Dodging a leg, he sliced off the head of another damn bug. The worst thing about them, was that even with their heads gone, they still scurried around! He was tired, hungry, and sore, and still couldn’t find Olivia.

  She had charged after the lone cockroach, but the cave had exploded with countless more. Dustin had quickly been overwhelmed by them, but thankfully, they couldn’t bite through his crystal plates. Because they didn’t stop moving when he cut them into pieces, he couldn’t tell which ones were dead, and which ones were alive.

  Another horrifying part, was that they had stopped attacking him, to eat the fallen cockroaches. The sound of them scurrying around was deafening in the cave, and he struggled to get to a wall. Suddenly, he was hit from behind, and went flying, landing heavily on the ground. His head cracked against the rock, and his vision swam for a moment.

  As it cleared, he saw a flash of heat ahead of him, and he struggled to stand up. So many bugs were crawling over him, that he wasn’t having much luck. Every once in a while, one would chomp down on an arm or a leg, but when they couldn’t break through the crystal plates, they gave up and moved on.

  Crawling, he made his way to another section of the cave, where he thought he had seen the heat signature of Olivia. There were fewer cockroaches here, so he was able to pull himself up the wall, to a standing position.

  Further ahead, he saw that flash of heat. It was near the ground, so he was worried she might be hurt. Had she freaked out like he did? He knew it took him too fucking long to move when they swarmed, and he chewed himself out for that as he made his way around a puddle of water to the cave tunnel. Maybe she hadn’t charged at all. Maybe the shout was actually a scream?

  His head hurt from the knock, even though he knew the damage would be healed by now, and his memories of the last couple minutes were kind of blurred. Not that he really wanted to remember being swarmed by giant bugs.

  The tunnel was clear, but there weren’t any other ways she could have gone, so he proceeded with caution. As much as he wanted to get laid again, he also wanted to get off this damn rock. Hunting for food had already taken way longer than he had wanted. Why did it have to be so fucking hard?

  At the end of the tunnel, he paused. Spread out before him, was a huge garden. There were things that looked like rocks, spaced evenly, in rows and columns. The reason he thought of it as a garden was because each rock looked exactly the same. It was too perfect not to on purpose.

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  Crouching in the entrance, he studied the room carefully. Behind him he could still hear the bugs fighting over the bodies of the fallen, and the clicking of their chewing sent shivers down his spine.

  Focusing on the room in front of him, he didn’t see any heat signatures. There was movement, though, and he focused on it carefully. A small creature, probably as tall as the middle of his shin, moved slowly and carefully between the rows of plants. As it got closer, he was able to see it better.

  Its head was as big as its body, and the black eyes probably took up three-quarters of the face. The eyelids that swept over the eyes every couple of minutes, were very rigid and thick. It had a cute little mouth, filled with neat little teeth, smoothed down into nubs. The tiny rocks embedded into its skin probably served as some form of protection and camouflage. Four stubby legs ended in digging claws, while two more, resembled arms.

  As he watched it, the creature went up to one of the rocks and rubbed its side in small gentle strokes. The entire top of the rock opened up, much like a flower, revealing a bright red interior that screamed with heat. Dustin could barely see that there were small fruits attached to the inside of the rock-like thing. The creature picked a few, then popped them into its mouth and continued on its calm trundle around the garden.

  It was cute. This may be the first thing he had seen that was cute on the entire damn planet, and he studied it like a hawk. There had to be something deadly about it. Maybe it shot spines from its back if you touched it, or its saliva could dissolve things. Not taking his chances, he decided to avoid it all costs.

  Directly opposite him, on the other side of the garden, he could see the heat signature again. How had he missed it? Even if Olivia was crawling, he should have seen her crawling along.

  He didn’t move immediately. That heat signature probably wasn’t Olivia, which meant she was back with those god-forsaken bugs.

  Cursing to himself, he couldn’t leave her. If there were other tunnels, he wasn’t sure she would take the same one he had, and then he might never find her again. Turning back, he made his way to the cave with the cockroaches.

  It was grisly. They were scurrying around on the walls and ceiling, and some of them were missing legs and even heads. Should he try to get some genetic material from them? His current clinging wouldn’t allow him to move that fast. Glancing at his PED, he shook his head. No way was he risking losing the information it already had. He would have to work on that when he got back to the shuttle.

  A moan off to his left caught his attention, and he made his way through the bugs. They pushed against him, and he cut swaths through them. Again, the smell or something, drove them all into a frenzy. Would he never learn?

  Olivia was leaning against a wall, rubbing her head, as bugs scurried all around and over her.