“Agent Larson, are you there?” Laura asked into the part of the device that looked like it might have been a microphone or a speaker. She turned to look at the others. “Should I use this the same way people use walkie-talkies? Should I be saying ‘over’ or ’10-4, good buddy,’ or something?”
There was a crackle from the device before Larson’s tinny voice came through it. “You don’t need to do any of that. Just speak into it the way you would a phone.”
Henderson snorted. “A portable, wireless phone? Yeah right. When Huffy starts making airplanes, maybe.”
“I can hear all of you,” Larson said. “This is good. I wasn’t completely sure this was going to work. We never had the chance to give these things a proper field test.”
“Right, so we’re down here,” Laura said. “Now what?”
“First of all, are any of you having trouble breathing?”
“Wait,” Henderson said. “You sent us down here without even being sure if we could breathe the air?”
“Kid, in case you forgot, I didn’t send you anywhere. You were the ones who volunteered. And no, we couldn’t be sure that the air would be the same as up here. You’re technically in another dimension, don’t forget. We were still exploring what the rules even were for it.”
“You know, come to think of it, the air down here does seem different, but not in a bad way,” Jesse said. “It’s almost easier to breathe, like there’s more oxygen.”
“That makes a little bit of sense,” Agent Larson said. “Bugs shouldn’t be able to grow as large as those ants without higher oxygen levels. The only question is where the oxygen would be coming from.”
“Maybe it’s from the glowing fungus all over the walls,” Laura said.
“Could be. I’d ask you to get samples of it to study if it weren’t a matter of… wait. Something’s going on outside my tent. Keep the communicator turned on. I’ll be right back.”
“Wait!” Laura said. “Before you go, we need… Agent Larson? Are you still there?”
There was no answer from the other end.
“Great,” Henderson said. “Guess we’re just going to sit around like jerks while we wait for her to come back and tell us where to go. Well I could tell her where to go…”
Murky noticed a thoughtful look come over Jesse’s face. “What is it? What are you thinking?”
“I’m wondering if she already told us the direction to go,” Jesse said. “Look closely at these two paths. Notice a difference between them?”
They all looked, but nothing immediately jumped out to Murky. “I don’t see anything,” Henderson said. “Especially not down that one.” He pointed at the one to their left. “It looks like it’s less glowy.”
“Wait, I bet that’s exactly what you’re talking about, isn’t it?” Laura asked.
“Yeah,” Jesse said. “If the ant people need lots of oxygen, and we’re assuming the fungus is somehow making it, then wouldn’t it be more likely that that’s the direction they would have taken everyone?”
“That’s making a lot of assumptions,” Laura said, then looked at the communicator in her hand. “But it’s all we’ve got for now. Let’s start down that way. If Agent Larson comes back on and tells us otherwise, we’ll just come back and go the other way.”
They started in that direction and quickly decided they were probably going the right way. Whether or not Jesse’s logic had been correct, the rock floor here was even smoother than the tunnels they’d been in previously, implying it had been well travelled. They also began to see a number of cracks in the wall forming darkened alcoves where the fungus wasn’t growing. Henderson went up to one and stuck his head in.
“Henderson, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Laura said.
“It doesn’t look that dangerous to me,” Henderson said. “It’s big enough for…”
Before he could finish the sentence, something screeched from the direction of the tunnel they had just come from. They all froze.
“What was that?” Murky asked.
“Whatever it is, I don’t like the sound of it,” Henderson said. “Everyone, hide in here.”
He grabbed Murky by the arm and shoved her into the crack. All four of them could fit in it if needed, but it wouldn’t be terribly comfortable. Laura was the farthest away, and as she started running for the alcove, the communicator came out of her hands and clattered to the floor. For a moment she looked like she wanted to go back for it, but somewhere behind them something was causing the glow to darken. She ran in after Henderson, with Jesse close behind her.
“Oh God, what is it?” Jesse asked. “What is…”
Henderson put his hand over Jesse’s mouth as he quietly gestured for Murky and Laura to look out in the direction they’d come. They all instinctively pressed themselves tighter up against the nearest rock wall as a shape became more visible in the distant shadows of the tunnel, accompanied by a series of soft noises that were somehow between hisses and grunts.
“Kids, are you still there?” Agent Larson’s voice said through the communicator.
The sound grew louder in response.
“We need that communicator doodad,” Laura whispered. “It’s the only thing we’ve got going for us.”
“Don’t look at me,” Henderson said. “I’m not going out there to get it until we’re sure that whatever that thing out there has gone away.”
“Kids, I don’t know if you can still hear me, but if we lose the connection, there’s something you need to know.”
The thing moving
