An Infestation in Spanner

By Troy Massie

The beautiful gorge in Spanner, Ohio has always been a great place to visit and a refreshing part of everyday life for Spanner residents. One spring, though, abnormally large cricket eggs begin to surface at the bottom of the gorge.

Two twenty-year-old friends are the first to discover the eggs and use their curiosity to take a sample of some of the eggs and take care of them until they hatch. Once the eggs do hatch, the creatures that come out of them are much larger and more aggressive than normal crickets.

As hundreds of the crickets hatch they become larger and more monstrous by the second. It soon becomes clear to all of the residents of Spanner that an infestation of epic proportions is at hand. The quick-witted and lucky ones are able to escape Spanner and get as far away as possible from the deadly creatures while the others are trapped in their homes and other buildings in the town. As the crickets begin to close in on the buildings, realizing their prey is trapped inside, everyone has to do what they can to help each other and survive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479755196

Troy Massie

I have been writing fiction for several years. I am also a musician and play guitar in several bands. I work as a cook, and I live in Fairborn, OH.

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Copyright © 2012 by Troy Massie.

ISBN:                 Softcover                   978-1-4797-5518-9

                           Ebook                         978-1-4797-5519-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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125201

It was the end of the school day, and Toby Hart was sitting at his desk at Fair Park Elementary drawing. It was quiet time in Mrs. Anderson’s classroom; a time that the kids could read or work on homework and Mrs. Anderson could get some uninterrupted (well, sometimes) work done at her desk.

The day had been full of activities for the children, including painting and extended recesses, so there was no homework. Some of the children sat and read books while others wrote in their journals. Toby had always been a fan of drawing. He figured he could tell more with a simple picture than with multiple pages of descriptive writing. He would many times draw comic book characters and even create his own. Teachers and students had all recognized his talent and gave him praise whenever they had the chance. He would draw pictures for his fellow classmates and for the faculty often and was beginning to think he could make a small business out of it.

He would normally draw whatever it was on his mind, whether it be something real, something completely imaginary, or sometimes a combination of both. The children behind him drifted from their notebooks and paperbacks occasionally to admire what he was putting down. He was drawing a picture of his uncle Randy, Randy’s girlfriend, Randy’s dog, his mother and himself having a picnic at Fair Park. It was the last time he had seen his uncle before the latter was sentenced to two years in prison. He was sad and disappointed about the situation, but it helped him to reminisce about good times; and drawing was always the best way to do so.

Toby never could imagine that his uncle would ever do anything to receive a two-year prison sentence. Randy was the gentlest, most fun-loving person Toby had ever met; but the latter was in the dark when it came to most of his uncle’s indiscretions. His mother had told him with sugar coating that her brother had been gambling on football and basketball games, something that Toby himself would do occasionally with his uncle, but there was much more to the story. Randy was involved in narcotics and countless robberies, and eventually got caught and was exposed to the fullest. Tami Hart had told her son that Randy would likely be out of jail sooner than later, but in all reality he was facing multiple convictions and it would be a miracle if he was released even a day before his scheduled date. But Tami knew that she had to keep her only son optimistic, as hard as it was. His uncle Randy had become a sort of father figure after his real father had died three years before in a mountain climbing accident.

Though Toby was feeling down, there was a small part of him that was very excited about taking in Randy’s golden retriever, Lucy, and leopard gecko. At first, Randy’s girlfriend Tina was going to take the dog in, but once she saw how much Toby loved the dog she offered Tami temporary ownership. Tami was hesitant about it, but she saw how happy Toby was around the dog and figured she owed him something. She did tell him that he would have to take care of the pets with little assistance, and figured it would help him become more responsible.

Toby continued with his drawing, which was turning out very nice and detailed. Sometimes he would just draw stick figures, but his skills were improving at a high rate and he was beginning to use them to the fullest extent.

Tami got off from her job as a high school counselor and went to pick up her son from Fair Park Elementary. She had a lot on her mind, but tried to stay focused on her driving. People just didn’t know how to drive. It was simple as that. She had only been out on the road for two minutes and had been cut off by five people. Her mouth was beginning to grow sore from her teeth being clamped so tightly. She looked in the rearview mirror and could immediately see that her face was as red as freshly dripping blood.

Calm down, Tami, she said to herself in as calm a tone of voice as she could. Breathe. She began to breathe in and out slowly. It was something she had been working on with her own therapist. Tami and the road had never gotten along well, so her therapist tried to at least keep them on peaceful terms. She had also been working on leaving her house early before going anywhere; that way she could drive more slowly and more relaxed. She wasn’t going to let her road rage control her.

She couldn’t erase from her mind the problems some of her students were having. She was trying to keep two rough, poor gentlemen from tearing one another’s heads off. She had spoken to each of them separately and together countless times, but the two still looked at one another as though it was each of their life’s goals to rid the world of the other. She had used all of the skills she knew of and was becoming hopeless. Those kids are my responsibility, she kept thinking. Theo had lost both of his parents at a young age and currently lived with his poor aunt. Roger lived with both of his parents in a tiny apartment. Both parents were physically and emotionally abusive to one another, and Roger was many times unable to avoid it being caught in the middle of it.

