by Jack Patton
Glower stopped. Max and the bugs looked at one another in shock. A frightened silence settled over the camp. Barton’s long head slowly drooped in what might have been sorrow, or pain. “So he wants us to give up our friend or give up our island,” he said, eventually. Barton faced an impossible choice, and they all knew it.
“It’s simple,” Max said firmly. “We do neither. Instead, we go and get Spike back.”
Buzzes and clicks of agreement swept through the bug ranks.
“But how?” Glower asked. “No bug has ever set so much as an antenna on Reptile Island!”
“What’s your thinking?” Barton asked Max. “There’s no way we can go on an all-out attack in unknown terrain.”
“Why not?” a nearby mantis asked. “We could storm the place. Take the fight to them!” He scissored his sharp foreclaws in anticipation.
“No. Barton’s right,” Max said firmly. “If we mounted a full attack, they’d see us coming from a mile away, and Spike would be toast.”
“So what can we do?” Glower asked.
“We use stealth,” he replied, thinking back to all those sneaky moves the armies had used in his history lessons. “We’ll get a small team together and do the unthinkable. We cross over to Reptile Island!”
“What?” Glower said. “That’s impossible. It’s never been done before!”
Murmuring broke out all around.
“Small team?”
“The human’s braver than he looks, isn’t he?”
Barton considered Max’s idea carefully before answering. “A stealth raid into reptile territory?” His antennae twitched in concentration. “It might be our only hope of getting Spike back …”
“What do you think?” Max asked.
“We’ll do it,” declared Barton, finally. “It’s time to put together a SWAT team.”
“Yes!” Max cried. “Let’s go get Spike!”
The bugs in the clearing let out a cheer.
“Although, a bug SWAT team?” Max laughed. “This is the first time I’ve ever heard of bugs wanting to be swatted!”
The bugs all looked at him blankly.
“Forget it,” Max said. “Just a little human-being humor!”
Barton explained what a SWAT team was, bug-style. It stood for Stingers, Webs, And Toxins, and you needed at least one stinging insect, one web spinner, and one who could poison enemies.
“I nominate Buzz for stinger and Webster for web-spinner,” Max suggested.
Buzz, the hornet captain of the flying bugs, and Webster, the trap-door spider, both stepped forward.
“I’d be honored to accept!” said Buzz.
“Muh … m-m-me, too,” stammered Webster.
“You and I are team leaders,” Barton told Max. “Which just leaves us with one space to fill. I think I know who our poison specialist should be.”
“I accept!” called a deep voice.
Max turned around to see a large shape gliding toward them on a hundred legs, trampling smaller bugs underfoot and ignoring their buzzes of protest. It was a giant centipede, the largest one Max had ever seen, gleaming and black.
“Max, this is my newest warrior. Meet Gigantus.”
Gigantus reared up, waving her front legs and showing off a pair of curved fang-like forcipules. “You want venom? I got venom!”
Barton chuckled. “Gigantus has been looking forward to a good fight for some time. Isn’t that right?”
“Sir yes sir!” she barked.
Webster cowered away from the giant centipede. “I hope she scares the lizards,” the spider whispered to Max, “because she scares the daylights out of me. Look at her: armor plating all over, dozens of legs that can climb over just about anything, powerful jaws, and venom, too. She’s unstoppable.”
Max gave Webster a comforting pat. “Just try to remember she’s on our side. Okay, SWAT team, let’s get moving—”
“I VOLUNTEER FOR THE SWAT TEAM, TOO!” boomed Dobs.
Max and Barton glanced at each other. “Go on …” Max said.
“I can scout from the air, and I can lift huge loads. What if Spike’s behind a boulder, or something? I could move it. And these jaws of mine are strong! I could give a lizard a nip he wouldn’t forget!”
“I’m sorry, Dobs,” Barton said. “I know you’re brave, but you’re not really a fighting bug.”
“I could be.”
Max sighed. “The thing is, Dobs, the whole point of this team is to be stealthy, and, well … you’re huge. They’d see you coming from a mile away.”
