Today’s job was simple, at least on paper. It was another D-class signature, a swarm type. Which meant a lot of fucking bugs. They are usually not a danger if handled quickly and efficiently. That’s the major difference between them and other signatures. Those fuckers breed fast, really fast. Left alone for a few weeks, or, hell, even just a few days, they multiply by the thousands. There have been cases when unsuspecting homes and even entire settlements have been swallowed up by swarm types.

Today, I didn’t bring my trusty gun. As much as it pained me to admit it, it would be useless. Instead, I scurried through the storage room until I’d found one of Headquarters’ certified flamethrowers. The thing was small, barely larger than a handgun, but could shoot out balls of concentrated fire that would evaporate almost anything. Other than that, I went with my usual outfit of protective armor and a bottle of anti-flame contraption. In case things got a little too heated. Then, in a temporary bout of insanity, I got a hold of two flame grenades, flamers for short.

The signature was relatively new, so I didn’t expect too much trouble. Of course, I was only half-right, but more about that later.

Before that, let me share a few intricacies of my work with you.

First, I can’t tell you much about Headquarters. They are some big, powerful organization, but their real name alone seems to be one of the most well-kept secrets in the world. What I know is that they operate on a global scale and keep a tight net of surveillance going. Some areas are less surveyed, or ignored entirely, while others, mostly urban areas, are tightly surveyed. The reason is simple, more people means more danger of things getting out of hand. You can hide the fact that shit hit the fan in some remote village. Should things go wrong in a city, the entire world would be watching.

When I started my work as an exterminator, my city was low on Headquarters’ priority list. While it’s fairly big, its population density is low. Recently, though, surveillance has been tightened since the number of incidents has been on the rise. I’ve wondered before how they keep this level of surveillance going, but of course, no one would share such information with someone like me. It might be a satellite-based system, swarms of survey drones, or, hell, more of their magical mumbo-jumbo.

Once they find hints of strange activity, the signature is analyzed. Should there be a hit, an exterminator is sent out to handle things. While I work alone, I know entire groups of exterminators are active in other areas.

As for signatures, those are organized by class and type. The division by class refers to the level of danger. D-class is regarded as low danger, while A-class is reserved for incidents of the highest level. D-class and C-class can be handled by a single exterminator. B-class organisms are a lot tougher and require multiple exterminators. I only ever was involved in a handful of them, but let me tell you, it was nasty. The real fun, however, starts with A-class. Those are the biggest, nastiest fuckers. Records show them leveling entire towns and causing massive destruction in cities. The procedures here are completely different. If you’re on your own, you’re forbidden from engaging. Instead, you’re tasked with getting intel while the area’s being evacuated and put under lockdown until enough exterminators are present. Thankfully, A-class organisms are rare, and I never had the bad luck of encountering any of them.

The type should be pretty much self-explanatory. A lot of different creatures are out there. Headquarters has put together an entire freaking database, a compendium they call it, showing you every nasty fucker that crawls around out there.

Where do those things come from, you might ask?

Some of you might be familiar with the multiverse theory. It states, for simplicity’s sake, that there’s an infinite number of parallel universes. I’ve got no clue if that’s what’s going on, but it comes close enough. Most of the creatures I take care of aren’t part of our world. Instead, they come here from different planes of reality. I read reports about portals creating overlaps between different realities, but I’ve seen nothing like it. These reports state that if such a portal should appear, things can slip through and make their way into a different reality. Most creatures come here by accident. They are stranded in an alien world and try their best to survive. Which means preying on its inhabitants. Those are not the only ones, though. There’re beings who are smarter, who seek those portals and who slip through by their own volition. Those are the nasty ones, the ones that mean trouble. However, there are other cases. Sometimes, the external influences from a different plane of reality are enough to taint animals or people native to our world. You can think of it as interdimensional radioactivity. The results are as nasty as they sound.

Well, that’s enough for now. Class is over.

The problem with swarm types is that those fuckers don’t just crawl into a house and start eating people. No, they find themselves a suitable hiding place and begin multiplying.

Today’s signature told me the buggers had opted for a park in the center of the city. While the place isn’t Central Park, it’s still enormous and has its share of wide meadows and large forested areas.

To tell you the truth, I hate swarm types. You never know how long those fuckers have been breeding. While most signatures are quickly discovered, those fuckers can sometimes hide well enough to avoid detection for a few days. That’s when the real fun starts. What makes this entire thing even worse is I hate bugs. Always have, always will.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

When I made it to the park, the sun had long set. Great, I thought, as I got out my close-range scanner, I should’ve brought the night vision goggles. So much for being prepared. I didn’t like this, not one bit.

As I continued on my way through the park, I couldn’t help but watch my steps. If you were careless, you could step right into their nest. Even now, I still have scars from the very first time I encountered a swarm type. Never again, I told myself. Step by step, I continued on, scanning the area with the close-range scanner, but so far, I didn’t see a damn thing.

