“Well,” he thought indignantly, “I never liked them either.”
Seth did expect to see some movement, like after a big blizzard. Usually his neighbors would be helping each other dig out. But this was weird, really weird. There was no sign of humanity. Well, just Marni and him, and he thought with a chuckle, at least one of them was human.
People were completely freaked out and staying to themselves. Who cares, it was just a bunch of bugs. Someone was going to have to clean it up eventually. Hopefully Congress wouldn't take a snooze when it came to providing relief. He wondered briefly if he had insurance coverage for this. If he didn’t, it looked like a permanent home in Arizona for him. He shuddered at the thought of sharing space with his in-laws.
Continuing the pace, a dozen cicadas landed on Seth’s side between his armpit and hip bone. The last time cicadas landed on a human it was Dominic, and they both knew how bad that turned out. Seth froze.
“Seth!” Marni hushed. “Don’t move.”
The cicadas fluttered and lazily went back to sleep on Seth. He reached around with his left hand and slowly picked each one off. He set each one down with the rest of the gently humming brood.
They both made their way up Jimmy’s long and cluttered driveway. The bugs were hip deep here.
The cars were unrecognizable, completely blanketed with cicadas. Here and there a faint cheep of a lone bug called out. I mean, Seth wondered, where were all the birds? He looked up to the empty night sky as they neared the porch, and again he was surprised at how silent everything was. He moved the scarf from his mouth, “Jim? Jimmy. Mrs. Cain? Hello... anybody home?”
A large cicada flew right onto Seth’s back. This bug was awake, annoyed and ready to attack.
“Seth!” Marni screeched, hitting his shoulders.
“What!” He ducked; she was really hurting him. “Stop, Marni!”
“It’s on your back!”
Now he felt the weight of something warm on his back. He pushed himself against the post of Jimmy’s railing, hearing the satisfying crunch of the now-dead bug.
“Got you. It’s not that bad, Marni. Just crush and repeat.”
“Seth, please, let’s get out of here quickly.” Marni’s eyes and nose were running from behind the camera. She was clearly not an attractive crier.
Seth quietly brushed off smaller cicadas frozen on the creaky screen door. Oddly enough, the door to the house was ajar. He turned the camera flash into the darkened interior. Goosebumps moved up his spine, and Seth wondered why crazy Jimmy left the house open. “I wonder if there is an underground bunker somewhere under all the garbage,” he thought.
They entered the kitchen; dust motes mixed with insect wings floated on the grayish air. It was foul in there. Marni gagged, and he heard her dinner making a return appearance in a messy corner of the kitchen.
“Stinks,” she uttered thickly.
“It sure does,” Seth whispered.
“Jimmy,” he called tentatively. They walked into the den; the place looked abandoned. “They must have cut out of here,” Seth said as he tripped hard against something on the floor. It felt soft and hard at the same time, and for a minute Seth felt black dots floating before his eyes. It couldn’t be, he thought, it just couldn’t be. Feeling trapped in some bad science fiction movie, Marni moved the camera flash down to shine it on the decaying face of Jimmy. Seth was a mere inches from his face.
Seth heard screaming, and when he looked at Marni’s horrified face, he realized they were both howling at the top of their lungs. This didn’t happen in Oyster Bay. This couldn’t be happening in America. This wasn’t real. He wanted to wake up, now!
Marni clutched his shoulder and helped him up. He screamed like a girl, he thought ashamedly.
“Seth, we have to get out of here,” she told him breathlessly.
For the first time in thirty-two years, Seth was speechless. No sound came from his mouth. He worked his jaw but could find nothing to add, no pithy remark. He knew only he wanted to go home and be with his wife. For a scant second, he wouldn’t have minded her father as well.
Reason returned. “Wait, Marni. We should find out if his mom is OK.” He forced himself to relax and breathe deeply—well, not too deeply, but calmly.
“Are you kidding me?” she hissed.
“Well, she might be. And we’ve got to take some supplies. I’ll check out the bedroom. You go back to the kitchen and see what’s in the cabinets.”
