Chapter 9

Entering The Hive

Dana’s car came to a stop close to the area where the old sawmill was. She along with Kyne stepped out of the vehicle and looked around, as there were thick webs covering the area on the ground and in the trees, similar to what the detective had seen at the place where Jennifer had disappeared. Had they continued driving, they would have surely been caught in the webs.

”I’m going to make an assumption here. Tell me if it’s crazy,” Dana said to her partner. ”This is a sign that the Hive Queen is here, right?”

”Pretty much,” Kyne answered.”These webs are used for two things. To warn Hive Queen of intruders and to possibly catch them as well. Do your best not to get caught up on them.”

”No need to tell me that. I already have plenty of experience with this stuff,” the detective said as she walked to the trunk of her car and opened it. ”What I am more worried about are the little creepy critters that queen most likely has crawling around the whole place. My regular sidearm wasn’t exactly effective against the one I met and you told me that there are even more dangerous ones out there.”

”What are you doing?” the boy asked.

”I’m going in prepared,” Dana said with a grin as she brandished a shotgun. ”This baby can punch a hole through a car door and get the guy behind it. If this doesn’t stop those freaking bugs, I don’t know what will.”

With their preparations complete, the duo began to make their way towards the sawmill itself. They were walking slowly, but very carefully and quietly in order to avoid the webs and to not make noise that could alert any of the creatures currently hiding there. This proving to be incredibly difficult, as the webbing was practically everywhere.

”Jesus freaking Christ, that damn bug queen really wanted to leave her mark here, didn’t she?” Dana cursed quietly while carefully stepping over some of the webs. ”Hey, don’t you have some crazy superpower as well? Couldn’t you use it to get rid of this gunk?”

”I wish I could, but while we wouldn’t get tangled up, it would create another issue,” Kyne answered. ”Hive Queen and her servants keep themselves connected to these webs, allowing them to know through vibrations when something moves them even a bit. If I were to use my abilities here, all it would do is tell all of them that we are heading their way.”

”So much for that then,” the detective mumbled, before a sudden though came to her mind. ”By the way, I completely forgot to asky you about your special powers. What can you do?”

”Well, as my name would suggest, I have telekinetic abilities,” the boy answered. Upon seeing the confused look on Dana’s face, he decided to explain a but further.”What I can do is move objects with my mind.”

”Oh! So you’re basically a Jedi? That’s cool,” Dana said with a grin.

”...Why do I feel the sudden urge to facepalm?” Kyne mumbled with a sigh. ”I suppose that’s one way to put it. However, the heavier the object I’m trying to lift is, the more difficult it is for me to do so. Living beings can also be hard to move around, as their struggles can break my hold. Also, the more strain I put on myself using my ability, the more it hurts me in return.”

”Hang on, it hurts you?” the detective asked in a concerned tone. ”How badly exactly does it hurt?”

”Mostly I just get headaches and my nose might bleed. However, I was told that I should try to limit the use my powers as much as possible and not push them too much,” the boy explained.

”How come?”

”...If I try to do something that goes way past my abilities, I might end up dead.”

”What!?” Dana exclaimed out of shock.”Hey, if that’s the case, maybe you should have just stayed back and let me do this! I’m sure I can handle whatever I’ll encounter there!”

”Trust me. The things you’re going to have to face with the other Bio-Gladiators is something you won’t be able to do on your own,” Kyne said. “Besides, don’t worry about me. I’m prepared to meet my end facing the others.”

“Now wait a minute!” the detective said with a bit of anger in her voice as she grabbed her partner’s shoulder. “You might be okay with losing your life, but there are others who don’t hold it in such disregard. I mean, there has got to be someone out there that would be sad over your death!”

Kyne responded with only silence.

“There is someone out there, right?” Dana asked, now worried over the answer she would receive. “Like a mom or a dad? Some type of family? Anyone?”

“I have no family,” the boy answered. “I’m an orphan that was abandoned by his parents. There is no family out there waiting for me.”

