Claire gasped.

“Oh, my goodness…! S-She doesn’t look healthy…!” she said, stooping down to get a better look at her.

The girl sat in a corner, tucked against the machinery, staring at Claire with mournful eyes.

“I’ve been feeding her over the last few days. She refuses to go down and get her own stuff…” Ethan approached her, and placed a can of sweet corn by her side. “Here, this is for you.”

Claire kneeled down to get to the girl’s eye level.

“Hey, sweetheart… Is that true?” she said, in a soft voice.

The girl appeared to relax a bit. Her stiffness faded, and she stopped hugging her legs and burying most of her face into her arms. Claire got a clearer view of her features. Somehow, she felt familiar, as if she reminded her of someone. But she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

She nodded, in response to Claire’s question.

‘This girl… she’s way younger than Lilian. How did she even make it this far!? Poor thing…’

“Are you two related?” asked Claire.

“Huh…? N-No… I just happened to stumble upon her up here. All she’s told me is that her mum went somewhere…”

“I see…”

‘And he simply decided to look after a complete stranger? You don’t see that kind of kindness too often… Should I trust him…?’

Claire had no intention to lower her guard. Untrusting by nature, she knew appearances could be misleading. However, her gut was telling her to be at ease. Those two youngsters might actually be the first strangers she had met since the beginning of the pandemic that didn’t give her unsettling vibes.

“What do you usually do around here? Do you just keep her company up here…?”

“Well, uh… I guess? I don’t like being down there with all the others. Too much noise… I just hang around here, or explore the other floors.”

“Explore? What do you mean?”

“Oh, there’s lots of cool places down below. You can’t really get there using the stairs, they keep them blocked at all times. But there are other ways to go down, like the elevator you guys came from.”

“Cool places, right… For example?” any bit of information she could get about the hospital might be useful in the future. She encouraged him to talk, and listened.

“Most of it is just waiting areas and offices, but there’s rooms full of strange machines and computers. I found one that looks like a bed, but it was inside some kind of cylindrical machine, like a tunnel. Weird. There’s also a room with lots of shelves full of medicines and bottles full of liquid. Some of them smelled really weird.”

‘You shouldn’t be sticking your nose in bottles with unknown chemicals, jeez… But a stash of medicine sounds useful. Did they not loot the entire place? Perhaps they didn’t have time to do so? This hospital is massive, after all…’

“There’s also this other room with, like… lots of glowing bugs in jars. I don’t know what was the deal with that, it kinda creeped me out. Oh, I also found…”

…

“Wait, did you say glowing bugs…?” Claire interrupted Ethan’s monologue. Her brain had stopped paying attention to his words, and was instead trying to make sense of what she had just heard.

“Eh… Y-Yeah…?”

She had something in mind. Nothing but an idea, a remote hypothesis that had been bouncing around her head for a while. And what Ethan had mentioned made that idea resonate with more intensity than ever before. Was the boy telling the truth? Why would such a thing be there? Was it relevant? Lots of questions, and lots of coincidences.

[If you can figure out more about what’s going on, do so.]

‘William did say that, but…’

[Don’t take unnecessary risks.]

Her rational thinking made it clear that no crucial information would be obtained from some random bugs. But her gut feeling told her otherwise. And she was curious.

“Um… is It dangerous down there?” she asked.

“No, I don’t think so. I haven’t found anything dangerous yet. It’s just creepy as hell.”

“I see… Uh, c-could you take me to that place?”

‘I might as well check it out. If it’s nothing, at least I know it’s nothing. And if it turns out to be something important, I’ll be glad I took the time to check it out. If anything, I might be able to locate some extra medical supplies, those are always helpful!’

…

Claire figured it would be highly unlikely that William missed a big piece of paper taped to the ladder, especially if it popped up in his face out of nowhere.

[Ethan told me something interesting.

I’m checking it out.

<=====]

She made sure it was properly affixed to the ladder rung, and turned towards the open doors to her left, leading into the second floor of the hospital. Ethan offered her a hand for support, which she didn’t hesitate to take.

Those hallways were even creepier than the building’s basement. It wasn’t because of their utter darkness, or the murmurs behind the walls. It was a feeling of abandonment. Sorrow, death, ruin. Old bloodstains on the floor, walls and doors. Stretchers laying around in erratic positions, some of them still carrying desiccated human remains. Bags left behind, clothes strewn about, papers and documents sprayed everywhere…

Every step Claire took was almost profane, disrespectful; as if she was dragging her feet over a mass grave, disturbing the rest of restless souls.

‘Crap… Okay, okay… Calm down… I’ll just check what I came to check, and we’ll get out of here… Damn it, I should’ve stayed still and waited for William to come back…!’

Ethan didn’t seem to mind the gloomy scenery in the slightest, it actually looked like it piqued his interest instead. He navigated the corridors with bashful curiosity, stopping every minute to point his flashlight at something, and then proceeding towards their goal.

