Mandibles by Jeff Strand Page B

with both hands. She hopes he gets a bloody nose_.

Agnes dropped the fire extinguisher and ran from the car, running to safety, running to anyplace without the ants.

_The front door opens. Mom steps outside. She looks mad at first, but she looks frightened as soon as she sees Agnes. Agnes rushes into her mother's arms, not sure if either of them are crying or not_.

The garbage dumpster.

It was safe. It had to be.

There were fewer ants over this way. She'd made the right choice. She raised the lid with one hand, then with agility she didn't even know she had she quickly climbed inside, letting the lid drop as she fell onto several bags of garbage.

The smell was horrific, but no ants could get inside.

There was a narrow stream of light coming from the lid. That was good. Total darkness would have been too scary. She didn't like the dark.

Wasn't a stream of light bad, though?

Didn't it mean that there was a gap?

Why was the garbage moving?

Something blocked part of the stream of light.

Then something else.

Lots of things were moving underneath her.

Where was Derek?

The light was flickering, like the light from a movie projector.

Things were crawling on her.

The smell was making it hard to breathe.

She needed Mom to rescue her.

The movie projector light was getting dimmer.

She could barely see anything.

But she could feel things all over her.

They were hurting her.

She bit down on one.

She tried to wipe them out of her eyes, but they were on her fingers, too.

She was covered with them.

There was no need to be a brave girl.

When would they stop hurting her?

The movie projector went dark.
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*-CHAPTER TEN-*

Fire ants covered the dead bodies of Joseph and Patricia Ketchum. A line of the insects returned to the nest, some of them storing liquid they'd ingested from the bodies, which they would share with the other ants within the colony. Others used their sharp mandibles to tear solid chunks from their prey. These would be carried back and placed in front of the oldest larvae in the nest, which would vomit digestive enzymes onto the food until it was liquefied. After the larvae sucked up the protein, they'd regurgitate it to the worker ants, who would then pass it on to the rest of the colony.

It was a quick, efficient process. The corpses would not go to waste.

     * * * *
    "Andy, get up!"
He'd fallen three times already as they ran down the path back toward the campsite. Michelle wasn't sure if the ants were following them or not, but she did know that they had to get help, fast. Maybe their parents weren't dead yet, and the police could save them, or somebody else at the campsite, or anybody. They could still be alive. It was possible.

Yeah, right.

Michelle pulled Andy to his feet again. He was going to get them killed, just because he couldn't run. She was scared, too, but you didn't see _her_ falling all over the place.

"Will you get up?"

Andy got to his feet and wiped his eyes. "I don't want them to eat me!"

"They won't eat you if you just hurry! Come on!"

They sprinted down the path, finally reaching their campsite. There were ants all over the camper.

"How'd they get here already?" Andy shrieked.

"There must be another nest, somewhere close!"

"But how did they _find_ us?"

Michelle screamed at him to shut up, even though she wanted to know the same thing. These weren't monsters, like the kind she used to think lived under her bed and in her closet. These were just bugs. They were big and dangerous, but they weren't really _hunting_ them, were they?

"What do we do?" Andy wailed.

"Get in the car!"

They rushed over to the car, which was parked right next to the camper. There weren't nearly as many ants at their campsite as there were back where Mom and Dad got ... got hurt ... and Michelle was able to brush the ants away and open the car door. She shoved Andy inside, his elbow accidentally honking the horn, and then jumped in after him and