“I see… I’m sorry to hear that,” the detective said sadly.

“Don’t be. It’s another fact of life that I’ve come to terms with already,” Kyne said as he continued to walk. “Come on. We shouldn’t waste too much time here. The more time we give Hive Queen, the stronger she will become.”

Dana wanted to yell at her partner for what he had just said. She wanted to tell him that what he had gone through was not okay and that he should feel sadness, anger or at least something over what he had gone through. However, she pushed those thoughts aside, as she knew that this wasn’t the place or the time for that. What she needed to do was find the missing girl she had been tasked with and possibly others that had been taken. It was her duty.

Still, she made a mental note to make sure that Kyne didn’t push himself too far with his powers.

The two continued advancing towards the sawmill, until Kyne suddenly stopped. Dana had her gun ready and quickly looked around, wondering if there were any enemies nearby, but was unable to find anything.

“Why did you stop?” the detective asked, while still looking around.

“We’re surrounded,” Kyne answered. “There are Hive Queen’s drones all around us.”

“Really?” Dana asked, still not able to find any such things. “I don’t see anything.”

“You will soon. Get ready.”

Just as he said that, six drones, similar to the one Dana had encountered before, jumped up from underground and charged towards the two of them. Thankfully for both of them, they had lighting fast reflexes thanks to their own experiences, allowing them to act immediately.

Firing a shot from her shotgun, Dana was able to blast one of the drones away, which was followed by her smacking another one away with the back of the gun. A third one came running at her, but she managed to narrowly duck underneath its lunge towards her.

Meanwhile, Kyne used his telekinesis to push back two of the drones, before turning his attention to a third one. This one managed to get close to him, but it was suddenly stopped in midair, as the boy used his powers to hold it in place before tearing it in half. Before the other two drones could attack again, Kyne used his abilities to hold them down in place, which he then followed by tearing down one of the nearby trees and using it to crush the two insect monsters.

Back with Dana, the detective had managed to shoot one of the two remaining monsters, leaving only one alive. However, said drone was able to get the jump on Dana and was now on top of her. The detective was trying her best to use her shotgun to keep the monster’s jaws away from her,but was slowly losing the fight. Luckily with the help of her partner, the monster was slain as an invisible force suddenly tore off its head.

Unfortunately, this led to Dana having her face covered in the blood of the drone, as the dark purple blood sprayed from the place the head been torn from.

“OH SWEET FREAKING JESUS! THIS SHIT IS NASTY!” the detective yelled as the the drone’s blood got all over her face with some of it falling into her mouth. “GODDAMMIT! KYNE, DID YOU REALLY HAVE TO DO THAT!?”

“Would you have preferred to get your face torn and chewed by the drone instead?” Kyne asked calmly.

“No, but you could have done your thing on it after getting it off me!” Dana continued to complain as she spat out the purple blood out of her mouth and tried to wipe her face clean. “Still… I guess I owe you one. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” the telekinetic said in response. “Also, it might not be all bad. Now that you have one of their scents all over you, it could help you infiltrate the hive undetected.”

“Woohoo… I’m overjoyed,” the detective said sarcastically as she picked up her gun and got ready to continue their journey. “How the hell were we even discovered? I mean, we didn’t make that much noise, did we?”

Kyne looked at his clothes and discovered something. He picked up a very thin string of web from his sleeve, one that was so thin it was almost completely invisible.

“This is how they did it,” the boy said while showing the string to his partner. “Hive Queen is far more clever than I thought. She knew that intruders would be on the lookout for the large amounts of web everywhere, so she had these placed around as well. While we were too busy trying to avoid the visible webs, we were caught in these ones, which then alerted the drones.”

“So our cover is now blown then?” Dana asked. “What should we do now?”

“No choice but to continue,” Kyne answered. “Even if they know about us, we have to go and stop Hive Queen. If we let her continue creating drones, we might have to deal with an army of them in the end.”

