by Jeff Strand
He wasn't sure if it would be useful against a giant ant, but he was sure willing to find out.
He picked up the weed-whacker, held down the button to turn it on, and sped toward the edge of the house. Roberta was already there.
* * * *
Roberta squeezed the can tightly, squirting lighter fluid onto the back of the ant. After a few squirts, she called out to Zachary. "I need your lighter!"
"Are you crazy! I'm busy!" Zachary shouted back.
Roberta quickly stepped back out of the way as Dustin zoomed toward her on his motorcycle, holding a roaring weed trimmer out in front of him like a knight's lance.
* * * *
Dustin braced himself.
Then the extension cord caught on something, and the weed whacker popped right out of his hand.
He cursed and sped past the ant.
* * * *
The ant started to twist its body around, possibly sensing the commotion behind it. Zachary quickly dug into his pocket and took out his lighter, tossed it to Roberta, and then smacked the ant in the head yet again.
* * * *
Roberta caught the lighter, flicked it on, and thrust it against the ant.
Its back burst into flames.
The ant raised its head and began to thrash around. Roberta continued to squirt lighter fluid on the creature as it maneuvered itself around to face her. The entire top half of the ant was burning.
Dustin was speeding toward them again.
This time he was holding a shovel.
She stepped out of the way, and Dustin slammed down the shovel as he passed. The ant's burning head flew off, hit the ground, and rolled toward Roberta, mandibles snapping back and forth so quickly it looked like a movie playing in speeded-up motion.
Roberta screamed and kicked it.
* * * *
Zachary had let himself relax for a split second, and therefore wasn't expecting to see a burning ant head sailing through the air toward his face. He moved out of the way as it struck the wooden gate, bounced to the ground, and lay still.
The body of the ant collapsed.
He dropped what was left of the rake and tried to make an appropriate comment, but couldn't even start to think of one and just settled for catching his breath.
Dustin drove back up. "We've got another one coming!"
"Aw, give me a freakin' break!"
"This one's bigger," said Dustin. "And it almost looks like it's got a ... rider."
* * * *
"Oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God..."
Once again Jack felt himself slipping off the back of the ant, but did everything he could to maintain his grip. The damn ant was running as fast as a horse. He almost thought it might be wise to just let go and hope that the ant kept running, but if it decided to turn around and finish him off, he was dead.
He was most likely dead anyway, but no sense forcing the issue.
As the ant ran down the sidewalk, he could see some people a couple of blocks ahead. There was something burning next to their house, but he couldn't quite tell what it was from this distance.
"Help me!" he shouted. "For God's sake, help me!"
* * * *
Still holding the shovel, Dustin drove the motorcycle across the front yard and back onto the street. He could only assume that the person on the ant wasn't taking a voluntary thrill ride and needed assistance.
He knew that meeting the ant head-on wasn't going to work, at least if he wanted to avoid accidentally killing the rider. He sped down the street, passing the ant and its terrified passenger, a kid who looked to be in his early twenties, then turned the motorcycle around and came up behind the ant.
Once he was neck-and-neck with it, he lifted the shovel.
"Let go!" he shouted at the kid.
The kid released his grip and fell off the ant's back, landing hard on the pavement. Dustin swung the shovel down as hard as he could.
A perfect hit.
The ant, now missing its head, continued to run.
Dustin applied the brakes. He was normally a rather humble person, but he had to admit, two shovel-related ant decapitations in less than two minutes was pretty darn impressive.
The kid was still lying on the street as Dustin drove over to him. "You okay?"
"I'm not sure," the kid said with a groan. "Is my brain on the inside or the outside?"
Dustin propped up the motorcycle, got off, and helped the kid to his feet. "You should be fine."
"I'm sure I -- _ow_, careful, I've got a twisted knee."
"Yeah, you hit the ground pretty hard."
"No, that was from falling out of a window."
"Oh."
"Thanks for your help," the kid said. "Please tell me you got a picture of me riding that ant. If I have to go through shit like that, I should at least be able to profit from it."
Dustin grinned. "Sorry, but no."
"Well, that's the kind of day it's been."
Dustin got the kid on the back of the motorcycle and drove back to Roberta and Zachary, who were still standing by the burning ant body. "Okay, we _really_ need to get moving," he said.
"Wait, my friend, she's stuck at Lavin Inc.," said the kid. "We need to pick her up."
"We're really in a big-time hurry."
"But it's straight down the road, about eight or nine blocks. Not very far."
"Good. It's on the way. You two follow me in the truck," he said to Roberta and Zachary.
"Hey, where are those two assholes?" Zachary asked.
