NOVEL WEB Loop 6
Luring the bears into a fight with the bugs proved easy enough when it was planned for instead of randomly sprung upon Cal. They were also able to get the ore from the water using nets instead of anyone diving in. When Cal returned home this time, he did it with his father still alive. Cal and Bug left for Dallas shortly after Stan met Jen, promising to be back as often as possible.
“So after I agreed to help in the last loop, we were attacked by the aliens who, for whatever reason, arrived years earlier this time?”
Cal had decided it was best to let Andy know as soon as possible how the last loop ended. “Yeah, this time, I’ve kept it in a lead-lined container since I acquired it. You were pretty adamant that it needed to be there immediately last time, so I’m hoping things go differently this time around.”
“Hmm, let me adjust my list of what we need. I understand we used the garage last time, but I think it’s best if we can move this somewhere else. I’m thinking we should buy a warehouse and set up a shielded lab inside of it. We can then set up as many different devices to measure anything leaving the shielded lab.” Cal was jotting down notes as he spoke. His face was a mix of focus and curiosity.
“Let’s call it a night. Meet me over here tomorrow around noon, and we can start warehouse shopping,” Cal yawned. It had been a long night of explanations and reviewing what he could remember from the data they collected in the last loop. This had led him to decide he needed to start working on his memory this time around as well. It was important he could pass Andy accurate information as many times as he needed to.
At first, Andy had been checking the readouts from sensors outside the lab daily. He had found nothing day after day and slowly decreased his interval until he was now only checking it weekly. Cal sat down at the desk next to Andy’s as he did his current weekly reading. They were back at the day when their garage had been besieged the last loop.
“Anything new?” Cal took a bite out of his doughnut after he asked.
“Still nothing. Either this means we’ve blocked it, or we can’t detect what we need to block.”
One of the security alarms started beeping. Cal pulled up the camera feeds. “Well, it looks like it's happening again, so I guess we can’t detect it. So for, next time, do you want to join us on the trip to retrieve the stone? Maybe you can figure out whatever magic it is that keeps it safe in the mine.”
Andy sighed loudly. “Yeah, probably for the best, and it’s not magic. We just don’t know the science yet. So what do you want to do about them?”
Cal walked over to a wooden case mounted to the wall, fished a key out of his pocket, and opened it up. “Do you want the shotgun or the pistol?”
“Dammit, I don’t like guns.”
“Well, next time, I’ll get you a sword.”
At first, the guns seemed effective, but once their implements started glowing, Cal could no longer shoot through whatever barrier they created. They managed to hold out another few minutes when a stray blast hit one of the gas tanks. The loop ended with the warehouse vanishing into a fiery maelstrom.