Pandemonium is Rising

The fulsome moon shone through the morose patchwork of clouds over the town of Summertown and into the windows of the Pratt house. Shadows shifted shape alive on the walls of his bedroom as Sol tried to sleep.

"I've got to sleep," he said to himself as his frustration grew with the elusive desire to rest. The Perseid Meteor shower peaked the week before, provided mindless firework-like entertainment, and helped him relax enough to sleep. This week was different. His eight-year-old daughter would be here for her summer visitation in two days, and he was a nervous wreck.

Dr. Solomon Pratt, a published professor of entomology at Cokesbury College in town, a boutique University, taught and made advances in research via Federal grants. The green light of his radio clock displayed three-zero-zero, and his attempt to sleep approached the breaking point of failure for another night. He had a dozen things to complete before his daughter's arrival.

Synapses of nerve endings fired on his skin, and he felt a crawler on his leg, a tingle of intrusion under the sheets as an insect slid up his calve. Sol tried to ignore the creepy feeling but imagined a spider, a tick, or an ant about to wound him. Panicked, he threw back the covers, pulled the lamp cord to illuminate the room, and searched for the insect. He discovered nothing, returned to bed and turned off the lamp.

The connective anxiety of his mind and body peaked when the phantom creeper moved inside his thigh. Frustration transitioned to anger, and Sol stripped the sheets from the bed and took a shower to rid the invisible invader.

Sol hated bugs. Unlike most in his professional field, he didn't study insects because of intrigue but fear. Know your enemy was his mantra and title of his published research. His knowledge allowed him to manage his Entomophobia.

No single prior event led to this distress, but an unexplained primal panic set in when he encountered insects. He studied them and likened himself a warrior like Thor to defend the world's masses against the vile insect kingdom that sought to rule the world.

Surrendered to another sleepless night, Sol migrated to the kitchen, his favorite room in the house, turned on the television news, and brewed a pot of Kona coffee. The aromatic Hawaiian java came from the Kauai Estate Reserve, where he helped identify and eliminate the Coffee Berry Borer. Know your enemy.

Top Story: Authorities today identified the serial killer accused of slaying twelve homeless people as a local plumber with no criminal history record. The Sheriff released a statement, "The bodies were sealed in airtight plastic-like pods and buried under the plumber's house," he added, "The investigation is ongoing," broadcast from the news station."

Sol sipped his coffee and the news video zoomed into the perpetrator's yard and house. The yellow cottage house with white trim and picket fence could have been in Better Homes and Gardens except for the yellow crime scene tape. Almost perfect, until Sol spotted a massive ant mound against the front right corner of the foundation.

Damn Ants, He thought.

****

Sol spent the morning teaching his classes on Insect Biology and Diversity, and Insect Behavior. He finalized the notes for his Insect Morphology presentation at the upcoming National Agriculture Symposium. Later, he ate a snack in the faculty lounge when breaking news flashed on the television screen.

For the second time in twelve hours, authorities discovered the remains of five bodies under a house in Potomac County. The deceased were buried in plastic sealed pods like the previous case this morning. A suspect is in custody at this time. Further statements will be released as we receive information.

They have to be connected somehow, Sol thought.

Two burly County Sheriff deputies waited in his lab when Sol returned.

"Dr. Pratt?" a deputy asked, "The Sheriff is at the morgue and needs your help."

****

Sol followed the deputies down the antiseptic gray hallway to an office, where the Coroner and the Sheriff waited.

"Dr. Pratt, thanks for coming. We need your assistance. Both murder suspects were found dead in separate cells a few hours ago," the Sheriff said.

"What does that have to do with me, Sheriff?" Sol said.

The Sheriff said, "When you view the bodies you will have a clearer idea."

"I'm an Entomologist, not a pathologist," Sol said.

"Sol, you're the foremost Entomologist in the area, hell the country probably." the Coroner said and laid color photos on the table, "Take a look at these."

The pictures showed a male with a welted neck splotched with deep red dots and secretions of a whitish fluid. The second was of an insect, an ant.

"I need to examine the body," Sol said and whispered, "Dammit."

An hour later, Sol sat across a table from the Sheriff and Coroner.

"Both men were attacked by venomous Trap-jaw ants. This species was discovered in Florida recently, but we don't know where they originated. There aren't any reports of being this far north," Sol said.

A deputy interrupted them,

"Sheriff, we had a 911 call for a fight in the Arbor Village neighborhood. One neighbor attacked the other for spraying his yard with insect poison. When the Patrol unit arrived, the attacker ran into his house and the deputies followed and found him dead like the first perps. And, Sir…..we found another pod of bodies under his deck."

****

Death by ant, worldwide, averaged thirty cases a year, and here in Potomac County, three had died in one day. The events of the day left Sol a nervous wreck, enough to take a Xanax. The Sheriff wanted him to examine the plumber’s house and report what he found. Sol called his research assistant with the list of equipment needed.

Art, his graduate assistant, arrived on time around sunset. He knew the routine and sprayed his boss from head to toe with Sol's lab concocted pheromone-driven insect repellent.

