“Well, whadda we do now?” asked Shields as he walked down the center aisle of the bus after checking on Reilly, who was guiding the bus along the pitted road through the dark.
“We get to the nearest town and call the police,” Gerry said grimly. “They’ll have to call in the National Guard to blockade the area around the school. If any of those things get out, it’ll be disastrous.”
“Hey … hey, guys.” Pyro’s voice came from the rear of the bus. “I think we’re in trouble.”
Andy ran to the rear of the bus. The flames from the school provided enough light to see the swift forms closing in on the bus. “Faster! Go faster!” he yelled.
Shields ran back to the front of the bus and stood by Reilly as the bus slowly picked up speed again. It shuddered and shook as Reilly shifted gears. Shields opened his mouth to speak, but Reilly cut him off. “I know, I know! Faster!”
“Look at that,” Gerry said as he joined Andy and Pyro at the back of the bus. “They’re not running like insects. It looks like more of a cheetah-type stride. The leg arrangement on these creatures was altered to make them run more like a big cat.”
The bugs loped toward them, steadily gaining ground on the bus as Reilly struggled to gain speed.
Pyro asked, “Hey, one of them jumped. Did you see?”
A metallic thud startled them as the bug landed on the roof of the bus. They could hear scraping sounds as it tried to bite through the metal of the roof.
Joey’s voice quavered from one of the bus seats. “They … they can’t get in, right?”
“No, no. Absolutely not,” said Gerry. He thought for a moment. “I mean, unless they have been engineered with some kind of reinforced mandibles and expanded jaw musculature.”
A sharp mandible drove through the bus roof with a metallic squeal. It worked back and forth, and opened a slice in the metal.
The bus shook as another bug vaulted onto the roof. It joined the first in starting to snip through the metal.
Glass sprayed into their faces as a soldier bug leaped onto the side of the bus, claws piercing the metal. It struck the windows with its huge head and jaws. Joey, sitting in the seat behind, pushed back into the cushions, too startled and frightened to move.
One of its legs reached inside and snagged Pyro’s grimy T-shirt. He screamed as he was pulled to the side of the bus, the bug’s jaws scrabbling and sliding against the window frame.
His screams reached Joey, who stared, frozen, as blood started soaking through Pyro’s shirt. The bug’s claws dug into his arm as he struggled to escape the thing’s grip.
One of his hands, splashed with blood, struck Joey as he tried to pull himself away.
Deep inside Joey, something broke free; he had to do something and not let his fear paralyze him as it had all his life. He could do something, instead of standing by and waiting for someone else to tell him what he should do.
Andy had rushed over and was trying to pull Pyro away by his free arm, but that was only making the bug’s claws dig in further. Its snapping mandibles were coming close to Pyro’s head.
With a bellow, Joey got up and pushed Andy out of the way. He aimed a kick at the bug’s leg that held Pyro pinned to the side of the bus. The leg cracked with a wet snap, and Pyro was free, screaming and holding his injured arm.
The bug didn’t give up. It rammed its whole head through the window frame, antennae whipping about, trying to identify its enemy. Joey aimed a vicious kick at its head, breaking off an antenna. One more pushed it back out the window, and it lost its grip, falling away from the bus.
“Hey, somebody, help!” yelled Reilly from the driver’s seat. One of the bugs was hanging from the roof, head-butting the windshield. The glass collapsed inward in a shower of tiny, glittering fragments.
Andy staggered to the front of the bus as it lurched on the road. He saw the Taser still in Reilly’s back pocket as he wrestled with the steering wheel. Andy grabbed the Taser and rammed it into the bug’s face, jabbing the activation button. The Taser flashed with a bright blue arc of light and a loud zzzap! The ant’s head snapped back.
“Stop! Stop the bus!” Andy screamed in Reilly’s ear.
Reilly slammed on the brake, and the bus shuddered to a halt, throwing the bug roughly off the hood and onto the blacktop road. Andy pulled Reilly out of the driver’s seat.
