Gearing Up

by Daniel Schinhofen

  “Down. The Queen isn’t likely to be on the first level of the complex,” Alvin told her, pulling another flashlight from his bag to add more light to the tunnels. “Just go easy. If the walls look bad, we’re going to pull out and grab the demo to collapse what we can.”

  “I’m not going to disagree,” Shawn said as he checked the walls again. “Glad none of us are claustrophobic, or this wouldn’t be working at all.”

  “This isn’t small,” Becky murmured, “a suitcase is small.”

  Alvin filed that statement away for later consideration as Becky began to move again. He dropped down into the lower tunnel after her. “Now this is a conundrum—left or right,” Alvin muttered.

  “Always go left,” Shawn said from above them.

  “Why?” Alvin asked.

  “We always went left during our dungeon runs in games,” Shawn shrugged. “It worked for us, most of the time anyway.”

  “Hero?” Becky asked, doubt clear in her voice.

  “Not like we have anything else to go on,” Alvin said as he rubbed the back of her neck briefly. “Go left. With you leading us, I think we’ll find the way.”

  Becky was purring softly as she started down the left fork, filled with a warm confidence by Alvin’s praise. Her gun was up as she slunk along the tunnel with a small smile on her face.

  The tunnel system continued to sprawl, with tunnels darting off in different directions. Some were dead ends and they didn’t find any more lower levels. Long minutes dragged on even further before Becky came to an abrupt stop. Before anyone could ask what had caused her to pause, she crept forward.

  Reaching out with the tip of her gun, she nudged an ant corpse, causing it to shift so its very damaged head could be seen. “This must be the right way,” she told them. “This is the first body we’ve seen since the start.”

  “That means the larder is nearby, and the queen’s room is generally near that,” Alvin said.

  Becky looked back at him and he shrugged. “I read a lot before, so I know some useless facts.”

  Going around the dead ant, Becky led them around a curve in the tunnel, where she slowed again. Fungus was growing along the walls and some of the floor. Decaying flesh, dead ants, and other materials were spread out in a way that apparently encouraged the fungus to grow. Across the room, the tunnel continued into darkness. Becky’s penlight wasn’t powerful enough to do more than hint at what lay beyond.

  “Ready to go?” Becky asked as she looked at the fifteen-foot-wide room with its six-foot ceiling. “We can stretch a little going through here,” she said, breathing shallowly, as the stench of the room was less than pleasant.

  “A quick stretch, but don’t linger,” Alvin said as the smell drifted back to him.

  Entering the room, Becky got to her feet and stretched out her back, waiting for the other two to do the same. Once they had taken a moment, Becky crossed the room and crouched, as the tunnel went back to the narrow diameter it had been.

  Her penlight illuminated a tunnel that stretched for a handful of feet before turning sharply. From up ahead, the sound of movement could be heard. “Think she’s just around this corner,” Becky told them.

  They followed her down the tunnel, and it began opening up a little as they approached the next bend. Becky was able to get to her feet, only ducking down a little. Alvin did the same, but had to duck more, and Shawn followed along behind, in much the same position as Alvin.

  The sound of mandibles clacking caught Becky’s attention, and she slowed her pace as she came to the bend. Leaning against the wall, she poked her head around the corner with the flashlight before pulling back.

  “Okay, that looks disgusting,” Becky blanched.

  “What is it?” Alvin asked.

  “A whole lot of ants, all interlocked with each other forming a good thirty-foot sphere,” Becky said.

  “The room is that big?” Alvin asked.

  “Even bigger, I would say, and the walls are covered with eggs,” Becky told him. “I’m guessing the queen is in there somewhere.”

  “Maybe inside the other ants,” Alvin murmured, something about the description tickling the back of his mind. “We’ll just have to see what they do.”

  “I think I should go get the explosives. We can toss them in and let them do the work for us,” Shawn said.

  Alvin eyed the mass of ants and shook his head. “I think we can use them, but we need to chip that shell of ants away first to be sure we get the queen.”

  “I’ll go get them,” Shawn said as he triggered the flashlight on the rail of his M14. “Don’t die before I get back.”

  “Don’t die before you get back,” Alvin replied. “We’ll give you a few minutes, then we’re going to start in on these things.”

  Nodding, Shawn headed back the way they’d come. A few moments after he left, Becky leaned against Alvin. “Do you think they’ll attack en masse?”

  “I don’t think so,” Alvin said, turning enough to put an arm around her. “I think they’re all worker ants, forming a protective shell around her until more soldiers can be born. There’s at least one type of ant that does this.”

  “Book learning,” Becky snorted softly, “really?”

  “Some of it,” Alvin said. “The other parts are things that stuck when I’ve gone surfing the web.”

  “Huh,” Becky said as she leaned away from him just a little, so he could let her go if he wanted to.

  Tightening his grip on her, he dipped his head and kissed her. Breaking it before it could turn into something they might both regret, he turned the corner and looked around the edge. “Switch with me,” he said, holding out her shotgun.

