Family First

I sense it before I see it, a cold shard embedded deep in the constant rumble of the hive. Growing colder as I wind down through the catacombs where no worker’s been in generations. Being this deep gives me the heebie-jeebies as it is, and the hairs on my forelegs are standing up. Bad signs, mannnn.

I turn the corner and Syme’s there with him. He makes Syme look tiny. He’s an evil-looking fucker, no doubt. I’ve only ever seen wasps from the look-out points on the surface and each time I bloody make sure they haven’t seen me. His eyes are red and fucking huge, at least twice the size of mine and Syme’s yellow ones, and set at a sharper angle like blades. He completely blocks out the tunnel behind him, his bulk casting grotesque shadows on the walls.

I don’t trust myself to speak, I just nod. — That’s my mate, the one I told you about, Syme introduces on my behalf. His eyes are brighter than usual and he’s speaking fast. He’s been at that bloody pollen again… hold it together, Syme… The wasp turns its head to me and I force myself to look back into its eyes. Nothing in there. Syme turns to it and clicks rapidly. He never said he could fucking speak to it!!! The sounds come out twisted, the vibrations scraping against my antenna. Our mandibles were never meant for that. This is some bad juju mannnn.

The wasp fires back at him, and Syme looks troubled. I’ve started to notice the pheromones coming off it. It’s a sickly, rotting, mist, cloying my receptors. Bits are stuck to Syme’s hairs. He replies even faster and he doesn’t even realise his wings are twitching like crazy. I can’t understand any of his patter but from how he’s angling his head and torso he seems to be asking it a question. It doesn’t move, just looks at him and those fucking eyes are sucking him in. Syme looks away and clicks once in reply. The wasp lifts its head and I swear it looks satisfied.

Symes turns back to me. — We have to move the plans ahead, he says. They want to make their move before it’s fully dark, so they can still see while we can’t. — Take this, he says, passing me a webbing sac. I look in it and it’s the abdomens of two juvenile fireflies, still weakly flickering. They can’t have been taken more than a couple of hours ago. I flash back to all the times when I’ve been out foraging too late and their light has guided me back to the hive. Oh, Syme, fucking hell…

He must’ve seen my face. — I know, it’s horrible mate. But I had to. They’d gone too far from their resting grounds, they were goners anyway. Better me then dissolving in a spider’s nest right now. I made it quick, I promise.
I could see two neat punctures from his stinger, straight in and out. I hate it but I see his logic. He looks at me, urging me to meet his gaze. His foreleg brushes against mine. Alright.

He continues. — I’ve left a danger-message in the outer-north-east intersection. A patrol will come across it in fifteen minutes. They’ll come to the queen and the larvae immediately. It’ll be dark and you’re faster than them though, you get to the brood chamber and tell the guards they’re ordered to relocate them to the inner-west chambers. Then the wasps will take the soldiers by surprise in the brood chamber. Once they’ve surrendered, they’ll take the queen and her guards. Some of us will have to die, but it’s worth it. Revolution is never bloodless. When the queen and her court are under our control, we’ll remember them as martyrs.

All I can do is nod again. — Good man, Syme says. Then, softer: — You’re doing your father’s memory proud. The sound of his damaged wing beating against the south entrance rings through my mind. The thuds of the badger blundering towards the hive as my brother screams at the soldiers to let him in.

Syme turns to the wasp and clicks again. It rests its cold eyes on Syme, then on me. This time, under my hairs I can’t stop myself from shivering. Syme quickly clicks something and it takes one last look at me before it moves down the corridor, its huge stinger swaying. As the light shifts, I see something swinging between two of its legs, thick droplets falling to the tunnel floor. Something like a new pupae.
Nooooo, Syme, what have you doneeee…

Syme’s eyes are brighter than ever as he turns to me. — This is what we’ve been waiting for, this is when it all changes. I’ll stay here to direct the other wasps when they arrive. You go to the intersection, quickly! He briefly presses his antenna against mine and then I’m off, the rocking tunnels dizzying me as I pass.

I reach a junction and skid to a stop, scanning the layout. That way. I turn the right-hand corner and something sharp jabs my side, knocking me to the floor. As the pain flashes through me, I look around for the outcrop I ran into. Instead, six legs enter my blurry vision. Hairy forelegs turn me over. Over the blood rushing through my antenna and out of my thorax, I hear Syme’s voice, distant like it’s coming through a waterfall.

— It made me do it, it didn’t think you’d go through with it. It thought you’d bottle it and tell the soldiers. He uselessly pummels me. His forelegs don’t hurt. They feel like rain against my hairs. — Why couldn’t you be braver? Why did I have to do it all? You don’t know what it’s like, taking what could have been your own pupae as the queen watches.

I try to speak but my punctured trachea can only whistle. No Syme, it’s not like that, I swear, I wasn’t going to… I believe in this too… please Syme pleaseeee…
He leans over me, his face filling my vision.
— I’m sorry, brother.
The last thing I see is his eyes. As darkness closes in, they seem red and slanted.