Stacy--Part Thirty-Eight

Splog # 138

Thirty-Eight

   So Stacy stood at the mouth of the cave, undecided whether entering it would be a wise choice to make. She looked up and down the valley that she had descended into. She wondered if it would be worth while to travel a little distance either way  in  search of a different exit. She looked down to her feet and discovered that the ants had ceased entering the cave and were enmeshed in another jumble. A few were still going in, but it seemed that just as many were coming back out, too. And the ones re-emerging didn't seem to be going anywhere, just adding to the melee where she was standing. And still more ants were coming along the route she had just travelled, so that the amount of ants in motion around her feet was growing by leaps and bounds. Soon she wouldn't be able to walk in any direction without treading on the insects. On further inspection she did find that there was a tiny space that was empty of them. For a short distance in front of her feet, there was an empty area of ground between two columns of ants, one moving into the cave and one moving out. Along with the area where her feet were currently placed on the earth, it created a small teardrop shaped space of ground. Her eyes rested on this open stretch  as her brain tried to decide what her next move should be. The answer seemed to become obvious as the path ahead of her elongated into the darkness. After a moment she looked back at the crowding mass around her feet. There was only one direction to pursue without crushing some of the living things below her. It seemed the ants expected her to continue along with them. With a sigh, she figured it was worth a try. The ants seemed to have an agenda of some kind and if they were intelligent enough to be carrying out some kind of program, then she'd have to trust that they could keep themselves out from underneath her feet in the darkness.

   Then, as she started taking small steps along the open ground leading into the cave, she found that all her apprehensions about travelling in the dark were unavailing. As she moved into the cave, she found the obscurity began to gradually lessen and that the walls were scattered about with the same light emitting designs  she had first seen when she'd entered the warrens of the Doolins with Lane and Johnny. She started to smile and even let out a small chuckle. "I should have known..." she remarked softly to herself. She looked at the floor of the cave and, although the light wasn't strong enough to see them clearly, she could easily distinguish two lines of ants, one travelling on each side of her. She glanced behind her at the cave opening. No more jumble of ants moving ceaselessly helter skelter. Just a large group pouring into the cave and dividing before they reached the point where she was standing. So now the insects were essentially creating a path for her to travel upon. She looked ahead of her. The lighted markings along the sides seemed to stretch ahead of her a short distance and then fade out. Since they hadn't been visible when she first looked into the cave, she assumed that the presence of a person must somehow cause them to light up. Well, that's what had happened, anyway. So she hoped that as she continued to penetrate further inwards, the walls around her would respond by giving her the light she needed to continue her journey. Lane and Johnny had seemed to take the whole thing for granted so it must be a usual type of phenonenon in these otherwise lightless passages.