Mandibles (17 page)

Moni watched in horror as Jack and the ant ran toward each other.

She wanted to call out to him, tell him to run back to safety (_was_ there any safety?), but she couldn't find her voice.
Jack was sacrificing himself for her.
If she didn't want this decision to be for nothing, she had to figure out the exact right moment to make her move.
* * * *

Right before the collision, Jack's leg twisted.

Arms pinwheeling, he tumbled forward onto the grass, an instant before the ant would have struck him. He hit the ground hard, no longer able to mentally block out the pain in his leg.
The creature had stopped moving.
He was right underneath it.
He rolled over and slammed his fist into the underside of the ant's thorax as hard as he could.
This did nothing but hurt his fist.
The ant crawled forward and began to turn around.
Jack forced himself to stand up, crying out at the sound of a loud _snap_.
The ant's head spun toward him.
Before Jack's mind could reflect upon what his body was doing, he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around its neck, or whatever it was that connected its head to its body.
It twisted its head, one of the mandibles slicing cleanly across his cheek.
And then with an incredible burst of adrenaline, Jack leapt with his good leg and pulled himself up onto the ant's back.
* * * *

Holy shit.

Jack was actually _on the ant_, riding it like a horse. Well, not quite like a horse. Jack was flat on his stomach instead of sitting upright, but ... still...
The ant flailed around, as if trying to buck him off like a rider at a rodeo, and then it took off running in the direction from which it came, taking Jack along with it.

*-CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE-*
Everybody took off in opposite directions.
The ant went after Zachary.
He ran across the front yard of the nearest home, combining virtually every element of profanity in his vocabulary into one extended curse word. He tried to cut between that house and the house next to it, but immediately realized his mistake. There was a wooden gate between the two homes, blocking access to the backyard.
Although Zachary was in good shape, he didn't see himself climbing over that thing even if there _was_ a giant ant on his tail. But since he couldn't outrun the creature, he had to give it a shot.
He rushed over to the gate, grabbed the top with both of his hands, and tried to pull himself up. He knew right away this wasn't going to work, not without something to brace his feet against.
Zachary turned around as the ant entered the area between the two homes.
He raised his fists. It was purely a reflex action, but you never knew. Maybe if the ant was willing to tie its stinger behind its back...
Then he saw a rake leaning against the side of the house. Plastic tines, but hey, he wasn't exactly in a fussy mood.
He grabbed the rake and swung it back and forth in front of him as the ant crawled closer. The ant didn't appear overly intimidated by this gesture, but then again, Zachary didn't know how to read ant facial expressions.
As he smacked the rake against the ant's head, most of the plastic tines broke off.
* * * *

Roberta needed a weapon, and the only thing she could think of was the can of lighter fluid she'd seen on the seat of the truck next to Dr. Ruiz. He groaned as she opened the door, but there was no time to see how he was doing. She grabbed the can and left. She didn't have a lighter, but his teeth and voice were proof that Zachary was a heavy smoker.

"He's trapped!" Dustin shouted, pointing between the two houses where Zachary had fled.
As Dustin jumped back on his motorcycle and started the engine, Roberta ran toward the homes. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to help out with her measly little can of lighter fluid, but she couldn't just leave Zachary to die.
* * * *

Zachary smacked the ant again and again, putting every ounce of strength into every blow with the ... well, now it was just a wooden stick, not a rake. He didn't seem to be hurting the ant very badly, but at least he was keeping it from chewing off the bottom half of his body.

* * * *

Dustin drove toward the house, hoping to see a stick of dynamite or a machine gun lying around, anything to use against the insect.

The curtains on the front window briefly parted, and he saw a woman peek through at him. He had a pretty good idea that she wasn't going to come outside and help them. The curtains closed.
An extension cord ran from the open garage to something lying on the ground. Dustin rode over to it.
A weed-whacker.
He wasn't sure if it would be useful against a giant ant, but he was sure willing to find out.
He picked up the weed-whacker, held down the button to turn it on, and sped toward the edge of the house. Roberta was already there.
* * * *

Roberta squeezed the can tightly, squirting lighter fluid onto the back of the ant. After a few squirts, she called out to Zachary. "I need your lighter!"

