Thrm 2 - Chapter 46

Chapter Forty Six
Near Pikeville, Kentucky
The shouting all around the airport was loud enough to be heard many miles away. News of the great victory over the minions of Moses had just spread. The best news was that very few of their loved ones had been killed or wounded. The worse casualties resulted when the M60 tank rounds and anti-tank rockets hit the armored personnel carriers and Bradleys. Several people were killed in the base camp from the rounds lobbed in by the tanks and a few more by small arms fire during the initial assault. Casualties among the fanatics was much larger but minimized when they wisely decided to surrender. A large stretch of Interstate 64 just west of White Sulfur Springs was cleared of abandoned vehicles and the fleet of C-130 transport planes landed to pick up the 82nd Airborne Paratroopers. Half would be shuttled to Hatcher field for further duties to keep an eye on the newly arriving loonies, a name which had seemed to stick to Moses’ followers. The other half would stay in White Sulfur Springs.
The had also learned that the force directly under Burt’s command, the one hundred twenty members of his Brotherhood of Protectors, his criminal goon platoon, had been ambushed by the three Ranger companies sent to join Huck. The A-10 Pilot alerted them to Burt’s escape and they attacked and destroyed the entire convoy. The only people to live through the deadly ambush were Burt and the men in his armored truck. The rest were decimated. The Ranger companies would remain with the group under Theopolis until it was determined there was no danger from the surrendered loonies. Most had returned to White Sulfur Springs where there was food stored, and the military had promised to provide them with whatever food they could obtain. Sergeant Major Peterson was recalled to active duty and put in command of them under martial law.
It was the beginning of the third day since they had planted the package in the ant nest, time to check out the results. A package of food dropped on the mound the night before was still there when the helicopter pilots made an early morning reconnaissance. If the ants were still active, the food should have been quickly taken.
Two CH-47F helicopters were loaded with rappelling gear and other items needed for the descent into the nest. Major Stiehl and his two squads of Rangers would make the first descent followed by Tappy, Colonel Grace, and Doctor Gallagher.
They landed on the highway at the base of the two hundred foot nest. It was eerily quiet. A gentle wind blew from the West right over the giant mound spreading a strange, sweetish odor in their direction. Climbing the giant nest proved to be extremely difficult. The excavated dirt had been rolled into softball size nuggets by the ants and each step they took they sank up to their knees. Walking was like trying to advance forward in a giant sized bin of balls similar to the plastic ball filled bins children loved to play in.
The top of the nest proved to be much more solid. Unlike the common ant nest found in the average back yard, there was no obvious entrance. Instead, there were multiple entrances leading down into the dark interior.
After deciding on which hole to start with, Major Stiehl turned to Tappy. "How far down do these nest go?"
"It is common for a normal sized red ant nest to go down to a depth of two, even as much as four feet," Tappy explained. "These nests could possibly go down hundreds of feet. Make sure everyone wears their protective suits, both for communication and protection. Ants generally circulate the air inside their nests, but if these creatures are dead, there could be very little air, especially the further down you go. Also, their carcasses are probably emitting hazardous gasses."
For protection they brought Level B one-piece protection suits with self-contained breathing apparatus and replaceable air canisters. Each suit also contained two-way radio communications so they could keep in contact. Everyone going inside the nest was required to wear them.
Rather than climb back down the hill, they had the helicopter lower the crates of gear they would need to the top of the nest. Within minutes everyone was suited up.
"Keep in constant contact with me," Tappy demanded. "Let me know when you start finding ant carcasses."
"That’s affirmative, Doctor." Major Stiehl smiled. "I mean Tappy." Tappy had already dispensed with the doctor this and doctor that scenario.
They snapped their headlamps on and entered the hole. Once inside it opened into a smooth circular tunnel about five feet high and just as wide. The first dozen feet angled down slightly, then dropped off precipitously at a steep angle. They removed their rappelling gear and drove an anchor post. As Rangers, they had their full set of rappelling gear available, including, attack harnesses, tactical ascenders, fast rope descenders, special ops ladders, and just about any conceivable mountaineering equipment.
"On belay!" Major Stiehl yelled. "I am going deeper into the nest right now, Tappy. The tunnel is plenty wide to accommodate us. The walls are smooth and solid." Five minutes later he gave her an update. "I appear to be at some kind of landing. The area is opening up into a good sized chamber."
"If it complies with normal standards, the landing should be large enough to accommodate scores of ants," Tappy replied. "The deeper you go, the larger the landings should be. Eventually you’ll start finding huge chambers filled with larvae and eggs."
"I see several humps in the distance." Major Stiehl’s voice sounded odd with his breathing overlapping his words. "Woah! Scared me for a second. Just ran into some huge ants. They don’t appear to be moving."
"Get closer and describe them to me."
"Easy for you to say," she heard him whisper. "The creatures are flat on the ground with their legs spread out. They’re covered with what appears to be a green or dark gray mold. Several legs have broken off one of them and the mold seems to be eating or decomposing them."
"Wonderful!" Tappy screamed, not realizing her voice carried to everyone wearing the suits. "Sorry ‘bout that. The formula works, the ants are dying. We’re coming down, Major."
