by Jeff Strand
"No, it's too dangerous," said Dr. Ruiz. "They can't get in here. We wait, yes?"
"Yeah, but how's anybody supposed to find us?"
"I'll try again," said Roberta, walking back over to the receptionist's desk. She picked up the phone, placed the handset to her ear, and then rapidly tapped on the plunger several times. "Oh, great."
"What?"
"I'm not getting the all circuits are busy message anymore. Now the phone isn't working at all."
"Those things must've chewed right through the phone lines," said Zachary, shaking his head in frustration. "You've got a cell phone, right?"
"I don't," said Roberta.
"I bought one for emergency use only," said Dr. Ruiz. "It's in the car."
"Well, that's just wonderful. I looked into gettin' one for myself, but I ain't signin' any long-term contract with those bastards. So what do we do?"
Roberta tapped the plunger a few more times, and then replaced the phone in its cradle. "It's not the Apocalypse. If we just hide out here, I'm sure the authorities will take care of the problem. They're just ants, I'm sure they've got stuff that can kill them."
"It'll probably kill us, too," Zachary muttered. He rubbed his jaw. "I sure wish this numbness would go away."
"Anyway, what I'm saying is that things can't possibly be that bad. If we wait it out, we'll get out of this without any problems."
Zachary considered that. "What you're really saying is that things could be a hell of a lot worse elsewhere, so we'd better stay put so we don't go out of the fryin' pan into the fire, right?"
"You're not the cheeriest person in the world, are you?" asked Roberta.
"Not after a root canal, no. I'll be cheerier when I can feel my face."
"So what do you think is causing this?"
Zachary shrugged. "Could be those x-rays that you guys bombarded me with. You forgot to make tiny protective vests for the ants, and now we've got a shitload of problems."
Roberta chuckled. "I always knew we were doing evil work here. Darn that radiation. And here I thought it was black magic."
"That was my guess," said Dr. Ruiz. "You are a witch, yes?"
"Oh, absolutely. Actually, there aren't even any ants out there; it's all just an elaborate spell I cast over both of you. Sorry about that."
"To be completely serious, I'll tell you what it is," said Zachary. "It's that goddamn malathion we sprayed all over the meadflies. Messed with our ant population. Somebody needs to get canned for that one."
"Or maybe they're from outer space," Roberta suggested.
"No, really, it's the malathion. Who knows what else it did? We've probably got foot-long maggots squirmin' around in our sewers and we just haven't found them yet."
"At least the alligators will have something to eat."
"It's genetics," said Dr. Ruiz. "Research gone bad."
"Yeah, that's another good one," Zachary agreed. "Those scientists were out there tryin' to make square watermelon or straight bananas and they screwed up ant DNA or somethin' like that."
"It seems like you'd have to be working directly with ants to mess up their DNA," said Roberta.
"No, not if they crawled into the watermelon maker or whatever they use. Of course, those government people are so dumb sometimes that maybe they thought we could get some kind of benefit out of really big ants."
"Like what?"
"Maybe they eat meadflies."
"I'm still voting for outer space. I'm sure they'll return to their home planet after they abduct a few rednecks."
"Did you hear that?" asked Dr. Ruiz.
Everybody was silent for a moment. There was a scuffling sound coming from one of the other rooms.
Roberta got up and slowly walked down the hallway, followed by Dr. Ruiz and Zachary. She looked into each room in turn, but they were all empty. At least, as far as she could tell.
The sound was getting louder the further back she walked.
She reached the end of the hallway. There was one door to her right, and it was shut.
"Should we just leave it closed?" she asked.
They stood there and listened.
"Is the sound coming from in there?" wondered Zachary. "I can't tell for sure."
"I say leave it closed," said Dr. Ruiz.
"I'm kind of curious, but yeah, I'm gonna have to agree," said Zachary. "We've got a good thing going here, let's not ruin it by being stupid."
"You're right." Roberta leaned over and put her ear next to the door. "That room doesn't have any windows, though. How could they possibly have gotten in there?"
"Maybe they can chew through walls now," said Zachary.
"Let's go back," said Dr. Ruiz, turning around the walking back toward the waiting room. "I needed to replace some things in there anyway."
"Good idea." Zachary started to follow him, then looked back at Roberta. "Come on. I'm sure we'll find out what's in there soon enough."
Suddenly the ceiling collapsed, showering Roberta with chunks of plaster and over one hundred red ants.
* * *
*-CHAPTER FIFTEEN-*
It was almost too much for Moni's mind to process at once. Trevor was dead. Lavin, Inc. was being overrun by ants on the outside, and possibly now on the inside. Maybe the venom of a single ant wasn't fatal, but it sure didn't take much more than that to kill a human being.
