Mandibles (20 page)

Jack breathed a sigh of relief as Zachary emerged from the building, although the spiders and other insects crawling all over his legs didn't look good. He limped over to him and took the canister, while Zachary started brushing off the bugs.

"Where's Tyler?" Zachary asked.
"He took off. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll crash into a telephone pole."
"We can only hope." Zachary finished getting the bugs off his legs and headed for the truck. "You're driving."
They wasted no time getting in the truck and speeding off. It was a little awkward using his left foot to work the gas pedal, but Jack figured that Moni and Roberta were undergoing a far greater challenge than simply using the wrong foot to drive.
"Aw, crap!" shouted Zachary, patting his pocket, which had a wet splotch on it. He reached inside, then breathed a sigh of relief as he took out a few shards of broken glass and a second intact test tube filled with blue liquid. He popped off the cork top and waved it in front of the dentist's mouth.
"Dr. Ruiz? Got something for you."
Dr. Ruiz opened his eyes weakly. Zachary put the test tube to his mouth and tilted it. The dentist drank the liquid and grimaced.
"That will save my life, yes?" he asked.
"Yes," said Zachary.
"With taste like that, better to be dead." Dr. Ruiz smiled and closed his eyes again.
"So, we're off to save the day," said Jack. "Do you think the ladies stand a chance?"
"They'd better, or there won't be a day to save."
They drove in silence for a moment.
"That comment really doesn't make any sense," Jack pointed out.
"I'm still numb from my root canal this evening and I got stung in the chest by a giant bee. Give me a break."
Then Zachary smiled. Up ahead was not one but two ambulances.
"Gentlemen, I think we've just had a stroke of luck. Let's hope the same thing happens to Roberta and Moni."

*-CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE-*
Roberta and Moni entered the room across from the "mistakes" lab. This one held two large Plexiglas cages.
Inside the first cage was a fire ant, not quite the size of the couch-sized ones. Its body was bloated, and it was surrounded by what looked like thousands of slimy white eggs. Definitely a queen. Some dead rat-sized ants lay in the cage as well.
The second cage contained one of the largest sized ants. It was facing away from the cage door, but started to turn around as they entered the room. Roberta sped over and pushed the cage door closed seconds before the ant reached it. Good. This process would be much easier if the ant weren't running around loose.
Moni looked around the lab. "Do you see anything we could use as a leash?"
"What about that extension cord?"
Moni didn't respond.
"Is something wrong?"
"No, I'm fine. Bad extension cord experience."
It wasn't difficult for Roberta to fashion the extension cord into a makeshift lasso. She was sure the people who actually worked with these creatures (or used to) had a much more efficient and less dangerous system, but this was the best they could come up with.
A metal rod hung on a small shelf bolted to the wall. A handwritten sign next to it read _AntProd 3000_. "This should control them a little bit better than a broken rake," said Roberta, taking it. "How much time do we have?"
Moni checked her watch. "Oh, shit. Not even seven minutes."
"Okay, okay, we can do this." She tied the other end of the extension cord tightly around Moni's arm. As she did so, she noticed a miner's hat, the type with the flashlight attached to the front, resting on one of the tables. Obviously the ant building didn't have standard lighting.
"Is there any way you can hold the ant prod?" Roberta asked.
"I can't even move my hands. The only way I could hold that thing is if you put it in my mouth."
"You know what? You were joking but that's what we're going to do. Open up." Moni opened her mouth and closed it over the end of the metal rod. "If the ant tries to get out of the cage, poke it."
Moni nodded.
"By the way, your husband is a lucky man." Roberta put on the miner's hat and flipped on the light just in case she wouldn't have a hand free to do so later, and then got ready to open the cage, wishing she'd spent less time in dental school and more time in rodeos.
She threw open the door and tossed the extension cord loop at the ant's head.
And missed.
She quickly yanked the cord out of the cage and closed the door as the ant rushed at it. The ant's head struck the door before she could get it shut all the way and it began to push the door back open. Moni braced her side against the door and helped push, and after a few seconds of strain they managed to get the door closed again.
The ant prod fell out of Moni's mouth. Roberta picked it up and replaced it, then stepped to the side of the door. "I'll try to get this around its neck as it comes out of the cage," Roberta explained. "If I miss, you be ready to zap it."
Moni nodded.
Roberta increased the size of the loop, pulled the door open, and then held her arm out over the doorway, dangling the loop like a snare.
The ant rushed out of the cage.
Its head went through the loop.
Roberta gave the cord a tug, and it tightened around the ant's neck. The cord popped out of her hand as the ant rushed forward, trying to find a way out of the lab, yanking Moni behind it. The other ants started slamming their heads against their cages.
Suddenly Roberta wanted to slam her own head against something. "I can't _believe_ this! We should have opened the door to the building _before_ we got the ant! We won't be able to get it open if the ant's in front of us!" She headed for the door. "Don't get killed. I'll be back."
She ran out of the lab, closing the door behind her, and then sprinted down the hallway. She reached the door at the end, swiped the card, and pulled it open. This led to a smaller corridor, maybe ten feet long, which ended at another door.
She swiped the card and threw the door open.
Dozens of ants scurried out into the hallway.
She turned and ran.
* * * *