Tami knew that some kids needed more extensive treatment than she was able to offer, but it still bothered her that she couldn’t help these kids. She had helped so many and seen how they had prospered, but now she really didn’t have much pride or confidence in her job. She also had to take care of her own son without being over protective. She felt as if she were parenting thirty kids. It was stressful and exhausting, but she loved it and couldn’t imagine doing any other type of work.

She drove into the driveway of Fair Park and could see large amounts of children walking in different directions. Most of the children that attended Fair Park walked home from school, many in groups. There were buses, but many of the children and parents were skeptical about them. One bus driver had been fired a year before for sexual misconduct. Though the other drivers were honorable and decent-hearted, parents tried to keep their kids from riding the buses. Tami allowed Toby to ride the bus. Every now and then, though, she would pick him up after school.

Once she got past the crowds of children she saw Toby sitting by the flagpole talking to a cute, blonde-haired girl. Both were smiling and talking, which made her smile.

She pulled right up to the flagpole, but her son did not even notice, neither did the girl. Tami put her car in park. She would wait, but not all night. The girl ended up looking toward Tami and patted Toby on the shoulder. He got up with a wide smile, said goodbye to the girl and ran and got into the passenger seat of his mother’s car.

How was your day? Tami asked him as she pulled through the lot toward the exit.

It was great! Toby said. I don’t have any homework, and we got to do fun stuff all day.

Well, isn’t that great. Did you learn anything, though?

Yeah, plenty of stuff. You don’t have to bury your nose in a book to learn something, Mom.

Well, you seem to know it all. That girl was cute.

Yeah, that’s Lindsay. He grinned childishly. She’s always nice to me and we get along. She’s in my art class.

Well, that’s nice. She seems like a very nice girl.

So are we heading to Randy’s now? He had to change the subject. He did have somewhat of a crush on Lindsay, but he wasn’t about to tell his mother; not now anyway.

Yes, Tami said. We’re going to take the… creatures so they can come with us.

It’ll be fine, mom. He could tell his mother was still a little uneasy with the idea of bringing pets into their small, comfy house. I think you’ll grow to like them.

Heh, well we’ll just see.

She headed toward her brother’s apartment with the windows down. It was mid-March, just a week away from the first day of spring, and it felt wonderful outside. Spanner was known for long winters. Many times there would be morning frost up until the end of April. But this March it was so far so good. There hadn’t been any snow since mid-February. Maybe it was Mother Nature giving the town a break for once. Tami and Toby both enjoyed the subtle breeze through the windows of the car and admired the rural scenery.

They made it to Fox Apartments, which were just outside of downtown Spanner. The town was primarily rural, but had a largely condensed downtown area consisting of shops, offices and restaurants. It was where the townsfolk would gather for celebrations and other things of the sort.

Tami hated going anywhere near Fox Apartments. It was the trashiest place in all of Spanner, she thought, as well as most other people. The place was filled with former and future convicts. She would never allow Toby to go anywhere near the complex without her with him. Randy had offered to watch Toby at his place before, but she had refused, and typically he would just come over to her house to watch the boy.

Luckily there was no one hanging around outside in the complex, which was odd but very fortunate. Usually whenever the weather was even halfway decent the tenants would all come out and hang out outside their apartments. Sometimes they would drink and smoke weed, creating a scene, which would lead to shouting matches and even physical fights sometimes. Whenever Tami would come by and see more than four people out, she would turn the other way and come back at another time. She had never had any confrontations with any of the tenants, aside from some of them hitting on her at times, and she wanted to keep it that way. She was ready to grab the pets and be on her way, and would hopefully not have to come back for a long time if ever again.

She could see Tina’s light blue Festiva parked in the small lot next to Randy’s apartment. Tina, Randy’s girlfriend, was a nice, beautiful, young Latina woman. Tami felt that Randy had been very lucky to have been able to obtain her, but was afraid that it wouldn’t last much longer. Tina took care of the apartment and was going to help with her brothers to clear all of Randy’s things out of the apartment. It would have to be cleared out within the next week. There was already another tenant ready to rent the spot. Tami feared, though, that Randy would be right back at Fox once released from prison.

Tami and Toby got out and headed up to the front door. Tami rang the doorbell, though the door was most likely already open. Tina opened the door immediately. She was wearing a tight white tank top, which revealed her navel ring, and a pair of daisy dukes. Her dark skin was moist with sweat.

Hey, guys, come in, Tina said while holding the door open.

Hi Tina, how are you? Tami said.

She sighed. I’m good, just cleaning up a little.

Well, I really do appreciate you straightening things out over here.

Oh, it’s no problem. You two’re gonna have the big responsibility with that beast in there.

