Hunting Midnight • Ep 5 • Part 19: Queens 👸🏻
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Part 5-19: Queens
The next attack came in the afternoon, but we were, for once, well prepared.
Before going to sleep, Deluxe had run some analysis on the positions of all the playgrounds in the town, along with what she knew about the person who’d last borrowed the book Taming the Wild from the Eden-infested central library.
The little old lady bred bees. A beekeeper. Or, according to Deluxe: an apiarist.
She lived on an isolated property in the southern part of town, but well within the range of the office’s influence of black magic. There was a playground nearby, about a ten minute drive north of the honey farm. Lots of woods as well, easy to imagine all the secret paths traveled by coyotes or wolves within.
Why had Eden favoured a coyote instead of bee attack? It was probably too cold still, the late spring had yet to sustain a core of warm weather, and we supposed the potential air force of buzzers was still waking up. That, or they weren’t considered deadly enough for Eden. Or maybe it didn’t understand bees yet.
I wasted no time with them however.
In the late morning, Persi drove my ghost to the area and we parked on the roadside near the woman’s lengthy driveway. It took me a while to figure out how to summon the little keyshard blobs, but after a few minutes of concentrating on the swishing noise I’d heard in the Fort, a sprouting of them oozed out of the ground and started their humble orbits around my feet.
Down the driveway we went, me and my little crew of helpers. It was something of a peaceful walk, bordered on both sides by thin trees and a water filled ditch that carried a small spattering of twigs and leaves down towards the road. I could hear a light breeze, but it was only for the real world, and did not brush my cheeks or jostle my hair as spring breezes are supposed to do.
And off in the distance, hanging out in the periphery of my right eye, the clock was back. But its time was still three minutes from doomsday. I gave it a sneer before resolving to ignore it and try to enjoy the stroll.
The trees petered out, and before long I stood before a field. The Walkerby’s house had been at the bottom of a shallow depression; in contrast this tiny bungalow crowned a gentle hillock. The stubby structures of the beehives peppered the eastern slope. I could see little concrete stabilizers underneath them, helping to keep the bee hotels standing straight. There was no wifi ward at the lady’s house—a perfect staging area for Eden.
“I’m here,” I said. Three of us were still back at the condo, including my flesh and bones. “Don’t see any wifi. Might need a remote.”
“I can drive one in,” said Persi. “Just tell me when.”
“Shall do.”
Blob friends and I did a quick lap around the hill, spiraling nearer to the bungalow as we went. The hives were active but sluggish it seemed, a few fat insects lumbered along, but I saw few of them actually in flight. The lady’s home itself was dark and still, its deadness amplified by the tonally bankrupt atmosphere of Clockworld. There was poison in that place, I could feel it in my guts and the Queen’s Band twinged in concern if I looked too long toward the shadowed windows.
I’d have to go in there. So would Persi herself, no doubt. But there was an important test to conduct before I had to face that.
I cozied up to the hive closest to the base of the hill, leaning my back up against it, listening for a hum. It was hard to find, so I shut my eyes and leaned backwards, trying not think too hard about what I was doing. As my head slipped into the little wooden box, the creeping, scritching sounds of insect life thundered in my skull. Stereo surround sound eat your heart out—the bees were near literally dancing on my eardrums. The sound tickled in a visceral, gooey, unholy way, and I experienced a full body shudder, which included my vocal chords.
It took all my effort not to sit up out of it. Had to imprint the sound. I gave it a good ten count before I figured I was sufficiently scarred for life. When I came out, chills still racing up and down my bones, my keyshard pals rewarded me by standing at attention, waiting orders.
“Let’s try it, then,” I said to them.
I concentrated on the nearest beehive in front of me, and thought of the queen. On Deluxe’s recommendation, I’d studied a few pictures of them before heading out. The slightly longer and fatter bee in mind, I brought back the fresh memory of hive-sounds.
Feelers grew from the blobs. Then one hopped, bounced towards the target hive like an eager flea, and stuck to the side of it. A thin appendage snaked into the side, and then it was still.
“Come out, all of you,” I said, and pictured the bees emerging. At first nothing happened, then little black dots began to freckle the light brown surface.
Can you fly?
Dots lifted off in lazy circles.
I clapped in celebration, told the bees they could go back to whatever they had been doing, and went about sending the rest of my blobs to new hives.
It was time for an alliance of queens.
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Interesting. Controlling wildlife.
Wow, Alena is a genius! Wolf Eden is going to hate this 🤣
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