“Banata, that bastard….”
On the third floor, it was hard to find a door that wasn’t red. In a place like this, how the hell was he supposed to spot a door as red as blood? You’d have better luck finding a green leaf in a flower field.
What, did they only have one can of paint or something? Blaine’s thoughts were already spiraling into the wasps’ budget situation when a piercing alarm suddenly shrieked through the air like it was splitting his eardrums apart.
[Code Yellow, Code Yellow. Intruder detected. Intruder detected—]
His heart dropped like a stone. Already?! But he hadn’t done anything—so how did they spot him? Or… could it be that one of the honeybee teammates trying to escape downstairs had been caught? Either way, it was bad. Really bad.
Eyes darting around in panic, Blaine’s brain kicked into high gear. And then—an icy thought made his whole body shudder. No… don’t tell me the Queen triggered the alarm?
Even after everything he’d seen from her, he didn’t want to believe it. Every time Blaine doubted her, it felt like his heart was being torn to shreds.
First things first: he had to get out of this mess. He bolted down the crumbling hallway, scanning wildly for cover, when a loud CRASH made him freeze in horror.
I KNEW IT. This goddamn building was always going to collapse someday!
A cloud of dust and gravel slammed straight into his face, and Blaine doubled over in a fit of coughing. Just seconds behind him, the hallway wall had burst open—debris scattered across the floor like bones. And wedged deep in that gaping hole in the wall, stuck fast and flailing helplessly, was an enormous man.
“Blaine! I’m here to rescue you!”
It was none other than a rhinoceros beetle—who definitely looked like someone in need of rescuing himself.
“I kept having nightmares about you being mashed into wasp dumplings every night. I knew it was insane, but I couldn’t not come for you!”
“G-General…?”
The huge honeybee and the even huger beetle locked eyes, tears welling up with heartfelt emotion. Neither of them gave a damn about how a stuck, wall-mounted beetle was supposed to save a honeybee trapped in a wasp fortress.
***
Now covered in stone dust, his dark brown shell tinged gray, the beetle walked proudly through the filthy corridor, a satisfied look on his face. Beside him, the large honeybee—his eyes still wet—grinned with unhidden relief, walking in step like he’d just found an army at his back.
“Blaine, did you find that spider bastard yet?”
“Not yet. I’m pretty sure he’s behind one of the red doors, but there are a few I can’t open with the keycard I’ve got.”
“Red… doors?”
The rhinoceros beetle glanced around, looking perplexed. Every single door was red.
“We need to find Hurel and escape as fast as possible. That alarm earlier—and the noise you made, General—uh, anyway, the wasps are going to be here any second.”
“Just thinking about a swarm of wasps charging in is nightmare fuel.”
“Exactly. So time is tight. Gen, could you go downstairs and escape with the others? I’ll stay up here and keep looking for Hurel.”
The beetle nodded confidently and, without hesitation, thundered down the stairs. Blaine, meanwhile, slipped into a gap in the wall, hiding himself and thinking quickly.
He’d checked almost every door on the third floor. At this point, it was safe to assume that Hurel was in one of the rooms he couldn’t open.
Don’t tell me… don’t tell me the wasps have done something to him. No—no way…!
Images of Hurel, wounded and sobbing quietly while imprisoned by those bastard wasps, flashed across his mind. The mere thought felt like shards of glass ripping through his chest. Already breathless, Blaine pushed his legs harder, running faster than before.
“Hani… Hani…!”
He no longer cared who might hear him. His voice, soaked in desperation, rang out as he pounded on every locked red door along the corridor.
Please be safe. Please. He’d never wanted something so badly in his life.
“Hani, please! If you’re in there, answer me!”
Gasping and stumbling through the corridor, it wasn’t long before his footsteps faded into the distance. Then—tap, tap, tap—a slow, unhurried gait echoed faintly. A man with snowy white hair strolled down the same hallway Blaine had just sprinted through, his sleepy gaze dragging lazily across the walls. He came to a halt and the corner of his mouth curled into a delicate, almost sly smile.
Beep—
He pulled a card from his coat. It was stained crimson and gave off the sharp, metallic scent of blood. With it, he unlocked a red door and slowly turned the knob, stepping inside.
“What the fuck? I told you to leave me alone. Did ‘I want to be alone’ sound like a suggestion to you?”
“…Looks like I’ve come to the right place.”
The white-haired man smiled idly as he approached a blond woman sitting on a plush-looking bed, absentmindedly combing her tangled hair. The blond’s eyes narrowed, glaring daggers at the intruder.
“And who the hell are you? Never seen that face before. Who gave you permission to just walk in?”
“Finally found you. You’re the Queen Bee, right?”
“You don’t look like an ant or a wasp… What rock did you crawl out from under?”
“Honestly, I didn’t think it’d be this easy.”
Only one of them was speaking—while the other just stared in disbelief. It was a strange, one-sided conversation.
“Tch. What the hell are the wasps even doing? If they think handing over some quiet little worker bees is enough to keep their cushy lifestyle, they better come up with a better lie than that.”
She ground her teeth, muttering venomously. No guards. No security. What the hell was going on? Meanwhile, the intruder—ignoring her anger like it wasn’t even in the room—idly toyed with the white collar of his shirt, now stained with red blotches.
“I came to see you. I’ve got a plan. A very important one.” He rambled, uninvited and unprompted. The Queen let out an incredulous puff of air, completely unimpressed. Who even asked? The guy was clearly a lunatic.
“To execute that plan… I need you.”
Then, he paused. The lazy smile returned, his sultry eyes crinkling in amusement as he corrected himself:
“No, wait. More accurately… I don’t need you at all.”
***
“What the hell is happening right now?!”
“Holy shit, hey, grab that guy!”
“Are you nuts? You try getting close if you’re so brave!”
Chaos erupted downstairs, loud enough for Blaine to hear it from the third floor. He was worried sick about General and the other bees, but he couldn’t leave—not while Hurel was somewhere up here.
Still coming up empty, Blaine limped to the next door. A terrible thought crossed his mind: What if I missed him because he can’t speak? Or he’s gagged?
“Khk…”
His eyes welled up again. At first, he thought he was crying because he was worried about Hurel—afraid he’d been captured or was hurt somewhere, alone and scared. But as the dry coughing took hold, he realized it wasn’t just emotion. His eyes were burning. The tears were being forced out.
“Cough—koff! Kffk—what the… Khhk…!”
Thick smoke was rising from the stairwell, trailing up in dense, grey waves. It stung his eyes, filled his lungs, made it almost impossible to breathe. What the hell was going on now?
There weren’t even any windows in the corridor. Blaine ran to the hole General had smashed in the wall earlier and stuck his head out, peering down.
He couldn’t see much—just a sea of black smoke—but the sweltering heat licking his face was all the information he needed.
The lower floor was on fire.
“GENERAL, YOU FUCKING IDIOT…!!”
