Defiant: Quantic Dreams Book 2 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (reading list txt) 📗

stay far away so that none of the little bastards could bite me. Inside I heard the gnashing of dozens, maybe a hundred insects. They didn’t seem to be acknowledging my presence. A couple of bugs crawled out of the nest here and there but none of them made a beeline for me. The spade was the only sharp instrument I had at my disposal and it would be a poor tool here. I had to figure out another way.

Seeing as I needed a dry run on setting a signal fire anyway, flooding the insect nest with smoke should knock the little beasts out long enough for me to roast them up nicely. I dragged my hands through the dirt in an “X” large enough for me to see from a distance and made my way back in the direction of camp. On my way I stopped by the stream and pulled up as many long stemmed plants as I could. Bringing the rock and spade back to the insect nest wasn’t really a choice. Even if managed to strike up a fire on site it would be completely uncontrolled. Weaving the plants into a braid I wrapped the ends around themselves into a ball. It took me the better part of an hour but I managed to get the ball lit on fire. Stepping carefully to not extinguish the precious flame, I returned to the nest and lowered the fireball carefully into the hole.

At first, nothing happened. Smoke billowed from inside the nest and I could hear a rapid clicking as the bugs scrambled to find an escape from a fiery death. One must have discovered the way out because it zipped from the nest entrance into the grass so quickly I could barely track it. Its comrades soon followed and I tried in vain to stomp on one or two of them. It was like shooting fish in a barrel-or so I thought. The first bug I managed to catch under the sole of my foot curled its body almost in half and caught my skin between its huge pincers. I yanked my foot back instinctively and more bugs rushed forward to swarm their attacker. Soon my feet and legs were covered in the damn things. In addition to their brutal pinching mouths the bugs also had stingers on the other end of their bodies that they sank into my calves and thighs as they crawled towards my torso.

I dropped the burning plants to the ground and ran, whacking at the insects as I moved. Each one that I detached by force left either a fragment of their mouths or stingers in my skin. By the time I made it back to my camp only a few remained. I grabbed a rock from the fire pit, still warm, and drove it into the shiny segmented bodies. The insects died instantly and dropped to the dirt. I laid down in the dirt and slammed my fists into the ground.

“Damn it!” The bites and stings on my legs burned. Worse, when I sat up to try and pluck them out, the ground swung out from under me and the horizon tilted. Either it was shock or the bugs must have had some kind of venom in their bites or stings. I shook my head which only made the sensation worse. Plucking one of the stingers from my leg, I held it up to my face. A drop of clear venom hung from the end, the stinger spent of everything else. I tossed the stinger to the ground and pushed the tip of my index finger against the sting. The pain was so shocking it made me gasp. My finger sunk into the flesh and it was like someone had hooked up a battery directly to the nerve. When I moved my hand I could see that some of my flesh had come with it, dark red and gooey between my finger and thumb.

Shit.

Pushing myself first on to my knees, then to my feet, I made my way towards the stream. My face was getting hot by then, nausea making itself known in bouts of dry heaves that left me gasping. I stumbled and found myself in the dirt more than once. The fever was coming strong now and I started to see phantasms crop up. Fiona’s voice floated past me on the wind calling my name. Calling me to come home to her. Marcus’s scowl appeared before me, his eyes blazing with fury. I saw Eliza standing twenty or so feet away from me, her arms crossed in an expression of stubbornness. I reached out for her to help me and she turned away, disappearing into the air.

I couldn’t be far now.

The ground became damp underneath me and I knew that the stream was near. Finally I heard the mocking laughter of water running over stones and relaxed a little. If I could make it to water I could wash the poison from my veins and survive this. I stopped in place as a low growl sounded in front of me. The cat-thing’s eyes glinted from between blades of tall grass, twin orbs of vivid yellow with slits for pupils. This one was bigger than the first I had encountered, and far more muscular too. My legs throbbed. My hands, too. The cat-thing flexed its massive paws in the dirt and crouched lower, ready to pounce. I looked around in front of me for any kind of weapon. The only objects within reach were tiny pebbles. What I wouldn’t give for that utility spade. The minute I looked down the cat’s growl grew louder and I snapped back to maintain eye contact. The only shot I was going to have would be to make it to the stream and play dead. I slowed my breath, waiting to see the animal’s legs bunch.

As soon as I saw the huge predator leave the ground I sprinted forward and hit the ground, skidding.