The detective gave a nod in response, agreeing with her partner. Whether now or later, they would have to deal with this issue at some point. It was a better choice to do so now, when the situation hadn’t grown too bad. Not to mention, they still needed to save the people that had been captured.

The rest of the trip to the sawmill was uneventful, as the two were able to avoid the webs and didn’t encounter any other drones. Whether this was because Hive Queen didn’t have anymore drones to spare or because she had pulled them back for a big ambush was unknown. Both Dana and Kyne still decided to press onward, although as carefully as possible.

Through the windows and other openings, one could see light shining from one of the buildings. Dana immediately took notice of a large pile of logs that were stacked on the side of one of the walls, leading up to a window. Knowing that they would need to gather information before going in, the detective decided to climb up the pile of logs to take a closer look at what they were dealing with.

“What are you doing?” Kyne asked quietly as he watched Dana beginning to climb the logs.

“What does it look like?” the detective asked back. “I’m just going to get a closer look at what’s inside, so-”

Dana’s explanation was cut short, as her leg slipped and she began to fall. Luckily for her, Kyne had been able to react very quickly and had used his abilities to stop the detective’s fall immediately.

“I can see what you are trying to do. That is not the issue,” Kyne said as he used his telekinesis to float Dana up in the air. “What I was wondering was why you didn’t ask me to lift you up with my ability? It’s much easier and would cause less noise.”

“...Just bring me up to the window, okay?” the detective requested with an embarrassed blush on her face.

With her position next to the window, Dana was able to see clearly inside what was going on in the sawmill. Much like outside, there were webs everywhere. She also spotted several drones walking around the place on the floor, walls and even the ceiling. There were also large yellow balls that were covered in webs. Upon closer inspection, the detective could see the outlines of people inside them.

“Do you see anything?” Kyne asked.

“A lot of drones for starters,” Dana replied. “However, there are these weird balls in there that I think have people inside them. Any idea what those are?”

“Those must be cocoons in which Hive Queen makes her more specialized drones,” the telekinetic said. “The missing people are most likely inside of them.”

“Alright, so that’s one mystery solved. Now where is the big bug herself?”

Just as she said that, Dana saw a drone walk into the room while dragging a man covered in webs behind it. Soon some of the webs on the ceiling opened up, revealing a figure that flew down to see the captive. This new arrival had a feminine figure and was a fair bit taller than your average woman. While it had a humanoid body, there were many insect-like features that clearly made it different from an actual person. Her limbs were thin and unnaturally long with large and curved claws at the end. Two pairs of wings could be seen on the back and what seemed like armor covered many parts of the body. On her head was a pair of large and round eyes, as well as long antennae. She also had a large mane of light brown hair.

It didn’t take the detective much to determine that this was Hive Queen.

Dana watched as the Bio-Gladiator walked up to the captured man, who was helplessly struggling against the webs covering his body, but it was no use. Hive Queen crouched next to its newest victim and opened her mouth. A long, this, tube-shaped tongue came out of her mouth and injected itself into the man’s abdomen, easily piercing his body. The man’s muffled screams intensified as a large bulge started to make its way up Hive Queen’s throat, before going down her tongue and into the man’s body. He kept screaming for some time, before his cries finally died down and his body was left twitching helplessly on the floor. Now that she was done with her victim, Hive Queen had her drones drag the body to someplace else, where the new drone could be born.

“That was easily the grossest thing I’ve ever seen. I think I’m going to puke,” Dana said to herself, before motioning for Kyne to bring her down. “Okay. I was able to see the bug lady herself. Seems like she is in the process of making more babies, which she already has plenty of.”

“That makes sense. Even in the matches I was able to witness, she would always hide away at first in order to build her forces. Once she was ready, she would either overwhelm her opponents with numbers or use other types of tactics to defeat her enemy,” Kyne said. “Were you able to see how many drones she had? Or if there were any special ones?”

“I didn’t see anything other than the regular drones we’ve already encountered, so that’s a relief,” the detective explained. “However, I wasn’t able to make out how many regular ones she had. From what I could tell, she had at least close to a dozen of them.”

