Subterranea

by P. K. Hawkins

  “Yeah, but these aren’t normal circumstances,” Henderson said. “Come on.”

  There were a number of winding halls going every which way as well as rooms that held nothing and had no apparent reason for existing, but it was easy to follow the sounds of chittering and the clacking of ant legs on the hard surface. On occasion they had to stop and hide in some alcove when they thought one of the ant people were coming, but at no point were they discovered. Here, the aphid following them and bumping around into things seemed to be a sort of advantage, as its smell must have continued to mask them. Any of the ants that saw the aphid alone looked at it strangely, but apparently that wasn’t enough of an unusual sight to make them suspicious. Jesse lingered every so often behind them, obviously fascinated by the structure around them.

  “It’s a shame we don’t have time to explore more,” Jesse said. “Imagine all the things we could learn from this place.”

  “It’s a gigantic pile of hardened mud,” Henderson said. “What’s there to learn?”

  “You just don’t have any sense of the academic,” Jesse said.

  “What is that even supposed to mean?” Henderson asked.

  “Would you two just hush?” Laura said. “I think we’re getting closer. There’s something brighter up ahead.”

  They ascended a set of stairs with the same peculiar proportions as the ones they had gone down after going through the portal and found themselves on some kind of balcony overlooking a great hall. There were another set of stairs that led down from it into the main portion of the room, but none of them dared go down them yet. The source of the noise was obviously coming from down there, and none of them wanted to head right in without getting a better idea of what was going on. With the aphid still sitting behind them, the three of them got low and peered over the edge.

  There was immediately no doubt that they were in the right place. The room contained every person from Kettle Hollow, although it took them a few seconds to really understand what was happening to them. Everyone was in some state of being covered by a resin-like cocoon. Some were almost completely covered except for their mouths and noses, while others only had the bare minimum needed to keep them from moving. They were lined up in long lines atop raised sections of the floor, and the ants were swarming around them, some poking the townspeople like they were checking if they could move and some continuing to add the resin substance on top of anyone still struggling. Many of the humans, especially most of the children, were crying and sobbing or begging to be let free.

  “What are those things doing to them?” Henderson asked in horror.

  “Um, guys? Take a look over there,” Laura said. She pointed at a farther point in the room where something similar was set up, but it was obvious that none of the humans that had been in that part of the room were alive. Instead most of the resin cocoons were broken and filled with bones and blood and gore. Multiple scraps of camo told them that this was where the rest of the soldiers that had been taken from Project Subterranea had met their fate. In a couple of spots some of the ants were still swarming over the cocoons and chewing on the remains inside, even though there wasn’t much left.

  Jesse gasped and Henderson looked like he would be sick as they all realized what this place was. The upraised portions of the floor were the ant versions of dining tables. This was a banquet hall, and the townsfolk of Kettle Hollow were being prepared as tonight’s main course.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jesse started to stand up and head toward the stairs, but Henderson grabbed him by the back of his shirt. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

  “Are you blind?” Jesse asked. “Don’t you see what’s going to happen? They’re going to eat them!”

  “So? Most of the people down there hate me.” There was a quaver in Henderson’s voice, however, that told Jesse and Laura that he was very much disturbed by the possibility.

  “If we just go running down there with so many ant-men around, all they’re going to do is capture us,” Laura said. “And then we’ll be pizza for the ants as well.”

  “Do ants even eat pizza?” Henderson asked.

  “Ants eat everything,” Jesse said.

  “None of this is helping,” Laura said. She looked back over her shoulder at the giant green insect, which was still just standing around like it had no idea what to do with itself. “I’ve got an idea. We can cause a distraction and get most of the guards away from the eating area.”

  “So what, we just send that thing running down there?” Henderson asked. “How are we supposed to do that? We don’t know that it’ll lead them away or not.”

  “That’s why we don’t send it by itself. We send it down with someone riding it.”

  “And who the hell would be dumb enough to do that?” Henderson asked.

  Both Jesse and Laura turned to look right at him. It took him a moment to understand.

  “Wait, what?” Henderson asked.

  “Out of all of us, you’re the best BMX rider,” Laura said. “You would be the best one to ride it down, confuse the hell out of all the ant people, and then run on out with all of them chasing after you.”

  “Excuse me, but how the hell are you thinking that’s similar to a BMX?” Henderson asked, pointing at the giant green bug.

  Laura pointed at its antennae. “Those are sort of like handlebars.”

  Henderson shook his head. “No. They’re really not.”

  “Just imagine it’s a Murray or a Mongoose,” Laura said. “I’ve seen the way you can handle a bike. Handling a giant bug can’t be that much different.”

  “You guys are crazy,” Henderson said. But both Laura and Jesse could see the look in his eye as he started to imagine himself on top of the creature. He was probably thinking of how to do jumps and wheelies with it, if such a thing could even be done with a giant bug. “Okay, so if I did try this, and that’s a really big if, what would the plan be?”