They set up two observation posts, across the street, with Pulsar Helion Nightscopes. The units had built-in video recorders and were focused on the ant mound. Insects were best studied undisturbed. Three hours later, they conferred.

"Not possible, is it Dr. Pratt?" Art said.

"I would agree, until now. I've never witnessed four different species of ant co-exist in the same mound, but I’ve seen two. Are you familiar with the newly discovered Pillage ants? Their origin is unknown, like they appeared out of thin air. They chemically cloak themselves, enter an foreign ant colony undetected, steal the brood ants and larvae, inject them with a control substance, to enslave them," Sol said,

“Here, four different types of killer ants co-exist in that mound, and they are working together when normally they'd destroy each other."

Sol stomped on Arts foot.

Art bellowed, grabbed his foot and yelled, "What did you do that for?"

"We've got to go, that was a Trap-jaw ant on your shoe. Move now," Sol commanded.

****

They left everything but the scopes and returned to the lab to document what they had discovered. Hours into the night, Sol found something and called Art over.

"Art, I'm going to play a clip, tell me what you see," Sol said.

"The same four ant species," Art said.

"I'm switching to a translucent green light filter," Sol said.

"Whoa, where did they come from, they’re invisible to us? They are huge and have a trail to that odd shaped rock?" Art said.

Sol flashed an enlarged photo on the monitor.

"Yes, it appears to us invisible. This species of Ghost ant has never been identified on earth. I also think they are of high intelligence and enslaved the killer ants and humans."

Pounding on the lab door interrupted them. Art unlocked and opened it. A deputy stepped in the lab, pulled his service revolver, and aimed the gun at Art.

"Step back, now," the deputy said, "and give us the videos."

A deep red mark on the officer's neck, above his collar and near his jugular vein, swoll into a welt. Ants meandered from under his sleeve and onto his hand.

"Sir, You have ants on your face," Art said and backed away.

The gun discharged, and Art collapsed into the lab counter behind him; a scarlet patch spread across the shoulder of his white lab coat, and he fell to the floor. Sol had moved to the officer's flank and slammed a fire extinguisher into his head a second too late. The officer's dead weight slammed into the floor.

A dozen ants scurried across the deputy’s face and down his collar as they tried to escape their host. The officer opened his eyes, cut his eyes to Sol, and spoke in a low-pitched monotone.

"We are many. You have ruined this planet and we are taking over. The Queens are coming and expect to be fed," the deputy said as a deep red dot appeared on his neck and oozed white fluid.

The deputy's eyes stared into the void, and he expelled his last breath.

Sol grabbed an emergency insecticide canister, strategically placed throughout the lab, and gassed the ants as they scurried across the floor. He rushed to Art, compressed his wound and called 911.

****

The Sheriff arrived before the ambulance and secured the scene, and the EMT team rushed Art to the emergency room. Sol, with the Sheriff's assistance, video’d the deputy's body and surrounding area. He retrieved the lab's security videos, and they viewed them through the green light filters.

"What are we looking for Sol?" the Sheriff said.

"A ghost ant," Sol said.

The Sheriff stared at Sol. "If you'd told me this yesterday, I would have called you a loon."

Sol isolated the video to the deputy's face.

"What is that?" the Sheriff said.

An ant twice the size of the others, with a bullet-shaped head, crawled out of the deputy's nostril to his neck and inserted a needle-like pincer into his jugular. Then insecticide gas penetrated its shell, and the ant fell dead.

"That sir, is a Ghost ant that controlled and then killed your deputy,” Sol said.

Sol played the video of the deputy's last words.

"I believe these Ghost ants are from out of this world, and we’ve missed it. They are enslaving humans to fill the body pods to store food reserves, like before a war. Something much bigger is coming."

The Sheriffs radio buzzed with a call from dispatch.

"Sheriff, turn on the news now, any channel, you are going to want to hear this," the dispatcher said.

Sol powered up the lab's television.

WNN Breaking News: Thousands of cities worldwide are reporting killers gone viral with bodies stored in plastic-wrapped pods under their houses. Stay tuned as this story develops.

"Sheriff, I need your deputies to collect this odd shaped rock from the plumber's yard, it may be dangerous to retrieve," Sol said and gave him a photo. "I think this four inch meteoric rock is their vehicle. I think I can prove how they got here."

Sol found and collected the Ghost ant specimen from the floor with the aid of the Nightscope. Too exhausted to begin, he secured the lab and drove home.

Sol turned his vehicle into the neighborhood. We are many. You have ruined this planet and we are taking over, the Queens are coming and expect to be fed sounded through his mind.

The sun rose over the trees as he pulled into his driveway to see a blacked-out government-issued Chevrolet Tahoe blocked his space. A man he knew from the Pentagon, in a black suit, stood by his daughter, who waited for him on the porch step.

The invasion of the earth via the Perseid Showers had begun right under the world's noses.

For his daughters sake, Sol banished the phantom synapses that fired on his skin.

They are here and pandemonium is rising.