Day 99: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: sunset

Harold had no idea what the mission was about, he just knew that he had been activated and that he was to take the package that had been delivered via UPS to the specified coordinates, open the box, and follow the directions. Once the operation was complete he was to execute plan zero, which meant that he was to leave the Country by the prescribed route, in his case Tiajuna, Mexico, and then on to Mexico City to a safe house where he would be provided with an alternate identity and a means of travel to a safe location. His activation and the order for plan zero was enough information to know that the war they had prepared for had begun. In order to arrive at the coordinates, he had to park his vehicle on the side of the road and cross a barbed wire fence. He scooted the box under the fence and then climbed over the top keeping his feet near a sturdy post where the wire would remain tight and support his weight. The location was a large field completely surrounded by trees except for a small trail wide enough for a tractor or four-wheeler to pass through. He opened the box, it was a drone partially disassembled. The assembly was simple, all he had to do was attach some extension tubes and connect some small pods or tanks to the tubes. The hardest part was connecting the cables that attached to valves on the small tanks and an actuator on the frame of the drone body. He removed the protector from the battery terminals and installed the batteries and it was all set. He turned the box over and set the drone on the solid bottom to raise it above the tall fescue grass. Then he switched the device on and stepped back. After a few seconds of self-checks, the props began to turn and whoosh the drone was up and gone on a pre-programmed route. Harold, which was not his real name but he had been using it for so long that it was going to be hard to get used to another alias, was not sure what those tanks held, but he was sure that he didn't want to stick around to find out.

Three days later at about sunset, a man came running into the corner grocery store in redville, Idaho, screaming "they're coming they're coming, lock the doors they're coming." As the patrons looked around at each other and then moved towards the windows looking out, the panicked man ran through the store towards the rear continuing to scream, they're coming, hide, hide, they're coming. Suddenly something smacked the window, then another and another. It was large flying bugs with what looked like stingers at the end of their elongated abdomen. A woman outside on the sidewalk screamed and fell to the ground with two or three of the insects on her back. Their wingspan almost covered her entire back and their stingers were seemingly locked into her skin and their abdomen pulsated as it pumped her full of some type of poison. The woman began to have a seizure and she was foaming at the mouth, her eyes rolled back in her head. After a while, she just lay there twitching, and the giant insects fell over, seemingly dead from their efforts. Then, the air was filling with the insects and more of them crashed into the window, no longer was it one at a time, now it was in pairs, then triplets then... the glass cracked...

Seventy-Eight million Americans had been attacked by the insect swarms, and for the first few weeks of the war they had filled hospitals and had used up precious medical supplies. First, they were paralyzed and suffering seizures. Then they began to regain the ability to move on their own accord and screamed in pain whenever anything touched their skin. Then they began to vomit and exhibit other flu-like symptoms. But gradually they began to recover. Extensive therapy was required for them to regain the use of their legs and arms so that they could walk on their own and care for themselves. This all proved to be a very effective way to not only paralyze the population, but also paralyze the health care system at this critical first stage of the war. It served to demoralize the general population and drain the resources that were needed to care for the wounded soldiers arriving from the battlefields. This was going to be a long struggle, and everyone wondered what other surprises that they could expect from the enemy before this thing came to an end. If they had devised designer bugs that were genetically engineered for such a cruel, yet effective tactic, what else had they concocted to use against us? Only time would tell.

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**Disclaimer: I often use the freewrite prompt to tell a story instead of doing a pure freewrite, so they sometimes take longer than 5 minutes and usually have some editing. But I try to do my story straight through at one sitting without any unnecessary breaks.
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Graphics by: Giphy.com
Old' Steem by the wonderful @snook
Footer by the fabulous: @topkpop
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Prompt: sunset
Set your timer for 5 minutes.
Start writing
Use the hashtag #freewrite
Publish your piece (include a link to this post if you wish)
Copy and paste your URL into the comment section of the prompt post.
Or, if you don't want to publish your freewrite, just copy and paste as a comment under the prompt post.
If you don't know what a freewrite is, here is a link to the introduction post.

Introduction to freewrite

Thank you @mariannewest