The Bees by Laline Paull EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Laline Paull
- Language: English
- Genre: Contemporary Literary Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
THE CELL SQUEEZED HER, AND THE AIR WAS HOT AND fetid. All the joints of
her body burned from her frantic twisting against the walls. Her head was
pressed into her chest and her legs shot with cramps, but her struggles had
worked—one wall felt weaker. She kicked out with all her strength and felt
something crack and break. She forced and tore and bit until there was a
jagged hole into fresher air beyond.
She dragged her body through and fell out onto the floor of an alien
world. Static roared through her brain, thunderous vibrations shook the
ground, and a thousand scents dazed her mind. All she could do was breathe
until gradually the vibration and static subsided and the scent evaporated
into the air. Her rigid body unlocked and she calmed as knowledge filled
her mind.
This was the Arrivals Hall, and she was a worker.
Her kin was flora and her number was 717.
Certain of her first task, she set about cleaning out her cell. In her violent
struggle to hatch she had broken the whole front wall, unlike her neater
neighbors. She looked, then followed their example, piling her debris neatly
by the ruins. The activity cleared her senses, and she felt the vastness of the
Arrivals Hall and how the vibrations in the air changed in different areas.
Row upon row of cells like hers stretched into the distance, and there the
cells were quiet but resonant, as if the occupants still slept. Immediately
around her was great activity, with many recently broken and cleared-out
chambers and many more cracking and falling as new bees arrived. The
differing scents of her neighbors also came into focus, some sweeter, some
sharper, all of them pleasant to absorb.
With a hard, erratic pulse in the ground, a young female came running
down the corridor between the cells, her face frantic.
“Halt!” Harsh voices reverberated from both ends of the corridor and a
strong, astringent scent rose in the air. Every bee stopped moving except the
young female, who stumbled and fell across Flora’s pile of debris. Then she
clawed her way into the remains of the broken cell and huddled in the
corner, her little hands up.
Cloaked in a bitter scent that hid their faces and made them identical, dark
figures strode down the corridor toward Flora. Pushing her aside, they
dragged out the weeping young bee. At the sight of their spiked gauntlets, a
spasm of fear in Flora’s brain released more knowledge. They were police.
“You fled inspection.” One of them pulled at the girl’s wings so another
could examine the four still-wet membranes. The edge of one was
shriveled.
“Spare me,” she cried. “I will not fly; I will serve in any other way—”
“Deformity is evil. Deformity is not permitted.”
Before the young bee could speak the two officers pressed her head down
until there was a sharp crack. She hung limp between them and they
dropped her body in the corridor.
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