“This is why Marcus was wary about going into the Forest of Fallout,” she explained. “Everything that was here when the bombs went off was mutated, including the bugs.”
“I can see that.” I shuddered. “What the hell do we do? Do we run?”
“We have to fight,” the blonde woman sighed. “They’ll catch us if we try to flee, so we have no other choice. Just… try not to get stung or eaten.”
Great advice.
As I watched the incoming swarm, I tried to think if there was anything we could do to fend them off.
With a little bit more time, we could have set out traps or surrounded ourselves with roach deterrents, but time was the one thing we didn’t have.
“I wonder if there’s still a queen bee?” I pondered aloud. “If we were to kill that one, the rest would go into panic mode and flee.”
“What about the roaches?” Natalie demanded. “You’re the exterminator here.”
Pest Control Technician, but I wasn’t about to correct her right now.
“They’re not social insects,” I sighed. “In fact, they’re known to eat each other when food is scarce or if… Wait!”
I holstered my gun quickly and tossed open my bag. Then I pulled out a small canister of sugar.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Natalie hissed. “They’re almost—Shit!”
The Scavenger raised her AK-47 and squeezed the trigger, and bullets sprayed forth from her weapon and tore through the first wave of insects like a swarm of angry metal bees.
The forest was filled with the sound of squeals as the roaches exploded into heaps of gooey gore and fell out of the sky, and then the first wave of the hideous creatures was on me in seconds, just as I popped open the canister of sugar. I fell down to the ground and tossed the granulated white substance up into the air.
Several of the cockroaches flew straight through the synthetic fog and caught it all over their bodies.
I rolled to the right just as a few of the creatures came down on my position, and as I stood to my feet, I reached down for my Beretta.
However, I wasn’t fast enough. I threw up my arm just as one of the cockroaches slammed into me and took me to the ground.
I felt the shotgun slide off my back and off into the foliage, but I had bigger issues at the moment.
I threw my hands around his disgusting head and then used all of my might to try and hold him back. I shuddered as the large bristles on his legs tickled my own, and bits of gnarly white saliva dripped down onto my chest. The bug’s breath was enough to make me gag.
Then again, I shouldn’t have been surprised. This thing’s diet consisted of nothing but garbage and rotting meat.
If I could just put a few feet between me and this thing, I would at least have a chance to quick-draw on it. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was worth a shot.
So, I kicked my knees into the insect’s thorax, gave it a hard shove, and tossed it upward. Then, while it was still in the air, I reached down, drew my Beretta, and squeezed the trigger haphazardly.
Blood and guts splashed out of the cockroach as its body was riddled with holes. Its limp carcass slammed back down on top of me, and the weight of the creature knocked the air straight out of my lungs.
Still, it was dead.
I shoved the body off me as I stood to my feet and fired off a few rounds at the next closest insect. Its head exploded into a spray of blood and white goo before it collapsed out of the sky, and then I turned my attention back to the incoming horde.
Before I did that, though, I turned back to check on my trap and saw it had worked like a charm.
The sugar-coated insects were screeching in agony as they were torn apart by their hungry brethren, and now they were nothing more than a tasty morsel to the other bugs.
However, their attention was on their dinner, instead of on us.
It was open season on these bastards.
So, I raised up the Beretta, pointed it at the feasting insects, and fired off a few shots in rapid succession.
My aim wasn’t the greatest, but I saw a couple sprays of blood immediately followed by several insects collapsing down onto the ground.
I guess that was the closest thing to a “stationary target” I was going to get. I shot at the scuttling creatures a few more times, and the rest of them went down as they writhed in agony and squealed.
“Hunter, look out!” Natalie cried out from somewhere behind me.
I spun around and jumped out of the way just as a machete-sized stinger stabbed into the ground where I had been standing.
The massive bee’s barb was now stuck in the ground, and it struggled helplessly to try and free itself.
I raised my gun, pulled the trigger, and exploded its head like a watermelon.
As the bee’s body fell to the ground, its stinger was yanked free of its corpse, with the insect’s entrails still attached.
So, they were like the insects of my dimension…
“Natalie!” I called out to the Scavenger. “Their stingers are attached to their innards. If it comes out, they die!”
The blonde woman was currently tumbling around like an acrobat, though, and she blasted roaches and bees with her AK-47 while nimbly avoiding their grasp.
I watched as Natalie kicked one of the roaches in the face, jumped up onto its back, and then pumped it full of lead from behind. Just as two more of the creatures reached out for her, she catapulted over them, landed on the ground upright, and tore them to shreds with her bullets.
One of the mutated bees tried to skewer her with its stinger, but she simply spun out of the way. Then Natalie grabbed the insect’s stinger as she twirled, gave it a yank, and pulled the bee’s guts out of its body. Before the creature could bleed out, the Scavenger stabbed its own stinger into its head and put an end to its suffering.
Damn… I was glad Natalie was on my side.
Another small wave of cockroaches descended on me as I fired at them haphazardly. Some of them were cut down, but they still charged at me with pure vitriol in their eyes.
Then my worst fears came true.
Click.
My Beretta was empty, and Natalie’s bag of ammo was at least a few dozen feet away from me.
“Shit,” I grumbled as I holstered my pistol and looked around for any sort of makeshift weapon.
Suddenly, the lightbulb went off.
The E-Tool.
I’d seen a million different instances in military shows and books where soldiers had used the E-Tool as a makeshift weapon, and it was now my time to emulate their actions.
So, I reached back into the open backpack, fumbled around until I felt the cold metal of the tool, and drew it from its seclusion. I unfolded the spade just as the first cockroach got to me, and then I lashed out with the deadly, serrated shovel.
It struck the roach in square at the joint of one of its legs, and the creature screamed as its appendage was severed from its body. The first cockroach scuttled away, but I didn’t have time to finish it off before the next one attacked.
I threw up the pointed end of the E-Tool straight into the cockroach’s chest, and the weapon made a wet shlocking sound as it punctured through the thorax. The roach writhed on my spade for a moment before I kicked it off onto the ground and watched it curl up and die.
I came around swinging at another roach and sliced his abdomen clean open.
Alright… I could get used to this thing. Right now, it was working out for me way better than the pistol.
I lopped off the head of another roach before I turned to face two large, mutated bees that were headed my way. I ducked out of the way of one of the machete-sized stingers and stabbed my shovel right into the crease where the barb met the abdomen. Then I used my leverage to push down and separate the bee’s guts from its body.
I only had seconds to sidestep the second bee’s stinger, but its pointed end slammed into the E-Tool and sent it flying from my hands. It landed in the foliage about ten feet away from me, far out of my reach.