The Call of the Swarm

by Melani Matejak

  “Did you hear what I have just said? This damned coldness cuts me right to the bone, and I’m in no mood for games! What are you doing here anyway? You know you are not supposed to leave your position.”

  “We have a problem, Commander,” Rogue hissed in strange raspy tone. “Big one. I’m not sure how to put it…”

  “Don’t behave like a lunatic. If you got something to report, then report!”

  “It’s here.” His words were little more than a whisper.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Here!” he repeated, louder this time, but his friend still wasn’t getting it until Rogue shouted right in his face. “We have an Anteater in the area!”

  Baffled, Xe leapt back and nearly stumbled off his feet.

  “You wanted to hear it straightforward and now you have it!”

  The Scout had to hold on to the nearby stone block to still himself from swaying. He was gazing at Rogue without really looking at him. “You saw the beast?”

  “No, it’s currently asleep in its underground burrow. But it’s inside for sure.”

  “You’re wrong. You have to be…”

  “Listen, Scout…”

  Xe’s head was spinning and he grasped his helmet with both hands, exhaling loudly. “I’m not able to think straight. Let’s find our Superior. He will know what to do.”

  Spotting the two of them bolting in his direction in full speed, Mission Commander DeraB1044 sounded the alarm. He assumed the threat in question had to be of some ordinary kind, probably a Hunting Fly, so he wasted no time and initiated general emergency measures right away.

  “Assembly!” he cried to his Scouts. “Defensive formation! Make a circle!”

  But incoming Xe was waving his hands in the air to stop them and everybody got confused. Being half-way in defensive maneuvers, the Eeols held their weapons ready and anxiously turned around monitoring the skies in search of the enemy; but there was nothing to be seen, and the party was completely disoriented.

  When Xe reached his Superior, first he had to gulp for some air.

  “Commander XeraM6697, what is happening? Are we under attack? Report!”

  He whispered just a single word to his ear, and DeraB1044’s eyes widened.

  A few steps away, Rogue was already disclosing the shocking news to the gathered crowd in the most cold-blooded manner. Everyone was informed in record time, and the scouting company found itself in the clutches of horror and disbelief.

  “I totally distrust this Rogue!” howled Commander LegaH0395, Scoutmaster of the unit 62. “It can’t be true! There is no Evil in the vicinity!”

  “Not this late in the season, Maya flowers are almost gone! And Evil hasn’t appeared in these parts for many years.”

  “This can’t be happening to us…”

  “Silence!” cried Mission Commander DeraB1044, ending the pointless argument. “Rogue, frankly, I find it hard to trust your claims. Especially as you admit to not actually seeing the Evil.”

  Rogue sighed. “You Eeols are really a difficult sort. The Anteater is here, Sir, and, if you would follow me, I’ll prove it to you.”

  A frightened murmur rose from the crowd, and Mission Commander wiped his visor with the back of his hand. “Is it far?”

  “No. It would take just a short flight.” Rogue showed where he and Xe had come. “We go straight to that Pomka climber, and then turn northeast.”

  “I’m not eager to leave my position before the arrival of a gathering swarm. But if that’s the only way to get to the bottom of this… let it be so.” He clapped twice. “Scouts, take off! Basic flying formation! I have the lead. Rogue, keep by my side.”

  Scared Eeols flew in silence, not accounting for the soft buzzing of their air-screws. They frequently looked at one another, but nobody dared to squeeze out a single word.

  Their way led them closer to the Stream, and soon the air got noticeably colder and unpleasantly damp while the terrain turned from rocky fields to broad clay flatlands. At a site Rogue had indicated, there was a moderately-sized thicket. It was mostly stripped of leaves and easy for Scouts to check it. After their cautious scrutiny yielded nothing but one Peaceful Fly dozing on some battered trunk tilting almost horizontally, DeraB1044 gave a signal to overfly it.

  From the other side, there was bare clay unrolling all the way to the distant Stream. Yet adjacent to a thicket lay a large zone where the soil was disturbed and turned upside down. A strange black hole of colossal proportions gaped in the middle with chunks of dried mud scattered all over the place.

