BLACK RAIN'S GONNA FALL

Black rain is falling in Glen Hartwell, & something shiny and deadly is hidden in the rain

"Black rain's gonna fall
"As the nightmare realm comes,
"Black rain's gonna fall
"Desperate people gonna run,
"They're gonna run for their life
"They've gotta run through the night
"Acid Rain falling down.
"Black rain's falling down
"Falling down all around,
"Falling all around this town
"Black rain's falling down."
-Phil Roberts April, 2024


Sound asleep on the first storey of the Yellow House in Rochester Road, Merridale, Sheila Bennett only vaguely heard the pounding rain outside. It was the 7th of January 2025, and it had been a hot summer by Victorian standards, but a hard rain had started pouring down suddenly. The rain had no cooling effect, however, so the house remained sweltering inside and out.

Awakened by the heat, not the machine-gun ratta-tat-tat of the rain, Sheila pressed the light button on her bedside clock and was surprised:

"Six-thirty?" Looking out through the bedroom window, the orange-and-black-haired Goth chick could see only blackness. It should be light outside by now, she thought. Especially with daylight saving.

Although breakfast wouldn't be ready till seven, she decided to get up and hurriedly dressed in her police uniform.

Puzzled, she listened to what sounded like heavy machinery outside the window, before realising that it was unrelenting rain.

In the middle of summer? she thought. She checked on her Venus Flytrap, Venice, then headed out into the hallway.

Yawning, Sheila went downstairs to the dining room, where she found Deidre Morton, the owner of the Yellow House, already preparing waffles, strawberries, and whipped cream for breakfast. Around the table sat the other houseguests.

"Rip Van Sheila is finally up," teased Terri Scott. A beautiful ash blonde, Terri was the top cop of the area, and Sheila's immediate boss, and Colin Klein's Fiancé.

"What'a you mean finally?" demanded Sheila. "Breakfast is usually at seven o'clock. Let me guess, no one could sleep through the rain?"

"The heat, actually," corrected Colin Klein. A tall, handsome redheaded Englishman, Colin had worked as a crime reporter for thirty years before immigrating to Australia and joining the Glen Hartwell Police Force.

"But as long as we're having waffles, strawberries, whipped cream, and brandy, who cares?" asked Tommy Turner. A reformed alcoholic, Tommy was short and pudgy and was allowed only one tot of alcohol with each of his meals.

"Please tell us, you don't want your tot of brandy poured over your breakfast?" begged Natasha Lipzing, at seventy-one, the oldest resident of the Yellow House.

"Course," said Tommy. "It's delish."

"God save us from Philistines," said Leo Laxman. A black Jamaican by birth, Leo now worked as a nurse at the Glen Hartwell and Daley Community Hospital.

"Don't bring religion into it," said Tommy, grinning widely as Deidre reluctantly poured brandy straight from the bottle onto his breakfast.

Then, taking the bottle across to a black cabinet, the only non-yellow furniture in the dining room, Deidre safely locked it away.

Trying their best not to watch Tommy eating, they quickly consumed their breakfasts before starting outside with the intention of heading around to the Mitchell Street Police Station in Glen Hartwell.

The designated driver, Sheila Bennett, opened the front door, looked out, and stopped. Looking back, she asked:

"Hey, Tare, when did you have your Lexus spray painted silver?"

"Don't be an idjit," said Terry.

The blonde pushed past Sheila to look outside, where the black rain still pounded down, flooding the street, and splashing off her once police-blue Lexus, which indeed was now shining silvery, stripped clean of paint.

"What the fuck?" asked Colin. "Don't tell me there's a gang of rogue grit-blasters going around stripping the paint from cars." He pointed to where other cars on Rochester Road were also shiny, silvery, and stripped of paint.

"Don't think so," said Sheila. "The windows are crystal clear. The glass would be frosted over if they'd been grit- or sand-blasted."

"Well spotted, Sheils," said Terri, moving to step out into the pouring rain.

Colin grabbed her arm to hold her back, saying, "Wait up, babe."

Picking up a large black umbrella from a wooden stand beside the door, Colin held the brolly out into the rain.

"What are you...?" began Terri, stopping as the rain started to eat through the fabric of the umbrella.

"Acid rain!" said Sheila and Terri together.

"Looks like we won't be going outside today until the rain stops," said Colin.

As they headed back to the dining room, Sheila said, "Well, at least it'll keep the crime rate down. Crooks aren't likely to go out into the acid rain either."

Terri opened her mobile phone to ring through to the Mitchell Street Police Station, then, receiving no reply, she rang through to Suzette Cummings' home address. Suzette was an eighteen-year-old ravenette, a police trainee, due to go to Melbourne later in 2025 for her final exams.

