Summer Sacrifice

“Code red, repeat, code red in the Nasal Capillary Network! All Defense units to NCN immediately!”

Luke scrambled up from his resting place. Outside, he could hear thousands of troops mobilising. He rushed out into the teeming crowd, scanning the tops of heads, looking for one face in particular.

“Major O’Cite!”

Luke whipped around and broke into a relieved smile. He pulled his younger stepbrother, Bas, into a quick embrace.

“Get a grip!” Bas grimaced.

“We’re off to battle, Bas, and I promised I’d look after you. Besides you don’t need to call me Major.”

“Whatever. Listen, IgE’s been dispatched –”

IgE? This was a serious breach.

“– and rumour has it, there might be mandatory exit.”

Luke swallowed hard. Mandatory exit was euphemism for kamikaze kill. You grabbed your enemy and then released your chemical mediators which instigated the Network’s reflex reaction: forced expulsion out of The Body and into the atmosphere. Its foreign composition guaranteed that the enemy was killed but no soldier had ever survived.

Minutes later, Luke and Bas arrived at the scene. It was appalling. The aliens – huge, yellow, furry and grain-like – brushed through the soldiers like a bowling ball through pins.

Bas pushed forward, realising their fate. In his mind’s eye he could see the tributes: Luke O’Cite and Bas O’Phil amongst the brave heroes who had died in action.

It was summer; the war against Hay Fever had intensified. Now he would willingly sacrifice his life for Heather, aka The Body. 

“This one’s for you, Heather,” and Bas clung onto the Pollen, releasing his histamines.

Outside, Heather’s face screwed up.

“You alright?” Shannon asked.

“Stay away from me, I think I’m gonna sneeze.”

And with that, Bas O’Phil and Luke O’Cite shot out of Heather’s nose, floating corpses in the summer breeze.