  “See?” Rogue said quietly. “That’s the lair the beast has dug up for itself. The Anteater is inside, sleeping.”

  DeraB1044 ordered landing reasonably close to the mysterious hole. The dark-brown clay was cold and moist, hard-packed in the central parts fringing the round gap and churned on the edges. From the ground Eeols had somewhat better view, but still couldn’t get anything besides the sheer darkness of the hole, and they started shrugging.

  “Maybe that’s just collapsed earth,” suggested somebody.

  “That’s right,” assured another Scout. “This area was flooded that time the Stream overflowed with hard rains and mud piles left by receding water are now sliding.”

  “Nothing but a false alarm. There’s never been an Evil of the Maya Flower here.”

  Rogue grunted. “You’ll drive me insane, Eeols. Don’t you see tracks in the mud over there–”

  But there was no need to debate it further as one bristly paw, unbelievably huge and armed with immense black hooks for claws, stretched out of the hole casting a vast shadow over the entire section of land. A deep howl thundered from below, and the ground shook as the gigantic creature stirred in its shelter, curling up in a different position in his sleep.

  “Do you believe me now?” cried Rogue, turning toward the crowd. But they were all cringing. Filled with fear, trembling Scouts were trying to hide between dissipated mud lumps. Only Xe was left standing, but he looked like petrified with his eyes wide and glassy.

  “Damned, you’re indeed Eeols!” Rogue said angrily. “Don’t give me that stuff! Come on, let’s get back to the Hive. Maybe we can think of something.”

  There was no argument. The dismayed company dashed from that ominous place and headed home in a hurry. Not far from the Dragonfly Death, they met and rejoined with their incoming gathering swarm, pulling it back; behind them, the forgotten Farra pasture has left untouched.

  The Evil of the Maya Flower!

  With their arrival, the terrible news spread through the Hive like a wildfire.

  A panic broke loose and Eeols lost their minds. The Swarm sprung out of control; something Xe had never witnessed before. It was a dreadful sight. In total chaos, the red masses were whirling mindlessly wherever he would look, and any cry of reason vanished in a deafening jangle of weeps and screams, metallic clangs of collisions, and the maddening buzzing of over-heating air-screws. A devastating red flood rocked around in waves, rolling recklessly through the corridors and chambers, threatening to tear down the very foundation of the Hive order.

  But the chaos didn’t last long, as Supremes showed up on the scene and applied strict measures to restore order. Fortunately, many Commanders stayed rational and responsive to their orders, and Supremes got them organized to bring terrified Eeols back to their senses and send all to the Central Chamber. There, everybody was made to wait in silence, supervised by a second group of Commanders. The Central Chamber was jam-packed, the floor and walls alike.

  Little by little, the Swarm was settling down, and panic waned and ultimately died away.

  “Have you all gone mad!” fumed Supreme BeraX7719, standing at the verge of the waxy promontory. “Where was your sense of duty? Your devotion to the order? Is that how Eeols behave, I ask you! We will achieve nothing by acting this way. We must put our heads together and think if we want to find a solution to this catastrophe.”

  Countless eyes stared his way. In the dire
silence reigning the chamber, an unspoken question hung in the air. Was finding a solution possible at all? The Anteaters were invincible. There was no Eeol alive in the plains who didn’t know this simple fact, and terror was freezing their hearts and blocking their minds.

  The same thoughts had to plague BeraX7719 too, but he was doing his best to hide it. He was a Supreme and had to set an example. In a crisis, Eeols were always turning to their Superiors to show them the way out, and now, when the mere survival of Hive was at stake, the Supreme Command had to look self-confident and determined more than ever.

  “Eeols of the Swarm, these are your orders,” he said sternly. “All Commanders are going to meet me at the Principle for an immediate counsel. The rest of you go straight to your sleeping chambers in a calm manner, and you will remain there until the Morning Rally. I don’t want to see anybody loitering in the communal places, is that clear!”

