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Controlling bugs? No problem, right?
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PEST CONTROL
A sudden silence claims my attention. It is not
unexpected, but the sound in my head has disappeared.
The recall signal has finally stopped.
After years of constant repetition, I wonder at the
consequences of the loss of the signal, but only for
a moment.
My attention snaps back to the creature in my hand
as it wriggles and squirms more fiercely than before.
I lift it up by its neck.
It’s gasping for air, drool and spittle
spilling in strings from the gaping mouth. It claws
and scratches at my hands. The eyes grow wild and I
see the dawning of realisation.
It knows it will die.
The futile struggle slows as I tighten my grip.
A moment later it stops struggling and everything
becomes loose, almost boneless.
I bring the creature’s head close and look
into the eyes.
They are dull and empty.
It’s just like one I had encountered on the
first day of my assignment. I recall that I had
taken a moment for further study at that time too.
It had also been a dark colour, with light blue eyes
and had fought the same desperate fight.
My initial task had gone well, eradication one
hundred per cent effective.
Then the recall message started.
I had started to go back, but the moment I began the
journey I knew it was too late. Something had gone
terribly wrong.
The infestation had spread.
They were everywhere, running, walking, crawling and
jumping. Under desks, behind and even inside
cupboards, in the washrooms, the halls, the stairs,
elevators, subways, vehicles, streets…
The recall message repeated but I ignored it.
Others may have been going back as I had intended,
but I could not join them.
There was an infestation to eradicate, a very
persistent one.
Those early days had been extremely busy.
I eventually discovered a nest at the source of the
recall message.
But when I responded to the message, it simply
repeated in its entirety every five minutes, as it
had been doing since it started.
With the local infestation eliminated I made use of
the resources, refilling my tanks with toxins and
combustibles and, at the same time, I reloaded my
weapons then moved on.
There had been so many nests.
Small, with three or four creatures: medium, up to
one hundred creatures: large, up to one thousand
creatures and then there were the mega-nests.
I dedicated myself to the eradication of each.
Resources were limited and swiftly depleted. The
toxins were exhausted first, and shortly after, the
combustibles.
Not long after that my munitions were spent.
Hands, feet and various swords and knives were all
that remained.
There are fewer and fewer vermin to be destroyed,
leaving more time for me to think. I have begun to
wonder what happened to my colleagues. I do not
understand the absence of my kind, nor why my
messages go unanswered.
But I cannot stop.
The infestation has to be eliminated.
This latest was a small nest.
A juvenile had ventured out alone. It did not run.
It did not make any sound.
It was not even aware that I was present.
It had dark skin, but the eyes were an unusual,
cloudy-white colour.
The only movement was back and forth in a chair
supported by chains suspended from an iron framework.
As it swung towards me I put my hand around its neck
and flicked my wrist to the right very quickly.
With a small pop the neck snapped.
The action was so swift it barely interrupted the
momentum of the chair and the juvenile continued to
move backwards and forwards, the arc decaying with
each swing.
It was simple and efficient.
Almost immediately an adult female appeared, roaring,
screaming, howling and wailing.
My first attempt to catch the creature failed, it
was too erratic, out of control.
It picked things up and threw them. Some struck me,
others missed.
I had seen this behaviour before.
If I stood still and waited, it would come to me.
I noted the differences. The female was paler and
had clear, green eyes. It was, naturally enough,
bigger than the juvenile, but not significantly so.
Then it came, clawing, biting, kicking, gouging.
I raised my right arm swiftly, striking out with the
back of my hand. It lifted off the ground and fell
on its back. Other than the chest rising and falling
there was no further movement.
I stood over it, lifted my left foot and stomped
down hard.
Blood spattered, eyes popped and the skull cracked
open; crushed brains spewed out.
As I studied the result of my actions a slight
movement in the periphery of my vision warned me of
danger.
A creature leapt on me from behind, its arms around
my neck, clamping on.
It squeezed tighter.
But it did not matter, any more than the damage
caused by the female mattered.
I did not breathe and I would heal swiftly.
I reached behind and took hold of a leg.
With a grip that squeezed flesh between my fingers I
pulled it from my back.
I dropped it on the ground and it tried to crawl
away, arms pulling, dragging the injured limb.
I followed, kept pace and watched it.
It was an adult male with pale skin and blue eyes.
The mouth was moving.
But I could not hear what it was trying to say. Even
if I could, I would not have understood.
How could I?
It was vermin.
It was the infestation.
Even as it hangs lifeless in my grip I feel my hands
and face healing.
The bleeding stops, cuts close, grazes smooth out
and bruises fade to nothing.
My attention is drawn to a glass panel and in it I
see myself with the creature hanging limp and
lifeless.
For a moment I wonder at the similarities.
Paired limbs, head, torso, abdomen, eyes… then
discard them as pure coincidence.
It could not be a person. I am, and it is not like
me.
It got tired, needed to sleep. I do not.
It was flesh and bone. I am not.
It could be killed. I cannot.
It was weak and inefficient. I was built fit for
purpose.
It could not communicate. I can, but I have had no
one to communicate with since I was first activated.
No one has ever answered me.
I am alone.
I look at the image in the glass once more and drop
the creature.
My armour, though old and battered still carries the
markings of my trade, which reminds me of my
purpose.
Pest Control.
There is an infestation to eradicate.
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