After being given some minor instruction from Yurika about how to reload their guns, Yurika wisely also instructed them on how to hold the gun when shooting.
"That dumb gangster crap where they hold the gun to the side doesn't work, and don't even think about those idiotic poses you see in action movies where the dude is like diving while shooting at the same time. I will castrate the first person I see trying that bullsh*t from the movie Wanted with curving bullets around corners." Barked Yurika while pointing the M16E assault rifle at the others.
Gray, Geoff, Caleb, and Stacia both nodded their heads sharply while standing in a row in front of Yurika as she pointed the M16E assault rifle at them.
Finally Gray and the others made their way to the farm house and knocked on the front door. Usually in games you just walk in to places as if you owned them, even searching a looting anything you find or smashing pots in hopes that money appears, but Gray felt that taking a more 'normal' approach would be better suited in this case.
A tall middle-aged man wearing overalls answered the door and said "Can I help you?"
"We're here to exterminate the rat nest." Said Gray
"Well, what're you doing here then?" said the farmer.
This actually surprised Gray because most of the time when you ask an NPC about a quest related to them they will give you some helpful information or tell you how to proceed. "Uhmm, we'd like to put ourselves between the nest and your farm since it is the closest one to the nest. This way if they start to run they won't come towards your farm." Gray stated.
"Wow, that's actually very considerate of you, follow the path north then take a right before the first corn field, press the buzzer twice and we'll deactivate the electric fence and open the gate around the perimeter at that location."
This seemed like a much more normal response for a NPC so Gray thanked him and waved for everyone to follow him down the path.
As they left, the farmer that answered the door said to another one "Considerate is good 'n all, but Matilda doesn't run…"
__________
After about 2 minutes of walking, Gray and the others finally reached the gate at the edge of the property. The fence was about 2 meters tall and made up of prefabricated steel barricades with electrified netting along the top and draped down the outside of the fence. The barricades looked to be buried in the ground giving this farm a much stronger barrier than what common sense would dictate it needed.
"That's a hell of fence for a farm" commented Gray.
"Probably to keep thieves out more than anything. Looks military grade so I suspect this farm supplies the military since clearing a rat nest would normally not be a military mission in my opinion" said Geoff
Gray looked around and saw what appeared to be an intercom of sorts next to a black button. Gray pushed the black button and what was presumably one of the farmer's answered "Who there?"
Gray turned to the others and got an impish smile on his face while saying "Cow says."
Farmer replied "Cow says who?"
Gray quickly said "A cow says mooo! You guys are farmers you should know this!"
The 4 others were stunned for a moment before Geoff finally burst out laughing causing everyone else to start laughing too at the sheer stupidity of that joke. Finally the farmer came back on and said "You can go on through… say Hi to Matilda for us."
A loud buzzing noise followed by a click indicated the gate was unlocked and Gray pulled the door open, a dense forest of those same mutated looking corn plants could be seen after about 100 meters of dry land. The map marker said they were still about half of a mile from the nest with the nest being directly east of their current location. They walked as best they could in a row towards the nest and when they got about 300 feet from the marker on the map they could make out some faint rustling noises. The giant corn plants hampered their vision as several of the stalks were what looked to be chewed through to cut them down and let something get at the giant corn cobs.
"Fan out slowly, turn on your comms so we can maintain communications, Yurika ignite your flamethrower and prepare to sweep up any rats that converge into a group."
"Roger dodger!" said Yurika excitedly as she lit the ignition on her flamethrower.
Gray and Stacia took the left flank, Geoff and Caleb took the right flank while Yurika brought up the middle. Gray and Geoff fanned out a little further to form a semi-circle around the location of the nest. Gray whispered "Hold." When he started to hear something from the suspected nest area.
The grunt of a bear could be heard and along with some chittering followed by what sounded kind of like a dog barking. Peering through the trees, Gray was able to see what appeared to be an extremely large haystack made out of the corn stalks and skin of the corn.
"Geoff, keep quiet and creep closer when I do and let's see what's going on, if that's a bear we might only need to destroy the remains of the nest making this mission much easier." Said Gray in a hushed tone.
"Understood" replied Geoff.
From opposite sides of each other, Yurika could see both Gray and Geoff slowly creep towards the source of the sounds. Geoff looked around one tree and finally got a good look at the area around the nest. Gray finally got close enough that he could also get a good look.
Gray was able to pick out several animals that appeared to be about the size of a wolf and a larger brown furry animal. "Looks like the mama bear brought her cubs to eat" said Gray softly.
Geoff was about to agree when he added "Why isn't the mama bear moving? Why is that huge brown pile of hair next to the pair shaking?"
Looking closely at the pile of hair Gray had to ask Geoff through the communicator "Kinda looks like a Volkswagen Beetle, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, but the original one, not that redesign garbage they did a few decades later." Replied Geoff
"It actually looks like a fuzzy Volkswagen Beetle, a brown fuzzy one, did it just move?!?" exclaimed Gray.
Gray had flashbacks to one of his favorite movies of all time where a certain character had said 'That's no moon, that's a space station'. The huge brown pile of hair was about twice as tall as the bear was when it was standing, but this pile of hair had a long tail, 4 legs, and giant rat head that were only visible once the rat turned slightly to reveal a side view of it.
Gray and Geoff both gasped when they realized what they were looking at; the bear didn't eat the rats, the rats ate the bear, the bear cubs were actually smaller rats that the big momma was taking care of.
"B-back away slowly, do not let it see us!" Gray said quietly to Geoff.
Both Gray and Geoff backed away slowly while beads of cold sweat started to form on their backs looking at the rat the size mid-size car. Gray and Geoff backed off enough to be out of line of sight of the rats and let out a slight sigh of relief.
"See? I told you they're always giant rats!" said Gray to Geoff. The rest of the team asked what they were talking about and Gray sent them a snapshot of what he had seen.
"Awww, looks like the mama bear wants to feed her cubs and is sleeping next to that brown fuzzy looking dome next to it." Said Stacia
"That… the bear is dead, those bear cubs are actually rat pups, and that brown fuzzy dome is the mama rat." Said Gray.
Everyone's eyes turned huge when they were told what they were actually looking at. A swarm of rats taking out a bear would've been believable, but mama rat took on a bear solo and won.
"Wait, rats form a family, if the big one is the mother and the small ones the babies… where is Daddy?" asked Geoff.
Gray instinctively almost blurted out "I'm your Daddy!" out of pure reflex but managed to hold it back after considering the fact that the males were usually larger than the females.
"Damn, this… this is way more than what we thought it would be. Caleb, what're your thoughts?" asked Gray.
"I believe the mission is actually easier to accomplish now compared to before." Replied Caleb.
"There is one, possibly two, fuzzy Volkswagens at that nest, how is that easier?" said Geoff surprised.
"Given the food supply, with the rats being so large we probably only have this one family to worry about. Also, guns will be significantly more effective due to the rats actually being large now to hit. The main worrisome part is if they retain their agility even in this giant state. Also, no matter the size, beasts are still intimidated by fire usually so our original plan just became a lot easier as we can use the fire to box them in and then shoot them with our guns instead of using the guns to just scare them closer together and hoping to get all of them with a few blasts from the flamethrower."
Gray closed his eyes and folded his arms in thought for a minute "Ok, I agree with you Caleb, if anyone wants out I won't hold it against them, but if you stay, you stay, don't go running away halfway through."
Gray looked at everyone else and to his surprise everyone wanted to stay.
"Good to hear, now, Caleb, time to prove your value as an encyclopedia again because I have an idea."