I

Chapter One

                              South America 2006

 

It was in fact the night before Christmas, not that there was anyone or anything here, who would be aware of that fact, because there wasn’t, and after all why should there be? As usual this aircraft graveyard, or should I say aircraft scrapyard, was deserted, well that’s not quite true, because it wasn’t entirely deserted?

            But even during the daylight hours when engineers did come around looking for aircraft parts to salvage, the engineers thought that they were alone, after all the intruders were dead quiet, well most of the time anyway! And in fact this was almost the last place on earth anyone in their right mind would, expect to find these kinds of intruders anyway? Most of the time, they kept themselves to themselves, and living in their own colony, but no one would have expected to find such a colony hiding away here, in an aircraft scrapyard anyway?

            The first question people may ask is, where do they find food, out here in this deserted scrapyard, and although it is located on the edge of the Ohio desert, it was just a short flight to a highly populated American Town, which supplied an abundance of food.

            Most of the time, and this could also be said about any of the species, the ‘drones’ would fly around undetected and unseen by the human eye, unless of course they were flying in a swarm? But most of the time they would leave us humans alone and vice versa.

            The fact that this colony’s nest was here, was unique to this Apis Bee species who would build their nest in anything and everything, and in this case it was inside an old jet engine, unlike other Bee species that would nest out in Beehives. Also unique and also unlike other Bee species the Apis specie was the most aggressive, when angered or antagonized. However if just one of the ‘drones’ were angered or antagonized, in anyway the whole swarm would become as one, and would attack as one!

            So far the population of Britain was lucky to be free of the Apis species, which considering there are nearly 20,000 different species the world over, yes we were lucky?

 

However not so lucky on this Christmas day morning was Sam and Susan Hoskins, whose farm land was the nearest as the crow flies to this aircraft scrapyard.

            For Sam and Susan although it was Christmas day, the day started out, just like any other day of the year, and when most people, as it was a bank holiday, would turn off their alarm clocks, in fact Susan had set hers to go off a half hour earlier. Susan was after all on a mission, which was to try to save her marriage of 10 years. And as it was her own fault, well if in fact fault was the right word, but as everything in the garden had been rosy before her husband Sam had caught his wife with her panties around her ankles, and bending over in front of a truck driver, well then could their marriage survive something like that? Well Susan didn’t know, but she had to try, and she had to find out? Which is why she had set her alarm clock for a half hour early on this Christmas day morning?

            Susan reached over to her alarm clock on her bedside table; her index finger soon found the mute button and pressed it, once again the bedroom was silent, Susan pulled back the covers sat herself up and swung her feet over and placed them down onto the floor. Since she had been a teenager she had gotten into the habit of sleeping in the nude, and that habit was still with her even today.   

            She looked over at Sam and he hadn’t even stirred, she stood up and she ignored her complaining full bladder, which had already woken her once in the middle of the night, but as she had grown accustomed to, she had also ignored it then as well.

            Susan quietly hobbled across to the wardrobe and quietly opened the door; she bent over to pick up a red sexy Santa suit, which she had brought hoping it might add a bit of spice to their lovemaking? Susan lingered in the bent over position longer than necessary because in that position the need to pee was somewhat reduced.

            First she slipped the red top edged with white fur over her head, and then had to cross her legs tightly, she stood still enjoying the sensation that was generated by her need to urinate, and from her tightly crossed legs. Susan then once more bent over and taking hold of the sexy red panties, one foot at a time she stepped into them and pulled then all the way up as far as they would go. She held them tight and kept pulling them upward pulling them hard up against her crotch, again she was enjoying the sensation she was giving to herself!

            It was just then that she heard the commotion coming from outside, at first she thought it was the dozen  or so hens they kept for eggs, however in all the years she had kept hens, she had never heard them make such a sound as they were making right now. In fact it was such a racket even Sam started to stir, Susan rushed over and looked out of the bedroom window, and from here she had a good view of the hen house, but look as she might she could not believe her eyes. The hens were all running around, well just like headless chickens would do, but apart from that, none of them were headless.

            But what Susan couldn’t understand was why had all her hens turned brown all over, Sam now sat up in bed and looked at his wife standing slightly bent at the waist with her legs crossed and her right hand pushed hard into her crotch and said.

            “Susan what’s going on?”

            Without turning to look at her husband she replied.

            “Quick Sam come and look at all the hens, something’s wrong with all the hens, they’ve all gone brown.”

