The tide of shining dots seemed to vibrate on the horizon, growing in size and intensity. They were close. They’d soon be right on top of them.

Rowan took a quick glance at the helicopter pilots. Underneath their visors, he could see sweat dripping from their faces. Their hands trembled on the vehicle controls.

“Keep our position.” he said.

“D-Do we have a plan, colonel…?” asked one of them.

“Do I have to answer that question, soldier?”

The pilot didn’t insist.

Rowan turned towards the back compartment of the helicopter, where both civilians and wounded soldiers stood, anxiously observing him.

“Ladies and gentlemen, our situation is critical.” he cleared his throat before continuing. “I’ll be blunt. That bright light covering the horizon is a swarm of monstrous creatures, similar to the one we killed a moment ago. They’ll corner the helicopter, and they’ll bring it down. Running away isn’t an option. Neither is fighting.” ha made a brief pause. “Any suggestions?”

They all stared at one another, frightened. They began babbling. A woman broke down and cried. They argued among themselves.

At that point, it didn’t matter if everyone panicked. If a life-saving idea arose as a result, it’d be worth it.

“…ld be… ay…”

His attention was caught by a timid voice among the group. It was a young woman with glasses, the one he had to apply first aid on due to a broken arm. She bit the nails of her healthy hand, muttering something, while sitting on one of the seats of the compartment. Her voice was barely audible over the roar of the rotors.

“…there could be… a way…”

Rowan rushed to her side and crouched down to her eye level.

“Miss, speak clearly.”

The woman flinched and glanced at the floor.

“W-Well… Um… At Saint Marie Hospital… Didn’t a similar thing happen at the hospital?”

Rowan tried to remember. Captain Isaac had mentioned something in his report. The stinger hordes converging on the hospital had suddenly abandoned their state of aggression, although he didn’t understand why. Did that young woman know about it?

“Miss, if you know something, speak up!”

******

“Nora!” yelled Claire.

She jumped up from her seat and lunged towards the front of the helicopter, passing by the colonel’s side, headed for Nora and Lilian, who cuddled each other on the floor.

“Y-Yes…?” mumbled Nora.

“Nora, can you speak with Lilian…? Can you ask her to stop those things!? You pulled it off at the hospital!”

Nora shook her head. “I can’t.”

“N-No!? Please, you’ve got to try! This is some kind of pheromone signal, there has to be something we can do!”

“She won’t answer. What do you think I’ve been doing this whole time? I’ve tried, over, and over, and over… But she doesn’t respond.” tears pooled up in Nora’s eyes.

‘But she talked to me earlier…!’

Lilian’s stare was lost, she looked like a porcelain doll, inert and lifeless. Anyone would think she was dead if it wasn’t for the blue glitter in her eyes.

“Listen, I’m sure Lilian is still in there, somewhere, okay?” she held Nora’s hand tightly. “Give it one more try. Please.”

After some seconds of hesitation, Nora nodded.

******

‘Lilian.’

‘Lilian.’

‘Lilian.’

…

There was no answer. Nora closed her eyes and tried to ignore the helicopter’s loudness, and the wind gusts blowing in her face, and the uproar caused by the people arguing around her.

‘Lilian.’

‘Lilian.’

‘Lilian.’

…

As much as she called her name, nothing happened.

‘Please, Lilian… Where are you?’

She missed her voice. Not the aberrant, unnatural voice of the queen, but her real voice, soft, sweet. She missed her radiant smile. Her delicate but energetic personality. The warmth of her embrace. Anything that reminded her that her sister was still alive, that she was still herself.

[*whispers*]

‘…?’

A distant sound reached Nora’s ears; and all the other noises in her environment quieted down, muffled as if someone had covered everything with a pillow, until they completely vanished.

She couldn’t open her eyes. She didn’t know if it was because of something beyond her control, or out of fear of losing her focus, of letting that remote hint slip from her hands. Her body felt light, floating in the vacuum of space.

‘Lilian…?’

The whispers intensified. They weren’t whispers. It was buzzing. The buzzing of flapping wings. A strange, oppressive sensation coursed through her body, and she felt asphyxiated, as if underwater.

