The queen must always stay at 90 degrees or she runs the risk of freezing to death. The other bees can stand lower temperatures so they will gather around her at night and through the winter in order to keep her at this temperature. It's like a blanket of bees.

* * *

The night was dark and dreary as wind whistled past the opening to the hive. The leaves had all fallen from the trees and the blossoms had died away. The Winter was upon them.

All the bees, except the drones who had been kicked out previously, nestled together all warm and cozy sipping on honey.

At that very moment a gust of wind, coated in rain, swept into and across the hive. It made all their hairs stand on end and sent shivers down their backs.

The queen spoke, breaking the stillness.

"Have I ever told you about Maybee and the Zombees?" asked the queen.

They all agreed that she had not and gathered even closer, to hear the tale.

* * *

It was nearing the end of the gathering season and all was looking right. The reserves were packed and everyone was in good spirits. That is probably why they didn't think anything about it when a bee came back to the hive with a small fly riding on her back.

The other bees collected around her, commenting on how odd the small fly looked. Maybee being the curious little bee that she was, pushed through the gathering crowd, so she could see the fly.

"Hello?" Maybee said, more questioning than introduction.

The fly said nothing, but Maybee could hear a faint mumbling coming from the fly.

"How are you?" asked Maybee.

The fly did not respond, but the mumbling did grow louder.

"Hey, could someone do something, or should I continue to stand here while you stare at my backside," asked the bee who the fly was on.

"Shh," silenced Maybee as the mumbling of the fly increased to the point that Maybee could make out what it was saying. It appeared as if the fly wasn't speaking words at all but speaking in a strange tongue.

* * *

"What does that mean, speaking in a strange tongue," interrupted one of the bees.

Others danced around in agreement. They didn't know what it meant either.

"When someone speaks in tongues," the queen said, "they speak in strange sounds that no one else can understand. Go ahead and try it yourselves."

The bees created sounds as if their mouths were full of marbles.

"Now try to pretend that you are creating a language all your own," said the queen.

The sounds that the others made transformed into something with rhythm and beats.

"That's it," said the queen. "Someone who speaks in tongues sounds just like that.

The other bees continued to speak in their new found language."Okay, okay everyone. I know you're having fun but the rest of the story awaits, and I assure you, the story is a lot more entertaining."

The bees quieted down, one by one.

"Anyway, Maybee had just realized that the fly was speaking in tongues," said the queen.

* * *

Maybee leaned in closer to see if she could make out anything that the fly was saying. She couldn't. It was all gibberish. Maybee cocked her head to one side and poked the fly with her leg.

"Ow, stop that you dolt," said the fly.

"So you can talk," said Maybee.

The fly froze in the face of Maybee's question and then went back to speaking in tongues as if nothing had happened.

"Oh, no. It doesn't work that way. You already outed yourself. There's no going back now.

The fly stopped speaking nonsense, looked up at Maybee and said, "My children will eat your brains."

Before they could even react the fly was gone, flying up and out of the hive. Everyone was silent. It was Maybee that spoke first.

"I don't like that one bit."

"You don't like it? That thing wasn't riding you like some sort of parasite. You don't think it was a parasite do you," asked the bee who the fly had been riding.

"Calm down. Even if it was a parasite which I'm not sure it was, it's gone now. No harm done, and no, I didn't see it sucking your blood," said Maybee.

"Are you sure? They can be sneaky?"

"I'm sure. How do you feel," asked Maybee.

"I feel fine, other than a little freaked out."

"See, you have nothing to worry about."

"I guess you're right," said the other bee who shook off the whole incident and walked into the combs dispersing amongst the onlookers.

A few days later everything had went back to normal. Everyone had forgotten about the fly and its strange prediction.

Maybee was just coming back from gathering some nectar when she saw a bee on the outside of the hive, walking in circles. At first she thought it was dancing, but there was no waggle in its step, more of a stagger.