They reached the loading dock, which was like a huge garage. The sliding door at the far end was wide open, and ants were streaming inside by the dozens. Moni realized with horror that the only reason they'd taken this long to enter the main part of the building was because they were distracted by two dead bodies, neither of which were recognizable under the mass of ants.
If only there'd been a truck inside...
Abigail cursed loudly. The button to open and close the sliding door was on the far end of the loading dock, and there were so many ants in here now that getting there would be virtually impossible. For a second Moni thought that Abigail was actually going to try it, but instead she pulled the hallway door shut. There was a one-inch gap at the bottom.
"Moni, step on as many of these ants as you can," Abigail ordered. "Jack," she said, as he came running down the hallway. "Give me your shirt."
Skipping the wise-ass comment such a request would normally elicit, Jack pulled off his shirt and handed it over as Moni went to work on the ants. She wished she had a good solid pair of work boots.
Abigail took the shirt and stuffed it underneath the door. "This isn't going to hold them."
"Need my pants?"
"No, we need the front desk. Moni, keep at it."
Moni wasn't big on having orders barked at her, but given the circumstances she could let it slide. She continued trying to stomp the ants as Abigail and Jack hurried back to the employee entrance, but with this many ants scurrying around it was extremely difficult to step on them while at the same time making sure she didn't get stung.
There was a loud crash. Obviously keeping the stuff on top of the desk in good condition was not a primary concern.
Abigail and Jack returned, with the desk on its side, sliding it along the carpet. "Drag it toward the other wall," said Moni, stepping back as they approached. "Then you can let it fall and squash a bunch of them before we block the door."
"That'll work," said Jack, veering the desk toward the left. They reached the door to the loading dock and let the desk topple over, the surface striking the floor and sending a couple of dozen souls to ant hell. The three of them pulled the desk back onto its side then slid it in front of the door.
"Is there a gap?" asked Moni, breathlessly. "Can they get through?"
"Looks pretty tight," said Jack. "I think we're good for now, at least."
"Is Mr. Kamerman on his way?" asked Abigail.
"Yeah. He sounded pissed, but I'm sure he'll get over it when he sees what happened down here."
"We need to head back upstairs, get a good vantage point to see how far out this ant problem stretches. Then we need to fi
nd a way to get past them."
"We could try to make a run for one of our cars," said Jack.
"I'm on the third floor of the parking garage," said Abigail. "What about you?"
"Third floor, too."
"I'm on the second floor, but at the far end."
"Well, we know that Mr. Get Here At Nine-Thirty didn't get a good parking spot, either. So it's too dangerous."
"Maybe they aren't in the parking garage," said Jack. "Maybe the only reason they're around the building is because they know we're in here."
"That's giving ants a lot of credit, don't you think?" asked Abigail.
"Ants that big deserve a little credit."
"Either way, let's at least take a couple of minutes and see what we're up against."
The elevator doors opened, and Mr. Kamerman stepped out. "What's the problem?" he asked. "What happened to Trevor?"
"I'll tell you on the way back up," said Abigail, moving past him into the elevator. Moni and Jack followed. Mr. Kamerman put a hand over his mouth as he saw the ants, and hurriedly stepped back into the elevator. Abigail pressed the button for the second floor.
"Trevor's dead," Abigail said. "The ants killed him. They got Cindy from marketing, too, and who knows how many others. And they're all over the outside of the building."
"He's _dead_? Are you kidding me?"
The doors to the second floor opened. "We need to see if anybody else is in the building," said Abigail, stepping out of the elevator.
The four of them called out loudly for about thirty seconds, but there was no response. They returned to the elevator and headed up for the third floor.
Jack looked up at the ceiling. "Do you think they can chew through elevator cables?"
"Jesus, Jack, don't even say something like that," said Moni, looking nervously at the ceiling herself. It probably wasn't out of the question. They should have taken the stairs.
The third floor was equally vacant, or at least nobody responded to their calls.
"Are you positive he's dead?" asked Mr. Kamerman, as they returned to the elevator.
"He's dead, trust me," said Abigail, pressing the fourth floor button. "We wouldn't have left him behind otherwise."
"Oh, that poor boy. Didn't he have children?"
"No."
"Still, this is horrible. What are we going to do?"
The elevator doors opened, much to Moni's relief. "First," said Abigail, "we're going to see how bad the situation really is. Then we'll take it from there."
She swiped her ID card in the reader, and then opened the wooden door. The four of them walked through the doorway, hurrying toward the large window that took up much of the wall on the west side.
"Oh, we are _so_ dead," whispered Jack.
