Unearthed

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.