The Hornet’s Sting

by Mike Mayak

NOTE: The draws for the August 2024 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were A Thriller, involving a Box of Rubber Bands set in a Field Of Lettuce. Here’s what I came up with. —-jeff, a.k.a. mike

“How dangerous are these things?” Stone asked they pulled up in the van beside the old barn.

“Very dangerous,” said Anson. “These hornets were mutated in a lab. Their sting is debilitating. And if you are allergic to any of the stinging insects, you’re dead.”

“Why did Lowell develop these things anyway?” Stone asked, stepping out of the car and adjusting the hazmat suit he was wearing. “Is he some kind of mad scientist?”

“Maybe,” Stone said checking the seals on his hazmat suit. “Lowell said he wanted to push us all into the future and supposedly he even tried stuff on himself.”

“Hey, what is this?” Stone asked, looking at the lumpy ground they were walking on which had clumps of green leaves sticking out of the ground in uneven spaces.

“Lettuce,” Anson said with a smile. “Lowell is a working farmer as well as a biologist.” He smiled. “I can tell you’re a city kid. Just watch your step and…”

Something small and fast zipped past his head. Another struck Anson’s face mask.

“Hornets!” Stone said. “We’re under attack!”

There was a quick TAP! TAP! And the two men ran back inside their van.

“See any?” Anson asked looking out the window.

“No,” Stone said. “And I…wait a minute…”

Stone plucked a small, reddish strip out of a fold in his suit.

“A rubber band,” Anson said examining it.

“We’re being attacked by swarms of grade-school kids.”

The two men rushed from the van as rubber bands continued to hit them zipping through the air. It was a simple matter to find their origin point. They grabbed Lowell who was crouching behind an overturned old tractor with what looked like a miniature crossbow and a big box labeled ACME RUBBER BANDS.

“Are you going to arrest me?” Lowell asked.

“No,” Stone said. “The Organization is prepared to buy out your hornet studies and formula so neither you or the government will be able to use them against anybody.”

“Won’t do you any good,” Lowell said. “The augmented hornets did okay in the lab under test conditions but they couldn’t survive outdoors with various germs and pollen and pollutants.”

“War Of the Worlds,” Stone murmured.

“But I’ll come up with a new and better formula!” Lowell said excitedly.

He knocked the men aside and rushed behind the corner of the old barn. Stone and Anson followed him just in time to see Lowell take off on what looked like a motor scooter.

“He had to have designed that,” Anson said.

“Or souped it up,” Stone said as they watched him roar through the lettuce field to the road at unbelievable speed.

“Hope he’s got a helmet.” Anson said.

Lowell was caught, of course. He was so predictable.

He should never have taken that left turn at Albuquerque.

—end—