Chapter 14: Nascent issue

Present time, Wasteland.

"I hope they are safe..."
"Who's gonna go on expeditions now?
"Aghh..."
It was late afternoon. The people of the wasteland settlement were having dinner. Dried hercules beetle meat and boiled brown rice. Dinner time at the settlement was usually when everyone was happiest due to the fact that they were all gathered together eating, like a thankful family on a Sunday.
This time however they were thinking about the missing expedition team. Chatting about it and sighing. Most people were visibly melancholy and worried, many thought they had probably died by now. The atmosphere was quite miserable.

"So.. you think you can handle the expeditions with Astrea?" Atra was as upset as everyone else here, but she was the best at hiding it. Despite that, she still tried to look cheerful and chat with Gregory, about the prospect of him continuing to go to supply runs with Astrea. The settlement wouldn't survive otherwise. There was an argument to be made about the guards going, because they were the most capable now, but then the people here would be left vulnerable. No one would be here to protect them from attacks by insects or other humans. So that wasn't an option.
"I mean... I don't really have a choice, huh?" Gregory noticed Atra trying to cheer him up, and so a slight smile formed on his face. He admired this characteristic of hers.
With the guards out of the question I guess that leaves me and Astrea for expeditions...
"So that's a yes?"
"Yep."
"Huh..." Atra's round eyes widened and her expression was curious.
"What is it?"
"I thought you'd be just another lazy bum when I first saw you but I guess not..."
"Ehh?" Gregory felt offended but soon enough they both started laughing.

***

It was now night time and most people were sleeping. The atmosphere was relaxed and there was almost complete silence.
Then;
"-!" Gregory, and the other people who were awake, heard something like an explosion near them, outside the building.
"Aaa! Ouuu!" Tribal chanting followed from outside. People were starting to get worried, rushing to the windows to see what was going on. Astrea and the guards grabbed their rifles and went outside in an instant, Gregory followed, unarmed. The relaxed atmosphere that was perfect for sleeping was ruined, and lives could be at danger.
When the brave guards got outside they could see a light, and smoke was rising from outside the front gate.
"Aaa! Ouu! Aaa! Ouu!" The chanting continued from outside the walls. It sounded like it was a group of around 4-5 people.
When the guards got on top of the towers a bizarre scene awaited them.
"Junkies!"
A group of junkies, high on spores, had thrown a molotov cocktail at the gates, setting them on fire. 
"Should I go get water?!" Gregory shouted. He wanted to be useful any way he could.
"No need, the walls have a clay coating." Astrea responded in a stoic tone.
The people of the settlement had coated the walls and buildings with clay and plaster in anticipation of something like this happening.
Bzzzzz
A group of gigantic desert hawk moths saw the light that was emitted from the fire and rushed over with their enormous hairy wings. Their black compound eyes were huge, people could see many reflections of themselves in them. Their barbed antennae were moving frantically in search of pheromones and chemicals, and they all started to unveil their long and deadly looking rostrums. One sting from that was enough to kill even the strongest human. After all, they now matched people in size. As if that wasn't enough, their wings and abdomens were plastered with colorful designs imitating the shape of snakes and other predators. Any person who was not accustomed to dealing with these creatures and saw them up close for the first time would be immobilized on the spot, not because of the deadly neurotoxic venom of the sting, but because of dread.
Thankfully, as a saving grace, their large abdomens were easy targets to hit with modern weaponry.

The guards quickly dealt with the junkies on the ground, who were throwing rocks and crude spears at them in a primitive attempt to kill them, so they could somehow bring their corpses back home and feed them to their fungus in exchange for its nutricious and parasitic fruiting bodies. The minds of the junkies were fixated on the outcome, not so much the method or the risk that was required to get there. That was the side effect of consuming the nutritional fruiting bodies.

After quickly eliminating them with a few gunshots, the guards turned their attention to the moths who were harassing them, trying to get a good sting of with their long rostrums.
"Cover me!" Gregory came running up the wall with a water bucket in hand.
"I told you-"
"We need to get rid of the fire light so the insects stop coming right?"
"... Good job" Astrea was impressed with his quick critical thinking. An action that was required which not even she had thought of. 
"Aghh! You wretch!" While she was distracted with Gregory's heroic action, a vicious giant camel spider crawled up the wall and bit a small part of her right leg off with its oversized murderous chelicerae.
This creature was truly horrifying. Compared to the camel spider, giant moths looked like flying teddy bears. Its two small ebony compound eyes were almost stuck together at the top of its head, observing everything around it like a watchtower. Every inch of this abomination was covered with hair like structures that were covered with venom, and helped it sense the environment around it. In contrast to conventional arachnids, this monstrous ghoul had a pair of scissor like mouth parts called chelicerae, which cut up chunks of flesh in a rapid manner from whatever poor soul was its victim. Despite its size, this hell-spawn was hard to spot due to the coloring of its chitenous exoskeleton, and the fast but silent and methodical movement of its eight long legs.

The initial shock made Astrea drop her rifle outside of the walls, but she quickly leaped back and drew her revolver, which was loaded with insecticide coated rounds, while the monster was climbing over the wall.
The fire was gone thanks to Gregory, so that meant no more insects from now on. They just had to deal with the demon that was currently inside their base.
Gunfire from the automatic rifles of the guards did not phase the creature, its exoskeleton was strong, but a well placed shot from Astrea below its eyes was all it took to have the abomination upside down, wildly moving its legs in the air in a desperate attempt to stay alive somehow.
"Are you good?" Gregory rushed over to her.
"It's fine." Her voice became calm and collected again, an instant after a life threatening event. It looked like she has been through this kind of thing many times in her lifetime.
"Astrea! Come here, i need to take a look at that!" Atra came out from the doctor's building, holding some supplies. She intended to bring them to the main building to avoid risk of more attacks.
"It's fine, look at it in the morning."
"I'm not having that right now, come here!" Atra grabbed her hand and dragged her in the building.
Is this what these people have been going through all this time...?
Everyone started heading in again, leaving Gregory outside, stunned from the scene that played before him moments ago.