The kid opened his mouth, but licked his lips instead of speaking. Apothecary tilted his face forward insistently. Finally, the boy responded: “Squirrel. Monster squirrel.”

Apothecary leaned back into his seat. A squirrel. That probably meant either a demonic possession – unlikely for small animals, but not unheard of – or the result of some experimentation by one of the major powers. Disney, by the look of it – they specialized in modifying innocent looking animals. “Alright. Just one?”

“I… I don’t know. It was in the house with dad, and he shouted for me to run away, run away, but I didn’t know where to go, so I got in here and I saw Dad fall down inside…”

Water began to leak from his eyes. It wasn’t deuterium enriched, so Apothecary didn’t care. “Okay, kid. Stay here.”

“No!” the child plead, now grabbing Apothecary’s arm. “You broke the window… it can get in.”

Apothecary opened his door, pulling himself from the boy’s grasp. “Go hide in another car then. I’ve got a rodent to hunt.”

He crunched back down onto the gravel road, checking the esometer at his belt. It registered a minor reading right behind him – the boy. Probably just residual, from proximity to the squirrel. Unless the boy wasn’t what he seemed… but the reading was far too weak to have disrupted the town this much, and the kid could have just attacked Apothecary in the car if he’d wanted to. No, what Apothecary was really concerned with was whether the device could detect something so small as a squirrel. It probably depended just how powerful the creature was.

Powerful enough to disable vehicles and communications equipment. Apothecary was sure the phones weren’t even worth the effort of checking – besides, he had a signaler if he got into real trouble. Which reminded him…

He switched on his ‘corder, and glanced at his watch. “17:37. Most of town, Hendrickson included, has evacuated or been killed, allegedly by a squirrel of unknown capacities. Information taken from a boy, roughly eight to eleven, found hiding in a truck.” Apothecary tried to ignore the second set of crunching footsteps behind him. “All the vehicles here are disabled. Communications, too. Inhabitants of town may have sought refuge in abandoned mine – checking to see if Hendrickson is there now. Down one vial.”

A spray of pebbles announced a stumble behind him as he finished his recorded report. He paused, then quickened his pace. Why was the kid following him? There were plenty of cars around he could hide out in, and people in a town this small didn’t bother locking them.

“Go find somewhere else to hide, kid.”

Apothecary continued walking, hearing no response from the boy as he continued to follow.

Apothecary stopped. “What?”

The kid stopped too, maintaining a good ten feet between them, Apothecary estimated. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

After being locked in a car that long? Apothecary was surprised he hadn’t just soiled the seat. “You can see the trees as well as I can.” The kid stopped, and began to irrigate as Apothecary continued walking away.

How would he fight an evil squirrel? If it was possessed, he’d just have to get lucky – his water was heavy, not holy. Possessions were usually Paladin’s job. If it was just engineered, that’d be an easier job; though he had no knowing what the squirrel could do, at least he knew it wasn’t—

The kid stumbled quickly behind him again, slowing to the same distance he had had behind Apothecary before. Apothecary stopped, stomping onto the high end of a tire track. “Now what?”

“I… I’m hungry.”

The agent rolled his eyes. “What do you expect me to do about it?” He started walking again. “Go away, kid.”

He didn’t. Without stopping, he called back as he passed a pine tree that had to be at least fifty years old. “Follow me past this tree, kid, I’m gonna use you as bait for the squirrel.”

The shuffling behind him stopped, and Apothecary smirked as he continued toward the mine. A few hasty footsteps took the kid away, probably into one of the houses to feed himself.

Apothecary continued to march down the empty street. If the squirrel was this hostile, it was probably near the mine entrance – but that kid had made him make a good amount of noise. The creature could be on its way back right now—

A flash of movement caught his attention as he passed the space between two buildings. He’d only seen it out of the corner of his eye, but it was far too large to be a squirrel. And far too yellow. Apothecary growled, and advanced to the other side of the house. There, as he expected, the boy was waiting for him, panting.