Dustin glanced around. There was no sign of Hack and Slash. The cowards had probably run off. He had a horrible vision of them breaking into one of these homes and taking more hostages, but he simply couldn't worry about them any more, not when the whole city was at risk.
"As long as they're out of our face, who cares? Now let's get a move on. We've wasted way too much time already."
* * *
*-CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR-*
Moni was safe. Finally.
The other two people in the truck had introduced themselves as Zachary and Roberta. A Hispanic man of about sixty was leaning against the door, occasionally mumbling something that she couldn't understand while Roberta patted his knee. They were squeezed together pretty tightly, but it was far from uncomfortable. Jack was up ahead of her, riding on the back of a motorcycle, which had to be much smoother than riding on the back of a giant ant.
All she wanted was to go home, but they hadn't really offered that option. The guy driving the motorcycle was in an incredible hurry, and she'd been picked up and ushered into the truck with barely a word of explanation. Now they were headed to the "source of the problem," which to her sounded like the polar opposite direction from where she wanted to be traveling.
But at least there were no ants around here. Well, except for another one of the _really_ big ones, but at least it hadn't come after their vehicles.
* * * *
Dustin pulled up in front of a small, non-descript one-story building with aluminum siding. Directly behind it, possibly attached, was a tall, thin building that looked just like a six-story brick version of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. A simple stenciled sign over the door read "Scantion Enterprises." Three extremely nice cars were parked out front.
Jack got off the motorcycle and limped after him. "This place used to be the biggest haunted house in Florida, but it went out of business a couple of years ago. You think they converted it to an ant factory?"
"I'm not sure."
"Shouldn't we have, like, an arsenal or something?"
"Probably. Did you bring one?"
Zachary, Roberta, and the new girl, Moni, got out of the truck and joined them in front of the building. Now that he'd finally reached his destination, Dustin wasn't really sure how to proceed. Should he just knock?
No, that would be stupid. If there was ever a time to just barge right into a place, this was it. He put his hand on the doorknob, took a deep breath, and prepared to barge.
* * * *
>
Roberta heard something behind them and started to turn around.
A loud blast.
A flash of red.
Warm, sticky liquid against her face.
As well as something thicker.
Dustin fell.
"Well, now," said Hack, standing amidst the garbage bags in the back of the truck, holding a shotgun that was balanced against the wrist of his injured arm, "that was kind of gross, wasn't it? Wow, who'd have ever thought we'd find a shotgun back here? God bless the rednecks."
He hopped out of the back of the truck, keeping the shotgun pointed at them. Slash stood up and joined him.
"Ooooh, look at that, Slash, we've got ourselves another girlie to join in the fun."
Roberta was in a state of absolute shock. Dustin lay at her feet, much of his head gone. She'd barely known him, but he'd already proven himself to be a stellar human being. He didn't deserve this, to come so far only to be shot dead by these lowlife psychopaths.
And he was the only one who had any idea of what was going on.
Zachary was the first person to recover. "I'll kill you. I swear to God I'll kill you."
"Yeah, well, I keep hearing you say that, and yet I'm finding myself very much alive. Give it a rest or you're next."
"Try it. You only get two shots out of that thing. You may get me, but my friends here will rip you apart."
Hack looked them over. "Oh, well, please explain to me where the fear factor comes in. Let's see, blowing you away would leave us with a dying old man, some black chick who's probably not even a very good dental assistant, a hot babe whose hands look like shit, and some banged-up guy who looks like he can barely stand up. I'm afraid I'm going to need a little more justification before I start quaking in my booties."
"Put down the shotgun and fight me one-on-one," said Zachary. "I'll show you some justification."
"Hmmmmm ... I'm thinking ... thinking ... thinking ... ah, no, sorry."
"All right, enough jabbering," said Slash. "This is the place Bug Boy was so desperate to get to, huh? Doesn't look like much."
"Definitely not a tourist spot," Hack agreed.
"Well, I have to admit, Bug Boy did get my curiosity up. What the hell? Let's go on in."
* * * *
This just couldn't be happening.
You didn't fight countless ants, climb out of fourth-story windows, break both hands, run through a burning building, and get attacked by an ant the size of a refrigerator just to end up facing some criminal with a shotgun after you were finally free.
It wasn't fair.
Although a quick glance down at Dustin's body put things in perspective. Moni wondered if he had a family.
Zachary opened the door to the building, and seemed surprised to find it unlocked. The four of them walked inside, Roberta wiping gore off her face, followed closely by the sleazeoid with the shotgun and his partner.
* * * *
They entered a small area that looked like a waiting room, with chairs against the wall and a receptionist's desk. More noteworthy was the dead man lying facedown on the tile floor. He was dressed in a gray business suit, and a trail of blood stretched about three feet behind him.