Major Stiehl laughed. "Thought you wanted us to be the first to get chomped up?"
"I have no doubt that the nest is dead. We need to get to the nursery area to check out the eggs and larvae."
"Let Sergeant Bosken and his platoon come down first. I want some firepower down here just in case we run into any of these monsters that are still alive. You know, like in that old classic movie, Them."
Half an hour later they entered a gigantic chamber filled with thousands of eggs. Tappy and Eoin Gallagher were chatting like two kids in a free toy factory. They had met no live ants on any of the landings they investigated. The deeper they descended, the more decomposed the giant ant bodies seemed to be.
"They’re infected," Tappy spoke to Eoin. "Just as we hoped. See that dark spot on the side of the eggs. Within hours all the eggs should be consumed."
"No more nasty beasties," Eoin chuckled. "Let’s take some sample eggs back to make certain the fungus continues to consume it."
"This time I’ll post a platoon of Rangers around them so they don’t disappear and hatch," Major Stiehl added.
"Little chance of that, Major."
"We believed there was no chance of giant ants existing either, Doctor Gallagher. See what it cost us?"
"Of course you’re right, Major. We must not take anymore chances. As soon as we know all the eggs are dead and decomposing, we’ll burn them."
"We still have to find the queen’s chamber," Tappy stated.
"To make sure none of the princess and prince ants got free?" Sergeant Boskin asked.
"No. I’m certain that didn’t happen. The queen would not have had time to recognize the danger so she would not have lain queen and drone ants to perpetuate the species. She may have been up to something else though."
"What’s that?" Major Stiehl asked. "High tailing it out of here?"
"No. What I am curious to see is if she started any new evolutionary changes. Food, other than their fellow ants, has been rather scarce lately, and the nests have been unable to support their own populations and proportions. I want to see if the queen has started adapting by changing her offspring."
"You talking evolution?" Marjor Stiehl questioned. "I thought that took eons, thousands and thousands of years in the development cycle."
"In normal cases it does," Eoin answered. "But as soon as the queen realized that food was becoming a serious threat to the nest, she may have started the first steps towards that evolutionary process. We really don’t know what we’re dealing with. This is an entirely new species to us."
Twenty minutes later, they found the queen’s chamber. The queen herself was dead. She had probably been among the first to be infected by the mold because the nutrients from the small amount of food they left would have been given to her. The health and welfare of the queen came before all others. She was enormous in size, easily weighing in around three thousand pounds. Her bulbous body almost filled the huge chamber, along with hundreds of worker ant bodies.
"So much for royalty," Major Stiehl stated.
"Off with their heads!" Eoin chuckled.
"I need you to slice her open," Tappy asked. "We need to see her reproduction sack."
Major Stiehl motioned to Sergeant Boskin, who unsheathed his combat knife and started slicing into the decaying body. Within seconds he had the bloated end of the giant corpse split wide open.
Tappy and Eoin walked close and started messing with the disgusting egg sacks and internal organs. After a few minutes, Tappy held up what appeared to be a hand full of undeveloped pea sized eggs.
"Just as we thought, Eoin. She had started the change already."
"Aren’t those just undeveloped eggs?" Major Stiehl asked.
"No. They are fully developed and ready to be extruded," Tappy replied. "What you’re looking at is a new generation of ants. Due to the food shortages, this queen changed her reproductive capability to make the ants smaller. The eggs you see here, when fully grown into adult ants, will probably weigh no more than two or three pounds. They will still be dangerous to other animals, but not as much as these big monsters."
"Did any of them get hatched?"
"Not from this queen. Her eggs were still in the evolutionary process. It is possible that other queens in other nests may have started the process, especially if they are not eliminated by the formula within a month or more. We can kill off the gigantic ants, but the world may still have to contend with the smaller version."
"Now that we have found what we were looking for, can we get out of this damn nest?" Major Stiehl asked. "I’ve sweated so much I think my boots are full of water."
"I’ll second that," Colonel Grace echoed.
Outside the nest, they quickly removed the protective suits. Everyone looked as if they’d just taken a shower for they were soaked from head to foot with sweat. Several Rangers carried half a dozen of the infected ant eggs in a bag along with some of the pea-sized eggs. They were instructed to guard them with their lives.
The flight back to the airport was a happy one. Everyone was in a good mood. Tappy had Major Stiehl send a message to General McKensey to expand production of the formula and start getting it into the nests as soon as possible. The General congratulated them on their successful mission and advised Tappy that teams were already in the field distributing the formula. He had confidence in her and Eoin and Colonel Grace and started sending the teams out already.
As soon as they arrived back at the airport, they also discovered that word had been spread that the move to Florida had been cancelled. The people were free to settle wherever they wanted once the ant menace was over. A detailed breakdown of the status of the entire country would be made available as soon as possible along with what assistance the military could provide or would need.
As she was stowing her equipment and preparing for a much-needed shower, a grinning Colonel Grace interrupted her with a knock on her door.
"They’ve found the children!" he yelled.
She almost ran out of her room stark naked.