They could all hear Lucy, the golden retriever, whimpering in the bedroom.

Can I go let her out? Toby asked.

Sure, bud, Tina said. I was just keeping her out of the way. Go ahead.

Toby ran into the bedroom and unlatched the dog’s cage. Lucy came running out, not even noticing Toby. She ran straight to Tami, who braced herself for the dog’s momentum. Lucy continued to whimper while attempting to jump up onto Tami.

Okay, Lucy, Tami said. Down, girl. She began to pet Lucy. Toby came back into the living room. Lucy looked over and immediately ran up to him and began licking his face.

Down girl, he said. He couldn’t help from laughing. He was defenseless from her rapid moving tongue.

Tami and Tina looked and smiled then looked at one another.

Think you can handle this wolf here? Tina asked.

I think the real question is if Toby can handle her, Tami said. She and Tina laughed.

Toby was now on the ground covering his face from the dog’s paws and tongue. He finally got up and headed into the kitchen where gecko cage was. Randy had taken the gecko in a year earlier. It had belonged to a friend of his who was locked up. Neither Randy nor his friend had ever named it, so Toby knew he would have to come up with one.

He looked into the cage while tapping the screen door. The gecko slowly moved its head up and looked toward Toby, sticking its tongue out occasionally.

Hey, little guy, Toby said.

The gecko responded by stepping down from its resting log and stretching out a little. Toby assumed that it had been sleeping recently. He studied the inside of the cage. He could see a few crickets scatter up the screen walls as the gecko began to move around. He noticed that the bottom of the cage was covered with poop; he knew he would have to clean the cage sooner than later. There was a stone water dish that was empty and a small patch of plastic grass. The last thing he noticed startled him a little. It was a large black cricket, which began to climb up the screen wall after the others had made it to the top near the heat lamp. It was two times the size of the others. Toby figured it was one that had survived for a few weeks and had gotten large by eating its dead. He had learned a little about the life of crickets and other insects in science class.

He was now more impressed with the large cricket than he was the gecko itself. He remembered his uncle telling him that he would usually go over to the Spanner gorge once a week and pick up a dozen crickets. He had told Toby that he would take him over there and show him the spot, but wouldn’t be able to now.

Toby helped his mother transfer the pets and supplies to the car. Tami was hesitant about letting Lucy ride in the backseat, but Tina assured her that Lucy had ridden in cars numerous times and had never made a mess. She would typically curl up and sleep. Tami thought it was okay for the time being. She began to think that she could grow rather fond of the dog. It would just take some time.

Mike Ringer and Eddy Rozzle had just finished smoking three blunts. They both sat on the edge of the Spanner gorge near the bottom of it. The gorge descended in a downward slope from a great height. From where the two young men were sitting they could see the beautiful scenery above them and the various tiny streams that flowed down into the Oak Creek. They both felt like they had literally smoked themselves retarded, but they were enjoying every second of it. They felt as if they were floating through the gorge and swinging from the many vines and branches which hung down. They were also happy that they had not been disturbed. They had made it a habit of going down to the gorge once or twice a week and getting high. Usually they would see rangers and families approaching the gorge and they would often have to hide their weed and paraphernalia until the passersby moved on.

Eddy and Mike were both considered fuck-ups by many. They had both just barely graduated from high school after an extra year of attendance. They were both currently unemployed and lived in their mothers’ basements. All they really did day to day was smoke weed and play video games. Their mothers were beginning to urge them both to work on getting jobs and doing something productive with their lives. Sylvia Rozzle and Sheri Ringer were both laid back and had pretty much let their children do as they pleased throughout their lives, but they were both ready now to kick the two out of their homes.

They both stared at the flowing creek. It was at a perfect level, just below land level. There had been issues with it flooding onto the pathways in the past, but it had not rained excessively in quite a while. The two of them watched as the water flowed to their right, breaking in small parts where there were rocks and branches.

Man, this is righteous! Mike said, breaking his trance away from the water and looking toward Eddy who was still transfixed on the water.

Dude, yer right! Eddy said. It’s never looked better down here.

Huh, ’cept for the time we came down here trippin’ on shrooms.

Yeah, good point! That was a good day right there.

Fuck yeah it was.

They both noticed some motion up to their left. They looked up with wide eyes to see a grown man and two small girls crossing the Spanner Gorge Bridge, which was a small connector up at the top of the gorge. It had been repaired recently. Before, the ropes holding it together were overstretched and many of the wooden stepping blocks had broken off. Workers had repaired it the spring before when a parks levy had finally passed. The new pure maple bridge was thick and sturdy.

The two of them stared up at the passersby as they made their way across the top path. Not many people would descend the downward path where Eddy and Mike were sitting. It was steep and only led to bushes, a small fishing area where they were sitting, and more bushes.

Eddy began staring at a very old thin tree just to the left of them. It was wavy like a snake but very rugged. It barely held on by its