"Been outside yet?" asked Terri.

"Nope," said Suzette.

"Well, don't, there's acid rain falling."

"I thought that was a myth."

"Nope, is your Corolla parked outside?"

"Of course."

"What colour is it?"

"Police blue, natch."

"Guess again," said Terri before disconnecting.

Puzzled, Suzette walked across to open the front door of Mrs. Miggins's boarding house in Wilson Street, Lenoak, and stared in shock at her shiny silver Corolla.


Draped out in a thick, transparent plastic raincoat and carrying a wraparound see-through umbrella, which came down over his head and neck, Tony Redman had no qualms about braving the acid rain. He had to pick up his work van at Ed Bussy's repair shop and saw no reason to stay home because of pounding rain.

Rain is rain, he thought. Just some is harsher than the rest.

He was walking down Robinson's Drive, Glen Hartwell, heading toward the Northern end of the Glen, when the large shiny silvery object whooshed past him.

What the shit? wondered Tony, a tall, barrel-chested, redheaded man.

As the object reversed direction, he saw as it rushed back that it was perhaps the size of a large sheep. But with a shiny, metallic sheen.

A robot sheep? He thought jokingly. But then he noticed that the object seemed to have metallic wings and was soaring through the acid rain, as though it were in its natural element.

It also made a loud metallic buzzing sound, like a thousand angry bees, possibly from the rapid flapping of its metallic silvery wings, which flapped so fast they were almost invisible.

What is it, a giant drone? wondered Tony. If so, what's it doing out flying in the black rain?

As the object buzzed back and forth, Tony stopped and tried to discern exactly what it was. It looked more like a gigantic silvery metal hornet than a drone.

Then the 'hornet' changed direction and soared straight at Tony. The big man managed to fall to the concrete footpath in time, so that the hornet zoomed within centimetres of him. Close enough so he felt a whoosh of wind as it barely missed him.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Tony shouted to no one in particular.

Ignoring his words, the hornet reversed direction and started back toward the fallen man.

Struggling, without success to get back to his feet, Tony could only roll sideways across the concrete path, causing the hornet to miss him by centimetres again.

As Tony struggled to pull himself to his feet against a grey Besser brick fence, the hornet's angry-bee buzzing took on a higher pitch as though furious that its intended victim had managed to avoid it twice.

"Fuck off!" shouted Tony.

Then, as the silvery hornet reversed direction and headed at him again, he stood his ground as though intending to let it strike him ... at the last second falling over the Besser brick fence onto acid-rain sodden earth.

"Yes!" cried Tony in satisfaction at the sound of the hornet colliding at full pelt into the solid brick fence. You can rely on Besser! he thought confidently, expecting the hornet to be smashed into a thousand pieces.

When he looked over the fence, though, although swaying drunkenly from side to side, the hornet had managed to stay airborne!

You evil fucker! thought Tony, looking about desperately for somewhere to hide.

In a panic, he made the mistake of climbing back over the Besser brick fence to start running back down Robinson's Drive in the hope of escaping the sight (sensors?) of the metallic monster before it returned to its senses. As he ran, he tried to keep his breathing as steady as possible so he could hear if/when the hornet started back after him.

Looks like the fucker is dead after all, he thought, realising that if it was robotic then dead was the wrong word.

Tony had started to tire, but kept running, hoping to get his second wind, when he heard the angry-bee buzzing again.

Jesus save me! thought Tony crossing himself as he tried to accelerate to safety. However, the faster he ran, the louder the buzzing became, as the hornet started catching up to its chosen victim.

Although damaged by the collision with the Besser bricks and unable to whoosh as rapidly as it had previously done, the hornet was still able to easily outpace a rapidly tiring Tony Redman, and was intent upon making its first kill in Glen Hartwell.

"Fuck off, you monster!" Tony shrieked without daring to look around as the buzzing became almost deafening, since the hornet was less than a metre behind the running man now.

For the second time, Tony tried to escape his pursuer by climbing over a brick fence. However, he was balanced precariously atop the fence when the hornet connected and, using shovel blade-sized metallic teeth, ripped a large chunk of flesh and muscle out of Tony's back.

The big man shrieked and fell face down upon the sun-dried grass. In agony, he tried pulling himself away as the metallic creature devoured part of his body.

Then, looking up, the hornet buzzed again, this time in satisfaction. Its damaged system had already started to repair itself, expedited by the food it had devoured.

The creature made a strange hiccupping sound as though laughing at Tony's flimsy efforts to drag himself to safety. Then, leaping off the fence, it landed upon the injured man's back and began eating him alive, ripping and rending huge chunks of meat and fat from the shrieking man's body.

