I had glanced away to look up at the moons. I was a little higher in the tree than Billie and Professor Kroft, and I’d found a pretty comfortable way to sit. I could sleep leaning forward on another branch. The wet pine perfume of the redwood smelled pretty good.


    Then Billie pointed a long, manicured finger at me. “And you, you! You get to be a fucking superhero! How is that even fair?”


    I held up my hand to show her the ring. “Actually, I’m just a host. This fucking ring could be giving me cancer for all I know. Or maybe it’s the Paraxen Multitool—whatever the fuck that is—that is going to somehow kill me.”


    My hand dropped to my side, and I was surprised to find the hammer hanging from a loop that had quite unexpectedly appeared on my side. I hadn’t even remembered slipping it into the loop.


    “Paraxen?!?” Billie shrieked. “That’s a made-up fucking word. This whole world is pretend.”


    “I would’ve come up with something cooler than giant fleas.” Why couldn’t I keep my big mouth closed?


    Billie jabbed her finger at my side. “So you’re saying your hammer thing is an alien artifact?”


    “Multitool,” I corrected. “Not sure how to configure it though.” I didn’t mention that my ring might run out of power at any minute.


    Billie stared daggers at me. Damn, one minute we’re sharing a hot moment in the bus together, and the next, she’s trying to chop me into sushi with both her eyes and her words.


    Professor Kroft reached out and took both of Billie’s hands. “I’m so sorry this happening.”


    Billie continued to glare at me.


    The professor forced Billie to look at her. “We’re going to get through this. We’re going to find a way home. Please, don’t give up hope.”


    I kept quiet. I didn’t see that happening, but no use throwing fuel on the fire.


    Then I realized something else about my jumpsuit. Not only did I have a new cool loop for my Paraxen Multitool, but I should’ve been covered in gallons of hemolymph, a.k.a. bug blood. Instead, my jumpsuit was perfectly clean. The air was wet and cool around us, but I was rather comfortable.


    “Look at your clothes,” I said.


    “What about this dumb romper thing?” Billie looked down. She’d zipped her outfit up to her chin. Professor Kroft, though, had hers undone, letting the girls breathe.


    Billie didn’t notice.


    Professor Kroft did. “Fascinating. The material is self-cleaning. Perhaps it uses the molecules of the stains to reinforce its structure. I’m rather warm, or at least most of my body is. My feet, though, are a little cold.”


    That’s when I realized that I’d left my sandals on the bus, which at this point was flea central.


    Billie was also barefoot.


    I let out a frustrated breath. “Okay, Billie and I don’t have our sandals. What else did we forget?”


    Professor Kroft winced. “The bag of crap is back at the bus. And another rifle. The toolbox is down at the bottom of the mushroom tree.”


    The news could’ve been worse. We had three pistols, two rifles, our clothes, and our lives. Oh, and the hammer, which might be magical, or at least configurable.


    I was about to say something relatively positive when Professor Kroft burst forward, pointing. “


    Professor Kroft then pointed. “Good gravy, what is that?”


    Both Billie and I followed her finger.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Rising up in the distance, well beyond the spaceship dune, was a structure that caught the first rays of the red sun breaking over the horizon. At least that section of land and sky. It was a tall tower, irregularly shaped, and I knew what it looked like to me.


    “Termites,” I whispered, my zoology class paying off once again. “That looks like a termite tower, like in Africa, right? That’s not manmade. That’s bug made.”


    As the red sun rose, we saw that the tower was crawling with things, and though we were too far to see what they were, I could only guess they were either fleas or some kind of desert insect, maybe ants, or maybe giant termites.


    “Could it be the fleas?” Billie asked in a whisper.


    Professor Kroft answered quietly. “I don’t believe so, but we are dealing with alien fauna. Termites on earth create their mounds out of soil, saliva, and dung. Their mouths are very different from fleas.”


    “Ew!” Billie complained. “Their dung or our dung?”


    “I don’t think they care.” Professor Kroft looked scared.


