A beetle fluttered forward and touched a match to her jeans.  In an instant, the bundle of cloth at her feet was on fire.

Aaand that’s gonna hurt.

Nice.

She tried to pat it out, but her efforts to remove her shoes had gotten trace amounts of gasoline on her hands.  

Welp.

Her right hand ignited, the insects on it dying, and she threw herself to one side to thrust it into a hole in the road where water had collected, her feet still kicking as she tried to remove her jeans.

At least this happened to her at a time where you can’t move ten feet without getting wet.

Gasoline transferred to the water’s surface and flickered with the faintest of flames.

Smoooke on the waaater! Dun dun dun, dundun dun-dun…

I could picture it.  It would be intimidating:  A sea of bugs acting with a backing of human intelligence, each with their tiny torches.

It’d be scary enough without the distinct sense that the bugs are operating with human intent to hurt you.

Doubly intimidating if a swarm of bugs had made you drop and spill a can of gasoline onto your shoes and the cuffs of your pant legs.

Ahhhh.

Yeah, alright, might wanna take those shoes and pants off.

She successfully undid her belt, then began trying to remove the tight-fitting jeans she wore.  The woman got as far as getting her jeans around her ankles before she got stuck.  Some beetles and roaches took to the air, carrying matches to the ground behind her, cutting off her retreat.  

Really wish you’d worn sports pants, don’tcha.

She screamed at the others in her group, but nobody leaped to her assistance.

Alright, not just her. Got it.

It was a shame it was closer to noon than midnight.  I imagined the effect would have been even more exaggerated in the darkness.

That would’ve been really cool.

The woman stepped away, pulling off one of her wet shoes.  She threw it at the bugs, and it rolled over a few.  A heartbeat later, it burst violently into flame.  It didn’t make a difference.

Nice try, at least.

The swarm that was armed with matches was already too spread out for one shoe and one small fire to slow them down at all. 

Gonna have to try a little harder.

The woman’s attempts to remove her other shoe made her fall over, and she suppressed a grunt of pain as she landed.

First time didn’t work, so you go through the trouble of trying the other one? Sounds like you don’t have a lot of options.

Soo… now I’m questioning whether or not we’re back to the Merchants, again. Is it just this woman right now? Did we perhaps skip Taylor dealing with the rest of the 24-person group?

She successfully kicked off her other shoe, and then began simultaneously fumbling with her belt while trying to crab-walk backwards away from the advancing sea of tiny flames.

Ahh, I see, she’s figured out that shoes are too small, so she’s taking off her other shoe so she can get access to her pants.

I’m not sure baring the skin of her legs while being attacked by bugs is a good idea, but using the larger pants makes a whole lot more sense than the other shoe.

It took me three tries.

On the third attempt, the beetle, supported by others and a crack in the pavement, successfully struck the match against the side of the box as the other bugs adjusted its position.  A small flame flared at the end.

Um. Wow.

What are you using this match for? Gonna set fire to the rain the Merchants? Or maybe we aren’t going back to the second group after all.

Other bugs leveraged matches out of the box the woman had dropped, gripping the matches in their mandibles, sometimes two or three bugs to one match.  Like a relay, they touched one match to another, passing on the flame from the beetle’s match to each of the others.

How fitting that I’d read about this on the starting day of the Olympics.

It wasn’t long before there were more than thirty beetles each with a lit match in its mandibles.  Some died from the heat their own matches generated, but most were able to stand it.

Damn, nice.

I could imagine the visual of it; kind of like a small sea of tiny flames like lighters at a concert.  Or maybe it was closer to a lynch mob, a crowd holding torches, radiating with an imminent threat of violence.

Hm, it does sound like we’re back to the Merchant fight – I don’t remember anyone dropping a box of matches when I read the first part four days ago, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Or it might’ve happened offscreen while we were flashbacking.

Hoiwdla! Let’s get back to Taylor’s defense against the Merchants entering her territory!