The acid rain, continuing to fall, helped to soften, partly dissolving Tony's muscles and fat, making it easier for the hornet to devour its prey. Each mouthful of meat helped to restore its living metal as the metallic creature feasted. By the time it had devoured Tony Redman's flesh, muscle, fat, and much of his bones, the creature was fully recovered from its crash with the Besser bricks.

At last sated, the metallic life form took off and whooshed down Robinson's Drive, flying toward the Northern end of Glen Hartwell, then out into the sweet-smelling pine and eucalyptus forest, taking the pounding acid rain with it.


At the Yellow House, they were just settling down to tea or coffee with raspberry tartlets when the machine-gun roar of the pounding black rain suddenly stopped.

"Hey, the rain has finally stopped," said Terri.

"We can finally go to work," said Colin, standing up from the yellow floral-patterned sofa in the lounge room.

"Dammit," said Sheila, stuffing two raspberry tartlets into her mouth.

"Ah, come on, Sheils, you can't expect to get the whole day off with pay," said Terri as they headed for the front of the house.

"Why not?" complained the Goth chick. "They get snow days off school in America, so why can't we get acid-rain days off work in Australia?"

They were still arguing the point as they put on their gumboots, then headed outside to take a look at Terri's Lexus.

Sheila gave the car a few taps on the roof, then said, "It seems solid enough; the acid rain just melted away the paint."

Colin gave one of the tyres a kick, then said, "Tyres seem okay too."

"Okay, let's go," said Terri and they climbed into the now silver-grey Lexus.

They were almost at the Mitchell Street Police Station when Suzette Cummings rang Terri to tell them a corpse had been found on the lawn of a house in Robinson's Drive.

"Any sign of the cause of death?" asked Terri.

"Whoever it was has been eaten alive. Stripped to the bones, which are shiny clean, possibly in part due to the acid rain."

"Let's go," said Terri and ten minutes later they pulled up at Robinson's Drive where an ambulance was already parked, along with Suzette Cummings, the local coroner, Elvis Green (an avid Elvis Presley fan), plus various hospital staff.

"Chezza, Strong Arm," said Terri by way of greeting to the two paramedics, Cheryl Pritchard at sixty-three the senior paramedic of the area, and Derek Armstrong, a black paramedic and Sheila's boyfriend.

"Tezza, Col, Sheils," said Cheryl and Derek as one.

"Don't call me Tezza," said Terri.

Leaving Sheila to talk to Derek and Cheryl, Terri and Colin walked across to where a pile of bones lay on the yellow grass outside number 98 Robinson's Drive.

"So, Docs," said Terri, "what's the verdict so far?"

"So far, we can say for certain, someone has been eaten by something," said Tilly Lombstrom, a tall, attractive fifty-something surgeon from the Glen Hartwell and Daley Community Hospital.

"Don't bury us in details, Tils," teased Terri.

"We don't really know anything else yet," said Jesus Costello (pronounced Hee-Zeus), the administrator and chief surgeon of the G.H. Hospital.

"Other than the fact that the remaining bones ... some were devoured ... have an extreme sheen on them," said Elvis Green, "possibly cleaned by the acid rain."

"After or while the victim was being eaten?" asked Terri.

"At this stage, unknown," said Jesus. "The big question is, what kind of creature could have been devouring someone while acid rain was pounding down upon it?"

An hour later, they had the bones at the morgue in the basement of the Glen Hartwell Hospital and were taking DNA samples to test on the police database, since any kind of autopsy was out of the question.

"Short of DNA testing everyone in Glen Hartwell, that's all we can do for now?" said Jesus.

"So what now?" asked Sheila Bennett.

"Now, we wait till someone is reported missing, then DNA test their rellies," said Tilly Lombstrom.

"In the meantime, we have a dozen or so acid burn victims upstairs to treat," said Elvis Green.

"Not everyone had the sense to stay inside while black rain was pummelling down," explained Tilly.

"The rain started in the very early hours, though," said Sheila, puzzled.

"Some people get up at the crack," pointed out Colin.

"Silly buggers," said Sheila as the police headed upstairs.

They had almost reached the Lexus when the acid rain started again, forcing the three police officers to run for the car.

"I'm starting to hate acid rain," said Sheila, rubbing at her smouldering uniform with a thick woollen blanket Terri had retrieved from behind the rear seats.

"So you used to like it?" queried Colin.

"No, having never encountered acid rain before, I was strictly neutral toward it."


