Creamsicle

The night was warm, and the Oklahoma summer air was humid and arid. The forest stretched for miles, and the crescent moon struggled to peak through the foliage above two young men.

"Harry, when are we going to get there?" Questioned Bryce, his tone optimistic and excited. He was thin but tall and enjoyed wearing clothes that made him seem more feminine. Twirling a small lock of short light brown hair as he checked out his new boyfriend from behind.

"Not too much further. It's a really great spot. It's a kind of family tradition to take our partners here for our first date." Harry had a deep voice and dark black hair that shined. He was tall, with broad shoulders, and manly.

Bryce could hardly believe that Harry was gay as well, simply wanting to test the waters with him. The relationship had progressed far faster than his previous three previous relationships. He was sure he finally found the one meant for him.

Their walk through the trees was enjoyable. Bryce loved nature and the melodies that came with it, from the insects all around him buzzing and humming their happy little toons to the soft rustling of leaves above and the howling of wolves far off in the distance. Even alone, he would travel into the forests at night to enjoy the harmony of wildlife and nature.

The forest was his safe place, as high school and early adulthood hadn't been very kind to him coming out. He was looked down on, bullied, and nearly disowned by his father.

Thirteen years ago, the hardest time for him was when a series of tornadoes ran through his favorite forest. It had left him in the house with an abusive father and worrying mother who hadn't wanted a seventeen-year-old Bryce to wander out with so many tornadoes touching down that May.

Seventy-one had touched down between the mid-Western and Southern states, with five relatively violent ones hitting Oklahoma. One of those five ruined his forest.

He had moved from the city around his forest a few months after, never having had the chance to go back. It had always saddened him, occupied by work or dealing with his own troubles for some time.

"Harry, I'm really happy that you are taking me on this date. I want you to know it means a lot to take me here. I haven't been to this forest in years. Not since the tornado ran through it." Bryce increased his pace to reach Harry's side, hugging his side as he dug his face into his large arm.

"This forest means a lot to me as well." Looking at Bryce, Harry smiled at the slightly shorter man connected to his arm. Leaning into Harry, Bryce landed a kiss on his cheek.

"Alright, let's get to this campsite!" Bryce cheered, letting go of Harry as he bounced around enthusiastically. "Is your camp by the lake? I know there is one here somewhere, but it's been so long that I don't remember where."

"Yeah, it sits right on the lake, actually. The fire pit is no more than twenty feet from the bank." Harry answered, scratching his head softly as his body seemed to jitter softly for a moment. His guess was a nervous tic, not uncommon when reminded of unwanted memories. 

Bryson was a very observant person, noticing that Harry's face seemed to brighten up about the lake and darken when mentioning the fireplace. Perhaps he had a bad run-in with something fire-related before, but he wasn't going to dwell too far into that; it would be Harry's story to tell when he was comfortable with it.

"You go ahead, and I need to take a call quickly. The camp isn't too far, and this call is kind of private." A cell phone began to ring, and Harry answered it as Bryce nodded, impressed.

Bryce didn't have his own cell phone; they had just come into style. While they were bulky, they allowed for long-distance wireless communication.

"Sure, I'll meet you at the camp. I'll get the fire started as soon as I get there; it won't be too large." Bryce called out, jogging ahead as he thought of what to do. They had both come with bags. Harry's larger bag held the camping supplies, while his bag held the food.

Inside his bag was mostly hotdogs, easy to prepare and cook. They had condiments, though Harry had insisted that he wasn't a fan of hot sauce, not that he would ever put that on a hotdog.

As he ran through the woods, the sound of nature seemed to die down. It confused him a little, but he was also running now. He could understand if it had possibly put the wildlife on guard around him.

To Bryce's surprise, as he reached the camp, there were almost no sounds around him. It was a bit unnerving, especially with the lake right there, a hot spot for insects and animals. He had just arrived, so he would wait a while for them all to liven up the forest again when they realized he wasn't a threat.

Looking around, he easily found the campsite. It was a small ring of stones with remains of the wood from the last time this place had been visited. It was no bigger than a manhole cover and wouldn't give Bryce much to work with.

Setting down his bag a few feet from the fireplace, he wandered around the site in search of kindling. Bryce wanted to get the hotdogs cooking by the time Harry arrived, ready to eat if he could make the fire fast enough.

