In the Desert : In the Desert (9780307496126) Read online

  Uncle Al’s fuzzy eyebrows met in the middle of his forehead. “Good golly, Miss Molly!” he exclaimed. “I’d better find you before you almost get eaten by something else! Are you near anything big?”

  “We can see a giant wall of rock,” said Andrew. “But it’s awfully far away.”

  “That must be Uluru,” said Uncle Al. “It’s the highest spot in this desert.

  “It’s such a beautiful place that people come to see it. There are hotels and restaurants. We can meet there.”

  “But how can we get there?” asked Judy. “It’s far away and we’re the size of ants!”

  Uncle Al scratched his chin. “It’s a problem,” he said. “But solving problems is what we Dubbles do best.”

  Andrew nodded. “We got back from the beginning of the universe,” he said. “We can figure out how to get to a rock in the desert.”

  “It’s a windy day” said Uncle Al. “Maybe you can use the wind to …”

  The Uncle Al hologram began to flicker like a candle flame. It crackled, popped, and disappeared.

  “Uncle Al!” yelled Judy. “Come back!”

  Andrew shook his head. “The Hologram Helper is probably having battery problems again,” he said.

  Judy checked the bush’s branches for katydids before moving into the shade.

  “I know how to windsurf,” said Judy. “If we had something to use as a sail, we could windsurf over the sand.”

  “Or if we had something to make a big kite with,” said Andrew. “Let’s think while we walk toward Uluru.”

  “Humph,” grumped Judy. “At our size, it could take us months to walk there, Bug-Brain.”

  “It’ll take even longer if we don’t start,” said Andrew. “Let’s go.”

  Andrew crept over the bush’s woody roots. Suddenly he tripped and fell into a crack. He landed facedown on something soft and squishy—and wriggling.

  “Holy moly!” cried Andrew. He was on top of a fat, white wormy thing squirming inside the root!

  Judy peered into the cracked root as Andrew struggled out of it. “Aaaack!” she hollered. “There’s something disgusting in there!”

  meep … “Called witchetty grub,” said Thudd. “Larva baby of big moth. Native people eat larva. Sometimes raw. Taste like egg. Sometimes cooked. Taste like peanut butter.

  “This bush called witchetty bush cuz witchetty grub live in roots.”

  Judy rolled her eyes. “Yuck-a-rama!” she exclaimed. “Eating worms! Drinking frog water. What’s wrong with these people?”

  meep… “Australian people smart, smart, smart!” said Thudd. “Witchetty grubs and frog water lots more healthy than hot dogs and soda!”

  “Urp!” burped Andrew. “I’m getting hungry. Uncle Al said there were restaurants at Uluru. Chop-chop, Judy! Let’s go!”

  They began plodding away from the puddle and onto the dry sand. Even with their sunglasses, the blazing sun was blinding. Andrew propped his hand over his eyes like a visor.

  With the heat and the wind, their wet, muddy clothes dried quickly. Soon they were meltingly hot again. Sweat trickled down their foreheads and dripped into their eyes. But they kept on trudging toward Uluru.

  After what seemed like hours, they came to a place where the tall grass didn’t block their view of the distance.

  “Look!” hollered Judy. “There’s a patch of blue ahead! It’s a lake! We can tell Uncle Al to meet us there!”

  “Noop! Noop! Noop!” said Thudd. “Oody not see lake. Oody see mirage!

  “In the desert, air near the ground super-hot. High up, air is cool, air is heavy.

  “Light travel, light bounce. When light from ground hit cool air up high, it bounce back down to ground.

  “What look like blue lake is reflection of blue sky.”

  “Darn!” said Judy. “It’s not real!”

  meep… “Can take picture of mirage,” said Thudd. “Stuff is real. Just not in place Oody see it. Like stuff in mirror.”

  “Neato mosquito!” said Andrew.

  “Stupid, stupid mirage,” complained Judy.

  They were coming close to one of the mysterious tall mounds that loomed above the grass.

