Chapter 211 - Educated
Henry said, “Maybe we should call the police. Oh, I forgot there’s no signal. What a great place for a birthday celebration.”
Everybody was rendered speechless.
Henry added, “It seems that they crashed in here from outside.”
They looked back out the broken window and noticed some metal buckets not far away.
They went to check the buckets, leaving Henry, who had a bad ankle sprain, to rest on a chair.
When everybody left, he looked at the dead man and asked, “Do you know this place? How does the meat here taste?”
The rest of them discovered bone and food residue in a bucket that was facing the broken window. The smell from the bucket was identical to the raccoon-man inside. There was a warning on the bucket that said “ethylene.”
Nick glanced around and noticed a matchbox on the ground. “Matches! It seems that somebody had wild fun here.”
They were all picturing the same thing: A man grinning at a raccoon, which was eating out of the bucket, lighting a match, and throwing it
in.
Suddenly, Luke’s face changed. He told everyone to stay quiet before he returned to the restaurant.
Inside, Henry was still talking to the body, and didn’t shut up until Luke came in.
Standing in the hallway behind Henry, Luke gestured at him to keep quiet.
Very soon, a man emerged from inside with a gun, and looked at Henry in surprise.
The next moment, Luke seized the shotgun the man was holding with just one hand, and pressed him to the wall with the other.
Luke, who was ten times stronger than a regular man, could easily subdue an ordinary person single-handedly.
“Who are you?” asked Luke.
The man retorted, “Who are you? Why did you break in?”
Nick asked, “Are you the boss of this restaurant?”
The man replied, “…No, I’m just a worker here.”
Nick asked, “What’s your name?”
The man said, “Slick.”
Nick asked again, “Where were you and what were you doing just now?”
Slick said, “I was looking for something in the underground storeroom.”
Luke and Nick noticed a bag that the man was carrying. It contained a few bottles of hard liquor.
Luke and Nick looked at each other, and Luke let go of Slick.
The man was no longer a threat now that he had lost his gun.
Noticing the body, Slick exclaimed in shock, “Gomez, what happened to you? Did you kill Gomez?”
“Sir, we can explain his death. We’ve found traces of food, ethylene and matches in a metal bucket outside. Clearly, Mr. Gomez set up a trap, hoping to set that raccoon on fire by lighting the ethylene,” Greg explained.
Seeing that Slick was listening attentively, Greg went on, “But the match didn’t ignite the ethylene at the bottom of the bucket. So, he shot at the raccoon. Then, he and the raccoon were both blown up.”
After a brief silence, Slick said gloomily, “That should be it. Gomez always had it out for the raccoons. Those damn rodents are thieves that steal your food and mess up your place all the time.”
Hodges raised his hand. “Sorry to interrupt, but raccoons actually aren’t rodents. They’re Chordata, Mammalia, Carnivora, Procyonidae, Procyon. Mice, on the other hand, are rodents.”
Everybody was lost for words.
Slick stared at Hodges silently for a moment, then suddenly gave him a thumbs-up. “You are truly an educated man!”
Everybody finally relaxed and began to ask Slick where they could find a phone or a car.
But as it turned out, since the restaurant had shut down, the phone line had already been disconnected.
Slick told them that there was a radio in the utility room downstairs.
So, Nick and Greg followed Slick to check the radio, and Luke and everybody else took a break in the restaurant.
Luke looked at the wood ash in the grill for a long time before he shifted his gaze, a weird expression on his face.
In the utility room, Nick found the radio. After he turned it on, it said, “Are you Earthlings? This is Zenith. We’ve found you. Now, tremble in fright…”
Crack!
The radio popped with sparks as it died and gave off smoke.
Nick asked, “…Are there any other radios in this place?”
Slick said, “I don’t think so. You can only try fixing this one.”
Nick said, “I’ll have to find vacuum tubes first. Do you have any?”
Slick tried to recall for a moment, before he replied, “We only have vacuum cleaners. Will that do?”
Both Nick and Greg were lost for words.
Why don’t you just say that you also have vacuum dust bags?
Greg said angrily, “I’ll build a phone on my own if we can’t find any.”
On the other hand, Luke was getting some rest, when he heard the sound of an engine outside. Everybody was delighted.
However, something exploded in the next second, followed by the sound of metal objects scattering
Everybody exchanged looks and opened the door, only to see that a red convertible had crashed into the metal buckets, and smoke was rising from the engine hood.
A middle-aged woman in a thick gray coat opened the door and staggered out.
Hodges said, “…Well, I don’t think we can use that car. But why does it look so familiar?”
Luke smiled but didn’t say anything.
Selina said, “If I recall correctly, that’s the car that swung into our lane and nearly crashed into us.”
They had finally found the culprit responsible for their car accident.
The middle-aged woman was half-drunk and didn’t notice the strangers until she reached the door of the restaurant. “Who… who are you? Why… why are you in my restaurant?”
She reeked of alcohol, and burped nonstop.
Selina asked, “Are you Henry?”.
The middle-aged woman said mockingly, “Ha, I’m not Henry. I’m his wife. To be exact, I’m his abandoned ex-wife.”
Everybody subconsciously looked at the other Henry, the birthday boy who was sitting inside the restaurant.
Nick and Greg were looking for tools in the utility room.
Greg asked, “Slick, aren’t there any phones here?”
Slick said, “There’s one, but it’s already busted; even if it wasn’t, we haven’t paid any bills for a long time. Oh, I think there might be a backup phone on the wall over there.”
Greg went to look for the phone while Nick continued looking for tools.
Suddenly, Nick saw what looked like someone standing behind a door.