by Jack Patton
“Glower made it, too,” Max told him. “He’s heading to all the underground bug bunkers, letting our troops know what to do.”
“It’s a good thing he did,” said Barton. “Buzz and her air scouts have informed me that the sea turtles are already on their way across the water.”
Max gasped. “But the attack isn’t supposed to come until sunset.”
“Komodo clearly wants his troops in position ahead of time,” Barton said. “We need to act fast!”
“Then let’s assemble our own troops,” Max said.
Together, Max and Barton went and spoke to the leaders of the various bug battalions. “The most important thing is to decide where everyone’s going to be,” Max explained. “If there’s no plan, there’ll just be chaos and Komodo will steamroll us.”
“What’s a steamroll?” Barton asked.
“Never mind. I think we should put the stag beetles on the front line, since they have heavy armor. Scorpions on the flanks, mantises in reserve to drop in from the air, and burrowing bugs under the sand for a shock strike.”
“I have a newly trained battalion of fire ants ready to go,” said Barton. “You haven’t met them yet. They’re itching to get into the fight.”
Max stopped. At the mention of fire ants, an idea had popped into his head.
Fire, he thought. I wonder …
“Max?” Barton said, peering closely at him. “Are you all right?”
“More than all right, General,” Max said slowly. “I think I know a way to get rid of the reptiles once and for all.”
* * *
“IS THIS RIGHT?” boomed Dobs, the giant dobsonfly, as he dumped a heap of dry grass by the edge of the forest.
“Perfect!” called Max. From his perch on the rocky banks of the river, he watched the bugs work. Their project was coming along nicely. The giant dobsonflies and some helpful termites had made several piles of twigs, dry grass, and parched bark, all of them directly beneath large trees.
“I’m not sure what good you think this will do, Max,” said Buzz irritably. “These heaps of stuff won’t stop the reptiles. They’ll just climb right over them!”
“Trust me,” Max insisted. “What I have in mind will definitely stop the reptiles. We just need to make sure we have things set up along the path of the river.”
“I’m on it,” Buzz said. She rocketed up into the air.
Barton tapped him on the shoulder. “I, ah, have to say, Max, I still don’t understand what you have in mind …”
“I’m confused,” added Spike. “You know I don’t like being confused!”
Max sighed. “I’m building a weapon I hope I won’t ever have to use. It’s a defensive measure of last resort!”
Once Max’s mysterious defense was in place, Barton flew up into the air to address the troops.
“The rumors you have heard are true,” he shouted. “General Komodo has returned. Over the past months he has skulked like a coward, letting other reptiles carry out his plans for him. Now he has finally shown his face. Well, my brave friends, I call upon you all to kick Komodo’s scaly tail back to Reptile Island!”
The bugs all cheered. Max rode on Spike’s back at the head of the bug forces. Following Max’s lead, the bugs marched forward through the forest. Many of them were still making their way down the mountain, streaming down the sides like shiny, blackish-brown lava. The sound of hundreds of thousands of bug bodies moving through the leaves was like the rushing of a mighty river.
“I just hope it’s enough for us to win,” Max muttered.
“It’ll have to be,” said Spike.
The forest floor beneath Spike’s many legs gave way to sand and matted grass, and the trees became sparser. Max sat up straight, braced to fight. They were nearly at the beach. He ducked under a low-hanging branch and brushed a large leaf out of his path.
Something heavy thumped into him from behind. He fell from Spike’s back, yelling and lashing out with feet and fists. The creature that had hold of him hissed and snapped its jaws in his face.
It was a mossy leaf-tailed gecko—and Max was sure it was the same one that had cornered him on Fang Mountain. The same hungry leer was in its eyes. The reptile had been clinging to the branch Max had just passed under, and the “leaf” had been its tail!
“Don’t move,” the gecko said. “And tell your scorpion to back off, or I’ll crunch you up like a mouthful of ants!”
Spike hovered his stinger over the gecko—he was about to clamp downward, but realized that if he struck, he might get Max instead of the gecko.