  “Looks like a weird sand castle ahead,” said Andrew.

  meep … “Castle for termites,” said Thudd. “Home of termite colony. Termites mix spit with dirt. Make stuff hard as cement to build mound. A million termites in colony, maybe.

  “Got all kindsa rooms inside. Garden rooms. Nursery rooms for babies. Rooms for queen termite.

  “Termites even got way to make breeze come through. Keep rooms cool!”

  Judy frowned. “I thought termites were supposed to eat wood,” she said. “There’s hardly any wood in this stupid desert. Just a few scrawny trees and bushes.”

  meep … “Desert termites eat poop and dead plants,” said Thudd.

  “Yuck-a-roony!” said Judy

  As they came closer to the termite mound, they saw dark streams spilling away from it. These weren’t streams of water, they were rivers of insects—thousands of ants!

  meep … “Meat ants!” said Thudd. “Eat up any dead animal. Even dead cow.”

  One of the ant streams was heading toward Andrew and Judy. The ants skittered on their skinny, stick-like legs.

  Some ants were carrying plump, white wormy things in their jaws. Others dragged ant-like insects as big as themselves.

  meep … “Meat ants eat live stuff, too,” said Thudd. “Raiding termite colony now. Steal termite babies to eat. Take big termites, too.”

  “Don’t move,” said Andrew. “Maybe they won’t notice we’re here.”

  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.”

  “The kangaroos are about a billion times bigger than we are,” said Judy. “If one of them stomps on us, we’re kangaroo toe jam. Let’s find somewhere to hide.”

  Andrew and Judy took off.

  Thumpa! Thumpa! Thumpa!

  They managed to reach a witchetty bush just as the kangaroos were almost on top of them.

  Kangaroos were stoppin
g to nibble leaves.

  Chuck, chuck, chuck! a kangaroo called loudly.

  THUMP! A kangaroo foot slammed down next to Andrew and Judy. It was so close that a giant black claw brushed the tip of their toes! The next instant, the kangaroo leapt off. Its humongous claw sent them tumbling across the sand like bug-sized golf balls.

  Suddenly they stopped rolling and started falling down and down into darkness.

  The kangaroo had tossed them into a hole. But it wasn’t just a hole. It was the entrance to a steep underground tunnel.

  “Oooof!” hollered Andrew.

  “Aaaack!” yelped Judy.

  Andrew whammed into something soft, something furry. Downy hairs tickled his neck and legs. Feels like a kitten, thought Andrew.

  “Where are we?” asked Judy.

  Andrew whipped off his sunglasses. He unclipped his mini-flashlight from his belt loop and flicked it on.

  The beam lit up a cave that was almost filled with a giant, hairy lump the size of a person’s fist.

  Andrew scratched his head. He couldn’t make out what it was. But it wasn’t a kitten.

  Eek! squeaked Thudd. “Whistling spider! Tarantula!”

  “Yaaaaaah!” screamed Judy backing away. “I hate spiders even when I’m bigger than they are! And this one’s a hundred times bigger than I am! Let’s get out of here!”

  Andrew put a finger to his lips. “It looks like it’s asleep,” he said softly. “Don’t scream. You’ll wake it up.”

  “Spiders don’t have ears, Bug-Brain,” said Judy. “Where’s the way out of the tunnel? It’s too dark to see.”

  meep… “Spiders hear with hairs on legs,” said Thudd. “Smell with leg hairs, too. Can tell if stuff is good to eat.”

  As Andrew searched for the way out, his beam flickered on a white blob above his head. It looked like a big paper balloon. There was a raggedy hole at the bottom of it.

  When his light passed over the hole, Andrew could see small white creatures crawling over each other inside. They looked like eggs with legs.

  meep … “Baby spiders,” said Thudd.

  “More spiders!” said Judy. “Get me outta here!”

  One of the big spider’s dark, hairy legs twitched. Then it stretched. Soon another leg twitched and stretched.