The wild game camera showed a small swarm of insects heading out of the entrance. Rose ordered several zoo grade insect cages. As she sent her report, she saw that she had a couple memos from her colleagues in the HQ. The majority pertained to the diet the creatures that she had sent over to them. Rose took note.
Wes came into the trailer a few hours after her. "You picked the lock?"
"No, bolt cutters," Rose had been getting the creatures ready for transportation. "These are going to be the next ones to be transported. This extra cage is for Larry and his invisabat. I have sent for more cages, please pick them up as well."
"Anything happen worthwhile in the lab?" Wes looked at all the errands he would have to run.
"Nothing for you to worry about," Rose stretched. "Just some insects. That may be why we had that incident the other night. Cameras show that they made their way towards our direction. Fecal samples showed that they are insect eaters. Now all we have to do is find where the bugs went." She opened another cabinet to get the equipment she got to listen to animal sounds.
"Fecal samples?" Wes blinked. "Glad I wasn't here for that. Must have stunk."
That night, the locals in Perfection had forgotten about the missing rubber and the insects that caused it. Casey had been troubled from the gangsters as she did try to get in contact with the others. She had to restore her lab since the gangsters made a mess of it.
The insects came out of their hiding place and headed back to their smorgasbord. Larry's trailer was moving down centimeter by centimeter. The tires and gasket linings were the first to go. Some of the bugs headed inside to eat the rest of the rubber while the other group headed to next place. The intake of rubber was exponential causing the insects to grow in size along with appetite. Larry was sound asleep along with the rest.
Rose had messaged Casey but she had not replied back. Something was happening again. She radioed Casey.
"How's everything on your side, over," Rose was outside. She had been listening for any insect sounds.
Casey had been asleep. Cleaning up the mess had taken a toll emotionally and physically. "Stressful, had some intruders who destroyed a lot my samples, over." She was groggy and not in the mood.
Rose felt the pain. Lots of hard work only to be destroyed in a matter of seconds. "I'm sorry. Truly. Did you find something about what has been causing the scene in town? Over."
"Yes, insects that eat rubber, over," Casey kept her voice low as she heard the soft mumblings of her assistant.
Rose blinked before answering. "Any report about size, looks, anything? Over."
"No, why, over?" Casey wanted to go back to sleep and forget about the devastation that happened.
Rose jumped up, grabbed her equipment to run back to the trailer. It's middle of the night and these creatures were feeding again. That incident had set them back. The locals had gotten distracted. Rose switched channels.
"Burt, wake up over," Rose huffed. She had stationed herself above the actual entrance of the lab to find the holes the insects had made. She found some but there were no other traces. No answer from Burt as she was halfway back. "BURT! Wake the HELL up! We have a situation! Over!"
Burt jumped out of his bed as he heard the second part radio. Casey had not heard an answer from Rose. She tried to go back to sleep but her mind was trying to figure out what was going on. It wouldn't let her fall asleep. She grumbled as she got out of bed to figure out what was going on.
"Burt here, over," he checked his computer and seismograph for any warnings or disasters.
"Finally," Rose kept running while talking. "Anything-going-on-your-end-over."
Burt didn't see anything. He headed out of his home with binoculars to check on the town. Burt couldn't see anything out of the ordinary but he sensed danger. Burt headed into his vehicle to do a midnight check.
Casey had gotten dressed and headed out to check on the town. She wanted to see how the town was doing.
The two met up and conveyed the current situation. Burt spotted Larry's trailer. It was slowly rolling forward. The blocks of wood were not stopping the rims rolling forward on the plates.
"Wake the rest of the town up," Burt ordered Casey. "I'm going to get Larry out before he gets himself hurt." Casey nodded as she headed off to the Market while Burt ran to the trailer. It was locked. He banged on the door shouting Larry's name to wake him up.
Larry was slowly waking up. "No mom, I can't get you a Walmart discount. It's already discounted. Our prices are low already. Don't haggle. It's a set price."
"LARRY!" Burt banged on the back window.
Larry jerked up. "Huh?" He turned behind him. "Burt?"
"Get out of there now!" Burt yelled.
