Hungry Independents (Book 2) (19 page)

Barbie leaned on Hunter. Her softness weighed
upon his body and his thoughts. Both were heavy in a way that
Hunter did not want to admit. Too tired to fight, he allowed her to
share his space.

“What are we dealing with out there? It’s not
everyday a cloud of bugs fall from the sky. This has something to
do with Cozad, doesn’t it?”

“They are part of Famine’s tools. A plague of
a different sort. The bugs didn’t start off in one giant cloud, but
grew with each passing field, building in numbers, and they will
keep building.”

She paused and Hunter grasped at what she was
saying, but his mind had trouble reeling in the last bit. “Why?
What are they doing?”

“They feed. They will strip the land and feed
until there is nothing left.”

The information was too heavy combined with
everything else. He dropped his foot back for leverage and gently
pushed her off.

“The direction that cloud was headed…” he
couldn’t finish. His mind refused to allow the thought to blossom
any further than it already had. But the idea had mushroomed and
the spores were spreading fear throughout his limbs, numbing with
deadly poison.

“Yes,” Barbie said it for him. “It’s heading
for Independents.”

The noise of the grasshoppers outside
subsided gradually and sunlight pushed through the cracks of the
barn. Hunter rushed to the door, flipping up the board that had
locked them in and kept the bugs out. He hurried into the late
afternoon sun and then around the side of the barn to look
southeast where the cloud progressed in a wispy, buzzing trail. The
awesome bulk filled the horizon, carrying disaster toward Hunter’s
home.

On a nearby hilltop, Hunter saw Tommy the
Perv with both arms stretching toward the sky, displaying his
middle fingers. Famine smiled at Hunter. Then he descended down the
other side and disappeared after his cloud.

After a while, Vanessa left Scout alone. He
sat on the couch in the dim aftermath of his breakup, wishing he
had something better to do than wait for supper.

Raven didn’t need to leave town. They could
have worked their problems out together like couples did, not bolt
when the first sign of trouble popped up. But Raven chose the easy
way out. She was riding into the sunset while Scout sat in their
apartment and stewed.

It sucked.

Shadows stretched into the living room as
evening approached. He thought about rehearsing Sunday’s sermon,
but the idea left him feeling cold. Raven said she was leaving him
because of the way she was treated by everyone else. He was left
with a congregation that drove his girlfriend away. How was he
going to bring those kids the Good News?

Standing up, Scout noticed the early birds
milling around Main Street, waiting for the Brittanys to open their
doors. He looked at the orange sky in the west and then picked up
his spiral notebook.

He read his sermon out loud. The topic was
about loving thy neighbor. Scout didn’t miss the irony and his
presentation sounded hollow. How could he continue to preach to
these kids after the way they treated Raven? He stopped and tossed
the notebook on the couch and looked out the window again.

A black storm cloud swelled over the horizon,
rolling and breaking apart before closing back in on itself unlike
any other cloud he’d ever seen. Scout sunk his knees into the back
of the couch and leaned forward for a better look. A grasshopper
twitched outside on his window sill and then hopped into the sky,
wings buzzing.

“Do you hear that?” someone said on the
street below the open window.

“Yeah,” said another boy. “Sounds like a
car.”

“Sounds like a really big car. Let’s check it
out.”

The boys raced across the street, and Scout
leaned closer, cocking his ear. The loud drone sounded like a
tractor engine running full bore inside a barn. Scout looked back
at the cloud as the massive shadow from its approach blocked the
late afternoon sun, creating an eerie kind of twilight. His window
screen rattled from the sound and he jumped back. Then the screams
started and Scout shot out the door and ran down the stairs to the
street.

He slid to a stop on the brick cobbles as
something struck him in the face, and then another and another
until he threw up his arms, wondering if Billy had returned with
more rocks. Twenty or so grasshoppers hummed and twitched at his
feet. He picked one up. Several more bounced off his back. Scout
looked toward the sky that was falling like a giant hand intending
to crush everything underneath.

