The Hogarth Experiment Part 7

The first streaks for dawn broke across the Wye Valley. The Armoured Flamethrowers were poised around the giant wasps nest. Just as the sky began to lighten, pushing away the darkness of the night the first wasp climbed from the nest. Long spouts of flame poured over it. As its body was engulfed in flame out of the nest, more wasps swarmed. Suddenly the sky darkened again. Several RAF bases were scrambled. Spitfires and Hurricanes crowded the skies. This time the enemy was not the Luftwaffe, but insects. The pilots where not sure what tactics they were to use or how the insects were going to react. They swooped low down the valley just skimming the treetops. Then suddenly they were confronted with the enemy. They peeled off in different directions choosing a target. The manoeuvrability of the insects was unexpected. They swerved, dived, hovered and even seem to reverse. Several tried to sting the aircrafts. As more and more the wasps were shot down, more replaced them. Several of the aircraft crashed as more than one wasp landed on them. Spouts of fames stretched into the sky from the flamethrowers below. A second wave of aircraft flew into the affray, they seemed to be swarmed by wasps. Several of the pilots few upwards drawing a number of the wasps with them. Aircraft and wasps darted around the crowed sky in arial combat never before witnessed. Hundreds of wasps fell from the sky and were quickly replaced by hundreds more. As the aircraft began running short of fuel, they few away from the fight and others were brought in. On the ground, the Armoured Flamethrowers were being attacked as well. The wasps crawled over the machines trying to find a way in. Smoke began to rise from the nest as more and more wasps lifted into the air. Quite a number were met by long stems of flames that engulfed their bodies. Several with their bodies still alight rose and smashed into oncoming aircraft and both plummeted to the ground. A black cloud from the burning nest and corpses of the insects rose high above the valley. Hour after hour, they fought before the number of wasps decreased. After six hours, the fight was over. Bodies of wasps littered the fields where cattle once grazed. The RAF flew the length and breath of the valley to ensure that there were no surviving giant wasps. Soldiers with flamethrowers walked over the fields burning every wasp they came across. None was to be left alive. The nest had a constant jet of flame poured into it. When ever it seemed that the fames was going out gallons of petrol was tipped down the hole of the nest and the flamethrowers ignited it. All through the night and late into the following day the process was kept up. They could not afford a ny eggs or any of the queens to survive. Finally, it was over. The charred remains of the wasp’s corpses were buried in deep pit. A week after the battle was over only small scars on the landscape were noticeable. A year later there were no traces of what had happened there in the summer of 1945 and life in the Wye Valley returned to normal. Professor Hogarth sat in his favourite chair and watched his garden begin to grow again. Several times, he could have sworn he thought he saw shadows. He put them down to his imagination. The end. Author’s note: Although this has been, a work of fiction of which he hopes the readers has derived some pleasure in reading. I wish to leave everyone with this thought. As the world is increasing yearly in population. More and more plants are being genetically modified to increase crop yields. As insects feed off plants and other insects feed off them. One can never tell if the genetic structure of those insects will, itself be modified. We know that it takes generations for species to mutate. What we do not know is whether they are mutating now somewhere in the world. Which leaves us with the question. What if? David Verdun Harris 6 November 2007