ARC Ladies

2.

The night passed slow. The chill had set in shortly after the sun finally fell below the western fields. The moon must have been high above the garden by now, but I couldn’t tell for the total cover of the leaves, and spotting anything with my eyes now was hopeless.

I would need to find other ways to detect intruders.

I crept quietly along the vast stalks of the zucchini plant, pausing every few steps. I couldn’t make out the shape of anything in the blackness with my eyes, but I didn’t need to. Each time I stopped, I exhaled a deep breath and dug my feet into the stem, eyes closed, and waited.

Nothing. I trusted my legs to detect even the slightest of movements – the tiniest creature shifting in place, the smallest of pincers cutting away at leaf and stem – but all was still. Not a creature to be heard or felt.

I moved some more. I paused again.

Nothing.

And then again.

Nothing.

“I dunno, Missy. Doesn’t seem so rough to me,” I said out loud, though Missy was nowhere nearby to hear. For all the warning she gave about how dangerous zucchini could be, it didn’t seem so bad to me. “I bet she’s having more fun than I am,” I thought to myself.

I continued on this way for most of the night. Creeping along, sensing, nothing. I cautiously explored out onto more than one leaf. I even caught a glimpse of the moonlight as the night was wearing long, and discovered it was now partly shrouded by fast moving clouds. I stood upon my lookout leaf and watched in dismay as the moon slowly disappeared completely behind a gathering storm. The wind began to blow and, as cool as the air had already become, the temperature fell sharply still.

The broad canopy of the zucchini leaves began to wave and sway back and forth as the wind grew stronger and began to howl. I scuttled off my perch and took to cover underneath that canopy just as the first raindrop fell with a splash.

In just moments, the night had gone from a peaceful calm to a torrent of wind and rain. The zucchini leaves, immense as they were, provided only a hint of shelter as they tossed this way and that in the gale. Staying dry was now a lost cause and flight would be impossible.

The final senses I possessed to seek out any invaders were now useless; I would never be able to hear or sense anything in this storm, let alone see. I still had a job to do, but I was helpless to do it, and the feeling I had when I first arrived at my assignment flooded back. Bravery became a distant memory. I scurried this way and that, dodging the soaking drops from above, clinging to the stalks and stems of the zucchini plant for dear life as the wind tried to pry me free and blow me away for good.

So lost was I in my panic, so deprived of any means to see or sense or feel, that I never could have seen it coming. Before I realized it, I found myself on a single great leaf surrounded by the largest infestation I had ever seen.

3.

The wind was whipping the leaf up, down, left, and right, and shrieking all the while. The raindrops beat down like water grenades, exploding on impact and drenching everything. Through it all, the aphids, who had finally noticed my presence, began circling around me. They closed in slowly as my world began to shrink amid the torrent of foul weather.

“This is it,” I thought to myself. I was rooted to the spot, too frightened and disoriented to move. “They were right. I couldn’t handle it.” I found myself giving in to the hopelessness. I hung my head and closed my eyes in defeat. The mindless horde of aphids would be on me any second now.

“Don’t be a hero.” Missy’s voice came unbidden into my mind. “Don’t be a hero,” the Chief echoed. “You have antennae – use them!”

With the last bit of wit I had left, I clenched tight with every muscle I had and focused all my remaining energy into my antennae, sending the loudest, widest call out that I possibly could to whoever might hear me in this maelstrom.

The act alone gave me hope. And from that kindling of hope emerged the fire of determination. Through simple will and effort, the call for help beckoned a courage inside me that had fizzled out through the storm and gave way to a new feeling: that this is what I was meant for, after all – if anyone could overcome this dire situation, it was me.

I didn’t know if Missy or anyone else heard my cry for help, but it didn’t matter now. I looked left and right, taking in my surroundings and subconsciously formulating a plan. I couldn’t let the weather be a factor anymore. It was me and the aphids, and my only chance for escape was to assess the situation and do what I had been trained to do: handle it.

To my left were too many to count. To my right, the same. I had never seen so many before, but it didn’t matter. I looked straight ahead as the flanks closed in tighter around me. There were plenty in front, but not so many as to the sides. I lowered my head, opened my shell, and spread my wings. Open-air flight may have been impossible for me, but all I needed was an inch. I buzzed my wings with all my might and lifted off just enough to sail above the enemies before me. Along the way, I picked one up and sent it soaring into the wind and the rain, and then another. I landed on the farthest tip of the leaf where there could be no bad guys to surround me. It was all I could do to hold on. I dug my legs in as hard as I could to the veins of the leaf, gripping with all the strength I could muster. As much as the storm wanted to carry me away, I wouldn’t let it. The aphids had all turned toward me again and were closing in, but this time they were only in front. If I could summon the strength again to fly above them, they would be helpless to stop me.