  “It looks like there’s stairs that lead down there over to the right,” Laura said. “You get on the aphid, steer it down those stairs, cause a ruckus among the ants, and then use the bug to run out of the room and draw the ants with you. Once all or most of them are away, Jesse and I can run down there and free everybody.”

  “And what happens after that?” Henderson asked. “What happens when you have several hundred people trying to run out of the dining room and the city of a race of giant ant people?”

  “How the hell should I know?” Laura said. “I’ve been playing this whole thing by ear since we came down here. If you’ve got a problem with my planning skills, then maybe you can come up with something better?”

  “Hey, calm down, okay?” Henderson said. “I was just wondering. And no, I don’t have anything better.” He looked again at the giant aphid standing behind them like it was waiting for someone or something to give it orders. “Okay. Let’s go for it.” He went over to the bug and felt along the sides of it for handholds he could use to climb onto its back. “It’s a shame none of us have a camcorder, because I’m totally betting I’d be able to send a VHS of this to get on a pro BMX team.”

  With some effort, Henderson was able to climb up on top of the insect’s back. It didn’t start to get skittish until he came close to its head. “All right,” Henderson said. “Give me a minute or two to get used to this before we do it. Let’s see. No pedals to control the speed but if I do this…”

  He grabbed the antennae, and instantly the aphid went berserk. Before he could do anything resembling gaining control of the creature, it ran right for the edge of the ledge and leaped off into the large dining chamber below. Henderson’s scream started out as one of terror, but even as the bug landed in the room below and startled all the ants swarming around getting ready for dinner, the sound evolved into a sound of joy and taunting.

  “Hey, numbnuts!” he yelled at the ants. “If you think those people look tasty, you should get a load of me! Come on, you know you want some of this!” Laura couldn’t te
ll if he managed to steer the bug around or if was just spinning in confusion and fear, but the aphid bolted for a large gateway. After a moment of shock and confusion, all of the ants in the room ran after it.

  “It worked,” Jesse said. “How in the hell did that actually work?”

  “Let’s not question it,” Laura said. “Come on. We probably don’t have a lot of time before some of them decide chasing Henderson down isn’t the best way to be spending their time.”

  They ran down the slope into the dining hall and took a quick look around at the many captives. A few of them might have been asleep or unconscious, but it didn’t look like any of them were dead. If the ants really were planning on eating them, they looked like they had intended on doing it with their prey still alive and wriggling. Many of them had the weird resin-like substance over their mouths to keep them from talking, but a few that didn’t saw them and started shouting for help.

  “Shh!” Laura said. “The ants will hear you.”

  Most of them quieted down at that, but one particular voice kept talking. “Laura? Laura, honey, is that you?”

  Laura turned to the sound of the voice and gasped. “Mom? Dad?”

  Her parents were cocooned to the “dining table” a couple spaces over from each other. Her mom was too covered up to move or speak, but her father’s head was completely uncovered, and he became noticeably emotional at seeing her. “Laura! You need to get out of here, or they’ll get you too.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. We came all the way down here to rescue all of you.” Laura ran up to her father and began working at the cocoon. The hardened substance was enough to keep the people immobile, but she found that with a lot of work she could chip away at it. Looking around for some kind of tool she could use to help her, all she found was a few chunks of grisly human bones. She shuddered quietly to herself but otherwise didn’t hesitate to grab one and use it to hammer the resin until her father was able to break the rest of the way free by himself. He immediately found something else hard, and the two of them worked to free Laura’s mom as well while Jesse made a beeline for his own mother.

  “Where’s Murky?” Laura’s mother asked once her mouth was free.

  “She’s outside this city,” Laura said. “She’s waiting with our, um, dinosaur.”

  Her father looked at her with bewilderment, but he didn’t seem to disbelieve her. “There’s dinosaurs down here as well as monster insects?”

  “Yeah, and a lot of other things,” Laura said. “Why? Didn’t any of you see them as the ants were taking you down here?”

  “There wasn’t a lot that we could see, with how fast they moved us,” Laura’s mom said. “I think they took us on a different path than you went. What is even going on? What is this place?”

  “It’s a long story that we’ll have to tell later, after we get back to the surface,” Laura said. “The ants haven’t killed anyone yet, have they?”

  “Not anyone from Kettle Hollow that I’ve seen so far,” her father said. “Those soldiers that were here before us, though…”

  “There’s nothing we can do for them now,” Laura said. “But we have to free the rest of the townsfolk before the ants realize that Henderson and his BMX bug are just a distraction.”

  The work of freeing them was frustratingly slow at first, and Laura was worried for several minutes. But each new person they freed helped free the others, and soon everyone from Kettle Hollow was out of their resin cocoons and ready for someone to tell them what to do next. Laura realized with a start that most of them were waiting on her. She had expected that once she got them free she would no longer have to be the one taking on the leadership. Except none of them knew how to get out of here, and Laura and Jesse did.

  “Um, let’s go,” she said to hundreds of people milling around looking for someone to guide them. “We should be able to get out the way we came.”

  “Wait,” someone said. He had to push his way through the crowd before Laura realized it was Henderson’s father. “What about my son? Where did he go?”