Claire noticed how it felt like they were walking in circles. They were forced to keep taking turns, since most hallways eventually led them towards a dead end, in the form of sealed doors or elaborate barricades. The hospital seemed to have a “hollow” core where they were allowed to be, with all the perimetral areas being isolated and off-limits.

‘I guess they don’t want anyone to get anywhere near the streets. Although, why here? I thought nobody stayed down here… I wonder if the entire hospital is like this.’

…

“We’re here.” whispered Ethan.

He stood in front of a glass door, in a narrow corridor perpendicular to the main hallway. He stepped aside to let Claire take a look inside. For some reason, he wasn’t too eager to go into that room.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Claire gulped and pushed the door open. The hinges made no discernible noise. The interior looked like some kind of laboratory. The place was strangely well-preserved, with less notorious signs of decay than the rest of the building. As a matter of fact, those facilities gave the impression of having been operational not that long ago.

Long rows of tables and cabinets filled the room, most of them covered with documents and all kinds of lab equipment: test tubes, beakers, measuring tools and devices, microscopes… However, Claire immediately noticed something that stood out among all the clutter.

It was just like Ethan had described.

In the desk right in front of her, she spotted a strange jar. When she shined her light upon it, she noticed many holes all over the lid, allowing intake of oxygen for something contained within. The lids themselves were unusual, they had pins and slots around their outer edges, like they were designed to be connected to something else.

There was an insect inside, immobile. A bee? It was quite big, with black and yellow bands along the length of its abdomen. Most of its body was covered in a spiky exoskeleton. Perhaps its most striking feature was the strange way it reacted to the flashlight beam. Upon being hit by the light, the exoskeleton plates absorbed part of it, and began to emit a faint glow. It was a blueish color, one that she thought was awfully familiar.

And it wasn’t just one jar. Other tables within the room had similar jars, all of them harboring the same species of insect. Claire aimed the flashlight at the cabinets lining the walls, and some of them were also stocked full with the same bottled insects.

‘O-Okay… This is… weird. What’s all of this doing here? It’s not something you would expect to see in a hospital…’

“Hey…” whispered Ethan. He was sticking close to her, eyeing the jars with apprehension. “I think these bugs showed up in the news? You know, back when everything was normal… No idea why they have them here, though.”

“The news…? Wait, now that you mention it…”

‘He might actually be right… But wasn’t that several years ago?’

She remembered hearing something about a new invasive bee species, with unprecedented aggressiveness, spreading without control and posing a threat for the ecosystem. But as far as she remembered, a severe extermination campaign had been enforced in order to manage those pests. Nobody had paid too much attention to them. Weren’t they dealt with back then? Why would they be relevant now? Why there, in that hospital?

Something wasn’t right, all of that seemed out of place. Her brain felt jumpy. Incoherent ideas danced in her head, like jigsaw pieces finding their place on the table, ready to be assembled.

Her eyes flew over the documents on the desk. Microbiology, pathology, genetics, complex chemistry she couldn’t even begin to comprehend…

A particular document caught her attention, mostly because of its appealing visuals. There was a detailed picture of the insect in the jars, along with a description of its anatomy and biological systems, along with other information of interest. She skimmed it.

[Apis heliotropha. A recently discovered species within the Apidae family, Apis heliotropha is a social insect, living in colonies ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of individuals.

…

They display a notorious aggressive behavior. They are highly territorial, and they defend the surroundings of their hives with extreme ferocity.

…

Their body showcases unique, unprecedented properties. Their genome contains traces of DNA belonging to a so far unidentified species within the Formicidae family. In a natural environment, such cases of interfamilial hybridization are exceedingly rare. Research on the origins of the Apis heliotropha is still ongoing.]

‘Hybrids…!? Bees and ants… Yeah, no wonder they look so strange… Alright, what else…?’

[The Apis heliotropha possesses several methods of social interaction that allow it to establish complex two-way communication with other member of its species.

…

Like many other species of the Apidae family, the Apis heliotropha can produce a wide variety of pheromones in order to relay information about current events, status, health, danger, and more. They are also able to exchange information with other colony members by visual stimuli, in the form bioluminescent patterns that form over their exoskeleton.

…

The complexity of their pheromone trails and the layout and structure of their colonies is suspected to have been greatly enhanced thanks to the presence of ant genes in their bodies.]

‘Pheromones… Bioluminescence… I don’t like where this is going. I don’t get it, what does this have to do with anything…?’

[Perhaps the most fascinating property of the Apis heliotropha is its ability to metabolize sunlight, similarly to how plants, algae and cyanobacteria fuel themselves by performing photosynthesis. Sunlight is absorbed through the outer layer of their exoskeleton, and is later metabolized and transformed into a wide variety of nutrients and chemicals. The organism seems to be solely reliant on sunlight, having no apparent need for any additional resource in order to survive and perform its usual activities. The processes behind this feeding mechanism are not yet understood.]