The ant was going berserk, and Moni was scared that it was going to rip her arm off.

Too bad Jack wasn't here. He could ride it.
The door flew open and Roberta entered. She grabbed the ant prod out of Moni's mouth, then picked up the canister and tucked it under her left arm. "Try to get it out the door!" Roberta shouted, moving back into the hallway.
The ant didn't need any convincing. It ran for the doorway, and Moni realized with horror that it was turning in the wrong direction.
Roberta jabbed it in the side with the prod. The ant's head flew back, and it turned the other way.
Moni was jerked out of the lab, and the two women struggled to keep up with the stampeding ant.
It was working!
The smaller ants were running back toward the building. If they could keep the ant moving forward through the bottom five levels of the building, they might actually be able to destroy them all!
No, wait.
The ant was moving too fast. The smaller ones couldn't possibly outrun it, no matter how strong the signals were.
Moni stopped running and tried to brace her feet against the floor. Instead, she slid for a couple of seconds, and then was pulled off her feet and onto her stomach. The ant dragged her down the hallway, her chin scraping painfully along the tile before she could get her head up.
It was definitely not the most comfortable she'd ever been in her life, but it seemed to be slowing the ant down.
* * * *

They entered the building.

There was a layer of dirt on the floor, but it didn't seem to be thick enough for the ants to tunnel through. Instead, the building itself, with its eight-foot-high ceiling and ten-feet-apart walls, seemed to be a tunnel. Roberta was sure that this was nothing like the nests normal ants built for themselves, but then again, these were far from normal ants.
As she ran, Roberta shone the light from her miner's helmet around the area. The ants _were_ moving. Thousands of them, scurrying away from the giant ant that was dragging Moni through the dirt.
The ant started to run up the slope that curved around to the second floor. Roberta was thankful that there weren't stairs, for Moni's sake, but then realized that Moni was still going to be slammed against the wall.
* * * *

Moni couldn't see much of anything, and decided that was for the best. She'd just let it drag her along and be the navigator and hope that she didn't hit anything.

"Watch out!" Roberta shouted.
Moni looked ahead and the light beam, and saw that even though the ant had turned left, she was headed straight toward the wall.
She contorted her body, doing her best to keep the point of impact away from her head.
The side of her body smashed into the wall, and then continued being dragged up the slope to the next floor.
Moni was sure she'd broken a rib or two.
Oh well. She only had to go through that five more times.

*-CHAPTER FORTY-*
Moni spent most of her time on the second floor working her body into a seated position. So when she slammed against the next wall, she hit it feet first and the pain wasn't nearly so great.
* * * *

Roberta realized that she was falling behind, and forced herself to pick up the pace. The canister felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.

Mid-way through the third floor, the ant stopped.
It began to turn around.
"Prod it!" Moni shouted. "Prod it quick!"
Roberta dropped the canister and ran at the ant, ducking out of the way of its mandibles and poking the rod into its side. The ant jolted forward and continued its run. Roberta hurried back to retrieve the canister and followed, legs aching so badly that she thought a few more steps might cause them to shatter like glass.
On the fourth floor, she dropped the metal rod. She knew that if she stopped running long enough to pick it up, she'd never get going again, so she left it.
On the fifth floor, Roberta lost her balance and fell. Moni, already far ahead, slid up the next slope and out of sight.
* * * *

Moni slid more and more slowly until she stopped.