Elaine and Marcus Winchell were driving their apple-green Cortina down Biblical Road, heading North outside Glen Hartwell, to visit the grave of Elaine's mother at the Shady Rest Cemetery, when the acid rain started pounding down again. Their house in Jedasa Road had a double garage, so the Corona had not been stripped of its paint during the night. However, as the rain pounded, the apple-green paint started to bubble, then slowly dissolve, finally sliding down off the bonnet in front of them.

"What the Hell is going on?" asked Elaine, a tall, thin, mildly pretty, fifty-something redhead.

"Bloody acid rain," said Marcus, a short, thickset man, who foolishly boasted that despite being thirty centimetres taller than him, Elaine still looked up to him. "Stripped dozens of cars of their paint during the night, according to Wilfred Mortimer."

"Then what the Hell are we doing out driving in it?" complained Elaine.

"You're the one who wanted to visit your mum's grave. I would've been happy staying home watching the last day of the Australia-India test match."

"So cricket is more important to you than my poor, dead mother?"

"I didn't say that," said Marcus, thinking, I won't hear the end of it for days now!

They were still arguing the point when something the size of a ewe whooshed past their Cortina.

"What kind of bird was that?" asked Elaine, a little frightened by the size of the shiny, silvery object.

"Can't have been a bird, not that size," insisted Marcus. "The only flighted birds that big are American vultures, or California condors."

"Then, what the Hell was it?" Elaine demanded in her most screeching, whiny voice, ducking as the silvery object zoomed past them again.

"Why are you ducking? It can't hit us in the car, no matter what it is."

"It gives me the creeps, whooshing about us in the acid rain."

She looked to where the bonnet of their car was now as silvery as the flying creature, having been stripped clean of its apple-green paint by the acid rain.

"I'm telling you it ain't natural!"

"So, what, we're being buzzed by a supernatural turkey now?" said Marcus, not bothering to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

"No, stupid," screeched Elaine as the metallic hornet flew straight at the Cortina this time.

"What the fuck?" said Marcus, as terrified as Elaine now.

He tugged on the wheel to make the Cortina veer to the left, avoiding a head-on collision, although the hornet's long metallic claws grated across the roof of the small car, like a million fingernails across a million blackboards.

"It's a bug, a gigantic bug!" shrilled Elaine.

Marcus wanted to tell her not to be idiotic, but thought, That's what it looks like, a giant, metallic wasp or something like that! But who would waste time making a giant robot wasp, even if it were possible to make such a thing fly?

Although the Cortina was not built for speed, Marcus planted his right foot on the accelerator, hoping to outpace the metallic creature.

Its angry-bee buzzing stepped up in volume, sounding more excited than angry at having to chase down its intended prey.

"Get lost!" shrieked Elaine, too terrified to realise that the creature could not hear them outside the car.

"Hold on," cried Marcus as the car slowly started to accelerate.

Accelerating faster, the hornet whooshed above the car, this time ripping a small section away from the roof.

Elaine screamed and ducked further down in her seat.

"Relax, it can't get inside," said Marcus, crying out as acid rain splashed onto his arms from the small tear in the metal roof.

Despite her own terror, Elaine grabbed some wet wipes from a plastic bag in the car's glove box and started doing her best to wipe the strong acid off her husband's arms. However, great sores began rising upon his flesh as the acid ate through his dermis.

Again and again, the metallic creature buzzed the Cortina, slowly ripping tiny sections away from the roof, as though playing with the Winchells.

As the acid rain started pouring through the roof, scolding Elaine and Marcus, the redhead became too concerned with her own injuries to bother with her husband. Marcus had accelerated the car up to its limit of a hundred and thirty-five kilometres an hour, however, the metallic creature easily kept up, continuing to buzz the small car, delighting in its deadly game with the Winchells.

Finally, with the acid rain pouring into his eyes, Marcus was blinded and lost control of the car, which flipped over sideways, rolling half a dozen or more times, before coming to a stop ... upside down ...

To the chagrin of the metallic hornet. However, it easily crashed through the front windscreen to start chewing away at Elaine's head, neck, and breasts, hungrily gulping down flesh, muscle, fat, and bone alike, restoring the energy it had lost in the chase. Having devoured the top half of Elaine, rather than lean in further to struggle with her lower regions, the hornet moved across to start crunching away upon the head, neck, and chest of Marcus Winchell. The metallic creature feasted for nearly an hour until it was full. Although loath to abandon good food, it turned and soared down Biblical Road out of Glen Hartwell, and into the pine and eucalyptus forest, taking the acid rain with it again.


Unable to get out of the silvery Lexus while the rain pounded down, Terri and the others sat parked outside the Mitchell Street Police Station for nearly an hour. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the black rain mysteriously stopped.

