“Jack,” Sam said. “Get a rock. A big one.”

Jack was frozen until Dekka smacked him on the back of the head. Then he leaped to a rock the size of a Smart Car. It was half-buried in the ground. Jack grunted with the effort, but the rock tore free of the dirt with a little gravity-canceling help from Dekka.

Jack lifted the rock high over his head. He smashed it down with all his strength on two of the squirming, escaping bugs.
The rock hit so hard it shook the ground, literally making Sam bounce.

“Now push it back off,” Sam ordered.

Jack did. The rock rolled easily from Jack’s shove.

Beneath it were two very crushed bugs. Their carapaces were dully reflective, like smoky mirrors. They had short, crushed wings held tight against their bodies. Their wicked, curved mandibles had not been broken. Their slashing mouthparts still glittered like tiny knives.

“Like cockroaches,” Sam said. “Hard to kill. Not impossible.”

Plague, Chapter 15