by Jack Patton
Max figured there was no other choice, so he grabbed hold of two of Glower’s spindly legs, while Roxy took two on the other side. The firefly glanced anxiously at a wide tunnel mouth just across the cave and lifted off into the air. He groaned with the effort of carrying so much cargo.
Suddenly, Lieutenant Titan’s monstrous head loomed from the tunnel behind them. Her pupils shrank as the daylight hit them. She hissed in annoyance.
“THERE you are!”
Glower struggled to lift Max and Roxy, but he was barely off the ground.
Titan snapped at him. The light dazzled her, and that was all that saved Max and the bugs. She missed, narrowly. Glower flew back with a cry, struck the wall, and dropped his passengers.
Max acted fast, scrambling to his feet and dodging behind the nearest rocky outcrop.
He and Roxy cowered there while Titan nosed around the cavern, searching for them. Glower immediately took to the air once more, dancing around Titan’s head in an attempt to distract her. However, Titan seemed more interested in Max.
“Come to me,” she murmured. “I want to devour you, sstrange bug. Are you deliciouss? I hope so …”
“We’re doomed,” Roxy gasped, hiding her face. But Max felt a sudden surge of hope. An idea was forming in his mind.
“Roxy, can you do your thing with the cyanide?” he asked.
“I can try,” Roxy said. “But if I get close to her, she’ll snap me up!”
“Maybe we don’t need to get close to her,” Max said craftily.
“I don’t get it!”
Max took his hoodie back from Roxy and quickly grabbed a few rocks that were lying around. “Cover this with your poison,” he said, passing her one. “As much as you can manage.”
Overhead, Glower was flying around and around Titan’s head like a frantic satellite. She snapped angrily at him, but he darted away each time.
Roxy busily covered the rock with poison. “There,” she said.
“Awesome!” Max said, as he wrapped the poisoned rock carefully in his hoodie. The hoodie would keep Roxy’s poison from touching his skin—and hopefully play another important role, too.
He took a deep breath and stepped out of hiding.
“Looking for me, you slithering monster?” he yelled.
Titan swung her head around to face him. “You dare inssult me?”
“You want to find out how I taste?” Max jeered. “Come and find out!” He flung one of his rocks. It bounced off Titan’s nose. She winced.
“Max, what are you DOING?” Roxy cried. “She’ll eat you!”
“She can try,” Max said, throwing another rock. This one smacked Titan in the eye.
“DIE, SSTRANGE BUG!” roared Titan. She spread her jaws wide and lunged.
Max threw his hoodie, rock and all, right into her jaws. He dived aside as Titan snatched it out of the air, gulped, and swallowed.
Max hid behind the rock again, not daring to breathe, as Titan’s long tongue came out and licked her lips.
“Got you,” she hissed in satisfaction.
Then she paused, and a strange look came over her face …
While Lieutenant Titan stood motionless, Glower took his chance. He came in on a swooping dive.
Max and Roxy caught hold of the firefly’s legs. Straining with all his might, he carried them up into the air. They rose up and up, until they were right over Titan’s head.
Titan slowly looked up at them. “What have you done?” she hissed. “This is disgusting! Is this what bug tastes like? How could I ever have thought this was delicious?”
“She may be big,” Roxy whispered to Max, “but she’s not very bright, is she?”
Titan swayed. Her eyes seemed to bulge out of her head and her face showed confusion, then sudden rage. She reared up, her whole body writhing in anger. Her enormous mouth yawned open, ready to snap shut.
“Glower, get us out of here, now!” Max yelled.
Glower flew like fury. Roxy’s long body dangled above Titan’s gaping mouth.
Max could see all the way down inside her yawning throat, like a tunnel made of flesh. He wondered how many creatures had vanished forever down that horrible gullet. Something her size could probably swallow a crocodile with room to spare. No wonder the other reptiles, like the worm lizards, were scared of her, too.
Titan’s body just kept on uncoiling and reaching farther up. She was gaining on them.
Glower gasped. His wings faltered. A look of triumph came into Titan’s eyes.
“Keep going, Glower,” Max cried.
The next moment, without warning, Titan’s terrifying eyes seemed to glaze over. Her whole body stiffened.
“The poison!” Roxy yelled. “I think it’s working!”
“I feel … ssick,” she said. “What … have you … done to me?”
“We’ve beaten you,” said Max.
“Impossssible! Nothing as tiny as you could ever … could … ever …”
Titan wobbled back and forth like a great tree that was about to come crashing down.
Glower made one final effort. He flew the last few feet and collapsed on the edge of the hole, his legs and wings in a jumble. Max and Roxy went tumbling across the ground. Max sprang to his feet and was pleased to see Dagger, Nightshade, and a small army of warrior bugs heading their way.
Titan’s head rose slowly out of the pit.