"Okay, time to make a run for it," said Terri.

Needing no more encouragement, Terri, Sheila, and Colin exited the Lexus and hastily ran across the footpath, then up into the station. Inside, they found Suzette Cummings manning the phone.

"What's going on?" asked Colin.

"People keep ringing, demanding we stop the acid rain, because of the damage it keeps doing," explained Suzette.

"Has anyone come up with a genius idea on how we're supposed to do that?" asked Sheila.

"No, it seems as cops we're just supposed to know how to stop the black rain from falling."

"Well, it's nice to know people have confidence in us," said Colin as they sat down around the huge blackwood desk which sat near the front door to the station.

"Maybe we should have asked Tilly, since she's the head chemist and researcher at the hospital," suggested Sheila.

"Good idea," said Terri. Taking out her mobile phone, she rang through to the Glen Hartwell and Daley Community Hospital and spoke to Tilly Lombstrom for a few moments. Hanging up, Terri said, "Tils said she knows how to seed clouds to make them rain ... but she doesn't know how to unseed clouds to stop them from raining."

"That's not very helpful," said Colin.

"She did say she'll research to see if there is any way to stop clouds from producing rain."

"Fingers crossed she finds something," said Suzette.

When the black rain stopped, the endless phone calls also stopped. Until they received a call half an hour later to say that the wreck of the Winchells' Cortina had been found on Biblical Road just outside Glen Hartwell.

Half an hour later, they were at the wreck site. Sheila, Colin, and Terri crawled on their hands and knees to examine the lower halves of Elaine and Marcus Winchell.

Crawling out from the wreck, Sheila said, "This is strangely familiar."

"It's not the first time we've found people strapped into a car, their upper half devoured," reminded Terri, as she and Colin also vacated the upturned Cortina. "Have you forgotten the dino-birds?" [See my stories, 'The Night Callers', 'The Beldame', and 'The Æon Beast'.]

"Oh, yeah!" said Sheila. "Do you think they're back?"

"I doubt it," said Jesus Costello, who was now lying on his stomach, doing his best to examine the remains of the Winchells. "Even the dino-birds didn't have teeth the size these injuries suggest."

"Also, the dino-birds didn't travel within acid rain," said Elvis Green.

"You think the creature, whatever it is, brings the acid rain with it?" asked Colin Klein.

"Or is maybe a product of it?" said Tilly Lombstrom. "Otherwise, we have a Hellova coincidence this creature and the black rain arriving at the same time."

"But why?" asked Terri.

"Possibly the acid rain helps soften its food, making digestion easier," suggested Jesus. "Or maybe it's just a cover."

"Most people won't knowingly go out in acid rain," explained Tilly. "Helping to ensure no one sees what it's doing until it's finished."

"So we're dealing with a clever monster this time?" asked Sheila.

"Either that or a hideous freak of nature, that just got lucky," said Elvis.

Having taken scene-of-the-crime photos, Terri approved the removal of the Winchells' lower halves to be taken to the Glen Hartwell Hospital. Then Ed Bussy used the Winch on his tow truck to turn the silver grey Cortina right side up, to tow it to his car repair and wrecking yard.


Soon after breakfast on the 8th of January, over at Matthew Flinders Road, Tanya Robson and her two teenage daughters, Tanith and Talia, were seated on the red leatherette sofa in the lounge room. Tanya was reading the Glen Hartwell Enquirer, while Tanith played games on her mobile phone, and Talia used her phone to talk to her boyfriend Chet.

The three females had set their hearts upon a day of lazing inside, when Toby Robson and his older brother, Wyatt, came into the lounge room, dragging a massive sheet of clear plastic.

"Guess what today is?" asked Toby, a short, but muscular, redheaded man. He was grinning like an idiot.

"Stay Home And Read Or Watch TV Day," asked his wife hopefully. Tanya was a tall, leggy blonde aged forty.

"No," said Wyatt, a tall raven haired man, grinning almost moronically.

"Stay Home And Play Computer Games On Your Mobile Day?" said Tanith, at sixteen, a spitting image of her mother.

"Not even close," said Toby.

"Anything except Robson Family Camp Out Day?" begged Talia, a short, redheaded fifteen-year-old.

"You guessed it, Honey," said Wyatt, grinning like a shark closing in upon its prey.

"Can't!" insisted Tanya, trying to find something good in even a bad situation. "Acid rain has been melting the paint off cars and sending people to the hospital. We can't risk the girls outside with acid rain about."

"Firstly, there's no acid rain about at the moment," said Wyatt, still grinning.

