Her short stories have been published by Eerie River Publishing, Black Beacon Books, and Dark Dossier Magazine, as well as being brought to life in episodes of Hawk & Cleaver’s horror podcast ‘The Other Stories’. She is also a highly acclaimed spoken word artist, musician, and poet.
A stone throw from the haunted Rundle Mall is the South Australian Museum, home to more bodies than the average cemetery.