Max struggled, but the gecko’s sticky grasp was tight as a knotted rope. “Get off me!” he yelled.
“I don’t think so,” hissed the gecko. “You’re a hostage now, human. Your forces won’t dare to attack while I have you at my mercy!”
The gecko shoved Max down against the ground.
Max twisted in pain, but then he heard something—the sound of scrabbling legs and clicking mouthparts. It was coming from underground, and it was getting louder all the time.
“What?” demanded the gecko. “What are you smiling about?”
The forest floor underneath Max erupted. Just like when he had poked the mound back in his own world, a stream of ants poured up through a freshly dug hole.
Max’s grin grew wider as he saw they weren’t just any ants. They were the bullet ants he’d met down in the bunker, and Max knew they had a very painful sting.
“Gecko in sight!” yelled the bullet ant leader. “Ant warriors, engage!”
The startled gecko didn’t have time to react. The bullet ants swarmed all over it. Because they were so much smaller, many of them could climb onto the gecko at once.
Then the stinging began. The gecko yelped in pain, let go of Max, and went hobbling off toward the beach.
Max stood up and dusted himself off. “Thanks for the rescue. It’s good to see you again.”
“Thank your firefly friend. He told us where you’d be,” said the bullet ant captain.
“Glower!” Max yelled, running over to where he was climbing out of the hole.
“It looks like we were just in time,” Glower said. “Come on, Max. There’s a battle to fight and a war to win.”
* * *
With military precision, the bugs marched down to the beach. The beetles formed the main brunt of the army, with the scorpions, centipedes, and spiders backing them up. Close by were the mantis shock troops, and overhead buzzed a giant cloud of hornets, bees, wasps, and other stinging flyers. Barton strode along in the very heart of the army, surrounded by his elite fire ant soldiers.
Max caught sight of Komodo’s head, looming over the sand dunes.
“There he is,” Max called out.
“He won’t get away this time,” Spike said.
Komodo dragged his huge, heavy body to the top of a sand dune and looked up and down the bug ranks. His tongue flicked out, tasting the air.
“General Komodo!” Barton called out. “We bugs fight with honor, so I am giving you one chance to surrender. If you don’t, certain defeat awaits you!”
Komodo stared, and then burst out laughing. “You’ve taken too many knocks to the head, Barton! Certain defeat? Oh, no. This time I have Bug Island in my grasp.” He looked back over his shoulder and bellowed, “Invasion force, advance!”
Max felt ice water running in his veins as he saw the first of the sea turtles emerge from the crashing waves. The creature was terrifying enough in itself, with a gnashing beak and flippers that could crush legions of bugs, but even worse was the load it was carrying. Clinging to the sea turtle’s back like an ugly growth was an entire battalion of common lizards. Battle hunger gleamed from their eyes.
The turtle lowered its head and the lizards swarmed down onto the beach, using the head like a landing ramp.
Then the next sea turtle pulled itself ashore, and then the next, one after the other until the beach was crowded with them. Almost every one carried a group of reptiles
or amphibians on its back. Max saw vipers, skinks, iguanas, monitor lizards, chameleons, and even little newts slither into position.
As the blood-red sun sank into the sea, the lizard army grew and grew. Max realized that General Komodo really was playing for keeps this time. He had staked everything on this one battle, and he did not intend to lose.
The two armies faced one another.
Barton took a deep breath. “Battle Bugs, attack!”
The massive bug army surged forward, crawling across the beach and onto the dunes. The reptiles roared and charged to meet them.
Max whipped his vine rope around his head, ready to lash out with it. Spike thundered over the sand alongside the beetles, heading straight for the oncoming reptile forces.
The two armies crashed together. All along the front lines, fierce fighting broke out. Lizards bit and clawed at thick beetle armor. Hornets zoomed down from the sky, struck with a barrage of stings, and then soared away out of range of reptile jaws. Snakes hissed and lunged at writhing centipedes. Mantises lashed out at fat frogs.