"Secondly," Toby finished for him, "that's why we've got this giant sheet of plastic to use as a tent, instead of a tarpaulin. The acid might eat through tarpaulin, but it can't eat through clear plastic."

"So who wants to go on Robson Family Camp Out Day?" asked Wyatt.

"I'd rather stand outside and let the acid rain melt me," said Tanya.

"Aw, don't be like that, Honey. Robson Family Camp Out Day is a family tradition going back decades," insisted Toby.

"I can remember Robson Family Camp Out Day with Dad and Mum," said Wyatt. "Dad, Toby, and me had so much fun."

"I bet your mum and Aunt Lucy were less excited," said Tanith.

"What is it with men and camping anyway?" demanded Talia.

"It's mainly office workers like your dad and Uncle Wyatt," explained Tanya. "Labourers and factory hands have a tough enough life without camping. But office workers have to prove they be much man by engaging in a pointless battle against Mother Nature."

"Scoff all you like, my beloved, but as soon as Wyatt and I get this plastic sheeting rolled up, we're all getting into the Kombi van for a nice day's camping," insisted Toby.

"Oh, God!" said Tanya.

"God can't help us now, Mum," said Talia.

Conceding defeat, Tanya and the girls entered the kitchen to prepare some sandwiches for lunch.

An hour later, the women were standing in the forest, watching as Toby and Wyatt struggled to erect a family-sized tent from the plastic sheeting.

"How come Jenny and Aunty Lucy don't have to be here?" complained Tanith.

"They must have seen what Wyatt and Toby were up to and run like Hell, preferring to risk acid rain over Robson Family Camp Out Day," suggested Tanya.

"Meaning they're smarter than us?" asked Talia.

"From now on, we have to remember to watch the menfolk more closely at all times," advised Tanith.

After more than an hour, Wyatt and Toby had finished erecting the clear plastic tent, and they were undercover at last. Tanya and the girls had brought a wicker basket of sandwiches and chicken salad for lunch, and they were seated on cloth deck chairs.

"So are we having fun yet?" asked Tanith.

"Not yet, Honey," said Tanya. She opened the latest issue of the Australian Women's Weekly and started reading.

Following their mother's lead, the two girls took out their mobile phones. Talia to chat to her boyfriend Chet; Tanith to play online games.

"Now, come on, girls," said Wyatt, snatching the phones off the two girls, "we're here to have fun."

"We were having fun till you took our phones away," protested Talia.

"Now, now, girls," said Toby, snatching the Woman's Weekly away from his wife. "If you're going to spend the day reading or on your phones, you might as well have stayed home."

"That's what we tried telling you, Dad," complained Tanith.

"Reading and phoning isn't fun," said Wyatt.

"Yes, it is," said Tanya, Tanith, and Talia as one.

"No, it's not," insisted Toby. "Fun is trekking through the wilds hunting for Old Man Emu. He might be able to run the pants off a kangaroo, but he can't avoid being filmed by us."

"Actually, Dad, it's been proven that Kangaroos are much faster in full flight than emus," said Talia. "No matter what the song says."

"Who told you that?" demanded Wyatt.

"Our animal biology teacher at high school," said Tanith.

"Even better," said Toby, "if emus are that slow, we can easily track one down."

"Can't," said Tanya, "acid rain could start again. We're safe in here."

"That's why we brought along bright yellow plastic Macs and rain hats for everyone," said Toby, grinning widely as he walked over to the Kombi van to collect them.

"Oh, no," protested Tanith, "they're gonna much us look like Paddington Bear clones."

"We'll never live it down if any of our mates see us," protested Talia.

"No one's going to see you," said Wyatt.

"No, your schoolmates will all be inside reading, or watching TV, like sensible people," said Tanya.

Toby had almost made it back to the clear plastic tent, with the plastic Macs and hats, when the acid rain started pounding down, forcing him to run the last few metres.

"Now we can't even hide in the Kombi van," said Tanith.

They were still arguing when they heard the angry-bee buzzing sound even above the roar of the pounding black rain.

"What the Hell is that?" asked Tanya.

"Just some machinery being operated nearby," insisted Wyatt.

"In the acid rain?" asked Talia.

"Some people are weird," said Toby.

The three females turned to stare at him pointedly.

Before they could say any more, the silvery hornet swooped past, ignoring the plastic tent, instead zooming across to attack the Kombi van parked fifteen metres away. With a rending of its metallic claws, the hornet ripped three great tears through the roof, running the entire length of the Kombi.

"What the Hell was that?" demanded Tanith.

"Looked like a flying sheep," said Wyatt, sounding as terrified as the women.

