Freelance Saga 2: Quantum Interference by Scottie Futch Page B

tyrannical rule. Scott staggered forward and began to look for something, anything, that he could eat.
    A fallen log nearby promised all the insects that he could desire, but he wasn’t that hungry , yet. He could not trust the handful of berries that he had located, either. In short, he had no idea what he could eat here.
    “Dammit...” This was too much. He had not eaten in days and the only thing he could find were suspicious berries and hideous insects. The water situation was much more of an issue, however. Scott did not know how long he had been unconscious, either time, but it had to be at least a day or two.
    He ultimately had no choice. He would have to move on and hope for the best. Scott reached over and picked up a hefty looking tree limb. It would make a reasonable walking stick. He could not trust his legs to carry his weight fully at the moment.
    The perpetually tired man struggled to move across the landscape of the alien forest. Movement was slow and painful. In some ways it felt like the first time he had come to this world. His stats had been very low and even walking had been difficult.
    Luckily the forest seemed to be old growth wilderness. The brush was sparsely scattered and he could see where he was going with ease. If only he’d had an idea about where he should go!
    Several hours passed during his journey. Hi s hunger and thirst grew to fiercely demanding levels. Scott winced slightly after he turned over a rotting log. The squirming things underneath threatened to make him gag. He could feel the liquid contents of his stomach wanting to rise at the thought of what he was about to do.
    “I hope none of you ugly little fuckers are poisonous.” That would just be the perfect end to an imperfect life as far as he was concerned.
    Trembling fingers slid down into the space where the log had rested. Scott scooped up a fat grub-like insect that was roughly the size of his thumb. He pinched the head and it popped with a sickening sound. It was like some great wriggling zit had exploded between his fingers.
    He shuddered briefly then wiped the destroyed insect’s body against his pants. The asinine desire to at least attempt to clean it off a little before sticking it in his mouth was nothing more than a delaying tactic. The idea of actually swallowing the hideous thing was almost too much to bear.
    His hands shook as he raised the thing to his lips. Scott popped the disgusting thing into his mouth an d tried to avoid tasting it by raising his tongue. It did not help. His entire mouth had become suffused with the taste of alien grub worm. The feeling of chewed grub in his mouth sickened him to no end. Some people found insects to be a delicacy. Scott found them to be disturbingly chewy.
    He’d had to eat similar things in the army during SERE training. Surviving, evading, resisting, and escaping were all good training ideas... until you had to eat bugs from under a log.
    Scott finished swallowing the tiny meal then made a sour face. Ah, sweet protein. The other wriggling and crawling insects that had lived alongside the recently deceased Mr. Grub tried to escape, but their fate had been sealed. He picked them up by the handful and popped off their heads. “What can I say? Life’s tough.”
    After he finished his meal, and managed to keep it at least some of it down, he felt strangely better. The juicy nature of their plump little bodies seemed to have sated his thirst slightly as well.
    After his meal, Scott continued his ceaseless march through the underbrush of the alien forest. He would get nowhere by standing still.

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    A loud sneeze erupted from abused nostrils. It was a harsh and pathetic sound that echoed through the air storm laden air. Scott huddled miserably within the boughs of an aging oak tree.
    It was not the best place to be during a thunderstorm, but trees were everywhere in the forest. Where could he go to avoid one? Besides, he figured that if this was the one tree in the