His search was quick. He found a drive of dry sticks off to the side near the tree line. There were a lot, likely collected from previous visits to the camp. Picking up an armful, he brought a bundle to the fire pit.

Bryce was forced to sit on the grass or squat without the chairs that Harry had in his bag. Choosing the latter, he squatted down and began to organize the sticks.

Once the kindling was neat in a small teepee in the pit, he turned around to grab his bag. Inside, he pulled out a natural, non-toxic lighter fluid and some matches. Pouring some of the fluid on the sticks, he lit a match and threw it in.

The lighter fluid wasn't cheap; it was made from pig fat, broken-down plant fibers, and whale blubber. Whale blubber had stopped being harvested two years prior, making it hard to obtain.

As the fire started to flare up, small as it was, Bryce got some of the hotdogs out. Inside the bag were also collapsable stainless steel roasting skewers. Pulling those out along with the hot dogs, Bryce started to cook two hotdogs.

Smiling in wait, the fire slowly cooked the hotdogs. The crackling of the fire distracted him from the continued silence around him. It was unnatural for it to be so quiet, to feel so barren.

With the hotdogs halfway cooked, Bryce looked up as he heard footsteps. His eyes met Harry's face, but he could not see it very well from the shading of the trees above. Attention diverted back to the roasting sticks as they began to shift in his grip, and Bryce looked back down towards the fire.

"The hotdogs are almost done; how many do you want, Harry?" Questioned Bryce, focusing his gaze on the hotdogs.

"I only need one; I don't plan to eat many of those." Bryce shrugged, flipping the skewers in his hands. It meant more for him, and he was hungry after all that walking. How Harry was not, Bryce didn't know.

While watching his date, Bryce noticed that Harry didn't seem to get close to the fire. Now, he was pretty sold on the previous fire incident theory and stood up as the sausages finished cooking.

While waiting, he took the hotdog buns and condiments out and put the hotdogs into the buns, grabbing some of the condiment bottles. Bryce drizzled ketchup and mustard atop his and looked over towards Harry.

"What kind of condiments do you want on your food?" He questioned, holding up the ketchup.

"Oh, I don't really use condiments too much. I'm not a big fan; I'm fine with my food plain." Harry waved his hand light-heartedly as Bryce walked the hotdog over. Handing it off, Harry gave his thanks and bit into it.

"I know they aren't perfect; I haven't had too much practice with them. I'm new to them myself." Bryce commented as he bit into his own. They had only been introduced around six years ago, the newer and thinner standard two years prior. They were longer at the cost of width, making them easier to fit into the buns.

"I don't mind; I haven't had these before. It's not bad, but it's not what I usually eat." Taking another bite out of his hotdog, Harry looked towards the sky. "Do you know why bugs swarm?"

Bryce nodded, smiling. "Yeah, usually to mate or migrate. I'm actually really surprised. To be honest, I kind of expected to hear a lot of insects here. large bodies of water are huge insect nests. They should be mating in the spring and summer, but they don't seem to be."

"Thirteen years ago-" Harry was cut off, Bryce pointing a skewer at him with a raised eyebrow and curious smile.

"What does this have to do with thirteen years ago? I know this was when the tornado ran through here, but what's the relevance?" He asked, unsure of the point of the random history lesson.

"I'm getting there. Thirteen years ago, after the tornado came through, it knocked down a large tree. Within that tree laid a dormant species of wasps, the Megarhyssa Barbarous. These massive wasps were capable of infecting almost anything with their eggs, their larva hatching in the bodies of their hosts and controlling them."

Bryce was trying to understand what he was saying when his face began to droop as Harry continued. His face went white, and his body began to shake.

"One day, a family entered the forest and found this lake on a stroll. They had accidentally stirred the hive, and the wasps were given their first taste of human blood." Harry's face began to shift as he walked under the moonlight, his resting soft smile sneering as his eyes gleamed dangerously.

Jumping to his feet, Bryce pointed his skewer at Harry. "Please, stop joking. I don't like this." He pleaded, tears pricking at his arms as goosebumps made his skin feel cold.

Harry didn't have to speak; the sound from the trees was more than enough to inform Bryce of the severity of his situation. "You... You intended to make me a nest for the wasps?" He asked, the furious buzzing from the forest growing louder.