"Are you crazy! I'm busy!" Zachary shouted back.
Roberta quickly stepped back out of the way as Dustin zoomed toward her on his motorcycle, holding a roaring weed trimmer out in front of him like a knight's lance.
* * * *

Dustin braced himself.

Then the extension cord caught on something, and the weed whacker popped right out of his hand.
He cursed and sped past the ant.
* * * *

The ant started to twist its body around, possibly sensing the commotion behind it. Zachary quickly dug into his pocket and took out his lighter, tossed it to Roberta, and then smacked the ant in the head yet again.

* * * *

Roberta caught the lighter, flicked it on, and thrust it against the ant.

Its back burst into flames.
The ant raised its head and began to thrash around. Roberta continued to squirt lighter fluid on the creature as it maneuvered itself around to face her. The entire top half of the ant was burning.
Dustin was speeding toward them again.
This time he was holding a shovel.
She stepped out of the way, and Dustin slammed down the shovel as he passed. The ant's burning head flew off, hit the ground, and rolled toward Roberta, mandibles snapping back and forth so quickly it looked like a movie playing in speeded-up motion.
Roberta screamed and kicked it.
* * * *

Zachary had let himself relax for a split second, and therefore wasn't expecting to see a burning ant head sailing through the air toward his face. He moved out of the way as it struck the wooden gate, bounced to the ground, and lay still.

The body of the ant collapsed.
He dropped what was left of the rake and tried to make an appropriate comment, but couldn't even start to think of one and just settled for catching his breath.
Dustin drove back up. "We've got another one coming!"
"Aw, give me a freakin' break!"
"This one's bigger," said Dustin. "And it almost looks like it's got a ... rider."
* * * *

"Oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God..."

Once again Jack felt himself slipping off the back of the ant, but did everything he could to maintain his grip. The damn ant was running as fast as a horse. He almost thought it might be wise to just let go and hope that the ant kept running, but if it decided to turn around and finish him off, he was dead.
He was most likely dead anyway, but no sense forcing the issue.
As the ant ran down the sidewalk, he could see some people a couple of blocks ahead. There was something burning next to their house, but he couldn't quite tell what it was from this distance.
"Help me!" he shouted. "For God's sake, help me!"
* * * *

Still holding the shovel, Dustin drove the motorcycle across the front yard and back onto the street. He could only assume that the person on the ant wasn't taking a voluntary thrill ride and needed assistance.

He knew that meeting the ant head-on wasn't going to work, at least if he wanted to avoid accidentally killing the rider. He sped down the street, passing the ant and its terrified passenger, a kid who looked to be in his early twenties, then turned the motorcycle around and came up behind the ant.
Once he was neck-and-neck with it, he lifted the shovel.
"Let go!" he shouted at the kid.
The kid released his grip and fell off the ant's back, landing hard on the pavement. Dustin swung the shovel down as hard as he could.
A perfect hit.
The ant, now missing its head, continued to run.
Dustin applied the brakes. He was normally a rather humble person, but he had to admit, two shovel-related ant decapitations in less than two minutes was pretty darn impressive.
The kid was still lying on the street as Dustin drove over to him. "You okay?"
"I'm not sure," the kid said with a groan. "Is my brain on the inside or the outside?"
Dustin propped up the motorcycle, got off, and helped the kid to his feet. "You should be fine."
"I'm sure I -- _ow_, careful, I've got a twisted knee."
"Yeah, you hit the ground pretty hard."
"No, that was from falling out of a window."
"Oh."
"Thanks for your help," the kid said. "Please tell me you got a picture of me riding that ant. If I have to go through shit like that, I should at least be able to profit from it."
Dustin grinned. "Sorry, but no."
"Well, that's the kind of day it's been."
Dustin got the kid on the back of the motorcycle and drove back to Roberta and Zachary, who were still standing by the burning ant body. "Okay, we _really_ need to get moving," he said.
"Wait, my friend, she's stuck at Lavin Inc.," said the kid. "We need to pick her up."
"We're really in a big-time hurry."
"But it's straight down the road, about eight or nine blocks. Not very far."
"Good. It's on the way. You two follow me in the truck," he said to Roberta and Zachary.
"Hey, where are those two assholes?" Zachary asked.
Dustin glanced around. There was no sign of Hack and Slash. The cowards had probably run off. He had a horrible vision of them breaking into one of these homes and taking more hostages, but he simply couldn't worry about them any more, not when the whole city was at risk.
"As long as they're out of our face, who cares? Now let's get a move on. We've wasted way too much time already."