"Sheep don't attack Kombi vans," said Tanya as the hornet reversed direction.

Still ignoring the Robsons, the hornet raced back across the van, rending the roof again and again. Swooping back and forth, it managed to finally rip the roof completely away from the Kombi van, making it useless for a means of escape.

"I think we oughta get out of here," said Toby.

He and Wyatt were already wearing their plastic Macs and rain hats, but they had to help the now hysterical females into theirs.

Having taken care of the Kombi van, the metallic creature turned its attention toward the Robsons for the first time. Roaring back toward them, its angry-bee buzzing as much to cause terror as to assist in its flight, the creature ripped to pieces the roof of the plastic tent, causing its acid rain to flood in toward the Robsons.

Talia and Tanith screamed, despite now being protected in their acid-proof clothing, and Talia raced out of the tent, hysterically running toward the pine and eucalyptus forest only metres away.

Spinning around, the hornet watched the fleeing teen for a moment before deciding that four Robsons in easy reach were better than chasing a fifth one fleeing. The metallic creature spun around again and zoomed straight at Wyatt Robson.

Wyatt screamed and tried to run, however, the hornet was too fast and quickly ripped out his chest, exposing his heart and lungs, as blood sprayed from his ruined thorax.

"Get away," cried Toby, although his brother was already as good as dead.

Picking up the wicker basket, Toby charged the metallic creature, taking it by surprise. In all of its centuries of life in all of the planets it had infested, it had never before been attacked by one of its intended victims.

As the basket connected, the hornet temporarily lost its contact with Wyatt, although it had managed to rip out his juicy heart, which fell to the pine needles and gum leaves that carpeted the forest floor. Seconds before Wyatt's dead body hit the forest floor.

"Get away!" shrieked Toby again, not realising that his brother was already dead. He raised the basket to swing it again...

Then the metallic creature reversed direction and casually ripped Toby's face off his head, leaving his skull exposed.

Screaming, Toby fell to the forest floor, soon passing out from shock.

Tanith and Tanya were hugging each other in terror, too afraid to even try to outrun the metallic monster.

Buzzing in pleasure, the creature zoomed across to rip the throats out of both mother and daughter. Then slowly, no longer needing to rush, it devoured the two females' soft fatty body parts -- breasts and buttocks -- first, before completely devouring Tanith. It then ripped away as much of Tanya Robson as it could devour.

Then, a little overfull and wobbly, it flew back across to Toby Robson, to rip out his throat to be certain that the head of the Robson household was also dead. It's angry-bee buzzing had turned into something more like a hundred contented cats purring.

The hornet turned back to look to where Talia Robson had fled into the forest a while back. But then, deciding it was satisfied, the creature turned and flew away, deeper into the forest outside Glen Hartwell, taking the black rain with it.


At the Police Station in Mitchell Street, Colin Klein, Terri Scott, Sheila Bennett, and Suzette Cummings were trapped inside when the acid rain started pouring down over the Glen again.

"When is this black rain going to give up?" asked Suzette.

"And why did it suddenly start plaguing the Glen?" asked Colin. "Usually, acid rain is the result of air pollution caused by companies dumping waste illegally."

"But there are no big manufacturers in the G.H. area," said Terri.

They were still debating the point long after the acid rain stopped, when a furious hammering came at the door to the police station.

Terri started to stand, as the door swung inwards and an exhausted Talia Robson ran into the room.

"Talia?" said Terri, running across to the panting redheaded girl. "What happened?"

Unable to catch her breath for a moment, Talia finally said, "A giant wasp just attacked my family ... I think they're all dead, including Uncle Wyatt."

She then fainted to the grey-lino-covered floor of the station.


An hour later, they were trying to interview a hysterical Talia Robson, now in a ward of the Glen Hartwell and Daley Community Hospital.

"A giant, silvery wasp?" said Terri, more thinking aloud than asking a question.

"I think it somehow causes the acid rain," said Talia.

"That's what you suggested yesterday," said Sheila to Tilly Lombstrom.

"Nice to be right for a change," said Tilly, still administering to Talia.

"So what now?" asked Colin.

"Now, it's time to call Russell Street, Melbourne, to see if they'll send Jenny and Babs down in a military helicopter to help us to swat a giant bug," said Terri.


Late that afternoon, they were seated around the huge blackwood desk at the Mitchell Street Police Station when they heard the whur-whur-whur of helicopter rotors outside.

"That sounds like Jenny and Babs now," said Sheila, racing across to the doorway.

