Beowulf's Children

The door shuddered as bees rapped against it. Wood splintered.

Katya wrapped herself more tightly in the blanket, staring into darkness.

Flaming bees slammed against the metal walls of the communications shed. Metal wouldn't burn, but it was still a terrifying din. "Where's Edgar?" Ruth screamed.

Carey Lou gaped at her. Shock? Remembered, and said, "I saw him outside. Just before we sealed the door."

Ruth screamed again, but then fought her way back to calm. The radio behind her crackled. "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

Ruth twitched it on, and cried into it. "Edgar?"

"Ruth? Yeah, it's me. I don't know for how much longer. The bees are taking the building apart. They're eating the wood. I managed to get here, but I don't know if I can get out."

"What's wrong?"

"Ankle. Twisted it pretty bad. I think that maybe I broke it. I'm in dorm number four."

She looked around the room. Under them in the shelter, there were a dozen Second. Here there was only Carey Lou. Bees batted against windows, which so far remained secure. "You don't think that you can get over here? Do you have a blanket?"

"It isn't that. The door is jammed. I can't get it open. They're going to take the whole damned building apart. I can feel it."

Ruth bit her lip. She opened the hailing frequency. "Is there anyone who can help? We've got problems. Edgar is in trouble."

There was no answer for several long seconds, and then, "We can't get out of the shelter, Ruth. I'm sorry. Maybe when the bees go away. They ‘re bound to at dark. Or if it starts raining again. He'll be all right."

Ruth spun. "Give me your blanket, Carey Lou," she said. "I need two of them."

Carey Lou said, "What?"

"Don't worry. You'll be safe right here. Keep trying to get through to the mine. We need them to bring down Robor. We have to get out of here."

"In the middle of the bees?"

"Don't you get it?" she said fiercely. "This could go on for months.

Everyone will die unless we get out."

Carey Lou nodded, and handed her the blanket. She wrapped the first one around herself, and draped the second as a cowl. "Good-bye, Carey Lou," she whispered.

"Ruth, do you have to go?"

She nodded. She paused at the door, wedged it open a few inches, and then slipped out, into the storm.

"Mayday, Mayday," Carey Lou bleated into the microphone. "We need

Robor. We need to evacuate—"

Hendrick Sills sca

She was staring out across the complex. The mine was still perking along smoothly, producing its quota of plastic briquettes. At this point, it barely needed human supervision anymore. Analyzing units built into the bore head sampled the strata as it dug. There would be no more fossilized bee surprises.

Sylvia looked up at him, face placid. "How is the loading?" she asked. "Any problems?" Robor was scheduled to make a half-loaded mercy run back to the island. "I need to get home." She stopped, and seemed to consider her next words carefully. "I need to be with Mary A

"We have an urgent message from Shangri-La," Hendrick said. "It's bad."

The placidity vanished from her face.

"Emergency at Shangri-La. They've got a swarm of those damned carnivorous bees. Most of them made it to shelters, but they need to evacuate. Now."

She was out of her chair in an instant. "Evacuate Deadwood. I want everyone on board Robor in five minutes. I want weather charts, and a route to Shangri-La mapped by the time I'm on board. We're gone in ten." She paused. "And get every goddamed blanket in the camp."

Carlos lost control of the skeeter only ten feet from the landing pad. "We're going down!" he screamed above the roar of exploding bees. The ground looming up at them told the rest of the story. They bounced, hard, too hard. The door buckled in its frame, leaving an inch gap. Justin used his feet to jam a Kevlar survival sack into it.

"Mayday, Mayday," Carlos said with calmness that he really didn't feel. "Is there anyone out there?"

The air was so thick with bees that it was hard to see. Then the swarm lifted, and Shangri-La appeared through the haze. Bodies lay strewn in the streets, dotted with black shapes. Bees.

Jesus. You could watch the bodies melting.

"Mayday—"

"D-daddy?" They heard it. Katya's voice.

"Baby? Where are you?"

"I'm in the toolshed next to the rec room."

"Isn't there anyone in the rec room?"

"No one that close," she said. "I can't get out. I don't have a blanket. Daddy, the blankets work! They keep off the bees!"

"I see. Shh. Stay put, darling," he said.

Justin looked at him. "How are we going to get her?"

"In this," Carlos said. He started his engine again. The skeeter screeched as it lifted from the ground, and listed sideways, counterrotating slowly. It weaved, barely in control. The tail swatted against another skeeter, and Carlos cursed as he worked them clear. They climbed to rooftop level, fighting for control every inch of the way. Fire blossomed below them, smoke and flaming bees filled the air. The drumming sound above him was bees exploding in the rotors.

"We're going down again," he muttered. He aimed the autogyro at the rec room. When they crashed through the wall Justin jolted forward, smacked his head against the Plexiglas window. He groaned, seeing stars brighter than burning bees. They spun and the sheet-metal rec-hall wall buckled. The tail of the autogyro sheared and the battery ripped free. Wires from the rec-hall frame ripped across the battery, and sparks showered. Bees exploded in midair, and the swarm lifted for a moment as thousands of them caught fire, popped, showered sparks and flaming speed everywhere.

Carlos's door popped open. He grabbed a Cadzie-blue blanket and wrapped himself in it. Justin grabbed one of the Kevlar safety sacks, and smashed his way out of his side of the skeeter.

They had to cover their faces with blankets, but they groped their way around the rec hall—smoldering now, as flaming bees sped this way and that, zipping like meteorites.

And this was a blessing in disguise. The bees had dealt with fire before, and had evolved a tactic to deal with it. They spread out, made it more difficult for the flames to spread from one to the other...

"Freeze it!" Justin cried. "Get Katya out. I'll be right behind you!"

They made it to the toolshed door. Carlos pried it open, and Katya shrank against the wall. She was sobbing, but seemed unhurt. Carlos threw a safety sack to her. "Hurry! Get into this."

She crawled into the sack, and as she did, Justin hurriedly inventoried the shed. And there it was—a weed burner. Its nozzle would spray liquid fuel in a thin blazing line. He sloshed the tank, and found it only half empty.

"Get her the hell out!" he screamed. "Communications should be secure!"

Carlos didn't argue, just slung his daughter over his shoulder. "We'll never make it!" The bees were thick over there.

"Yes, we will." Justin lit the pilot on the weed burner. He pumped fuel through it.

He spun, sweeping the air with fire. Bees exploded, setting their neighbors aflame. Carlos had to turn his head away from the shower of flaming pseudocrustacea.

The bees thi

"Come on!"

Robor had only been airborne for ten minutes when the first bees hit them. They batted against the metal struts, and chewed harmlessly at Robor's external skin. Sylvia watched them slap against the main windows. Some bees cracked open, leaving a smear of green and red. Most just bounced away, spiraling stu