“Normal drones shouldn’t pose much of a threat. What we need to worry about are the stronger ones and Hive Queen herself,” the telekinetic said. “While I haven’t seen them in action all that much, they are almost as fast and powerful as Hive Queen, who is an extremely dangerous opponent on her own. I think our best course of action is to stop the captured people from transforming first, then move on to take down the rest.”

“I agree, but we can’t exactly just charge in. With the big bug still there, we don’t stand a-”

Suddenly, a loud screech echoed in the air, as Hive Queen flew out of the sawmill’s roof and into the surrounding woods. With the speed of her flight, she was able to disappear from sight in no time.

“...Well, holy shit! I guess this is our lucky day,” Dana said with a small grin. “Now that she’s out of the way, we can go in with only the drones to worry about. Come on.”

“I’m not so sure about this,” Kyne said with a frown. “There’s something wrong with this. Why would she leave her base like this? Hive Queen has never done anything like this before.”

“Does it matter? The way I see it, we’ve got ourselves a golden opportunity right here and we need to take full advantage of it! Let’s go already!”

However, Kyne wasn’t convinced that things were going as smoothly as his partner seemed to be thinking. Not only was this unusual behavior from Hive Queen, but she also made such a noisy exit, almost like she wanted others to know that she was leaving. The telekinetic couldn’t help but have a bad feeling about this, despite following behind his partner.

Knowing that it would be a bad idea to go in through the front door, Dana decided to go around to the side in the hopes of finding another entrance. It didn’t take long for her to find a side door that they could use as a means to get inside, but there was a drone situated next to it. The detective contemplated on how to deal with the obstacle, when Kyne stepped up.

“Let me handle this,” the boy whispered as he got to work.

In a swift action, Kyne used his abilities to suddenly twist the drone’s head around. The creature hardly knew what had even happened before it fell to the ground dead.

With the guard dead, Dana was able to move to the door. Even though it was locked, it didn’t prove to be much of an issue, as the detective had her lock picking tools with her. It took her no time at all to get the door opened up.

After opening the door as slowly and carefully as possible in order to not alert any of the drones inside, Dana and Kyne got inside. Much like the path to the building, there were webs everywhere, making it hard to move around. However, despite the troublesome terrain, the two of them were able to make their way around the place.

On their way to the place where Dana had seen the cocoons that possibly held the missing people inside, they encountered a few drones. Luckily with Kyne’s abilities, they were all quickly and quietly disposed of, allowing them to advance without raising an alarm.

After what felt like hours, they finally made it to the main hall, which Dana had been observing from the window. The cocoons almost within reach. Only a few more steps and they could go and help the people inside. Unfortunately, there were plenty of drones still around, making it a very disadvantaged battlefield.

“Shit! We’re so close!” Dana cursed silently. “If we could just get to those cocoons, we could get the people out of them! Any ideas on how to distract those things?”

“Hmmm… Maybe I could cause a distraction of some kind?” Kyne suggested. “If I somehow manage to draw them away from here, you could then move on to help those people.”

The detective wanted to shoot down her partner’s suggestion. She was never a fan of having someone sacrifice their life for the sake of others and she certainly didn’t want to have a child do that. However, there didn’t seem to be any good options, unless she could think of one quickly.

Suddenly, all the drones walked away from the area, leaving the cocoons completely unguarded. For a moment, all Dana and Kyne could do was stare in awe as the perfect opportunity for their rescue seemed to have come up.

“Another lucky strike!” Dana said with a small grin as she began to make her way to the cocoons. “Come on. We have to get those people out of here, before-”

“Wait a second! This is too weird!” Kyne said as he grabbed the detective’s arm to stop her. “Hive Queen leaving was already strange enough, but this is way too much! There has got to be something else going on! This could even be a trap!”

“The hell are you saying? What kind of a trap would leave your base completely defenseless like this?”