Shields picked up a jar full of cesium sloshing around in oil from one of the boxes the boys had brought with them from the school. He lobbed it through the broken windshield. It shattered on the pavement between the bus and the bug.
“Everyone get down!” Gerry commanded.
The cesium exploded with a deafening BOOM! Sparks and bug parts blasted through the bus.
Reilly peeked out through the windshield frame. The bug had lost several legs on one side of its body and was crawling around in a circle, unable to move in a straight line.
He jumped back into the driver’s seat and hit the gas. The bus rolled over the bug with a crunch. He whooped victoriously and started to drive again, but Gerry stopped him. He was propped against the front of the seat, holding his head weakly.
“Wait, wait … we have to get these two bugs off the bus.” He pointed at the roof; the creatures were still snipping through the metal, attempting to peel the roof right off the bus.
He herded them all to the front of the bus. Hector and Pyro helped him up to a seat near the door. The bugs were becoming visible on the roof as they cut through more and more of the metal.
“All right, you guys, stay here and stay down!” he yelled. Gerry grabbed the last two jars filled with cesium and opened the bus door. Suddenly, he sagged dizzily back into the seat, the cesium jars clinking together.
Andy grabbed the jars out of Gerry’s hands and ducked through the door before anyone could say a word.
He climbed out into the moonlit darkness. The cool air cleared his head. He ran a short way from the bus. The bugs saw his movement and jumped off the bus. He threw one jar of cesium, which shattered under one of them. There was a bright purple flash as the jar broke and detonated. Sparkling bits of glass sliced through Andy’s T-shirt. The other bug was stunned, but recovered and started to run toward him. Andy waited until the last second, then dodged out of the creature’s path. The bug skidded through the loose dirt as it tried to change direction. Andy threw his last cesium-filled jar as the thing opened its jaws in frustration. He heard the crack of glass as the jar broke open on the bug’s serrated jaws. The cesium detonated as it mixed with the air in a violent, bright, smoky explosion. Big chunks of bug hit the ground as sparks fell around him.
Once his eyes readjusted to the dark, Andy carefully walked around the bus. The bugs were dead. He listened for any signs of more bugs following them, but he didn’t hear anything.
Inside the bus, the boys and Gerry waited quietly. Pyro opened the back emergency door and jumped down to the ground. He spotted Andy with his back to the bus, looking upward into the sky. Pyro opened his mouth to ask a question, but Andy held up a hand.
“Shhh … listen,” he said quietly.
They could hear a humming sound. “What is that?” he asked.
Pyro pointed into the sky. There were some dark shapes moving across it. They glittered in the darkness. The humming was growing louder.
“Those must be the, um, eclosed princess bugs. I guess they weren’t killed in the explosion. Their wings have hardened, and they’re leaving to make new colonies.”
One of the flying bugs passed right over them, fifty feet in the air. The humming of its wings raised the hairs on the back of Andy’s neck. It was big. Light reflected from its veined wings flashed orange as it soared overhead and disappeared into the night.
“C’mon,” Andy said, with a hand on Pyro’s shoulder. “Let’s get back to the bus, and get out of here.” He shook his head. “No one’s going to believe this.”
They boarded the bus and started on the long road through the darkness to the nearest town.
ANDY STOOD MOTIONLESS, STARING OUT the window at the desolate New Mexico landscape. A cool breeze ruffled his hair as an air conditioner kicked on somewhere in the National Guard barracks offices. He studied the far-off scrubby hills, but didn’t see any movement. The sun’s glare made it hard to make out any detail, but he knew that the creatures were out there, somewhere. Tunneling, building.
“Andy? Andy Greenwood?” A woman’s voice startled him. He turned and saw a middle-aged woman peeking out of a doorway along the hall. She gestured him into a small conference room, being used as an office. There were several stacks of folders full of papers on the table. The woman picked up one folder, opened it, and sat down. Andy sat down across the table from her.
