Who: Moses Biehn, Neil Bernhart, Mary Fitz What: Moses does his security rounds at the museum. When: Late afternoon Where: The Museum of Natural History Rating: PG Status: Incomplete
It had been days since one of those beasties tried to get into the museum.
It always worried Moses when days went by without at least one of them banging on the front entrance. And when weeks went by? Then he was definitely a nervous wreck. It made his mind craft wild imaginings about what they were doing out there. Waiting for him, no doubt. Gathering their forces and planning an attack. Maybe they were getting more methodical. Learning to adapt. Maybe they would strike in droves. Moses was prepared for many eventualities, but he most certainly was not prepared for an attack from all angles. Beasties flying in through windows and doors. It made him wonder about what he would grab first. There were so many priceless artifacts in the museum. It was almost a shame to have to label them by value. The jewel exhibit would have been the most valuable exhibit on the market a few years ago. But now? Now they served little purpose than to be shiny and pretty. He had a certain special love for the Asian collection. But it really wasn't fair for him to put his own personal favorite exhibits before the others. They were all worthy of protection, after all. Which is why it was best to just keep the beasties out. Because Moses wouldn't know what to grab first and run with. Which was probably for the best anyway. Too much standing around thinking would probably get him killed.
It was the late afternoon and he was making his second bout of rounds. He tried to do the rounds at least three times during the day and once at night. One could never be too careful, after all. The world was a dangerous place. Who knew what sort of wild Americans were wandering about just waiting for him to close his eyes so they could rummage through the museum. One minute he could be resting peacefully, and the next someone could be snapping off the buttons of Napoleon's dinner jacket. Or swiping the Magna Carta for a napkin. Or goodness knows what else! This was a country of heathens, after all. Heathens and beasties and Moses, all alone to battle against them.
Okay, so he might have been losing it a little bit. Or maybe he'd already lost it. Paranoid? Sure. But who wasn't? Moses followed the old truth that it was better to be safe than sorry. And he'd be damned if he was going to let anyone destroy the last remaining collection of historical civilization in the western hemisphere! Well, to be honest, the other museums might have been in perfect working order and shape, but Moses assumed they weren't. He didn't get out much. In fact, he didn't really get out at all. He was verging on becoming the obsessive compulsive hermit.
But the museum was still in one piece. (Aside from a few beastie blood stains on the doors.) And that's all that mattered.
Moses wandered through the Egyptian exhibit with a flashlight in hand. He hadn't had real power since a week after the outbreak, but the basement restoration room and janitorial closets had enough batteries to last him years. Which was very fortunate for Moses, who was afraid to light a candle in the exhibit rooms and inadvertently set something on fire. He was very cautious and professional about his rounds. Over his shoulders he wore a Civil War era Yankee soldier's jacket and around his waste hung a katana from one of the Samurai exhibits. Not to worry, though. The jacket was a replica. A fake placed on one of the mannequins while the original underwent restoration. The museum had such replicas for just about every exhibit in the building. Another fortunate thing for Moses, who had started to create quite a smell about him in the first weeks by wearing the same thing every day.
"All clear in here, Mr. Pharaoh. Let me know if you need anything. Moving on."
Ah, yes. Talking to the exhibits. One of the more unfortunate aspects of keeping away from the rest of humanity. Infected or otherwise.