16 Chapter 16 - Fairy Lizardman (1/2)
When the sound returned, they both sighed in relief.The bees were starting to wiggle through the door, so Olivia returned to packing dirt against it.Squishing the few that got in, she turned and offered him one.Shrugging, he put one in the port.
(GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: WINGS-REQUIRES REDUCTION IN BODY MASS FOR FLIGHT, ULTRAVISION, ULTRAHEARING)
”I'm not interested in any of the things it offers me,” he said, turning to the last PMS device.
”Me either,” she said glancing at her PED.
”Ready for the next upgrade?” he asked, pausing before he opened the access panel.
”I guess,” she said, a little angrily.Sitting down next to him, he popped the access panels open and started swapping the same parts he had swapped on his own device, adding some and taking others away.She sat there, patiently, as he focused on making sure he didn't break anything.
”How did you learn to work on them?” she asked, as he shut the panels.
”I worked at a job where we tried to reverse manufacture alien tech.With all the new races we've encountered over the past twenty years, they pay good money for people to do that.”
”So, if we didn't head back to the human sector, we could settle down somewhere else and be just fine.”
He looked at her for a moment, wondering if she was serious about staying with him.
”Do you want kids?”
”I already said no, didn't I?”
”Then why are you talking like you want to stay together when we leave here?”
She sat there thinking, as he moved over to the door, to look outside.The buzzing of the bees had receded and he was still thirsty.
The porcupine deer at the door was dead, stung to death by the bees as they swarmed.The ground was littered with dead bees.He shuddered to think about how many bees there must have been for there to be so many dead on the ground.Picking one up, he examined it.It had the same basic body shape as a bee, but each foot ended with a claw.It's mouth looked more vicious, and the stinger didn't retract.
Flicking it back outside, he started to move the door.Bees that weren't dead yet, but were definitely on the way out, started trying to fly and attack him.He easily brushed them aside.Stepping out, he stretched, and a swarm of arrows bounced off his body.They hurt when they hit, but none were able to actually stick.
”Dustin!” she exclaimed, scrambling out of the burrow, and experiencing her own hail of arrows.
He snarled and charged into the trees, not hesitating to grab and bite every hunter he could find.There were so many of them!He never knew they could fight in such groups before.Falling back, when they pulled out projectile guns, he jumped on his bike.
Olivia darted from the bushes where she had followed him on his killing spree, grabbing PMS devices from the dead hunters.She jumped on the other bike, and they flew off into the forest.He led the way, heading towards the vine tree that he remembered.
As they got close, he felt like facepalming.He had killed the tree by crashing a bike into it. Flying over the top of the dead tree, he spied the stick guy, wrapped in a cocoon, hanging from a branch high in a tree.Its arm was sticking out, and that was the only way he recognized it.
Flying on, he hoped to find something to distract the hunters he could hear behind them.