“Andy, my name is Jess Kaufman. I’m from Child Protective Services here in New Mexico. I wanted to talk to you for a few minutes and go through what happened to you and the other boys at the Reclamation School. Would you mind talking with me?” She pulled a yellow legal pad out of her briefcase and picked up a pen, jotting a couple of quick notes.
“Sure, I guess I can,” Andy replied slowly.
It had been several days since the boys and Gerry had escaped from the school, and they were all still very strung out, jumping at the tiniest noises.
The events at the Reclamation School were still fresh in Andy’s mind. He started with his arrival at the school, Switch’s threat about extending the boys’ stay, and suspicions that there were many more people involved in covering up the school’s activities.
He continued on to the food fight, his punishment in the empty building, and the earthquake. Andy related Gerry’s idea that what they thought was an earthquake was more likely another underground stash of chemicals that somehow was detonated by the tunneling of the bugs.
Andy had to stop several times as his emotions forced him to relive the horror of discovering the bugs and what must have happened to all the boys and teachers at the school. It was still almost as frightening in the retelling as it was when he was living through it.
Finally, he reached the point when they had escaped and blown up the school.
Gerry and the boys had rolled into a small police station in a little town after a six-hour drive through the cool New Mexico night.
The sergeant on duty was skeptical after hearing their horrific story until he stepped out into the night and saw the bus. His flashlight revealed shards of bug exoskeleton inside.
He phoned his captain, who phoned the state police. The state police called in the National Guard, who sent a squad of soldiers to check out the school, still skeptical of the wild story Gerry and the boys had told.
Ms. Kaufman related the details of what had happened next, based on conversations with soldiers around the barracks: A staff sergeant manning the communications equipment at the National Guard barracks had received an incoming transmission from the squad dispatched to check out the Reclamation School. They had come under attack by some kind of armored creatures emerging from the school, looking something like large insects. Several of the squad had been injured, and they were running out of ammunition rapidly.
The entire base was mobilized, with several trucks carrying soldiers racing to the unlucky squad’s location, carrying heavy weapons and ammunition. Several helicopters buzzed into the sky and provided air support.
The fight was short. The disoriented and injured bugs weren’t too difficult for the Guard to mop up, after they recovered from the shock of seeing tiger-sized, insectlike creatures coming at them. The soldiers contained the bugs and cordoned off the area around the school.
Twenty-four hours after the National Guard troops called in their report, three black Apache helicopters were patrolling the airspace above the destroyed school, like angry hornets. A large number of black, unmarked vans pulled up, and men dressed in black body armor entered the school. They emerged carrying bags and boxes from inside the school out to the vans.
Curious reporters were given only a vague story that an accident had happened at the school. The military and scientists being consulted needed time to formulate a strategy to deal with the creatures before their existence was revealed to the public. The reporters kept pushing, knowing that something big had happened. It was only a matter of time until they broke the story.
Andy and the boys were relieved to be housed temporarily at the National Guard barracks. They spent days being debriefed by government agents, who wrote down everything the boys said.
The soldiers at the base kept the boys busy when their presence wasn’t required to describe their experiences to yet another government scientist. The boys were included in pickup basketball games, and were put to work helping to keep the barracks clean. Rather than being sullen about the positive, get-it-done attitude of the soldiers, the boys enjoyed it. After their recent harrowing experience at the doomed school, the structure of a military base was a welcome change.
After reaching the end of his story, Andy looked at Ms. Kaufman and said simply, “That’s it.”
Looking up from her notepad, Ms. Kaufman gave him a smile. “That’s great, Andy. Thanks for your help.” She looked over the notes she had taken and shook her head sadly. “After what you boys have told me about the way that the Reclamation School was being run, I can guarantee that there will be several arrests, including several police officials and at least one state judge.”
Ms. Kaufman looked up at Andy. “A lot of people looked the other way on this, and they are going to be held accountable, you can be sure of that. As for those … creatures” — she shook her head — “that must have been horrifying. You should feel fortunate that you survived such an experience. I can’t imagine what that must have been like.”
