Page 19 of Zombies, Satyrs and Vampires, Oh My!

Unaware of my emotional quandary, she’s studying the body, her head tipped to the side. She takes a step closer to it. “What the …”

Her sentence trails off as I jerk her back to my side.

The mothman’s thorax is rocking back and forth, in a shuddering twitchy motion.

My momentary sympathy for him aside, that fucker better be dead.

There’s a faint skittering from within his thorax. Like claws scratching at a shell. Then a crack appears in his exoskeleton. Just a chip, at first, falling into the gaping cavity of his chest. Then another chip. Then a chunk.

Then a tiny claw appears on the jagged edge of shell, a tiny limb of a tiny creature, pulling itself out of the body of the dead bug. It’s roughly the size of a dragonfly, but with none of that insect’s grace and beauty. This new creature is a miniature version of the mothman, grotesque and horribly both human and insect.

The creature shakes itself off, stretching out shiny, slick wings.

“What. The fuck.” Vivian’s words are breathless and filled with horror. “What is that thing?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen that happen before,” I say.

Before I can voice the theory that’s beginning to take shape in my mind, another of the tiny bugs claws its way free from the carcass. And then another. The thorax collapses with an ominous crack and suddenly there are dozens of them. Then hundreds.

They take to the air, swarming into a mass.

I drag Vivian behind me, backing up a step. Slowly, hoping to avoid their attention.

But I can feel her breath on the back of my neck. A long, panicked exhale.

Shit. Some bugs are attracted to carbon dioxide.

Almost as one, like the murmuration of a flock of birds, the tiny mothmen swerve in midair, turning toward Vivian.

They just hang there in the air, like they’re trying to find her scent in the woods.

“There are hundreds of them,” she whispers.

I squeeze her hand. “Come with me.”

“That’s so weird,” she says.

“Screaming Woods. Weird is what we do here.”

I walk her backwards, keeping her behind me, as an idea occurs to me. This many bugs are beyond my ability to fight all at once. We’re too far from my house and I have no idea what they might do to her before I can kill them all. But the road is nearby. I just hope there’s a car on it.

The tiny bugs are definitely following us as I lead us toward the main road. Thank God I can hear the rumble of car on the road.

I yank Vivian across the road to stand on the far side. The swarm follows, coalescing in a mass in front of us.

Then there are car lights coming over the hill. Vivian looks from the swarm to the oncoming car and then to me. She seems to read my mind, giving a slow nod, as the car catches us in the headlights and swerves to the left. I pull Vivian into my body and we roll into the ditch at the last minute.

Splat, splat, splat. The sound is gruesome and seems endless.

The car slams on its brakes. Vivian sits up and gasps.

She scrambles to her feet. “That’s Harry’s car.”

The driver’s door opens and a woman gets out. “You will not believe what I saw driving into this town.”

“Harry!”

Vivian runs into her friend’s embrace. A stray moth or two flutter around. I slap each of them to the ground and step on them. By the time the women step apart, the last of the creatures are dead. Then we all inspect the remains of the bugs on her car.