Chapter 13
Bug Attack!
Just as Mrs. Resnick was beginning to react to her son’s warning the generator completed its fall, smashing into the top of her head with a sickening thud. “No!” screamed Ryan frantically.
His mom sprawled to the floor, unconscious. Blood was pouring from her head.
The scientists reacted immediately, surrounding her.
Tears came to Mr. Resnick’s eyes at the sight of his badly injured wife. He tore his shirt from his body and wrapped it around her head like a turban to help staunch the flow of blood, and then gently cradled her head in his arms. Ryan knelt beside him, horrified, while Regan looked on in total shock.
Dr. Harris gave her a quick examination. He didn’t even need to say anything; the look on his face was enough. She was in trouble.
“Is she going to make it?” whispered Ben Resnick.
“It doesn’t look good,” said Dr. Harris grimly. “But if we can get her to a hospital in time she has a small chance.”
“Let’s move then,” said their father, fighting to hold himself together. “Kids, I need you to run as fast as you can back to the elevator. Take it to the top and then send it back down so it’ll be waiting for us. Call 9-1-1 and have an ambulance meet us at the main building.” He didn’t wait for a response. “Go!” he commanded.
The Resnick siblings dashed off, leaving the group by the stairs. But just as they passed into the next room on the way to the outside they were stopped in their tracks by a blood-curdling scream.
They turned back toward the room and were greeted by a sight straight out of a horror movie. An infestation of insects was pouring out of the floor, completely surrounding the group of scientists and their mom. They were pitch black and were the size of very large ants. They had six perfectly identical body segments, and each segment had a pair of both legs and pincers that seemed to be in constant motion. There must have been millions of them; a living sea of relentless alien insects so dense that they were stacked on top of each other, several inches deep. Large chunks of rock had appeared as well, maybe from under the floor, and as the insects swarmed over them on their way to the group of scientists the rocks completely dissolved, like ice-cubes in a pot of boiling water.
The scientists were frantically searching for a way around the swarm, but there wasn’t one. They were completely encircled and were even cut off from the staircase.
Both kids froze in horror as they watched. Their father spotted them out of the corner of his eye. “Go!” he shouted from the middle of the sea of hungry insects. “Get out of here!”
“We won’t just leave you!” cried Regan.
“This is not a discussion!” he shouted. “You can’t help us. You have to save yourselves. Go!”
Both kids still hesitated.
“Go!” screamed their father, louder than he had ever screamed before, and with unmistakable panic in his voice. Ryan saw the pleading look in his eye and realized he was far more afraid for them than he was for himself— afraid they wouldn’t run to safety as he was desperate to have them do. This alone sparked Ryan into action.
“We’ll bring help,” he shouted as he sprinted from the room, yanking on his sister’s shirt so she would follow. He knew the odds were one in a million that they could bring help back in time, but they had to try.
They were halfway to the building’s exit when, in his haste, Ryan smashed into a strange, shimmering podium that promptly retracted into the ground and disappeared. Wincing in pain, he put on a burst of speed and caught up with his sister who was now running toward three oval exits. He could have sworn there had only been a single doorway when they had entered. He followed his sister through the center doorway and was relieved to find that they had chosen correctly and it led to the outside.
Ryan looked for the walkway that would help speed them back to the cavern, and possible help, hoping it would still accelerate their pace even when they were running. He was about to sprint onto it when Regan grabbed his arm from behind. “Ryan, wait!”
“What?” he said impatiently, unable to believe his sister was trying to slow him down.
“Remember the blowtorches we saw just outside the room Mom and Dad were in?” she said excitedly. “They were outside the circle of bugs. So we can get them! We can use them as weapons on the swarm! I don’t care how alien they are, those bugs are bound to be afraid of fire. Come on!”
Ryan’s eyes widened. “Great idea!” he said.
They raced back into the building with a renewed sense of hope and purpose. Maybe they could save their parents.
They each gathered a blowtorch and shot through the entrance to the staircase room, gasping for breath, their eyes darting across the floor, searching for the best place to begin waging war on the eruption of relentless alien attackers. But what they saw was totally unexpected and took their breath away.
The alien creatures were gone. All of them. And everything else in the room was gone as well.
They looked on in horror, knowing they had been too late. The room was completely empty. Completely.
The insects must have devoured everything in their path.
Not a single trace of their parents or any of the other scientists remained.