Apex Magazine - Issue 3 by Apex Publications

Author:Apex Publications
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: keffy rm kehrli, apex magazine, apex publications, monica valentinelli, elizabeth engstrom, matthew kressel, ekaterina sedia, apex book company

Now that he was away from the ants, he seems to have lost the animating essence that moved him, and I let him collapse onto his bed. He sat, slumped, hands dangling between his knees, unresponsive to the world. If the fungus was still sending signals to his brain, he was unable to obey them. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I tried to warn you. I’m sure they can fix you.” I wasn’t. More disturbingly, I was getting a little light-headed from all the exertion and excitement. I tried to breathe deeper, all the while wishing I had a paper bag. Then I thought about the spores and held my breath.

There were sirens outside, and voices, and then the day caught up with me and I watched the darkness slowly fold over me, like a midnight-dark steamroller.

* * * *

I woke up in a hospital bed, a blue corrugated curtain blocking the view of the rest of the room, but I knew someone was there. A chair squealed and I looked up to see Johnny leaning forward in his chair.

“Don’t move,” he said. “You’re on the IV drip for the fungus.”

“They sure it’ll work?”

He smiled. “Pretty sure. You know you’re crazy to have gone in there. You should’ve just called the cops.”

I sensed his anxiety, thick in the air like the smell of sweat. “I would’ve done the same for you,” I answered the question he didn’t ask. “It was just so awful to think of someone all alone, and no one there to help. Like that man with a mushroom growing out of his head, you know?”

Johnny nodded. “Yeah. It was noble of you.”

I listened for traces of sarcasm but couldn’t find any. “I saw him showing the ants to the camera while someone else did the same. The ants, they talk via video-chat”

Johnny raised his eyebrows. “You saw that?”

I nodded. “See, it’s a good thing I went inside. I’m sure that this fungus both feeds the ants and helps them spread by infecting people and making them do the ants’ bidding.”

Johnny shrugged. “Weird,” he said. “Thank you for doing the work. CDC got some genes of this thing but they had no idea what it is or where it came from or what it does.”

I thumbed at the IV line. “Am I infected for sure?”

“They’re not sure—you crashed pretty badly. Feel a need to act like an ant?”

I smiled at the joke. “Not at all. I feel like squashing them all, really.”

Johnny managed a smile. “Then you’ll be all right.”

“What about….”

“He should be all right too. They think that fungus doesn’t have any immunities, so the meds should work.” He paused a while. “Anything else you need to tell me?”

“I told you everything I know.”

“Not about the fungus. About—” he thrust his chin in the direction of the curtain behind which Alan presumably lay in an identical bed.

I closed my eyes and smiled. It was nice to see him return to normalcy so quickly—on the one hand, there were intelligent ants and their weaponized fungus.

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