The Blood Will Dry

by Mary, Kate L.

  Anderson was the last person down, and when he reached the bottom and had given the all clear, we started moving out. No one spoke, but it only took two minutes to realize it wasn’t going to be a silent approach. The sounds of more than a hundred people moving together bounced off the walls. Even the mud and vines didn’t muffle our footsteps.

  “They’re going to hear us from a mile away,” I hissed to Bryan.

  “The good news is that we have a good fifteen miles or so before we get there.” His voice was so low I had to step closer to him. “We’ll stop when we get closer and send a few people up to check the hive out. Don’t worry, we’ve thought this through.”

  I believed him, but that didn’t mean the pounding of our feet didn’t make me break out into a sweat. Even the chilly air of the underground tunnel couldn’t stop it.

  We moved for hours without incident. I knew from experience that if you kept a steady pace you could walk three miles in an hour, and by the time we’d stopped I was pretty sure we’d gone at least twelve miles. Meaning we had to be getting close.

  Somehow as we’d walked, Bryan and I had found ourselves moving closer to the front of the group. When we came to a stop I found that Daisy and Tyler were only a couple steps behind me, while Alex had stayed back, preferring to keep to the middle.

  There were only a few people between where I stood and Anderson, who was in the lead. He held his hand up and the people behind him stopped, and then the next and next, the wave sweeping over the group until the echo of footsteps had faded away, leaving total silence. He swept his hand to the side and people once again moved, this time taking a knee or easing down to the ground to rest.

  We’d gotten close enough that not only would we be given a little break, but Anderson was also ready to send a couple scouts ahead. That much I’d known before we set off, what I hadn’t realized was that Bryan was one of those scouts.

  I started to lower myself to the ground but stopped when he didn’t follow my lead, but instead headed up to where Anderson and the militia leaders stood. I hadn’t been invited to join in, but there was no way I was letting him out of my sight without an explanation.

  I hurried after him, which earned me yet another scowl from Anderson. Since I’d never been intimidated by the sergeant before, the expression on his face did nothing to deter me now.

  Bryan ignored me as we stopped in front of Anderson. “How far do you think it is?”

  “Our best estimate has us three miles from the hive. Should take a little over an hour to get there and another to get back.” Anderson looked past him to me. “You’re not going.”

  I ignored the sergeant and turned to Bryan. “Why didn’t you tell me that you’re going?”

  “Anderson asked me to be the scout and I agreed.”

  “That’s not what I asked,” I hissed.

  “Don’t worry,” someone behind me said, and I turned to find Tyler grinning down at me. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”

  “I don’t like it,” I hissed, unsure of who I was talking to. “Two people against a whole hive? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “They’ll be fine, Foster,” Anderson said, coming as close to a bark as possible without raising his voice. “They know what they’re doing.”

  “We survived the attack on the platoon, didn’t we?” Tyler pointed out.

  I knew there was no way I could win an argument, not to mention the fact that we were wasting time, so I turned away from him and faced Bryan. “Be careful. If there’s a lot of buzzing it means they’re up. When they turned in for the night the hive was almost silent.”

  “We’ll be fine.” He pressed his lips against my forehead and whispered, “I’ll be back in two hours. Promise.”

  I nodded, and then he pulled away and turned back to face Anderson and the platoon leaders. Tyler joined them, leaving me to feel like I’d been pushed out of the circle.

  A hand brushed against my lower back and Daisy was suddenly at my side. “They’ll be fine. Come rest.”

  I let her lead me toward the wall of the tunnel, and together we sat on a thick vine. It wasn’t as muddy here as it had been at the bottom of the crater, but it was still damp and my ass was wet and frozen within seconds. Not that it mattered all that much to me when I watched Bryan walk away. The discomfort of the cold, wet ground was nothing compared to the uneasiness inside me.

  The rest of the group relaxed while we waited for Bryan and Tyler to return. I didn’t have a watch anymore, so it was difficult to judge how much time had passed, especially when it felt like every minute was dragging. At my side Daisy seemed relaxed, but I knew she had to be as nervous as I was about what would happen next. Not just about the guys coming back, but also about going into the hive and seeing all the horror we had barely escaped the first time around.

  “Are you dreading it?” I whispered after a prolonged silence.

  Daisy jumped like she hadn’t expected the sound of my voice. “The hive?”

  “Yeah.”

  She nodded, and then shoved a lock of blond hair back when it fell across her forehead. “I am, but I feel like I need to do it. I need to go back in there and make sure those things are dead, but also make sure the people they dragged in there aren’t suffering anymore.” She paused and I heard her swallow. “I was there when they got dragged out. I watched that vine or whatever it was force its way into their mouths. It haunts me, and I think I need to see it through to get over it.”

  I wasn’t sure she would ever be able to get over seeing something so grotesque, but I nodded anyway because I understood what she was saying. Even if she still had nightmares after this, at least she would know she’d done everything she could.