  He looked back at her with a grin, “Ready for some more fun, Gothy?”

  “Of course I am, Hero,” Becky grinned back. “We going to just punch straight through?”

  “To start with. We’ll see what happens when we start killing ants,” Alvin said as he took a deep breath. “I’ll go first.” Bracing himself for all hell to break loose, he slipped around the bend of the tunnel and began firing single shots.

  It took three rounds to get through the carapace and actually damage the first ant he targeted, then another two rounds to kill it. None of the ants making up the giant ball moved or shifted, and the corpse remained in place, held by its fellows.

  “Well, fuck,” Alvin said as he stared at the mass of insects. “This is going to be tougher than I thought.”

  Becky stepped up beside him to see what he was talking about. “They’re holding the dead one in place? That’s unexpected.”

  “Hmph. Well, they didn’t break, and none of them have come after us, so let’s see what happens if we kill a few more.”

  “Sounds like fun to me, Hero.”

  A painfully high pitched chittering started up, emanating from the ball of ants and echoing down the tunnel. The dead ant was pushed out of the net and a large compound eye looked right at them for a moment before ants began to shift, closing the gap.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Alvin said, shifting backwards and wincing. “Get back to the fungus room where it narrows into the other tunnel. We need a bottleneck.”

  Becky took off running as fast as she could. Alvin looked back around the corner and his eyes went wide. Fleeing after her, he hoped he could outdistance the bugs. “Fuck... me… Run faster!”

  Becky glanced over her shoulder as she crossed the fungus room, her eyes going wide as she saw the ants surging out of the tunnel behind Alvin. “Yes, run faster!” she said, running toward the tunnel across the room. Without slowing, she dropped into a slide, letting her momentum carry her feet first into the narrow tunnel.

  Alvin watched her slide and glanced back once more, seeing over a hundred worker ants surging at him. He dropped into a slide of his own, rolling onto his stomach and summoning his rifle.

  Even before he’d come to a complete stop, the first few ants entered the tunnel. “Stay down!” Becky shouted, firing as he slid to a s
top next to, and under, her.

  They opened fire on the ants, killing them off as fast as they were able. It took several shots to kill each one, with the first shots breaking away the thick carapace armor.

  “We can hold them,” Alvin shouted, his ears ringing as the tunnel began to fill with dead ants.

  They’d both reloaded many times when ants finally stopped trying to push through the pile of their dead, and Alvin and Becky were able to catch their breaths. “Fuck, that was intense,” Becky exhaled.

  “Yeah,” Alvin agreed as he lay there breathing heavily, the air thick with smoke and the smell of gunpowder, rotting meat, and fungus. “I hope Shawn gets back soon.”

  Minutes went by as they waited, and eventually they could make out a light in the tunnel behind them. “Holy fuck, what happened?” Shawn asked as he got closer.

  “The queen was in the middle of a giant ball of ants. She was less than amused that we killed one of them,” Alvin said. “You got the explosives?”

  Shawn held up a large bundle of dynamite that had all been taped together with the fuses tied to a single point. “This is probably more than we need.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Becky said. “It takes a lot to break through the shells of the smaller ones. I suggest using all of it. Overkill is never a bad idea.”

  “We have to get back to her first,” Alvin reminded them both. “They stopped trying to come in the tunnel, but who knows what the fuck they’re doing now?”

  “Only one way to find out,” Shawn said. “Oh, by the way, we got one of the trucks backed up to the hole and have a rope coming down it now. It was a bitch going up that shaft without help.”

  “That’s what took you so long,” Alvin nodded. “Okay, let’s loot these bodies and then—”

  He was cut off as a bit of the ceiling collapsed onto him, followed by ants pouring down from the newly opened tunnel. Becky leaned back and fired up at the mass in the ceiling. “Plug the hole,” she shouted at Shawn.

  Alvin swapped his rifle for the hand gun with a thought, freeing his right arm to keep the mandibles of the ant on top of him away from his neck. His gunfire was lost amid the others, but he felt the ant slump as the gun locked open on the empty chamber. A second ant landed on him, forcing him to jam his left arm into its mandibles as it started attacking him. Summoning the rifle again, he pushed it against the abdomen of his attacker and pulled the trigger until the ant stopped moving. Unfortunately for him, more ants pushed their dead brethren out of the way, burying Alvin under their bodies.

  “Hero!” Becky screamed. She had to pause to reload while Shawn kept firing.

  “I’m alive,” he yelled, struggling to get free of the tangle of limbs and bodies. His hand touched one and a pop-up asking if he wanted to loot it hung in the air in front of him. Accepting the loot prompt caused the ant’s body to vanish, making it easier for him to wriggle free. He accepted the others, letting the items lay on the floor as he brought his gun to bear on the hole. “Fuckers, eat this.”

  After another minute, the push of ants stopped. Panting, the three of them looked at each other as they reloaded. “Well, are we going to try killing all of them?” Shawn asked as he looted a body and helped Becky gather up the items on the floor.