‘Sunlight…!?’

The more Claire read, the more her suspicions took shape. She couldn’t avoid noticing all the similarities. But why? Why were those insects and the shamblers so uncannily similar? Where was the connection?

The pieces matched. They were social insects… and the shamblers worked in hordes. They possessed bioluminescence… and the shamblers lighted up in the dark. They used pheromones… and the shamblers moved around through organized pathways, as if following pre-established trails. They fed on sunlight… and the shamblers spent the whole day staring at the sun. She had all those pieces, but they were precarious, disconnected.

‘Are these just coincidences…? Come on, tell me more…’

[The sting of the Apis heliotropha injects a venom that causes swelling of the afflicted area, itching, drop of blood pressure, and severe pain that lasts for several hours before disappearing. This venom, while deadly for most other organisms their size, isn’t enough to cause significant damage to a human being, with certain exceptions (like allergic reactions).

…

Contrary to widespread belief, the Apis heliotropha might not be entirely harmless to humans. These organisms are carriers of an unidentified pathogen of viral nature, which seems to coexist in a symbiotic relationship with their host. This virus, provisionally labelled as “Sting”, has been observed settling into the nervous system of a human host, but causes no noticeable symptoms. Further observation is advised in order to assess the potential threat of this pathogen.]

“A-Ah… Shit, are you kidding…? There’s no way, right? Something like this? No, that couldn’t be… When was this document made…?” Claire backtracked to the beginning of the document, and she quickly spotted what she was looking for. “Damn it, this was written more than a year ago…”

“Hey, are you okay…? You’ve been reading for a while, is it that interesting?” asked Ethan.

“I-I can’t talk right now…! Ethan, I think you found something amazing! This might be—”

*Bzzt*

“…huh?”

It was a faint noise, barely more than a vibration. It could even be mistaken for ambient noise. But she knew what she heard. It was tangible, and it sounded very close.

*Bzzt* *Bzzt*

“Ah… L-Look…!” said Ethan pointing at the jar right in front of Claire. “The bug…!”

The insect’s glow had intensified. And it was moving.

*Bzzt* *Bzzt* *Bzzt* *Bzzt*

The fluttering of its wings became agitated, and it began thrashing inside the bottle, tapping its walls with enough force to make it budge in several directions. Awakened by something, the insects within the other jars slowly started coming to life as well, filling the entire room with violent tapping and the fluttering of wings.

The jar began cracking.

“Ethan, we need to get out of here!! Now!!!” shouted Claire.

*Bzzt!* *Bzzt!* *Bzzt!* *Bzzt!* *Bzzt!* *Bzzt!*

*Crack!!*

The insects were breaking free of their glass prison, brimming with renewed anger after a long period of dormancy. Claire had no definitive proof, but she didn’t need it. She had to avoid getting stung at all costs. She bolted for the door, which was two or three meters away.

Ethan was faster than her. He reached the exit in an instant and scurried outside. His hand held the door open, anxiously waiting for the chance to shove it closed. He crossed eyes with Claire.

“Hurry!!!” he shouted.

She launched herself through the open door, landing on the floor and almost hitting her head against the opposite wall of the corridor. She heard the door slamming shut, and countless insects tapping and fluttering against it less than a second later.

When she took a look, all she saw was glowing dots filling the room and bouncing against the glass. The door seemed to be quite thick and sturdy, enough to contain the swarm inside the room.

Her breathing was heavy.

“T-Thank you…” she muttered. “For not leaving me behind… I would’ve—”

“Claire!!?” a male voice emerged from the darkness of the main hallway behind her, along with a bright beam of light that enveloped her entire body.

She almost had a heart attack. The sudden voice, added to the tension of the last couple of minutes, made her nerves escalate out of control.

“Aaah!!!” she let out a loud, terrified squeal and covered her head with her arms in a self-defense reflex.

“Shhh…!! Lower your voice, you moron…!! It’s me, William!”

She raised her gaze towards the source of the voice. William stood beside her, with a concerned look on his face.

“Ah… W-William…!?”

“We saw your note on the elevator shaft. We came looking for you, when we heard a commotion... What’s going on here!?” he asked.

‘We…?’

She directed her eyes behind William, and she spotted Marcus. He was focusing exclusively on the glowing insects on the other side of the lab door. A moment later, their constant tapping on the glass also grabbed William’s attention. When he saw them, he frowned and his jaw dropped a little. He was most likely confused, and understandably so.

“What the…?” he murmured to himself.

Claire opened her mouth, with the intention to explain what she had learned, but some new source of noise interrupted her thoughts. It was coming from the very end of the corridor. There was a sealed door, covered from top to bottom in wooden boards, metal sheets and pieces of furniture. It was shaking. Soft bangs and weird sounds came from the other side.

…

“Everyone stay still, and don’t make a single noise…” said William. “I’ll check it out.”