  Time felt like it was dragging on and I began to wonder if Bryan and Tyler were ever going to make it back. I was positive more than two hours had passed, despite Daisy’s many assurances that it hadn’t been that long, and by the time the sound of heavy breathing and footsteps echoed through the tunnel I was ready to go mad.

  I jumped to my feet before they’d even come into view, ready to run to Bryan but knowing that I needed to let him report in what he’d seen first. It was nearly impossible to hold back, but I did. I’d promised that I wouldn’t let my injury get in the way while we were down here, and I knew I had to make the same promise about my personal feelings, even if it was only a promise to myself.

  Bryan and Tyler emerged from the darkness the way the vines had emerged from the crater, suddenly and unexpectedly. They were panting and even in the limited light the lanterns provided I could see their damp shirts clinging to their bodies. Other than that, they didn’t look any different than they had when they left. They were no more dirty and not injured in any way as far as I could tell, meaning they probably hadn’t had any run ins with the bugs.

  “What’d you see?” Anderson asked when the two men had stopped in front of him.

  “We were right. It’s about three miles up, maybe a little less.” Bryan’s gaze moved to me. “It’s pretty much exactly like Diana and Daisy had described it. The hive is pretty quiet now, only a little buzzing, and from the looks of it they’re getting ready to settle in for the night. If we go now, we could catch them by surprise.”

  “What about the queen?” I asked, unable to stay quiet. “Did you see anything?”

  Tyler shook his head. “Nothing different, except those red vines or whatever they are. They’re coming from the tunnel on the other side of the crater, but it was too dark to get a look at what they were attached to.”

  Bryan’s gaze held mine as he worked to control his breathing. “She’s there,” he gasped. “She has to be.”

  “Good,” Anderson nodded twice. “You two rest for a few minutes while we make plans.”

  Bryan and Tyler didn’t argue. I could tell they were beat and at the moment I wasn’t sure how they were going to make it another three miles without a break, let alone fight off the bugs and then make it the whole way back. They’d be dead on their feet at this r
ate.

  I held my hand out to Bryan and he took it, allowing me to lead him over to where Daisy and I had been sitting when he came up. There he practically collapsed in an exhausted heap.

  “We can do this,” he said through gasps. “We can catch them off guard.” His hand tightened on mine and he rolled his head to the side so he was looking at me. “We’re going to win.”

  “I know,” I whispered, squeezing his hand.

  Anderson allowed Bryan and Tyler to rest for maybe ten minutes, which I didn’t think was long enough even though both men insisted it was. They were existing on adrenaline at the moment, something I understood because I’d done it for months after I’d joined the militia. But I also knew that you could hit a wall with almost no warning. Hopefully their energy lasted until after we’d made it all the way home.

  Before we started moving, Anderson assigned a group to queen duty. Bryan and Tyler were among them, and even though they weren’t crazy about it, so was I. It was only lantern duty, but I argued that it was important that they were able to see when they went in there, and even Bryan couldn’t argue with that logic.

  Then we started moving again, this time breaking up into groups in hopes that we might be able to spread out the sound of our footsteps. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it didn’t really matter because we didn’t have any other options.

  The men and women with the flower bombs and gas masks went first, heading off in hopes of being able to release the bombs and take a good number of bugs out while they were sleeping. The next group also had masks, but instead of the flower bombs they carried claws. They would be backup for the first group, taking out any of the bugs that managed to make it to the ground without inhaling the poisonous pollen.

  Behind them would be a second group armed with claws, which Daisy found herself a part of. Since that group didn’t have masks themselves, they would keep a good distance from the first two groups, waiting ten minutes before heading off. The hope was that most of the pollen would have dissipated by the time the third wave reached the hive, making any side effects minor.

  Bryan and I were in the last group and we were going straight for the queen, along with Tyler and Anderson. There were only fifteen of us in all, and everyone but me was armed with a claw. Even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to wield one even if I had it, I felt suddenly naked considering what we were about to face. I had a gun and a knife, both of which were useless, as well as a grenade. The problem with using an explosive underground was obvious, and since I didn’t feel like being buried alive when the tunnel collapsed, it was a worst case scenario weapon only.

  I couldn’t stand still as the first and then second waves headed out, and when the third followed ten minutes later, I found myself bouncing on the balls of my feet while I waited for my turn. An hour. That was all that was standing between the hive and us. In an hour we’d be at the hive and we’d know if our plan had a chance of working. We’d also be able to find out what those red vines were coming from and hopefully how to deal with it. We’d have answers to questions that had been plaguing us for five years.

  My jitters didn’t improve even when we started walking. I had a difficult time keeping a steady pace and more than once Bryan had to tell me to slow down. I didn’t want to, but I did. What I wanted to do was take off running. I wanted my shoulder to be okay and to have a claw in my hands so I could slam it into the first bug I saw. I wanted to watch the bastards die, slow and painfully if I had anything to say about it, and then move on to the queen.

  I didn’t think I could get any more anxious than I was, but I’d been wrong. Because when the shouts of the first two waves echoed back through the tunnel to reach us, followed closely by the hum of the bugs’ wings, I found that I was ready to jump out of my skin. After five years of waiting, it was finally about to happen. We were going to face off with the bugs.