I extended my wings, but this time the exposure to the elements was too much. Try as I might, they wouldn’t carry me. I gave it everything I had, but I stayed rooted to the spot.

The aphids closed in further. I didn’t understand how they weren’t blowing away with the wind, but that didn’t matter – they weren’t blowing away, and they were coming nearer. I had no tricks left. As the first of them came within striking distance, I lashed out, landing a devastating blow on one, and then another.

“Come on! I’m not afraid!” I shouted over the wailing of the wind and the pounding of the rain as I dealt blow after blow to the oncoming horde. But even as I defeated them as quickly as I could, more kept on coming. A single aphid was hopeless against an ARC Lady, but an infestation this size was more than even the strongest could handle, and my strength was fading.

Furiously I swung, but fatigue was setting in and I couldn’t keep it up. It would only be moments before I was overcome and defeated. I tried my wings again, but to no avail. They flapped lifelessly in the downpour, and doom was all but certain. I tucked them back into their shell and braced for the worst as the aphids pressed down upon me.

And then I felt lift. Higher and higher I rose, though my wings were still folded safely beneath my shell.

“I got you!” Missy shouted above the din of the wind and the rain and the horde. I had never been so happy to see another ARC Lady.

“No, WE got you!” I looked to my left to see Lucy and Lilly navigating the storm with expert ability. To my right, Primrose dove down, and then back up, over and over as she tossed aphid after aphid to the wind.

My heart and my spirits lifted. They had heard me, and not a moment too soon.

Missy, who had me firm in her grasp, somehow managed to steer us both safely through the tempest to land back on the far side of the aphid horde where the leaf met the stem. This time there could be no aphids behind or beside us, and now we were two ARCs strong with aerial support to boot.

“Ready?” Missy said wryly with a sideways glance.

“Let’s do it!” I shouted back, and together we charged headlong into the mass of aphids before us, with Lucy, Lilly, and Primrose divebombing from above. We tore this way and that through the horde, tossing the parasites around like ragdolls. They seemed to be taken aback and began to retreat.

“We’ve got ‘em on the run!” I shouted to Missy.

“Stay focused!” she shouted back as three of the aphids had climbed onto her back and started to slow her down. Primrose came just in time and carried two off at once. Missy shook the other and chomped it in half.

“That was a close one,” I said in relief.

But in watching what was happening with Missy and Primrose, I hadn’t stayed focused and I let myself be overcome without realizing it until it was too late. In mere seconds, five enemies had come from seemingly nowhere and piled on top of me. They were biting furiously at anything they could reach. My shell was impenetrable to their feeble pincers, but my legs and my antennae weren’t, and I paid the price.

With five of them clinging on tight, there was little I could do on my own. I shook and chomped furiously, trying to get hold of anything that might slow them down, but it was futile. One had grabbed hold of a leg and I shrieked in pain; another had chomped an antenna clean in half, and it was all I could do to remain conscious.

“Stay focused!” Missy had said, and now I really tried. I may have lost an antenna and have an injured leg, but I still had my wings and my wits. With all the strength I had left, I unfurled my shell and spread my wings in one sweeping motion. Two of my passengers went flying in an instant as my wings spread wide. In the melee, they had had a chance to dry and recover their strength, and I summoned all that there was left now to try and rise in the air.

Success!

I rose steadily higher, and though I faltered in the wind, it was enough. The two that had clamped onto my leg and antenna blew away immediately, and the last that remained I was able to shake free with a few maneuvers.

I looked down to find the infestation had dwindled to less than half of what it was to begin with, and in the meantime I saw that several other ARC Ladies had appeared – even the Chief was on the leaf going head-to-head with the aphids, and Callie had joined in the aerial assault also.

I alit one final time next to Missy, and together we beat back the few that remained. As she hurled the last of them over the edge, we were all able to finally breathe. We looked around at each other. Primrose, Lucy, and Lilly had all landed, and together we were able to take pride in the work we had done. There were no hard feelings or “I told you so’s” to be had.

“Great work, Ladies,” the Chief said. “And Lettie?”

“Yes ma’am!” I shouted, expecting a lecture to follow.

“Great work to you, too. In this storm, in these circumstances, a lesser ARC may have failed to do anything – even to call for help. The focus and clarity you must have had to call out that strong shows you were the right ARC for the job. Well done.”