Nora gasped and opened her eyes. She took a copious gulp of a cold, bitter liquid. She couldn’t breathe. However, her feet and her backside touched solid ground. She was sitting down. On a reflex, she stood up and broke through the liquid’s surface, coughing and panting.

She couldn’t manage to make sense of her surroundings. The water reached up to her waist. Was it actually water? Of a greenish color, with azure glints, it had a thick consistency, and it was so turbulent nothing but blackness could be seen under its surface. Throughout that swampy wasteland stood dark, pointy structures of osseous appearance. The lack of lighting made it difficult to distinguish them, but they looked like limbs. Articulated limbs, like those of insects, gigantic and lifeless, intertwined together in knots and arches. High above, the sky was nothing but a pit of bottomless darkness.

“H-Hello…?” said Nora. “Lilian?”

Her entire body trembled. Something in that place pressured her consciousness and made her blood run cold. A presence. Hostile, violent.

‘This isn’t real. It couldn’t be. We’re in a helicopter. Focus, Nora, it’s not real. It’s like that time…’

“Lilian!? I know you’re here! Please, answer me! Lilian!”

The tangle of legs in front of her twitched for an instant and opened up, moving aside and revealing something beyond. It shined in an intense blue color, and seemed to pulsate, although Nora couldn’t make out what it was.

She gulped and began walking in its direction. Moving her legs entailed an immense effort, the liquid offered a great deal of resistance. There was something down there, her feet bumped into some kind of obstacle, they disturbed something hiding under the waters. It was alive.

She felt many things grabbing onto her legs and moving upwards, and saw several insects, the size of fists, climbing her body, tearing her clothes in the process. Nora closed her eyes and screamed.

‘It’s not real…! It’s not real!!’

She opened her eyes again, and she now stood right in front of the shining structure. It was an insect. Atrophied wings, a grooved body with black and yellow tones, a disproportionately big abdomen… A queen bee, perhaps? Her features were too deformed for a bee.

Nora looked at her sides, and both her arms and legs were trapped by numerous articulated limbs, while countless insects grabbed onto her skin. Trails of blood covered her body, but she couldn’t see the wounds. She didn’t feel any pain either. All she felt was overwhelming terror. The gigantic creature loomed from up high, observing her, with its mandibles wide open, like a hunter contemplating its prey before the feast.

However, it wouldn’t move. It showed signs of hostility, but no aggression. It protected something. An egg, well secured on the ground in front of it. The membrane covering it was translucent, revealing a person inside.

“Lilian!!” shouted Nora. “Lilian! Can you hear me!? I’m here! Lilian!!”

Lilian didn’t seem to be able to hear her.

‘I think I get it… This isn’t real, it’s all in my head, and in Lilian’s head! If this is a manifestation of her psyche… are these her instincts!? The thing consuming her from within!?’

There was something else, something she hadn’t noticed before. High in the sky, darkness wasn’t absolute. It was riddled with tiny bright dots, growing bigger and bigger with every passing second. They looked like stars, but stars don’t talk. Stars don’t convey emotions. Stars don’t carry a frightful presence.

[Family.]

[Union.]

[Family.]

[Union.]

She had no time to waste, and she was quite aware of it.

Nora fell into an adrenaline high. She fought, ignoring the dread invading her mind, resisting the twitches and shivers shaking her body. The articulated limbs immobilizing her broke apart with surprising ease, although those blood splatters couldn’t be a good sign. The insects held tightly onto her body, devouring her with increased yearning.

‘I won’t leave you here. You won’t end like this. I won’t let them take you!’

Almost on all fours, splashing in the nebulous bog, she advanced towards the egg. The insects emerged from the water in waves, anxious to stop her. The gigantic creature shrieked and howled, as if attempting to scare her away.

‘I won’t let you do whatever you want with her! She’s not yours! She doesn’t belong to you!!’

Blood covered her entire body. Chunks of flesh were missing. At some points, she could see bone, completely exposed. She didn’t know if there’d be any real consequences, and even if there were, she didn’t care.