  The closer we got, the louder the buzzing and shouting became. At first I couldn’t see much more than a flash of movement through the light from the lanterns, but as we drew near, things began to come into focus. There were bugs everywhere. On the ground, dead from the pollen or one of their own claws that had been used against them, or in the middle of fighting for their lives. They were on the walls, their wings beating like mad as they crawled along the vines. The people on the ground were putting up a good fight and seemed to have the upper hand, but the bugs weren’t giving up. Here and there a body lay motionless, and I even spotted a few people being carried further into the hive. There was so much activity that it was hard to keep track of it all, but I also knew that the flurry of fighting in the hive wasn’t what I needed to be thinking about. The queen was my goal right now. We needed to get to the queen.

  The fifteen of us who’d been assigned to take her out crossed under the hive in a solid clump. I was in the middle, holding the lantern up to light the way while the men and women with claws stuck to the outside. A bug dropped in front of us but was quickly taken down by Tyler, who barely had to pause before slamming the pointed end of the claw into the creature’s head. It screeched, but we were on the move again only seconds later, unlike the bug who was now still.

  The group slowed a little when we were directly under the hive, taking the opportunity to peer up into the crater. I had already seen it and had no desire to look again, but I found myself following their gazes anyway. Rain dripped on my face, as steady as it had the last time I was here, and all around me people gasped and swore. The sight of the bloated and hollowed out bodies was as disturbing as it had been the first time, but it was the red vine that really drew my attention. The way it snaked out from between the green vines, coming from almost nowhere.

  Only it wasn’t coming from nowhere, I could see that now. Just like Bryan had said, the red vine was coming from the dark tunnel in front of us. It was thick, so thick I doubted I would have been able to wrap my arms around it. It grew on top of the green vines and ran up the wall, stopping about six feet off the ground where it branched out into dozens of individual vines. No, not vines. I was sure of that now. These things, whatever they were called, weren’t plants. They were part of something bigger.

  “Move,” I called when the men and women around me slowed to nearly a stop.

  They started moving again, rushing past the soldiers and bugs who were battling for control of the area, past the bodies of both species, past the red tentacle that grew up the wall, and straight into the dark tunnel in front of us.

  I held the lantern up and pushed my way through the group, trying to get closer to the front so we could see what we were up against. The thick, red tentacle that ran along the ground pulsed as if it was alive, and I followed it, running my gaze along the length of the thing as I moved.

  The light only illuminated a few feet in front of us, so when the bugs jumped out of the darkness they took us completely by surprise. Bryan pushed me back as he swung the claw forward and I stumbled, nearly falling on my ass. I managed to stay upright though, managed to keep the lantern steady and pointed toward the fight even though I desperately wanted to keep moving. To find the queen.

  The bugs were down in no time, but not before they’d taken a couple of our guys out, and we didn’t even have time to regroup before more came. They rushed from the darkness, making a sound I’d never heard before as they scurried toward us. It was similar to the screech they let out when they were hurt, but more high-pitched, and it made the hair on my arms stand up.

  I did my best to help the others see while they battled with the bugs, but it wasn’t easy to get the beam from the lantern to light up every space I needed it to. Our people were dropping left and right, and the bugs just seemed to keep coming. A group of guys from the militia were working together to take down four bugs who had teamed up on them, while Bryan, Tyler, and Anderson were working together to take down two more.

  Everyone was occupied when the next few rushed out, so busy that the bugs took them completely by surprise. Even I didn’t see them until they wer
e right on top of the large group, and by then it was too late. I called out a warning less than a second before three bugs dropped down on them, but there was nothing anyone could do. Not when they had their claws ready, not when the points were so sharp they could pierce bone with almost no effort.

  Blood sprayed across the tunnel, illuminated briefly by the lantern I held before disappearing into the darkness. The men still standing fought back, eventually overpowering the bugs, but not before heavy losses. By the time all the bugs in the tunnel were down, only four of our men were still standing. Bryan, Tyler, Anderson, and a man I didn’t know.

  “Are you okay?” I asked as Bryan leaned against the wall.

  “I’m okay,” he said, panting.

  “We need to keep moving,” Tyler said.

  “We need reinforcements,” I replied.

  “We took out the guards.” He nodded to the dead bugs on the ground. “She’s vulnerable now.”

  “There could be more.” I turned to Anderson. “We need more people.”

  We could still hear the sounds of the battle behind us, and the humming of the bugs’ wings hadn’t gotten any less deafening than it had been when we first arrived.

  “They’ve got their hands full,” Anderson said. He looked the group over. “We can do this.”

  I’d never thought Anderson was a fool before, but at that moment I couldn’t help the thought from going through my head.

  When no one argued again, he moved deeper into the tunnel and the others followed, giving me no choice but to go too. As much as I wanted to turn and run back for help, I had a bad feeling that they would have no issue going on without me, and I knew they needed my light. They needed to see what they were up against.