As they waited upon the lawn of the station, they saw an RAAF A25 Sikorsky S-70 Blackhawk helicopter approaching. After landing, out stepped its female pilot, fifty-something Jennifer Eckles, an attractive brunette with pixie-cut hair. Followed by her daughter and co-pilot, Barbara Eckles, also a brunette, but with long, flowing hair.

"Jenny, Babs!" said Sheila. She raced across to give them each a hug.

"Mad Goth chick," teased Jennifer, hugging her back.

"Hopefully, this chopper is acid-rain proof?" asked Colin Klein before hugging the two brunettes.

"Yep," said Barbara, "the assistant commissioner of police stressed that."

"He seemed less livid at you lot this time," said Jennifer. "Last time he made Terri's name sound like an obscenity when he said it."

"We've managed to keep our expenses below the astronomical level since then," said Terri, going across to hug the two women. "He was almost polite to me when I rang him a few hours ago. He's never been almost polite to me before."

"And he seems to have got used to the fact that goofy junk is always gonna happen in the Glen Hartwell area," added Sheila.

"So what are we dealing with now?" asked Jennifer. "A zombie from outer space, a time-travelling dinosaur, a giant carnivorous flea?"

"Actually the last guess is very close," said Terri as they climbed into the helicopter. "According to Talia Robson, a local teenager, her family was attacked by a gigantic metallic wasp."

"Which travels within acid rain," added Colin. "Which it seems to manufacture to help soften its food before devouring it."

"Charming," said Jennifer as she started the chopper again.

It was nearly 6:00 PM when they started out, however, in midsummer, with daylight saving, they had a good three hours or more to track the metallic creature before darkfall came.

It was nearly nine, and light was already starting to fade, when they got a call from Suzette Cummings.

"What's up?" asked Colin.

Disconnecting, Terri said, "The giant wasp is attacking again ... this time near the Northern outskirts of Duchess Road, LePage."

"That sneaky bastard," said Barbara, typing the new location into the chopper's GPS. "Just when we had Glen Hartwell covered it changes its kill site."

"Monsters ... they're so unreliable," said Jennifer.

Darkfall was well on the way when they reached LePage.

Using floodlights to light the way below, they roared along Duchess Street, till reaching the very end of the town where they saw half a dozen people were cowering beneath the cover of a giant blue gum tree, partly to evade the acid rain pelting down, partly in the hope of escaping the giant silvery hornet.

"There's our baby," said Sheila, pointing to the great creature.

"Yick, it's the ugliest looking baby I've ever seen," said Jennifer.

"Looks like it's acid rain has bleached it silver-grey like a hundred or so cars in Glen Hartwell ... including my Lexus," said Terri.

"Okay, let's go swat us a giant bug," said Barbara. She adjusted some of the settings on the dashboard of the chopper, then on command of her mother, fired a rocket at the hornet.

The first rocket, aimed well wide of the blue gum, to avoid killing the cowering people, whooshed through the cloud of acid rain, missing the metallic creature, to explode in the forest a hundred metres or so away.

Screaming in terror, the people raced out from the cover of the blue gum and ran toward the Dorset Hotel a couple of hundred metres away.

"Why didn't the silly buggers head there in the first place?" asked Jennifer as her daughter re-aimed the rockets before firing.

With the panicked people now gone, Barbara was able to aim straight at the hornet. The first rocket missed and hit the giant blue gum, splitting it in half.

"Uh-oh," said Terri, "I hope that wasn't an old-growth tree."

The second missile struck the silver hornet straight on, exploding, sending parts of the monster flying off in all directions.

"Yatzy!" cried Sheila.

As the monster was destroyed, the acid rain stopped instantly.

"I think that means good shooting, Babs," teased Terri.

"Now comes the hard part," said Colin as they started to land near the wreckage of the blue gum tree and the dead creature, "trying to figure out what the hell it was."


Over the next few weeks, all of the silvery cars in Glen Hartwell were repainted, the acid burn victims were released from the hospital, and Tilly Lombstrom, Jesus Costello, and Elvis Green puzzled over the remains of the metallic hornet.

"So what the Hell is it?" asked Terri one day.

"Your guess is as good as mine," said Jesus, "although it was definitely a metallic life form, not a robot."

"In the first season of Doctor Who, in 1963, they postulated the existence of metallic life forms," Sheila said.

"When you say 'Doctor Who postulated, 'I hope you don't expect us to be as impressed as if you had said 'Albert Einstein postulated', " Terri said.

"Or Stephen Hawking postulated?" asked Colin.

"Aw, you blokes ... I know when you're stirring. You can get everything you need to know about sciencey stuff from Doctor Who!" said Sheila.

"Sciencey? Is that even a word?" asked Tilly, making them all laugh.

THE END
© Copyright 2025 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia