The days passed as I gathered nectar to create my bowl. By the fourth day, I realized it might go faster if I simply started waxing directly onto the base and the walls instead of preparing everything first.

  I had wasted four whole days.

  And I was starting to wonder when the larva was going to hatch.

  Was that normal?

  Or was she just waiting until I was finished?

  Lazy girl. She really should take after me more.

  Now that I thought about it… she didn’t have a father. So wasn’t everything about her from me?

  Was she technically a clone?

  I decided not to think about stupid human stuff.

  I knew the egg was fine and that it wouldn’t hatch for a while, but I realized I hadn’t even inspected it yet.

  That’s all you have to say?

  I already knew that. Not with words, but I knew it would take longer. I was pretty sure this strange feeling hadn’t started before I woke up yesterday, so maybe I had accidentally pushed a button or something. I poked at the idea, flipping it around in my head—not because I truly believed it, but more for fun.

  In the end, I had to keep working.

  I put the egg down and went out. I started my day by gathering nectar from flowers farther away, patrolling at the same time. I made sure never to go closer to the puppy. She hadn’t moved from that spot at all, which made me wonder if she didn’t need to eat.

  I’d gotten used to flying through the forest and avoiding danger. I hadn’t seen any animals.

  Which, of course, was when I smelled something foul.

  I followed it. Because why not? It was the most interesting thing that had happened in a while.

  I was somewhat careful, but when I got close enough, I found a dead body.

  I would like to say that flying directly toward it was a strategic move to hide nearby and figure out what had happened.

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  It wasn’t.

  Up close, I saw it was a man dressed mostly in black, with purple discoloration around his neck. The horrible smell came from the body itself. Something about it told me it hadn’t been dead long. It almost smelled like he’d been rolling around among other corpses.

  Weird. Or maybe all humans smell like this. From my memories, they didn’t seem to smell very good in general, and their senses weren’t exactly impressive.

  And I had thought they would be bigger. Maybe humans in this world were smaller, or bees were just bigger, as I was almost as big as three of his fingers. I walked on his hand to compare while trying to examine things and figure out what had happened, but it was hard when I couldn’t lift or move anything. What I could figure out was that the purple had spread from his back or shoulder. I couldn’t crawl under his equipment to see exactly where it had started.

  I did find a pouch. I managed to unfasten it, but it was far too heavy to lift. So I made the opening big enough to crawl inside.

  What I found made my heart skip.

  Gemstones. Crystals. And things that looked like coins—but those held no interest.

  I tried moving the contents, but most of them were too big or too heavy. Eventually, I managed to get four out.

  One green.

  Two blue.

  One red.

  I could only lift one at a time. I wondered what they were.

  That was when I felt embarrassed.

  I had forgotten to inspect the body.

  I tried to find out more, but only got the same response again—or question marks. Still, I learned something important.

  How I questioned things affected the answers.

  I didn’t have enough energy to keep inspecting and fly home. I puffed out my chest at my amazing foresight and planning ability. As I started to think about how to get my gemstones home, I heard something.

  Twigs breaking.

  Branches rustling.

  And then the smell got worse.

  It was similar to what was on the body—but a hundred times stronger.

  This offensive stench shouldn’t exist. I almost threw up as it drew closer. I heard a low groan.

  I didn’t think.

  I grabbed the red gemstone and flew upward as fast as I could. With the gemstone being much heavier than my egg, it wasn’t easy.

  I landed high on a branch, set the gemstone down, and waited, steadying my breathing.

  Then something smashed through the branches below.

  As it came into view, I realized it had only half a face—and one arm.

  “Shit,” I clicked in shock. “Is that a walking dead?”

  I glanced around instinctively, as if anyone could understand my clicking.

  The zombie shuffled toward the body. The smell was unbearable, but… this was also kind of amazing. How many would ever see something like this? Then again, maybe this was normal here.

  Whatever. It was still cool.

  It reached the body and slowly lifted it. Painfully slow.

  That was when I noticed it.

  The corpse had more pouches. Three of them—two on one side, one on the other.

  A surge of anger hit me.

  Without thinking, I flew down and slammed my stinger into the zombie’s neck. I stung again. And again. And again. Until I felt something inside my stinger go empty.

  I flapped hard and flipped away to make myself harder to hit.

  When I looked down, the zombie was still walking.

  It didn’t even react.

  Did I hurt it at all?

  Shit. Calm down. Think.

  I can’t hurt it. And it doesn’t care about me.

  But I can’t let it take what’s mine.

  I flew down to the fallen pouches and started unfastening them, keeping one eye on the zombie. Nothing happened. Not even when it fell to the ground.

  I focused on the pouch—until something slammed into me.

  I hit a tree trunk. It didn’t hurt much, but it scared the shit out of me.

  Looking down, I saw the zombie had tripped and fallen.

  So it wasn’t intentional.

  It had swatted me into a tree without effort.

  At the same time, I saw one of the pouches fall loose.

  I gave up on the last one. I gathered myself, knowing I couldn’t fly with all of this anyway.

  The zombie rose and walked off, carrying the body.

  And my last pouch.