Larry flipped the blankets off of him to swing his feet onto the ground. CRUNCH! Larry's foot stepped on one of the bugs. His bare foot felt the crunch of the exoskeleton being broken under his foot. He pulled his foot away with goo all over it. "Ewww!" He grabbed his key while wiping his foot on the floor. The bugs scattered away to find another food source. Larry opened the door. He was snagged by Burt to get out of the slowly moving trailer.
They heard a screech that sounded similar to a bat. The insects shuffled around before finding a place to hide. The invisabat had found a food source. It took an insect and headed back to its home to eat it.
"Invisabat!" Larry was excited.
"No time," Burt drug him to safety. "Your trailer moving is going to cause El Blanco to come back and with these insects eating the rubber we won't be able to get away."
"Insects?" Larry thought about his foot. "I stepped on one!" He started to hop with the one foot in the air pointing to it.
The other group of insects heard the screech emitted by the bat. They went into hiding as well. The town met up in the pajamas.
"What's going on?" Jodi was holding a flashlight.
"Insects are the culprit for the missing rubber," Tyler informed them.
"I stepped on one of them! They were in my trailer," Larry was anxious and excited. "See! Look at my foot. Oh, it was a gooey one!"
"Are there any more?" Casey started to feel the same.
"I don't know," Larry smiled. "Let's go check it out."
"Anyone else missing any rubber?" Casey looked at the others. "Or see any insects?"
They shook their heads but wanted to see what kind of bug it was. They followed them back to Larry's trailer. The trailer kept moving. It was close to edge of the plates.
"Tyler, help me stop the trailer for going any further," Burt was grabbing cinder blocks to put in front of the rims. Tyler grabbed more to put behind the rims.
Casey asked for Jodi's flashlight to search Larry's trailer. The group peered in as Casey was inside. She stopped near the bed and saw the dead skeleton that was big as a small dog. She had her radio on her.
"We got a problem, over," she radioed Rose.
Rose had made it back to her trailer. "How big of a problem over?" She opened the doors to see Wes scolding her while pointing to his watch.
"Insects the size of a small dog," Casey gulped. "I don't think they will stop growing with the food source they have available. I am afraid that they will lay eggs and we'll have more. Do you have any quick solutions, over?"
Wes and Rose were having a stare down.
"I have the predator, over," Rose smirked. Wes narrowed his eyes.
"We're going to need it," Casey looked around to find any others. "They just ate out all of the rubber that was on Larry's trailer including the tires. Raid and fly swatters are not going to keep them at bay, over. Does anyone have zip lock bags and tongs? I want to take this specimen with me. The other scientist has a solution. We just need to form a plan."
Larry handed her the items she asked for while the group decided to split up to see where these insects could be hiding at. Casey was to call Rose down with her solution.
"Great, eight legged freaks running around," Tyler was with Jodi. "Eating all the rubber. If something else is going to happen, we're sitting ducks."
"I wonder how big they are now?" Jodi had seen the bag.
"Who knows but I hope young guns have a big enough fly swatter because Burt doesn't have one" Tyler sighed.
Burt and Nancy were looking in the barn with Larry.
"Anything?" Burt called over to Larry.
"No," he shook his head. "The bat is hiding somewhere. It probably scared the bugs away."
"Just great," Burt sighed. "I wonder if we could bait these things out, burn some rubber or have it all in a pile somewhere." He was thinking out loud. If it wasn't one thing, it was another in this town.
Nancy screamed in fright. The two rushed over to her. "It was just a mouse," Nancy had a hand over her heart.
Burt looked at his watch. "Daylight is approaching. These things won't show up again until night time. Let's regroup." He radioed the others to regroup.
Casey made it back to her lab in time to wake up Roger to get back to experimenting. The two kept working on the insect while Burt would radio in some of the plans.
Rose had informed Wes the situation. The two got the creatures ready for transportation. Rose strapped small cameras and GPS systems on the creatures. She didn't want to lose them. Burt radioed with Wes to create a plan while Rose was handling the creatures. They regrouped with the rest of the town at Chang's Market. The creatures were in the hummer with black cloth over the cages.
Burt had a map out of the town. He had marked the areas where the bugs had been at. Jodi and Nancy were making tea to relax and keep awake. They didn't get much sleep especially since the bugs had created leaks in the faucets, ate away the rubber gasket for the windows and doors making it howl through their homes, and much more. The place was becoming a mess.