“I’m staying right next to you. What do you think happened to Jimmy? Did the bugs really eat him?”
“I guess he wasn’t prepared for this,” Seth said as he inched down the dark, hot corridor to the bedrooms.
How could anyone prepare for something like this? He wondered briefly about the family that ran to upstate New York where there were mosquitos bigger than helicopters, what could one expect from the cicadas.
He thought about extreme preppers and all their canned goods, and wondered who would outlast whom. String beans or the bugs? Are you feeding yourself just to be more food for the bugs or do you run? And furthermore, run where? Ultimately, he realized, you have to know what you’re prepping for. Nobody in the world could have prepared for something as biblical as this.
Marni followed, feeling Jimmy was going to get up and pull a prank on them. She kept looking back at his feet in the living room. He was swollen and bloated, his shirt torn open. His body was covered with cicadas sticking their ovipositors into his flesh.
“Hello,” Seth blurted out. “Hello. Ma’am. It’s Seth Fletcher, your neighbor.”
Nothing. Just the sound of cicadas scurrying up and down the hall with them.
Seth noticed an open door.
“Shine the light in there.”
Marni moved the camera to the door that was cracked open. Seth opened the door even further. It felt jammed until he realized he was moving a pile of those bugs with every inch he shoved open the door.
There she was. Lying on a bed in pitch darkness covered with those things. Their rattlesnake shrill echoed in the room. Seth gagged while Marni screamed. The room stank of rot.
Jimmy’s mom was grossly overweight, but now she was even more swollen. There were bugs in her hair, on her face, underneath her nightgown. Speechless, Seth stared back at the sightless eyes. "I don't believe this. Wake me, Marni.” It was sickening to see.
Nothing mattered at this point. Seth knew he had to get the supplies, get whatever else he could, and get home to his wife.
The door creaked and some cicadas started flying around the room. Seth slammed the door shut, waking cicadas in the house. They started flying around, landing on them.
“Let’s raid the supplies and get out of here.” They made their way back into the kitchen, and after brushing off boxes against the wall, Seth asked Marni to take out the reusable shopping bags Lara had so thoughtfully packed. They stuffed them with water packets and canned goods.
“Should we take the tuna? You know how Lara feels about the mercury.”
“Well, she’ll just have to make do.” Seth loaded the bag with whatever he could fit in it.
“I’m going into the basement. You stay up here.” Seth grabbed the camera and galloped down the dark stairwell. “Keep talking to me so I know you’re OK.”
“Amazing grace, amazing grace…saved a wretch like me…”
Seth heard Marni’s reedy voice eerily down the steps.
“Um, cheerful,” he called back and started humming with her.
The bugs were not so overwhelming here, and in a backpack Seth stuffed bandages, antibiotics, a Swiss army knife and … “Hello, darling,” Seth whispered as he took a Glock off the shelf. He grabbed ammo, hoping it fit the gun, and bounced up the steps two at a time.
“Let’s blow this joint.”
“Where are the cops?” Marni whimpered, holding Seth’s hand as they walked through the carpet of insects. “Why isn’t anyone helping us?”
Seth yanked her, walking as fast as
he could. “I don’t know. I just know that prepping wasn’t enough. Man, am I glad I didn’t waste money on that.”
Seth gave the camera back to Marni. They got to the front door. “Count of three. We open and go back.”
“OK.”
“One,” Seth said.
“Two,” Marni was hyperventilating.
“We are gonna die!” Marni howled. “All of us! We are dead. This is bad, really, really bad.”
“Stop it,” Seth shook her. “You have to be strong now, Marni. Lara and Dominic need us. Stop wigging out. I know you’re stronger than this.”
“You do?”
“Yes, I know you took care of Lara in college. I may not respect the choices you made in life, but I respect you.”
She hugged him hard. This very well could be their last hug.
“Are you ready?” Seth asked.
Marni nodded her head.
“Three.”