  Appalled Eeols complied in full. Commanders still lagged around for a while, escorting red masses to the sleeping areas and making sure no turbulence would rise again. Once this was over, a strange silence dropped over the Hive, so awkward and unnatural in the early afternoon.

  The meeting in the Principal was now commencing. Several hundred Eeols were seated around the central table. Every single Commander the Swarm had was there, along with most of the Queen’s Servants. The latter ones seemed particularly shaken with the current situation, and MedaM0075 sat with his hands over his face. Xe and Rogue were called to join the Supremes at the central table.

  “Commanders and Pages, this is the test of all tests,” said BeraX7719, opening the counseling. “The entire Swarm looks to us now, and we mustn’t let them down. We have to come up with some sort of solution for this most grave situation.”

  Direct confrontation was out of the question. The beast was simply too huge to fight, and Eeols had to think up something else.

  Supreme MedaP7810 suggested they do nothing but sit and wait.

  “Maybe we’ll be lucky and Evil will bypass the Hive and go away without discovering us.”

  “I doubt that,” Rogue interrupted him in a grim tone. “Anteaters have a keen sense of smell and a habit to comb their territories thoroughly. I dealt with these creatures before, and I know what they are capable of. Trust me, it is going to find us for sure.”

  A collective moan resonated over the chamber.

  “Then it’s over,” somebody whined. “We are doomed. Let’s just yank the blasters out and blow our heads off…”

  “Enough!” Supreme BeraX7719 banged his fist against the smooth surface of the central table. “There will be no gibbering! Pull yourself together, Eeols!”

  The muttering died away and Supreme LegaP9308 bid to talk.

  “Let’s face it, there is only one way to escape from Evil. We must leave the Hive.”

  There was a moment of silence. Then shouts and bellowing burst out, led by Head Page MedaM0075 who jumped to his feet and screamed, “No! That would be a death sentence for the Swarm!”

  “We can’t abandon the Hive. How could we move the brood and honey stock and everything in just a few days? It’s impossible!”

  “We have nowhere to go! Winter is upon us and we would freeze.”

  “Who guarantees Evil won’t get us even in a new location!”

  “Quiet!” BeraX7719 waved his hand, and when the rumbling dropped off to whispers, he turned to his fellow Supreme. “Tell me more. You believe it can be done?”

  “Hard to say. It’s going to be a complicated operation, but we must give it a try.” LegaP9308 looked around the Principle. “What choice do we have, Eeols? What else can we do? If somebody here has some other idea, please speak up, by all means.”

  Some Commanders leaned to one another and started mumbling among themselves, but nobody responded to the Supreme’s call.

  BeraX7719 looked at Rogue. “How much time do we have before Evil gets here?”

  He pondered for several moments, making calculations. “Taking the distance into consideration, probably four or five days.”

  “It might be enough… all right. I’m authorizing the plan to leave the Hive, and it must be carried out straightaway. One swarm will be dispatched to seek out a convenient cave.”

  Page GabaY3822 interjected, requesting a word. “Sir, Pages unanimously oppose the plan. This is madness. We ask you not to continue with it.”

  “If any other solution presents itself over the next few days, I’ll be more than willing to forget about it. But for the time being, that’s our only option. Unless the Queen issues a direct order against the plan, we are going to proceed with it.”

  The Page pursed his lips, dropping back in his waxy seat. The Supreme continued with making arrangements for the seeking swarm which was to depart tomorrow with the first light.

  Then Xe got up to speak.

  “It would be a good idea to assign one additional company to trail the creature and report on its whereabouts. I volunteer for this duty, Sir.” As BeraX7719 nodded without hesitation, the Scout looked at the inner ring where the First Class Commanders sat. “Commander DeraB1044, would you honor me by leading that company?”

  But his Superior shook his head, gazing at the floor. “I’m not going back to the Dragonfly Death,” he murmured in a hoarse voice. “Never again.”

  “I’m ready to take the leadership of the company,” said Commander TeraX8891.