“I’m not sure, but there is obviously something going on! Think about it! Why would Hive Queen suddenly leave? And why would her drones also suddenly leave? There isn’t even a single guard left here! I think we should back away for now.”

“How can you say something like that!? We have a chance to save those people and you want to leave!?”

“Not leave, just back away for-”

“Save it. I honestly thought you were better than this, Kyne. I’m disappointed in you.”

Despite the protests of the telekinetic, Dana moved up to the cocoons, hoping to free the people in them. She got close to one and inspected it, seeing the person sha had been looking for, Jennifer Harris, inside. Not wanting to waste any time, the detective took out a knife and started cutting into the cocoon, hoping to free the girl inside. It didn’t take long for the shell to get cracked, allowing Dana to pull it apart with her bare hands. A strange yellow fluid poured out of the cocoon, but she ignored it. What needed to be done was for her to make sure the girl was okay.

“Jennifer? Jennifer, can you hear me?” Dana called out to the girl while gently shaking her, hoping to get a response.

For a small moment, the detective was relieved to see signs of the girl beginning to wake up, as her body began to stir and she could be heard groaning. However, that relief was soon replaced by shock, as Jennifer opened her eyes to show that they were now pitch black, like Hive Queen’s. Two rows of razor sharp teeth also lined her mouth, as she opened her mouth with a feral screech in an attempt to take a bite out of Dana.

Luckily for the detective, her partner was quick on his feet, using his telekinetic abilities to pull her away just before the transformed girl managed to take a bite out of her. They weren’t safe yet, as not only would they have to deal with one transformed person, but two other as well that burst out of their cocoons, following the example of the creature that used to be Jennifer Harris.

These two were Jennifer’s friends that had disappeared along with her, Connor Matley and Sarah Thompson. Much like their friend, the two teens had gone through similar changes. Both their eyes were pitch black and their teeth had been replaced by sharp fangs. All three looked more like ferocious beasts than the innocent teens they were supposed to be.

However, they weren’t done changing yet. Right before the eyes of Dana and Kyne, the three teens began to visibly mutate. Their fingers and toes turned into long, sharp claws that tore through any clothing covering them. Their limbs started to grow longer and thinner, and two pairs of insect-like wings sprouted from their backs.

Three pairs of pitch black eyes stared down at Dana and Kyne, recognizing them as intruders to their hive, which their instincts told them needed to be killed.

Not wasting any time, the three transformed teens flew through the air towards the two intruders, claws at the ready to tear through flesh and bone. Kyne reacted to this by using his powers to tear some of the webs off the walls and throwing them at the attacking monster, but he wasn’t able to catch any of them. The three possessed fast reflexes that allowed them to stop mid-flight, thus avoiding the sticky substance thrown at them.

“WE NEED TO FALL BACK! NOW!” Kyne shouted as he pulled onto Dana’s arm to get her to follow behind him. “QUICK! WE NEED TO GET INTO A BETTER AREA!”

“B-But the kids!” Dana said, still in shock over what happened. “What happened to them!?”

“We were too late,” was the telekinetic’s answer. “Hive Queen was able to transform them into her more advanced drones. This is the worst situation that I had hoped to avoid.”

“Can’t we do anything to help them!? Turn them back to normal or something!?”

“No. All we can do is put them down.”

Hearing that nothing could be done to save the three kids from the horrible fate of being turned into monsters turned Dana’s face pale. While it had been a job that she was being paid for, the detective really hoped to save the kids and bring them to their families. Not just Jennifer that she had been tasked with finding, but her friends as well. The image of Jennifer’s brokenhearted mother flashed in her mind, emphasizing the severity of this tragedy.

In the pit of her stomach, Dana could feel something churning. It was the feeling of failure.

Dana might not have been a stranger to feeling like this. In her career, she had seen countless people either die or suffer in a way that was inhumane. These included people that she had sworn to protect as well as friends and colleagues. However, no matter how many times she felt it, the feeling never got easier. All she could do was move on and hope that she wouldn’t have to feel like that again, which unfortunately would still happen.