            Sam got out of bed and rushed over to the window, to see for himself, and yes they had all turned brown, and yes they were all rushing around and still making that awful, awful din. Susan now stopped holding her crotch and instead grabbed hold of Sam’s hand and started pulling him towards the bedroom door and said.

            “Come on quickly outside, we have to do something, our hens are being attacked or something, we have to do something, come on quickly?”

            So they both rushed down the stairs together, through the kitchen and out of the back door, and started running across the yard to the hen house, as they got closer they could see that whatever the brown mass was covering the hens it was moving, and when they heard the buzzing sound, made by 60,000 sets of flapping wings they knew what was attacking their hens.

            Sam quickly unbuttoned his PJs top and quickly removed it, and rushed over to his hens, once he was close enough he started flapping his top against his hens trying to dislodge the insects. Susan decided to follow his example and slipped her sexy Santa top over her head, the fact she was wearing nothing underneath, well she never gave it a second thought?

            Now both of them desperately started swiping away at the hens, with their clothes, trying to brush off all of the bees.  

            Now whether or not it was the red cloth flapping around which antagonized the Bees or not, Sam and Susan had no way of knowing. However one thing they did know was, all the Bees were now flying up into the air, and forgetting about the hens, they now regrouped about 12 feet up in the air and seemed to hover there until they had made up one large compacted brown cloud.

            When all the drones were ready the whole swarm now had two new targets to attack, and attack they did, as if the swarm had been as one, the 60.000 or so drones started dive-bombing heading towards Sam and Susan. Sam only had time to shout one quick warning to Susan which was.

            “OH SHIT QUICK SUSAN RUN!”

            Which would have been alright if she knew where to run too, which she didn’t, so she just decided to follow Sam, and she didn’t have time to question whether or not he was running in the right direction?

            However it was soon clear that they were not running fast enough, already Bees were landing on their faces and arms, and even although Susan was running as fast as she could she still managed to scream when the stings began. She looked down at her breasts, and due to all the bees that had already landed on her she could hardly see her breasts. And then the stings began on her breasts, she then realized her back must be covered with Bees as well judging by all the stinging she could feel from her back.

            She looked at Sam and he wasn’t doing much better than she was, his back was also completely covered in Bees. But now she could see where he was headed, she could now see where he was running too.

            The lake, it was only a manmade lake, with fish, and a rowing boat, that Sam liked to fish from sometimes, but Susan was guessing Sam thought they may be safe in the water? After all Susan didn’t think Bees could swim, so it was worth a try?

            Sam reached the edge of the lake first and didn’t pause, or hesitate in the slightest he just took in a deep breath, dived in head first, even although he couldn’t swim. Susan followed his example and also just dived in behind him although she could swim, so she wasn’t as bothered as he had been about just diving in? On the edge of the lake it was only about 5 feet deep so they could both stand up in it and keep their heads above water, however they both wanted to keep their bodies below the waterline to avoid any more stings.

            Once Susan had dived into the cold water, she laid there completely submerged, holding her breathe, however although the water had washed away all the Bees from her body, the water did very little to ease the pain of the 500 or so Bee strings.

            There was a very good reason for this, which was the Apis Bee can only sting once, the barbed stinger stays imbedded in the persons skin, and breaks away from the Bee, the Bee will then die shortly afterwards. The barbed stinger then needs to be pulled out of the skin from whichever person the Bee stung.

            Which is why the water did very little to ease her stinging. As Susan was a swimmer she did know something about breathing, she knew how long she could hold her breath for, before having to come up for air, which is more than could be said for Sam.

He knew he could hold his breath no longer, he had to come up for air, but his timing was way out and even before his head broke the surface he was breathing in, and all to late he realized he was breathing in and swallowing water, which just made him start to panic, and to start coughing and spluttering. So he was pleased when his head did at last break the surface, his mouth was wide open while he was gasping for air, which could have well been a grave mistake?

            Not only was Sam sucking in oxygen into his mouth he was also sucking in buzzing Apis Bees, it did take Sam a moment before he realized, that the hairy oval buzzing things inside his mouth he had sucked in were Bees.

            And right on cue, and just to prove it, first he felt one Bee sting, right on the roof of his mouth, he then took one, long hard exhaling blow, however not before feeling another sting right in the middle of his tongue. He realized that yes he was safe from the Bees underwater, however the Bees were waiting for him on top of the water, and he couldn’t stay submerged for long after all he did have to breathe!

