AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Melts their insides?” Ellie repeated with horror.
“Other bugs!” Adam emphasized.
“These are significantly larger, and there are a very great many of them,” Ellie protested crossly.
One of the insects entered the water.
It floated on the surface, its thick gray body keeping it buoyant. Antennae waved, legs twitched… and it began to swim.
“Aww hell,” Adam cursed.
More of the bugs bobbed into the lake. They weren’t exceptionally good swimmers.
Ellie wasn’t sure they needed to be. There were a lot of them—and there was nowhere for her and Adam to go.
She sloshed back with him until the water lapped at her knees.
“I think they’re following us,” she pointed out with remarkable calm.
“Sure looks like it,” Adam agreed grimly.
“Howare they following us?” Ellie demanded. “These are cave dwelling insects. They shouldn’t be able to see.”
“How should I know?” He splashed at the water, making a little wave that pushed back the vanguard of the approaching fleet of bugs. “Get!”
Ellie’s mind raced through the possibilities.
“Could it be the vibrations?” she mused urgently. “Possibly, but then the insects would have been coming for us from the minute we entered the cavern. Echolocation? No, that’s not it. We were speaking as well. It’s right here,” she said, tapping the side of her head angrily. “I canfeelit…”
Her gaze locked on the torch in Adam’s hand.
“Give me that,” she said and snatched it from him.
She waded a few steps away, keeping her eyes on the insects swimming toward them. She focused on their antennae.
Ellie swung the torch out to the right, and then back again… and watched the antennae move.
“Thermoreception!” she burst out.
“What?” Adam shot back, splashing more of the bugs away as he moved deeper.
Ellie hurried over to him through the thigh-deep water.
“Do you see a way out of this cavern?” she demanded.
“I’m not sure,” Adam admitted. “It’s still too dark at the outskirts of the chamber to make things out.”
Ellie looked to the reed basket, which was still stuffed with more pitchwood bundles where it stood on the shore. Skipping around the nearest wave of insects, she moved as close to it as she dared—and then chucked her flaming torch through the air.
It soared in an elegant arc… and missed.
The torch landed at the base of the broken stalagmite on which the basket stood, burning merrily there.
“What the hell did you just do?” Adam exclaimed.
“I am trying to save us!” Ellie shot back.
“By throwing away our light?”