“I suppose so,” Dobs said gloomily. “I understand. Sorry. I just wanted to help.”
“Well, that was awkward,” muttered Buzz, once Dobs was out of earshot. Max felt bad for the big insect who’d pulled him out of the quicksand. He just wanted to help.
The bugs took a moment to make sure they were in top fighting condition. Buzz groomed her wings, Webster checked his spinnerets, and Gigantus flexed her poison injectors to make sure they were ready. A gleaming drop of venom dripped down from the tip of one and lay at Max’s feet like a deadly jewel.
“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” the centipede said.
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Max replied.
At Barton’s signal, the SWAT team trooped down to the beach. Churning waves crashed against the lava bridge, flooding the gray-black rocks with foaming water. There, at the far end of the bridge, stood Reptile Island and the looming volcano.
“Ever since we were grubs, the shadow of Reptile Island has fallen over us all,” Barton said. “Today, we make bug history. We will be the first bugs ever to travel there, deep into the enemy homeland itself!”
Max looked up at the volcano’s distant slopes. Somewhere in there, Spike was being held prisoner.
“Ready?” Barton asked them.
Max nodded. “Let’s do this!”
The sun was just above the horizon, casting a glittering carpet of light across the sea. The world seemed peaceful, but Max knew that feeling wouldn’t last.
The lava bridge lay before them, a solidified flow of molten rock. It reminded Max of the puddled mess that wax crayons make when you leave them in the hot sun.
It wasn’t much of a bridge at all, Max thought to himself. It was nothing but a mass of cooled lava stretching across the sea between the two islands. Bridges that were built on purpose had guardrails and supports. This one was nothing but a soaking wet tightrope in comparison.
“Want me to go first?” Gigantus offered.
Max shook his head. He thought of Spike, miserable and alone in the lizards’ prison, and the thought gave him courage. He stepped out onto the rocks.
At first, it wasn’t so bad. The humps and ripples of cooled lava were easy to walk across, and although the waves sprayed cold water all over Max, he didn’t let it slow him down. In fact, it was washing off some of the muck from the swamp, which suited Max fine.
Barton opened his wing cases and flew up into the air, with Buzz close behind. “We’ll scout ahead and meet you on the other side!” Buzz shouted down to them.
“Good luck!” Max waved as they shot off into the distance.
Webster and Gigantus crawled along behind Max, keeping close to the middle of the bridge so the waves wouldn’t wash them off. Max dropped to all fours to clamber across the wet rocks. That way, if he slipped, he wouldn’t tumble into the water.
The farther they went, the more slippery and treacherous the rocks became. Max thought of calling Barton and Buzz back to airlift them out of there, but the two flying bugs were well out of sight.
The next second, his foot skidded on a patch of slimy green seaweed left behind by the tide. He fell with a shout of surprise, and only just managed to keep from rolling over the edge. “That was too close!”
“A-are you okay, Max?” Webster whispered.
“There’s nothing to hold on to,” Max said. “These rocks are too slippery. See how the lava slopes up at the far end? We’ll never get up there.”<
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“We could edge around the outside where the slope’s gentler,” Webster suggested.
“Not if these waves get any rougher. We’ll be washed over the side.” Max wished he’d had time to get the termites to build him a raft, or something. Or the hornets could have flown them across. But no—the lizards would see them coming, and Spike would be finished. There had to be a way.
Max looked over his shoulder in search of Gigantus, expecting to see the impressive centipede warrior climbing over the rocks with ease. But Gigantus was in trouble, too. Her fifty pairs of legs couldn’t get much of a grip on the oozing rocks, and she stop-started toward them like a truck stuck in a muddy field.
Max felt a tickle on his back and realized Webster was tapping him lightly with one of his legs. “Um, Max, I might have an idea … that is … if you’re not too busy …”
“Let’s hear it. Right now I’ll consider anything.”
“What if I go on ahead and make you both a nice sticky web line to hang on to? That way you and Gigantus will be safe.”