  “Very well,” agreed the Supreme. “I’m appointing you Mission Commander for a special seeking company, and you are free to pick Flyers according to your preferences. That will be all for today. There’s nothing more that can be done now, and I’m closing the meeting.”

  On that, nervous Eeols started to leave their seats pouring out of the Principal. Most Commanders moved rather quickly and were getting ahead, while the Queen’s Servants lagged behind slowly exiting the chamber.

  “What’s gotten into the Pages?” commented Commander So 147, joining the small group which was clustering around Xe and a few other Scouts. “The plan is dubious, no question about that, but it’s the best we’ve got, and everybody understands that except them.”

  Xe shrugged. “Pages are a weird bunch.”

  Eeols entered Main Tunnel number four one after the other and ascended to Subterraneous Level 5. This passage had a fairly large diameter and was perfectly round in the cross-section; being rebuilt recently, it shone marvelously with the bright green glow of new wax.

  “I don’t know what’s the point in going to the chambers,” wondered So 147. “I’m supposed to sleep while the Evil lurks outside in the darkness? Not going to happened, my friends. I’ll stay awake all night long.”

  “No, we are safe for tonight,” noted Commander TeraX889 who was also in the group. “Rogue said it can’t reach us so quickly. Speaking of which, where is Rogue? Wasn’t he with us just a moment ago?”

  Xe turned, but indeed, Rogue has gone missing. He took a dive down into the broad tunnel, noting only a few other Eeols but not a trace of his friend. That was odd, as Rogue always kept close to him.

  “I guess something held him up,” he reckoned, returning to his crowd.

  The Commanders’ Area was almost completely empty as nobody felt like sticking around for small talk. Occasional groups could be seen buzzing through the vacant corridors, dejected and murmuring farewells with each Eeol heading quickly to his or her quarters.

  Xe bid goodnight to his friends and retreated to the sleeping chamber he shared with Rogue. He wasn’t there yet, and the Scout hooked himself on the ceiling rail and sealed off in a somber solitude while worrying what the future would bring.

  33.

  A Secret Discovered

  The next morning, unpleasant news hit Xe right in the face.

  “It seems your friend Rogue has fled the Hive!”

  True, the Scout didn’t find him in their quarters when he woke up but paid no attention to that believing Rogue had spent the night there and left again very early in the morning wit
hout disturbing his sleeping friend. But now he heard that Rogue went out on the Promenade after the meeting yesterday to do some thinking and apparently nobody has seen him since. After he hadn’t returned for a long time, the troop of Sentinels scrambled up to the Promenade to look for him, but it seemed he had just vanished into the night.

  Xe was shocked and in total disbelief.

  “He wouldn’t act in such a way. Rogue would never abandon me willingly, I’m certain of that. Something else had to have happened. Perhaps he got assaulted there on the Promenade!”

  A large group of Eeols gathered around him shook their heads disagreeing.

  “No traces of blood have been discovered.”

  “With his sharp senses, what creature could possibly surprise him? No, he is not dead. He just got bored and left. Don’t be fooled by his words, Commander, the Hive is not his home.”

  “That’s right. He realized that the odds are against the Swarm and decided to return to his Galahas. He stated on multiple occasions he was happy there. Additionally, everything is set for him to spend the winter comfortably as you made him enough honey while you were living together. You told us that story yourself, Commander.”

  There were some grounds for their claims and a worm of doubt almost gnawed into Xe’s heart, but he turned down their explanation, stubbornly refusing to put blame on his friend. “Rogue would never leave me. Not like this, without saying anything!”

  “You trusted him too much, Commander.”

  The gossip spread faster than lightening, and those who were against the Rogue in the first place now had a chance to loosen their tongues. However, it was time for the Morning Rally, and this matter had to be put aside for more important issues.

  Supreme BeraX7719 started the Rally by calling the Queen’s Servants to make a proclamation of the Queen’s position regarding the relocation plan. Silence ruled the Central Chamber as assembled masses glanced respectfully at MedaM0075 treading dully over the waxy prominence. Somehow, he looked very old now.