Secret of the Were-Virus/7

Chapter Six: The Locusts
"Oh, my, I can't believe I just saw that!" Samantha said, holding her hand over her mouth. "It - it was horrible!"

"Let's just get out of here," Chaleen replied. "I've got to get some of this written down before I forget it."

"You're still thinking about your stupid book?" Samantha asked incredulously. "What about your life? Don't you care about that?"

"Of course, I have. If I die, I can't publish my book and get rich," Chaleen said with a rather greedy smile.

Samantha suddenly pulled Chaleen away as the giant Spider began moving closer to them. As the two women ran down the street, the Spider pursued them, apparently finding the Brights much more appetizing than the rest of the people running in all directions. They quickly ran into a nearby movie theater, which was nearly abandoned, though they could see a movie poster showing a monsterous creature tearing up New York City.

"Now, what kind of a sick person sees that when there are really monsters destroying the city?" Samantha asked. "It's almost as insensitive as some of your news reports," she added with a sharp look at her daughter.

"That would be me!" a voice said suddenly. Samantha and Chaleen turned to see a pimple-faced teenager. "I've decided to see Oblivion today and that's what I'm doing no matter what!" The moment after these words were out of his mouth, the power went out.

"How are we doing?" Audrey asked Eddie as they flew over the countryside.

"You want an honest answer or something comforting?" Eddie asked wryly.

"How about something comforting," Margaret suggested.

"We're doing great!" Eddie replied. Brian rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Oh, don't be like that!" Audrey told him. "Things could be worse."

"How?" Brian asked sardonically.

"Uh, oh," Eddie said suddenly, "giant grasshopper at three o'clock!"

"It's nowhere near three o'clock!" Margaret said, looking at her old-fashioned watch. "Your clock must be broken." Eddie ignored her as he moved the plane downwards to avoid the Grasshopper.

"Now, really, why do all the were-animals have to be scary animals?" Margaret asked impatiently. "Why can't there be any were-butterflies or were-kittens?"

"Well, if there were, they'd probably want to eat humans anyway," Brian pointed out, "And Dad is a were-cat, only he's a full grown one." Margaret sighed.

"There just isn't enough optimism in the world these days," Margaret commented as Eddie swerved the plane around to avoid the giant carnivorous insect.

"It's a good thing the Penmount police agreed to look after that Wolverine," remarked Brian. "I certainly wouldn't want to have him around here!"

"Uh, oh," Audrey said suddenly, her wide eyes fixed out her window, "I think it's a locust."

"Why?" Brian asked impatiently.

"Because that's the rest of the swarm," she said, pointing out her window at what resembled a giant storm cloud moving quickly over the hills.

"How on earth would all those monsters form?" asked Brian incredulously. "Locusts usually don't bite people!"

"And it's winter nonetheless!" Audrey remarked.

"Haven't you ever heard of migrations?" asked Eddie.

"You mean from the south? Yeah, but why up here where there's no vegetation right now?"

Eddie had no time to answer, for the cloud was rapidly approaching. "These things multiply quickly," he said, steering to avoid the first few monstrous insects. "I'll bet there were a few left over from the summer, and they somehow spread their genes to humans."

Now the plane was being pelted with the monsters, and was threatening to go off course. "Hang on!" shouted Eddie, masterfully dodging this way and that. Several insects got their heads lopped off by the propellers. "It's gonna be a bumpy ride!"

"Except that..." the teenager said eventually, looking around the darkened theater. He turned to Chaleen and Samantha.

"Who are you?" he asked Chaleen. "You look familiar."

"Well, I'm Chaleen Bright," Chaleen said with a trace of her usual giddiness, "and I -"

"Chaleen Bright?" the boy asked, sounding terrified. "The werebat?"

"Yes, but I'm not a -" Chaleen said quickly.

"Cool!" the teenager interrupted. "Can you bite me? I want to be a were-beast too!" Chaleen and Samantha looked disgusted.

"Do you have a name?" Samantha asked him.

"I'm Joey Legrand," the boy replied proudly, "and my parents were just killed by the Spider!"

"And how does that make you feel?" Chaleen asked, getting back into her "reporter" mode. "Hurt? Distressed? Scared? Lonely?"

