06 Now’s not a time for subtlety, Jim thought, noticing the remainder of his arm hanging limply at his side.

Says:

Now’s not a time for subtlety, Jim thought, noticing the remainder of his arm hanging limply at his side. With this thought in mind, he grabbed the shotgun from the table and kicked open the front door.

They were what appeared to be giant bugs, a sort of beetle, hundreds of them, all waiting and all hungry. These were not what he was trained for, but he’d have to make do. He’d learned that already.

He braced the shotgun against his right shoulder and fired into the crowd. This caused chaos within the mob of creatures unknown, but gave Jim a window of opportunity to move forward. He used his teeth along with his working arm to reload and fired again, giving him room to keep on forward. The insects circled around him in a black swarm, but none dared to approach him. They saw what the gun he held could do. As he was reloading with his teeth once more, he heard a low pitch thunderous roar. Their queen. With this roar, the beetles moved in closer, given newfound confidence that their queen was coming. Jim shot again, and gained a few more feet into the crowd.

The roar came again and the beetles closed in further. Every now and then a beetle would approach him, but retreat as he pointed his gun at them. They gathered closer and closer, realizing their numbers against his. Several bit into his legs, and two flew into the air and grabbed his good arm. He dropped the shotgun and a flurry of black crawled over him, and overcame him. Consciousness slipped away from him, and he fell into the black.

He awoke to the noise of the queen, but this time much louder. As he regained his senses, he realized he was bound by some sort of grey slime and that he appeared to be underground. The roaring came once more, and he could hear the queen getting closer through the dark tunnels. It was at this point that he realized he’d left the stove on at the cabin.