Chapter 24
Lara Stella and Graeme hid in a supply room to escape from the asparagus praying mantis. It had run after them with the persistence of a predator, slashing and gnawing and screeching when it didn’t get a hold of them. It was fast, too, with zero-turn pivots, and it crawled up the walls and ran on the ceiling to try to gain ground.
They had rounded a corner into a hallway full of doors and ducked into this supply room. It looked like a school chemistry lab, with several granite islands and floor-to-ceiling cabinets with glass fronts that stored microscopes, pipettes, goggles and flasks. On the walls hung cabinets holding gallon-sized bottles of colorful liquids with warning signs on them.
The room had been damaged from the blast, but except for the lights being out, it looked
