Bugs from the Black Box! by Alexander Zelenyj

Author:Alexander Zelenyj
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: short story collection, speculative fiction, chapbook
Publisher: Foxhill Press
Published: 2023-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

Gods of the Meat-Hive

Nikolas pushed up the rattling garage door, throwing sunlight into the stuffy-aired shop within. The morning light illuminated the pools of oil, glinting with rainbow iridescences, the shells of vehicles hoisted up to reveal their mechanical bellies like anaesthetized patients awaiting surgeries.

He wandered into the familiar smell of gasoline and oil and metal. A mosquito that had been locked inside overnight annoyed his ear. He swatted at its frenetic buzzing chatter, crossing the garage and retrieving a long, heavy steel box of tools. He returned to his bench and began setting up his station for the day.

He liked arriving before his dad, to get set up before the old man went about his usual whirlwind activity of supervising everything he did along with doing his own work. He treasured his early morning minutes of solitude, when the garage was quiet and the world outdoors was just waking up for its day.

When he was finished laying out his tools he headed to the back of the shop and went about making the day’s first pot of coffee. As he replaced yesterday’s soggy filter with a fresh one, a bluebell landed on his wrist. He shook it off. A moment later, while ladling coffee from the tub into the coffee maker it returned and landed on his knuckles, making him twitch and spill coffee granules onto the countertop.

“Fuck off already, man,” he said, shaking his hand irritably. He hated the feather-light touch of its legs on his skin. He hoped that once the renewed harsh chemical and mechanical smells of the workday began to fill the small space it would repel the bugs as it always did.

He stood savouring the stillness of the garage, the only sound that of percolating coffee and the crickets buzzing in the tall grass fringing the building and small lot.

A moment later he was taking his first swallow of black coffee when the incongruous sight made his heart stutter. Squinting, and taking a few hesitant steps closer, he examined the peculiar sight of the large, bright green grasshopper among his assembled tools on the workbench. He stared at it for fully ten seconds before he believed what his eyes were telling him.

The grasshopper was standing poised on its rear legs in a way that no grasshopper he’d ever seen was able. Its stance translated both a confrontational intent—the insect was facing him and its small black eyes were unmistakeably watching him—and an overwhelming intelligence he’d never guessed any insect could possess. He continued staring at it mutely, his disbelief turning to horror when he saw:

The grasshopper fiddled with something in its grasp. Its forelegs appeared to be holding something—a tiny mechanical-looking object of some kind—while another pair of its legs touched and tapped away at it, not unlike a person typing on a handheld debit machine or other device.

He understood in that moment that he was, indeed, facing something extraordinary— facing an enemy, for that was the word that lodged itself with clarity and

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