There was another splatter of blood against the wall behind the desk. Zachary went over and peeked behind the desk. Not as grisly as what happened to Dustin, but definitely not a pleasant sight. This guy was wearing a white lab coat. Well, mostly white, anyway. "There's another body here," he announced. "Looks like it was shot."
"Yeah, well, step away from there," said Hack. He gestured to the dead body on the floor. "Hey, look at that, Slash. It's your lucky day."
Slash walked over and picked up the handgun that was on the floor next to the body. "Sweet."
The only exit to the room was a metal door to the left. Hack waved the shotgun at Zachary. "Lead the way."
Zachary approached the door and tested the handle. "It's locked. Looks like it uses one of those card access systems."
"Christ, I hate those things," Jack muttered.
Slash pointed his newfound gun at him. "Did anybody ask for your opinion? I'm guessing that nobody did. So instead of being a chatterbox, why don't you do something useful and search that bloody corpse for his access card?"
Jack didn't protest. He crouched down next to the body, wincing as he did so, and then rolled it over. The whole front of its chest was soaked with blood.
Zachary hated feeling so helpless. He couldn't exactly take on a guy with a shotgun, but as soon as either one of those bastards let their guard down...
Jack patted the dead man's pockets, and slid a red plastic card out of one of them. "You want me to check his pockets for spare change, too?" he asked Slash, handing the card to Zachary as he stood up. "I might be able to find you some gum or something."
"You always this funny?" asked Hack.
"No, I guess you just caught me on a happy day."
"So how funny do you think it would be if I did a Tonya Harding on your bad knee?"
"You're kidding, right?" asked Jack. "A _Tonya Harding_? Is that the best you can come up with? Dude, we've passed the nineties, it's time to update your pop culture references."
Hack chuckled. "Let me guess. This is the part where I get so pissed off by your comical little insults that I make a mistake, right?"
"If you'd like. Actually, I was hoping that this was the part where my incisive comments opened up a new world of self awareness and made you into a better human being."
Hack turned to Slash and grinned. "You know what? I like this guy. Do we kill him or ask him to join us?"
"What we do is quit talking," said Slash. "Let's get that door open."
Zachary swiped the card, and heard a click as the door unlocked. He pulled it open and stepped through the doorway.
* * *
*-CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE-*
Zachary hesitated after taking his first step into the hallway. There were two more dead men on the floor, both of whom had been shot. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any extra guns lying around.
On each side of the hallway was a series of four Plexiglas-sealed cages, about the size of prison cells. From this angle, Zachary could only see what was in the cages directly to his left and to his right.
The cage to his left was filled with butterflies. Hundreds of them, flying all around. They were beautifully colored, a glorious mix of yellows, reds, blues, greens, and countless other colors, some even iridescent. Each was the size of a piece of notebook paper. Zachary wasn't normally the type to be impressed by such things, but he had to admit that the butterflies were a striking, gorgeous sight.
The cage to his right held an old man in a white lab coat. He rushed to the closed entrance and pounded vigorously on the door. He was shouting something, and while his voice couldn't be heard from outside the cell, the message was clear: "Let me out of here!"
As the others entered, Zachary looked to Hack for approval. "Can I let him go?"
"Sure. I'd love to hear what he has to say."
Zachary swiped the card through the reader, and the Plexiglas door popped open. The man burst out of the cell, only to find himself with Hack's shotgun barrel pointed at his chest.
"My name is Tyler Enzian," the man said, speaking breathlessly fast. He looked to be in his seventies, with long white hair that was tied into a ponytail. "I don't wish to be rude, but I need to stop my employer before it's too late."
"Your employer wouldn't happen to be responsible for the dead guys in the other room, would he?" Hack asked.
"Dead guys? Plural? Two of them?"
"Yeah."
"That's promising. They must have shot each other. Still, that doesn't take care of the ultimate problem. Perhaps all of you are willing to help me?"
Hack snorted. "Does this shotgun look like I'm out to help anybody?"
Tyler looked confused for a moment, and then noticed Slash in the back, holding the others at gunpoint. "Are you trying to tell me that the rest of these people are
hostages?"
"These people and you, yeah."
"You do realize that there's a major crisis in Tampa, don't you? Why else would you be here?"
"This major crisis wouldn't have anything to do with, I dunno, say, giant ants, would it?" asked Zachary.
"Yes it would, and it's only going to get worse, much worse. Please, you have to let me pass." When Hack didn't budge, Tyler's eyes narrowed. "Oh, I see. You have no interest in averting the crisis. You're only here for the money. Typical."