Across the street, candles were being lit
inside Brittany’s. Kids plastered their faces against the large
pane windows to see what the deal was and a few began trickling out
beneath the awnings, staring up at the creepy darkness.

“Get back inside and get everybody away from
the windows now!” Scout ran across the street, waving his arms
frantically. “They’re grasshoppers! It’s a whole cloud of
grasshoppers!”

“What’s the problem?” one of the kids said.
“Get the Raid, right?”

The first wave dropped on top of Scout and
knocked him flat. He rolled with the flow, scrambling to his feet.
Jason, the smart kid with the jokes, looked on in horror. Scout
grabbed him by the arm and another kid by the shirt collar and
flung them both through the door.

Scout charged inside after the two stumbling
boys. “Everyone get away from the windows! Blow out those
candles!”

“But we won’t be able to see,” a girl
said.

“Bugs are attracted to light.”

Candles were instantly snuffed.

“Move to the back. Don’t panic,” Scout said.
“Take the tables with you as you go.”

“Why?”

“We’ll need to hide under them.”

The sound of moving tables scraping across
the hardwood floor barely registered over the loud din of
grasshoppers outside. Scout didn’t know if the windows would hold.
The swarm that fell on him had felt like a sandbag dropping from a
hot air balloon. If that much weight pushed against the windows,
they’d have flying glass everywhere—followed by a massive bug
swarm.

Scout pushed a table to the back. “Is that
all the tables?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Luis?”

“This isn’t normal.”

“Who’s with Ginger?”

“No one’s with her right now. I was getting
us some food.”

Scout pictured Luis’s clinic with the same
large windowpanes facing Main Street. Sure, metallic blinds covered
them, but they wouldn’t hold back squat.

Scout grabbed Luis by the shoulders as the
light outside grew dimmer by the second. “Get everyone under the
tables and flip the front ones sideways, facing the windows.”

“Why?”

“In case those windows shatter and the
grasshoppers rush inside.”

Scout released Luis and moved toward the
door, tripping over the chairs that had been left behind. The noise
outside scared the hell out of him. Luis’s clinic was to the left,
past Mark’s police station and the thrift shop where Hunter and
Scout dumped off the usable stuff they found. Scout had to reach
Ginger and little James.

He pulled the door open to the giant buzzing
cloud of grasshoppers swarming down. He’d read the stories of Moses
in the Bible. Was this like the plague of locust that God unleashed
on the Egyptians to convince their rulers to free their Hebrew
slaves? Someone other than God had sent this plague. Scout was
certain.

Now the dark mass totally blocked the
sunlight. He skimmed the storefronts, running his hand over windows
and doors as bug after bug struck him and landed in his hair,
working their way under his shirt. Most disturbing were the
stinging bites once they found his skin. Scout smashed and flicked,
while shuffling through the grasshopper piles on the walkway,
stomping now and then with satisfying crunches. He passed Mark’s
and then the thrift shop. Finally he crossed the window of Luis’s
waiting room and found the door. Scout turned the knob and slipped
inside, shutting the noisy insects out.

“Ginger!”

He stood on shaky legs, swiping away the bugs
who’d ridden him inside. He stumbled through the darkness and found
the doorway that led to the delivery room.

“Ginger?”

He barely heard the crying baby over the
incessant roar outside. Scout blindly walked with small steps, his
arms stretched out in front until he bumped into Luis’s desk.

“Ginger! Where are you?”

“Scout? We’re under the desk. Is that a
tornado outside? ”

“No. There’s a billion grasshoppers dropping
out of the sky. I need to get you someplace safe.”

“What? We’re not safe here?”

Scout regarded the direction where the sound
reverberated off the windows. “No.”

“How big are the bugs?”

“There are a lot of them out there. Are you
and the baby all right?”

“Yes, thank you for coming.”

“No problem.” Scout searched his memory and
found the hallway to the back nearby, where two separate doors led
to a storeroom and a restroom. He opened one of the doors to a dark
windowless area.

“Scout?” Ginger called after him in a shaky
voice.

“Here, I’ll take James.” Scout held the
squirming bundle and helped Ginger to her feet. He cooed at James
and the baby quieted. Scout supported the baby’s head, covered by a
little stocking cap. In spite of his growing fear, Scout managed a
smile. Of course Jimmy’s kid would be wearing a hat. The baby cried
some more.

“He must really be scared,” Scout said.

“I think he’s hungry.”

“Oh? Well, I’ll let you take care of that
once we’re settled.”

Ginger laughed and laid her head on Scout’s
shoulder just as a giant crack sounded behind them. The crack
traveled straight up Scout’s spine. His fear became reality after
an enormous crash. Glass and a gust of wind blasted inside Luis’s
clinic, pitching them forward with concussive force. Scout covered
James and caught his balance inside the open doorway. A tidal wave
of insects roared into the delivery room. The door slammed closed,
leaving Scout with a hysterical baby James alone in the small
room.

Ginger screamed from the other side.

She awoke on a strange couch inside an
unfamiliar house. Margaret sat up and held herself steady as blood
rushed to her head, making her dizzy. It had been a while since
she’d performed a healing, even one as small as a broken nose.
Being the conductor of God’s light and the transference of His
divinity to the person being healed was no easy task, but people
needed miracles so they could be saved and their faith
restored.

Her head buzzed. That was something new. She
stuck a finger in one ear, trying to pop it. The front door was
open to an unnatural darkness waiting outside.

Margaret rocked forward and stood, checking
her balance before venturing on. She crossed the room and gripped
the doorframe for support. She felt better after a couple deep
breaths. The feeling ended quickly.

Samuel and Dylan stood silently in the front
yard, stunned. A massive cloud, buzzing with swarming insects,
descended in a dark, rolling blanket on top of Main Street. She was
in Dylan’s house, which had been built on a highpoint at the edge
of town. The slight elevation provided a scary view.

Margaret walked up behind the boys and
stopped beside Samuel.

He looked at her then directed his attention
back to town before bringing it once again to rest on her. His face
showed complete incomprehension. “Are you okay?”

Margaret nodded. “When did this start?”

“About five minutes ago. I’ve never seen
anything like it.”

“No one alive ever has.”

“What can we do?” Dylan asked, mirroring
Samuel’s dumbfounded expression. The tape had been removed from his
nose and the black eyes were gone. “Everyone is down there.”

Margaret nodded again and gripped Samuel’s
hand for needed support to keep her grounded. The sight of that
massive cloud and the fear for the people trapped indoors was
overwhelming. “Nothing can be done against that. All we can do is
pray for the safety of our friends...”

“Is that it, Molly?” Samuel searched her
face.

“What do you mean?”

“You,” he paused, watching her. “You healed
Dylan, just like Catherine. How is that possible?”

Margaret gazed back at the town, wishing she
could do something. She knew the concentration of bugs was not a
normal occurrence. A large amount of focused power had gathered
those insects together then pointed them like a loaded weapon
straight at Independents. Margaret was sure that Main Street wasn’t
the only destination of the swarm, but rather a brief stop. Chase
was the plague. This was the work of Famine.

“Molly?” Samuel shook her hand. “Are you sure
you’re okay?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’ve had a realization
today, thanks to Catherine. I’m still adjusting. Can we talk about
it later?”

“Sure, if there is a later.”

“I need to pray,” Margaret told them.

“I didn’t know you were so religious,” Samuel
said, letting go as she pulled away.

“I used to be a long time ago. That’s part of
the realization.”

Margaret walked over and knelt beside a large
tree with a full view of the town, under siege from the roaring
wings of a billion insects. She bowed her head and spoke to
God.

He immediately answered, as if waiting for
someone to ask for His help and eager to give it. Margaret’s
earlier fatigue was stripped away. A jolt of energy filled her and
she clenched her fists to contain the swell that His light provided
and listened for the instructions of His message.

Margaret opened her eyes, aware of His
will.