Max had to admit it was a good plan. “But what about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m a spider. I’m good at climbing,” Webster said, trembling slightly.
Max smiled to see his shy friend being so brave. “Lead the way!”
Webster scuttled off across the lava bridge. As he moved, the spinnerets at the back of his body wiggled and a long line of silk emerged. It gleamed like a metal cable, but Max knew it was stronger than steel. Spider silk was a miracle material, superstrong, and flexible, too. Scientists back in the human world would love to unlock all its secrets if they could.
Max grabbed hold of it. Miracle material or not, it felt gluey and a little gross. Still, having something to hang on to was better than being washed out to sea.
With Gigantus close behind, he steadily worked his way across the rocks. The centipede clung to Webster’s web line as the wind and the waves buffeted her.
“I don’t really need this web line, you know,” Gigantus shouted, “but it would hurt Webster’s feelings if I didn’t use it.”
Max rolled his eyes. “Sure.”
Steadily, carefully, Max inched his way across the lava bridge. The wind was whipping the sea up so much that the bridge behind him was awash with foaming seawater. Unless this weather calms down, he thought, there’ll be no way back.
Up ahead, where the lava bridge formed a ramp up the beach, he saw Barton and Buzz circling in the air. Webster led the way to a rock platform jutting out of the side of the bridge, above the waves. From there, they could see Reptile Island up close for the first time. A harsh landscape of rolling sand dunes and jagged rocks stretched before them, with only a few patches of scrub to break the desolation. The whole place looked mean, sinister, and completely without mercy, like the lizards who lived there. “We made it.” Max said, wringing the seawater out of his sleeve. “So far, so good.”
“A little too good, if you ask me,” Barton said. “Neither Buzz nor I have seen a single lizard yet. Where are they?”
Max looked across the beach. Nothing moved on the sand dunes or the rocks, and the slopes of the volcano were empty. It was eerily quiet.
“Maybe they’re not up yet,” Webster said. “Reptiles are cold-blooded, so they can be slow to get started in the morning.”
“Let’s fly up and down the beach and do reconnaissance,” suggested Buzz.
“No!” Max said. “They might spot you. Let’s stay close to the ground, but try to get a better look. That rock down there looks good.”
The bugs scrambled down the side of the lava bridge, across the beach sand, and up onto the rock Max had pointed out. He looked from horizon to horizon, but it seemed as if all of Reptile Island had been abandoned. Not even so much as a tail-tip showed.
“Something doesn’t seem right …” Max said.
Suddenly, beneath Max’s feet, the rock lurched. “Whoa … what’s going on?” The rock rose slowly up, toppling him onto his back.
“The beach is collapsing!” wailed Webster.
“No it’s not,” growled Gigantus. “The rock’s moving by itself!”
All the bugs clung on tight to the rock as it rose up again. Max peered over the edge and found he was looking down at the top of a head—a mean-eyed, wrinkly head with a snapping beak. When Max saw the thing’s leathery flippers, he knew what they were really standing on.
“Uh-oh. This is no rock. It’s a giant turtle!”
“Look!” Webster squealed.
All across the beach, other humped forms were heaving themselves up out of the sand. Heads swayed from side to side. Beaks clacked and snapped.
Max gulped. There wasn’t just one turtle. There were dozens. And they all looked very, very hungry.
The giant turtle leaned to one side, then the other, hissing in fury. Max and the bugs struggled to hold on as they were thrown wildly around.
“It’s trying to buck us off!” roared Gigantus.
Max knew what would happen if it succeeded. A loggerhead turtle’s jaws were strong enough to crunch through crab shell. Even Gigantus’s armor would be no use against the turtle. The stunned bugs would be gobbled up in seconds.
“Barton, Buzz, take off and try to distract them. Webster, Gigantus, you’re with me. Run for that rocky outcrop as fast as you can.” Max pointed at a raised mass of rock that rose out of the sand like a craggy cliff.