"No, it makes me feel like Luke Skywalker," Joey told her. "In movies, the kid always gets his parents killed before he goes on to a big adventure and becomes a hero!"

"Well, this isn't a movie, this is real!" Samantha shouted. "R - E - A - L...real!"

"I know that!" Joey said indignantly. "How do you know real life isn't like the movies? I mean, we already have all these were-beasts running around. Isn't that like a movie?"

"Yes..." Samantha said slowly, "...but this time real people are being killed instead of computer-generated crowds."

"Oh, let's just get out of here before another were-animal shows up!" Chaleen said in exasperation. "I already have enough material for a thousand stories."

Suddenly, there was a loud buzzing sound overhead. "W-what's that?" whimpered Samantha, looking up. "It sounds like a swarm of bees!"

"It's much worse," said a voice behind them. They whirled around to see a heavily-clothed man. He was wearing a black snowsuit, sunglasses and had a thick beard. A gun was in his hand. "It's a swarm of locusts!"

"You mean, were-locusts?" asked Joey in wonderment.

"Son," the man said, "You may think being a were-creature is glamorous. Let me tell you, it's anything but glamorous. It's the most horrible thing that could happen to you."

"How do you know?" asked Joey, snorting.

"Because I was one."

"What's your name?" asked Chaleen, curiously.

"Former Seargent Henry Andrews."

"Andrews?" Chaleen asked excitedly. "The Lizard?" She started excitedly jumping up and down. "Ooo, this is going to be the greatest interview of my career!"

"You were a werebat," Samantha pointed out. "Why don't you interview yourself?"

McPherson and Montgomery sat dazed and terrified in the helicopter that was taking them to Grand Rapids. "That's the most horrible thing I've ever experienced," said Montgomery, looking out the window to see the skyline of the Michigan city appear in the distance. "I don't think it was a good idea to inject Jones with that stuff."

McPherson snorted. "Not a good idea? Let me tell you, that was the most idiot idea in the world! Hendersen should've known that beast would kill him!"

Monty sighed and looked at the floor. "Well, now his own 'friends' will be after him. They're not going to tolerate a minotaur, even if it is a member of their fanatist organization."

Suddenly, a thick cloud appeared in the east. "Good heavens, what's that?" exclaimed McPherson, standing up. The pilot cursed. "I was hoping we'd get there ahead of them!"

Chapter Seven
"GIANT LOCUSTS!" Stuart bellowed. "YOU LED A SWARM OF GIANT LOCUSTS DOWN ONTO THE CITY?"

"Well, w-w-what were we supposed to do?" Audrey asked nervously. "I mean, they just started chasing us."

"GIANT LOCUSTS!" Stuart repeated. "THERE ISN'T ENOUGH FOOD ON THIS PLANET TO FEED THEM!"

"Now, please, sir, be reasonable," McPherson said delicately. "What could they possibly have done to stop them?"

"GIANT LOCUSTS!" Stuart repeated again as though his vocabulary had just been reduced to those two words.

"The General has every right to be indignant," Marone said in a much calmer voice. "After all, your actions have endangered many people's lives."

"Why you little suck-up!" McPherson shouted, losing his temper, but Monty held him back.

"Please, General, you're all about efficiency," Montgomery pointed out. "How efficient is it to yell the same thing over and over again?" Stuart paused.

"I guess, you're right," he said eventually. "There's no use yelling over spilled milk."

"It's crying over spilled milk," Brian told him.

"I'll say it the way I want, Harper!" Stuart shouted, slaming one of his fists down on his desk. "I can't beileve how bad this has gotten! It just jumped up on us in early December with a few scattered cases. Now it's the twenty-third and the whole thing is completely out of control!"

"The twenty-third?" Margaret said in surprise. "Goodness, that means...tomorrow’s Christmas Eve." Brian and Audrey were temporarily stunned - it was incredible that anything as ordinary as Christmas could still exist.

"I don't care what day it is!" Stuart shouted. "The fact that it's almost Jesus' b'day doesn't change the fact that we're almost on the brick of Armageddon!"

But the Harpers did care. Margaret had come to their home for Christmas...it seemed almost as though that had been in another world...maybe another universe...