Ryan ran out to recess and I ran after him. The bright sun shone in my eyes as I squinted. We laughed and ran around playing on the blacktop. I looked over at Dalton. He never talked much, to anyone. He was sitting on the curb and playing with the grass, no, something in the grass, bugs! I smile and walk over to him.
"What're you doin?" I ask I kneel next to him. He was pushing around some rollie-pollies with a slender twig.
"Playing." He replied. His tone was monotone and robotic. It sent a chill down my spine.
"You know," I smiled as I gently took the twig out of his hand, "It's more fun if you," I brought the end of the twig down into the insect, "Smash 'em!" I laughed. Dalton's eyes shot up and he glared at me. A sound like a hiss came out of his throat. "Okay..." I stood up and walked away.
I turned back toward him and saw the school bully stomp towards him.
"What are you doing playing with bugs? Buggy!" Him and his friends laughed. Dalton ignored them and watched the insects. The bully didn't like being ignored. He picked Dalton up by the arms and shoved him onto the pavement, Dalton scraped his knee pretty bad on the way down. Everyone turned and stared. Dalton jumped up and my jaw dropped as I saw his knee. It wasn't bleeding. A torn piece of rubber-looking skin sat on the ground as a hole in his knee gaped and revealed the slimy and shiny material underneath. The hiss I had heard before emitted from his mouth, louder this time. Teachers ran over to the scene. One even tried touching the wound, but was kicked away with a leg that seemed to have much more strength than any 5th grader should have. All the students began panicking and screaming.
Someone threw a rock and hit whatever it was in the head. He staggered back and suddenly a flood of rocks began to be hurled at the creature. It went down within seconds. I ran over to it and my first instinct was to rip off more of the silicone skin. The underbody was terrifying. It was some... insect, some bug. Buggy.