Barton and Buzz zoomed in front of the turtle and swarmed around its mean face and snapping beak. “Hey!” Buzz taunted. “Think you can get me, you lumbering lump of mud?”
“Just watch me!” the turtle bellowed. It lunged at her, snapping furiously at the empty air. The nimble hornet dodged easily out of the way and hovered, making a very rude-sounding bzzzzt.
“Quick, while Buzz has his attention,” Max told Webster and Gigantus. He pushed himself down the glossy, bumpy slope of the turtle’s shell, slid for some distance, and fell down onto the sand.
Max set off at a run, heading for the rocky outcrop. Gigantus and Webster scurried along beside him.
All across the beach, the other turtles moved to intercept them. They were slow, dragging themselves along with their flippers, but there were so many of them that Max had to zigzag and double back on himself to stay out of their way.
His luck had to run out soon—and it did.
Just as it seemed like they had a clear path to the rocks, a turtle burst up from the sand right in front of them. Gigantus and Webster escaped to the left and right, but Max struggled to stop in time and fell head over heels.
“Oh, how nice!” leered the turtle. “I’ve only just woken up, and breakfast’s already here!”
Max struggled to get up. The turtle laughed at his efforts and snapped at him. Only a quick roll to the side saved Max’s skin.
“Stay still so I can eat you,” the turtle groused.
“Not a chance,” said Max.
Once again, he struggled to get to his feet. The turtle lurched forward to snap him in two, but then, out of nowhere, a glistening spray of webbing plastered its eyes like sticky string from a can.
“Argh!” it roared, trying to scrape its face clean with its clumsy flippers, and failing. “What is this stuff?”
“It’s webbing, you big bully,” said Webster.
“Webster!” Max yelled, seeing the spider crouching beside him. “You came back for me!”
“I couldn’t leave you behind,” said the spider. “But now I think we’d better run.”
“Where’s Gigantus?”
“She’s at the rocks already.”
“Great. Too bad she couldn’t stick around and help!”
Max got ready to make the final dash, but the turtles were closing in. There was nowhere to go.
But there was one way, he thought, if he was brave enough to take it. “Come on!” he yelled, running straight toward the turtle’s snapping jaws. Twisting and jerking right at the last minute, Max and Webster dived under the turtle�
��s screeching head, scrambled between its flippers, and darted right under its mottled body.
“Where’d my breakfast go?” howled the turtle.
“Guess you’ll have to go hungry,” Max muttered. He pulled himself across the sand under the turtle’s body, until he could see clear daylight at the other side. As he scrambled to his feet, the turtle lashed out with a flurry of bites, but instead of gobbling up Max, he bit one of his fellow turtles on the nose. Soon, the aggressive turtles were fighting among themselves.
Max and Webster dashed the rest of the way across to the outcrop. Gigantus was dangling from the top, holding on with only a couple of her legs. “Come on up!” she shouted. “Quick, before those turtles figure out where you went.”
Max felt sorry for doubting Gigantus, now that he saw she was waiting there to help them. While Webster scuttled quickly up the steep side of the rocks, Max ran, jumped, and grabbed hold of Gigantus’s body.
“Hold on tight,” grunted the centipede. Gigantus began to heave her long body up and over the ledge, taking Max with her. Down below on the beach, the turtles had stopped fighting for long enough to figure out where the bugs had gone. They shuffled up to the foot of the outcrop, yelling and jeering, calling for the tasty bugs to come back.
Gigantus hauled Max up to the safety of the ledge. A quick look down confirmed it: The turtles were marooned on the beach, unable to follow them up the craggy rocks.
“Get back here, you—” they started, but Max and the bugs didn’t stick around to find out what the turtles had in store.
Buzz and Barton landed next to them, and together the SWAT team looked out across the landscape farther inland, wondering what deadly dangers still lay in wait.
The volcano loomed up in front of them. A never-ending plume of black smoke rose from its crater. Down the side trickled a steady stream of lava, lighting up the sandy ground with fierce reddish-orange light.