            Also coming up for air, and also discovering the Bees were still there and waiting for her to surface was Susan, she however didn’t suck any of them into her mouth, she realized they were still there when one landed on and stung her on the end of her nose. She quickly closed her mouth and took a deep breath in through her nose, and quickly dived back under the water. She didn’t even have time to consider how Sam was getting on; she didn’t even remember he couldn’t swim! Susan didn’t know how long the Bees would wait here for her, so she decided to swim underwater, to get as far away from here as possible, before she would have to come up for air again?

            She turned around to face the direction of the centre of the lake, or at least the direction she thought to be leading to the centre of the lake, she swum underwater as fast, and for as far as she could before she had to come up for air!

            When she could hold her breath no longer she broke the surface of the water, out here it was somewhat deeper, and too deep to stand up in, so she had to tread water to stay afloat, and to keep her head above the water she looked around and realized she was now quite away from the edge of the lake. And yes the Bees hadn’t followed her out here, she looked around looking for signs of Sam, she now started worrying as she now remembered Sam couldn’t swim a stroke. And if she needed a clue as to the whereabouts of Sam, who was still lurking somewhere under the water, the dark brown cloud hovering about 2 feet above the water was a dead giveaway.

            As Susan went on treading water she was hesitating as to what her best plan of action was, what about Sam he can’t swim, can I recue him, how can I recue him, how long can I go on treading water for, how long before I get too tired, maybe Sam has drowned already after all he can’t swim?

            She decided she had to try, even if she just acted like a decoy, acted like a distraction, maybe she could lure the Bees away, so they went after her and would forget about Sam, thus allowing him to come up for air without getting stung anymore, than he had been stung already?

            With her mind made up, she knew she had to hurry, or maybe it was already too late, after all the only thing which had saved her was the fact she was a swimmer, and Sam wasn’t. So with these thoughts running through her mind she began swimming back towards the edge of the lake and back towards the Bee cloud.

            The nearer she got, the more worried she became, in all this time she hadn’t once seen Sam come up for air, and after all she reasoned no one can hold their breath for that long?

            When she was about 15 feet away she stopped swimming and again started treading water, and began waving her arms about in the air to try to attract the Bee clouds attention, but when nothing happened she started shouting as well.

            “OVER HERE YOU BASTARDS OVER HERE COME AND GET ME OVER HERE.”

            That worked almost at once the Bee cloud started swarming towards her, she decided to wait until they reached her and she would then take a deep breath and then dive below the water. However she never got that far, because all of a sudden the Bee swarm which had been flying in her direction suddenly started changing course and then started gaining height. Susan watched as the swarm went flying off across the lake, just like they had spotted something else which antagonized them or something else which angered them? However Susan didn’t care where they were flying off to, just so long as they left her alone? She watched as the swarm cloud got smaller and smaller, and watched just long enough to be sure they weren’t coming back, she then took a deep breath and started swimming as fast as she could, back to where she thought Sam still was, somewhere beneath the the surface of the water? Her only concern was would she be in time to save his life?

            As soon as she came close to the bank where she thought Sam was, she dived down looking for him, but nothing, where the hell was he for God sake, I’m running out of time now, I must be surly, I must be?

            On about her forth dive she saw his legs, just floating there, just below the water, which did fill her with hope, she quickly swam around him and as he was floating face down, she grabbed his shoulders and turned him around so he was floating face upwards.

            Maybe in her excitement of finding him, the fact he was still and floating peacefully didn’t register, she was only aware that she had to get him back onto dry land, and quickly as well!      

            Susan then planted her right arm around his neck and dragged him to the edge of the lake, where here she could stand up, however his body was a dead weight, she climbed up out of the lake herself and onto the bank, and then tried to drag his body out of the water and onto the bank. But he was too heavy for her; she only managed to drag his top half out of the water.

            Now Susan had never seen a dead body before now and even so she still didn’t realize he was dead until she saw his wide open bulging eyes. Susan had never had any first aide training so she wouldn’t know where to start, with mouth to mouth or anything else come to that either. The fact he had been dead for about 12 minutes already would have told her it was too late to administer any sort of first aide whatsoever anyway?

            Susan now decided she needed to dial 911 and the phone was back at the house, and she did start off at a run, however her body still had about 800 barbed Bee stingers imbedded almost all over her body and now her body started to stiffen up as she tried to run, which meant her running now became slower and slower.

            When at last she reached the house she could hardly walk never mind run and she now started feeling dizzy and her vision blurred. Phone, phone I must get to the phone, she told herself over and over, at last she did, and could just see to dial 911, it was just as the operator answered her call everything for Susan went black.

 

'