She carefully put her feelers on the scratchy asbestos of the old abandoned building, making sure to avoid the jagged hairs sticking up all around her. One wrong move and she would be sliced in pieces.

It was a normal event in the life of a cockroach, however. Sighing, she turned and hoisted her heavy abdomen up the wall's insulation. Her egg sack was getting ready to open, and she needed to find a warm damp place with plenty of food and shelter for her nymphs.

As she continued to crawl, she noticed it was getting darker. It didn't bother her usually, but today, it felt different for some reason. She noticed her antennae weren't picking up everything they usually did, and there was a strange smell in the air.

She took another step, but the ground suddenly felt different. She couldn't keep her footing, Why was everything suddenly so slippery? Her head felt heavy. Disoriented, she felt around for one of the deadly asbestos hairs, but the ground was suddenly smooth, like water.

What is going on?

"It's okay," a very soft lilting voice whispered.

She gave a shocked gasp; she thought she was alone in the wall's crevice. She reached toward the voice with her feelers-nothing, but why was her head so heavy?

Bewildered, she took another whiff of the air. This time it smelled like sugar crumbs, and the air felt moist and warm. She tried to stretch out and drop her load when suddenly-

Ouch!

She felt a prick, followed by a hard tug on her head.

"I'm afraid you've got no time to rest," the strange soft voice whispered.

Scared and confused, she stiffened herself and tightened her abdomen around her egg sack.

Suddenly, she was aware of feelers gently caressing her head, but when she reached for them, they were gone.

"No, no, I want us to go this way," the voice calmly said. She felt her head and body turning and moving on their own.

She froze and refused to move.

"You're in a lot of danger if you stay here, little bug. Don't you smell those terrible chemicals?"

At the suggestion of the voice, she suddenly did. Her mouth was watering from a noxious odor.

P-pesticides?

"Quick, follow me!" the voice whispered.

The room flickered briefly, and she saw a swift moving shadow for just a few brief seconds. She took to the air and flew in its direction.

Somehow, though, something felt wrong. Even though she was flying, her body felt heavy and strange, and her antennae weren't sensing anything.

The world flickered again. She again felt the feelers on her head, this time tugging hard. It felt like her head was going to come off!

The world flickered again, and standing in front of her was a giant monster!

"Good, you avoided the poisons. I don't like the way they make my food taste!" the voice said.

Laughter, strange piercing dangerous laughter is what she heard after that, but where was it coming from?

She turned around, but it seemed to be coming from all sides.

Scared out of her wits, she got down on all six legs and began to cry. In her fear, she dropped her head to the ground.

The laughter continued, though, and so did the pressure on her head

...until she felt a painful last sting, right behind her neck.

The wasp watched as her cockroach victim lost control of herself. Her legs buckled underneath her and stiffened as they succumbed to the venom. Her abdomen relaxed and dropped the egg sack, along with a stomach full of feces.

"Charming," she said coldly as she continued to watch her struggling victim.

Her victim was twitching and muttering incoherently. A closer look at her body revealed several sharp asbestos hairs piercing her body.

The wasp sighed in disappointment.

"She's not going to taste very good if she's dried out,"

Lazily, she ran a feeler across her twitching victim's skin, where one of the barbs was. She pulled back in disgust when her feelers felt the slimy bodily fluids pooling around her victim's skin and hair.

"That will not do," she said calmly.

Her gaze fell on the mother cockroach's feces coated egg sack. She grimaced in disgust but then her expression softened when she realized it was intact.

"Maybe something good can still come out of this,"

Lazily, she motioned for her drones to pick up the egg sack and carry it to the hatching center of the hive.

Her attention then turned back to the struggling cockroach.

"Oh well, I guess I shouldn't let good food go to waste," she said before latching on to her victim's neck.

She felt her victim's feelers come up and hit her in the face.

"You're...a monster!" she heard her victim scream.

It was an unpleasant sound that gave her a small headache. The wasp smiled evilly and batted her eyelashes.

Suddenly, she grabbed the cockroach by her head and held her like she was going to bite it off, but then-she shoved her away.

The cockroach groaned again and struggled to stand.

"Have it your way, but in a few minutes, you're going to wish I had killed you quickly," the wasp said calmly.

"Why are you…so...so...cruel?" the pleading cockroach asked.

"My dear girl, I'm simply doing what I need to do to survive. You would have killed your own kind to protect and feed your babies, why do you think I consider my survival any less important?"

There was silence. The cockroach was either too dehydrated or too confused to continue the conversation.

As the wasp approached her meal, she winced a bit at the cockroach's words. Her way of life did seem cruel.

She closed in for the bite.

"I..hope...the...exterminators…" the cockroach growled.

"Hush," the wasp whispered.

Suddenly she grabbed the roach by the antennae, brought it to her lips, and pumped a few drops of venomous saliva right into them. This was a waste of resources and energy, but perhaps her victim had earned it?

The cockroach's body relaxed, and her eyes grew wide.

"We're going to go on a little trip together, okay?"

The cockroach was too busy writhing on the floor to notice the wasp's words.