  “Preferably not,” Alvin said. “We just need to kill the bitch. So I have a plan that Gothy isn’t going to like.”

  Face going blank, Becky stared at him. “You’re not going to—”

  “We’ll loot the bodies,” Alvin said, cutting her off, “and when the way is clear, I’m going for the queen. I’ll be fully armored up and running. You both need to keep them off me as best you can. When I come back this way, you need to run. I’ll be behind you, and I don’t want to be in the tunnel when that stack goes off.”

  “No,” Becky said, glaring at him. “This isn’t acceptable.”

  “It is,” Alvin said, staring her down, “I want this bitch dead for fucking with my nice easy day. Do what I say.” Holding out his rifle to her, he kept his eyes locked on hers.

  “I want you to make this stupidity up to me later. I don’t agree with this, I should be the one to go,” Becky said, not taking the rifle.

  Objectively, she was right. Her extra life cost less, but at the same time, if someone had to die, he would rather it be him. “You had the lead all way down here, so this one is mine. Besides, my Nimbleness is higher. That gives me the edge on dodging or squirming free.”

  Grabbing him, she kissed him and pressed him against the wall. Pushing clear, she sniffled, “If you die, I’m going to be very upset, extra life or not.”

  “I’m not dying in this hole,” Alvin told her, holding his rifle out to her again. “Give me the shotgun.”

  The frown stayed on Becky’s face as she reluctantly handed him her shotgun. “I’ll loot them,” Shawn said, sliding around them both. “It will be a moment.”

  Alvin kept his eyes locked on Becky. “Faith?”

  Finally dropping her eyes, she nodded and touched her neck. “I’ll trust you.”

  Grabbing her, he nipped her ear. “I’ll make it up in ways you’ll enjoy tonight, but this is going to happen from time to time.”

  Shivering and nodding, Becky sighed, “I still think it should be me.”

  “We’ll trade off as long as we both have extra lives, fair?”

  “No, but yes,” she sighed as she grabbed him and kissed him hard.

  “Last few bodies,” Shawn called out to them.

  Breaking the kiss, he rested his head against hers. “Keep me safe.”

  “Damned right I will,” Becky growled.

  Alvin waited, and as the last body vanished, he was through the hole and sprinting for the queen’s room with dynamite in hand, pulling a lighter from his pocket as he went. Gunshots behind him told Alvin that there were ants chasing him, but he had faith in Becky to keep them off him.

  No ants were in his way as he entered the far tunnel. He skidded around the final bend to the queen’s room with his head ducked. Coming to a stop with his penlight clenched in his teeth, he saw the monstrously bloated queen and a feral smile came to him as he got the flame lit. Touching it to the fuse, he tossed it right at her eye. Spitting the light into his hand, he turned to run. “Suck on that.”

  He dodged the few ants between him and the fungus room. Though some of their mandibles grazed him as he ran by, he ignored their attempts to hinder him. He could see muzzle flashes from ahead of him as he crossed the room, a couple of ants falling dead between him and the exit.

  “Run!” he yelled as he approached the opening. “Don’t stop, just go.” The lights in the tunnel dimmed as both of them turned and scrambled away. Clenching his penlight in his teeth again, Alvin came in hard, sliding into the hole at speed. Rolling as he slid, he got faced the right way and began crawling after the retreating forms in front of him.

  A minute later, a loud boom echoed down the tunnels. The walls shook and dust fell as the tunnels started to become unstable. Becky hissed around her penlight as she kept going, the bouncing light of Shawn’s rifle bobbing along behind her. A frown crossed her face and she slowed, letting Shawn pass her as she turned to look for Alvin.

  The tunnels rumbled again and more dust fell. “We have to go,” Shawn said.

  Pulling the light from her mouth, Becky snarled at him, “Not without Hero.”

  “Go,” Alvin’s voice came from down the tunnel as more dust fell, filling the air with thick haze. “That’s an order, Gothy.”

  The collar on her neck warmed, and she felt an overwhelming urge to flee as she had been ordered. Resisting the command, she tried to wait, but the collar began to prickle at her neck and the urge became stronger and stronger. The light was cut off by a large puff of dust and Becky let out a scream of rage, “Hero!”

  “Go, damn it,” Alvin coughed as he kept going forward. “I’ll be right behind you. Trust me, now go!”

  His confidence and the collar forced her to obey. Shawn was already
distant, as he hadn’t waited after Alvin’s first command. Becky was gaining on Shawn with her better Nimbleness and Hardiness. As she went, she kept glancing over her shoulder, but didn’t see any lights.

  Shawn suddenly jumped up and scrambled away. Becky slid to a halt, even with the collar warm on her neck and her brain telling her she had to go. Looking at the way up, she waited against the compulsion to go.

  She looked back at the tunnel in time to see Alvin coming toward her. “Go!” he shouted again as he scrambled forward, his face covered in dust, and a trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth.