Unearthed (4 page)

CHAPTER 6

As odd as it seemed, more than anything, Joe wanted a beer. It was strange, he thought, the things you think of when you don’t expect to live through the night.

They’d continued to listen to the radio as afternoon bled into evening and more of the creatures came and went. It seemed there must have been thousands of them now and Joe was afraid that the time to escape the diner had long since dissipated.

After a while, he had decided to take stock of their supplies, feeling somewhat lucky to have been at work at the time the shit hit the fan. By his estimation, they would probably be okay food-wise for a couple of weeks, if it came to that.

That was, if the bee creatures didn’t bust their way inside first.

Stacy had remained stoic as the drone of the monsters grew more steady, but John was becoming increasingly hysterical with every passing hour. His panic became ever more exacerbated when they began hearing choppers flying overhead. Too terrified to go outside, he began screaming for help through the back door, which he dared not open more than a crack.

“They’re not gonna hear you!” Joe yelled at the other man, grabbing him by the shoulder. “Even if you were on the goddamn roof they wouldn’t hear you!”

John stopped his screaming to look at Joe. “Yes! he said. “We need to get to the roof! Even if they can’t hear us, they’ll at least see us!”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

“You have the shotgun! You’ll be safe. Just shoot those bastards if they get too close!”

Joe bit back his anger. “You think I should be the one to risk my ass, huh?”

“Well...why not? It’s your diner. It’s your fucking gun. You act like you’re so fucking macho, why don’t you prove it?”

“It’s better if we just stay put for now,” Joe said, ignoring the taunts. “At least until we haven’t seen or heard any of those things for a while.”

“It’s getting worse not better!” John screamed, spittle flying through the darkness to shower Joe’s face. “We have to do something
now
!”

“You’re free to do what you want, man,” Joe said. He tossed his hands in the air and turned his back on John, shaking his head.

A distant rumble shook the diner and was followed by an explosion. Both were far enough away to not pose any immediate danger to the diner but the sounds were unnerving nonetheless. It told them all that the earth had swallowed more evidence of mankind and most probably took lives down with it.

Behind Joe, John began to cry again.

Fresh out of sympathy, Joe said “Don’t open that door unless I’m here.” Without turning, he walked out of the storage room and back into the kitchen which was now aglow with weak candlelight.

At the counter, Stacy sat toying with an unlit cigarette. Her face was drawn; she looked as though she’d aged at least a decade in a matter of hours. Joe guessed he probably looked the same.

He nodded at the cigarette. “You gonna smoke that?”

Stacy signed. “I never wanted this baby,” she said softly, without looking up at him. “But I don’t believe in abortion either, so I figured I was just fucked. Thought I might put it up for adoption, you know?”

Joe shifted his weight uncomfortably and said nothing.

“But now,” she continued, “I’m thinking maybe I do want it after all. I’m thinking about what a selfish bitch I’ve been, smoking these cancer sticks. I even kept right on smoking a little weed now and then. Drinking. I didn’t really give a fuck. I was pissed off.” Her voice hitched and Joe reached across the counter to clasp her left hand.

“So stupid,” she said. “I’ve been so fucking stupid.” She sniffed loudly, then straightened her back. “I turned the radio off. Figured I’d save the batteries since there’s been nothing but static for about an hour now.”

“Good thinking,” Joe said, because he didn’t know what else to say.

“We should have left earlier,” she said. “While it was still daylight. I have a feeling this...” She finally brought her gaze up to look him in the eye. “This is probably gonna be our last night. I’m really starting to think we’re not gonna get out of this.”

Joe frowned. “Yes, we are. Don’t think like that. Yeah, I guess we probably should have left when everything started going to hell but how were we to know things would...” He trailed off, remembering John’s words.
It’s getting worse not better.
After letting go of Stacy’s hand, he said, “You should get some rest. We’ll find some stuff to make you up a little bed on the floor away from the doors and windows. How’s that sound?”

She snatched a paper napkin from the nearest dispenser and blew her nose. When she was finished, she said, “I think I’d rather be awake.”

He nodded. He couldn’t blame her. As exhausted as he was, he didn’t think he’d have been able to sleep. Maybe later, but not now.

“What are we gonna do, Joe?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But we need a plan. I think we’ve been lucky so far but waiting around for a rescue that may never come is probably not the way we should play it for much longer.”

Stacy studied her unlit cigarette thoughtfully for a moment before turning her attention to the ceiling. “Do you hear that?”

Joe listened. All he could hear was John weeping in the back room. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh.” He turned away, intending to go check on John again.

“No,” she said. “I mean, literally,
nothing
. I don’t hear that buzzing sound anymore.”

Cocking his head, Joe discovered that Stacy was right. For the first time in hours, the constant drone of the insects travelling back and forth outside had stopped. “Maybe they all flew away?” he suggested.

“Or maybe they went to sleep.”

Joe chuckled half-heartedly.

“I’m serious,” Stacy said. “How often do you see bees at night? They really do sleep.”

He had to admit she had a point. “So...we might be able to get out of here.”

Stacy nodded. “Maybe. We should at least take a look around.”

They crossed the diner to the front windows and peered out, though it was hard to see anything at all beyond their own cars.

“It’s too dark,” Stacy said. “But as far as I can tell, nothing’s moving.”

“We should check out back, too.”

It seemed silly, but at least it gave them a purpose for the moment.

He retrieved the shotgun from where he’d put it at the far end of the counter and together they went back into the storage room, Stacy wielding the flashlight.

John was slumped on the floor, his back against the outside door, his knees drawn up to his chest with his arms wrapped around his legs and his head down.

“Gotta move, buddy,” Joe told him. “We need to take another look out back.”

Without bothering to lift his head, John asked, “What for?”

“We think those things might be gone,” Stacy told him. She sounded cautiously hopeful and Joe was glad for that, at least. “If they are, maybe we can get out of here.”

“And go where?” Despite his voice being muffled, it was clear that John was still pissed. Joe wondered if he’d always been pissed and this was just the latest drama in the younger man’s life.

“Just get up,” Joe told him.

John raised his head and squinted into the glare of Stacy’s flashlight. “My wife is dead. What the fuck do I care what happens now?”

Joe was about to explode but Stacy spoke first.

“You don’t know that,” she said. “And even if she is,
you
aren’t.”

“I may as well be.”

Slowly, Joe said, “Move your ass or I’ll move it for you.”

Face darkening, John snapped, “Fuck you! This is the stupidest fucking thing—”

Joe leveled the shotgun at him. “
Now
!”

John rose to his feet quickly, though not out of fear, but out of anger. “Oh, you’re gonna shoot me?” he shouted. “Go for it! You’ll be doing me a fucking favor!”

Despite not looking at her, Joe could sense Stacy’s eyes on him and her tension. He lowered the weapon and forced himself to speak calmly. “Thank you.”

“
Motherfucker
!” John spat as Joe brushed by him to open the door. “Fucking point a gun at me!”

Disregarding the younger man, Joe said, “Stacy, come over here with that flashlight.”

She did as asked, crouching down beside Joe who had opened the door wide enough to fit half his body through, leading with the weapon.

The beam of light pierced the night and Stacy slowly swung it in all directions, taking care to shine it back towards the woods behind the diner.

“I don’t see anything,” she whispered.

“Me neither.”

“I bet we could make it to one of the cars now,” she added.

“Probably safer on foot. We don’t want to be driving and hit one of those sinkholes.”

Behind them, John barked out a loud, phony laugh. “Oh, you don’t think so, Joe? You know a lot about it, don’t ya?”

In unison, Joe and Stacy hissed “
SHHH
!”

“Get the fuck out of the way!” John charged forward and grabbed a fistful of Stacy’s hair, yanking her backwards until her balance was lost and she went sprawling to the floor. The beam from the flashlight caused light and shadows to dance around the small storage room, producing a disorienting effect.

“
Hey
!” Joe shouted, spinning towards John, the shotgun in one hand while the other curled into a fist and reared back, preparing to strike.

John was quick however, and darted to one side, the blow glancing off his shoulder and not slowing him down in the slightest. He used his body weight to shove Joe backwards into a shelving unit. Joe managed to remain upright and not lose his grip on the shotgun but by the time he recovered, John was already out the door, racing through the back lot towards the street.

“
JOHN!
” Stacy screeched, much too late, as she stumbled to her feet and caught the door before it could swing closed. “
Come back
!”

John skidded to a stop and whirled around, tears streaming down his face. “All clear,” he shouted deliriously, throwing his arms into the air. “Not a fucking thing in—”

A large, dark shape, barely visible in the night, came over the roof of the diner and whizzed through the air. The drone was unmistakable.

Stacy screamed as the huge bee-thing crashed into John, knocking him back a good ten feet, the two of them—creature and man—rolling across the tarmac in a blur.

“Shit!” Joe shouted, lunging out the door himself, shotgun raised as he ran towards John.

“
Joe! No!”
Stacy bellowed.

Stopping, Joe tried to take aim at the creature, but he was unable to get a clear shot. He was at least twenty feet away but even in the dark that was still plenty close enough to see the bee on top of John curl its rear end and the long, dripping stinger plunge into John’s abdomen.

John shrieked loud enough to crack the night as Joe ran right up to the two of them and placed the muzzle of the shotgun against the bee’s body and pulled the trigger.

The bee creature exploded, torn nearly in half, spraying both John and Joe with a foul smelling slime that was hot to the touch. Hot enough to burn, though Joe barely noticed this fact, shouting, “
Yes!”
at the dead creature.

The victory was short-lived, as another dark shadow flew in from the direction of the street and as he spun to face it, piercing light blinded him and he raised his free arm to shield his eyes.

At his feet, John continued to wail.

CHAPTER 7

Rebecca had been cruising slowly down 99th with the Land Rover’s headlights off when she saw the man get attacked by one of the digger bees.

It was a minor miracle that she’d been able to see anything at all in the dark, and probably wouldn’t have seen the man at all, but she saw the bee first, perched on the roof of the Pinecone Cafe.

In her sluggish travels across town, she had learned two things about the bees: they were attracted to light and sound, the latter of which seemed to agitate them greatly.

She had learned both of these the hard way, the vehicle having been attacked no less than three times since she’d driven it out of Martin’s driveway.

The attacks, though frightening, had proved fruitless on the creatures’ part though. They were unable to get inside the Rover and once Rebecca had stifled her own urge to scream and the dog’s frantic barking, the things had eventually flown away. She’d had to kill the engine multiple times during her journey because the sound of it brought them towards it more often than not and despite them not being able to get at her, she still didn’t want to be swarmed.

And she’d seen swarms.

Dozens of the digger bees had descended upon a Wal-Mart parking lot, bouncing off the lamp posts the way moths bounced against porch lights.

She had kept the vehicle at a crawl, lights off, until she was a good four blocks from the Wal-Mart and had since seen other examples of the bees being drawn to light and sound.

So far, she’d seen very few people alive out on the streets and suspected that most folks had either fled early on or were hiding inside their homes. There were a lot of car wrecks along the way, mostly one-vehicle accidents, and she assumed the drivers had panicked when they’d been attacked by the flying monstrosities, crashing their cars and either escaping when they could or remaining inside, out of sight or injured.

Creeping along the road, she’d heard a man shouting and grimaced inwardly, knowing exactly what that would mean if he was out in the open and then, sure enough, she’d seen movement and, tracking the bee, she’d seen the man’s arms reaching skyward.

Her first thought was that he’d been
trying
to attract a bee, though why anyone would do such a thing, she couldn’t imagine. Then the bee had struck him and another man rushed out of the diner, also shouting.

Rebecca swerved the Rover into the lot and flipped the headlights on, hoping to draw the bee off the fallen man and to her. She hit the brakes hard just as a loud
crack
blasted the night.

The standing man spun to look at her and she immediately saw he held a rifle of some sort. Cursing, she instinctively ducked below the dashboard, fully expecting her windshield to explode.

Instead, she heard more yelling and then the man with the weapon was at the driver’s side window, beating it with the side of his fist.

In the backseat, Lou began to go ballistic, barking and snarling, obviously terrified.

“Stop it!” Rebecca shouted at the man. “You’ll bring them right to you!”

But her warning was too late as another bee smacked hard into the man, pinning him against the door of the Rover, its mandibles snapping inches from the back of his head.

Rebecca’s eyes met the man’s for an instant and then his own eyes screwed closed in agony.

He’s being stung!

It was below her line of vision, but she knew it was happening.

She felt like screaming herself, completely helpless and horrified as this man was killed right in front of her with only a car window between them.

“GET OFF OF HIM, YOU FUCKING PRICK!”

Rebecca blinked in surprise as a shrieking woman came running at the vehicle brandishing a baseball bat and clubbing at the enormous insect with all her might.

The woman hit the thing over and over, until it fell away from the man, perhaps stunned, and onto the ground. The man slumped out of sight as well and Rebecca’s paralysis broke.

She unlocked and opened the door and shouted at the young woman. “
Get inside
!”

The woman ignored her, kneeling at the man’s side. “Joe? Joe! Are you okay?”

“My...leg...” the man groaned. “Bastard got me.”

A deafening crunch came from the direction of the diner, snatching Rebecca’s attention away from the strangers for a moment. The entire building shifted and then the far side collapsed inward with the sound of splintering wood and crushed metal.

