Word of mandatory conscription came just after Easter.  

Mike was playing football with one of the neighbour’s kids out front while I tended the vegetable garden. A couple of truckloads of soldiers drove by, one broadcasting over a speaker system attached to the roof of the truck.

“National emergency. Everyone over the age of fourteen is to attend a meeting in the town square.”

Mike had just turned eleven, there was no way I was leaving him at home alone. I guess everyone had the same thought, because when Mike and I arrived in the square, all the children were led to the leisure centre. Commander Richards, as he introduced himself, assured us that what he had to say wasn’t for young ears. That worried us even more, but we let the soldiers take them.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Commander Richards began, drawing an unnatural hush from the crowd. “We are at war.

“Our enemy stalks us on the battlefields, unseen beneath our lands. They strike the unwary, caring not who, or what, they devour. Latest intelligence says they’re headed this way and our Government have made a call to arms.  Understand that the enemy’s numbers are many and ours too few. We must work together for the sake of our children.”

At the mention of children, I glanced across at the leisure centre and noticed a chain, fixed with the biggest padlock I’d ever seen, looped through the door handles. “What the hell?” I’d no sooner voiced the thought when a shot rang out at the opposite end of High Street. One of the larvae breeched the surface, taking a soldier in its powerful jaws and disappeared as quickly as it appeared, leaving a mounded ring of soil around the hole it made.

No one needed prompting to take the armoured suits the soldiers began passing out. We armed ourselves with anything and everything from pitchforks to kitchen knives. Those of us with multiple guns, shared the extras with our neighbours and split the ammunition between us as quickly as possible.

Old Paddy, who lived on the farm down the road from me, approached the commander. I couldn’t hear what they said, but Commander Richards looked extremely happy as he took a key from Paddy. Shortly afterwards, Richards raced off with several men in one of the trucks, returning an hour or so later with a variety of weapons and explosives. I guess it’s true what they say about having to watch the quiet ones. No way would I have put Paddy down as a weapons man for the IRA. He had to be though, why else would he have access to so much of this stuff?

We were randomly split into groups of twenty and placed under the command of one soldier for each group. Our group’s orders were to enter the tunnel left by the creature. A daunting task, given what I’d witnessed the creature do, but we were armed to the teeth.

“Armed and dangerous cannon fodder,” a familiar voice complained as we walked toward the hole.

“Worm food, not cannon fodder,” another said. “Good luck, Mike. You’re gonna need it.”