After Ethan had watched Seb being eaten by the alien bugs, he ran to his rusty old truck and drove back to Carthage at breakneck speed. He screeched to a halt outside the police station, left his truck in the police only parking, and sprinted up the stairs. Officer Nathan Pickle was on duty. They had gone to school together but had never been friends. Ethan had picked on him back then and had a bunch of names for him. No Mates Nathan, and Pickle Pants were his favorites. But once they left school, No Mates got his revenge, busting Ethan several times for possession. Nathan rolled his eyes as a sweaty, breathless Ethan burst in. He picked up his trucker magazine as Ethan blurted out his wild story.
“God dammit Ethan, what the hell have you been smoking? Or have you been eating those mushrooms again? I told you those things will make you crazy. I should just throw your ass in jail right now for wasting my valuable time,” said Nathan as he flicked through his magazine. “But I can’t be assed with the paperwork.”
“Listen to me Pickle, Seb is dead, do you hear me? He’s dead!” stammered Ethan. “Look, this is his blood!” He pointed to his stained t-shirt.
The phone rang and Pickle glared at Ethan for several seconds before picking it up. As soon as he answered, Pickle sat up straight with a look of alarm on his face. He repeated; “yes sir,” several times into the phone before hanging up and staring at Ethan. “That was the Governor’s office from Austin, they’ve seen something on the satellite. They’re sending some military people to investigate your aliens. They wanted to know if we had any reports of unusual activity and any witnesses. I think you had better stick around.”
Minutes later, outside the station, Ethan was wilting under the attention. Word spread quickly in Carthage, and he found himself being interviewed by the local newspaper reporter while surrounded by locals with nothing better to do than ask stupid questions. He could barely string a sentence together and most of the townsfolk were laughing at him. He mumbled incoherently about meteors and bugs from outer space eating his friend, much to the amusement of the gathered crowd. He wished he hadn’t smoked that joint earlier. The crowd eventually lost interest when two helicopters swooped in and landed in the square across the road. Minutes later a military convoy rumbled up the street. A procession of Humvee’s, armored carriers and weapon platforms bristling with guns followed by about twenty excited local kids on bikes. A tall, craggy faced military man jumped out of one of the choppers and marched towards the station. He towered over Pickle who pointed a shaky finger towards Ethan. The man took a toothpick from his mouth as he studied Ethan, before striding over and crushing his limp hand in a sturdy handshake.
“Major General Mason Mount from the Texas Army National Guard at your service, and you are?”
“Ethan Kasprowicz sir,” Ethan stammered.
“Pleased to meet you Ethan, come and show us what you’ve found.”
“I don’t want to go back there sir. Those alien bugs ate my friend sir.”
“Don’t worry son, you have the might of the National Guard to protect you. Now hurry the fuck up.” General Mount turned quickly on his heel, pushed through the gathered locals, and strode towards an open top Humvee with Ethan in tow.
Ethan sat in the back as the powerful Humvee sped off towards Jack’s farm. He fumbled out his story to the General who sat next to him nodding thoughtfully. Ethan was a little more confident with the Texas military behind him and the pot paranoia was finally wearing off. He had applied for the military once but had failed the drugs test. At the time he had been surprised and disappointed. He had expected the American military would accept anyone. It was only weed after all; not like he was on the crack or anything. He was about to ask General Mount about this when the general leaned around, raised his aviators, and looked him in the eye as if reading his mind. “Been smoking pot son?”
“No,” said Ethan instinctively. Then squirmed in his seat as the general raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“You’re telling me that alien bugs from outer space ate your friend, and you expect me to believe you aren’t on drugs?”
“Yes sir, that’s what happened sir.”
“Well let’s go and check it out. The satellite images show something weird, and Lord knows there’s enough crazy shit going on in the world at the moment already. It wouldn’t surprise me if some god-damned aliens crash landed in your town and ate your friend.”
The convoy of military vehicles swarmed over Jack’s land, and Ethan directed the Humvee to the edge of the woodland where the meteorite had crashed. A few curious onlookers had gathered, mostly neighboring farmers who looked quizzically at Ethan as he waved at them. They seemed more interested in the high-tech military convoy than the strange growth that had become visible beyond the trees. The soldiers quickly established a perimeter, ushering the observers away. The herd of bemused looking Longhorns observed the proceedings from a small grassy hill nearby.
“What the hell?” The General’s mouth fell open.