For a while, I followed one of the many hiking trails through the park, but I knew it wouldn’t get me anywhere. Before long, I pushed myself past trees and right into the underbrush. You wouldn’t expect someone like me to fear the dark, but to tell you the truth, I was anxious as fuck. Knowing that you can be swarmed by hundreds of multi-legged horrors at any moment would freak anyone out.

Finally, the close-range scanner got a hit and after a few more meters, I could make out the first of the buggers. They were a nasty bunch, all right. They looked similar to ants, but I could tell they were much, much bigger. For a moment, I stopped, told myself to calm down, took a deep breath and hit the close-range scanner once more. Wouldn’t you know it? Today was my lucky day. The entire area ahead of me was teeming with them.

“Fucking shit,” I cursed to myself as I stared at the dark forest ahead of me. “Why’d it have to be the middle of the goddamn night!?”

Flamethrower at the ready, I inched forward. The moment I got close enough, the first of the ants came for me.

“Light ‘em up,” I joked as I hit the flamethrower.

A concentrated ball of fire engulfed the entire wave of ants. Their screeching and the sound of their carcasses popping was music to my ears.

“Fuck you, you goddamn bugs,” I mumbled with a grin on my face.

The rest of the swarm remained wary and retreated to a small hill. It had to be the nest! Step by step, I inched closer, my hand closed tightly around the flamethrower’s trigger. For a moment, my eyes scanned the trees next to me and the branches above. Nothing. Right at that moment, another wave came for me and another ball of fire took care of them. The few that remained gathered around the nest ahead of me.

Well, checkmate, I thought, as I took another step forward, only for my foot to sink into the floor. I felt no resistance. My leg vanished between a teeming mass of ants. I’d been careful, and I’d been prepared, but I still lost my balance. I stumbled forward and plunged face first into the hole. Not a hole, I realized, their real nest. What they’d created ahead of me had been a fake, a trap to lure me in. And once more, I’d been dumb enough to fall for it.

I didn’t have time to think about that, however. Within seconds the things swarmed me. Hundreds, if not thousands, of them descended upon me from a multitude of tunnels. I could feel them all over my body, tearing at the fabric of my clothing and the protective armor below. I swayed, flailed around and tried to get them off me, but more and more were joining the fray. In desperation, I tried to push myself up, but it felt like the entire swarm was on top of me.

“Fucking hell, you won’t get me that easily!” I screamed as I punched the flamethrower’s trigger.

I felt the heat of a fireball, and heard the sizzling burning carcasses. Moments later, however, the flames were doused and blocked off as part of the swarm sacrificed itself to save the rest. A rest that was now getting even angrier.

Shit! Goddamn shit! Why did things never go my fucking way!?

I fired again, tried to do it a third time, but by now it did nothing. The flamethrower was blocked off. Even worse, I could feel them getting past the protective armor. I felt them on my body, digging into my skin and the flesh below. This wouldn’t end well.

I tried once more to get free, but it was futile. All I could do was to move my right arm. No other way, I decided as I ripped out a flamer. I tore my arm free, pushed it through the seething, teeming mass, activated it and threw it as high into the air as possible. Moments later, an explosion tore through the air above me. Even below the mass of the entire swarm, I could feel the blast wave before liquid fire descended. It ate through the nest and the damned ants like nothing before it reached me as well.

Once more, I flailed around, jumped up, tried to drench the flames, but eventually, I had to spray myself with the anti-flame contraption. My entire body was in pain. I felt it in sharp, fiery bursts, and I knew I’d got some serious burns.

As I pushed myself from the remains of the burning nest, the flamethrower was in my hand again. I clenched my teeth and fired it at anything that was moving in a blind rage. A cacophony of screeches and clicking noises filled the night. I saw that some of the fuckers were trying to flee, but I was relentless. Before long, the entire area around the nest was covered in flames and all insects had been burned to a crisp. I finally took out the second flamer and threw it into the center of the nest for good measure. Bits and pieces of the burning nest and ants were thrown into the night sky, blanketing the forest all around me.

“That’s what you get! That’s what you fucking get!” I screamed at the burning pit in front of me.

I hit up the close-range scanner again and was glad to see that all signals were gone. For all I knew, I’d eradicated any last hint of the things. This time, no nest was left. For once I’d been thorough, truly thorough. As I watched the burning forest floor and the first of the burning trees in front of me, I realized I might have been a bit too thorough.

“Oh, you’ve got to be…” I cursed.

I reached for the bottle of the anti-flame contraption, but in my panic I’d used up most of it inside the nest. What remained wasn’t enough to douse the flames all around me.

With a few clicks, I notified Headquarters I’d taken care of the signature and that the night was over. As I stared at the burning trees all around me and listened to the distant sirens of fire trucks, I knew I’d fucked up once more.

For the first time in a long while, I considered just smashing my phone, but I knew it wouldn’t do me any good. Headquarters would get into contact with me one way or another, and they’d tear me a new one for this.

As I retreated from the area and the now burning park, I cursed to myself again and again.

Fuck monsters, and fuck my own goddamn stupidity.