‘Give Lilian back!! Give me back my sister!!!’

Her hands pierced the egg’s membrane, which offered no resistance. It didn’t break, it simply let her inside. Nora dove through its surface, and for an instant, her eyes crossed Lilian’s. She stared back at her.

There was a flash of light, and everything around her disappeared under a blanket of whiteness. It was blinding, but it didn’t appear to damage her sight. All noises died down. The atmosphere was warm, welcoming.

She knew that place. She’d been there before.

“Lilian…?”

“I missed you.”

She couldn’t see her, but she heard her clearly. Her voice came from everywhere at once, resonated within her head.

Lilian let out some shy sobs. Her emotions were an open book for Nora. Those weren’t tears of sadness, but relief.

“It’s okay. I’m here, okay? Lilian, sweetie…!” Nora began sobbing as well.

For several seconds, both of them rejoiced in the emotional exchange; emotions they had bottled up for too long. They were supposed to be in a hurry, but somehow, Nora knew it didn’t matter. Time seemed to have frozen still.

“I’m scared.” said Lilian.

“Of them?”

“Mhm… They scare me. Lots! They come to me, they need me, they wanna take me with them…! They feel my pain, they think I’m uncomfortable here, they think I need help…”

“Can’t you… refuse?”

“But, how!? I can’t even speak up to them. They won’t stop screaming, they’re so quick to get carried away by their impulses… Whenever I try to speak with them, I’m out of words. And… a part of me doesn’t wanna talk to them. It wants to go with them. I’m scared. Norie, I’m so scared…!”

“Listen to me! Nothing’s gonna happen to you, okay? I’ll make sure of it, I promise. I won’t hide, or bail out, ever again! Lilian, you held my hand all the way here, let me do the same for you this time. I think it’s about time.”

“Y-You promise it’ll be okay…?”

“I promise! No matter how scary they are, I won’t let them lay a finger on you! We’ll do this together, okay?”

“S-Sure…!”

“Trust me! On the count of three! One, two…!”

‘We’re going home, Lilian. You have my word.’

******

“Steady, soldier.” said Rowan. “Keep the direction stable, no abrupt movements. Try to gradually gain altitude.”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

It was a miracle the rotors weren’t agitating them. The helicopter advanced among the stinger warriors, looking for viable gaps through the swarm.

Like flipping off a switch, the creature’s luminescence was gone, leaving in full display the dirty, brownish color of their carapaces. They turned their heads in the vehicle’s direction, but they maintained their positions with surgical precision, as if frozen midair.

The sound of their flapping was deafening, and Rowan could feel the winds they raised, a gale swinging the helicopter from side to side, hindering its maneuverability.

‘The pseudo-queen… That woman did it. I don’t know what she did, but she did it.’

Over many long minutes, they advanced through the swarm, until its density began dwindling, until they were able to appreciate the color of the sky, until they left their devilish flapping behind.

Everyone onboard the helicopter stayed tense and silent, until the dark cloud of stingers was but a stain on the horizon. One of the pilots was the first one to break the silence. What started as some awkward panting became a snicker.

“Are we… safe?” he said. “Colonel…! Are we safe!?”

Rowan sighed. “Ladies and gentlemen, good job.”

Those words unleashed an explosion of joy that coursed throughout the helicopter from end to end. He took a quick glance at the back compartment. His men wiped the sweat off their foreheads. They hugged one another. Some laughed, others cried. Others were too busy tending to their wounds, or the wounds of their partners.

The civilians shared similar sentiments. The woman with the glasses had leaped onto the two queens, and they sobbed together. Even the young one shed tears.

He sighed again, and grabbed the cab’s radio.

“This is Colonel Rowan. HQ, do you copy?”

“This is HQ. We’re glad to hear from you, colonel! We’ve lost contact with almost every unit out there. What’s going on?”

“The mission is over. We’re going back to base.”

There was a long pause. “…understood, colonel!”

Laughs could be heard on the other side of the radio.

“Get the research teams ready. They’ll be quite busy. And make sure there’s plenty of food, drink, and commodities for the survivors. They’ve earned it.”