"Knowing-" Harry raised an arm, his teeth shining as his eyes bore into Bryce's. "Won't save you now." His arm slammed down as the small clearing above the campsite turned dark; hundreds of thousands of silhouettes blocked out the moon.

Fear and betrayal crashed through Bryce, his eyes moving towards the man who he thought would be his forever. His body shook, his face twisting into a rage.

Rational thought left, his body driving him forward as he ran at Harry with his skewer. As it plunged into Harry's skin, the taller, bulkier man grinned down at him.

Bryce felt tears run down his face as he tore the skewer out before driving it into him over and over. Liquid flowed down the iron rod, the man standing unfettered before him.

Yanking it back one last time, Bryce stumbled back as horrified screams escaped his throat. He looked down at the skewer in his hand as he backed up, the flickering flames in the small fire pit showing the bright orange liquid that flowed down the shaft of his makeshift weapons and painted his hands.

"What... Why is your blood." The buzzing from above seemed to crash down, drawing Bryce's attention from Harry. He turned on the ball of his foot and ran, easily clearing the distance between the bank and the lake.

Something that Bryce hadn't told Harry was that he was a swimmer, earning second in the state behind Sandy Neilson-Bell. The only reason he had not joined the Olympics was because of the heavy negativity towards those who were gay.

Swimming fast, looking up at the sky and seeing hints of the moon, he had a general time and the position of the moon made it possible for him to judge where he was. His memory was spotty, but-

Bryce's thoughts were cut off as something bit into his leg. A guttural howl escaped his lungs as he felt his body get pulled under the water. The pain was blinding, like four saws trying to tear his leg from his body.

Reaching down, he moved his hand towards what was clamping on his leg, feeling a long and wide scaley snout. Feeling his heart drop, his instincts kicked in again as he tried not to despair. Hands moving on their own, they reached for the eyes of the reptile.

Stabbing his thumbs into the eye socket, the maw of the alligator opened. The pain was still there, but the bite wasn't thorough. He likely had a fracture, but he could think about that more when his adrenaline wore out.

Swimming back up, gasping for air and wheezing as he screamed, he continued to swim through the agony. He could hear the wasps above make their descent, and then it started.

Sting after sting, his body was treated like a pin cushion. Bryce resisted the need to scream, biting his lip, quickly tasting blood. He didn't need to go much further, changing directions towards the nearest bank. He could swim the majority under the water, where the wasps couldn't reach.

As he dropped back under, he released all the air he had, making him sink fast. This would keep the wasps off him for a short while if they couldn't follow his air bubbles. Being this far below also meant that he wouldn't be visible to the wasps either, and the alligator likely wouldn't return.

Bryce's optimism took another bad turn as he came face to face with said reptile. It was sitting there in wait, its mouth wide open. When it had had the time to get there, he was unsure. He didn't have any more time to question it as the alligator clamped down on his shoulder. He tried to scream, but water began to rush into his lungs.

The alligator began to roll, turning him in the water, trying to scream and cry. The pain was overwhelming, his mind going blank as blood began to turn the water around him red.

Bryce felt his collarbone snap, and the shock from the pain left him limp. He was still alive, but he had given up. Time passed by too fast; he didn't notice when he was brought ashore.

Laid down next to tens of corpses, their skin rumbled and squirmed in ravenous joy. The buzz from the cadavers joined the swarm above with thousands of wings that beat like unending thunder.

Bryce didn't have the ability to focus as pain racked his body. His eyes were open, seeing without watching as the inured eye of the alligator bled orange, wasps crawling out of its cracked open jaw.

The monstrous accumulation of wasps flew from all sides, funneling around the man. Bryce closed his eyes on instinct, tears of red running down his face as he tried to scream.

The wasps that filled his open throat silenced that.

"Hey, Ally. You said your family brings all their dates out here, right?" The black-haired beauty nodded, smiling at the taller boy.

"Yeah, his name is Harry. He brought his new date over a few days ago." She said happily with a pop in her step. "There was a lot to eat."

"Haha, I'm sure there was. Are you two close?" Ally nodded, covering her arm as she felt a stick scratch her. She looked up at the man next to her; he wasn't that observant. He wouldn't notice the orange blood, so she smiled.

"Yup, and there's a lot to eat tonight too."