She strained to reach Max. But before she could open her mouth, her eyes rolled back into her head. Her entire body went limp and loose. Her head fell and whacked on the edge of the hole.
Roxy tried to hold him back, but Max leaned over the edge to see. Titan was collapsing like a demolished building, her long body falling in limp coils. She lay in a motionless heap. Max held his breath to see what would happen next.
Slowly, painfully, Titan began the crawl back into the dark tunnels. “Ssleep,” she murmured to herself. “Ssssleep …”
“I don’t think Lieutenant Titan’s feeling very well,” Max said. “Poor thing. She needs a long rest.”
“Another few thousand years ought to do the trick!” Roxy laughed.
Max and Roxy walked back to the bug camp, surrounded by excited, happy bugs. Nightshade and Dagger carried Glower, who was too exhausted to move.
“Good work down there, Cadet Roxy,” Glower whispered, his light down to a feeble glimmer. “Have you ever considered a career in underground intelligence?”
Roxy lit up with pride. “Dreamed of it all my life, sir.”
“Well. I’d better speak to Barton, hadn’t I? It’s about time you were promoted.”
They arrived to a thunderous welcome at the bug camp. Hundreds of bugs had turned out to greet the heroes of the day, with General Barton leading the applause. Spike came scuttling up, followed by Webster, to Max’s relief.
“You made it!” Max yelled, giving the spider a happy hug.
“Spike saved my life,” Webster admitted. “He heard me shouting, left his patrol, and came running over. Between us, we chased those worm lizards halfway across Bug Island!”
“Spike, we’ll have to add the Misty Marshes to our patrol route in the future,” Barton said gruffly. “Now we know what’s under that part of Bug Island, we’ll need to keep a careful watch on it. There are creatures deep underground that we must consider fearsome enemies.”
“There are some fearsome friends down there, too,” Max said, thinking of Slimer. If it weren’t for him, they’d never have made it out of there.
Suddenly, though, he felt a familiar tugging feeling on his arms and legs that meant it was time to go home.
“Bye, Battle Bugs,” he called hastily. “Until next time!”
Suddenly, he felt his whole body being pulled up into the sky, as the bugs wished him farewell. Before he knew it, he was being thrown out of the encyclopedia. He landed back in his room, just in time to hear his dad calling for him up the stairs.
“Coming!” he shouted, as he grabbed the makeshift snail eyestalks that would b
e attached to his soapbox. He glanced at his one empty bug tank.
“Some tropical snails are just what I need to liven that tank up,” he said aloud to himself.
“Come on, snail boy, hurry up!” he heard his dad shout.
Max raced downstairs and out into his dad’s SUV. A short while later, he was lined up on the starting block for the soapbox race. Max held on tight to the steering rope, ready to go.
The slope was even steeper than he’d expected, but he thought of his strange adventures under the tunnels of Bug Island, and soon courage ran through his veins.
“If I can fight off a giant snake, I can win this race,” he whispered.
Then, a shot rang out from the marshal’s starting pistol, and Max launched himself down the hill.
Sierra luminous millipedes (Motyxia)
The sierra luminous millipede, or Motyxia, is a genus of millipede with an unusual and distinctive ability. These millipedes are bioluminescent, which means they can glow in the dark!
Normally, insects try to stay away from predators, so it seems odd that the sierra luminous millipede would advertise itself by lighting up. However, scientists believe its special ability is a strong warning to stay away. These millipedes have a powerful trick up their sleeves: poison, and a lot of it.
They are able to secrete toxic cyanide from their skin. Just one bite of one of these millipedes would kill a would-be predator. The millipedes’ glow acts as a stop sign of sorts. It tells predators that these insects are not good to eat—and that they might just be deadly!
Giant snail (Campanile giganteum)
One of the largest species of snail that has ever existed is the Campanile giganteum, or the giant snail. This snail lived way back in Earth’s past in a geological era known as the Eocene. It’s shell could be anywhere between fifteen and twenty-three inches long.
Back then, 56 to 33.9 million years ago, life as we know it was completely different. Early on in the Eocene period the earth would have been much warmer than it is today and forests would have covered much of its land mass. Early mammals, such as primates, rodents, and marsupials, were much smaller than their present day counterparts. As for the sea-dwelling giant snail, the warm temperatures and different mixtures of gases in the atmosphere (much more methane and carbon dioxide than in today’s world), meant it could grow to an impressive size.
One present-day snail species is even larger than the extinct giant snail: the Syrinx aruanus, or Australian trumpet. This species lives in the waters off northern Australia and Indonesia. Australian trumpet shells as long as thirty-five inches have been found!
Text copyright © 2016 by Hothouse Fiction.
Cover and interior art by Brett Bean, copyright © 2016 by Scholastic Inc.
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First printing 2016
Cover art by Brett Bean
Cover design by Phil Falco & Ellen Duda
e-ISBN 978-0-545-94513-4
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