14

— ... Father, let's switch places! You're shooting worse! I'll stand behind the right machine gun!— Cornelius commands like the captain of a ship.

— Then the left flank will be empty!— Radoslav almost loses the steering wheel.

They have already spent more than six months on this bus.

Either Mariusz is also hiding and waiting for them to make a mistake, or he simply stopped looking for them…

Knowing Mariusz, the former is more likely than the latter.

— Dad, Dariusz will be on the left flank!— Cornelius feels the steering wheel spinning and injuring the skin of his hands.— Darek, take the levers of the machine gun from Dad!—

Radoslav frowned: with every second that he or Cornelius taught Darek self-defense, it seemed that Dariusz's childhood, which should have been carefree, was burning down.

He's almost thirteen, but he's still so small.… He has not yet received his dose of happiness in this life...

— Dad, give it to me and go, replace Cornelius at the wheel!—Dariusz tugs at his thoughtful father's sleeve.— Come on, go, I can shoot!—

Radoslav runs to the driver's seat as fast as he can.

He cannot delay, because every second counts now. They have a fantastically huge and ugly likeness of a dung beetle on their tail. And, worse than his very appearance, he gradually shoots some kind of caustic slime at their bus!

The last section of the bus is smoking a bit.

Cornelius is almost half hanging out of the window and continuously shooting, hoping to hit at least one nerve center.

The bus shook violently, Cornelius almost fell out of the window.

— Darek, I'm running to my father! Tell him to block the windows, and I'll go deal with our stalker!—Cornelius opened the window wider and jumped out.

Dariusz's eyes widened in horror, but he ran to his father anyway.

— Dad, Corey jumped out the window! And he said that we need to close the windows!—

Radek froze, but hit the button with his hand.

There was a creaking sound that made every bone inside ache.

Cornelius, who had long lagged behind the bus, turned a little to the side, picking up the pace of running after his pursuer.

And the pursuer was an incredibly large grasshopper…

Grabbing onto his giant paw, Cornelius almost flew into a large crack in the rocks. Grabbing the other part of the grasshopper's leg, Cornelius jumped over the twisted knee of the giant grasshopper at the risk of himself.

The grasshopper opens its huge mouth and a long and thick stream of green caustic mucus flies out.

Where the drops fall to the ground, the earth seems to decompose... or is that what it is?