    Crossing the Red Dune World suddenly looked far less attractive.


    I was glad we’d found a relatively safe perch when a roar echoed under us. We heard shrieks, screams, of the giant fleas, and the entire world under us was alive with activity. We couldn’t see a thing because of the shadows and undergrowth. We could only hear the roars of some giant beast, the crunch of exoskeletons being devoured, the shrieks of the dying insects as they were eaten.


    Eaten by what, though?


    And there wasn’t just one creature roaring under us, there were several.


    The spaces between the redwoods were wide enough for semi tucks to drive through, though a lot of that space was taken up by the mushroom trees, ferns, and other plant life. I’d been too tired to explore the Rainforest World the before, but now, with my enhanced body, guns, and my multitool, I was curious.


    “Should I go and see what’s eating our flea friends?” I asked. “It sounds like World War III meets Jurassic Park down there.”


    Neither the professor nor Billie could answer. The roars were too loud. As loud were the shrieks of the fleas. Those huge things were bashing through branches and ripping apart mushroom trees and flinging ferns left and right.


    Billie basically screamed, “You are not going down there, Sid!”


    It all fell silent. Then the growling started. It was so deep-throated that I could feel the bass in my chest.


    “What if I just go and take a quick peak?” I asked.


    “No!” Billie hissed. She wasn’t kidding around.


    I glanced at the professor.


    She shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. I think your time would be better served trying to understand the ring and how it might further help you. It certainly seems to be the key to our survival.”


    The apocalypse happening under this moved east, toward the Red Dune World. I thought maybe I’d get a view of the monster but no. I did see the fleas leaving the forest, escaping back into the sand.


    A few minutes later, we heard sniffing and snuffling below us. I thought it might be a bear, or that’s what it sounded like. Maybe a bear crossed with Godzilla. Then the ruckus moved away. The ground trembled with the footfalls of the monsters…there was clearly more than one.


    I hoped our toolbox hadn’t been trampled, and long with it, my welding torch lighter, but chances were, both were lost forever.


    Now that we were safe, we found some water dribbling down from the branches above us to wash our faces, hair, and hands. I still wanted a shower even though my clothes were self-cleaning.


    After we’d washed and drank the tree water, I went over our ammo situation. Two of the pistols were out of charges, thanks to Professor Kroft’s panic and terrible aim. She must’ve grabbed Billie’s gun when she ran out. My pistol still had ten shots left. One of our rifles was empty, the other had five shots, and I was pretty sure our last rifle back on the bus had twenty-five shots left.


    I tried to get the ring to contact me, but no matter how much I swung the hammer, it wouldn’t message me. There had to be a way to access the heads-up display, but I didn’t know what it was. It was my first time with an alien ring on my finger.


    Maybe the ring would talk to me once it finished its evaluation. I hoped it hadn’t completely run out of batteries. I needed to find another power crystal.


    Billie and the professor slept near the trunk of the giant tree while I climbed farther down the branch, since I was still amped up from the fight.


    The fleas had left both the bus and the starship, and the sands were once again calm, an ocean of serene sand, that held deadly secrets. The mound tower seemed to get bigger in the crimson radiance of the red sun rising, though it was so far in the distance, it didn’t put out much light—it only made the sky a darker shade of red.


    Would we be able to get to the bus and get our rifle and the bag of crap without the fleas coming back?


    Well, we knew they were now.


    I was more worried about our future. We needed a shelter away from those damn insects. However, the mysterious monsters in the Rainforest World might be even worse.


    Finally, I started feeling tired.


    I went back to the trunk and found Billie resting her head on Professor Kroft’s shoulder. Both were fast asleep.


    Seeing them there like that was sweet, and yet, at the same time, I could only imagine them together. Normally, I would’ve thought that would be pretty much impossible. But there was something about the strange world that was affecting our libidos. While else would Billie get so nasty with me in the bus?


    No. Something was going on.


    I could think all about it, since I was the only one awake. Guess I was taking first watch.