“I warned you, kid. Squirrel-chow.”

“You said I couldn’t follow you past the tree,” he protested quietly. “I went around it.”

Apothecary glared at the kid for a moment, and continued along the road. If the boy wanted to get himself killed following him, it didn’t bother him any. At least, so long as he didn’t get them both killed.

“Just keep quiet, kid. I’m here to hunt, not babysit.” They couldn’t pay him enough for that, and besides, the mission parameters said nothing about safeguarding the civilians in the town. They weren’t of any use to Underground. Unless…

“Hey, I left two jugs of water by the Lowry’s,” he called back, turning his head partway without actually looking back. “Make yourself useful and go get one of them for me.” Apothecary nodded as the boy scampered off.

Apothecary resumed strategizing. The mine was at the end of an old rail track that ran along the west side of the town. The approach was going to be dangerous – in the satellite photos they’d shown him, the path was barely distinguishable. Lots of cover – which normally would have been a good thing when sneaking up on an enemy. But this time, the enemy was certainly going to be better able to utilize the terrain against him.

Most of Apothecary’s normal water tricks would be of little use this time, too. It would be hard to hit something so small at a great distance with any projectiles, and that wasted a full vial. Knives could be dangerous, though – it wouldn’t be hard for a squirrel to outmaneuver his attacks and…

And what? What would a squirrel do? This obviously wasn’t a normal squirrel, but he didn’t know what was abnormal about it, other than intelligence above normal rodents or politicians. But that wasn’t enough to terrorize an entire town. What else was there? Did it breathe fire? Was it telekinetic? Could it leap tall buildings in a single bound? What?!

The kid shambled up behind him again, kicking rocks everywhere as his feet didn’t get fully off the ground each step. Apothecary glanced back, chuckling as the kid struggled with both jugs. “Kid, I only told you to bring one! Put them down, next to the Thompson’s here.” He paused as the kid complied. Then, he turned, walking up to him. “What’s your name, kid?”

The kid snuffed. “Fritz.”

“Alright then, Fritz.” He kneeled next to the boy, looking into his dirty hazel eyes. “This may look like water, but it’s very important. I want you to get in this car here, and keep these jugs safe for me, while I go check the mine. Okay?”

Fritz thought a moment, then nodded. “Are they dangerous?”

Apothecary smiled, shaking his head. “Not really, just… special. Don’t waste any.” The kid looked sullen. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m thirsty.”

Apothecary laughed. The kid hadn’t had anything else to drink for a day, and while D2O wouldn’t hurt him any, a body couldn’t subsist on heavy water alone. Didn’t react as well as the body needed it to. “It’s not very good for you if you haven’t drank normal water. Go inside, there, get some water and food, and take it all into the car with you. Okay?”

The boy nodded. “Okey.” Apothecary rose, but didn’t get far before Fritz asked “What’s your, what’s your name, mister?”

Without looking back, he responded: “Apothecary.”

“Can all carries do that with water, mister Apo?”

“All… what? Mister…” he started laughing. “No kid, I’m not Apo, the Carry. It’s all one word. Apothecary.”

“Apothecary,” Fritz repeated. “That’s a funny name.”

Apothecary smirked. “Yes, it is. Keep quiet now, kid.”

The agent walked away, trusting the boy to take care of himself well enough. As he continued on toward the mine, he fumbled through his backpack. He had pulled out a few steam grenades by the time he reached the edge of the town. He dropped one into the space between the two railway tracks, then followed the path toward the old mineshaft while attaching two more to his belt. He clutched a grenade in his right hand and a phial in his left as the mine shaft came into view.

A half dozen of the villagers, shotguns ready, were venturing cautiously from the mine. Hendrickson wasn’t one of them, but there were probably many more people inside the shaft. Apothecary could go in and find Hendrickson, then rally the men into a sort of anti-squirrel militia. Only…

If they felt safe enough to come this far out, the squirrel must have left a while ago.

Apothecary turned, and bolted back toward the town.