She closed the file folder. “There is one more issue I’d like to talk to you about. There are a limited number of foster families in this area. It’s going to take some time to locate a home to place you in.
“There is an option that I’d like you to consider. There has been one party who expressed interest in looking after you, at least on a temporary basis.”
For a second, panic struck Andy. She couldn’t be talking about Chazz, could she?
Ms. Kaufman picked up a typewritten note from Andy’s file. “Dr. Medford submitted this to me. In it, he details how you, all of you, showed great bravery in an extremely difficult situation. He specifically mentioned your interest in the creatures, and your help during the whole situation.
“Dr. Medford is going to be stationed here for a time, studying the creatures further. He and his fiancée have offered to act as your legal guardians, at least until a more permanent situation can be set up for you. How does that sound to you?”
Andy laughed. “Well, yeah! That’d be … that’d be great!”
When he left the room, Andy found Hector and Pyro waiting for him in the hall. Pyro was jumping out of his skin.
“Dude, this is going to be so cool! We’re all stayin’ with Dr. Gerry!”
“Really? Awesome!” Andy said. “But what about your families?”
Pyro shrugged. “Hector’s mom moved a few months ago, and nobody knows where. They’re trying to track her down, but that’s going to take some time. My parents said they won’t take me back until they’re sure I won’t burn the place down.”
“I sure wouldn’t take you back,” Hector said. He turned to Andy. “You just missed Shields and Reilly. Child Protective Services said that Reilly’s mom and dad are not ready for him to come back, so he can’t go home yet, either. Shields’s dad managed to get reassigned to the Camp Pendleton Marine base in California, and he said that Reilly could come and stay with them as long as he needed to. They’re not leaving for another day or two, so we’ll have the chance to say good-bye.”
Gerry joined the boys, and clapped a hand on Andy’s shoulder. “We’re gonna see if we can track those bug princesses before they start new colonies. I just have to gather a little more gear, and we can go. Ever been camping?”
“The closest I ever got to c
amping was a field trip to the Santa Ana Zoo,” Hector said.
“Well, what are we waiting around for?” Pyro yelled. “Let’s go, already!”
THE PRINCESS FLEW AS FAST AS SHE could. The instinct to find the proper spot to start a colony was becoming strong. During her flight, she had transmitted scents into the air that would signal her location to any males following her.
She had flown during the cool night hours, several males performing aerobatic maneuvers around her to show their fitness as mates. She chose the strongest male to mate with, touching off the accelerated process that would produce eggs in a matter of days.
Finally, she had found a perfect spot: an empty house in Nevada. She landed on the roof and sliced through papers stuck to the windows that read FORECLOSURE NOTICE and NOTICE OF EVICTION.
The interior of the house was dark, and what furniture and possessions had been left had been smashed. Vandals had broken all the windows in the house in the time since the former owners had left. All the houses for miles around were silent and abandoned. Whole blocks were empty and boarded up. No one had passed through the area for months. The only things moving were the signs that proclaimed HOUSE FOR SALE as they were buffeted by the hot desert wind.
There was plenty of room for the new colony to occupy.
The princess squeezed through a window frame and entered. She explored the house, and eventually found the way down to the basement. It was cooler down here, and would be a good place to breed new workers, soldiers, and sentries. She cleared a spot on the concrete floor and started depositing eggs. Each egg was covered with gooey slime, which she used to affix the eggs carefully to the cement walls. These would be the first of the workers, which would hatch and help her establish a new nest.
Very soon, she would be Queen.
THE END
The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the invaluable assistance and encouragement of the following people during the writing of Infestation: Rubin Pfeffer and Deborah Warren from East West Literary Agency, Zack Clark and Nina Goffi from Scholastic, Jacqui Teruya, Heidi Kellenberger, and Vince Ogletree. Their help while I was knee-deep in bugs is much appreciated.
Infestation Page 10