From Spike’s back, Max fought as hard as the rest. He thwacked lizards with his vine whip, knocking them onto their backs so Spike could sting them. Although the pair of them were practiced fighters, and stunned reptiles soon lay groaning all around them, they struggled to make any headway against the oncoming tide of Komodo’s troops.
“There’s too many of them, Max!” grunted Spike, grabbing a lizard in each claw and bashing their heads together.
“Keep fighting,” Max yelled. He looked around to see how the battle was going, and felt like his heart had fallen right out of his chest.
The bug forces were being driven back. The sea turtles, though slow, were unstoppable. Nothing the bugs did could pierce their thick shells or their tough hide.
“Max!” Barton called. “We have to do something!”
Max nodded gravely. There was only one option left now.
He turned to the bugs and gave the order.
“Battle Bugs, retreat!”
Max watched the brave bugs turn and run. The faster ones, like the spiders, raced away over the dunes and vanished into the forest.
“Air division, help the wounded!” ordered Buzz.
Flying bugs rushed in, grabbed their buddies who were too injured to walk, and flew them away from the reptile advance. Barton himself flew straight past Komodo’s nose to rescue a submerged mantis.
“No bug left behind,” Barton said firmly. He snatched the mantis up in his huge pincers and carried him away. Komodo snapped at them, but Barton easily dodged him.
“Run, you pathetic bugs!” Komodo roared. “It will do you no good. Wherever you hide, we will find you and devour you. We have won!”
Max wheeled Spike around. “Battle Bugs, follow me. Make for the forest.”
With Max leading the way, the bug army went into full retreat. They charged away from the beach and through the trees. Some of the bugs headed for the shelter of the trees and began to climb up them, but Max yelled at them to stay out. “It’s safer on the ground, trust me,” he said.
The reptiles pursued the bug army, but to Max’s relief, they weren’t moving as fast as he’d feared. Komodo and his sea turtles lumbered slowly across the sand, and he understood. Komodo’s troops didn’t dare to attack before their general—Barton was his.
The shadow of a tall tree fell across them. Max knew that tree well. Earlier that day, he’d assigned a group of termites to it to do a very special job. He crossed his fingers for luck and hoped they’d been able to do the job in time.
“Termite squad,” he called. “Are you ready for Operation Lumberjack?”
A termite stuck its head out of the side of the tree. “All set,” it squeaked.
Max glanced behind him. The reptiles were coming, slithering, scrambling, and flopping from the beach and into the forest shade. They were advancing slowly and cautiously, as if they expected a trap. Well, guess what, Max thought. A trap is exactly what you’re walking into.
“Now!” Max told the termites.
From inside the tree trunk came the noise of thousands of termite jaws munching at once.
General Komodo heard. He frowned and looked around. “Reptiles, halt.”
There was a deep groaning, splintering sound. The horrified reptiles in the front line looked up to see that the tall tree was toppling down toward them. The termites had eaten right through it!
Max watched with satisfaction as the long, thick tree trunk crashed down right in the reptiles’ path. It rolled a little way toward the beach, forcing them to dive out of the way or be crushed. Then it came to rest, with the bugs on one side and the reptiles on the other.
“A cheap tactic, human,” snarled Komodo.
“But it worked,” yelled Max.
“Maybe. But not for long. Sea turtles, advance.”
Max rode away from the reptile ranks and headed for the river, as they slowly clambered over the fallen trunk.
The bug evacuation was in full swing. The flying bugs were ferrying as many flightless bugs over the river as they could carry. Ant troops grabbed hold of one another and built bridges out of their own bodies, letting the retreating bugs climb over them. Spiders spun webbing lines over the water for other bugs to climb across. Some of the bugs were even sailing over the river, using broad, flat leaves as makeshift rafts.
Max rode Spike up to the rock he had used for a lookout post. His heart was pounding as he watched the reptiles scrambling over the fallen tree. They were coming, and he was running out of time. The bugs had to cross the river, every single one of them, or he wouldn’t be able to put his plan into action.
