But first…
He bent over the console and turned on the speaker, listening, waiting to learn the outcome of the confrontation.
There was only static.
What had transpired? He glanced at a cabinet to his right and spotted the blinking blue light. Three rows of bulbs below the blue light was a flashing red light.
So!
The Doktor switched the speaker off and straightened. The Family could wait a while longer.
There were more important things to do.
He looked around the room and saw one of his assistants, a young woman with serpentine features, yellow skin, and narrow lavender eyes.
She stood before a table containing a rack of flasks and vials, examining a test tube, most of her body concealed by a white smock.
“Clarissa!” the Doktor called. “It’s time!”
Clarissa looked up, her forehead furrowed, her oily black bangs hanging over her right eyebrow.
“That’s right,” the Doktor affirmed. “It’s time again.”
Clarissa placed the test tube on the table. “Which sex this time Doktor?” she inquired.
The Doktor reflected a moment. “Bring me a girl this time. Not more than six months old, either. One of the Flatheads should suffice nicely.”
Clarissa nodded and moved toward a far door.
“And don’t forget the scalpel and the blood vat,” the Doktor reminded her.
“Certainly, Doktor,” Clarissa replied over her shoulder.
The Doktor grinned. In a few days he would be as good as new, and then he would travel to Denver and have a long talk with that cretin Samuel.
Sooner or later, one way or another, the Family was going to be erased from the face of the earth.
The Doktor almost laughed at the prospect.
Chapter Fifteen
“Geronimo! Wake up! You dozed off!”
He felt her hand gently slapping his left cheek and he opened his eyes, his mind sluggish, his senses groggy.
“How’s your head feel?” Cynthia questioned.
“A little better than last night,” Gernonimo informed her.
“You up to a little action?” Kilrane interjected.
Geronimo glanced around, slightly dazed, wondering if he’d sustained a concussion in the fall into the pit. Kilrane was squatting against the opposite wall. They were still at the rear of the crevice, as far from the ant tunnel as they could get. “What do you have in mind?” he asked.
“A little reconnaissance,” Kilrane answered, nodding toward the tunnel.
“It’s daylight and I haven’t heard one pass by in a long time.”
“Maybe they’re nocturnal,” Geronimo deduced, “and they hole up during the day. They were awful active last night.” He gazed at the tunnel, surprised at how clear everything appeared. The bright sunlight outside the crater was flooding the tunnel and providing sufficient illumination for their eyes, long since adjusted to the murky visibility, to discern every nook and cranny in the crevice and the lighter shade of the tunnel beyond.
“Then now is our best bet to make a break for it,” Kilrane declared. He flattened and slowly crawled along the crevice floor, making for the ant tunnel.
Geronimo promptly followed, the Marlin in his right hand, collecting his thoughts.
“I just hope you’re right,” Cynthia whispered, falling in behind Geronimo.
Kilrane cautiously edged nearer the opening, slowly easing his body over the lumps of dirt and stones on the floor. He reached the rift and stopped, waiting for the others. The crevice widened at its junction with the tunnel, enabling the trio to huddle side by side.
Geronimo glanced at the other two, then inched his face to the lip of the crevice and peered out.
The ant tunnel brightened to his right, indicating the hole to the outside was in that direction. The industrious ants had carved a passageway about ten feet in diameter, its sides and ceiling smooth and unbroken, the floor littered with a jumble of indistinguishable debris except for a few prominent, pale white bones. The crevice started five feet from the tunnel floor and continued up to the ceiling.
The tunnel was deserted.
“Say, Kilrane,” Geronimo said softly. “Why didn’t you try to get out of the hole after we fell in, instead of bringing us deeper into this tunnel?”
“Didn’t have any choice,” Kilrane replied. “Your horse died in the fall. I might have climbed back out, but there was no way I could tote you too. The sides of the pit are too steep. So we hurried in here. I was hoping I could find a side tunnel and hide for a spell. We lucked out finding this.”
“Do we make a run for it?” Cynthia inquired nervously.
“It may only be twenty yards to the crater.”
Kilrane responded, “but we’d still have to climb out and that would take some doing. What if we’re caught on the sides of the hole and an ant shows up?”
“Good point,” Geronimo remarked, debating their next move. What should they do? Kilrane was right; if they tried to scale the pit, they’d be exposed and prime prey for the ants. On the other hand, if they didn’t make their bid for freedom while they still had the light, they’d be forced to remain in the crevice another night and increase the likelihood of being discovered by the ants. Neither proposition was particularly appealing.
“Listen!” Cynthia warned them.
Geronimo heard the high-pitched twittering coming from the direction of the crater. An ant was returning!
They froze, holding their breaths.
Despite being forewarned of their immense size, despite having encountered giants before, Geronimo was stunned when the gargantuan insect passed the crevice opening, unprepared for the sheer, overpowering enormity of the creature.
The red behemoth passed the crevice at a leisurely pace, its six legs moving in instinctive precision, its elbowed antennae waving in the air as it walked. This particular ant was at least seven feet in height and twelve feet long. Its compound eyes seemed to be focused on the tunnel ahead as it carried a large object in its huge jaws, the object dwarfed by the insect’s five-foot-wide head.
What was the ant carrying? Geronimo wondered. Whatever it was, the thing was twitching. Where would the ants find food in the Dead Zone? He marveled at the insect’s flawless symmetry, noting the exceptionally elongated head with the massive jaws, the relatively narrow waist between the two large body segments, and the lustrous sheen to the entire form. He recalled his schooling days at the Home and his intensive studies of the flora and fauna of the region. Courses were taught on the mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and insects likely to be encountered in the vicinity of the Home. He remembered receiving instructions concerning ants, but the years since the lesson had tarnished his memory.
What exactly did he know about ants, anyway?
They were likely social and lived in colonies in the ground or in dead wood. These colonies were called nests, and Geronimo speculated the mountainous mound spotted earlier was the main nest for this colony. If true, it meant they were trapped in a subsidiary tunnel, which worked in their favor. The ants were apt to increase in number the closer to the mound you went. In one of their secondary tunnels, therefore, there would be fewer ants!
What else did he recollect about ants?
Their bodies were comprised of the head, the abdomen, and the thorax, but he forgot which was the abdomen and which the thorax. Many species included different types within the colony: workers, soldiers, and queen ants. The queens would be secreted in an inner chamber in the nest, but the workers and the soldiers would emerge on a regular basis to conduct their business, whether it be foraging for sustenance or fighting an enemy.