“That’s the thing that ate my friend sir,” said Ethan.
General Mount stood up in the Humvee and focused his binoculars. Ethan stood up too as the rest of the convoy parked strategically around the grassland. There were personnel carriers, armored vehicles, mobile gun platforms and drone carriers. Ethan shaded his eyes and tried to make sense of what he was seeing. The alien bugs had grown outwards and upwards, into a black dome that was higher than the few remaining trees. Its surface shimmered in the bright Texan sunlight, alive with movement and noise. As he watched, a couple of trees were toppled, and he could see swarms of the black insects crawling over them and eating their trunks. There was a metallic white noise like tinnitus ringing in his ears.
“Jesus Christ,” muttered the General. “Are they some kind of insect machines? Robot wasps? Those god-damned Chinese, what will they come up with next? Send in the surveillance drones. Private, go get me one of those little machines so we can take a closer look.”
“Excuse me sir, I don’t think that’s a good idea sir,” said Ethan. “That’s how my friend got eaten sir.”
“Don’t worry son, we know what we are doing.”
Ethan nervously watched a soldier dressed in a protective bomb disposal suit clumsily make his way towards the encroaching mass of insects. He was equipped with a telescopic grabbing tool and a heavy looking metal box. He approached the buzzing mass with caution, creeping carefully over the rocks and grass. He reached out with the grabber, picked one up and deposited it inside the box. As the soldier walked back the box began to disintegrate and a slow-moving swarm of insects appeared. They latched onto the soldier’s hand before he could drop the box, then the box disappeared completely and there was a buzzing swarm of insects crawling up the soldier’s arm. They flew around his head and landed all over the suit, eating their way through. Ethan had seen this before. “I told you guys; this is what happened to Seb!” He could hear muffled screams from the stricken soldier as more and more insects appeared.
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“God-dammit, go help him,” said the General.
Several soldiers ran over to assist the soldier who was writhing in the grass. They unclipped his helmet and his screams echoed around the countryside. “Cut it off!” he yelled.
His arm had been devoured by the insects who were almost at his neck. One of the soldiers drew a large knife and attempted to cut the man’s arm off at his shoulder but it was too late, the insects latched onto the knife and started eating the blade. The soldier dropped the disintegrating knife and stood back. They looked on in horror as their comrade was overwhelmed, his screams cut off as a cluster of insects clamped onto his windpipe, then his head vanished underneath the clicking black machines.
“They keep reproducing. Get the RPGs,” demanded General Mount.
As they readied the rocket propelled grenades, the insects swarmed all over the soldier, only his twitching legs showed under the buzzing mound, their tiny wings glittered in the sunlight, turning a crimson colour. The soldiers were forced backwards by the encroaching black dome. Ethan watched in horror as the last few trees succumbed and the mass of metal insects absorbed what was left of the soldier. The RPGs launched their grenades. They all braced themselves for the explosions but there were none. The grenades simply disappeared into the insect dome with a dull thud, as the machines absorbed the detonations and continued to grow.
“Fuck, we need something bigger. Heavy calibre cannons, kinetic energy penetrators and flame throwers,” ordered General Mount as he waved the mobile gun platforms forward. Ten of the platforms advanced and opened fire. Ethan put his hands over his ears as the cannons fired multiple rounds, and the cacophonic noise rattled his teeth and shook the ground. He was excited and terrified at the same time. He wanted to close his eyes but had to watch as the cannon shells smashed into the dome. Some just disappeared and some shells ricocheted off the surface, pinging into the sky.
The kinetic energy penetrators pierced the outer shell of the dome, and their loads of plastic explosive detonated. The explosions caused the dome to bulge momentarily. But then it seemed to swallow the explosion as easily as a python eating a rabbit. The flamethrowers doused the surface of the dome with blazing petrochemical which seemed to scorch the airborne machines and slow the advance of the dome. The barrage went on for a couple of minutes before the General put his hand up to signal a halt. The noise dissipated and was replaced by the incessant crackle of the replicators.
General Mount shook his head. “Keep using the flamethrowers, bring up the thermo’s and bunker busters,” he shouted.
