In the Desert : In the Desert (9780307496126) (4 page)

But ants swarmed around them. An antenna poked into Andrew’s ear. Antennas were stroking Judy’s hair.

meep
… “Ants not got noses,” Thudd said softly. “Smell stuff with antennas.”

Andrew’s knees were shaking. “I hope we don’t smell tasty,” he said.

Next to Andrew, a pair of ant jaws opened like scissors with jagged edges.

Andrew tried to back away, but ants were all around him. There was no way to escape them. The ant lunged toward Andrew. Its jaws clamped tight on his shoulder.

“
Arrrrgh
!” hollered Andrew. The ant lifted him off the ground.

meep
… “Ant can carry something that weigh fifty times as much as ant!” said Thudd.

“OH
NOOOOOOO
!” hollered Judy. An ant had snapped its jaws around her middle. She pulled its antennas, but that didn’t stop the ant from carrying her off.

Holy moly
! thought Andrew.
We’ve been flushed down a toilet. We’ve been pooped out of a whale. We’ve almost been eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex. But we’re finally gonna end up as ant snacks
!

Suddenly more ants were charging from the opposite direction. These ants were huge. Their long jaws were like jagged saws.

meep
… “Bulldog ants!” said Thudd. “Fierce fighting ants! Hang on to prey and not let go!”

Some of the meat ants let go of their captured prey as they battled.

A bulldog ant lunged toward the meat ant that had captured Andrew. Both ants reared up.

Andrew looked into the round black eyes of the bulldog ant. Each eye was made up of hundreds of tiny tiles.

The antennas of the two ants touched. Their front legs tangled. The bulldog ant wrestled the meat ant to the ground.

“Burp, Drewd,
burp
!” squeaked Thudd. “Ants not like garlic smell!”

Andrew reached up and grabbed one of the ant’s wiry antennas. He dragged it close to his mouth. “URRRP!” he burped loudly. “
UKRRP
!”

The antenna waggled. The next instant, the ant’s jaws loosened. Andrew was free! He fell to the ground and rolled clear of the battle.

Through the tangle of ant legs, he saw the meat ant that had captured Judy. It was battling another bulldog ant. They seemed to be fighting over which one would get to eat Judy. The bulldog ant clamped its jaws on Judy’s neck.

Andrew crept between the two ants. “
URRRRP
!” He burped his biggest burp.

Nothing happened.

“Judy!” yelled Andrew. “Burp on your ant! You ate garlic pizza, too!”

“I don’t burp, Bug-Brain!” hollered Judy.

“You can
do
it!” Andrew hollered back.

“ooo OOO OOOO
OOOOORP
!” burped Judy.

The ants’ antennas waggled. Judy fell from the meat ant’s jaws. The bulldog ant reared back.

Andrew and Judy tried to scramble away but ants were everywhere. Ants were climbing on top of ants. Ants were climbing over Andrew and Judy. They could barely move.

Suddenly ants began to scatter in every direction.

To keep from being trampled, Andrew and Judy crept around a pile of rocks and onto an island of prickly grass. Andrew climbed up a stiff grass stem to see what was happening. The stem was as rough as sandpaper.

Streams of stampeding ants were flowing away from a lump in the sand. Andrew squinted to see it better.

The sand-colored lump was as big as a person’s hand. Every part of its body was covered with sharp, thick white thorns. Thorns surrounded its eyes. Thorns ran up and down its neck.

“Holy moly!” Andrew shouted down to Judy. “Something weird is coming! It looks like a mini-Stegosaurus!”

As the monster scuttled along the ground, every ant in its path disappeared. Its sticky tongue snapped up ants so quickly that Andrew barely saw it happen.

Thudd pulled himself higher up in Andrew’s pocket to get a better look.

meep
… “Thorny devil!” squeaked Thudd. “Shy lizard. Gentle lizard.”

“It’s sure not gentle with ants,” said Andrew.

meep
… “Thorny devil gotta eat two thousand ants every day,” said Thudd.

Andrew climbed down the stem of grass. “We’d better get our ant-sized selves out of here,” he said.

Judy pointed to the pile of rocks nearby. “We can squeeze into a crack between those stones,” she said.

As the thorny devil dined, the streams of ants became trickles.

Andrew and Judy sped to the rock pile. They squeezed themselves into a narrow space underneath the stones.

“I think we’re safe here,” said Andrew.

“And it’s cool,” said Judy, mopping sweat from her face. Through the crack, they watched the last few frantic ants skitter away.

Swaying back and forth on its dragon-like feet, the thorny devil lumbered past Andrew and Judy’s hiding place.

meep
… “Thorny devil move like leaf
blowing along sand,” said Thudd. “Can change color to match ground. Camouflage. Hard for predators to see.”

