Bug: First 2k words

The first 2k words of Bug. This is also a rough draft, so I am less focused on grammar and spelling at this point.

…

The wind blew across the ground, a puff of dust in its trail. It has been over 3 months since it has rained. The entire area was a dust bowl. She could taste the dirt in the air. Rebecca walked back to her bike and straddled the seat. She raised the bandana tied around her neck up to her nose to cover her mouth. Then she put on her sunglasses. It was darker but they provided the much needed protection from the dust as she rode. She caught a glimpse of herself in the bicycles handlebar mirror. She looked like a bank robber. It reminded her of the back in 2020 with the pandemic, when everyone was just starting to wear masks. Everyone thought it was going to be a temporary measure. It didn’t take long for masks to become part of the culture. Even now, when most of the world has starved to death, we still wear masks.

Her bike was recently upgraded to have an electric motor. Her husband would have loved having an eBike. Dust flew into the air as she began to peddle. The electric motor kicking in causing the bike to accelerate faster. It was near silent but a trail of dust followed her. The fat tires on the bike gave better traction, and were more rugged. This was great because the dusty dirt and rocks were not great for bikes. As she rode, she noticed the landscape pass her by in her periphery. The lush grass of this town had become a desert. What once were bushes and trees are just sticks and logs now baking in the sun. The bugs did that. They ate up everything green. Something so small, so inconsequential, could cause such destruction.

As she descended the slope of the cliff, the path became asphalt. Her bike’s tires gripped the road and she could feel the jolt of the bike accelerating. Some things still remain, even after all these years. Brick buildings, cement structures, and the roads all speak of a world that once was. You don’t realize how much green there is in a town like this until it is completely gone. The plants died first. Then the animals started to die. Then we started to kill each other. Some of the animals survived, and some of us did too. It seemed like the bugs had done what damage they could do, and we were going to make it. Even her husband used to think they were going to make it. That was only the beginning of the end.

“Becca … is Jim,” rang in her ears as she rode.

She slowed the bike to a stop and reached to key the shoulder mic, “I am mobile Jim, what is it?”

“Janine wants you to go eyes up,” said Jim over the mic.

“Not yet,” she cursed aloud. Keying the mic she replied, “Can you tell her I am about 5 mikes away from the target.” The drone in her bag was an amazing tool they have been able to use for scouting. Giving them a birds eye view back at the sanctuary. It was great for intel gathering but it had one major drawback. It could only fly for about 27 minutes. That really isn’t very long and she wanted to save it for when it was needed.

“She insists, Becca. She wants to see for herself,” Jim replied.

“If we truly have exhausted all resources in the surrounding area,” Janine’s interrupted, “then we are going to have to start scouting further away. Before I make that call I want to be absolutely certain.”

“Then why don’t you come out here and bake in the sun while you dig through garbage Janine!” She screamed aloud. Taking a moment to calm herself, she then keyed the mic “Ok … Janine.”

She extended the bike’s kick stand and dismounted the bike allowing it to hold the bike’s weight. Opening her pack she saw the drone big American bald eagle on the drone. One of the younger residents at sanctuary was really into drones. He had rigged this drone to be able to be remotely controlled via waypoints. It would take commands over a built in Wi-Fi router, all you needed was a tablet or phone to control it. It would travel from the first waypoint to the next and so on until it completed them all. It would then land and go into an energy saving mode, waiting to be picked back up. He lovingly named the drone eagle eye, because it had a 4k video camera on its underside. The camera could also be controlled remotely, but it had some default camera angles it would use to record. Placing the drone on the ground, and pressing the on button the arms of the drone unfolded themselves.

Reaching for her mic she asked, “Where you want eagle eyes?”

Jim responded over her shoulder mic, “She wants it to circle the shopping plaza, and then the grocery store. It can then meet you at the cell tower.”

“Sure,” she said over the mic. She pulled out the tablet from her pack and turned it on. Power was not cheap, and everything wants juice. She made a habit of turning her devices off when not in use. It slowed her down, and kept her in the field a little bit longer. Most devices can only operate in standby mode for a few days. Conserving her devices power meant she didn’t have to recharge when out in the field. The tablet’s screen lit up. She opened the drone’s app and entered in the waypoints. As she pressed the start button the propellers whirled to life. The sound, somewhat haunting in the post apocalypse, was similar to a swarm of bees. The drone slowly lifted off of the ground, and then began its route through the waypoints she had set. The app indicated that it would take 22 minutes to complete.

“Eagle eye has eyes in the sky,” she said to Jim through the radio.

“Copy that,” Jim said “I sure hope they are wrong about our need to move further out.”

Slinging her pack back onto her shoulders she said “Yeah, me to.” Straddling the bike and keying the mic she informed Jim she was mobile. Who knows what is out beyond our territory? It had been years sense they had any contact with the outside world. The last they heard there were gangs and militia popping up in the region. That was when the grid finally went down for good. No more electricity from the city, no more running water, and no more connection to the world. They had sent out scouts back in those days, but none of them ever returned. Not even her husband. 

Discussion

In this section I have done the following:

• Expand upon the lack of food and water.

  • The bugs ate most of the vegetation, which affected wildlife.

  • The lack of water also affected the wildlife, and the fact the world has become a dustbowl means finding water has become the highest priority.

• Talked about the need to extend their scouting territory

  • other scouts were sent out early on after the collapse and never returned.

  • her husband was one of them

• Introduced an interesting character, the drone eagle eye.

  • I intend this drone to be thought of as a part of the group.

  • It will give us footage of the raiders right before they take Rebecca. Vital clues to her rescue

  • It will be used as a decoy by Rebecca in a failed attempt to avoid capture.

  • It will be recovered and prepared by the resident drone guru, to be later used in the field

• I added some additional markers of conflict between Rebecca and Janine

• I indicated that the local power grid has been down for years.

Things I would like to include moving forward:

• The group uses GMRS radios to communicate with each other inside the community. For scouting missions they use VHF/UHF HAM radios that give them a little bit further range.

• The local repeaters are not functioning. HF and VHF\UHF simplex are the only forms of regular communication. Cellphone towers are dead, and the electrical grid is down as well.

• Expand upon the lack of food and water.

  • It barely rains, and when it does the ground drinks it up leaving very little for consumption. Groundwater is also hard to find and often tainted. Possibly with a virus or contaminant.