“Oh, God,” she whispered. She looked at the two people on the ground and yelled, “Come on! You have to get in here right now! It’s not safe! The ground is giving way!”

When the two seemed too dazed to comprehend what she was saying, she leapt out of the vehicle and struggled to get the man to his feet. She opened the Rover’s back door and did all but shove him inside. Turning back to the girl, she said, “
HURRY
!”

Finally understanding, the girl climbed into the vehicle and Rebecca slammed the door behind her, jumping in behind the wheel and slamming her own door as well.

Then her eyes fell on the crumpled, unmoving form still in the lot. “What about him?” she asked the young woman.

“He’s a dick,” the girl replied.

Rebecca probably would have been amused by this response under different circumstances, but now she said only, “Good, because he’s dead.”

She threw the Rover into reverse and hit the gas, the dog still barking in her ear.

Once she’d pulled back onto the road, she again cut the headlights. Behind them, the diner exploded, probably due to a ruptured gas line.

“
Holy shit
!” the girl cried, covering her head.

“You can say that again,” Rebecca said, speeding up. “Lou,
quiet
!”

The dog immediately fell silent and went to work sniffing the moaning man.

“The stinger...” the man said. “Pretty sure it broke off in my thigh.” He was struggling to sit up, teeth gritted against the pain. “Help me get it out, Stacy.”

“What?” Stacy asked. “Joe, I...” She began to cry. “I don’t know if I can.”

“Please,” Joe grunted. “If you don’t...” He trailed off, wheezing for breath.

Now that they were a safe distance from the diner, Rebecca slowed the vehicle to a crawl. In the rearview mirror she could see the flames shooting into the night sky and some of the bees darting towards it and then away.

“Go on,” she growled under her breath. “Get in there you sons-of-bitches. Burn.”

In the backseat, Stacy said, “I think I feel it.”

Joe fought to get air into his lungs and rasped, “Pull...it...out.”

Rebecca winced a moment later when Joe let out a piercing scream. “Got it!” Stacy said triumphantly. “Shit! It’s...barbed!”

Catching a glimpse of the stinger in the mirror, Rebecca quickly returned her attention to the road. It was probably two feet long, black and had what appeared to be thorns all along its length. Definitely a nasty bit of work.

Stacy’s triumph was brief. “Now you’re bleeding.
Shit
!” To Rebecca, she said, “Do you have anything in here we can use to wrap his leg?”

“I don’t know,” she said apologetically. “This isn’t my car. Look around in the back.”

Turning in the seat, Stacy rummaged around but all she came up with was a wool blanket and an old blue and tan flannel shirt. She did the best she could with the shirt, binding Joe’s upper thigh with it before covering him with the blanket. A few hisses of pain escaped through Joe’s clenched teeth, but otherwise he was silent through the process.

“There,” Stacy said when she was finished. “That should help.”

Joe took a long ragged breath and said, “I guess I should mention I’m allergic to bee stings.”

Both women gasped, but he lifted a bloody hand to silence them. “All the Benadryl in the world won’t help this one. It’s a...doozy.”

“Jesus,” Rebecca whispered.

“We need to get him to a hospital,” Stacy said, her voice on the teetering edge of panic. “We need to
go now
!”

Rebecca licked her lips and shook her head slowly. “I’ve been driving for hours looking for a way out of town. So far, all the roads leading out are gone.”

“What do you mean ‘gone’?”

“I mean...
gone
. The sinkholes just swallowed them. I haven’t been able to find one completely intact yet and nothing’s been passable.”

Stacy let out a long string of curses then fell silent for a few seconds. “Well..what about that clinic over on Poplar?”

Rebecca thought about it. “I haven’t been down that way yet, but I can try taking the long way around.” She didn’t say what she was really thinking: that it would be a miracle if the clinic was not only standing but operational as well. But, she supposed, what could it hurt to try?

“His face is getting all splotchy!” Stacy said suddenly. “Oh my God, what should I do?” When Rebecca didn’t reply, she yelled, “Drive faster!”

Pressing down slightly on the accelerator, Rebecca said, “I can’t drive too fast or the bees will come.”

“Who cares! Just go!”

“If they come,” Rebecca tried to explain patiently, “then we won’t even be able to get your friend out of the car.”

Joe’s breathing became even more labored and Lou let out a long, low whine. Beside them, Stacy began to cry.

Grim-faced, Rebecca drove on in the direction of the clinic, carefully weaving around abandoned vehicles and the occasional bodies of the dead, both human and otherwise.