There was a little additional discussion of the hunt but Bob’s prognosis on the end date seemed to have depressed his comrades and so they departed one at a time after a few minutes. Dave headed home and reached his front door just as the dusk warning siren sounded. He felt a little shudder of fear pass through his body at the sound. Maybe tonight’s talk had depressed him more than he thought. He opened the outer door and closed it behind him and then the scanner activated and after twenty seconds the inner door opened, he stepped inside, the inner door closed behind him and the safety bolts shot home with a loud and comforting bang. And based on that sequence he knew that everyone was home for the night. They were locked up tight and could live and sleep secure for the night. Walking through the entry hall he reached the dining room where the cheerful yellow light revealed his younger brothers and sisters sitting around the table working on their school assignments. They looked up as he entered but it was his father who smiled with a relieved expression that the last of the family was home, “Busy day Dave?” He shook his head, “No Dad, I just spent some time with the boys to blow off some steam. Nothing too busy,” he lied, not wishing to upset his family about the hive found so close by. His father nodded his head and went back to working on some chore at his work station. He walked through to the kitchen and found his mother cleaning up from dinner. She smiled at him and handed him a warm plate of meat, mashed potatoes and some kind of vegetable hash of some sort. He smiled at this mystery course but thanked her and sat down at the kitchen table to eat. “Gina stopped by today and asked if you were going to the social this weekend,” she mentioned in what she hoped sounded like an off-hand way.
“Oh really. And I suppose you told her I could” he shot back. She looked offended and said, “I did nothing of the sort. I told her I’d tell you to call her. And you should. She’s the nicest girl you’ve ever brought around here and she’s very pretty too and if you’re not careful someone else will speak up and win her away from you. Girls like that don’t wait around forever you know.” Dave laughed to hear her vehemence but he promised to call her that night. Finishing his plate, which was quite good even to the unrecognizable goulash, he put his plate in the dishwasher and patted his mother’s shoulder and thanked her as he headed for the living room. His father had migrated there too and was watching a video about a new surveillance system that incorporated lasers and advanced machine intelligence. Seeing this brought back Dave’s gloom as he reflected on how life always came back to the hunt and the lock down.
His father must have sensed his black mood and turned off the video and said, “Sorry Dave I needed that video for a work meeting I have tomorrow. I should have had it on the small screen where you couldn’t see it.” Dave smiled halfheartedly and said, “Nah, it’s nothing Dad. Just one of those days, you know?” Then he said less cheerily, “We found a nest pretty close by today and I guess I let it get me down. Then Mom starts telling me that I better scoop up Gina before she marries someone else. It just feels like we’re living in a nightmare and I can’t see how it goes on.” His father looked down and sighed then looked up, “Yes, I know exactly what you mean. When I was about your age, I met your mother and she wanted to get married right away but I couldn’t imagine bringing children into the world with danger and horror all around us. Back then it was considerably worse than it is now. We had lost two of my brothers to the beasts when I was a teenager. They were older than I and had been part of the hunt. A communication snafu had them unprotected practically on top of a hive in their sector. I was devastated. I couldn’t see the sense in living that way, always one mistake away from losing friends or family to these awful creatures. I despaired.
But my father told me something that has stayed with me ever since. He said, ‘Hal, remember that you come from the smartest, toughest animal to ever appear on this green Earth. Your ancestors had to fight off saber-tooth tigers and cave bears with flint spear-heads and bone clubs. And their only protection were caves and maybe a campfire. But over the course of a million years, they killed off all those predators and made the Earth a garden. And by God, you and your descendants are going to rid this Earth of these giant vermin, take my word for it.’ So, I thought about what he had said and I understood. There is within us all of the cunning, courage and tenacity of our ape-men ancestors and we should look at this crisis as a challenge that we must accept and overcome. We’re men and our enemy is just a stupid bug that needs exterminating. It’s just a part of life. A problem no different than cancer or earthquake. Something we use our brains to figure out and eventually eradicate. Just like the saber-tooth.” His father looked off into the air for a second and then said, “You know your mother is right about Gina. A girl that pretty is going to be snatched up pretty quickly if you don’t wake up. Why don’t you give her a call.” Then he walked away toward the kitchen.
Dave sat there for a few minutes thinking about everything his father had said. Then he called up Gina and asked her out to the social.