From the center of the atrium, the house bugs burst into motion. There were carpenter ants, beetles, centipedes, orb weaver spiders, and a plethora of other insects who joined together and a mob and charged the organized ant army down the corridor; but some of them peeled away and lurched toward the Black Bird convoy.

  The convoy responded on instinct.

  “CONTACT!” someone screamed. Vindicator rifles raised, they squeezed their triggers and unleashed volleys of slugs toward the incoming insects.

  The convoy stationed themselves on the furthest edge of the corridor. Beau hoped to observe the battle and learn, but that wasn’t going to happen.

  Gunfire cracked. Beau emptied half a magazine into an orb weaver. The rounds punched through the abdomen with wet pops and sprayed slime across the tile. Tessa ducked behind the lead truck and fired clean through a weevil’s eye socket. It flipped, convulsed, and collapsed.

  The militia shouted back and forth over rifle fire. “Left flank! No, right flank!” — “Orb spiders incoming! Rear wall!” — “We’re surrounded, sir!”

  Beau didn’t flinch. “Hold your line! Kill them all!”

  A roach leapt onto the side of the truck. Its fangs dug into the plastic. A bust from Beau’s rifle knocked it clean off, shattering its legs and spilling its guts onto the floor.

  More came, clicking and snarling, their movements erratic and desperate.

  The intense gunfire continued.

  Then, finally, the remaining insects turned and fled to join the others down the corridor where the bulk of the fighting was taking place. All across the atrium, twitching limbs and curled antenna lay scattered. The last of the rogue swarm lay bloodied, twitching, and dying.

  Most of the soldiers in the convoy exhaled like one exhausted body.

  Further down the corridor, the battle between the ants and the horde of house bugs raged on. They heard distant screeching, scraping, and clawing as thousands of bugs fought each other.

  Beau scanned his troopers. “Everyone accounted for?” he barked.

  “We lost Axel,” came a reply. “Took a stinger to the throat. He’s gone.”

  Beau didn’t look away. “Load his body into the truck. We have to move. Circle the atrium. Destroy and stragglers.”

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  The trucks roared back to life, wheels crunching over carapace and gooey bug blood. Tessa sat beside Beau in the passenger’s seat, her face pale.

  “We’re caught in the middle of a bug war,” Tessa said. “My mom suspected this would happen.”

  “Suspected what?”

  “My mom has been studying their behavior. She believes the insects have established factions, like the mantids. She believes most of the insects have some level of sentience. As for the bugs in the mansion, they are fighting for territory. When we bombed the mantid compound, we did something to upset the balance of power that existed in this place. We tipped the scales of power.”

  “How far did we tip them? And what does that mean for us?”

  “I have a feeling it means we will be on the menu before long. That’s why it’s crucial we find a way to escape Dr. Gerben’s mansion as soon as possible.” Tessa adjusted her binoculars as Beau led the convoy in a wide arc around the atrium, searching for any more house bugs, mantids, or any other creepy crawlies who wanted a piece of them.

  “The ants are winning the battle,” Tessa said. “But just barely. It’s an absolute slaughter on both sides. Wait. Something’s happening. Wasps are diving down from above. Yeah. Wow. They just suicide bombed into the group and started stabbing. No, wait. They’re down. Oh—”

  “What?” Beau asked, gritting his teeth.

  “They’re being eaten. I’ll never get used to seeing that.”

  The steering wheel tightened in Beau’s hands. “How do we deal with this? Any ideas? We can’t exactly escape the mansion when there’s a battle in the way. What if they build a new fortress and block our exit again?”

  Tessa didn’t hesitate. “My mom had a theory. She said the garage might have components we can use. She wanted to investigate it.”

  Beau didn’t blink. “It might be an alternate way out of this place.”

  “Could be.”

  That was enough.

  Beau shouted at the other trucks. “Change course! East corridor! We’re hitting the garage! Emergency scouting mission!”

  Drivers echoed the command. The convoy pivoted. Wheels screeched as they rerouted down the ichor-slicked corridor flanking the atrium. Dust swirled from the sudden turn. Behind them, the battlefield echoed with distant shrieks and crumbling thoraxes.

  Ahead of them, the corridor stretched wide and open. It was half-lit by flickering LEDs and streaks of amber sunlight cracking through the blinds.

  The door leading into the garage was wide open. Their trucks climbed over the door stop and into the vast garage. It smelled of old grease and melted industrial plastic. At the far end, like a locked threshold leading to the outside world, the garage door was closed. Beau immediately looked up toward the concrete walls for a button to open the garage, but he didn’t see one.

  He spotted eight gargantuan vehicles parked side by side. And then he spotted something else, the silhouette of something covered by a dark tarp. They were much smaller than the human sized vehicles, but bore a similar shape.

  “What are they?” Tessa asked.

  “That might be our ticket out of here,” Beau said, recognizing them.

  He hit the accelerator.

  The convoy plunged forward.