Stranger

Twenty-one

We carried the supplies through darkened streets. Zak led the way, almost smelling the air for trouble. I counted ten in Michaela’s gang. They were all young and I couldn’t place anyone over the age of twenty. The youngest was the kid I’d first clapped eyes on when I arrived in Sullivan after my drinking binge (and who I nearly killed). He’d have been around ten years old.

As I walked I held this whispered conversation with Michaela. Ben tried to follow what we were talking about, although his expression, one that bonded fear and bewilderment, told me he understood precious little.

“Those hornets in the hotel,” I said, “they were guarding a hive?”

“I don’t want to see for myself, but my guess is that they are.”

“They won’t follow us?”

“Some of them might.”

“While the rest guard the hive?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

“But hornets don’t as a rule carry firearms, so we should be all right.”

“I’m glad you’re confident.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning if twenty or thirty jump us we won’t have the firepower to kill them all fast enough. Some might get through. They’ll have machetes, clubs, wrenches, knives.”

“You’ve lost people before like this?”

“Greg, when we started out our group numbered more than thirty. We’re down to ten. See?”

I nodded. “But the hive I found… I didn’t see any hornets. Why wasn’t it guarded like that one back there?”

Even under the burden of bags she shrugged. “A tainted hive.”

“You mean they go bad somehow? Or become corrupted?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, Greg. We’ve found hives with a couple of hundred hornets guarding them. They must be the really important ones. Usually the guards number between twenty and thirty. Then again…” She shrugged. “Sometimes there are none. It’s as if the hive’s gone wrong and they abandon it.”

“What actually is a hive, then? What’s its purpose?”

She smiled. “Questions, questions. I don’t know, Greg. We don’t have any professors of biology here, or even a two-bit test-tube jock. We’re just a bunch of kids trying to keep on the warm side of the grave. You follow?”

“But it’s just this hive. The smell of it, and how it looked.. .”

“You’re right. They’re weird. They’re also a God al-mighty mystery…” She looked at me with a sudden sharpness, as if she’d read something in my expression. “What else is there, Greg?”

A strange churning sensation had started in my head. “I can’t explain it… I know it’s impossible, but these hives… I think I’ve seen one before.”

Back at the yard that served as the makeshift camp Michaela had a hurried conversation with Zak and Tony. Then she came across to where Ben and I sat by the fire. “We’ll move on at first light,” she told us. “You best get some sleep now.”

Ben cast some pretty scared-looking glances out into the darkness. “What about the bread bandits, I-I mean hornets? Won’t they come looking for us?”

“It’s unlikely at night. But we’ll be taking turns to keep watch. Yours will be between two and three. So get some sleep now.”

He looked startled that he’d be expected to keep watch.

“Don’t worry,” she told him, “just keep your wits about you, then shout as loud as you can if you see anything. Think you can handle that?”

“Don’t worry.” He looked scared sick. “If I see any-thing you’ll hear me yell, all right.”

She added, “We’ve already loaded the bikes now so we can be away fast.”

“You’ve got bikes?”

“A nice pack of Harley Ds. We found them in a dealer’s showroom a couple of months ago.” She shot me a grin. “You didn’t think we walked everywhere, did you?” With that she pushed back her hair and lay down on a blanket. “By the way, Greg, take the watch after Ben’s.” She grinned again. “Sweet dreams.”

Yeah. As if.