“Step it up,” he shouted to the bugs. “We need more bridges, right now!”
“Out of the way,” roared a familiar voice. Max saw that the voice belonged to Gigantus, the giant centipede warrior he’d teamed up with before. She reared up her long, black, segmented body and lunged across the river at its narrowest point. Grateful bugs swarmed across her, using her as a bridge.
“Good job, Gigantus,” Max said. “No bug left behind, right?”
“Right,” grunted the centipede, straining under the weight of so many bugs. As the very last bug—a tiny aphid—limped over Gigantus’s body to safety and the last reptile slithered over the fallen tree, Max climbed down off Spike’s back.
“Time for the secret weapon,” he whispered to himself. “I just hope this works.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the magnifying glass.
Max could hear the reptiles crashing through the undergrowth, heading his way. He held the magnifying glass steady and focused the sun’s rays on one of the heaps of dry grass.
A tiny, bright white spot appeared. A wisp of smoke went up. In a flash, more smoke rose up, thick and white.
“Come on, come on,” he said through gritted teeth. “Light …”
The reptiles were almost upon him now. Iguanas swiveled their eyes toward him and flicked their tongues out. Snakes glided stealthily through the dead leaves. Thousands of pairs of cold, merciless eyes watched him.
“Leave it, Max!” yelled Spike from the far side of the river. “Run!”
Max ignored him and kept the lens focused. There was a red glow in the pile of dry grass and the smoke was pouring out. Suddenly, Max knew what he had to do. He fell to his knees and blew gently on the glowing spot.
WOOMPH. Yellow flames licked up through the little dry heap. Max sprang back as a crawling circle of fire steadily spread out. The reptiles paused, uncertain as to what was happening.
Max ran back to his lookout rock. The fire was taking hold, and fast. First the forest floor became a rolling curtain of flames, carrying the fire from tree to tree. Then the trees themselves began to catch. It took only moments for an entire tree to be engulfed in flames. Max knew that the fire would be halted by the river—but for now, it created a fiery wall between the bugs and the lizard forces.
What had begun as a backyard bonfi
re was soon a raging inferno. Trees were transformed into blazing torches. Glowing cinders blew on the breeze, spreading the fire even farther afield.
Choked by the smoke, half-roasted by the heat, the lizards turned and ran.
“This is bug magic!” screeched a gecko as a burning branch crashed down in front of it. “The bugs have somehow tapped the power of the volcano, the Great Reptilicus itself!”
“Stand and fight!” bellowed Komodo. “That’s an order!”
“Never mind your orders,” croaked a sea turtle. “I’m not staying here to be cooked alive. I’ll take my chances in the sea.”
Flames danced in Max’s eyes as he watched the reptiles run. Heat and smoke made his head swim.
“We’ve done it,” he cried. “The lizards are in retreat!”
As the lizards retreated back to Reptile Island, Max turned away from the burning forest.
Through the billowing clouds of smoke, he could see the Battle Bugs on the far side of the river, waving happily at him. Webster was hopping on the spot with joy, Spike was applauding by clicking his pincers, and even Barton looked delighted.
“I’m coming, guys!” Max called. He climbed over the rocks toward one of the spiderweb bridges. One sticky climb, he thought, and I’m safe.
Before he could reach the web line, a huge clawed foot crashed down in front of him.
A hissing cry rang out: “Human! You have interfered with my plans for the very last time!”
It was General Komodo, somehow still alive. His scaly hide was blackened with soot and his eyes gleamed with hate. Max staggered back, filled with sudden fear.
Komodo charged.
Max could only turn and run for his life, gasping and wheezing from the smoke. He hopped from rock to rock along the river’s edge while Komodo scrambled along behind him.
From the other side of the river, Max heard Barton shout: “Buzz, fly over and give Max an immediate evac!”
“On it!” Buzz replied.