She moved closer to investigate. The bee continued with its strange behavior.

"What are you doing?" asked Maybee.

The bee made no response.

"Excuse me," said Maybee, trying to get its attention.

Still the bee kept walking, as others gathered to see what was going on.Maybee stepped in front of the circling bee, blocking her path.

Another bee spoke up from the crowd, "It's the bee from the other day. The one that had the fly on its back."

Maybee looked into the eyes of the bee who now stood, stopped before her. It was indeed that bee.

"Hello," she said.

The bee looked back at her with a blank stare and let out a groan as it swayed back and forth.

Maybee motioned for assistance. "Let's get her inside, before it gets dark,"

The other bees helped gather up the bee and escorted her back inside.

Under her breath she spoke so softly that no one else could hear, "Brains... there's something in my brains."

Juai set behind the mountains as they tried to wrangle the bee who continued to struggle against them, even more so now that it grew dark. Halah emerged, and it became almost impossible to hold the bee down. Maybee had to incorporate the help of others to lay on top of her. After a while the bee stopped struggling and relaxed. Maybee was relieved and more than a little exhausted. She lessened her grip on the bee and fell into a deep sleep with ease.

Somewhere in the night the bee was bumped by a sleeping bee. she lost her grip from the comb and fell silently through the hollow tree landing with the frailness of a leaf on the floor far below.

In the morning, the others awoke and Maybee was the first to notice that the bee was gone. She asked around, but no one had seen what had happened to her. Maybee with nothing to go on was forced to give up her search and go back to work.

Far below them, in the darkness, the stiff corpse of the bee began to move. It rolled this way and that before its head began to separate from its body and maggots crawled from the crack in the neck.

All of this went unnoticed by Maybee who was out gathering pollen. In fact, it went unnoticed by everyone and the hive quickly forgot about the strange bee. A little over a week went by and the sky went dark with clouds bringing with it a hard rain. The bees huddled together for warmth. Beneath them, thirteen maggots lay stretched out, their soft skin now dark and hard.

* * *

Lightning flashed as thunder rolled across the sky. All the bees jumped and gave a little shiver. The queen gave a little laugh. "Don't be afraid of lightning my children it is only Halah trying to escape her imprisonment."

"What?" asked another bee. "I haven't heard that one."

"That is a story for another time," said the queen."But what causes it?" asked the bee.

"Another time, my dear, but since you are so interested in lightning and thunder, it should intrigue you to know that it was a strike of lightning that hit when the maggots began to move again and a crash of thunder when the first crack in their skin appeared. Now, I'm not saying that one caused the other but I wouldn't put it past Halah either. The Queen nestled back into her story.

* * *

Again the lightning stuck. The maggots shook violently. Thunder roared and cracks appeared on more of the dark skins. One of the cracks was pulled apart from the inside. Through the crack a pair of black eyes peered out. The bees, unaware of the creatures below struggled to stay warm against the violent winds that sucked the heat from the hive with every passing blow. They pressed against the queen to keep her warm.

Below them the head of one of the creatures had emerged from its shell. The black eyes that had peered out before were now huge monstrosities, each one taking up the entire side of its face. A few Black hairs formed on its head. The casing of another one shattered open, revealing one of the creatures in its entirety. It was exactly like the fly that had been on the back of the bee. It had the same clear yellow skin, the same tiny size, and the same horrible voice.

"Join me, my brothers and sisters, tonight we celebrate," it said as the surrounding others climbed from their old skins.

The bees above did not hear his words. They were muted by the hum of the hive, and the storm outside. Nor did they hear as the party commenced far beneath them where the horrid little flies flew around and danced with each other. No, each one of the bees above was fast asleep.

The morning brought with it the passing of the storm. The bees began their daily routine, some rushing in and out while others built comb and cleaned the hive. The noise created by the bees woke up the flies, who were not in the best of moods.They raised their weary heads. Some of them let out groans. Other got to their feet. One of them spoke up.

