1.12: gremlins Do
Gremlins were known to be filthy and pesky creatures, which would infest great production centers like the Batch Productopia. The production cities had to be careful to manage their gremlin populations. They were nearly impossible to totally eradicate from a factory city, but their nests could be found and destroyed before cities became overrun.
Gremlins were attracted to goods of any value, and were known to build nests in the low-populated, and obsolete areas, where they would not be easily detected. They would then fortify their nests, with crude and often deadly booby traps and barriers.
Led by Billie, the children trekked through the massive and ancient raw material racks, which towered above then like an ancient ruins. Everything was still and dirty. They marveled at how ancient Batch Productopians once had to stored massive amounts of raw materials in these giant racks and they imagined the process of transporting the material to the factory floors. Of course this was well before evaluations in distribution and ordering.
The air was still, and the smell of rust permeated their path. They jumped at every perceived movement, and at every corner.
Then, in the middle of the dirty floor, they saw a gnome laying face down. The gnome seemed unconsciousness or worse.
Impulsively, Mag ran to the injured gnome, but hesitated at the last moment, looking at Billie for instructions. Billie stuttered to give direction. Leading was easier for him when his superiors were watching.
Mag wasn’t sure what to do, and he looked desperately at his comrades, “Someone else do something.” was all he was able to mutter.
His buddy, Sammoth, ran up and also stared down at the figure.
“Yeah, someone else do something,” Sammoth added worthlessly.
Billie rolled his eyes. Management was such a burden. He found himself in the unusual position of being unable to decide upon an immediate and brilliant action. Instead, he looked to Groawn to make a decision.
Groawn sighed at the realization that Billie was no leader. This always seemed to happen to him. Inept leaders always looked to him for guidance. While he found it frustrating, Groawn remembered the Principles of Efficiency stated that, “When given the chance to lead, the true manager never backs away from their responsibilities, even in the absence of increased compensation.”
Groawn marched forward and lightly kicked the figure, to see if it was alive. He instantly regretted this decision.
The moment his foot touched the gnome, he quickly realized it was a dummy made of rags and small stones. The dummy was meant to appear to be an injured gnome, but it was just the bait of a gremlin trap! The movement of the dummy tugged a string, which caused a mousetrap to spring. The mousetrap flung a small weight off a nearby platform, which ignited a rapid series of movements in a nearby rack, up the rack, to one side, then the other, one thing after another. The children tried to follow the movement, which seemed to come from all around them. Then, following a bowling ball rolling into a wedge, a huge pile of old rusted raw material avalanched from above them.
Sammoth and Mag screamed, as huge and heavy scraps of metal fell all around them.