When Insects Ruled The Planet

Chapter 1: Start of a War

"This is bad, this is bad, this is very–ahhhh giant thingamabob!" yelped Liam as he and his sister ran for their lives. "It's a giant ANT you idiot," his sister Alma corrected, " less talking and more running!" The two siblings hurried beneath a tree as a giant beetle scuttered past, chasing several screaming high school kids. Liam looked at the ruined city behind him, and the burning trail of destruction the giant insects had left.

"What just happened?" Liam asked himself as they ran faster than they had ever ran before. It had happened so quickly, his mind couldn't quite process it.

The only thing he remembered was that his family was at the beach, when suddenly a lifeguard came running and told them to evacuate as quickly as possible. Then the lifeguard was killed by a giant sand wasp, which only put 'as quickly as possible' into more serious words. Alma had grabbed him and pulled him in the opposite direction from the wasp. And now they were running for their lives. Great. Just great. "Duck!" Alma yelled, shaking him from his thoughts. Liam ducked just in time to see a huge flying cockroach zoom past him and into the stormy grey sky. He turned and looked at Alma, surprised to see her eyes wild with fear. Alma was usually the calm one in the family, even in dire situations. But, he thought to himself, this was an extremely dire situation. All that meant was survival. Suddenly, he felt something lift him up. He looked up in panic, screaming as he did so and saw an enormous wasp with blood dripping from its stinger. All of a sudden, the wasp dropped him and he hit the ground. It only took a moment.. And he was thrown right into the lake before being overwhelmed by darkness, and blacking out.

"Liam, you will not die on me, understood? " Alma's familiar voice shook him awake. " You are not dying on me, if you die on me I will kill you." "Ugh...," Liam groaned, trying to make out words. "You're alive!" yelled Alma joyfully, grinning happily. Then, she turned serious " Liam, if you dare to do that stunt ever again–" "I got it, sis, you'll kill me," Liam rolled his eyes at his overprotective sister. Alma pulled him into a tight hug, nearly cracking his bones. "H-hey," said Liam "Where are we?" Alma pulled back, further studying him for wounds, " a hunter shot the wasp, that's why it dropped you. Then he pulled you out of the water and took us to their base. It's cool enough, and it's well protected. There's lots of other survivors here, too!" Liam stood up and studied the room they were in, "they told us that this was our bunker, kind of like where we'll live for the rest of this ... invasion. There's a washroom in the bunker, laundry next door and– oh! I just remembered they also gave us new clothes–at least ones which aren't ripped by claws and sprayed by acid." continued his sister. Liam stared at his sister, she looked like a different person. Her sleek black hair was tied back into a ponytail, her dark eyes holding determination. She wore a dark-blue T-shirt and black leggings with combat boots, there was also a belt, and hanging from the belt was... a gun?"This place is awesome!" whooped Liam. "You have a gun?! And this bunker is super cool too! —Wait, where're my cool clothes?" " In the washroom," answered his sister dismissively, peering out of the tiny windows of the bunker, "change your bandages too, will you?"

About an hour later, Liam had managed to figure out how to properly change bandages, put on clothes with bandages, and attach the gun to the belt. He looked at himself in the mirror. His wavy brown hair was combed and his blue eyes shone brighter. He wore a green army T-shirt and long camo pants. His broken arm kind of dulled the 'I'm a cool warrior' look. He found his sister sitting on a chair facing the window, waiting for him. He scrambled up the chair , which was quite hard with a broken arm. Finally he sat next to his sister. For a while, they just sat next to each other, surveying the landscape. After some time, dread filled Liam. He said slowly " well, Alma, is... mom and dad...did you...are they..." he took a deep breath "is mom and dad okay? Are they here?" Alma turned towards him, sadness in her eyes. "No, I mean no one knows, " she said in a small voice " The hunter–army person said there were no people with last names Ransome other than us." She fixed her gaze at the window again, perhaps looking for their parents " but we cannot lose hope, mom and dad are strong, maybe they were brought to a different camp or base. We must believe that they are alive, and that one day we will be reunited." Liam nodded, taking a shaky breath and trying to calm himself. His mother and father–lost, his city–destroyed, all his friends– dead or dying. All he had now was his sister, and he couldn't afford to lose her too.