"So these ant eater things can wipe these giant-sized rubber eating termites things out?" Tyler was trying to get things cleared.
"I hope so," Nancy rubbed her arms. "My Venus fly traps would work but they are too small."
Rose cocked her head to the side and made a mental note. There could be something like that in the lab.
"What if these things don't get all of them?" Jodi was worried. She put all of the rubber made products in the freezer. They were all the merchandise that they had just gotten in.
"By the attack formation of these creatures, I think they would get all of them," Wes reassured them. "You'll see once she gets them out of the cages." Rose smirked. He still didn't like the looks of them.
"I wasn't there for the last bug incident and with Larry's quick thinking saved the town," Burt nodded to Larry who became bashful. "Now that we have more time to prepare and have adequate information we can accomplish this mission successfully."
Starship Troopers theme song interpreted Burt's moment. It was coming from Rose's satellite cellphone.
"Excuse me," Rose flipped her phone out to see the report Casey had written.
"The only good bug is a dead bug," Larry muttered. Rose gave him a wink. He smiled.
"Exactly," Burt continued. "We will try to secure the bugs location in this area and those creatures will be unleashed here."
"Grasshopper, termite, ant, and beetle," Rose informed them. "It's growing at an astonishing rate. In less than twenty-four hours these insects have grown three times the size of what they were in the lab. It will be forty-eight hours we can expect the insects to be six times the size they were originally. Do you have a plan B just in case?"
"The invisabat," Larry perked up. "It did take one of the insects off. We can try and lure it."
"Plan C?" Tyler added.
"I'll think of something," Burt nodded.
Nighttime was approaching. The group got into their stations. Rose placed the cages in certain spots. Garden hoses and bicycle tires were laid out in a certain area. They just had to wait for bugs to come crawling. Burt had made a blow torch with a propane tank, a hose, and an old bell. He waited in another area in case the creatures didn't work. Larry was trying to get the bat out of the barn. He had every possible window and entry open.
The bugs started to come out of their hiding places. The bugs were now the size of a medium dog. Nancy and Jodi jumped back. Wes had his gun pointed down at the ground ready to shoot the insects. Rose had her hands on both cages. She waited until all the bugs came out of hiding.
"Make me proud," Rose pulled up gates. The creatures came out of the cages with fear and curiosity until it smelled its prey. They ran to their prey while flicking their tongues eating the prey with speed. The insects were then surrounded by the creatures. The number was dwindling. The invisabat heard the ruckus. It flew out to snatch a bug. It was too large for the bat and the two fell a few feet away.
Larry watched the scene. He took off his shirt and flung it on the two. He heard a crunch as he killed another bug but felt the squirm of the bat tried to fly out. He wrestled around until he got the bat under control.
The insects were gone and the creatures were sniffing the area. Rose followed them with the same type of gun she used to capture them. Burt walked along side of her. The two followed until they found insect eggs. Rose and Burt gaped in horror. Rose grabbed a jar to put some of them while Burt turned on the flame thrower. He started to torch the eggs. The fire sent the creatures running. Rose aimed her gun and caught them again. She pulled the net back over to her cages. Wes was helping Larry get the invisabat into a cage.
"Meal time is over," Rose placed them back in one by one. She took off the special made harnesses. "I'm going to miss them."
Wes and Larry came over to put the cage in the truck. They overheard her talking.
"You're attached to them that much?" Wes shook his head as the three of them put the cages next to invisabat. Larry was putting the cloth back over them.
"They are still part of nature," Rose justified as she took out the jar. "Still made by science."
"Are those eggs?" Larry examined it as she rotated the jar.
"Yes," Rose nodded. "These things were already onto their next life cycle. I wonder about the causation and correlation between an increased food source and their age. Back to experimenting. Good work on catching the bat, Larry."
"Th-thanks, it was nothing," he scratched the back of his head.
"There all yours," Rose patted the cages. Wes started to get into his truck.
"Oh, Wes, can you give me a ride I'm going to need more tires, obviously," he tried to laugh it off.
"Yeah, sure hop on in," Wes always tried to help him out. Rose headed back to base in her hummer.
Burt and Tyler made sure the fire was put out before helping Jodi and Nancy make a list of all the missing rubber items.