PEST

The light from the TV lit the room. National Geographic was on.

‘Venomous snakes are not common to the usual diet of eagles, but they do tend to make the occasional mistake.’

She shook her head. ‘Predators aren’t always as cunning as you think they are. They’re not always the smartest. Natural instinct only goes so far.’

Her cat meowed in response.

‘Aren’t you just proving point?’ She asked the cat, scratching his head. S

He meowed again, turning on his tummy.

She turned her attention back to the TV. The Eagle had been circling the snake last she’d watched. Now it had it in its mouth. The snake was still alive and fighting. She got goosebumps, never having been a fan of anything quite so…irregularly shaped.

The snake leaped as much as it’s long body would allow it to and bit the eagle. The TV narrator sounded surprised by that. ‘And folks, now you’ve seen why eagles don’t typically go for the venomous ones. They’ll simply be the last meal they’ll ever eat.’

‘Ironic.’ She muttered under her breath, switching off the TV.

Her phone lit up, alarm blaring at the same time. ‘Pest detected in the kitchen.’

‘Eliminate.’ She replied, shuddering. True, she lived on the outside of the city, closer to the mountains, but that didn’t make her more inclined to nature. She moved out here for the peace. Not to be disturbed and disgusted.

She watched the process on her phone. The security cameras and systems in place in the house allowed her to monitor and control everything from her phone. The pest was a mouse. A small one. Probably a baby.

The system incinerated the mouse on the spot, leaving only ash behind. Robotic mice that lived in the walls came out to collect the ash, leaving the area spotless once again. Her entire house was built to be pest-free or to eliminate as soon as they appeared, also controlled from her phone.

But her she wasn’t at ease yet. The presence of a baby mouse suggested that an adult was around.

‘Enio.’

‘Yes?’ The pest control system replied.

‘Activate automatic pest elimination.’

‘The risks of automatic pest elimination includes misidentifying targets and is not recommended in-‘

‘Yes, I don’t care. I understand all the risks.’ It’s not like the system would misidentify her as a pest and eliminate her. ‘Just activate automatic pest elimination.’

‘Automatic pest elimination activated.’

She yawned, tired and ready for bed. The system would take care of the rest, no horrors would get in her way.

Halfway down the hallway, she realized that the jiggling of the bells from the cat’s collar wasn’t following her. Panic surgered through her. Snapping her fingers, she called out for him. No response. Not even a faint meow.

‘Whiskers,’ her palms were beginning to sweat. ‘Come to bed.’

No reply. He wasn’t very big. Just a kitten.

‘Whiskers?’ Her voice trembled slightly as she called out to him. She shook her. ‘I’m being ridiculous.’

She walked back to the living room, just in time to see the last of the robotic mice sneak back into the walls, after cleaning up whatever the system had just incinerated and eliminated.

A single tiny metal bell lay on the ground, next to remnants of the cat’s red collar.