She was on the top floor, but it was completely dark.
She could hear the sounds of things scurrying around. Thousands of things. Millions of things.
They were also making the wet-shoes-on-tile sound she'd heard when they ran away from the Lavin, Inc. lawn. It wasn't quite fingernails-on-a-chalkboard painful to hear, but it was close.
The ants were probably packed so tightly onto the sixth floor that there was no place left for the giant ant to go.
Where was Roberta with the canister?
* * * *

Roberta got up but fell again. The dirt kept the canister from rolling away, but Roberta didn't think she could pick it up again.

She had to. She was so close.
Moni was up there with all of those ants.
Maybe dead.
Roberta picked up the canister and ran.
* * * *

Some ants began to crawl over Moni's legs.

She hoped that Jack and Zachary were doing better, not that it mattered much once these things got loose.
She couldn't see her watch, but figured that the door was probably rising at this very moment. And the fact that ants were crawling over her body right now proved that the giant ant could only hold them back for so long.
Then she saw a beam of light.
* * * *

Roberta nearly dropped the canister as she entered the sixth floor. It was as if they'd taken a snowplow and just pushed the ants all the way to the top. The creatures were piled almost all the way to the ceiling.

Even if the Heaven didn't work, she figured at least a floor's worth of ants at the bottom of the pile had to have been crushed anyway.
She set down the canister, and then slammed her foot against the nozzle.
A white mist jettisoned from the canister with such force that it shot backwards, striking the wall.
The ants closest to the mist died instantly.
Actually, they did a hell of a lot more than just die.
They burst.
Exploded in a splatter of disgusting slime, as if their bodies just suddenly liquefied.
The mist continued to fill the room, and the ants continued to burst. The giant ant exploded, showering Moni with its black, pulpy insides.
Ants were exploding by the hundreds.
Then by the thousands.
"Moni," said Roberta, "we really, really, really need to get out of here."
They ran down the slope to the fifth floor, but the flood of ant goo caught them before they made it halfway across. Both women screamed as they were swept up and carried away in the current.
Roberta held out her arms and struggled to keep from being pulled under the surface. The smell was more putrid than anything she had ever encountered, making the patient's breath this afternoon seem like sugar-coated roses in comparison.
She slammed painfully into the wall and then was carried down to the fourth floor.
What kind of stroke was best for swimming in ant guts?
Moni went under, and despite her terror couldn't help but think that it was a pretty ridiculous way to drown.
* * * *

Roberta lost track of which floor she was on, until she saw a light ahead.

The second wave had officially started, but instead of an ant invasion, the city of Tampa was getting an ant river.
As she was carried toward the light, Roberta suddenly remembered that the doors were supposed to open on both the first and second floors.
She jettisoned out of the second story opening and screamed as she flew through the air, finally smashing into the grass below. She lay there, hurting all over, as thousands of gallons of ant gunk poured down upon her.
The ant slime waterfall quickly subsided to a shower, and then to a dripping.
She sat up.
Moni was lying facedown, about ten feet ahead of her.
"Moni? You okay?"
Moni rolled on her side and spat out a mouthful of goo. "Not really."
"You alive, though?"
"If you can call it that."
"Lot of dead ants, huh?"
"Yeah."
"You know, if the Heaven for the first wave has the same effect, I think Florida's tourism industry is pretty much screwed."

*-EPILOGUE-*
Moni, wrapped in more bandages than she could count, snuggled against Phil as they sat in the Orlando waiting room. Jack walked around the room, practicing with his crutches while Zachary watched television.
"I'll be damned," said Zachary. "Our friend Tyler turned himself in to the police. You think maybe he had somethin' to feel guilty about?"
"Yeah, but now he gets to be a celebrity," said Jack. "I'd be a celebrity, too, if somebody had taken a picture of me riding that ant. From now on I'm not going anywhere without a digital camera."
Roberta walked into the room. "Did Dr. Ruiz's family show yet?"
"Not yet," said Zachary.
Roberta grinned. "Well, it's good news. He's going to be just fine."
"Of course he is," said Moni. "He's not the one who got washed down the river of ant splat."
Planes were spraying the Heaven all over Tampa, and Moni couldn't imagine what the cleanup budget was going to be like. The city had been evacuated, and since they were going to have to treat each individual structure, it didn't appear that anybody was going to get to go home any time soon.
But that was okay. She'd been wanting to visit her mother in Arizona anyway.
She tried not to think about Trevor, Abigail, and Mr. Kamerman. There'd be plenty of tears for them, but for right now she was just glad to be alive.
* * * *