*-CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR-*
Moni was safe. Finally.
The other two people in the truck had introduced themselves as Zachary and Roberta. A Hispanic man of about sixty was leaning against the door, occasionally mumbling something that she couldn't understand while Roberta patted his knee. They were squeezed together pretty tightly, but it was far from uncomfortable. Jack was up ahead of her, riding on the back of a motorcycle, which had to be much smoother than riding on the back of a giant ant.
All she wanted was to go home, but they hadn't really offered that option. The guy driving the motorcycle was in an incredible hurry, and she'd been picked up and ushered into the truck with barely a word of explanation. Now they were headed to the "source of the problem," which to her sounded like the polar opposite direction from where she wanted to be traveling.
But at least there were no ants around here. Well, except for another one of the _really_ big ones, but at least it hadn't come after their vehicles.
* * * *

Dustin pulled up in front of a small, non-descript one-story building with aluminum siding. Directly behind it, possibly attached, was a tall, thin building that looked just like a six-story brick version of the monolith in
2001: A Space Odyssey
. A simple stenciled sign over the door read "Scantion Enterprises." Three extremely nice cars were parked out front.

Jack got off the motorcycle and limped after him. "This place used to be the biggest haunted house in Florida, but it went out of business a couple of years ago. You think they converted it to an ant factory?"
"I'm not sure."
"Shouldn't we have, like, an arsenal or something?"
"Probably. Did you bring one?"
Zachary, Roberta, and the new girl, Moni, got out of the truck and joined them in front of the building. Now that he'd finally reached his destination, Dustin wasn't really sure how to proceed. Should he just knock?
No, that would be stupid. If there was ever a time to just barge right into a place, this was it. He put his hand on the doorknob, took a deep breath, and prepared to barge.
* * * *

Roberta heard something behind them and started to turn around.

A loud blast.
A flash of red.
Warm, sticky liquid against her face.
As well as something thicker.
Dustin fell.
"Well, now," said Hack, standing amidst the garbage bags in the back of the truck, holding a shotgun that was balanced against the wrist of his injured arm, "that was kind of gross, wasn't it? Wow, who'd have ever thought we'd find a shotgun back here? God bless the rednecks."
He hopped out of the back of the truck, keeping the shotgun pointed at them. Slash stood up and joined him.
"Ooooh, look at that, Slash, we've got ourselves another girlie to join in the fun."
Roberta was in a state of absolute shock. Dustin lay at her feet, much of his head gone. She'd barely known him, but he'd already proven himself to be a stellar human being. He didn't deserve this, to come so far only to be shot dead by these lowlife psychopaths.
And he was the only one who had any idea of what was going on.
Zachary was the first person to recover. "I'll kill you. I swear to God I'll kill you."
"Yeah, well, I keep hearing you say that, and yet I'm finding myself very much alive. Give it a rest or you're next."
"Try it. You only get two shots out of that thing. You may get me, but my friends here will rip you apart."
Hack looked them over. "Oh, well, please explain to me where the fear factor comes in. Let's see, blowing you away would leave us with a dying old man, some black chick who's probably not even a very good dental assistant, a hot babe whose hands look like shit, and some banged-up guy who looks like he can barely stand up. I'm afraid I'm going to need a little more justification before I start quaking in my booties."
"Put down the shotgun and fight me one-on-one," said Zachary. "I'll show you some justification."
"Hmmmmm ... I'm thinking ... thinking ... thinking ... ah, no, sorry."
"All right, enough jabbering," said Slash. "This is the place Bug Boy was so desperate to get to, huh? Doesn't look like much."
"Definitely not a tourist spot," Hack agreed.
"Well, I have to admit, Bug Boy did get my curiosity up. What the hell? Let's go on in."
* * * *