They opened the door slowly. The cicadas were still sleeping outside. They made their trek back home, realizing they were in Jimmy’s house longer than they should have been.
Seth passed the window to Jimmy’s mother’s room and noticed the glass was broken. The cicadas must have punched through the glass and gotten into her room.
As they waded through the bug muck, Seth felt something wrong with the air. If the weight of the cicadas could have broken the window, something worse was going to happen.
He glimpsed to his right. He wasn’t psychic, but he only knew he had a great sense of foreboding. It was as crushing as the mountains of bugs outside. He hated that feeling. On the side of Jimmy’s house was an enormous tree. It topped out at about thirty feet. That was on par for Oyster Bay. Trees were everywhere. That’s why everyone’s allergies were so bad during the springtime.
The tree was covered with cicadas. A large branch of the tree was starting to bend from the weight. It creaked and groaned with the weight of the heavy bugs. Seth didn’t know if they could make it home in time.
Grabbing Marni’s hand, he started running fast. The cicada looked about ready to awake and swarm both of them.
The tree branch bent lower until the pressure snapped the bark. The loud crack woke thousands of cicadas as they fluttered away from the tree and toward Seth and Marni.
“Run!” Seth yelled. He didn’t care if he was going to wake the cicadas or not; he was not ending up like Jimmy.
Marni and Seth blasted off from the house, but running in knee-deep bugs was like running in a pool. The friction was too much, and the faster they wanted to go, the longer the route took. They had to get back into the house. Seth started thinking about the weight of the cicadas on the glass and the roof.
As Marni was trying to get through the mess, she tripped and landed face down on the glistening bugs. The cicada quickly scattered around her, engulfing every part of her body.
The camera was quickly covered with the sea of bugs.
Seth fired shots in the air. It was the first time he had ever shot a gun in his life. It was so loud. He covered his ear with his shoulder. He didn’t think, just reacted.
The cicadas scattered off Marni in all different directions. The wet suit had kept her safe. Seth was furiously dusting the remaining bugs off her.
She felt them poking.
Her backpack was protecting her back as well. It was heavy with all that water. Instead of dusting it off, Seth ripped it from her body. The cicadas swarmed the backpack. He dropped it in the mess.
She stumbled to her feet, snatched the camera off the ground, and ran with Seth to the house.
They made it to the porch. Seth fired at the cicadas hoping they would scatter, which they did. He kicked cicadas off the glass screen. Lara was standing there trembling.
Seth and Marni opened the door and fell inside. The door slammed behind them. Marni threw the camera on the hallway table.
They start rolling around the floor crushing whatever cicadas were stuck to their bodies.
As Marni rolled, tears poured down her face. “We're dead, we're so dead.”
“Honey, I’m home,” Seth called out as he rolled from side to side crushing the bugs.
Lara kneeled down next to him. “Tell me what to do. Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“We went for dinner. Saw a movie. It was a nice date, right Marnes?” Seth packed the heat in the back of his jeans. “Use only in case of emergency.”
Lara knew Seth was fine. If he was joking, he was fine.
“I was so worried about you,” she said as she kissed him. “I’ve been holding Dom’s hand. He’s worse; he keeps getting worse. We have to give him some water.” She was dirty and disheveled.
Marni had already stripped out of her dirty gear and got into her plaid pajama bottoms and t-shirt. She went to the living room and held Dom’s head. Seth stripped down to his T-shirt and jogging pants.
“Where’s the water?” asked Lara.
“There were too many cicadas,” replied Seth.
“What else did you get?”
“I got a gun.”
“I heard the gunshots. That was you? Who were you shooting at?”
“Worst-case scenario, we can use it on ourselves.”
This stopped everyone in the main foyer. Seth was joking, but they knew there was a hint of being serious. Was that their worst-case scenario, or had they just reached the worst-case scenario. Seth knew if the house wouldn’t hold up and those bugs were destroying everything in their path, they would have to kill themselves or die a horrible death like Jimmy and his mother. Just thirty feet from his house lay Seth’s dead neighbors. If it could happen to Jimmy, who prepped, it could happen to them.
