Just in front of them, there was a slight gully, perhaps ten metres wide, a dip in the landscape that was oddly free of any vegetation taller than about fifteen centimetres, all of which had the vivid green look of new growth. The strange sound was coming from their right. Something silvery glinted through the undergrowth. He thought at first it was the leading edge of a wave, that the sound came from a flash flood tearing through the gully, but then it swept by right in front of them, and he swallowed.
The silvery glint came from the shining carapaced backs of countless…well, he guessed they were insects, but since each was about twenty centimetres long, “insect” didn’t seem quite the right word. Arthropod, maybe. The sound he heard was made both by their chitinous legs, in constant moti
