Oath of the Survivor

Kyle’s mind was working on overdrive as he watched the beetles approaching.  In retrospect, an emergency release that immediately let go of a suspended shipping container was probably a bigger risk than anything else.  Years of action films led me astray.  I should have seen that coming.  Swallowing his frustration, he refocused on the problem at hand. 

The narrow entryway into the control room meant only a couple beetles could enter at a time.  That cut both ways, of course.  Kyle could open the side door to try to escape, but if he made a last stand in this room it would only be a matter of time until he was overwhelmed by sheer numbers, particularly if they surrounded the platform around the control room.  He was reminded of the Spartan warriors of old earth, and while their exploits were the stuff of legends he would much prefer survival to martyrdom. 

He heard the beetles clambering up the steps leading to the control room platform – he was running out of time.  Scanning the room one more time, he saw a lever.  He wasn’t sure what it did, and reaching over it was pretty much a guarantee that it was jammed.  So Kyle wrenched it to the side, hearing a snap as the pins holding it in place broke free, releasing his makeshift baton.  It was far lighter than the rebar he had been using before, likely made of aluminum instead of solid steel.  Still, it fit comfortably in his hand as he left the control room and jumped onto the roof, working his way up towards the arm of the crane itself. 

Upon seeing their quarry, the beetles redoubled their pursuit, a nearly rabid frenzy overtaking the swarm.  Kyle wasn’t sure what was going on.  Something had agitated them far more than he had expected.  With a grunt of effort Kyle pulled himself up onto the arm of the crane and began climbing until he got to the end directly above the suspended shipping container.  It was easily seven stories in the air, and a fall from this height would almost certainly be fatal if he lost his footing.  He was banking on that fact being true for the beetles as well.  The arm of the crane was just over a meter wide, and if two beetles tried to approach at once they ran a significant risk of bumping into each other and limiting their movements. 

With his weapon and the best fight he was able to pick, Kyle couldn’t help but be thankful that he had never been particularly afraid of heights.  As he watched, the first of the beetles made its way onto the roof of the control room and over towards the arm.  It hesitated there for a minute, as more and more beetles began to congregate.  It didn’t seem eager to make the journey across the arm, which was an odd difference from how they’d been behaving just moments prior.  It looked one way, then another, then seemed to spasm slightly before fixing its gaze on Kyle and rushing headlong towards him. 

The beetle’s charge was direct and predictable, and Kyle was thankful for that.  He took a deep breath, steadied his legs, and as soon as the beetle crossed into range, he twisted his hips and swung his baton, striking the creature square in the side and knocking it off the crane.  It tried to flutter the wings on its back, but as Kyle suspected they couldn’t do much to decelerate the fall.  It smashed into the ground with an audible crunching sound, and Kyle knew it was out for the count. 

Looking down the arm, more beetles exhibited the same strange behavior before charging, and the next handful of seconds were frenetic chaos as Kyle struck beetle after beetle, each with the same results as the first.  After he’d knocked down his eighth opponent, he had a moment to breathe.  He looked down the arm and frowned.  The beetles were congregating near the base, and that’s when Kyle spotted something odd. 

There was a beetle among the mass that didn’t look like the others – for one it wasn’t plodding along on heavy feet, but rather floating alongside the others with a set of furiously flapping small wings.  It was rotund and bulbous, almost looking more like some sort of mutated housefly than anything else.  Its abdomen was particularly large, and he could feel mana pulsing inside, a rhythmic red glow brightening and fading in time with the mana.  Kyle didn’t know how he could feel the mana from this far away, but there was undoubtedly some sort of connection to this insect. 

From the way it was acting, it felt much the same. It met his eyes, and Kyle suddenly felt a faint compulsion to walk over to the group of beetles.  It was fleeting, and over as soon as it came, but Kyle was shaken by the impulse.  This was more than an intrusive thought, this was a direction being given by this strange creature.  That explains the swarm and the odd level of coordination Kyle thought, keeping eye contact as they maintained their strange standoff. 

With only ten beetles left on its side, it fluttered about them with fervent energy, sending two at once in a bid to take him down.  Fortunately, Kyle’s earlier estimation proved correct as their approach was slowed with their lack of coordination.  Legs got caught on legs, angrily fluttering wings buffeted one another, and though there was a numbers advantage, they just didn’t have the position to capitalize on it.

These two were dispatched quickly, meeting their end with a grisly crunch of chitin on cement.  Kyle grinned as he looked down the arm at his assailants.  They might be smart for bugs, but they’re definitely not tacticians.  He felt his victory was almost assured, until once again the mutated fly began to flutter about and rub its barbed legs together, whipping up the remaining beetles which angrily clicked their mandibles and scratched at the steel beneath their claws.  Kyle cocked his head at the sight, and then it hit him.  A compulsion orders of magnitude more powerful than the one before, all focused on jumping off the end of the arm. 

He had taken half a step to do exactly that before he regained his senses, but that critical moment was enough.  As one, eight beetles began barreling towards him.  They had been moved by the same directive that had struck him, and he simply didn’t have the space or the time to take a stance and attack.  Even if he did, with eight running in a row he wouldn’t have the time to knock them all off before one of them managed to bowl him over.  They were almost on him now, and so he took the one option left to him.  He jumped. 

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