  That was a really good question, and one Laura wasn’t entirely prepared to answer. But while she hadn’t been too self-conscious about leading her three friends, she was suddenly very much aware that she could look unworthy to all these people if she didn’t think her response through carefully.

  So she lied. “We have a plan.” She immediately felt bad about it, and her parents, both of whom knew her well enough, exchanged glances that told her she wasn’t fooling them. “Henderson is going to meet us out in front of the main gate.”

  Before anyone could call her on her fib, she pointed them all in the direction of the stairs and had them go up, staying as close together as possible in the hopes that a tighter group would be less likely to be discovered.

  They didn’t get very far. Only two turns back down the direction they had come, they found Henderson, but Henderson wasn’t alone. The aphid he’d been riding had been impaled with one of the ants’ spears, and a large group of the ants surrounded him and were moving in to attack. They turned at the approach of the townsfolk, and she could see that, even though they outnumbered the ants by quite a bit, there wasn’t a lot of chance that they were going to escape this.

  At least Murky’s not here for this, Laura thought. I hope she and that silly dinosaur realize what’s going on and run as far away from here as possible.

  The ants chittered a battle cry, then ran at the petrified people of Kettle Hollow.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “So, uh, how do you like being a dinosaur?”

  It was impossible for Murky to be sure, but the way the velociraptor tilted its head made her think that it might also really understand her question. Chicago didn’t do anything in the way of a response, however. Murky decided to take that as a sign that it was okay to continue.

  “I’ve met all kinds of animals, but you’re the first dinosaur I ever met,” Murky said. “Uh, obviously. It’s not like there’s a lot of you running around in my world.”

  The dinosaur huffed, then turned its head around to scratch its back with its teeth. It was a very bird-like gesture that Murky never would have thought a dinosaur would do.

  “Do you think you would like it up top with us? You could come live at my house.”

  She didn’t actually think that would be a plausible situation. It was nice to think about though, although it wouldn’t do her much good if she didn’t have a house or family to go back to.

  Murky leaned back against the cave wall and stared at the ceiling. Sure, she was supposed to be watching the entrance to the strange ant city, but nothing of interest had happened since the giant aphids had gone in. “Wow. Sentry duty is really boring.”

  Chicago suddenly tensed and sniffed the air. Murky snapped her head back to look at the entrance, but she didn’t immediately see anything that might have alarmed the dinosaur. “Did you hear something?” Murky asked him. “Or smell something?”

  The dinosaur growled in a way that was very familiar. It took Murky a moment to realize this was the same kind of noise he had made right before they’d been attacked by the carnivorous mushroom.

  “Is there something dangerous down there?” Murky asked. “Are the others in trouble? Maybe we should go help.” The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea to go down there even if the others weren’t in trouble yet. Surely they would be soon, and once they were, she would need to be ready.

  “You’re right. We should definitely go help. How’s your leg doing? Do you feel well enough for me to try something?” Again, Chicago made no coherent response, but neither did he try to pull away as Murky went right up next to him and began rubbing a hand on his back. “Your back seems pretty strong, and I’m pretty light. Do you think I would be able to ride you?”

  Chicago made no movements or sounds that she could interpret as either positive or negative, so she decided to just assume that meant yes. It took her several awkward seconds to try swinging her leg
over Chicago’s back, but he did seem to lower his body a little as though he were trying to help her get on easier. She’d never ridden on any kind of animal before, so she wasn’t sure if she was even astride it right, but she did know she was supposed to have some kind of reins, and there just wasn’t anything that would work.

  “If I hold on really tight to your neck to keep from falling off, is that going to make you angry?”

  Chicago’s only response was to sneeze.

  “Okay, so how do we do this? Am I supposed to say ‘giddy-up?’ Do you even know what that means?” He didn’t seem to, so instead Murky tried to think back to all the times she had seen people ride horses in movies. She thought they did something with their ankles or heels to get their rides moving. Gently, she dug her heals into Chicago’s sides.

  She had expected him to start along at a slow walk or trot, if he moved at all. Instead he took off immediately down the rough, rocky slope that the others had gone down, and Murky had to clutch his neck hard to stay balanced. It seemed like he was helping her though, shifting his body beneath her to keep her at the center of his back and preventing her from falling off. Murky would have tried to steer him, but honestly she had no idea how to do that or even where exactly they wanted to go. Chicago seemed to have an idea of his own about what they needed to do, and Murky was just along for the ride.

  Chicago sprinted along the path to the same gate that the aphids had gone through and reached it just as one of the guards was coming out. It looked confused, like it wasn’t sure if it should be running from the dinosaur or attacking, but Chicago never gave it the chance to do either. Instead he snapped his jaws at the ant’s abdomen, and to Murky’s surprise and awe, the bite was strong enough to rip the ant guard in half at the waist (if ants could even be said to have a waist). The two halves hit the ground and twitched independently of each other for several seconds before finally going still. For someone like Murky, who genuinely found any life at all to be fascinating, it was a disturbing thing to watch, even if it was just an insect.