"Do you hear that, my family? It is the salvation to our species. Go forth and multiply."

They took to flight, climbing from the depths of the pit and into the heart of the hive. The males creating chaos while the females found host to land on and lay their eggs.

Chaos broke out as bees fled the hive. Maybee shouted to save the queen. As some rushed out, others rushed to protect the queen, gathering around her creating a barrier of bees. The flies swarmed, and the attack was brief. As soon as it began, it was over and the flies had left the hive. It took longer than that for the bees to figure out it was over. After searching the entire hive, they found no sign of the flies. What they did find was the hollowed out remains of a bee.

"Send out the scent, let the others know it's safe to return," said Maybee.

Another bee nodded in acknowledgment and flew out of the hive.

It took a while for the scent to spread and all the bees to find their way back to the hive.

"Is this everyone?" asked Maybee.

"It seems so, I mean it's hard to count everybody, but that looks about right," said one of the guards.

"Okay, spread the word. Have everyone gather at the queen. I have some things that need to be discussed."

"Will do." said the guard.

Maybee walked away scanning the other bees and the hive for anything out of the ordinary. Word spread fast, and the bees made their way to the queen anxious of what Maybee had to say. Each one conversing amongst themselves, talking over each other until a dull roar of gossip developed. Most involving unfounded theories of Halah. Silence erupted as Maybee walked among them. Each cleared the way as she walked into the middle of the group. The anticipation of what Maybee was to say caused waves of whispering. Maybee turned around clearing bees from her immediate area and creating a circle around her. Bees gathering on the opposite honeycomb wall looked on. The whispering grew and Maybee silenced it with two words, "It's bad."

"I'm not going to lie to you. Things don't look good. We have found the remains of a bee. We believe that bee is the same bee that came in with the fly rider on it. I would prefer not to go into the graphic nature of what happened to her body but as I know rumors are already circulating, I shall tell you what I know. The body was found hollowed out. We believe the fly that was riding on her somehow laid eggs inside the body. Later the young hatched and ate her insides like royal jelly using her body as one of our young would use a cell to grow. After emerging from their corpse cell in a manner that I will not go into they attacked us. This attack has no doubt caused more of the hive to be infected."

Gasps of horror came from the crowd followed by questions.

"How many of us are infected?" shouted one voice.

"Are we gonna die?" asked another.

"What are we going to do?" inquired many more.

"Now hold on everyone. Just hold on. In a hive this size it is highly unlikely that any one of you is infected. Just to be safe we would like to stress the importance of being on the watch for signs of infection."

The crowd calmed down. One individual asked what they needed to be on the lookout for. Others agreed with the question.

"The biggest thing that we need to be on the watch out for is anyone acting erratic and being incoherent," Maybee said.

The other bees began to look around at each other.

"Don't expect to start noticing these traits right away. Last time it took a few days for them to develop."

More mumbling among the crowd.

"As we speak, the queen is developing a means of preventing these attacks from happening. I'm sure that in the days to follow, she will be giving some of you new tasks in order to make the hive safer. Please do not groan at these new tasks. I know you all work very hard, but the rest of the hive will be depending on you. Now, are there any questions?"

There were many questions mostly going over what had already been said, and some asking about things that no one had answers to, since this was all new to everyone. All in all it was good that questions were being asked as the conversation helped the hive remain calm.

Just as predicted, the first signs of infection appeared a few days later. It all started with a bee whom everyone thought was doing the nectar dance. After a while of watching and still having no idea on where to find the nectar, and the bee refusing to answer their questions, one of them realized that the bee must be infected and got the guards. The guards were able to gather up the bee for supervision without much trouble, but after that, the word was out. Those who had wondered if they had been infected became uneasy, and those who were leery of others became even more cautious. Before long, false accusations were being made, and even a few came down with false symptoms due to their own paranoia. Some were kept under supervision to keep from causing panic among the others. Soon they had an abundance of individuals under supervision. Others began to gather, demanding that something needed to be done. Things began to get out of control and Maybee had to be brought in to address the mob.She stepped in between the crowd and the guards.

