Frank quickly finished straightening his clothes, turned to Jeannie and told her to get up. He then walked straight through the huge crack on the wall, where a door may or may not have been placed in the past, and disappeared without flapping any further instructions.

Not only was he walking incredibly fast, his posture had also changed considerably: his back was now slightly more crooked even though the ceilings were high enough for him; his lower pair of legs was stretched while the others he kept tightly to his body. Jeannie wondered what might have caused such a sudden change in him, then she noticed a strange red light come in from the corridor. It was something she had never seen before; a straight beam of light, and the colour it had was so intense and concentrated… Almost as if it was aiming for something.

Jeannie moved towards the red light and took a quick look at the corridor. Her heart instantly skipped a beat. The building was infested with creatures she had never encountered: small, chubby, with barely moveable bodies, covered in some synthetic texture. They were holding round, metallic devices from which the red light was emerging.

“Disgusting! Do you want me to kill them all?” she flapped and ten different beams landed on her body. She stared at them with curiosity, but the look on Frank’s face signalled her that these were no ordinary bugs.

One of the particularly gross beings lifted its leg and the others lowered their devices. Jeannie was amazed; that must have been some sort of queen bee for the group. She took a few steps towards the creature. The desire to touch it was too strong.

Jeannie felt Frank’s beefy legs grab her.

“Don’t do anything stupid, hatchling. You’re lucky they don’t understand Flapper.” Frank moved the tips of his wings so subtly that only someone with at least a few dozen eye lenses could catch the minor changes. Jeannie remained still. These creatures did not look friendly at all.

The particularly gross one took a few steps forward and took off the thing wrapped around its head. Jeannie wondered what it was trying to achieve by keeping his head inside a box made of fabric. It made no sense.

But what made even less sense was the peculiar physique that poor being possessed: it had two tiny, deformed antennae squashed to the sides of its head. Its eyes resembled leftover pieces of charcoal that covered far less than even a third of its face… and there was a grotesque line in the lower part of its head, slicing the face in two. The creature looked like a mistake from nature, meant only to remind other animals that evolution was not on anyone’s side.

The being suddenly started changing the shape of the straight line on its face. It was the most disgusting thing Jeannie had ever seen. It twisted its neck, blew air out of its nostrils, even its throat trembled slightly; she was sure it was dying.  

Jeannie wanted to put the creature out of its misery, but then felt a strange warmth come from Frank. She noticed a small thing was wrapped around his antennae that looked like a wire, only a small metal box was attached to one side. It was some sort of small device, Jeannie was sure of it. And not a very good one: it was clearly starting to overheat.

Suddenly, the human nodded. Jeannie was amazed that it knew how to communicate. Then Frank nodded, as if he had somehow understood the creature. Jeannie was more puzzled now than ever.

“Frank, sir, is this why we are here? To save the humans from these bugs?” she asked and noticed a few creatures aim their devices at her the moment she flapped her wings. It was a clear sign they didn’t trust her, and she didn’t trust them either. Jeannie could never trust an animal which kept its head hidden inside a box.

Frank smacked her quickly with his wings. One of the creatures started giggling and released an unpleasant combination of pheromones; Jeannie almost felt nauseous.

She understood that Frank was somehow communicating with these creatures; but what she couldn’t figure out was why it was taking him so long. Was it possible those were humans? If yes, were they not expecting Frank, the leader of the Grand Patrol? And if they were not, and were by some non-trivial chance the new overlords who had wiped out mankind in the last 24 hours, why would they bother communicating with Frank?

Jeannie slowly let the idea sink in that those beings in front of her might be humans.

Yes, humans. Creatures with four legs and no wings.

She couldn’t help but wonder if they were fully grown humans or were still in a human-larvae stage. Perhaps that would explain the boxes they wore: their heads might still be too soft or hadn’t formed properly. It was completely possible that this was the case.

Jeannie breathed with ease. If those were the new overlords, they would have killed Frank one thousand times by now. But Frank was still alive and well, even though the device on his antennae was get incredibly warm and was probably going to leave a mark. Jeannie could feel the tension was easing, even though nobody flapped a single word. It struck her as odd that everyone was just sitting in silence and not doing anything.

Suddenly, the creatures started moving and a few of them dispersed. Frank turned to her before she could figure out what was happening.

“Jeannie, look at me carefully. Do you see that man over there? You’re going to follow him now. He is your new master.”

Jeannie stared at him for a few seconds, not sure if the words he flapped made any sense. She tried to rewind the last few parts in her mind, but the meaning didn’t change. While Jeannie was trying to comprehend what this meant, Frank bent down and took a little wired-up device from one of the humans. He then put one of his legs around Jeannie’s neck and wrapped the wires around her antennae.

“Stand still, Jeannie. You’re shaking too much. It might sting,” Frank flapped at one point.

Jeannie felt two tears form around the corners of her eyes right before a sharp needle stung her somewhere behind her left antennae.