Seth wasn’t about to give up. “I’m just kidding. We’ll never give up. Help has to come.”
Marni was listening to Dom’s chest. “He’s barely breathing. Come on, honey, please sit up.”
Seth took the camera and put it on the fireplace overlooking the living room. This way, everyone had light to see.
Dominic gave a gurgling cough and started shaking uncontrollably. Foaming from the mouth and convulsing, he started spewing vomit, which just missed Marni. He sat up frozen. Everyone held their breath.
He opened his eyes.
“Dom!” shouted Marni.
Dominic didn’t respond at all. His eyes rolled in the back of his head, and he collapsed backwards. His tense arms and knees were finally relaxed.
Everyone lost it. Marni started hitting Dom. Lara broke down in tears. Dominic couldn't be dead. Seth bent over to open one eyelid. The pupils didn’t respond. “I’m sorry, Marni. This is bad.”
Marni shook his chest. “Dominic!”
“I don’t believe this.” Lara turned to Seth, stupefied. “What’s happening to us?”
Seth took a blanket from the couch and covered Dominic’s face. Marni fell to the floor, punching a couch cushion. Seth tried to console her, but she moved away.
The room fell silent. They were done for, and everyone knew it. Seth backed himself into a corner; Lara leaned up against him. Marni curled herself up in pain, sobbing over her dead boyfriend.
“We are grasshoppers,” Seth began. "We are all grasshoppers.”
“What are you talking about, Seth?” Lara looked at him.
“This ant, this little tiny ant went around the field collecting grains of wheat and barley so he could store up food for bad times. Well, a grasshopper watched the ant and laughed, laughed and laughed at the ant. ‘Whatcha doing, li’l guy,’ he asked? ‘Getting prepared for hard times,’ the ant responded without stopping his work. The grasshopper picked up a fiddle and started to sing the day away.”
“Seth, stop,” Lara moaned.
“This ant. He didn’t pay any attention to the grasshopper and went about his business. When the harvest was washed away by rain, and the bad times came, the grasshopper got hungry. He went to the ant and begged for a bit of food.”
“Your prepper
was dead, Seth,” Marni hissed. “What’s your point?”
“Jimmy’s dead?” Lara whispered, shocked.
“The ant replied, ‘Oh, grasshopper, poor grasshopper. If you had done some work yourself instead of singing and making fun of me while I was hard at work, you wouldn’t be asking me for food. ’”
“What’s your point? Dominic is dead; Jimmy is dead. His food is useless to both of them!” Marni screamed.
“The world is fiddling, and all the ants are dead,” Seth replied tonelessly.
“I don’t understand you.”
“There are no cops because nobody ever believed something like this could happen. The world is made up of grasshoppers who think nothing is ever going to happen to them.”
“What happens to the grasshopper in the story?” Lara asked in a small voice.
“The grasshopper dies,” Marni said colorlessly.
Lara grabbed her belly and sobbed, tears dripping down her face.
Seth, caught up in his own misery, realized he was crying for the first time in his known life.
“I’m a grasshopper too,” he wailed as his arms curled around Lara.
Lara sighed softly and became deadweight in his arms. “Lara!” he screamed.
Her eyes rolled back in her head as she clutched her stomach. Water poured down her legs.
Chapter 9
Labor
“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
“I need a kid now like I need a fucking hole in my head.” Seth said as he ran to the bathroom and dipped a hand towel in the toilet. He went back to gently bathe Lara’s pale face. She blinked and clutched her belly.
“You okay?” Seth asked her.
“Never better,” she replied weakly with a smile.
Marni gasped and cried out.
“Look at Dom!”
Dominic’s body started twitching. Whatever fear the three had coursing through their veins would now be magnified by a billion. They all let out a blood curdling scream.
“He’s alive!” yelled Seth. He grabbed the camera and approached Dom.
Brood X: A Firsthand Account of the Great Cicada Invasion Page 13