"What appears to be the problem?" Maybee asked.

"We want to know what you're going to do about those infected," asked one of the bees.

"We are going to keep them under surveillance."

"We need to get rid of them. That's what we need to do," stated the bee who appeared to be leading the mob.

"You want us to get rid of them, like kill them?" asked Maybee.

"If that's what needs to be done to keep the rest of us safe, sure," answered the bee with hesitation.

"We don't even know if all of these bees are infected. In fact I'm sure most of them are not. Are you willing to kill them too?" Maybee's voice raised into an accusing tone.

If their death would save the life of the hive, then yes," the bee stated while others agreed with her.

"So we kill them, then what?" asked Maybee.

"Then we get rid of them so they can't do us any harm," yelled the bee in a smug tone, others rallying behind her.

"If that's all you want, why don't we let the infected bees die off naturally, and then discard their bodies outside of the hive?," Maybee asked the bee.

The other bee remained silent.

"I mean, that is basically what you were wanting, wasn't it? Except without the execution of the innocent?"

The other bee still said nothing.

"Would you be okay with us waiting?" asked Maybee.

"Yes," answered a meek bee.

"Good."

The other bee retreated into the crowd its antenna hanging low in shame.

"To the rest of you, let's remember that these are our sisters. We need to treat them like we would want to be treated in their situation. Please try to be patient."

The crowd grumbled as it dispersed.

Maybee turned to one of the guards, "How are we doing?"

"Not good, I'm afraid. Juai is leaving and they seem to be getting worse."

"I'll see if I can get you some more guards," Maybee said as she looked over at some guards struggling to restrain one of the infected.

The guard nodded as Maybee turned and walked away. Then she stopped. "Let her go," she said.

"What?" said the guard.

"Let her go. She's trying to go somewhere, lets see where," said Maybee.

"Gotcha," said the guard with a smile.

The guard turned to the others and told them to release the bee.

"What?" they said.

The guard filled them in on the plan and they released the infected bee. The bee made no notice of being released though moved unhindered. Maybee and the guards followed as the bee stumbled and progressed its way to the opening of the hive and flew away into the night. The others did not follow her as no bee would willingly fly into the waiting arms of Halah.

"Now what?" asked one of the guards.

"We seal up this opening with as many bees as we can. Nothing gets in, but if anybody else wants to leave, I say we let them go," said Maybee in an assured tone.And that's what they did. One by one, the infected staggered, blundered, and marched their way to the opening of the hive before flying into the night. Along the way, a few of the suspected infected, became misplaced and search parties went through the hive to find them. A few of the bodies were found in the hives depths and the carcasses were dragged to the opening and tossed out. By morning all the suspected infected had either left the hive by choice, tossed out, or made a full, miraculous recovery. The bees cheered and rejoiced at their small victory, knowing that it would be a couple weeks before they could be sure that their plan had paid off.

* * *

The queen paused, giving the illusion that she had finished. "Did their plan work?" asked one of the young bees"Oh, yes, indeed it did. Weeks came and went with no sign of infection," said the queen.

"So they won?" asked another young bee.

"That time they did win. It wasn't until a few gathering seasons later that the infection returned."

"The infection returned?" asked a slack jawed bee.

"Of course. We still fight the infection to this day. Why do you think we carry our dead outside? It's in case they're infected,"

"Have you ever seen someone that was infected," asked a young one.

"Not for a long, long time, but you never know there could be one among you right now," said the queen, suspicion in her voice.

The young bees looked at each other, then behind them.

"Rawwrrr," screamed the older bees.

The younger bees did a little screaming of their own as they ran away in terror. Older bees can be terribly mean.