But almost as soon as that feeling came, it disappeared with the emergence of another emotion. This was the feeling of burning rage, which was fueled by the desire for revenge. The monsters wreaking havoc and the people behind them had now added three innocent kids into their growing list of victims, which already included several people, such as Ricky.

There was no way Dana was about to let any of them get away with this. As long as she was still breathing, she would find a way to settle the score.

“So what’s the plan?” the detective asked as she readied her shotgun. “I’m armed, pissed off and ready to kill something.”

“We need to get into an area that will be more advantageous for us,” Kyne responded. “If we had stayed there, we would have been limited in our movements due to the webs.”

Dana simply nodded in response, as she readied herself mentally for the fight ahead. While she knew that the things she would be fighting were no longer the kids she had originally gone out to rescue, she still couldn’t help but feel like they were still the innocent teens that she was supposed to protect. The detective needed to prepare herself for essentially having to put down children.

The sawmill was made out of three buildings. The one they had been at right now was the main building, where a lot of the machinery was. The second building was for the trucks and other vehicles that were used there, and the last one was essentially a warehouse for tools and some of the lumber.

The duo was currently heading towards the building with the vehicles. So far, they had seen Hive Queen and her servants only around the main building, so Kyne was hoping that the other two places wouldn’t have too many drones in them.

However, as soon as the two of them got outside, they were met with a large group of Hive Queen’s drones blocking their path. The only way to get past them was to fight their way through them.

“Alright you bastards,” Dana said as she got her shotgun ready. “You want a piece of me!? Come get it!”

The drones were about to lunge at the detective and her partner, but were suddenly pushed to the side by an invisible force. Dana turned to look at Kyne, who was using his powers to throw away the insect monstrosities.

“We can’t waste too much time on these things!” Kyne yelled as he cleared a way for them to move forward. “Hive Queen is the one we want! If we don’t take her down, this won’t end!”

“You don’t have to tell me that!” Dana said as she shot one of the drones that had managed to regain its footing and charged towards them. “Even when dealing with normal criminals, it’s the big bastards that you really need to get rid of! Not the worthless thugs!”

The duo was making their way through the horde of drones, effectively taking out several of them in the process. Their destination, the building housing the vehicles, was just up ahead of them.

However, just as they were about to reach it, something burts through the roof of the main building. Dana and Kyne looked up at the sky and saw that the three transformed teenagers were now hovering in the air with the use of their wings.

Suddenly, the trio started to fly towards Dana and Kyne at a fast pace. The detective tried to shoot them down, but her shots were easily dodged. Kyne managed to trap one of the three with his powers, but that still left another one free, allowing it to crash into the telekinetic.

Before Dana could go help her partner, the last of three transformed teens got to her, grabbing her and lifting her up in the air. The detective put up a fierce struggle against the monster’s embrace.

“Get the hell off me!” Dana yelled as she struggled, causing the creature’s flight to become erratic and unbalanced.

The monster responded to the struggles by biting down on The detective’s shoulder, causing her to scream in agony. However, Dana managed to free one of her arms and use it to hit the transformed teen on the side of the head with her shotgun. This seemed to finally put a stop to the flight, as they both went crashing down on the main building.

Ironically, the webs that Dana had not too long ago been avoiding, seemed to save her life, as they softened her crash. She was still sore all over and most likely had some broken bones as well.

With some struggling and the use of Ricky’s switchblade, the detective was able to free herself and get up. She looked around for the creature she had crashed with and found it struggling to get up.

It was at that point that Dana realized the creature that had attacked her was actually Jennifer Harris, the girls she had been tasked with finding by her parents. Now she could properly see just how much the innocent girl had changed, as she was now moving erratically around like an animal, struggling to get the webs stuck on its wings off.

There truly was no hope for this girl anymore. Only one thing could be done.

“I’m gonna put you out of your misery, kid,” Dana said as she readied her gun. “It’s the least I can do for failing to save you.”