Two more weapon platforms mounted with bigger guns rolled up. The soldiers moved further back and took cover. General Mount instructed Ethan to sit down and put his head between his legs, but Ethan had to watch. He had read about thermobaric hellfire missiles, a shaped charge that uses the surrounding oxygen to cause a pressurized high temperature explosion, and the bunker busters that could crack through solid armour. Heavy duty weapons. The shockwave from the hellfire missile was tremendous, Ethan’s neck snapped backwards, he held on as the heavy Humvee rocked and rolled a couple of metres. He was glad he kept his head up though as he was the first to see smoking pieces of metal shrapnel flying through the vapour cloud.
“Look out!” he yelled as flaming metal insects rained down on them, clattering off the gathered vehicles. One thumped into the seat next to Ethan, he stared in horror at the little piece of scorched metal next to him burning through the seat. It was a twisted cluster of molten insects; their exteriors had been fused together. Ethan looked down the smoking hole in the seat, his heart was pounding. The insects looked non-threatening and inert. He hoped they were dead; his mouth was too dry to speak. Then tiny silver wings appeared on top of the melted metal and started twitching. “Fuck!” he shouted. The General turned to watch as a mass of crawling insects appeared out of the molten metal. They started buzzing around in lazy circles, covering the hole in the seat, and devouring the inside. General Mount drew his pistol and aimed shakily at the multiplying machines.
“You can’t shoot them,” yelled Ethan. “Get the fuck out of here!”
They hastily exited the vehicle and retreated. There were clusters of insects growing from the impact points dotted around the grassy valley, small swarms swirled in the air above blackened holes in the grass. The ones that had landed on the vehicles were busy breaking them down and transforming them into more insects. The soldiers retreated. The vehicles that weren’t being eaten reversed back to a safe distance. The General stood close to a hole in the ground where a smoking cluster had been buried. Ethan stood next to him. He grabbed the General’s arm and tried to drag him away, but the General shrugged him off, raised his aviators and bent down to take a closer look. It was only a few seconds before the patch of grass erupted around the hole and a swarm of insects burst through. General Mount stepped back and drew his pistol. He emptied a round into the cluster which only seemed to increase the methodical rattle of insect activity.
“I told you!” yelled Ethan. His confidence in the General and his men had evaporated. They were as helpless as he was.
General Mount pushed him aside and strode up the small grassy verge where his men and remaining vehicles had gathered next to the Longhorns. Ethan picked himself up off the ground and ran past the General, past the soldiers and cowered amongst the cattle. He held on to one of the Longhorns, feeling safer there than he had with the might of the Texan National Guard. The normally placid cattle shifted about nervously, sensing something was amiss. Then the Longhorn herd suddenly turned and started stampeding towards the road, grunting distressed bellows as they went, leaving Ethan standing there unprotected. The giant metal dome glistened in the sunlight, pulsing, and buzzing with a sound like the loudest case of tinnitus. Ethan stared in horror; it had grown much bigger.
He grabbed the General’s arm. “What are you going to do?” He screamed above the cacophony. There was no reaction from General Mount. Ethan shook his head and backed away a few steps. The black dome towered in front of him, but it was not growing any higher. Instead, the circumference was expanding quickly, as it merged with the clusters growing from the grass and abandoned vehicles. The wall of machines ate up metres of earth, accelerating all the time and Ethan could hear a deep rumbling sound below the chittering tinnitus buzz. The ground seemed to vibrate, shaking slightly like a continuous earthquake. Ethan turned and ran towards a still functioning Humvee. “Get the fuck out of here!” he screamed.
The shaking increased as Ethan hurled himself into the back of the Humvee closely followed by the General. The reduced military convoy tore across what was left of Jack’s property, past the Longhorns and out onto the metal road. Looking back, Ethan could see the ground erupting behind him. The dome was rising up through the rolling green hills in a cloud of dust. Rocks, dirt, cattle, and trees disintegrated and disappeared as it burst through the Earth. The surface of the dome was a smooth, sculptured, black mountain of moving parts. Ethan could not believe what he was seeing. The Humvee was doing over one hundred kilometres an hour, but the roiling black crest of the dome was keeping pace with them, ripping up the countryside at an alarming rate. It towered above them and churned through the horizon on either side.
“Faster!” screamed Ethan.
General Mason Mount sat stoically, refusing to look back. He had to shout into his phone to be heard. “Ballistic missiles. Nuclear warheads,” he yelled. “It’s too late to evacuate, too late to worry about collateral damage, we need this fucking thing nuked now!” Ethan looked at the General in horror as he yelled into his phone. “I know we are in the blast radius, you either nuke Texas now or there won’t be any god-damned United States left.”