Colony After Closing

A lonely teenage anthropology enthusiast takes a part-time job at a suburban mall’s bug store. After years of bullying, teasing, and being ignored despite helping everyone, she is lured into a cruel public humiliation by the popular girl she secretly hoped would treat her kindly. Soon after, she falls into a mysterious research case meant for a laboratory, filled with a new strain of ants and their queen. Their bites rewrite her DNA, transforming her into the colony’s queen. Her altered saliva can forcibly rewrite others into her mall-bound mind colony, and she wants to absorb minds, expand her nest from a small foothold in the mall, and eventually rule everything, while fighting to preserve her own identity.