Snippet #2824236

The ants swarming the crate began to burn as fire enveloped the crate. Yet they continued to march, straight into the flames for the success of their hive. Half of the ants burned and died uneventfully, but the other half popped and exploded as the hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide they were carrying underwent a chemical reaction. The result was threefold: First, it generated even more heat. Second, it created benzoquinone which sublimated due to the heat and turned into something akin to chlorine gas. Finally, the water it created boiled into steam which quenched the flames and turned the back of the truck into a sauna. With single minded determination the ants continued to march into the back of the truck, dying less than a minute after.

Lilian loped forward in her Shifter form, as her two cuttlefish eyes widened, creating a 360-degree view of her surroundings. Maeve was fully engaged in combat, her hulking form impossible to mistake as bullets rang off it. The pair of Mantis Shrimp eyes began to articulate, one taking in light from deep ultraviolet while the other scanned the far red range. The last two eyes, a human eye and a bluebottle butterfly eye, were oriented toward her target.

By now the sky was darkened by the mass of billions of genetically modified fire ants. The large cloud of males all followed the Fake Queen towards their target. Lilian’s tongue lolled out of her bear mouth as the swarm cast a huge shadow across the battlefield. Letting out a chirp so high-pitched that human ears couldn’t hear it, Lilian relayed orders to the Fire Ant Queen.

Her six eyes had identified the biggest threat to Maeve; a large caliber rifle that had just blown her arm off. The rifle had the word ‘Hrunting’ etched onto it. Lilian’s bear snout turned up as she snorted, “You’re no Hero, and that’s not Grendel’s Mother.” As such, the Fire Ants' new target was whoever held the rifle. The flying Queen dove straight for the gun and her swarm followed. Thousands of ants landed on the rifle, even going so far as to crawl inside the barrel and chamber. Not far from the gun, someone was scrambling for it. The Queen shook her wings and spread a pheromone over the gun to signal it should be defended. Hastily the Queen darted to the man and landed on the middle of his back. The fire ants that weren't on the gun alighted on the same target as their Queen and began to bite at every inch of the man’s suit, including the eye covers of his mask. Hopefully, the maneuver would buy Maeve more time to instill fear.

Despite being modified and directed by the only Queen left in their colony, many of the ants simply attacked the first person they saw. Lilian was no exception and by the time she reached the truck she had at least a hundred ants futilely trying to bite through her fur. Smoke, steam, and benzoquinone gas roiled out of the back of the truck, through a hole the ants had chewed through the plastic seal on the loading door. ‘Someone started a fire and set off the ants, but who?’

Moving flesh away from the heel of her left hand and wrist, Lilian exposed the device that sat snugly between her radius and ulna. A reddish purple light shot out of the device and severed the locks on the loading door. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door just enough to squeeze past it and then closed it behind her. The ants on her started to die and the gas and smoke immediately started to burn her six eyes, but there was nothing for it at the moment. Even through the noxious air she could make out the charred boxes, and ignoring all else she ran over to them. Her thick fur provided some insulation but even so, the gas and boiling hot steam was starting to burn her skin and cause it to necrotize. With haste she tore the top off the nearest box and searched for the most viable samples.

A lethal dose of inhaled benzoquinone was just under three hundred milligrams. The average human inhaled about five hundred milliliters of air in a single breath. Accounting for the smoke and steam in the air, Lilian presumed two inhalations of the air in the truck would be lethal. She continued to hold her breath as she swiftly found the ten vials she needed.