silent over the loss. Slater suggests airdropping poison on the swarm, but Crane considers the ecological possibilities of the situation, as the poison will wipe out plant growth for a decade or more. Recovering from his earlier bee attack, Paul and his friends search for the hive to firebomb it in revenge for his family, which results only in angering the bees, who make their way to Marysville, where they kill hundreds, including some children at the local school. Crane and Helena take shelter at the local diner, with pregnant café waitress Rita. Reporter Anne McGregor (Lee Grant) watches from the safety of her news van, hoping to get some exciting footage about the siege. After this most recent attack, and fear of another one, Slater suggests evacuating many of the townsfolk in a train. However, the bees attack the train, causing the locomotive derail over a cliff, killing everyone aboard, including a love triangle made up of schoolteacher Maureen Scheuster, retiree Felix Austin, and town mayor and drug store owner Clarence Tuttle. Rita tries to board the ill-fated train but is saved at the last minute by going into labor and is confined to the hospital. She gives birth to her child while falling in love with the doctor in the process; but Paul suffers a relapse from the effects of being stung earlier and later dies, devastating Helena and sending her into a rage about why the children have to die. The savage swarm heads for Houston, Texas, and Crane decides to drop eco-friendly poison pellets on them, hoping that the swarm senses will harm them and stay away from the city. Unfortunately, the plan fails. Dr. Krim self-injects an experimental bee venom antidote, planning to track the results, but the trial proves fatal and he dies. Meanwhile, nuclear power plant manager Dr. Andrews (José Ferrer) is convinced that his plant can withstand the attacks of the bees, ignoring the warnings of Dr. Hubbard (Richard Chamberlain). However, the bees invade the plant, causing a nuclear explosion, killing Andrews and Hubbard, destroying the plant, and wiping out a nearby town. Meanwhile, in Houston, Crane analyzes tapes from the bee invasion and comes to the conclusion that a test of an alarm system at the ICBM bunker attracted the swarm into the base. The bees attack Houston, resulting in the deaths of Major Baker and Dr. Newman, one of Crane's