SHORT FAT STUBBY FINGER STORIES PRESENTS:  THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

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EPISODE 91

The chief inspector pressed a button on the intercom on his desk, and called the other policemen into his office where, much to the surprise of the Sergeant and Constable Hobson, they both found rubies in their coat pockets, and when they finally fully awoke, Constable Jervis, whom they had half dragged up the stairs, surprised them all when he too found a ruby in his clothing, though nobody could understand how he had received it, because he never seemed to come in contact with any of the villains.  Nobody, that is, but Joseph who surprised them all with his explanation.

  “Remember.”  He began, “I was out of sight.  Nobody had known I was in the room standing behind the poster over there where I had a perfect view of the proceedings.” Joseph pointed to a six-foot high, four-foot wide, poster advertising the forthcoming historical event celebrating the village’s past that stood upright in the far-leftt hand corner of the entrance to the room, “I was lucky that the poster is tacked on to a wooden cross with a stabilising footing, rather than simply taped to the wall.  I could see everything from there, but nobody could see me.  When Sharkie began to attract your attention, Chief Inspector; when he began to question you about Harvie’s involvement in bringing the three of them down here to the station, Professor Robinson took advantage of the distraction and walked behind you and placed the ruby in Ben’s jacket – he then went back to where he had been standing previously. It only took a couple of seconds and nobody noticed he had moved because all eyes were on Sharkie.  Right, the mystery of Ben’s mysterious ruby now settled, let’s move.” Joseph said as he scooped up all of the rubies, but before he could finish his sentence, the world around him changed dramatically.    

  Another tremendous crash of thunder rocked through the building; smoke began emitting from the wall behind where the chief inspector sat.  The lights in the entire building suddenly went out; visibility now arrived in the building only via the lightning flashes in the streets that surrounded the building.  An array of psychedelic influenced bursts of light flashed off and on with constant regularity through the open front door of the police station, through the glass dome at the top of the building, and through various windows spread around the three-story building … and, then, when things seemed at their absolute worst, Constable Hobson, a nervous man at the best of times very nearly had a heart attack when he first saw it.

  “The wall!  The wall!” he screamed loudly, almost beside himself in fear, “Look at the wall.”

  Everybody turned to look where his bulging eyes were pointing and, collectively, the other three policemen were mortified by what their eyes took in for the first time; their tongues were frozen, their screams unheard.  Harvey stood mesmerised by the events taking place before his eyes.  Constable Hobson did everything but actually faint or have a heart attack, but he did fall to his knees and pray silently for the strength to get through this day, and the young constable could feel the warmth in his uniform becoming warmer and wetter … and totally uncontrollable, but the fear of this thing he witnessed took his mind away from embarrassment,and into defence mode as a barrage of flashing lights fell upon the repulsive face that confronted him from inside the confines of the wall.  No body, no arms, torso or legs, just this this monstrous, hideous, threatening face which continued to grow larger, uglier, and more fearsome by the millisecond.  A living nightmare, heralded into their world by a thunderous fanfare, and an electric black and white light show delivered at machine gun speed that dominated not only the police station, but the entire village.

The Punjaniti had arrived ...