CHAPTER II

Man or Insect?

_Extract from the diary of Delfair, a descendant of Professor Fair,
who had opposed the daring scientist._

From the borders of the great state-city of Iowa, I was witness to
the passing of one of the great kingdoms of earth–the vegetable, and
I can not find words to express the grief that overwhelms me as I
write of its demise, for I loved all growing things. Many of us
realized that Earth was no longer beautiful; but if beauty meant
death; better life in the sterility of the metropolis.

The viciousness of the thwarted insects was a menace that we had
foreseen and yet failed to take into adequate account. On the
city-state borderland, life is constantly imperiled by the attacks of
well urbanized bodies of our dreaded foe.

(_Note_: The organization that now exists among the ants, bees and
other insects, testifies to the possibility of the development of
military tactics among them in the centuries to come.)

Robbed of their source of food, they have become emboldened to such
an extent that they will take any risks to carry human beings away
for food, and after one of their well organized raids, the toll of
human life is appalling.

But the great chemical laboratories where our synthetic food is made,
and our oxygen plants, we thought were impregnable to their attacks.
In that we were mistaken.

Let me say briefly that since the destruction of all vegetation which
furnished a part of the oxygen essential to human life, it became
necessary to manufacture this gas artificially for general diffusion
through the atmosphere.

I was flying to my work, which is in Oxygen Plant No. 21, when I
noticed a peculiar thing on the upper speedway near Food Plant No.
3,439. Although it was night, the various levels of the state-city
were illuminated as brightly as by day. A pleasure vehicle was going
with prodigious speed westward. I looked after it in amazement. It
was unquestionably the car of Eric, my co-worker at Oxygen Plant No.
21. I recognized the gay color of its body, but to verify my
suspicions beyond the question of a doubt, I turned my volplane in
pursuit and made out the familiar license number. What was Eric
doing away from the plant before I had arrived to relieve him from
duty?

In hot pursuit, I sped above the car to the very border of the
state-city, wondering what unheard of errand took him to the land of
the enemy, for the car came to a sudden stop at the edge of what had
once been an agricultural area. Miles ahead of me stretched an
enormous expanse of black sterility; at my back was the teeming
metropolis, five levels high–if one counted the hangar-level, which
did not cover the residence sections.

I had not long to wait, for almost immediately my friend appeared.
What a sight he presented to my incredulous gaze! He was literally
covered from head to foot with the two-inch ants, that next to the
beetles, had proved the greatest menace in their attacks upon
humanity. With wild incoherent cries he fled over the rock and
stubble-burned earth.

As soon as my stunned senses permitted, I swooped down toward him to
effect a rescue, but even as my plane touched the barren earth, I saw
that I was too late, for he fell, borne down by the vicious attacks
of his myriad foes. I knew it was useless for me to set foot upon
the ground, for my fate would be that of Eric. I rose ten feet and
seizing my poison-gas weapon, let its contents out upon the tiny
black evil things that swarmed below. I did not bother with my mask,
for I planned to rise immediately, and it was not a moment too soon.
From across the waste-land, a dark cloud eclipsed the stars and I saw
coming toward me a horde of flying ants interspersed with larger
flying insects, all bent upon my annihilation. I now took my mask
and prepared to turn more gas upon my pursuers, but alas, I had used
every atom of it in my attack upon the non-flying ants! I had no
recourse but flight, and to this I immediately resorted, knowing that
I could outdistance my pursuers.

When I could no longer see them, I removed my gas mask. A
suffocating sensation seized me, I could not breathe! How high had I
flown in my endeavor to escape the flying ants? I leaned over the
side of my plane, expecting to see the city far, far below me. What
was my utter amazement when I discovered that I was scarcely a
thousand feet high! It was not altitude that was depriving me of the
life-giving oxygen.

A drop of three hundred feet showed me inert specks of humanity lying
about the streets. Then I knew; _the oxygen plant was not in
operation_! In another minute I had on my oxygen mask, which was
attached to a small portable tank for emergency use, and I rushed for
the vicinity of the plant. There I witnessed the first signs of
life. Men equipped with oxygen masks, were trying to force entrance
into the locked building. Being an employee, I possessed knowledge
of the combination of the great lock, and I opened the door, only to
be greeted by a swarm of ants that commenced a concerted attack upon
us.

The floor seemed to be covered with a moving black rug, the corner
nearest the door appearing to unravel as we entered, and it was but a
few seconds before we were covered with the clinging, biting
creatures, who fought with a supernatural energy born of despair.
Two very active ants succeeded in getting under my helmet. The bite
of their sharp mandibles and the effect of their poisonous formic
acid became intolerable. Did I dare remove my mask while the air
about me was foul with the gas discharged from the weapons of my
allies? While I felt the attacks elsewhere upon my body gradually
diminishing as the insects succumbed to the deadly fumes, the two
upon my face waxed more vicious under the protection of my mask. One
at each eye, they were trying to blind me. The pain was unbearable.
Better the suffocating death-gas than the torture of lacerated eyes!
Frantically I removed the head-gear and tore at the shiny black
fiends. Strange to tell, I discovered that I could breathe near the
vicinity of the great oxygen tanks, where enough oxygen lingered to
support life at least temporarily. The two vicious insects, no
longer protected by my gas-mask, scurried from me like rats from a
sinking ship and disappeared behind the oxygen tanks.

This attack of our enemies, though unsuccessful on their part, was
dire in its significance, for it had shown more cunning and ingenuity
than anything that had ever preceded it. Heretofore, their
onslaughts had been confined to direct attacks upon us personally or
upon the synthetic-food laboratories, but in this last raid they had
shown an amazing cleverness that portended future disaster, unless
they were checked at once. It was obvious they had ingeniously
planned to smother us by the suspension of work at the oxygen plant,
knowing that they themselves could exist in an atmosphere containing
a greater percentage of carbon-dioxide. Their scheme, then, was to
raid our laboratories for food.