Free Web of Fire Bind-up by Steve Voake Page B

of them now and they’re just thinking about the end of their shift. Look.’ She nodded towards the front of the line.
    Sam looked around nervously to see who else might be watching, but discovered to his relief that the guards who had escorted them from the prison had gone. Only two remained: one at the head of the column and another one bringing up the rear.
    â€˜What is this place anyway?’ asked Sam. ‘It looks like an airport or something, but there aren’t any runways.’
    â€˜What would they need runways for?’ said Skipper.
    â€˜Well, how else are the aircraft going to take off?’ said Sam. ‘Maybe they just store them here or something.’
    â€˜Oh, they take off all right,’ said Skipper. ‘Believe me. I’ve got the scars to prove it.’
    Sam was puzzled. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked.
    The prisoners at the front of the line were disappearing around the corner of a large building and, as they approached it, Skipper said simply, ‘Take a look for yourself.’
    They turned the corner and Sam let out a cry of shock, put one hand up to his mouth and used the other to steady himself against the wall.
    A few metres away, the huge green eyes of an enormous horsefly bulged from its monstrous head, suffused in the half-light with a dull metallic sheen. It was the size of a jet fighter and it crouched above them on six gigantic legs, each covered in coarse black hairs the thickness of industrial power cables. Two sharp, scissor-like blades protruded from its mouth and folded back behind its thorax was a pair of translucent, smoke-coloured wings with black veins running through them. They moved slightly in the breeze and the sound was like canvas flapping in the wind.
    Sam felt a small hand in his and the next thing he knew he was being pulled away from the wall by Skipper, whose strength was obviously much greater than her small frame suggested. She looked at him apologetically.
    â€˜Sorry, Sam,’ she said. ‘I should have warned you. Not a pretty sight, are they?’
    She brushed some dust from his arm and then pushed him forward as others began to overtake.
    â€˜Better keep moving. We don’t want old Stick Boy teaching you any more lessons, do we?’
    Sam stumbled forward and fell into step with the others, unable to keep his eyes from the incredible sight that surrounded him. He realised now that the lines of aircraft he had seen earlier were in fact massed ranks of huge insects. In spite of his initial terror at encountering these monsters at such close range, his natural curiosity was already beginning to take over.
    The nearest insects were all horseflies of the type he had seen in his bedroom. When was it? The day before yesterday? Longer?
    It already seemed half a lifetime ago.
    They were lined up in rows of maybe twenty or thirty, and the rows stretched away in columns that reached far into the distance.
    Up ahead he could see several fields covered with more insects, but these appeared thinner, lighter and more graceful. Their legs were skinny and their slender abdomens pointed upwards at an angle to their heads. A long tube tapering to a sharp point stuck out from the front of each one and Sam immediately recognised them as mosquitoes.
    â€˜Look over there,’ said Skipper proudly, pointing towards the control tower.
    Sam followed her gaze to a point a few hundred metres short of the tower. An area had been cordoned offwith coloured tape beyond which Sam could make out what appeared to be the black and yellow wreckage of an enormous wasp. Its thorax was partially caved in and one of the wings was missing.
    â€˜Bit of a shame really,’ Skipper went on. ‘I only had it serviced last week.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’ asked Sam. Once again, he had no idea what Skipper was talking about.
    â€˜Sorry, Sam. I keep forgetting you’re new to all this.’ She looked ruefully across to where the