Actually, Moni had been relieved. It was bad out there, no question about it, but if they padded themselves up, found something to keep the ants at bay, and ran like maniacs, they'd be able to make it from the building to the second or third floor of the parking garage. Yes, there were probably tens of thousands of ants out there, but while they were all over the lawn, their numbers didn't seem to be stretching out much further than that. Maybe they _were_ going where the food was.
"Here's a question," said Jack. "Why aren't they crawling on the side of the building?"
"They must be too big," said Abigail. "At least that's something we have in our favor."
As if to prove her wrong, a single ant crawled onto the window from above.
This one was the size of a large rat.
* * *
*-CHAPTER SIXTEEN-*
Another gunshot.
Gary Youngman cried out as the bullet tore through his left thigh. Slash released his grip on the teenager and Gary dropped to the floor of the convenience store, clutching his bleeding leg.
Dustin wanted to make a move to escape from these psychos, but it was still too dangerous. At the very least, though, they all had to get away from the ants _and_ the panicked police gunfire.
"We have to go out the back way," he said, as ants rapidly poured in through the broken glass door. "There may be fewer cops there!"
Dustin half-expected to hear some sort of enraged comment about how he wasn't the one in charge here, but Hack immediately turned and dragged Louise toward the back of the store, as she desperately stretched her arms out toward her fallen son. Slash looked at the boy, at the broken door, and at the boy again. "What about the kid?"
"Leave him!" Hack said.
"_No_!" Louise wailed.
Slash pointed his revolver at Dustin. "You're mine, now," he said. "Get moving."
That wasn't something Dustin needed to be forced at gunpoint into doing. He followed Hack and Louise toward the back of the store. Though he felt absolutely sick to his stomach with guilt over leaving the boy wounded and bait for the ants, there wasn't anything he could do with a gun at his back, and he definitely didn't have time to try to convince Hack and Slash that it would be in their best interest to drag along a crippled hostage.
"What about the walk-in cooler?" asked Hack.
"Forget that," said Slash. "I'm not trapping myself anywhere."
Hack opened a door that said "Employees Only," then smacked Louise in the side of the head with the hand holding the gun as she made an attempt to break free and return to her son. "You wanna die with him?" he asked.
"Let me go, you -- " Another smack, this one quite a bit harder, silenced her.
The back area of the convenience store was a complete mess, filled with randomly strewn boxes and a desk that must have contained every piece of paperwork generated by the business for the past ten years. One door was clearly the walk-in cooler, the other said "Restroom" with a smaller sign that read "Please conserve toilet paper," and the third had a red "Exit" sign over it.
"_Yes_!" said Hack. "We're outta here."
Dustin cringed as he heard Gary howl in agony. He tried to make himself believe that it was just pain from the bullet in his leg. He didn't do a very good job.
Hack pushed open the exit door. Dustin briefly wondered why no police officers had come in this way to try to sneak up on the hostage situation, but then figured that you could only open it from the inside.
There were three cops out in the back of the convenience store, one of whom was lying facedown on the ground and covered with ants. Dustin assumed it was a cop, anyway. He couldn't see the police uniform, or lack of one, through the blanket of insects.
One of the cops looked away from the infestation long enough to notice them coming through the back door. "Don't move!" he shouted.
Hack shot him in the chest. Louise slammed her hands over her ears; the gun was fired about three inches from her head.
The other officer was busy wiping ants off his legs, but took a shot at Hack that missed, despite their being less than fifteen feet apart. Slash fired, missing as well. Two more shots were exchanged, with the officer's bullet going completely wild and Slash's bullet pounding into the officer's stomach. The cop doubled over, fell to the ground, and was immediately overtaken by the ants.
There was a police car about twenty feet away from them, the engine still running. The robbers and their hostages moved toward it.
"Please, you don't need me any more," Louise begged. "Let me go back to my son!"
"Shut up!" Hack shouted.
"_Please_!"
"You want a bullet in your mouth?"
Then Louise began to shriek. "_They're on me_!" A couple of ants ran up her leg and under her skirt. Dustin kicked away a few that were getting too close to him.
"Move!" Hack shouted, giving Louise a violent shove. She lost her balance and fell forward, throwing out her hands to break her fall. Several ants were on her in no time.
Hack started to reach for her, but pulled back as the ant swarm thickened. Louise began rolling around, trying in vain to get the ants off her body.
"Just leave her!" Slash said, jabbing Dustin in the back with the barrel of his gun to spur him on. They both r
an for the police car.
"We need her for a hostage!" Hack insisted.
"Forget the hostages! We need to get the hell out of here!" Slash threw open the front passenger door of the squad car and poked Dustin with the gun barrel again. "Get in!"
Dustin got in the car, and Slash closely followed him, hurriedly slamming the door shut. Hack made a move as if he were going to kick Louise in the head, but then decided against it and rushed over to the car as well.