“What would want to eat
that
guy?” asked Judy.

meep
… “Big birds. Big lizards, too,” said Thudd.

Andrew leaned back against the rock. “Woofers!” he said. “I’m bushed.”

In the dimness above, Andrew glimpsed something dangling down. It was long and dark—and wiggling.

Whew
! thought Andrew.
It’s just a little worm. Or maybe a caterpillar. They just eat leaves
.

Judy poked Andrew. She pointed toward the patch of grass they had just left. “Something’s moving,” she whispered.

Andrew sat up. The blades of grass were shaking. It wasn’t the wind.

Suddenly a yellow snaky-looking head
with huge yellow eyes poked out of the grass.

“What’s
that
?” whispered Judy.

meep
… “Gecko lizard,” said Thudd.

“Another stupid bug-eater!” said Judy. She squeezed herself deeper into the rocky cave.

The gecko was as still as a stone. Its eyes stared unblinkingly in their direction.

meep
… “Drewd and Oody not move,” Thudd squeaked softly. “Gecko hunt what move.”

Andrew watched the shadow of the worm jiggling just above them.

Suddenly the gecko became a blur. Andrew felt something slam into his stomach. One of the gecko’s sharp, hard toes had pinned him against the rock! Andrew looked up to see the gecko snapping at the worm above them.

The next second, a dark triangle appeared above their heads.

meep
… “Death adder snake!” squeaked
Thudd. “Got tail that look like worm! Hide in rocks. Wiggle tail to lure prey animal.

“Death adder got terrible poison. One bite got enough poison to kill eighteen humans.”

In a flash, the gecko turned and darted away. The snake’s mouth stretched open. From below, Andrew glimpsed its long white fangs. The death adder sprang at the speeding gecko.

Andrew was suddenly soaking wet! Super-smelly stuff was spraying from the rear end of the gecko!

“Eeeeew!” hollered Judy. “Something stinks a hundred times worse than dog poop!”

The death adder slammed its jaws shut on the gecko’s tail. The tail broke away like a loose tooth! And it kept on wriggling in the snake’s mouth!

meep
… “Gecko spray stinky, stinky stuff at predator,” said Thudd. “If predator not let go of tail, gecko let tail go. Grow new tail again.”

The tailless gecko raced away and disappeared behind a termite mound.

Andrew held his breath as the last wiggly bit of the gecko’s tail slid into the death adder’s mouth.
Will we be next
? he wondered.

The death adder’s tongue flicked from its closed mouth.

meep
… “Snake smell stuff with tongue,” said Thudd quietly.

The thick yellow-and-brown-striped death adder slithered slowly away from the rock pile. It looped its way over the sand. Andrew and Judy watched it till it was too far away to see.

meep
… “Sun gonna set,” said Thudd. He pointed to the sun, now lower in the sky and more orange. “Lotsa animals gonna wake up. Start to hunt. Big danger.”

Judy slapped at her clothes, trying to get rid of the sticky, stinky gecko spray. “Yeesh!” she said. “I smell like a litter box!”

meep
… “Nose get used to smell,” said Thudd. “In little while, Drewd and Oody not smell stinky stuff anymore.”

Andrew shrugged. “Maybe the smell will keep some dangerous animals away,” he said.

The sky lit up with ribbons of color— orange and rose and red and purple. Far away, Uluru rock glowed like polished copper.

Judy lifted her sunglasses to get a better look.

“Cheese Louise!” she exclaimed. “Wild colors!”

meep
… “Desert sunset got lotsa color,” said Thudd, “cuz desert got lotsa dust.

“Color happen when light bounce off stuff. Light bounce off dust in desert air.”

“Let’s pick up the pace,” said Andrew, trudging ahead. “It’ll be dark soon.”

Judy rolled her eyes. “It’s been hours,” she said. “And we’re only a few yards from where we started.”

“If we could only find a way to use the wind. It’s blowing toward Uluru,” said Andrew.

“It feels cold,” said Judy.

meep
… “Desert air cool fast, fast, fast,” said Thudd. “Desert air not got much water. Water in air is what hold heat.”

Big, airy tumbleweeds bounced over the sand and grass and sped away.

Hmmm
, thought Andrew. “Maybe we could …”

Just then, he felt the ground shake a little. He looked around.

Behind them were dozens of leaping creatures as tall as refrigerators. They jumped as high as they were tall. Some could have bounded across a classroom in a single leap.

“Wowzers schnauzers!” shouted Andrew. “Kangaroos!”

“A whole
herd
of kangaroos!” said Judy.

Some of the kangaroos stopped to nibble on a bush.

meep
… “Bunch of kangaroos called mob,” said Thudd. “Kangaroos looking for grass and leaves to eat.”