80.
By the time we got to the cave, the night shift was just coming on. Hordes of creeping, slithering, scuttling, flitting hungry animals raced out and past us into the night. Insects and bats, spiders and snakes, rats and frogs, scorpions and things I’d never seen before streamed over our feet and rushed over our heads.
Claudia shut her eyes and clenched her fists. “Tell me there are no roaches!”, she
grimaced.
I put my arm around her waist. “There are no roaches. They don’t live in caves.”, I lied as the largest, hairiest roaches I had ever seen washed over us. I closed my own eyes and tried not to scream.
When the deluge had abated, we opened our eyes. The dogs climbed down from a tree. “Wasn’t that special.”, sneered Nanette. “I feel like I just dodged the denizens of hell.”
“Hell has people in it.”, tisked Pat. “Not bugs.”
“Bugs, bats, snakes, frogs but no roaches!”, I said a little too loudly.
“There were always roaches in our hiding places in the Dirty War.”, Claudia muttered through stretched lips. “Everything had to be kept spotless or thousands of them would appear out of nowhere. They could get in your bed at night.”
I blanked that image out of my head before it grabbed hold. I consulted the map. It said that there was a story to be told inside the cave. “The cave is empty now.”, I said, thinking the opposite. “If we’re going to do this thing, let’s do it.”
We assembled a couple of makeshift torches, took a deep breath and stepped inside. A glint of color on a far wall caught our eyes. We moved toward it.
I put my arm around her waist. “There are no roaches. They don’t live in caves.”, I lied as the largest, hairiest roaches I had ever seen washed over us. I closed my own eyes and tried not to scream.
When the deluge had abated, we opened our eyes. The dogs climbed down from a tree. “Wasn’t that special.”, sneered Nanette. “I feel like I just dodged the denizens of hell.”
“Hell has people in it.”, tisked Pat. “Not bugs.”
“Bugs, bats, snakes, frogs but no roaches!”, I said a little too loudly.
“There were always roaches in our hiding places in the Dirty War.”, Claudia muttered through stretched lips. “Everything had to be kept spotless or thousands of them would appear out of nowhere. They could get in your bed at night.”
I blanked that image out of my head before it grabbed hold. I consulted the map. It said that there was a story to be told inside the cave. “The cave is empty now.”, I said, thinking the opposite. “If we’re going to do this thing, let’s do it.”
We assembled a couple of makeshift torches, took a deep breath and stepped inside. A glint of color on a far wall caught our eyes. We moved toward it.
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